But with Penelope, Stella felt like a very light tapping on her head. It was very light and hardly noticeable, but it was there.
"What's wrong? Having trouble reading a mere human? Need to hold my hands for better effectiveness." Stella cooed in mock innocence. "No thanks. Touching would give you much more advantage than me." Penelope said. Though she had tried to spit those words out, Stella still noticed a hint of admiration in between the words.
"So what? You give up??" Stella spoke with an angelic smile on her face, which irritated Penelope much more than her devilish smirk had done.
Stella tilted her head as she decided to stop holding back. She had been restraining herself all this time from looking into Penelope's mind. With all the practice she had been getting around Sharp, it had become really easy. Stella cocked her 'mind's ear' as she liked to name it towards Penelope, and immediately smirked. Penelope had been thinking something along the lines of, "Damn! This girl is good!!" when she suddenly felt Stella penetrate her mind with so much ease that she was literally shocked out of her senses.
"Penelope?!?! PENELOPE!!!" Simon's voice brought her out of the trance. Penelope's lips curved into a defeated smile as she blinked at Simon before turning to face Stella. "Fine. You won." she said, her voice sounding not the least bit defeated. "I must admit though, I've never before met, or even heard of someone with a mind as strong as yours." she added.
Stella only smiled. Penelope was powerful, no doubt about that. But it looked like she wasn't powerful enough to provide any real challenge. Stella sighed as she began to draw her mind out of Penelope's going back to her usual effort of staying out of people's heads.
But as soon as she began to withdraw, Penelope exclaimed, "Wait!!" "What!?" Simon asked, very surprised and confused at what was happening. But Penelope ignored him. Stella already knew what the wait was for, Penelope wanted to see if she could push her out of her mind through her own powers.
"I read Penelope's mind and was about to withdraw. But seems like she wants to push me out of her own accord." Stella spoke, looking at Simon. Penelope tried to take advantage of while Stella's mind was diverted and eye-contact broken to push her out, but she could not even budge her.
Penelope was dismayed, but not surprised. She tied her short hair in a messy bun and sat down on the spot she had been standing, staring intensely at Stella. A few minuted passed by and Penelope had already started to sweat from the effort as she sat across the attic from Stella.
Stella, on the other hand, was getting a bit bored. Though she could feel Penelope pushing her, it felt like a baby pushing an adult, not likely to have an effect without the will of the adult. "Do you want to touch me and try? Might help." Stella offered, wanting to finish this as quickly as possible.
But Penelope shook her head. "I admire your talent and am even envious of your powers, but I still don't trust you." she said, probably for the benefit of Simon, because Stella already knew this. And Penelope knew that she knew.