8 I Can Do What Now?

"I need to finalize the costume idea with my date but we can work on it once that happens," Ivy said soothingly. "I have my next class with him, maybe I can ask then."

Lydia perked up instantly. "Great! Text me what he says!" she called as she hurried upstairs to her next class.

'…should I get McDonald's or Burger King on the way home? I want a burger and fries so bad!'

'If I go to the nurse's office right now pretending to have a headache I can avoid not turning in the homework I didn't do and have an extra day…'

'Where did I put my student ID? Did it fall out of my pocket at lunch?'

'It needs to just be Christmas break already. Why is it so far away…'

The sea of thoughts raging through Ivy's mind went down several notches when the door to the APUSH classroom shut. The bell hadn't rung yet so she leaned over to catch Carson's attention and mouthed 'talk to me after class.'

He nodded before facing forward with furrowed brows.

'Is this about the dance? It has to be about the dance, why else would she talk to you…unless she forgot what the homework was. Come to think of it…what was the homework? It's not due for another two days but I should really get on that.'

"Alright class, today we're doing a review game for the test tomorrow," the teacher said brightly.

This announcement excited most of the students. Review games could be helpful but a lot of them simply wanted to mentally check out for the rest of the period since the setup of the game made it easier to get away with.

Ivy always did well at these games because she could pick the right answer out of the teacher's mind. When given the option people tended to choose her, Carson, and a few other overachievers to be on their teams.

The teacher gestured with her arm. "This half of the class is team A. The other half is team B. Whoever gets the most points wins some of this." She held up a bag of assorted miniature chocolate bars.

Everyone sat up a little straighter in their seats.

'She never gave us candy before! I'll have to actually try this time.'

'Chocolate sounds amazing right now…'

'Carson's on my team! The prize is ours for sure!'

'Aww, and I really wanted to just sit here too…everyone will kill me if we don't win.'

Seeing the students' unusual interest, Ms. Linderman smiled to herself and thought, 'I should've used candy as an incentive ages ago!'

Ivy secretly applauded the teacher's tactics. Her classmates had never been this pumped up over a review game before.

She glanced around to see who was on her team. A few of the class's slackers (honestly, why did they enroll in an AP class if they didn't want to do anything), a handful of standard AP students, and Missy Durant, whose grades were almost as high as Carson's. They had a decent chance with two of the class aces on their team.

The game was formatted like a popular TV game show: contestants chose a category and point value and were given an answer, having to come up with the question themselves.

A slacker named Isaiah was called on first. 'Crap, which of these things do I actually know?! People…The Constitution…'

"States for two hundred," Isaiah called out.

Ms. Linderman clicked on it from behind her desk and the answer displayed in blue on the projector: the oldest state in the United States of America.

Isaiah panicked. 'Oh, I know this! Do I know this? I feel like I should know this…we definitely talked about it in class…'

"Twenty seconds," the teacher announced how much time he had left to answer before the other team got a chance.

'Come on, you idiot, don't blow this for us! The answer is obviously Delaware!'

'Delaware.'

'Totally Delaware.'

'We talked about this last week! Get your act together!'

The other students on Ivy's team were not happy. All of them knew the answer except the guy who had been asked.

The timer dinged and Isaiah had nothing. The rest of his teammates cursed him out internally for screwing up such a simple question. Carson raised his hand and the teacher let him answer for his team. "What is Delaware?"

"Correct! Two hundred points to team A."

Team B's dissent grew worse and Ivy felt sorry for the poor guy. It sucks being turned on by a pack of chocolate-craving vultures. Team A got their own question right too—worth 400 points—so team B's morale sunk even lower.

"Court Cases for five hundred," Missy said confidently on their next turn. She had been studying for a week and was certain she knew anything Ms. Linderman could throw at them.

The screen read 'This court case decided that interstate commerce could only be controlled by the federal government, not the states.'

Ivy's teammates got nervous.

