Chapter 11
Getting to know you
The next day came. Today was the day that Lynae and her parents would meet up with the principal and file a police report of the incident. It was also Amelia's last day in Oahu as well. Lynae was nervous about going to each place but Amelia promised that she would be there for her.
The first stop was at the police station. The police asked Lynae some questions about the incident. They asked where it occurred, did she go to the doctor, and so forth. The deputy gave some good news that since she did go to critical care, they can pull up the records from the facility and mark that as evidence and to see about the DNA swab they did on Lynae. They would then say that they will call up Juan and summon him in for questioning and to do a DNA test on him as well.
The next stop was uneasy as per Amelia's predictions. The principal said he couldn't do anything since it happened after school hours and that it didn't happen on campus. Just exactly like she predicted, Hank and Brie shouted at the principal.
Then something happened with Amelia once more. She began hearing voices in her head which sounded like the principal. Once she found out one of his deepest, darkest secrets, she came over to Lynae and whispered it into her ear devising a plan to use it against him.
"Well, that's okay, sir, but I must tell you about a very nasty rumor that I heard amongst the staff and students,"
"What are you blabbing about?"
"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but an individual who knew someone who was working at the school told them that something was going on in the grading systems that someone was tampering with it to keep the star players eligible to play in the region semi-finals in football,"
"Wh-what? That is absurd and what evidence do you have to prove such a thing?"
"Well, they did mention some names of the struggling players, and potentially who went in to tamper with the system. If the board ever found out -"
"Alright, alright, we don't need to spread those rumors to the board or administration. I'll see to it that I will cooperate with the police and be sure to give proper disciplinary action on Mr. Tihmahala." The principal changed his mind.
"Really? You will be sure to handle this?" Hank had his hands firm on his desk.
"I will see to it that these actions be carried out effective immediately when the school period begins once more,"
"Well thank you for your time, sir," Brie thanked him.
After they left the principal's office, Lynae was a bit relieved that it was all said and done. However, one thing she was wondering on how Amelia knew about the scandal behind rigging the football players' grades. She decided to ask while they walked behind her parents.
"Did you read his mind again?"
"Not intentionally, ever since I transformed, I've been hearing all sorts of voices in my head. It's like they were feeding me information like usual conversation. When I accidentally heard the principal's thoughts, that's when I knew that would be our trump card of solving the issue,"
"By blackmailing him?"
"Again, not what I wanted to do. When I saw that vision of your parents arguing with your principal and him not listening, I thought it was a what if situation. In the end, it came true. But when I found out about his secret, I knew I couldn't reveal it because I had no ties to your school, and that would have made the situation worse on your end. That's why I told you what I heard, and told you to use it on him since you were a student. Then it would have been deemed plausible to make him believe that you would rat him out,"
"Remind me not to think in front of you again," Lynae said jokingly while hugging Amelia.
After they returned back to the house, the girls went out on the yard to discuss about how to handle this newfound situation they were in.
"You can read people's thoughts and go through their memories?" Meredith shrieked.
"Yeah, now I need to learn how to shut out all those voices from other people's heads," Amelia said holding her head.
"I bet it would sound annoying after a little while,"
"Are you kidding me? That sounds so cool! You could like be a spy and no one would even notice!" Meredith shouted excitingly.
"I really don't want to listen into other people's thoughts though. It's kind of invasive and I can't hear myself think at times either,"
"But it got the principal to bend over for Lynae, right?"
"That was for a good cause. Plus, don't get use to it because it'll probably be the last time you'll see me try to reveal anything from anybody ever again," Amelia stated.
"You're no fun," Meredith crossed her arms.
"Anyway, I want to see what you can do," Amelia said.
"Me?" Meredith asked.
"Yeah, you. Have you tried anything since that other night?"
"N-no"
"Blasted tire!" Hank said as he was trying to pull the jeep in the driveway.
"What's wrong?" Mere asked.
"Tire got punctured by a nail, need to replace it. I'll be right back,"
As soon as Hank came back with a jack, the girls were observing closely.
"Need any help?" Mere asked.
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do. How about it, Mere?"
"Sure,"
Mere stood by handing the tools over to her father to get the hub cap removed and prepared to replace the tire. When Hank placed the jack under the tire, the jack was rusted and would not budge.
"Pft, just my luck, the jack won't work. Mere, I hate to ask you this but I'm gonna need you to lift the bumper just slightly; but don't do it until I get some tools ready,"
While Meredith heard him, she lifted the bumper with both hands and the car was nearly off the ground. The girls signaled her to put it back down while he was still not looking. She lifted it with no struggle. The girls were also signaling her to make it look like she was getting ready to lift.
