I stared at the Maths test in front of me, feeling the panic start to rise. I couldn’t even understand the first question. I didn’t even know where to begin. Then I heard a quiet voice working through the problem. It wasn’t my voice, but it was inside of my head. I suddenly realised it was John sitting next to me. I could hear his thoughts!
“Miss Mary had a number of sweets… it must be an equation of finding an unknown!” John’s thought exclaimed.
“An unknown? Yes! I know how to do it… Thank you, John!” I thought and smirked.” How good you are, John!”
Although Mum often told me not to copy others’ ideas, it was not my fault. It was just my super power to let me listen to the answers of every classmate. How lucky I was!
After the Maths test, I felt that I was really an expert in super power! Betty, one of my best friends ambled to me and grinned at me.
“How do you feel about this test, Nancy?” she asked.” The questions are much easier than the last test!”
” She must be feeling that it was difficult! You aren’t good at Maths, right?” sniggered John.
John was an awful boy. He always laughed at me but he often had good results in Maths. Although he was better than me in Maths, I had a super power so I beamed at him and replied,”Who knows, John. Sometimes it will be opposite…”
” What? You? Opposite? Of course not!” he spoke with his eyes in red. “Don’t lie and you are not going to get a high mark!”
As the days passed by, our class and also Maths teacher Mrs Blue was going to announce who the “winner” was.
“Good morning class, I am really surprised that two students get the highest mark of Maths…” she announced. Everyone glanced around, trying to find who those people were.
“One must be John,’ one of my classmates started to discuss.’ Who is another one?”
“The first one is John, congratulations! Let’s give a round of applause…” she was all smiles. Everyone clapped their hands. John squinted at me and smirked. I turned my face back and crossed my arms. How could he do that? Maths was complicated with all sorts of numbers. It was difficult to do that!
“Another student isn’t a classmate who is good at Maths, but I think she was very hard- working during this Easter holiday, right? Nancy?” she continued. I was shocked with my mouth open, but after a while, I felt this was a certain thing – I had a special power. I didn’t use it in other subjects so I almost forgotten.
Suddenly, my hands felt wet, my body felt cold like in the freezer- I felt sick and worried, as my special power was fading. What could I do? If my special power disappeared, I could never get a good mark in Maths to prove that I wasn’t bad at Maths but would be laughed by John!
When it was time to go home, Betty peeped at me and smiled,” Congratuations! You must be really hard- working during the holiday…”
“Maybe,” I forced a smile and lied to her. I found myself a traitor of Betty. My heart broke while I lied to her how hard- working I was. It was an sick experience.
I felt ill when I went home.” Are you okay?” asked my young brother, Jacky but I was exhausted to tell him and my heart sank again.
My special power disappeared and I lied to whom I liked.” Can I come in?” asked Jacky who knocked. I opened the door.” Did you do something wrong?” I nodded.
“Why do you ask this?” I queried.
“People feel unhappy when they do wrong,” replied Jacky and I burst into tears. I knew what to do next.
The next day, I paced to the school to find John. John stared at me when I apologized. ” It was strange to see you apologize with no reason,” thought John.
“It was strange to think that I am strange too!” I replied and strolled away. Behind me, there was a boy looking shocked. My power came back and I knew I won again.