Confessions of a Teenage Psychic Read Online Free

giving me an exasperated look, and then sure enough, the phone rang.
    “Hello?” Mom’s eyes got all wide and she gave me this look of surprise as she turned back to the phone and said, “Guy, did you tell Caryn you were going to call me?” Then I got yet another one of those looks.
    After she finished her conversation, Mom asked, “Caryn, how did you know Daddy was going to call— before the phone rang?”
    I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to playing with my dolls. After that, it got to be a joke in the family— I always knew when the phone was going to ring and who was on the other end. From predicting phone calls I graduated to accurately foretelling events, and pretty soon everyone in the family knew I had “The Gift” as Sybil put it.
    But I’d either managed to keep my abilities under wraps through eighth grade, or else the other kids were too clueless to pick up on it, because no one outside of the immediate family knew about me. When I started ninth grade at a new high school, though, things went south in a hurry. I kept blurting out information without thinking. Why? New kids, new surroundings, maybe I’d just gotten used to getting away with that when I was younger, but high school kids are a lot less forgiving. I’d say stuff about students and teachers in front of everyone, and at first I just got the weird stares I’m used to, but pretty soon kids were looking at me suspiciously all the time. When I really messed up was in history class one day in November.
    “Hey, Caryn,” whispered a girl in class. “Can I borrow your notes from last week when I was absent?”
    “I’m sorry about your dad,” was my idiotic response. She looked at me funny, so naturally, I made it worse. “Sorry he’s sick. Heart attack, right?”
    With a look somewhere between shock and anger, she gasped. “How did you know that? I didn’t tell anyone!”
    After that, my reputation as a weirdo grew, completely ruining my social life. No one wanted anything to do with “the witch” as they started calling me. For a while I laughed it off, but by spring, I had no friends left and I was totally miserable. That’s when I dyed the green stripe down the middle of my hair and started wearing it loose and unkempt. I figured if they were going to call me a witch I might as well look the part.
    Except for making fun of my hair, kids continued to ignore me for the rest of the school year, which is why I was ready and willing to move to Indianapolis with my mom. I hoped a fresh start here would erase the pain of freshman year and put me on a better social path.
    That’s why I have to watch what I say in front of Megan and her friends. If I start to let stuff slip out uncensored, pretty soon I’ll end up an outcast again. I just want to be normal, doing all the things normal kids take for granted— friends, homework, extracurricular activities— you know, NORMAL. I wish I could just forget I’m psychic.

Chapter 2
    Caffeine Rush
    I spot Megan standing on the street corner outside school that afternoon and hesitantly walk over to join her. Even though she was nice to me today in art class, I’m still the new girl and my insecurities make me wonder if I’d really been expected to come or if it was just a pity-invite.
    “Hi,” Megan says, looking surprised.
    “You did say today after school, right? For coffee?”
    “Oh, yeah,” she says, like she’s just remembered she asked me to join them.
    She turns away and continues watching for her friends to emerge from the school building.
    “I wasn’t sure if you’d really come,” she adds without looking at me.
    I’m not sure whether to stay or go, but while I hesitate, Megan glances over my head and waves both arms. I turn around and see two girls heading toward us.
    “Hey, Megan!” shouts one.
    “Can we hurry and go?” asks the other one. “I’m meeting Kevin.”
    “And who’s this?” asks the first one, staring at me. This girl is very pretty, part