Free Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski Page A

elevator. They were the only ones in the elevator at the time, so at first they thought they were finally developing twin powers, which people were always asking them about. Anyway, when they stepped out of the elevator, they realized they could hear their doorman’s thoughts too.
    “Morning, Dave. Morning, Daniel,” he said. Good thing they’re always together, because I never remember who’s who.
    Edward McMann wasn’t that surprised when he started hearing thoughts. He had always expected something paranormal to happen to him, but he’d always thought it would come in the form of him turning into a vampire. He watched and read a lot of vampire stuff. True Blood. Anything by Ann Rice. Fright Night —the original and the remake. He once put together a list of the top hundred vampire movies for his blog. He even read the Twilight books. He had to after he found out the lead guy was named Edward. He wanted to live forever and bite girls’ necks and, well, sparkle.
    Sergei Relov and Michelle Barak both got it on their way to school.
    Sergei stopped in the park to call his girlfriend in Toronto. There were only a few people there that early and they weren’t too chatty, so at first Sergei thought the extra voices were from cell phone interference. He hung up and called her again. It didn’t help.
    Michelle got it on the subway. Unlike most of us, she did not live in Tribeca. She lived in a small four-floor walkup in midtown. But BHS was a better school than the one in her area and she had gotten in, so she took the subway there and back every day. When the telepathy kicked in, the subway got loud. Very loud. But hey—it was rush hour. Very loud was to be expected.
    Rayna Romero got it right before homeroom while standing in the middle of the hallway. One second she was minding her own business, walking to class, and the next second voices were attacking her at full volume.
    “Late night last night?”
    He looks like shit.
    “Wait for me one sec?”
    I have a wedgie.
    “Did you do your calc homework?”
    She better let me copy.
    “Will is such a loser.”
    Is everyone staring at my zit?
    Rayna didn’t understand what was going on. Why is it so loud in here? Where are all the voices coming from?
    Rayna wanted to go to homeroom, but she couldn’t move. She was never late for homeroom. She was never late for anything. She didn’t like being late and she didn’t like surprises. But that morning she just stood there. Suddenly she had a splitting headache.
    The bell rang, making it worse.
    Rayna, it’s going to be okay, she heard from somewhere. She wasn’t sure where the voice was coming from. She looked around. No one was talking to her. Tess was standing in front of her, but her lips weren’t moving.
    Rayna, we need to go to homeroom, the voice said—the voice that was talking to her.
    I don’t want to go to homeroom! I want this to stop! Rayna’s eyes were wild. Terrified. But I can’t concentrate. There are so many thoughts!
    “Excuse me!” a senior yelled as he stood behind her. “You’re in the way!” Honk! Honk! I wish I had a horn on my nose. He eventually walked around her.
    Rayna, close your eyes, the nice voice said. Trust me, just close them.
    Rayna did what she was told, thinking maybe she was dreaming. She had a lot of weird dreams. Sometimes she flew through the hallway stark naked except for her days-of-the-week underwear.
    As soon as she closed her eyes, the voices halved. Better, she thought. At least the real voices weren’t so rude.
    “It’s going to be okay,” the nice voice said, but this time it wasn’t muffled and was accompanied by a hand on her arm.
    She opened her eyes to see that Tess was talking to her. “What’s happening? I really don’t like surprises.”
    “Follow me to homeroom,” Tess said. “We’ll explain.”
    Unfortunately for Rayna, this wasn’t the only shocker she would get that day. That night, while she downed a plate of cheese ravioli and