The Test

I could barely contain myself from slamming the office door but tried to slowly soothe myself. I made teens sit anywhere and grabbed a can of Coke from the little refrigerator I had in case I brought any pastries that needed to be kept in the cold. I also had a few in case someone needed one. You never know what could open up to young people and what could gain me more of their trust.

I put the can under my eye where it seemed to hurt the most and sat down in my comfortable office chair. I breathed deeply, letting the soothing, cool touch of metal work. There was still tension and fear in the room, the boys stood some distance apart, heads bowed, slightly huddled, as if they wanted to curl up and disappear. I sighed heavily, a little angry at myself for not having control of the power as I should have. For a moment I was frightened that it might permanently affect the students, but then I remembered that it had happened to Victor by accident a few times, and it usually ended up in a week or two of intense nightmares.

I forced both of them to meet my eyes and liberated their minds from the influence of my power. Only then did they realize that I had been hit and they started apologizing to me, I wasn't sure which one I received the blow from.

"At least I can add a fight to the list of my life experiences. It's not worth worrying about, it'll heal, and I'm not going to give you any problems because of it,” I said with a faint smile.

The teens looked at each other and for a moment they were glad that they would rather avoid the consequences, but that momentary agreement immediately turned to the anger that sparked the whole event. They pressed their lips together and turned in opposite directions. My eyes flickered from one to the other and wondered what this might be about. When people were agitated by their emotions, their thoughts could be difficult to read because of the accumulation and rapid changes of these thoughts. However, in their minds was a lot of like that it was the end of a friendship or I don't want to know him anymore.

"Gentlemen, you know that I am here at this school to help students, so I would like to hear directly from you what it was about," I started. "And I warn you right away that I will not leave this matter unsolved. First, I will ask your names and classes."

I wrote them down quickly and called the school office to ask them to prepare the files of these two students. I forbade them to move and quickly went to get them myself. I knew they wouldn't start fighting again, it was clear in their minds, so I allowed myself to take that step. My office was still quiet when I got back, so I didn't take the initiative for now but calmly looked through the papers, which had been prepared. I noticed right away that they go to different classes but play together for the school basketball team. There, it was noted that they had potential in this area.

I looked up for a moment and had the impression that they were watching me carefully, trying to read from my actions what I was actually going to do with them and whether I was reaching for a pen to add their fight to the file. I would have to do it eventually, but I wanted to talk to the headmaster about it first so that they would suffer as little consequence as possible. But neither of them chose to speak up, so I waited patiently for one to take that step.

"He was dating my girlfriend!" they burst out suddenly simultaneously, pointing at each other. As if they were afraid that the one who will make the accusation later will be wrong.

They stared at each other furiously, and I wondered how miraculously the image of an identical girl appeared in their minds. However, I did not think that my first serious action in school would be in the romantic drama of teenagers.

"Gentlemen, from the beginning," I said, a little shocked by their outburst. "What's your girlfriend's name?" I asked one of them.

"Kathy," he muttered under his breath.

"And your's?"

"Kathy," the other replied sadly. His emotions slowly faded away, he evidently had a calmer disposition than his colleague, who was subconsciously re-analyzing the situation so that his anger could not stop.

"I have to ask, are we talking about a strange coincidence or about the same person?" I asked, knowing perfectly well what the answer would be.

"It's the same girl," muttered a calmer student, I looked at the files again, his name was Max.

"When did you meet her?" I was hoping that at least one of them would start talking now, but there was no chance for that and I had to draw information from them again.

"Late last school year," Max replied, sounding like he want to throw it out. "Kathy goes to the Duchy ..."

"This private school?" I asked interrupting him when he confirmed with his head, I asked him to continue.

“… And then there was a basketball tournament and she was there on the cheerleading squad. We took third place then. I don't know why she came to our entire team to congratulate us on third place and meet us. The rest broke up a moment later, I and Chris stayed with her, and we exchanged numbers from word to word. I don't know why she needed my number, I thought she liked Chris from the start."

"And I like her right away," the other said. "At the beginning of the summer holidays, we started dating each other. Everything was beautiful, we got on well, and we were not bored spending time together. I really fell in love with her. And after two months something started to go wrong, every now and then Kathy found another reason to argue, but I didn't want to give up and keep fighting for our relationship," - Chris continued. "After about two weeks, everything was great again, and then I found out that Max took advantage of this moment of weakness and started dating her," he raised his voice.

"She told me you broke up!" This time Max rose. "Otherwise, I would never have gone out with her. She asked me not to talk to you about it because you experienced it very much. When we used to meet the guys to play, you were always depressed and angry. Everything was correct ..." - the boy defended himself and fell resignedly on the chair, the truth reached him.

