Seeing as that little bit of experimenting made me pass out, I’m a little hesitant to keep going. It could be dangerous.

Psh. Danger’s our middle name. What fun is life without danger? It’s fun for all!

Fiiiiiine, you win.

Wait, aren’t we the same person? So didn’t we both win?!

Fine, we- I mean, I win?

Exactly.

However, before I continue with my experimentation, I decide to text the only expert I know on all things spiritual and chakra related.

Hey, Mom? What do the different chakra’s do?

A few seconds later a message shows up from my mom.

OMG! Are you interested? I can sign you up for meditation tomorrow!

No thanks. I’m good. I hesitate before sending the text, wondering if there could actually be some use in learning about something like that.

But I have no desire to go. So I send the text.

I sit in my bed for a few seconds before my phone dings with another message.

Aww. Too bad :(.

The three dots dance across the screen for a while as my mom types. Eventually, a large text comes in.

First we have the the root chakra that has to do with survival, life, death and our connection with the earth. Then there’s the the sexual chakra. Third is solar plexus, or power chakra. Fourth is your heart chakra (my favorite!) It’s green and stands for your connection with the earth, love, family and green growing things! Fifth is your throat chakra which is for communication. Sixth is the third eye, which is perception, or the sixth sense. Finally, there’s the the crown chakra, our connection to god

I hope that helped! I love you Elle!

I send a quick message back saying that I loved her too, then spend some time just re-reading her message, trying to memorize it. My eyes automatically skip over her comments.

Thinking about all of this stuff reminds me of that book that Sheyla gave me before I left. Maybe I should open i-

Wait! The gods that are supposedly “watching me” have been experiencing nothing interesting except for boring exploration of your powers! Give them some breathing room!!

Oooh, good point! Maybe I can scare them off with more boring meditation and reading!

I open my inventory and grab the book that Sheyla gave to me from it. I open the book to the first page.

Welcome to Sheyla’s book of important things to know! This book is currently analyzing your different magical energies to give you advice on how to use them, please wait a few moments before turning the page!

Suddenly most of the text disappears and is replaced with

You may turn the page now.

I turn it.

You currently have

the ability to use Psi and Mana! When you get to level 5, Class changes will be available to you that will allow you to gain another Energy. State the ability you would like to learn about before turning the page.

“Psi, please.” I say.

I turn the page, taking time to read what it has to tell me. I reread the page again, learning what I can from the surprisingly in-depth exercises it recommends.

Closing my eyes, the meditative state comes even quicker this time.

I trace the psi through the chakras in my body. I turn my attention to my crown chakra and gently grab control over the psi that has coalesced there.

Slowly, I circulate the psi through my body, connecting each chakra to the next.

I do this for a good while, keeping the flow at a mediocre speed. Eventually, I stop and focus in on my third eye chakra.

Slowly and carefully, I circulate the psi just inside that chakra, increasing the speed until it’s a small whirlpool. My Third Eye cracks open.

I am thrust out of my meditative state as a strange sensation on my forehead makes itself known. My vision shifts slightly as the world takes on another hue of color.

I run over to the purse sitting on my nightstand and pull a small mirror out. I open it and look at my forehead. To my surprise a third eye actually looks back at me. The eye is blue with specks of green. The eye’s pupil itself is shaped like a cat.

The sound of my door opening makes me spin around. My mother looks at me with a smile, “Hey Elena, I know you wanted some alone time, but I thought you might want to know that your teacher Miss Elkins wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Thanks.” I respond, staring right at her as she looks back at me questioningly. I expect her to comment on the whole Third Eye thing, but surprisingly enough, she acts like she can’t even see it.

With a shrug, she leaves the room.

I am left to ponder the fact that only I can see my Eye.

A blue screen asks for my attention, so I look at it.

You have learned to use you Third Eye. You have unlocked the skill [Eye Of Truth]

“Please [Define Eye Of Truth]” I ask and another Blue Window appears in front of me.

[Eye Of Truth] allows you to see all that is being hidden from you. It is a passive skill that requires your Third Eye to be open in order for it to work.

So the third eye is invisible, but maybe I can see it when I look in the mirror because it allows me to see the invisible? That seems most likely.

That reminds me, mom said that Miss Elkins wanted to talk to me. I should probably call her, but school sounds so… unimportant when I have a literal third eye.

