The Power of Two

The Power of Two

By Lindsay Swanson
Ferrisburgh Central School, Grade 6

Yasdnil opened the big brass doors of her new middle school. Not only did Yasdnil have the weirdest name ever, but she had a pretty unique sense of fashion. She had tie-dyed hi-top socks up to her knees with a matching mini skirt, faded from her wearing it so much, and coated with grass stains. She had on a neon red and yellow shall with a white, frilly button-up shirt under it. Looking around, she knew that her life was ruined.
As kids passed her she could hear whispers and she could only assume they were about her. “I can do this,” she thought, “sticks and stones will break my bones, but…”
She was cut off when she ran right into a boy about her age with frizzy red hair and wide-rimmed glasses. Yasdnil fell to the floor and so did the boy.
“Hey look, the losers are taking a trip together!” taunted a voice somewhere out in the crowd. Roaring laughter was heard all around.
“Oh great,” thought Yasdnil, “Another reason for the kids at this school to tease me!”
She was so overwhelmed with this new embarrassment that she didn’t notice that her fingers had shot out and were now pointing at a girl with curly blond hair. Yasdnil was somehow levitating the girl in the air, as if by magic. Finally Yasdnil noticed what she was doing and yanked her hand down to her side. The blond-haired girl fell to the floor and several of her friends rushed over to help her up.
At that moment Yasdnil, who was still on the floor, realized her foot was resting next to the strange boy’s arm and she pulled it away quickly. There was no more laughter. Everyone was staring in awe at the two kids on the floor. Not only had Yasdnil just done something weird, but the mystery boy had been able to shoot little laser beams out of his eyes, straight through a boy’s backpack.
“Come on!” exclaimed the boy, and he yanked Yasdnil to her feet and dragged her out of the doors of the school.
Now the two seventh-graders were running down the sidewalk side by side. “Like I couldn’t get any weirder!” thought Yasdnil.
“What exactly happened back there?” said the boy.
“I...I...I don’t know, but we should check this out. Come on. We can go to my house.”
“Are your parents home, because if they are we should go to my house so we can have some privacy?” Yasdnil could barely notice the heavy British accent in the boy’s voice since she was trying as hard as possible to keep up with the boy.
Fine, fine,” Yasdnil agreed, “I’m Yasdnil by the way. I’m new to Lincoln town…”
“Yes, I can tell,” interrupted the boy in an exhausted voice. “Wait…what did you say your name was?!”
“Yasdnil. Its Lindsay spelled backwards. That’s my mom’s name, or was my mom’s name, she died when I was born.”
“Oh, sorry I asked,” said the boy in a low voice. “Oh yeah, my name is Max. Here we are. Just go in the front door, we can see what’s up in there.”
They jogged in the door and stopped in the kitchen.
“Sooooo… what do you think happened back there? How did we um… you know…” Max started, but then was cut off by an excited Yasdnil.
“When we totally got these weirdo power thingies!?!? I’m not sure. Maybe it wasn’t us. Maybe it was the person next to us, and we just thought it was us.”
“For one,” said Max, “let’s call them just powers, not ‘weirdo power thingies.’ And two, of course it was us, dummy! I felt the beams shoot out of my eyes and why else would your arm have been pointing at a levitating girl!?!?”
“Well, if we have absolutely no clue how we did it, why don’t we just try our hardest with our minds to do what we did before,” Yasdnil suggested. And with that the two of them did what they could to repeat what had happened earlier.
Their hands clenched and their eyes bulged. They used their minds as hard as they could and thought very hard about their powers. Max leaned his head forward to try to shoot laser beams and Yasdnil tried thrusting her finger at a plant. But, no matter how hard the kids tried, nothing happened.
“Okay! That’s enough,” Max shouted, “Nothing is happening, and nothing’s going to happen. We might as well just give up!”
“Wait,” Yasdnil said, “did you notice that when we were doing those amazing things my foot was up against your arm. Maybe that sparked it!”
“Well, then why don’t we find out? Here take my hand. We’ll see what happens,” Max said.
“Okay, but don’t get any ideas that I like you or anything!” Yasdnil said in a silly voice.
“Did you have to go and make it weird like that!?!?” Max said, blushing a tad. “Just take my hand, and we’ll see what happens.”
Yasdnil reached out and took Max’s hand in hers. They both looked at each other waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden, Yasdnil's hand shot out and a beam of light hit a potted plant and the plant started floating in mid-air. At the same time, red laser beams shot out of Max’s eyes and he burnt two tiny holes in one of the plants leaves.
“Oh my gosh-eeeeeeeeek!” screeched a woman’s voice in the background. This made Max and Yasdnil drop each others’ hands and spin quickly around to see Max’s mother staring in shock at them. The pot crashed to the floor and it broke into pieces.
“What...who... what?” stammered Max’s mother, “You two get in the car, NOW!”
Yasdnil didn’t know what to do. “We’re dead,” she thought.
She started to walk toward Max’s mother when she heard Max exclaim, “What are you doing Yasdnil! We have to make a run for it! Come on!” And Yasdnil didn’t have to be told twice. She bounded after Max and they sprinted down the street together.
"Stop them!” shouted Max’s mother, and as she said this several people appeared in their doorways. They saw the two children running down the street and started chasing after them, too. Soon a mob of angry adults had formed behind the children.
“Where can we go Max?” whined Yasdnil exhausted.
“Well, maybe we could…” Just at that moment, Max ran right into Mr. Frinkbottom who had come out of his house to see what all the fuss was about. He had seen the children running, and the angry mob shouting and chasing after them. He went out to the center of the street where he could easily intercept the children’s path. The worst part was Mr. Frinkbottom had once been the police chief at the local police station and his grasp on the children’s shoulders was unbreakable. He shoved the two of them into Max’s mother’s car and slammed the door shut.
Max glanced over at Yasdnil and gave her a look that said, “We’re dead.”

