"Ready…."

Sherry Stonewall pressed the play button on the boom box as she moved into position in front of the other girls. All 5 of them stood at ready, with their heads down. Sherry tensed her muscles up, getting ready to spring into action. This was the moment she enjoyed the most…the moment before she springs into action.

The music blasted out of the boom box & the girls darted into motion. Their actions in perfect sync, they flipped, cartwheeled, & jumped through their routine. While all the girls were performing with zeal, it was Sherry who stood out. She glided through the routine with precision & excellence, her flips coming to her with practiced ease. She was the star, as she felt she should be.

The routine came to an end, with Sherry doing a double backflip & landing into a split. She looked up at her fellow cheerleaders, the sweat threatening to wash away their carefully applied makeup, & will definitely require touching up. She noticed her body, as she felt she had hardly worked up a sweat, and felt as pristine as when she was at the beginning of the routine.

"I think we need to run it again."

The other girls groaned at Sherry's suggestion, which prompted Sherry to look down at her watch. The digital watch displayed the time of 4:45. They had been practicing an hour already. It hadn't felt like an hour & she again noticed how she hadn't worked up a sweat. She wanted to keep going, but knew there was a revolution brewing in the ranks, as they all wanted to get a bite to eat before having to be back for the game at seven.

"On second thought, we're fine. Let's break til tonight."

The other girls cheered as they ran to gather up their belongings. Sherry looked around at the practice field they have been using. Not a soul in sight, particularly over by the gymnasium. Everyone had taken off, not wanting to stay around an extra minute on a Friday afternoon. She couldn't blame them, as she found school to be particularly tedious. But, the social life was good. And she only had to deal with high school for another eight months. Definitely tolerable.

"We're going over to Foster's to grab a bite to eat, Sherry. Want to come".

While the desire to socialize was very appealing to her, as it was practically a way of life for her, she had an even stronger urge to work out some more.

"I'll catch up with you in a bit. There is something I want to try to work on."

"Why? You make the rest of us look like amateurs as it is."

Did she detect a note of hostility? Did the other girls really resent her talent at acrobatics? Perhaps she should hold back some more, instead of showing off as much. She made a note to work on that.

"I'm sorry. It's a quick little thing. I'll catch up in a few minutes."

The girl shrugged & ran off to catch up with the other girls. Alone, at last. Sherry walked over to the gymnasium & looked around again. She went over to her bag & grabbed her Walkman. Music was an absolute must in her mind. After strapping it on to her sweatpants, which she noticed didn't look that great on her figure. But, her tights weren't appropriate to wear outside, even though she felt more comfortable in the skintight outfit. Maybe she was a showoff.

She looked up the sidewall of the gymnasium & thought back to a week ago. Could she do that again? She had done it by accident before…maybe she couldn't do it again. It seemed so weird, yet it gave her such a rush & a weird, yet comforting feeling. Like she had always meant to do such stuff. She looked down to her Walkman & put her hand on the play button. She took a deep breath & pressed play.

The music started up & she started to run though her own routine. She did a few somersaults & cartwheels & some backflips. She was approaching the part of the routine where it had happened. She turned & started running to the wall. She felt free, like she was running with the wind. As she approached the wall, she instinctively kicked off into a jump. Just like last time, except she felt she was higher than before. She didn't look down to verify, instead twisting her body slightly so that her foot was heading for the wall. As she made contact, her other leg instinctively continued the running motion. She took a couple more steps, until she realized she was running up the wall. And the roof was approaching fast. She took another leap off the wall, propelling herself above the roof, & without missing a beat, flipped her body forward orienting herself towards the ground. She landed on the roof with a gentle thump.

Sherry blinked. Had she really done that? She looked around & saw that she was indeed on the roof. She turned around & walked over to the edge & peered over. Her stuff was lying on the ground at the foot of the wall. She looked around again, taking in the view.

"How the hell…", she muttered under her breath. How was she able to get up her & with the ease she did no less? It shouldn't be possible. Yet, here she was on the roof. And it all felt so natural. What the hell was she?

She started walking across the roof over to the Quad, then, realizing she couldn't explain how she got up there, she crouched down & started moving in a lowered position. It always seemed to work in those commando movies. She approached the edge that overlooked the Quad, when she started to hear voices speaking. They sounded very familiar.

