8

It took no time at all for Parker to become bolder with his ability. In his next class that day, he saw MJ prepare a spitball, chewing up a small piece of paper and using his disassembled pen as a sort of blowgun. MJ took aim at someone across the room. Parker stopped the wad of paper in midair and let it drop to the floor. MJ watched it happen with a stunned look on his face. He nudged a friend in a desk next to him, and Parker watched him try to explain what had happened.

The next morning, Parker saw Devon again in study hall. Devon had two pieces of paper in front of him: the completed worksheet he’d taken from Ashley’s backpack and a blank version of the same worksheet. He was clearly copying down Ashley’s answers.

This is my chance to stop him, Parker thought. I need a plan. And I need to act fast. After thinking for a few moments, Parker used his ability to knock down a row of books from the shelf directly behind Devon. The papers on Devon’s table went flying. The librarian rushed over and started scolding Devon about being more careful with the books in the library. Meanwhile, Parker used the distraction to slowly slide both worksheets over to his table.

Parker got up to use the bathroom but stopped as he passed Ashley’s table. He purposely kept his gaze down and pretended to spot the sheet of paper sitting beneath her chair.

“Hey,” he said, turning to her. “I think you dropped that.”

Ashley glanced below her seat and gasped. “Oh my gosh, thank you!” she whisper-shouted. “I thought I lost that, and it’s due this afternoon. I must have dropped it here yesterday.” She grinned up at him and thanked him again.

Parker smiled back and nodded. As he walked past a garbage can, he may or may not have thrown away a half-finished worksheet with the name “Devon Jones” written on top of it.

***

Every day, Parker practiced his ability in the workshop and at home. He was getting much better at using it. He could make objects float and move in midair. He could spin and twirl them, juggling without using his hands. At home, he was able to control a pen so well, he could write his name without ever touching the pen.

After a few days, Parker decided to take his school activism to the next level. Instead of just preventing bad things from happening, he started taking some light revenge on bullies. Suddenly Devon was mysteriously misplacing most of his homework. Paul was telling people that books kept falling out of his locker for no reason. MJ reported that at lunch his plastic forks and spoons snapped in half when he wasn’t even touching them.

Yuan, Cole, and Drew all helped too. Each day at lunch, all three would discuss instances of bullying they had witnessed, and Parker would find some way for the bullies to make up for their actions. Cheat sheets fell out of books right where teachers could see them. Pens exploded in bullies’ hands just as they were starting to taunt someone.

Word was getting around. People were starting to talk about the weird things that had been happening to anyone who tried to pull anything. More and more students had noticed that physically impossible things were happening around the school. There was even a rumor that the school was haunted and a ghost was taking some kind of weird revenge. That theory was Parker’s favorite.

He and his friends were extremely proud of themselves.

“It’s working,” Drew said to the group as they were hanging around outside before school. “Devon Jones hits me with a rubber band every day in art. Since you started,” he said to Parker, “I haven’t been hit once. I think he’s afraid of the ghost. You aren’t even in that class.”

“Paul Thornton has a thing for slamming my locker door shut while I’m getting things out of it,” Cole said. “He’s stopped doing that too.”

“No one knows it’s me, right?” Parker said.

“No one suspects any of us,” Yuan said. “I don’t think anyone even thinks it’s a person doing it. One of the sophomores named the ghost Chuck though.”

“Way to go, Chuck,” Drew said, patting Parker on the back.

***

“How are rehearsals going?” Cole asked Yuan one afternoon when she and Parker came out of rehearsal. Drew had begun driving the four of them home after school since they were hanging out so often lately.

“The show is going to be good,” Yuan replied. “It’s coming along.”

“Caroline still trying to take your role?” Drew asked as they piled into his beat-up car.

Yuan shrugged from the front passenger seat. “She’s just being her usual charming self. She made a point of telling me that she’s already learned all my lines in case I step down.”

“She’d get the part if you did?”

Yuan nodded. “If I do anything wrong—literally anything, she corrects me right in front of Ms. Frasier.”

“Does Ms. Frasier think you’re doing well?” Parker asked.

“She says she does.” He could hear the concern in Yuan’s voice. “But every time Caroline corrects me, I get a little scared that Ms. Frasier might, you know, believe Caroline might be better for the part.”

“That’s Caroline trying to get in your head,” Cole said.

“Well.” Yuan stared out the window. “It’s working.”

Parker felt bad for her. He could stop all the rubber bands and spitballs he wanted, but there was only so much he could do. There wasn’t any way for him to stop Caroline from being so cruel if she didn’t actually do anything.

“If this is what it’s going to be like to work with her,” Yuan continued, “I’m not sure I’ll audition for the next show. She can have it.”

“Ugh,” Cole blurted out. “Don’t let her win.”

Yuan shrugged. They spent the rest of the car ride in silence.