The Intuitives(35)

“And what would you say is your field of expertise, Samantha?”

What was her field of expertise? Everyone else had these amazing talents: music, art, mechanics, martial arts. Sam didn’t do anything like that. She did well in school, but that was it. She didn’t play sports. She wasn’t musical or artistic. She had been wracking her brain this whole time, and she still didn’t have an answer, but now she was on the spot. She had to say something.

“I honestly don’t know. I get good grades, and my teachers say I’m really good in math?”

“Mathematics can certainly be a pathway,” Ammu said encouragingly. “When you solve math problems, do you follow the steps as they have been taught? Or do you tend to see the solution as soon as you look at the problem?”

“I follow the steps,” she admitted, already disappointed. She saw what he was getting at. She was good at math, but it was something she did consciously, following logical steps that she understood. She didn’t leap to unconscious conclusions about math problems. Math might be one of her strengths, but it wasn’t her pathway.

“Interesting,” he said, watching her thoughtfully. “Do you, perhaps, find that you often know what people are thinking or feeling?”

“No,” she admitted, her voice becoming quieter. If anything, human emotion seemed like an unsolvable mystery. She was much more comfortable in the world of math and science and logical rules.

“And yet,” he said gently, “you knew why I was asking about following the steps, did you not? You knew it immediately.”

“That was just logic,” she said, her voice rising a bit. “You said you’re looking for the pathways between the conscious and unconscious minds. I knew that’s what you were looking for because you told me. It’s not like the vine example.”

Ammu pondered her silently, while Sam felt more and more embarrassed. Everyone was staring at her. Everyone else knew their talent. Sam was used to being the very best student in class, and now, suddenly, she wasn’t just average, she was worse than average. She was the worst student in the class.

Do not cry in front of everyone. Do NOT cry in front of everyone! She fought to control her feelings, struggling not to get up and storm out of the room.

Ammu seemed to sense her distress, and he spoke to her again, very gently, which only made her feel worse. Now she was the dumb kid. The one the teacher felt sorry for.

“I think, Samantha, that you have more of a gift than you realize. We will discover it together. You will see. Perhaps you can spend some time over lunch thinking about the things you like to do. It might be a hobby or a simple pastime that will lead us to your special pathway, even if it is not something you recognize as a particular skill.”

Sam just nodded, not trusting her voice to speak, and she huddled into herself, hugging her knees to her chest as he moved on to Rush.

“And what might your particular talent be, do you think?” he asked, watching Rush with interest.

Rush had his own reason to believe he might not have one of these special pathways the guy kept talking about. After all, he had answered most of the multiple-choice questions on that crazy test by just filling in random blanks! But at least he had a talent to distract everybody with—not like that poor Sam girl—and he wasn’t going to be shy about sharing it.

“I’m a gamer,” he said. “They call me Rush because I’m so fast.”

“So you consider this to be your talent?” Ammu asked. It was an innocent question, but it reminded Rush of his father’s taunts, and he felt a flash of anger and resentment surge within his chest.

“When I left home to come to this place, I was number eighteen out of four million beta players in HRT Alpha,” he said forcefully. “Four million! And the only reason I wasn’t in the top five was because I didn’t want to get that high before the invitational. I’m not just good. I’m pro good. I’m as good as it gets.”

“I apologize,” Ammu said, raising one hand in appeasement. “I was not challenging your claim. I was simply confirming my understanding. A talent for video games could certainly be a pathway between the conscious and unconscious minds. I would like very much to see you play.”

“Yeah, well you can’t,” Rush said, his voice full of bitterness. “Like Kung Fu Barbie over there, I need a real opponent to show you what I can do. In fact, I need a whole team of opponents. Only we don’t have any Internet, so I don’t have anybody to play. Get me on the Internet, and I’ll show you what I can do.”

“I am afraid I do not have any control over that,” Ammu said gently, “but it seems to me that you have a whole team of potential opponents sitting right here. Perhaps we could set things up so that you could play against your classmates here at the center.”

“You don’t get it,” Rush shot back. “Unless any of these guys is a top contender, me competing against them is the same as her competing against someone who has no martial arts training. You admitted we aren’t good enough for her, so how come they’re good enough for me?” He indicated Mackenzie by thrusting his chin in her general direction over Roman’s head.

“Call me ‘Kung Fu Barbie’ one more time, and I’ll put you on the floor whether you’re good enough to bother with or not,” Mackenzie growled.