"I don't see why she has to show off like that, making the rest of us look bad."

That was Alyssa, the member of her squad who told her they were going to Fosters. Is she talking about Sherry?

"Quiet, Alyssa. It wouldn't be good for you to be heard badmouthing Sherry."

Good old Karen. Sherry knew Karen was her friend, as they had been best friends since grade school. She can count on Karen to put Alyssa in her place. Alyssa had always had an attitude problem & was always complaining about how much Sherry had them practice. Personally, Sherry thought Alyssa was only a cheerleader to be popular. And always resented Sherry for being more popular.

"C'mon, I've heard you complain about Sherry too, & how she had developed her everything must be perfect mentality".

Karen complained about her. That was news to Sherry.

"Well, you wouldn't hear me talk about it here, where it can get back to her. She may be a bitch sometimes, but she is still immensely popular & we have known each other since grade school & she is not that bad of…"

"Oh stop with the redeeming qualities of Sherry Stonewall. It makes me sick".

And that was the last Sherry heard as they entered one of the hallways that made up the interior of school. Sherry slumped down onto the roof, the exhilaration of the last few minutes drained away by this startling discovery. That she was hated by her squad, who thought her a perfectionist bitch. How life can throw you a curveball & ruin your day. At least it can't get worse than this.

Sherry got up & started walking back to the gymnasium. She looked back at the quad for a moment, & noticed that the lights were on in the computer lab on the second floor.

"Who would be there on a Friday afternoon," Sherry muttered barely aloud. "Probably some geek downloading porn off the Internet".

Sherry turned again & headed for the gymnasium.

Terry Stonewall stared at her screen in the computer lab. She was drawing a complete total blank, which was an unusual occurrence for her. But then, English was not one of her favorite subjects & writing a paper about the Canterbury Tales was not on her list of things to do. But, it was a good excuse to get out of going to the game, like her sister was sure to do. And she would rather spend the night tinkering on her computer, in an attempt to improve system performance. But since her computer was in pieces, she had to use the school computer lab to work on the paper. Why didn't she plan ahead? Laps of reasoning, she imagined. A definite rare occurrence.

Terry refocused on her screen & attempted to type again. And stopped…did she notice movement on the roof across the Quad? "No, you are procrastinating again, Terry", she chided herself. She hated writing papers, unless it was a scientific paper, which she had written a couple, even at her young age. She had ideas to improve the aerodynamics of planes so they can fly faster for less, but who listens to a high school girl.

"Umm, hey Terry?"

She looked up to see Bobby Gallagher. Bobby was a fairly tall, yet lanky boy, with long brown hair & piercing blue eyes. He wore a simple white t-shirt & blue jeans. He was looking down at her, a nervous expression on his face. Butterflies began fluttering in Terry's stomach as she looked up into those gorgeous blue eyes of his.

"Oh, hi…Bobby", she managed to stutter out. Her heart was racing at a speed she couldn't comprehend. Bobby stood there a moment, with both of them looking at each other, wondering which of them would break the silence.

"So, what are you doing?" asked Bobby.

"Oh, just trying to write a paper on the Canterbury Tales."

"Yeah, I got to do that this weekend."

Terry smiled. At least she wasn't the only one in this hell of writing a stupid paper, which will probably be never thought about again after it was done.

" Well, I would do it this weekend, but my computer is disassembled at the moment while I'm working on it."

Bobby's eyes went wide as he heard Terry speak this.

"You work on computers too!"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, playing around with computers is a hobby of mine as well."

Terry smiled & she & Bobby spent the next ten minutes discussing the intricacies of how computer worked & started bouncing ideas off each other on how to improve system performance. Terry was amazed at how much Bobby knew about computers & how excited he got when he talked about them. Her observations of Bobby in the past had been that he was recluse, kept to himself, much like her really. Except, he had a tendency to struggle with classes, while Terry was probably one of the smartest kids in school. Indeed, there was talk of her being class valedictorian, provide she can finish this stupid paper & get an A on it. The Paper!

"Bobby, I need to get this paper done tonight, otherwise, I won't have a chance to get it done before it's due on Monday."

Bobby's face seem to fall, as he nodded in agreement. He started for the door of the lab when he turned around.

"Umm, Terry…you can use my computer this weekend, if you, um, like."