I should probably call her anyway.

I drag my phone out of my pocket, looking for the number of my mother’s childhood friend and a current teacher at my highschool.

The phone rings twice before it’s picked up.

“Hello?” My teacher’s voice comes through the phone.

“Hi. Miss Elkins? This is Elena, you told my mom that you wanted to talk to me?”

“Hi Elena! I’m glad to hear from you. I was hoping that you could show a new girl around tomorrow. She just transferred over from California, and I’m sure she could use a friend. Do you think you could show her the proverbial ‘ropes’?”

I smile at her use of language.“I would love to. What’s her name?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Thank you Elena! Her name is Rose. She will meet you in front of the school building at seven. Could you meet her then?”

“Sure thing. I can’t really talk long, Miss Elkins, see you tomorrow.”

“See you then!”

I hang up the phone and tremble at the loss of an hour's sleep.

I am distracted from that thought when I look out my window to see my father coming home from work. I can’t help the smile that sprouts on my face at the sight of him.

With a skip in my step, I run to my door and throw it open as I head downstairs to the living room.

He opens the door with a tired expression on his face, but breaks into a smile when he sees me. “Hello Elle. Is mom home? The ER room was very hectic today.”

My father’s shoulders sag slightly, but have the wiry strength of a healthy lifestyle. He might be 52 years old now, but he still has the strong brown eyes, and curly brown hair that made my mom fall in love with him.

“Another gang shooting?” I ask worriedly, following him as he walks over to the couch.

“Two in a row, It looks like something serious is going down in the city .” He kicks off his shoes and falls on to the couch exhausted.

“I’ll go get mom, you just sit and relax.”

He nods slightly, his eyes already closed.

I walk into the kitchen, where mom is stirring some pasta sauce.

“Hey Mom? Dad’s home, he looks like he could use you. I can take over in here.”

Mom’s eyes get a worried look. “Could you start some noodles while I check up on him?” She asks as she leaves.

“Sure thing.” I start working on boiling some water.

***

*Beep beep beep beep*

I slam the alarm clock with the back of my hand, turning to grumble into my pillow. With a groan, I sit up and stretch, working out all of the kinks in my body. There’s less aching than usual, ever since I leveled up I have been feeling refreshed, both physically and mentally.

I slowly force myself through my morning ritual, feeling more refreshed once I’ve had my shower, brushed my teeth and applied some basic makeup. I walk down the stairs to find my Dad reading the newspaper.

“Anything interesting happen?” I say, yawning as I start cracking a few eggs.

“Ha! I don’t understand how the media can have any trust left in them! Every day it’s another exaggeration or lie without any evidence. And when it turns out that they lied, they barely even apologize! And that is after three thousand news outlets ran with the story. I’ve lost all faith.” My dad says angrily.

I give him a knowing smile, “News is a business. But what are you going to do?”

“Knowing that it is happening is doing something.” My Dad grumbles.

I grab some toast, bacon and eggs and set a plate in front of my Dad and me.

“I’m gonna be running to school today. I promised to meet someone there early.”

“I was wondering what you were doing up so early.” He mumbles out around a bite of toast.

I do my best to not rush as I eat my food. Once I’m finished, I grab my backpack and head out the door.

“Have fun at school Elle!”

“When is school not fun?” I yell back at him as I open the door and leave.

I put some earbuds in my ear, select a rock song and start running.

My thoughts wander as I build up a beat to my steps.

After dinner last night, I didn’t have much time to experiment with my newfound abilities, but I still stayed up late enough to work on one ability involving the Psi in my power chakra. The book Sheyla gave me talked about it, so I became interested.

Through practice you have gained the ability [Unmatchable Speed] at beginner level 3

I had played around with it and I managed to bring it up a few levels before I went to bed. It does what it says it does, making my whole body move with a speed I can barely follow with my eyes. It does use a good chunk of my psi every time I use it tho.

I follow the sidewalk to the parking lot at the front of the school, slowing down as I arrive at the main office.

I stop for a second right outside of the doors to the building, catching my breath and taking a sip from my water bottle. My running had kept the chill air away, but now that I’d stopped, I can see little breaths of mist blowing out in front of me.

I put my water bottle away and enter the office.

“Is there something I can help you with Elena?” The lady at the front desk immediately calls out to me as I enter..