'I feel like I should know this one…both the people's names started with M.'

'Missy knows this, right? I haven't got a clue.'

'Hey, I know this! Marbury vs Madison! She doesn't need to know the year though, right?'

"What is Marbury vs Madison," she answered in a clear voice.

"Correct! Five hundred points for team B."

Team B's students whispered 'good job' or otherwise congratulated Missy, who preened at the attention. Ivy rolled her eyes. It wasn't that big a deal. It was only the second question and they were 100 points behind. Team A had the advantage.

Several questions later Team B was falling further behind. Her teammates' thoughts were mutinous. It didn't help that Team A had chosen all of the 400 point questions and one of the 500 point ones. Feeling desperate, one of her teammates picked People for 500 points to try and catch up. The problem was she didn't know the answer.

'How am I supposed to know who the first female member of the Supreme Court was? Did we even cover that? I thought this test was on the 1800s!'

Ivy sighed. She picked the answer out of the teacher's head—Sandra Day O'Connor. Her teammate didn't have a clue. The others were getting restless. They really wanted that candy.

If she didn't get it right and the other team did there might be an angry mob on their hands. Ivy pointedly thought 'Sandra Day O'Connor' in the poor girl's direction as hard as she could, wishing in the moment that she were Doctor Y.

"Who is Sandra Day O'Connor?" the girl blurted, startling Ivy so much she nearly fell out of her seat.

She was concentrating so hard she wasn't paying attention to the other girl's thoughts anymore. Had she come up with it on her own or did Ivy's attempt at thought transmission actually work?

She leaned forward in her seat, resting her chin on her clasped hands. There was no way that actually just worked…right?

Her powers had been consistent and unchanging for as long as she could remember. The only thing that got better was her ability to tune things out with practice.

Since she typically thought of her power as a curse she had never tried pushing the limits. Maybe there was more she could do with them.

Ivy couldn't let herself jump to conclusions. She would have to try again several times to be sure this wasn't a mere coincidence.

Her lips curled up mischievously. The guy who was up on the other team was debating between two answers: violence or unions. Ms. Linderman's thoughts indicated that the correct answer was violence. Ivy thought 'unions' really hard at him.

"What are unions!" the poor student cried.

"Incorrect. Anyone from team B know the answer?"

"What is violence?" Ivy asked primly.

Her teammates thoughts grew excited—the 500 points she stole from them boosted them to only being 100 points behind the other team.

Hmm…that wasn't the best test. He was deliberating anyway. There wasn't exactly a foolproof way to do this. Repeating it over and over was the only way to have an idea of what was going on.

Over the next several rounds she continued aiming wrong answers at the other team and right answers at her own. Unless it was the most bizarre series of coincidences ever, Ivy was actually influencing their thoughts. No way!

Carson was up and an inkling of guilt hit her conscience. He never got answers wrong in front of the class. If she messed with his head he would be embarrassed.

Peeking up at the board, she saw that her team was far enough ahead that as long as they got their last question right they would still win the candy. She decided to let him go.

"Alright Ivy, it's your turn," Ms. Linderman said as the blue screen displayed 'This president initiated the War on Poverty that began a huge shift from power away from the states, to the federal government.'

She heard the answer clearly inside multiple people's heads. "Who is Lyndon Johnson?"

"Correct! Team B wins, come claim your candy before the bell rings!"

Ivy's teammates were ecstatic.

'I can't believe we won!'

'Are there any of the peanut butter ones left?'

'Carson's team almost never loses! They were really off their game today.'

'I'm never on the winning team, this is great!'

'I'm surprised those dummies actually knew the right answers this time. They never participate in games like this.'

She tried focusing on those happy thoughts rather than the upset ones from the other team. Team B wasn't supposed to win; Ivy had tipped the scales in their favor by testing the limits of her ability. She would have felt really guilty if she wasn't enjoying the chocolate so much.