A way out tonight! But, what about avoiding Sherry & getting out of the game.

"In fact….um…would you like to go out tonight?"

Bobby Gallagher was asking her out on a date! She had never been out on a date before. What would she wear? What would she do? What should she say?

"Sure…when?"

Bobby's face brighten up as he responded, "How about eight. I have some friends in a band that is playing tonight at nine. I figured we can go check them out."

"Cool…I'll see you then."

Bobby exited the room, with a little bounce in his step. Terry couldn't believe this was happening. She had a date! She had always been envious of Sherry getting the attention of the entire male population of the school, despite the fact they looked identical. True, she wore her blond hair shorter than Sherry, & looked a little more homely. And she definitely didn't spend hours in front of a mirror like Sherry did. And true, she wore looser clothes to cover up her form, while Sherry flaunted it. But, Sherry was always getting in trouble, staying out late & someone had to bail her out.

Still, she had a date! She rushed to gather up her belongings & rushed out the door to catch the bus home. She had no worries of running into Sherry there, as Sherry would definitely be hanging out with the rest of her cheerleader friends, as was their custom on a Friday afternoon.

Sherry had no desire to be around her so-called friends at that moment. She was hurt from the comments she had overheard. Of course, how can she explain she overheard them? Oh yes, I was up on the roof listening in. How did I get up to the roof? I ran up the wall of course. Who would believe that story? So, Sherry found herself cooking dinner in her family's kitchen. How humiliating, to be at home eating dinner on a Friday night. But, she wouldn't be good company at that moment, considering the foul mood she was in. Something gooey was on her hand.

Sherry looked down & saw that the chili can she was holding had broken around her grip & the chili inside was getting all over her hands. How did that happen? Defective can? Just another strange event in an already strange day.

"Shit!"

"I would watch your language or mom would have your hide."

Sherry looked up to see herself, except for the shorter hair & tacky clothes, standing in front of her.

"Thank You, Miss Goody-Goody, but I'll look after myself thank-you."

Terry shot a glance at Sherry, seeing for the first time the anger that was burning in Sherry's eyes.

"You are in a snippy mood tonight."

"And you are sickening cheerful tonight. If I didn't know better, I would say you had a date tonight."

Terry smiled & responded, "I do."

Sherry was flabbergasted. Who would ask Terry out?

"Bobby Gallagher."

"What?"

"You ask who would ask me out. Bobby Gallagher did."

"I never said no such thing."

"Yes, you did. I heard you."

"I did not," Sherry responded, her voice trembling a little.

Terry glanced over at her sister & noticed that she was trembling.

"I know it has been a weird day, I mean how do you explain me getting a date, but that is no reason to tremble."

Sherry stared at her sister with a suspicious stare.

"I never told you I was having a weird day."

Terry was pouring some rice into the Rice Cooker while stating, "Yes, you did. Just now. You are being awfully vocal about yourself today."

"I've hardly said a word, its as if…"

"How can I be reading your mind? I don't believe ESP exists. Not until I have scientific proof that it does," she commented as she turned on the Rice Cooker.

"WOULD YOU STOP THAT!"

Terry looked up at her sister & stared at her for a long moment. Studying her face, noticing how her lips were not moving, yet hearing her say, "Would she please stop looking at me like that, she's freaking me out as it is, particularly after the weird stuff that's happen to me today."

"What weird stuff has been happening to you today?" a certain dawning crossing her face. Looking at her sister, she saw a look of exasperation on Sherry's face.

"You're starting to believe…"

"You ran up the side of a wall!"

"I told you to stop that!" responded Sherry.

Terry looked sheepish as she sat down on a chair.

"Sorry, I'm not even realizing I'm doing it. But you are so easy to pick up, now that I'm thinking about it."

Sherry looked at her sister incredulously.

"I'm glad you are taking this so well! This is turning my life upside down!"

"Would you calm down!" Terry shouted back.

Sherry was taken aback by her sister's outburst. Terry was not one who was prone to outburst, being the older, responsible one. Well, older by 4 minutes. Sherry looked back at Terry & noticed she was pacing the ground, making gestures with her hands as she paced.

