The students seemed friendly-Rob's blond good looks had something to do with that, Kaitlyn thought. He was clearly a high-status, desirable boy, and he ate lunch with her and Anna and Lewis. Kait could see the glances other girls shot at their table.
Anna was clearly high-status, too-because she was beautiful, not at all nervous, and she didn't seem to care if anyone approached her. By the end of lunch, several girls had come by offering to show the newcomers around. They stayed to chat. One mentioned a party on Saturday.
Kait was very happy.
The thing she'd worried most about was explaining why she and the others were living together. She didn't want to tell these California girls anything about psychic powers and the Institute. She didn't want to be different at this school. She wanted to fit in.
But fortunately Lewis took care of that. Between snapping pictures of the girls, he grinned and said that a nice old man had given them a lot of money to go to
school here. No one believed him, but it created an irresistible aura of mystery that enhanced their status even more.
At the end of the day, Kaitlyn walked out of art studio class feeling blissful. The art teacher had called her portfolio "impressive" and her style "fluid and arresting." All she wanted to make the world perfect was Rob.
Gabriel, of course, didn't associate with anyone, and ate lunch alone. Kaitlyn saw him several times that day, always away from people, always with his lip curled. He could have had tremendous status himself, she thought, because he looked so handsome and moody and dangerous, but he didn't seem to want it.
Marisol collected them after school in a silver-blue Ford van-all except Gabriel, who didn't show up at the pickup point. Kaitlyn thought about his parole and hoped he was on his way back to the Institute.
"Now for some testing," Joyce said when they got home.
That was fine with Kaitlyn. She was jubilant from her first day at school, and an afternoon of testing meant an afternoon with Rob. She still hadn't figured out a plan for helping him discover she was female, but it was always at the back of her mind. Maybe an opportunity would come up spontaneously.
But the first thing Joyce did was send Rob upstairs, saying she'd call him after she got the others settled.
"The REG is ready, Lewis," she added. She sat Lewis down at the same study carrel as before. This time Kait was bold enough to come up behind them.
"What is that thing?" she asked, looking at the
machine in front of Lewis. It looked like a computer, but the monitor had a grid-marked screen with a wiggly green line running across the middle. Like a hospital monitor charting a patient's heartbeat.
"This is a random event generator," Joyce said. "It's a computer that only does one thing-it spits out random numbers. It's producing numbers right now, some positive, some negative, all completely random. That's what the green line is charting. Lewis's job is to make the line go up higher-to influence the machine to spit out more positive numbers than negative ones."
"You can do that?" Kait asked, looking at Lewis in surprise. "With your mind?"
"Yeah, that's what PK is. Mind over matter. This is actually a lot easier than making dice come up a certain number-but I can do that, too, sometimes."
"Stay away from Vegas, kid," Joyce said, rapping him on the head with her knuckles. "They'd shoot out your kneecaps."
She turned to Anna. "Right, you. Same as yesterday. I want you to tell that mouse which hole to go in."
Anna already had the white mouse out of its cage. "Come on, Mickey. Let's go make history."
"Right. Now, Kaitlyn," Joyce said. She nodded Kait toward the folding screen, where Marisol was wheeling up a machine on a cart. Kaitlyn eyed the dials and wires apprehensively.
"Don't be nervous. It's just an EEG machine," Joyce said. "An electroencephalograph. It records your brain waves."
"Oh, great."
"That isn't the part you're not going to like. You're going to really hate this." She held up what looked like a tube of toothpaste. "It's electrode cream, and it's murder to get out of your hair."
Kaitlyn sat in the reclining chair, resigned.
Marisol's thickly lashed brown eyes met Kait's only for the briefest of moments. Her full lips were curved in a bored, unchanging pout.
"This is just prep stuff to clean your skin," she said, squeezing a plastic bottle over a ball of cotton. She swabbed several places on Kaitlyn's head, forehead, and temples.
"Don't move your head." She dabbed some of the toothpaste on Kaitlyn's temple, then dabbed more on an electrode. Kaitlyn watched out of the corner of her eye as the wicked-looking little thing was stuck to her.
It didn't hurt. It tickled slightly. Kait shut her eyes and relaxed until Marisol finished wiring her up.
"Now, Medusa," Joyce said. "As I said, we're going to monitor your brain waves while you're doing your stuff. Brain wave levels change depending on what you're doing: Beta waves show you're attending to something, theta waves show you're drowsy. We're looking for alpha waves-the ones usually associated with psychic activity."
She saw Kaitlyn's expression and added, "Just try to ignore all this equipment, right? You'll be doing exactly the same thing as yesterday."
Kaitlyn looked sideways without moving her head, and saw Marisol bringing two strangers into the lab.
New volunteers. Kaitlyn felt a sudden sharp twinge.
"Joyce, is one of those volunteers ... for Gabriel?"
"I don't know where Gabriel is-although I'd like to," Joyce said grimly, handing Kait a pencil and clipboard. "Now relax, kiddo. No blindfold or earphones this time."
Kaitlyn shut her eyes again. She could hear some activity on the other side of the folding screen-Joyce giving a photo to the volunteer.
"Right," Joyce said. "The subject is concentrating, Kait. You try and receive her thought."
It was only then that Kait discovered how anxious she was. Yesterday she hadn't known what to expect.
Today she did know, and she was uneasy. Worried that she wouldn't be able to perform-and worried that she would.
She didn't feel like sliding down that mental chute into nothingness again. And if she did succeed ... what if she drew something as grotesque as yesterday's picture?
Don't think about it. Take it easy. This is what you're here for, remember?
Don't you want to learn to control your power?
Kaitlyn gritted her teeth, then made a supreme effort to relax, to tune the world out. She could hear muted voices.
"Still beta waves on the EEG." That was Marisol.
"Give her time." That was Joyce.
Be calm, Kaitlyn thought. Ignore them. The chair's comfortable. You didn't get much sleep last night.
Slowly, gradually, she felt herself sink into drowsiness.
"Theta waves."
Blackness, falling . . .
"Alpha waves."
"Good!"
Kaitlyn's hand began to cramp and itch. But as she lifted the pencil, eyes shut, she suddenly remembered yesterday's picture. Anxiety twisted in her stomach.
"Back to beta waves," Marisol said, as if announcing a death in the family.
Joyce peered around the screen. "Kaitlyn, what's wrong?"
"I don't know." Now Kait felt guilty as well as anxious. "I just can't focus."
"Hmm." Joyce seemed to hesitate, then she said, "Right, wait a sec," and disappeared.
She was back again quickly. "Shut your eyes, Kait."
Kaitlyn obeyed automatically. She felt a quick dab and then the touch of something cold on her forehead.
Very cold.
"Now try again," Joyce said, and Kait heard her go.
Again Kait tried to relax. This time she felt the darkness swirl around her immediately. Then she had an odd sensation, a feeling of pressure in her head. Like an explosion building. And then-
-pictures. Images rushing in, almost with more force than Kaitlyn could stand.
"Alpha waves like crazy," a faraway voice said. Kaitlyn scarcely heard it.
Nothing like this had ever happened to her before-but she was too startled to be afraid. The pictures were kaleidoscopic, each passing in a flash almost before she could recognize it.
Gabriel. Something purple. Joyce-or someone like her. Something purple and irregular. A doorway with someone standing in it. A bunch of purple round things. Something tall and white-a tower? A bunch of purple . .. grapes.