Charlotte Powers 1: Power Down (10 page)

xx48.11.18 / 19:56 / Still Friday

Okay, okay, I admit it, I started a new entry just for dramatic effect. Can you blame me? SUCH a cool line. It turned out I had to explain for C2's benefit, though, which took about ten minutes, but by the end of it I
almost
had her convinced that I was right.

"I concede that it's a possibility," she said, after I'd finished explaining. "But even if you're right, I don't see how this changes anything. What can we do?"

"Stop it, of course! Stop this evil mind control and free these students!"

"We're just two people. There are over a thousand students at this school; if this is 'mind control' then it's not an unreasonable assumption to make that they could all turn against us, possibly violently. Also, if you are right and 'supervillains' are responsible for this then the implication is that they have scientifically promoted abilities. The presence of thugs or similar minions is also likely. I ask this not as pointed repetition but instead due to an earnest desire for clarification: what can we do?"

Actually that kind of stumped me. If I had my powers—but no, Charlotte, you've got to stop saying that. The simple fact is that I DON'T have my powers. I'm just an ordinary girl, and so is C2. Well okay so maybe 'ordinary' isn't the right word to describe her but she definitely doesn't have super-strength or anything like that, and now that I think about it I really don't want to put her in any danger. So basically it's down to me, a single unpowered girl against a potential army of mind controlled students and their supervillain masters. Also probably thugs and/or minions. I wouldn't put it past the teachers to be involved in this, either.

"Um," I said.

"I haven't seen any evidence of 'control'," C2 said. "Except from Veronica Flux and the new student head of council, and from the teachers who arrived at around the same time that they did."

"Aha!" I said.

"But that isn't 'mind control'," C2 was continuing. "In fact, the mood alteration often seems to work against their desire to encourage the students to become more organised."

"More organised?" I said. "You're making it sound positive!"

"It is positive?" said C2. "There was a lot of bullying and other bad behaviour before the new staff were brought in. I was often treated badly, as were my friends. The teachers had trouble controlling the students."

"Huh," I said. I actually couldn't think of anything to say to this.

"That's why I suggested that the school board—"

"Okay, so clearly we have to investigate this whole thing further," I said. "It wouldn't be a good idea to make any rash moves."

"I agree," said C2. "That's why I think you should join the self-improvement program."

I stared at her.

"You're shocked," C2 said, in a kind of satisfied way—I guess because she was happy to have figured out my feelings, not because she was trying to shock me. "But as I said to you before, being there is less conspicuous than not being there. As long as you resist, Veronica Flux will continue to notice you."

"I joined the chess club," I said, weakly.

"It's not enough. The self-improvement program is different. Veronica Flux wants every student to join."

"It MUST be for some evil purpose. What do you do there?"

"Self-improvement activities. Trust exercises. Roleplaying. We listen to lectures about teamwork and often put theory into practise—"

"Okay, okay. But what's BEHIND all that?"

"Behind?"

"Like some kind of sinister undercurrent, maybe a repeated message or motto?"

"I think 'teamwork leads to success' would be the principle 'theme' of the program," said C2. "Perhaps also 'trust in your peers' as a strong secondary—"

"Isn't there ANYTHING even a LITTLE sinister about it all? Nothing unusual? Nothing strange?"

C2 thought about this while I paced around my lounge.

"Some students are selected for advanced self-improvement," she said, eventually. "Would that be considered 'strange'?"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" I said. "Do they get taken away to somewhere else?"

"Yes. I don't know where."

"Do they come back?"

"Yes, several days after being taken away, usually three days but sometimes one day less or more, they're often taken on a Thursday but slightly less often on a Friday, although there have been several times when students were taken on a Wednesday and once they were taken on a Tuesday. Never on a Monday. I don't know if that's significant or not."

"I'm ... not sure either," I said. "But they're definitely taken away, right?"

"Yes, in a bus or truck."

"But where?"

"As I told you, I don't know."

"Is it out of town?"

"Possibly. It is certainly out of the school grounds."

"Okay, and then they're brought back—severely traumatised, I bet!"

"No, they seem happy."

"But totally zombie-like, right? Dull, flat eyes, kind of a vacant stare?"