"Now, there has to be a rational, logical scientific answer to this. I mean, ESP has been documented in some cases before, so there was some basis for that, even though I personally didn't believe that research, which I must now give credence to it because I have observed these abilities in myself. So, I have a logical basis to start with myself. But, walking up walls is supposedly scientifically impossible, yet I have observed in Sherry's mind that she did it. Of course, she may have been hallucinating, which could be a logical explanation of why she remembers it so clearly…"

"Hallucinating!"

Terry snapped out of her trance, realizing again that her sister was sitting there looking at her with a face that didn't quite understand what was going on.

"It certainly is a possibility…"

Terry stopped as she watched her sister jump up, touch the ceiling, then pulled herself up so that her feet touched the ceiling. The next thing Terry knew, she was talking to her sister who was standing on the ceiling.

"Ok, I can safely rule out hallucination on your part, because if that was the case, we are both hallucinating. So, obviously, you can walk on walls & even the ceiling. Been bitten by a radioactive spider recently?"

Sherry stared at Terry with a blank expression on her face. Terry looked up at Sherry & gave a light, half-hearted chuckle.

"Bad joke."

"You're telling me."

The doorbell rang at that moment. Terry looked at the clock. It was only 6:05, so that couldn't be Bobby. Bobby! In all the excitement, she forgot that she had a date tonight.

"Sherry, get down from there, or how do you plan on explaining yourself being up there to the person at the door."

Sherry flipped herself down from the ceiling while asking, "Who is at the door?"

"Why are you asking me? I haven't answered it yet," as she started walking down the hall.

Sherry fell into step behind her while stating, "Well, I thought you could tell by your mind-reading technique."

"I hadn't thought about that," as she reached the door & looked through the peephole.

"Who is it?" Terry asked as she peered out to see a brunette woman dressed in a black suit with dark shades on. She gently reached out to the woman with her mind. It was amazing how easily it came to her, as if she could always do it, but never noticed before. It was a strange sensation.

"Special Agent Cornell, FBI. We need to ask Sherry Stonewall a few questions. Is she in?"

Her name was Cornell, but she wasn't FBI. Something called PCU, whatever that was. And she didn't want to ask Sherry questions but wanted to…

"We got to get out of here, Sherry", Terry stated as she grabbed Sherry's hand to lead her back down the hall to the kitchen.

"What's going on…"

Two men crashed through the kitchen windows with another man breaking through the door. They were dressed in black outfits with metallic shoulder pads. On one shoulder pad, there was a symbol, a heart with a sword thrust through it, the other a number on it. They wore shades with a microphone attached at the side. In their hands, the wielded a rifle that looked like something that might be seen in a science-fiction movie.

The first one looked down the hall & saw them standing there. Sherry bolted by Terry to leap at the intruder. He raised his rifle, but that wasn't fast enough as Sherry was on top of him, knocking him back through what was left of the door he just broke through. Terry was amazed at the speed Sherry just moved at to attack the man. The other two attackers brought their rifles to bear on Sherry & fired. Sherry howled in pain, but she was still up & looking very irritated.

"That was not very nice & I'm already having a REALLY BAD DAY!"

Terry wasn't sure what she could do when she sensed a presence behind her. She turned around to find Agent Cornell standing behind her. She had taken off her shades to reveal that her eyes had a violet glow about them. She put a restraining hand on Terry as she looked at Sherry. Her eyes started to flare up with violet energy, which was then directed at Sherry. It leapt at her like it was homing in on her & when it struck, Sherry clutched her head in pain & dropped to the ground.

"That was easier than I expected. Must be vulnerable to Psionic attack. Must remember to put that into her record. And speaking of remembering…"

Agent Cornell looked down at Terry, who was still in shock at seeing her sister fall. Terry looked up to see the violet energy rising again in Agent Cornell's eyes, which had a hypnotic feel to it.

"You will take a nap & forget that your sister ever came home."

Yes, a nap sounded good & then she should forget…forget…no, she can't forget. Terry tapped into her newfound mental abilities to fight back. Her mind struggled against Cornell's onslaught, & found that her power was stronger than Cornell's was. Cornell's eyes began to widen as she realized that Terry was fighting back & winning.

"She's a…Psi", Cornell managed to gasp before falling unconscious.

Terry smiled as she saw Agent Cornell slumped to the floor. She had won! Then, she heard the rifle click behind her.

And Terry's world went black.