The second school ended, Ivy fished her bulky headphones out of her bag and turned on her 'epic movie soundtrack' playlist to listen to on the bus. It helped dull everything around her into little more than the buzzing of a fly.
She could still pick out the voices if she wanted to but focusing on the music helped her ignore it for the most part. Except the bus was extra crowded today. Annoyed, she turned up the volume. Go away, go away all of you!
She pulled her knees up onto the seat and hunched over them. It was just a bus ride. She would be home in less than fifteen minutes. The thoughts of the rowdy kids on the bus leaked through in her panic and she tried to steady her breathing. Her power was harder to control when she was upset. In, out. In, out. She was going to be fine.
'…if she's hogging the TV when I get home I'm going to kill her.'
'Ugh, why are textbooks so heavy; my back is killing me.'
'Can't wait to level up on Star Assassins! I only need 130 more XP so I can probably do it this afternoon…'
'Why is Ivy the only one who doesn't have to share a seat? So unfair.'
Ivy's head snapped up at the sound of her name. She knew all the voices on this bus since most of them had been her neighbors for years. This one in particular belonged to a fairly popular girl in the drama club named Estelle who lived on her block. She and Estelle weren't friends but they weren't on bad terms either.
Sitting in the very back row, Ivy peeked over the seats in front of her and saw that Estelle was squished up against the window trapped by a very large boy she was fairly certain played as a linebacker on the football team. That explained it. It wouldn't make much of a difference if someone sat directly next to her or not but people on the bus typically avoided Ivy because her giant headphones gave off strong 'disturb me and die' vibes.
When she finally reached her stop she shot an apologetic look at Estelle as she squeezed her way out past the linebacker before skipping to her own house. She could hear her mom measuring out ingredients as she made her delicious homemade m&m cookies. Excellent.
"I'm home!" she called cheerfully as she removed her headphones.
It was much quieter inside the house. Sometimes from certain areas she could hear the neighbors directly surrounding her but for the most part it was only her family she had to contend with.
Her parents had never managed to surprise her in her entire life on Christmases or birthdays but she was used to it. At least her family's thoughts were relatively nice ones for the most part.
Her parents were childhood sweethearts and loved each other but it was a quiet, comfortable kind of love so she was spared from too many mushy couple thoughts. Her younger brother, Ethan, was another story. He had ADHD so his mind went a million miles a minute. Sometimes she got whiplash listening to him.
"Hi, honey! Can you take the dogs out for me while I put these cookies in the oven?" her mother asked sweetly.
Her dad was a veterinarian so the Chamberlain house consisted of four people, two dogs, three cats, a hamster, and a parakeet. They had a permit because they were over the city's basic pet limit.
"Sure, Mom. Duke! Bailey! Here doggies!" Ivy called and heard them before she saw them.
Animals didn't think in complex sentences the way humans did but she could still tell what they were thinking. Right now the only thing on their minds was 'walk? go on a walk?' as their tails wagged expectantly.
Duke and Bailey were brother and sister and both mutts. Her dad suspected they were Pomeranian/Husky/German Shepherd mixes but couldn't be sure since they came from an animal shelter as a bonded pair when their previous owner died. Whatever they were, they were adorable.
"Yep, we're going on a walk!"
Their thoughts directly translated to the cartoonish concept of having exclamation points over their heads as they rushed off to fetch their leashes. Ivy attached them to the dogs' collars with ease and off they went after grabbing a couple of plastic bags, just in case.
The sun beat down on them but the October wind kept it from being considered warm. One of her neighbors looked out the window and thought 'crazy girl, what's she doing with those two big dogs by herself?!'
Ivy couldn't help but laugh. Her thin 5'5" frame may look weak but she had years of wrangling these two under her belt. One dog per hand was no problem—most of the time. There had been a few incidents of over-excitement when both of them saw a squirrel and she had been pulled along by a combined force of 80 lbs barreling down the street working against her.
Other thoughts from neighboring houses trickled through her consciousness as she walked. She really should have remembered to grab her headphones but was preoccupied with the thought of cookies when she returned and forgot.
'…why can't I get this dumb chord right?' Someone practicing the piano or possibly the violin.
'Skip…skip…skip…why isn't there a button to skip all the commercials at once…' A frustrated person watching TV, who made a fair point. It would be easier to skip all the commercials at once instead of timing how many clicks it took.
'X equals negative B plus or minus radical… something. What part comes next?' A student working on algebra homework.
Ivy didn't have overall super hearing so she had learned to read between the lines and figure out what people were doing solely based on their thoughts without context over time. It was one of the only interesting things ever to happen to her since nothing else was a mystery.
No one could sneak up on her. No one could keep a secret from her. No one could lie to her and get away with it. It was incredibly boring but what could she do?
It took less than a year to be able to read the clues without context in elementary school. Nothing had really been all that exciting since.
As she made her way back to her house she was hit with a constant stream of thoughts from the same person. Ethan must be getting home.
'What kind of snack did Mom make? I hope I can get some before I clean the litter boxes…I'd rather walk the dogs but Ivy always beats me to it. Should I play Lords of Warfare or Fallen Angels tonight? But I need to finish my math homework first…or was it science homework? Something's due tomorrow that I haven't even started. I need to write things down better! Who am I kidding, I have a planner but it's full of comic doodles not homework assignments…I should try publishing them! No I shouldn't. Who would want to read my dumb crap?'
Sure enough, his bus was pulling away from the curb. He spotted her and gave her a grin despite thinking, 'Aw man, she did get to the dogs first! I don't want to clean the litter boxes! But that's better than the birdcage…'
"Ives! Want me to take one?" he asked aloud.
Ethan, like her parents, wasn't aware of her powers. He would probably think it was the coolest thing ever but he was a blabbermouth and she didn't trust him not to tell everyone he knew and get her committed to a psychiatric hospital.
"Sure, take Bailey. How was school?"
He took the leash from her and chattered about what he and his friends did at lunch all the way back to the house. Thankfully, no one pooped but Ivy still washed her hands when she came inside.
The first batch of cookies sat cooling on the counter and she tossed one back and forth between her hands—HOT!—for a moment before taking a bite of the gooey deliciousness. She moaned in appreciation.
"Cookies!" Ethan exclaimed before grabbing two and nearly dropping them on the floor from the unexpected heat on his fingertips. He managed to catch them before they landed and gingerly placed them on a napkin as he nursed his burned hand.
"Thanks, Mom!" the siblings chorused.
Their mother shook her head at them with an amused smile. "You could at least wait until they've cooled down a little."
"Impossible," Ivy declared. "They're too good. Right, Eth?"
"Yep."
Their mother smiled indulgently. "If you say so. Oh, and Ethan honey, you need to clean the litter boxes before you play any video games."
"Aww, man!" he whined.
His internal monologue was much more colorful and Ivy snickered. If their mother knew how much of a potty mouth her son actually had…she didn't even want to imagine the consequences for her poor brother.