"No, they're not much different to before they left. Perhaps more confident and with greater belief in themselves—"

"Huh," I said, just before the first bell rang—we'd talked all morning! After that we went to school together and split up to go to our classes. School was pretty normal, but now that I was looking I definitely noticed that the 'mood' today was focused and serious; every student was intent on their work and irritable about distraction. But what I also noticed was that some were definitely more focused than others—some students just wanted to get their work done, most students were kind of intensely focused, but then some of them were like totally zoned-in on their work. If this is mind control, and I'm almost certain it is, it must work better on some people than it does on others. Maybe I'm just naturally resistant? But that doesn't explain why even the most lightly-affected students are clearly much more focused and serious than I am. I don't feel at all serious today, except about getting to the bottom of all of this and somehow stopping it.

Anyway, it's late now and I've written a lot, remembering it all was tough even with my curse-perfect memory, especially my conversation with C2. I think I'll go to sleep and write the rest tomorrow, about Veronica's stupid class etc. Goodnight!

xx48.11.20 / 02:24 / Sunday

It's the middle of the night. I'm wide awake, because I slept through Saturday. I mean that literally, I didn't wake up once during the whole day. I've been sleeping since around eight o'clock on Friday night. That CAN'T be normal, that HAS to be part of this. I'm going to get some food and take a shower, then I need to really think about this.

xx48.11.20 / 11:36 / Still Sunday

I fell asleep again. That's almost scary, I slept for ... I don't know, like thirty hours then for another eight? You know the really awful part? I'm still sleepy, I feel like I could just go back to bed and sleep until tomorrow. This has to be part of the control. How can I fight this? "Truth is a perfect defence." C2 doesn't get tired on the weekends like this. Would she know? I could call her now that I have her number, it's Sunday morning, that's an okay time to call someone, isn't it? Okay, I'm going to try.

...

C2 didn't get abnormally tired yesterday. She slept normally. seh was worried about me, though, she's realy so sweet—no, don't get distracted, me! Focus! Although really it was pretty nice t ocall my friend up even if it was just to ask her a quesstion, i shoulkd call her again sometime jsut to chat, toherwiuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[AUTO-CUTOFF]

xx48.11.21 / 04:21 / Monday

Okay. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that sleeping for an ENTIRE WEEKEND is in ANY WAY normal. I just woke up half an hour ago feeling really, really weird. After a shower and some food I'm feeling a little better, but still strange. For my own sake as much as anything else, I need to find out what's going on here. I also have to start doing more than just locking my door, maybe some kind of bar over it ... shops would be open in the morning, right? Not this early, it's still dark outside, but there'd probably be time before school starts to go out and get some brackets and screws and things.

First, though, a run. I'm feeling all itchy and jumpy and I need to work some of that out. Also, you know something? It's FUN to just run without any powers, you really
feel
everything you do. I mean, when I was training back home I didn't ALWAYS use my powers, but as soon as I started to get even a LITTLE tired I just fell back on them. Not being able to use them has given me a much greater appreciation of 'physicality'.

Okay, be back soon!

xx48.11.21 / 10:03 / Still Monday

Free study again. This morning I was late for class, but nobody even noticed. The mood today is 'agitated', everyone's jumpy and on-edge and really touchy. I'm keeping to myself and out of everyone's way. Oh, the reason I was late for class is that I went into town and managed to get the stuff I need to make a barricade for my door. The hardware store I went to had a perfect bit of metal I can use, it's actually a really nice weight, I had fun just swinging it around like a sword for a while, probably for longer than I should have. That got me thinking, maybe I should get some kind of weapon. Not a gun or anything like that, obviously, but even just a good stick might be nice. But then, where would I keep it? And it's not as if I ever did any weapons training, just 'disarms'. If I was fighting someone with a knife I could probably get it off them, but my next move after that would just be 'discard it immediately'.

Well, anyway, I spent half an hour this morning going through all of my basic hand-to-hand moves, mostly punches and power-throws and, yes, some disarms. I also did some visualisation exercises, if I actually have to fight mind controlled students then I'm going to have to be resolute about it. I can't think of them as innocent victims, even though they would be. I have to think of them as dangerous enemies who will be trying to hurt, capture, or even kill me. Of course, I don't really want to hurt them. But I don't have super-strength, how much damage could I actually do? In any case, my first choice has to be 'avoid fighting altogether', for MANY reasons.

