“What am I thinking then?” Khloe asked, obviously trying to suppress her smirk; the girl had been trying to catch me out for years.

“I’ve told you umpteen times,” I say with a put-upon sign for emphasis, “that’s not how my ability works.” I glare at her, and her cronies who are gathered at her back watching our exchange with rapt attention, over the top of my book.

She gestures minutely and her brother moves from his spot on the other side of the cafeteria. He seems to disappear from said spot and reappear behind my back in the same instance. I expertly dodge the attempt to reach over and grab my book from my hands.

This attempt is followed up by small fires appearing in midair on either side of me. I take a deep breath to reign in my annoyance before vaulting over Kai’s head; Kai being Khloe’s brother. I land and quickly press my back against Kai’s; from this position I can grab his hand and scratch at his palm with my nails. I feel his body jolt and then suddenly he’s back to himself.

“What the hell, Khloe,” he says and any eyes in the cafeteria that weren’t already trained on us turn in our direction. “I thought we agreed that you’d stop using that ability without my permission!”

I knew without having to look that Khloe was glaring at her twin. I also knew that wouldn’t stop Kai from speaking his mind; especially since she’d used this ability so soon after the last incident.

“Don’t look at my like that,” Kai said his breathing becoming increasingly ragged. “You have other abilities that don’t require manipulating me.” His body was shaking and his grip on my hand kept tightening and loosening rapidly.

I managed to wrestle my thumb out of his grip and started stroking it across the back of his hand. His breaths stuttered and then started to slow.

“I’m going and Seb is coming with me,” he says pulling my hand till I was standing by his side.

I quickly lean down to grab my rucksack and dodge an ice blast aimed at my head. I look up from my new vantage point to glare anew at the gaggle of individuals backing Khloe in her vendetta.

“Stop it,” Kai said staring down each individual in turn before landing back on his sister. “And you,” he says, “stop this.” He turns to me and offers me a small smile. “Do you wanna head out?”

I nod my head in response and follow him out of the cafeteria; he only lets go of my hand for a second, if that, while he grabs his shoulder bag from where he’d left it.

*

“Thanks for the lift, Kai,” I say waving him off, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The moment the door is at my back I sink down and rest my back against it. This was only going to get worse if someone didn’t decide to discipline Khloe and soon. My eyes drop shut but I manage to drag myself up the stairs to my room where I collapse on the bed face first.

You see, my hometown is full of people with magical abilities and I learned early on that a non-magical person, like me, would not fit in here; therefore I found a way to ‘fake it’.

One day I came across a collection of books in the library while my mother was talking to the rats down in the basement to see if they would be willing to relocate. The books were about a private detective who uses deduction and logical reasoning, often to others’ amazement, to solve cases.

I became obsessed with the series to the point that when the magical aptitude test, held just before we all started primary school, came around I took what I had learned and used it to appear ‘magical’. Somehow it had worked and from that point on I’ve continued to hone my skills. I live in constant fear of someone figuring it out; which is what Khloe appears to be trying to do. Hopefully I can hold it together till I can leave this nightmare of a town.