The Magic Factory

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“How was your first sleep in the pod?”

Oliver blinked with confusion. He looked up into the face of Ichiro, the boy who just moments earlier—or at least that’s how it felt to Oliver—had shoved him into the sleep pod in which he was currently lying. Behind Ichiro, the sky was no longer sparkling stars in a blanket of black but soft warm daylight, like an early spring morning.

In a flurry of surprise, Oliver sat up. He rubbed his eyes. He felt disorientated and quickly pulled the sticky tabs from his skin. “It’s morning? But it feels like no time has passed at all.”

Ichiro chuckled. “There’s no morning or night here. It’s all synthetic, all manipulated. But if it makes you feel less weird, then sure, it’s morning. As for whether any time has passed or not…”

Oliver held a hand up to stop Ichiro in his tracks. Ralph had given him enough of a headache talking about the nonexistence of time yesterday. The last thing he needed was a debate first thing after waking up.

Instead, he took Ichiro’s outstretched hand and got to his feet.

But as Oliver stood, his memories suddenly came back to him. With a jolt of fear, he remembered that today—his first full day of lessons—would involve the dreaded test. What if it turned out he was a cobalt Seer with the potential to turn his powers to evil?

Ichiro must have noticed the change in Oliver’s expression.

“Interdimensional sleep can feel a bit weird at first,” he said reassuringly. “But you’ll get used to it.”

“It’s not that,” Oliver muttered. “Today is my test.”

“You get to find out your specialism?” Ichiro asked. “What are you thinking—electrical? Or maybe elemental like me? That’d be great. I’d love another elemental buddy.”

“Not that part of the test,” Oliver refuted. “The part about whether I’m bromine or cobalt. Good or…” He lowered his voice to a whisper, “evil.”

Ichiro pulled a face. “I’m sick of those binary comparisons. Cobalt Seers can be good! Bromine Seers can turn bad. It’s the equivalent of saying every sociopath is evil. It’s reductive and not true at all. You’re a good kid, Oliver. There’s no reason you’d go bad, cobalt, bromine, or otherwise.”

Oliver felt greatly reassured by his words. “You really mean that?” he asked Ichiro. “It’s really not that big a deal?”

“Not at all,” Ichiro told him. “And I should know. I’m cobalt.”

Oliver was surprised by the admission. Clearly, it wasn’t so bad after all. Ichiro seemed nothing but kind and reassuring, and he hadn’t been kicked out by Professor Amethyst either. Oliver had been worrying about nothing.

“Your clothes will be in the airlock,” Ichiro added, patting Oliver’s shoulder. “Cleaned and ready for you. Enjoy your day!”

Oliver felt very relieved. The thought of being tested no longer filled him with dread. In fact, without that anxiety occupying his mind, he suddenly became eager to learn more about his powers and how to harness them.

He went to where Ichiro had pointed, the same changing-room area from last night, and wondered who else would be inside. He hoped to see Ralph and Hazel, and Walter and Simon. And the beautiful Esther. But not Edmund or his horrible scowling friend, Vinnie.

Oliver entered the airlock changing room and was relieved to find Ralph and Hazel the only people inside. Hazel had already braided her hair into the same two-bun style she’d worn yesterday.

“Feeling rested?” Ralph asked.

“I got your clothes for you,” Hazel said, handing Oliver his blue overalls, cleaned and smelling of fresh lavender. “Oh, and this was with them.”

She held out a small rectangle of hard transparent plastic.

“Your timetable,” she explained.

Oliver took the piece of plastic and it suddenly whirred. Lights appeared on the surface. They arranged themselves into times and coordinates.

“It’s everywhere you need to be and when,” Hazel told him.

“Does it show me when my test will be?” Oliver asked.

Hazel pointed to a series of digits and numbers. It was right after all his classes for the day. She gave him a gentle smile. “I promise you it won’t be that bad.”

Oliver took the bundle of clothes from her arms. “I know,” he said as he walked over to the changing area. “Ichiro told me that the test isn’t that big a deal.” He closed the curtain and started to change, calling out as he did so. “If he’s a cobalt then it can’t be that bad.” It felt nice to be out of the strange white sleeper. His overalls were the only familiar thing in his life right now and so wearing the factory garments from Armando’s factory made him feel secure. “You could’ve been a bit more reassuring. You made the test seem very dramatic! But if Ichiro is anything to go by, it doesn’t make that much of a difference whether I’m cobalt or bromine.”

He remembered then that Ichiro’s exact words had been cobalt, bromine, or otherwise. He wondered if it was a figure of speech, or whether there might be more categories of Seer to belong to.

Oliver put his timetable in his overalls pocket and walked out from behind the curtain. He saw Ralph and Hazel were still there, but the room was also now full of a ton of other kids. Amongst them were Edmund and his mean friend. They’d all overheard him. Edmund sneered at him.

