THE MOMENT
Clarence might have had his secrets; but, there was still something extra peculiar about Dara Sharp. She was introduced as a new student on Monday and that alone was enough to pique Clarence's curiosity. It was now Friday and he'd only grown more curious about the dark-haired girl since then. He wouldn't consider her 'friendly' by any means; but, she seemed polite enough to carry on small talk with the other students, and she was definitely one of the smarter kids in the school now that she was there. As soon as he realized she was smart, he tried to read her mind like he did everyone else, and he discovered he couldn't. He grew into his power and by now knew how to target it with precision; but, when he tried to target her it was as if she didn't exist. And somehow, that wasn't the strangest thing about her. Clarence had no idea where Dara lived.
Clarence lived in a small town and both of his parents were realtors. They'd learned to trust his 'intuition' over the years and he was always in the loop with families coming and going. Their city was small enough to not attract too many people, and his parents had the same listings for months that they did the day after Dara Sharp arrived at school. No one had moved to town, and yet, there she was as a brand new student extremely late in the year. After a week of observation and failed attempts at reading her mind, Clarence decided to finally approach her during lunch. He'd seen her eating alone, sitting in a shadowed corner of the courtyard every day so far and this time he made a beeline to get there. They were in the same class, and Clarence moved quickly; but, she was still already there when he arrived.
"Hi, Dara, right?" He asked as he approached her. "I'm -,"
"Clarence, we're in the same class," she nodded. "Need something?" she asked.
"No, I just wanted to introduce myself," he quickly answered. "You know, more formally," he added that because he got the impression she was likely to point out they shared a number of classes.
"Okay," she replied. "Hi." She continued to stare up at him from her seat. The two-story school building shadowed the picnic table she sat on, and Clarence had approached from the other side.
"So... how're you liking the school?" he was not experienced in conversation without mind-reading. But, he still managed to keep his goals in mind. "Is it better than your previous school? Where'd you move from?"
"It's better than the last school I was at; but, that's not a high bar. THAT school was one of the worst ones I've been in all year," she said. It was an odd statement, and not quite as standoffish as she was. Dara seemed to accept that a conversation was going to happen.
"One of... how many schools have you been to?" He was genuinely curious hoping to learn more about where she came from.
"I don't know... like a dozen maybe?" she shrugged. "I've been averaging one or two weeks since January. Just trying to get the full experience," she said.
"You've been going to a new school every week?" Clarence asked. It was suspicious behavior, and doubly suspicious that she admitted it.
"More or less," Dara nodded. "I liked a few of them to stay longer. I don't think this is one of those," she said.
"How does your family move around that much?" he had several reasons for asking. If nothing else, maybe he could earn her business for his parents.
"They don't," Dara answered. She glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then she continued. "I can kind of teleport," she said. Clarence's question was answered in the worst way possible; now he had a dozen more.
"What do you mean 'kind of'?" he chuckled with his first thought. It wasn't an important question but he hoped some humor would put her at ease to answer more. He wanted to show her he wasn't shocked by her revelation.
"It's called 'Traversing', she wiggled her fingers to the side and a tall black portal opened for a moment before she dismissed it. "I have to walk through portals, so it's not like instant teleportation."
"Whoa....," Clarence was surprised she showed off her abilities so carelessly. She didn't know a thing about him and she was willing to be completely open. He also realized she was someone he wanted to be friends with. They had a lot more in common than he thought, and he wanted to return the gesture in kind.
"Since we're showing off secrets...," he began to muster his courage. "... I have something special I can do too."
"I don't care," Dara shrugged. "It doesn't affect me, and I won't be here next week anyway."
Clarence could read people's minds. He thought he was special. Almost everyone in town thought he was special, even without knowing his gift. He never expected to be hit with the brutal reality of being 'unspecial'.
"You don't care?" He asked. "We both have special abilities, we're alike. Why don't you care?" It couldn't be just that she was moving away. If he found someone else with strange abilities he'd do what he could to befriend them; she had to feel the same way. There were so few people like them in the world. "You have to care!" he added.
"Why?" She tilted her head at him with a smirk. It was the first time she'd shown any actual emotion, and it was amusement.
"We're special!" he answered. Dara giggled.
"I'm Unique. I'm not special, and neither are you," she said.
"I am! You don't even know what I can do!" he added. She hadn't given him a chance to reveal his secret. Dara laughed again, a little harder.
"You've been trying to read my mind all week, which is really rude by the way," she said. "It's pretty crappy and a huge invasion of privacy to go around reading people's minds like that." Clarence was caught off guard.
"You.. knew...?" he asked.
"Yeah," Dara nodded. "You're the reason I'm not staying longer; you should stop being a creep."