He finally got his tools ready and Meredith was back in position. Thankfully, he didn't notice that she had already lifted the car once. Lynae and Amelia watched nervously as she was about to lift the car once more.
Don't lift it all the way. Lift it gently, lift it gently...
Amelia tried telling her this telepathically, but for some reason it didn't look like she received the message. But it didn't take much for Meredith to realize that she can't be careless while lifting the car, she had to make it look authentic like she was trying so hard to lift it. Lynae stepped in and said she would help her sister lift the car.
"Whatever you do, don't put much effort in the lifting," Lynae whispered to Meredith.
"I don't know how it happened, I was lifting it like normal and all of a sudden, I nearly had the car in the air!" Meredith panicked.
"Just have a few fingers barely lifting the car and I'll help you to make it look realistic,"
They lifted the car together, but this time, Meredith gave less effort into it. Their father was getting the damaged tire out. Then he was ready to place the new tire in.
"Alright, that's perfect ladies, I almost got it in," Hank said while struggling to get the tire in position.
Hank then got his tools to replace the lug nuts back in with the new tire. He then tightened them in place one by one. Then he cued the girls to lower the car gently.
"Okay, that should do it, thanks ladies," Hank hugged each daughter.
Amelia walked towards them dumbfounded at what she just witnessed. Meredith had supernatural strength. From looking at her trying to lift that car, she barely lifted a finger doing it. But the thing that confused them was if strength was Meredith's gift, then where did the earthquake come from?
"Did you lift anything else that was heavy, and did anyone see you doing it?!" Lynae grabbed a hold of her after Hank went into the house.
"No, I swear I don't know where it came from. I hardly felt the weight of that jeep,"
"Mere, this is something we need to keep at bay. No one should ever know about this – about your power... about any of our abilities for that matter."
"I don't know how that's going to be possible, Mia. It's hard enough trying to avoid the rain or snow, doing the dishes with water involved, and anything that might trigger our transformation," Lynae reminded her.
"Maybe we should go back to the sea to get some answers," Meredith suggested.
"No, absolutely not! This witch did this to us, who knows what she'll do next!" Lynae objected to the idea.
"But Lyn, what if she can change us back?" Meredith said.
"It's worth a shot, Lyn," Mia backed up on Meredith's idea.
"Even if I agreed to go with you to the waters we're still grounded – at least Mere and I are," Lyn reminded her.
"Maybe I can convince your father to let us go since it is my last day here,"
"I dunno, after what you said to him..."
"Yeah, I know, I still need to apologize for that," Amelia gulped some air feeling guilty.
"I hope you can because I want some answers on why I have Zeus-like strength," Meredith showing her biceps.
"Mere, there's something I need to ask you; When you were helping Uncle Hank with that car, did you hear me in any way?"
"No, why?"
"Because for some reason when I tried to connect you telepathically, I noticed that you didn't receive my message,"
"Didn't you say you heard my thoughts before?"
"Yeah but that was yesterday."
"Try doing it again just to be sure, try reading my thoughts too," Meredith suggested.
"If you're okay with it,"
"Yeah I am,"
Amelia took a deep breath and looked directly at Meredith. She then gave her full focus concentrating on connecting from inside Meredith's head. However, she found herself in a roadblock and was trying to concentrate harder. For some reason, Amelia couldn't get through to Meredith's mind. She tried harder making her face red as a beet. Later, she had to take a breath and stopped concentrating. She didn't understand, she was able to gain access to her thoughts yesterday, why was it different today?
"I still have it, Lynae. Don't call me a liar," Amelia responded to her thought that she heard from Lynae.
"Wh- Then why not Meredith? Why can't you access Meredith's mind but can access mine?"
"I don't know" Amelia kneeled down in exhaustion.
"Can you stand?" Lynae asked while grabbing her arm for assistance.
"Yeah. Yeah, just give me a minute," Amelia said holding her head.
"We should go in and ask my dad permission to go to the beach," Lynae suggested.
"Right, okay," Amelia agreed.
The girls went inside and asked their parents if they could take Amelia to the beach before she goes home tomorrow. Hank usually was strict with his discipline when punishing the girls. However, Amelia convinced him that it wasn't their fault, and they were only looking after her. She also apologized for what she said the other night on their confrontation about the girls' schooling and their wishes. With that being said, Hank allowed Meredith and Lynae to take Amelia to the beach one last time since he knew tomorrow that his sister and her family would be leaving back home.
The girls packed for the beach grabbing everything they would need for their expedition to find the woman they encountered nearly the beginning of their week. Lynae took her car and drove to a secluded beached area. She explained that no one usually comes around here as much since it is a fishing post. They would then get ready to embark on one of their underwater adventures using their "gift" for the first time.