“Did you hear that, Vinnie?” he said to his friend. “Apparently it doesn’t make a difference what type of Seer you are.”

Vinnie began to cackle.

Then Edmund called out to Oliver, “Just keep telling yourself that when your test shows you’re cobalt!”

Oliver felt his cheeks burn. He pushed past Edmund and Vinnie and stood beside Ralph and Hazel, silently wishing they’d told him to stop rambling aloud from behind the curtain. He had not intended to put himself in Edmund’s firing line so soon after waking up.

Just then, Walter emerged from behind the curtain in sneakers and a shirt with a cartoon character on. He came and joined them.

“Can’t wait for switchit practice today.” He grinned and slapped Oliver on the back. “Sleep okay?”

“Yes. Fine,” Oliver said tensely.

Simon joined them in his strange Victorian fashion, looking every inch the smart English gentleman. “Tally-ho,” he said.

Just then the airlock doors opened and everyone filed out, in their usual hurried manner. Oliver was swept along with the crowd.

A whole host of emotions roiled inside him as he followed everyone to the F hall for breakfast on the levitating table. He clipped himself in next to Hazel, prepared this time for the sudden sensation of elevation. He also knew to be quick and grabbed himself an oval-shaped banana and a stack of neon pancakes. But as he reached for a glass of green orange juice, his gaze went through the glass table to the one beneath him. There, Edmund was sitting with Vinnie. They both glared up at him. Oliver quickly broke eye contact.

“Are you all right, Oliver?” Hazel asked. She sounded concerned. “It’s not still the test, is it? I did try to tell you it wasn’t a big deal.”

“It’s not that,” Oliver replied. “It’s Edmund. I’m sick of bullies. I thought here of all places I wouldn’t get picked on.”

Hazel looked at him sympathetically. “Try to ignore Edmund. I know it’s hard. I was bullied at my old school too.”

“You were?” Oliver asked, feeling his friendly connection with Hazel deepening.

She nodded, empathetic for his plight. “Being a Seer makes you different, even when your powers aren’t showing yet. I guess we’re smarter than the average kid and it makes us stick out.”

From the other side of Oliver, Ralph suddenly piped up. “I’m not smarter.” He laughed and pointed at himself with both his thumbs. “Worst Seer the school’s ever seen, according to Doctor Ziblatt.”

At the mention of their teacher, Oliver remembered it would soon be time for lessons, for learning. He felt himself tremble with nervous anticipation.

Once breakfast was eaten, the robot arms cleared their plates and the table descended. They left the F hall and went into the main atrium. It was even busier than it had been yesterday with students everywhere, whizzing around on the myriad walkways above.

Ralph led the way to the elevator; thanks to his height, he had a larger stride than the others. He also seemed to enjoy being a leader, which was fine with Oliver because right now all he wanted to do was follow.

Everyone squeezed inside—Oliver, Walter, Hazel, Simon, and Ralph. Though he’d only known them for a short while, Oliver felt like he’d found kindred spirits. They were from different points in history but were bonded by their powers. He felt closer to them than he ever had to anyone before. For the first time in his life, Oliver felt as though he’d found some friends.

They whooshed upward. Then the doors to the elevator opened and Ralph directed everyone along a walkway. They stopped outside a door. Then, for the first time since arriving at the School for Seers, Oliver went into a classroom.

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but he should have known it wouldn’t be like your typical classroom. Instead, it was a domed room, with the seats in a horseshoe around the edges. In the middle was a sort of stage, with a raised platform. And there stood a woman in a white lab coat. She immediately reminded Oliver of Ms. Belfry, with her chestnut brown hair and warm smile. He wondered how Ms. Belfry was doing, back at Campbell Junior High.

“Doctor Ziblatt is a wonderful tutor,” Simon said to Oliver. “She’s the most intelligent person one could ever have the pleasure of knowing.”

They took their seats and Oliver noticed Esther sitting just a few rows ahead. She had a very poised demeanor, Oliver thought, as though she was aware that she drew the attention of every boy in the room.

“Oh,” Ralph said, leaning over from beside him. “You should strap in.”

“What?” Oliver asked. “Why?”

He noticed black straps hanging either side of him and quickly clipped in. No sooner had he done so than the whole room started to spin. Oliver clutched the edge of the bench, feeling his neon pancakes swirling in his stomach and regretting now the speed with which he’d eaten them.

“What’s happening?” he said.

But when he looked over, Walter, Simon, Ralph, and Hazel were just blurs beside him. In fact, the whole room was a blur!

Then at last, everything came back into focus, in crystal, pinpoint precision.

“You okay?” Ralph asked, looking over at Oliver. He grinned widely.

Oliver blinked several times. “I think so. What just happened?”

