“You can’t hit your mommy,” I tried to explain.

“I can do anything I want,” she screeched at me.  But we both knew that wasn’t true.  The hatred in her eyes burned me, and I released her will.

She turned away from me, threw her arms around her mother’s neck, and cried.  “I want to go home,” she sobbed.  “I don’t want Charlene to have a sleepover anymore.”

I emerged from the dream slightly when Luke reached around to push me toward the center of his back.  I’d slid to the side, dangerously unbalancing us.  Shivering, I sank right back into the next waiting dream.

Sitting at the long black counter in biology class, I tried to ignore Penny’s quiet mutterings from the table behind me.  We hadn’t been friends since first grade, which suited me fine.  Middle school had killed any lingering traces of friendship.  For two and a half years, she’d tormented me, spread rumors, and caused me nothing but trouble.

I’d been pulled into the counselor’s office at least twice a week for the last three months to discuss the malicious relationship we had.  The school was just trying to cover themselves in a bullying case, but I had sat there and listened to Penny’s pathetic explanations for the rumors she started.

Something hit the back of my head.  I turned as I reached back to feel my hair.  Gum.  Penny didn’t meet my eyes but looked straight at the teacher as if she’d been paying attention the whole time.

“Ms. Farech.  Is there a problem?” Mr. Melski asked from the front of the room.

“Yes.”  I struggled to keep all the emotion from my voice.  “Someone just threw gum in my hair.”  I stood and picked up my books.  “I’ll see if someone in the office can help.”

His eyes flicked to Penny.  The faculty knew.  So why in the heck did they let her sit behind me?  It was a small school.  Because we were in the same grade, we had most of our classes together.  Not all, though, because I’d managed to squeak into a few of the advanced ones.  Hard classes, but I loved them because she wasn’t there.

I kept my pace even as I walked out the door.

The secretary, an older woman who yelled at most kids, made a sympathetic noise when I walked in and showed her the gum.  I hadn’t touched it much and had walked carefully so it wasn’t too embedded.

“Why on earth does Penny dislike you so much?” she asked as she worked.

“Because when we were kids, I told her not to hit her mom.”  The truth, yet not all of it.  Penny was the only one who knew my secret.  Never once did I give the rumors she had started any credence.  But she and I both knew I could do what she claimed.  I just didn’t let her push me to do it openly.

The secretary extracted the gum wad within minutes, only taking a few strands with it.

“Make sure you don’t sit near her at the assembly,” she warned just before I left.

As if I would purposely do so.

I went to the bathroom to check my hair before heading back to class.  Hopefully Penny wasn’t chewing more gum in anticipation of my return.  The door opened behind me.  Penny’s eyes met mine in the mirror.

“Why?” I asked, turning.  “What do you get from doing this?  You were never mean when we were little.”  She continued to eye me hatefully.  I tried again.  “We were friends once.”

“Ha!” she barked bitterly.  “You were never my friend.  You never listened to me.”

I knew exactly what she meant.  She’d wanted me to use my ability to make her mom look away so we could sneak candy when we went to her house.  She didn’t understand as I did that my ability wasn’t meant for that.  Somehow I’d always known I shouldn’t misuse my power.

“You always asked too much,” I said sadly.  “Just let this go.”

“No.  At some point you’ll make a mistake, and I want to be there so everyone knows I was right about you.”  She reached out and slapped the books from my arms.  They tumbled to the floor.

“All you’re going to prove is how mean you can be,” I said glancing down at the books.  She didn’t answer.

When I bent to pick them up, she pushed me over.  I snapped and grabbed hold of her will.

“Stop.”  She froze poised in a half-crouch ready to come after me.  I held her still with my will, but I forced nothing else on her.  I felt bad enough for holding her like that.  “I’m really sorry, Penny, but this has gone on long enough.  Forget your hate.  Remember the friendship we once had.” I picked up my books and stood.  “Don’t try to hurt me again.”

I walked out the door intending to get a good head start before I released her.  From behind, I heard her yell through the door, “I still can’t move!”

The dream shifted, but not far.  I still wore the same clothes.

Sitting on the gym bleachers surrounded by the entire student body, I looked around warily for Penny.  She would hate me even more, now.  I should have made her forget.  I just couldn’t bring myself to mess with someone’s head like that.  It wasn’t like anyone really believed her.  Other than the bullying, she wasn’t a threat to me. I had no justification for taking the extreme measure of robbing her of her memories.

“As some of you know, there have been cases of bullying.  This is a serious matter that this school will not take lightly.  We have a short film to help educate you on what steps should be taken if you are bullied, or witness bullying.”

The overhead lights dimmed and a beam of light from the AV room near the top of the gym pierced the gloom.  The AV room, a recent addition accessed by a set of stairs outside of the gym, was prized by the faculty as a means to broadcast school news.

A shot of the girl’s bathroom burst onto the white gym wall we used for projection.  My mouth popped open as I saw myself walk into the bathroom and go to the mirror.  Some students near me started laughing quietly.  The faculty, standing on the gym floor, started conferring in whispers as on screen, Penny walked in and we started talking.

One of the teachers left the gym presumably to reach the AV room and stop the movie.  The lights in the gym turned on as Penny knocked the books out of my hand.  No one moved.  Everyone stayed focused on the projection.  My stomach filled with piercing shards of ice.

“The assembly is over.  Return to your last hour class.  Those with Physical Education should go to the locker rooms and wait there,” the principal shouted, unable to use his microphone as the PA had been taken over by my voice, “All you’re going to prove is how mean you can be.”

No one moved.  All eyes remained riveted on Penny as she stared at me, and I moved to retrieve the books.  I could taste my panic, the flavor disgustingly reminiscent of vomit.  Penny had finally succeeded.

I closed my eyes as the recording of my voice rang out.  “Stop.”  A murmuring rose in the gym, loud enough that others started shushing their neighbors as I gave Penny my little speech and then left the bathroom.

Opening my eyes, I caught the angle of the video change as the cameraman climbed off the toilet and opened the stall door to zoom in on Penny’s outraged face.  Penny’s words, “I still can’t move,” echoed through the eerily quiet gym.  The last image on the wall was of Penny suddenly falling to the floor.  The projection shut off.

My face heated unnaturally.  Someone next to me whispered to their neighbor, “Holy crap!  Penny wasn’t lying.”

I sat up in the bleachers, surrounded by my peers. All eyes turned to me.  A side door opened, and a teacher escorted a beaming Penny into the gym.  As I stood, I grabbed everyone’s will but hers and planted a seed.  My voice rang out.  “You just witnessed proof of Penny’s dogged determination to expose something extraordinary.  Instead, all she did was paint herself as a bully and show she has an amazing ability to act.”