I walk towards her, putting on my best smile “Yeah! I’m looking for a girl named Rose?”

I hear someone standing up behind me and a confident, “That’s me.”

I turn around to look at the transfer student.

She is a pretty girl with shoulder length pink hair and blue eyes. My eyes are immediately drawn to the small piercing at the corner of her mouth, as she gives me a small smile.

I give her a smile in return, “My name is Elena, it’s nice to meet you.” I hold my hand out to her which she takes.

“Rose, I heard you’re gonna be my tour guide.” The small smile on her face takes any sting out of her words.

“That’s me.”

“Great! I was worried I’d be left waiting here.” She turns around, walking towards her backpack and notebooks.

The little short-skirt on her sways back and forth, attracting my attention.

She twirls around and asks “Are you coming?”

“Yeah. So, what do you want to see first?” I smooth over my momentary lack of attention and walk over to her.

“Well, it would probably be best to see my homeroom first...”

“Yep!” I knock on my head, “Sorry, must’ve lost my mind there for a second. Follow me.” I head towards the elevators. “As Juniors, we're lucky enough to get the the second floor mostly to ourselves...” I start as I lead her.

***

Rose is an interesting girl, that’s for sure. I noticed that the entire time that I was with her, she kept a polite, but ‘I don’t want you to get too close to me’ face on. She would dodge any personal questions like an olympic athlete would dodge rocks.

What I found most odd though, was the fact that she intrigued me so much. I mean, I just discovered how to read someone’s mind and look into the secrets of the universe, yet I can’t get that beautiful girl out of my mind…

Maybe there is something that I am missing? Maybe she has something to do with The System and I am subconsciously realizing it?

No, that doesn’t seem right either.

How odd.

I end up rolling through the rest of my classes in a haze of thought. It’s when the bell rings that I realized what had kept me distracted all day.

I’m gay.

Oh, nice, now that that’s over with, I can continue with my life in a normal manner.

I say goodbye to the couple of people I usually hang out with as the bell rings. Looking at the time, I decide to head towards a cute little coffee shop nearby, maybe get some reading done and look at Sheyla’s book while I’m at it.

As I leave the school building, I notice Rose walking in the same direction as me. She gazes up to the sky, her mind lost in thought.

I run up next to her.

“Where are you heading?” I ask, matching pace with her.

She jumps and moves into a crouch before she recognizes me. “Jeeze! You scared me.” She gives me a genuine smile.

“Sorry about that. You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just deep in thought.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Just about my life, you know?” She sighs in an exaggerated manner.

“I get the feeling.” We walk in silence for a few moments “You never did answer my question, you know.”

“What question?” Rose gives me a confused look as we stop at a traffic light.

The pedestrian sign shows the little green man, allowing us to go. “Where are we going?”

“We? When did I invite you?” The small smile on her face shows me that she is just kidding around.

“You didn’t. I invited myself.” I say as we enter the more industrial side of town.

“I don’t think that is allowed. I would take back that invitation if I-“

I grab her arm, stopping her mid sentence. She looks at me in confusion.

“Someone is following us.” I say, my voice dead serious. They were staying pretty far behind us, but I had noticed them earlier. I accelerate my throat chakra psi, expanding my thoughts.

Come on, just a little further. I promise It will be over quick. The thoughts are alien, and coming from someone in the building above us, watching us, a gun in their hand.

I open my eyes, my hand tightening on Rose’s arm. I instantly activate my ability [Unmatchable speed]. In the second that I activate it, I jump at Rose, wrap my arms around her and push both of us behind an office building. It seems I am just in time, as two gunshots fire.

We land on the dirt behind the building. Rose immediately pushes me off of her, her eyes wide with fear and worry..

“Elena?! Are you ok?” She asks.

I move my hand over to my shoulder, pulling it back to see it covered in blood. I smile up at Rose. “It’s just a flesh wound?”

“Shit.” Rose takes her backpack off and to my surprise, takes out a handgun and a silencer. Now, I might not be the most up to date on the latest trends, but I’m pretty sure your average high-school girl doesn’t usually carry those items in their purses.

A shock of pain makes its way through my shoulder and arm as I move, distracting me from my thoughts.

Why didn’t I wear my gloves today? After I said I would too. God this hurts, I am such an idiot.