"And until now she has been dragging you both by the nose," I concluded with a sigh. I don't know what was driving this girl, but I didn't think she had any good intentions. "So how did it come to light?"

"Accidentally," Chris muttered. “Max asked me to hand him the phone he put on the cupboard. Kathy texted him at that moment, the screen lit up, and I saw a picture of them together on the display. I boiled up, we started arguing and it turned out as it turned out ..."

They were both sitting depressed now, analyzing each in their head what they had learned. I did not want to tire them further but seeing that they had cooled down completely, I decided to let them go home. I thought that they definitely had a lot to think about and asked them to come back to me early in the morning on Monday and prepare their best memories of their shared past for this talk. I also warned them that we would not avoid talking to the director. They nodded reluctantly and left my office in despair.

I sighed softly, I knew that this matter, at least until it was cleared up, would be on my mind. Even though it seemed trivial to me, it was of great importance to them. I quickly cleaned up the office, took the necessary papers in my bag, and took the boys' files to the secretary's office. I advised Kelly not to hide them, but to keep them on top, explaining at the same time what the situation was and that I would talk to the director about it after the weekend.

As I left the school building, I glanced at the phone. Hyacinth will come without Ginny, on the one hand, I was happy because I certainly didn't want to see her today, but I wasn't sure if I still wanted to meet my older brother. Earlier I agreed, so I couldn't refuse now, then I quickly went to the store to buy the ingredients for the potato gratin with meat. Both Hyacinth and Victor liked these kinds of dishes, but Martha didn't make them very often, considering them too time-consuming.

After I got home, I changed into casual clothes and started making dinner. Preparing food distracted me from thinking about the pain of a black eye. I fried the meat, cut the potatoes into slices and the remaining vegetables into cubes, and prepared the béchamel sauce. Then I covered the bottom of the vessel with slices, then I put a layer of meat, vegetables, and sauce on it repeated it again, then the layer of cheese, and I put it in the already preheated oven. I was finishing washing up when I heard the doorbell ring, and I opened it to Hyacinth, who looked impeccable as always. I could change, and I could paint, but I didn't want to do it, it was just a visit from my siblings.

"For you," he said, handing me a bouquet of flowers.

"Thank you," I replied, blushing. He had never given me flowers without occasion before. "You did not have to."

"At least, I can thank you for a homemade and free meal," he said with a smile.

"It has to sit in the oven a little longer, but you can help me set the table."

I showed him the cupboard where we keep the dishes. I myself was looking for a vase to put flowers there. We talked in the meantime about trivialities and what had happened to us since we last saw each other. I could feel my brother eyeing me suspiciously, but avoiding his gaze as much as I could, refusing to say what happened at school today.

"We're not waiting for Victor?" he asked, surprised as I put the casserole on the table.

"He'll be back late. They assigned him a very important client but at the same time a very painful and fickle client. For several weeks now, he has been working on a project for him. Victor says it's definitely a test for him to be able to deal with difficult clients," I replied with a shrug. "I hope he will finally manage to close it soon because he is also stressed, so I'm a bit worried about him."

"I understand," Hyacinth nodded. "Let's eat it, it looks and smells great." He smiled at me sincerely.

I scolded myself for not being able to stop my cheeks from blushing and my body from beginning to tremble slightly. I had to focus on eating, just eating. I was tempted to keep track of what my brother was thinking. And I lost the fight against my own morality, I glanced at him every now and then during the course. It surprised me that he was mostly comparing me and Ginny as if wondering which of us would be better partner material. He only ever saw me as a sister, so what has changed?

I frowned, I didn't like it, I didn't want him to destroy my safe bubble in unrequited affection and give me any hope when I knew I had no right to have it. I didn't want to be the test subject for Ginny's theory, she was the one who made him see if he was really having any romantic feelings for me. Otherwise, she threatened to leave him and told him that she saw no real competition in me, but that she had no time to play any games with me. Why did he agree to it at all, did he have any doubts about his own heart? I silently begged him not to, but after a while, his hand was on my cheek.

"What happened to you, Lulu?" he asked gently, looking at my increasingly bluish eye.

"Nothing," I replied, closing my eyes and cuddling closer to his hand. "I separated the students who were fighting and got hit by accident."

"I hope they will suffer the consequences," he said firmly. "Best if they kick them out."

"They had a fight over a girl," I replied. "You know what it's like with teenage romances. It will heal soon."

He began to caress my cheek gently, I could feel tears gathering under my eyelids. On the one hand, I wanted to shout to him that I can read minds, that I know why he is doing all this, and on the other hand, I wanted so much that it was honest and true.

"Lulu, why are you crying?" He asked. "Anything else happened?"

I didn't have time to answer, and I didn't know what else to say. At that moment, Victor returned to the apartment, who probably had taken the scene between us wrong and attacked his brother.