Anyway. I'm going to meet up with C2 at lunchtime, we're going to another one of Veronica's stupid self-improvement classes. I'll write more after that.

xx48.11.21 / 14:54 / Still Monday

I thought I wrote about the last self-improvement class, but I just went back and checked and apparently I didn't. Maybe I just dreamt I did, that's kind of sad, dreaming about writing journal entries. Anyway, today's class was pretty much the same as the last one so it's not a big loss.

It started off with everyone gathering together in a big empty room in one of the school buildings I don't have any classes in. Actually, there are a lot of buildings here that don't seem to be used at all. (Potential investigation targets? Maybe later.) Anyway, the self-improvement room had a big table on one side with lots of food and drink on it, pizza and bread and fresh fruit (no pears unfortunately but oh well), it was actually pretty good. There was also a raised area like a stage, for roleplays and speeches, and a huge board against the wall for the speakers to write on.

There were HEAPS of students there. Over a hundred definitely, maybe more like two hundred. That was good, because it meant Veronica couldn't spend much attention on me
—last time the room was even more packed, maybe three hundred people, and she didn't even notice me. This time she just came over once and said it was good that I came back again, I just smiled and said I couldn't stay away. Which is true, but not for the reason she thinks. C2 was there too, of course, she actually seems to quite enjoy it—she likes the teamwork puzzles, things like 'you have to transport some crates to these islands and distribute them evenly', actually I have to admit that they weren't boring, I actually liked it more than regular class. At least everyone was enthusiastic, people were even laughing. I didn't let that distract me, though. I kept a very strict eye on what Veronica and the other 'coordinators' were doing, which (apart from coordinating) was mostly observing the students. Every so often Veronica or one of the others would pick out a student and take them aside. I don't know what they talked about, but it never took long and didn't seem to disturb or shock the students. Actually, it seemed to make them happy. I don't think it was just 'encouragement', though.

At the end of it Veronica made a speech about teamwork and working together and all that stuff. The students all reacted well to it. They even clapped when she was finished—not the insane cheering they gave Ray (more on him in a bit) but definitely enthusiastic and appreciative.

After that it was over, and C2 and I went to our afternoon classes. Mine was maths, and the class was almost empty. Just seven students, including me. Ray was one of them, and he came over to me straight away, as soon as I sat down.

"Hey," he said. "You're Fumbles, right?"

"Charlotte, actually," I said. He just laughed.

"Yeah, good one. You're new here too, yeah?"

Let me just stop and say that I was DEFINITELY under some kind of mood control or SOMETHING here, because my part of this conversation is DEFINITELY not 'me'.

"Hehe, yeah," I said. Yes, 'hehe'. I giggled. It might even have been a
simper
. Like I said, there must have been some mood control at work.

"How's it so far?" he asked.

"Oh, hehe, you know, it's tough but okay," I said.

"Where are you from, anyway?"

"Just out of town," I said. He kind of frowned.

"You mean ... like, nearby?"

It took me a moment to realise how he'd misunderstood.

"No, what I meant was ... um, just that I'm from out of town. Somewhere far away, probably."

"Yeah? What's your hometown called?

"It doesn't really have a name," I said. "Oh, maybe you could call it 'Seclusion'."

Stupid curse! I definitely didn't mean to say that, but I couldn't help it.

"Yeah? Cute name. Listen, most of the girls around here are totally boring but you're pretty cool. You wanna do something after class?"

I don't know why I said 'yes'. I didn't want to! In fact, I'd already arranged to meet up with C2, we were going to go grocery shopping together, I was looking forward to it! But when he asked me that I giggled again and said 'yes!' straight away. He grinned at me.

"Cool," he said. "See you ... here."

It wasn't even really a joke but I still laughed.

So now I'm sitting here in class writing this and he keeps
looking
at me and smiling and I have to meet C2 but I can't back out now, right? Ray wants to do something with me and I said yes, what can I do? It'd be rude to say 'no' now after I already said 'yes'. I wish C2 had a phone or something, then I could just send her a message, I'm going to have to just try to get away from Ray to tell her that something's come up.

Argh there's the bell okay he's coming over now gotta go!