Surprising

Carson blinked at her in surprise. The conversation had taken a kind of random turn, after all.

"Yeah, it is," he said mildly.

His thoughts were more in depth and they shook Ivy to her very core. 'Superpowers would make life easier in some ways but keeping them a secret from everyone else would be really difficult. Like if you had super strength and had to calculate how much to use while holding anything so it wouldn't break. I don't think I would want to have superpowers at all.'

Somehow he had gotten straight to the heart of the matter without actually experiencing it himself. Yes! That was exactly how it felt having weird powers!

Ivy had heard countless people wish for superpowers throughout her life but nobody ever understood this point. They only thought of the convenience not the drawbacks. In her case, there were A LOT of drawbacks.

She had never once experienced true silence. There were always people or animals within her 100 yard radius. Even if things were quieter than when she was in a crowded place they were never completely quiet.

A couple of times she had tried going out in the middle of nowhere by herself but it still hadn't worked because of passing wildlife. The simple thoughts of birds or deer or squirrels had still intruded on her mind.

After that she gave up on ever finding true silence. If she ever found it, it would be through artificial means. Like being the only person or animal smack in the middle of a gigantic building. But when would that ever happen?

Ivy could have hugged Carson; she was so thrilled that someone understood where she was coming from in the tiniest capacity. But she couldn't even say anything because he hadn't said that thought out loud.

She needed to be sneaky. "If you could have any superpower, which one would you want? I think I would want to have telekinesis."

Since reading all of those Doctor Y comics she had been slightly upset that of all of his extra abilities she had ended up with thought projection, which could be used for evil too easily, rather than being able to move objects with her mind.

If Ivy had developed telekinesis instead she could be as lazy as she wanted about getting the remote or snacks when she was home alone. At least that would be somewhat useful.

Carson was honest. He didn't try to come up with something cool to impress her.

"I don't think I would want superpowers at all, actually. People only think of the positives but there are probably a lot of things about having powers that would make life more difficult," he admitted.

She beamed at him, unable to hide how pleased she was by his response. "Interesting answer. Alright then, which do you think would be the most difficult superpower to have?"

Ivy was quite curious about his answer. Unfortunately, passing period was ticking by and both of them needed to get to class. Carson realized this with great reluctance.

'Aw, the conversation was getting really interesting too. Ivy and I have never talked like this before.'

He managed to smile at her as he said, "Hold that thought. We're going to be late to class if we don't leave right now. Which direction are you going?"

The exact opposite from him. Her next class was statistics and she knew that his was Spanish. Those classrooms weren't anywhere near each other. Ivy was more disappointed than she thought she could be about parting with an acquaintance.

"Left. You?" she asked casually, unwilling to give herself away.

It had taken a lot of practice to remember to ask people things she already knew when she was younger. Now she had it down to a science and hardly ever slipped up anymore.

"Right," Carson said reluctantly. "Guess I'll see you in AP Bio then."

"See ya!" Ivy replied with a wave as she hurried away. Maybe she would get the answer she was curious about then. She truly did want to know what he thought about the worst power to have.

After a little over five years of being classmates she thought she had Carson Summers figured out but he had been surprising her lately. She did not surprise easily, if at all. People were too predictable for that.

In sixth grade, when they first met, they had two classes together. Math and science. He was one of those rare students whose mind never seemed to wander in class. Other kids would fill Ivy's head with thoughts of what they were doing after school, the movie that just came out, or who they had a crush on.

Not Carson. His focus was entirely on taking notes and working on assignments. If he thought about other things at all it was for different classes he was taking or occasionally about one of the school clubs he was in.

School, school, school. Ivy hadn't thought he was capable of thinking of anything else. He was one of the few kids she knew who was obsessed with their academic future.

She had yet to discover why that was. Her power only extended to what a person was thinking when she was within earshot. Carson hadn't ever gone into depth thinking about his motivation to succeed when she was around.

He wanted to get a scholarship to a good college but she had no idea what he wanted to do with his eventual degree. It was a bit odd that she even wanted to know; normally, she didn't care about the minutiae of other people's lives because she already heard way more than she ever wanted.

Ivy had evaluated and dismissed him as a boring nerd way back in sixth grade; though she had been grateful to get test, quiz, and sometimes even homework answers off of him in class. When they had science and history together the following year she had been thrilled.

Using other people's thoughts to get her work done had resulted in such high grades in upper elementary school that she started on the honors track in middle school and had been there ever since. Most of the honors kids had at least two or three classes together per year.

That was how she ended up mooching off of Carson for five years straight. She never would have noticed there was anything more to his thoughts than academics if she hadn't smiled at him and told him to have a nice day out of the blue.

He had always seemed so unflappable since he never freaked out about tests like the other students. Ivy hadn't realized that his calm was a façade and that he was actually pretty anxious in most social situations.

Or that he had some interesting thoughts when he wasn't focused on schoolwork. It might be worth her while to spend more time around him.