Max and Yasdnil sat in two white chairs while a group of men and women in long white lab coats examined them. Yasdnil looked around her surroundings. There were clear containers around filled with colorful liquid that looked gooey and fun to play with. Some containers stood almost five feet tall while others were a mere six inches or so. In the far left corner there was a huge tank of water with what looked like a big fan at the front. To the right of that, a table was set up with many objects that looked like needles and saws, and some stuff that didn’t even look like anything. Then Yasdnil's eyes rested back on Max.
“How do we get out of this?” she whispered to him.
“Maybe if we do what we did earlier… we could use our powers! Here, take my hand, but do it discreetly so the scientists don’t notice,” he whispered back. The two kids slipped their hands behind their chairs and they grasped hands. Yasdnil took her hand and waved it past the group of scientists. Instantly, they were all thrown up into the air and they levitated there. "What’s going on?" and "What are those freaks doing?" commented the floating scientists.
In that moment, Max shot laser beams from his eyes through several of the containers with the variety of liquids. The goopy goo seeped onto the floor and made a sticky, sloppy mess. The scientists wailed as their years of research and collecting were shattered.
“Let’s go!” and with that, Max and Yasdnil sprinted towards the big metal doors where they had come in, but soon realized they were locked tight.
“Take my hand!” shouted Max, “I’ll blast a hole in the doors that we can escape through!” The kids instantly grasped each others' hands. Max shot two laser beams at the big door which made a huge gaping hole just the right size for two seventh-graders to fit through.
The two kids scrambled out and started running down the hill. They didn’t know where to go… where there would be no one trying to capture them and experiment on them.
They decided to run to the airport, where they raised money by singing to people; soon they had enough money to buy two tickets to Chile. Both of them had always wanted to go there and explore Chile’s hidden wonders. Max and Yasdnil lived there for a long time, because they feared if they went back to their homes they would be captured again.
They had many adventures in Chile with their amazing powers. Eventually they went back to the USA, but not for many years. But when they did go back to their homes they were welcomed and their parents and neighbors apologized for their rude behavior. They always remained good friends.