“Centrifugal motion,” Hazel explained. “It helps us tap into our powers more easily. But of course you have to get to the point where you don’t feel like you’re spinning anymore, which is very fast. It’s never fun to get there, but once you are it’s fine.”

“So we’re still spinning now?” Oliver asked, surprised.

“Yeah!” Walter exclaimed enthusiastically. “Cool, huh?”

Just then, Doctor Ziblatt addressed the class. “Today we’re going to resume our studies on dimensional vision. Could someone remind the rest of the class what that is?”

To Oliver’s shock, almost every single hand shot into the air. The School for Seers was very different from Campbell Junior High, he realized; the students actually wanted to learn. Even though Edmund and Vinnie had taken a disliking to him, at least he wouldn’t have to deal with being called a freak or a nerd in this place.

Doctor Ziblatt scanned the students with their raised hands. “Miss Valentini,” she said, pointing at Esther.

Oliver watched with rapt attention as the beautiful Esther stood, her black hair glistening under the lights.

“Dimensional vision is the ability to see through your current dimensional plane into the next,” she said.

Her voice was like a piano, or a harp, making the most wonderful music. Oliver’s heart skipped a beat.

“Thank you,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “So if we were to think of dimensions like layers of glass lying on top of one another, each dimension runs parallel to the next, on and on, ad infinitum. As a Seer, it’s important to be able to see through into all these different dimensions, because the information within them can be vital when making your decisions within this dimension. Each moment in time of every dimension can be accessed by a Seer, once they’ve trained hard enough.”

Oliver felt a sudden surge of excitement at the thought of being able to see into different dimensions and timelines. What a wonderful thing to experience! Finally he could see things the way Ralph did. But he had so many questions.

“Does that mean we can look into the past?” he asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “With enough hard work and training.”

“So I could go and watch the dinosaurs?”

“Yes,” Doctor Ziblatt confirmed. “And travel there as well after much more studying.”

“Travel there?” Oliver asked, breathless with wonder.

He saw the corners of Doctor Ziblatt’s lips turn upward. “You must be new here,” she said. “What’s your name?”

“Oliver Blue.”

Usually, Oliver would feel intimidated talking in front of so many people but he didn’t feel that way at the School for Seers. He felt like he belonged here.

“Mr. Blue,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “Come to the front and we’ll see whether we can get you looking into the next dimension.”

Oliver leapt up immediately. Though he was nervous, it was more with an excited sense of anticipation rather than fear. He hurried down the steps to the front of the class and up to Doctor Ziblatt.

She shook his hand. “The rest of the class have all completed this exercise,” she explained. “But I want to see what your baseline is.”

She handed him some goggles. Oliver took them, thinking immediately of the goggles Armando had given him back in the factory. They certainly looked very similar, except there were two electrodes attached to the side, a bit like the pads Oliver had had to attach to his head in his sleep pod. Doctor Ziblatt pressed them to his temples and, behind her, a large holographic image appeared of the view through Oliver’s eyes.

“That’s what I’m seeing!” Oliver said with a gasp.

“It is indeed,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “Now, this button here will help your eyes to unfocus on this dimension. Think of these as training wheels on a bicycle. Eventually, you’ll be able to do this without them, but for now they will guide you.”

She clicked the button and immediately Oliver’s vision blurred. The image behind him blurred in unison.

“This is the state your mind must be in to begin to penetrate the layers of dimensions,” Doctor Ziblatt explained. “You must be able to look past this world and into the next.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Oliver said, and to his surprise the class started to giggle.

He looked over at the blur of faces, and somehow through them all he was able to focus on Esther laughing at his joke. She looked even prettier when she was smiling, her usually serious demeanor lightening momentarily. His gaze lingered on her.

Suddenly, he heard a smattering of laughter.

“Someone’s got a crush!” Vinnie shouted loudly.

Oliver realized, with dismay, that the image of Esther was reflected back in huge holographic precision behind him. His face turned hot and flushed red. He quickly looked away, his vision clouding over again.

“Settle down,” Doctor Ziblatt told the class in a sharp tone.

The hubbub died down, and Oliver watched through misty eyes as Doctor Ziblatt took something from her drawer. It looked like a very large, shiny piece of white cardboard. Right in the center was a black dot.

“More training wheels?” Oliver asked.

“This will help you focus on a point,” she confirmed. “And then, hopefully, through that point and beyond into the next plane.”

Oliver nodded. He was determined to do this. It was so exciting!

He searched the white card, his blurred vision struggling to focus on the black spot. Then he gritted his teeth. It felt like every ounce of his body was needed for this one task, even using the gizmos that were meant to take the hard work out!

But finally the fuzzy shape started to sharpen in his mind. The dot became a stark black shape against the contrasting white background. Then it began to change color, from black to red then to blue. The flashing colors made Oliver feel suddenly very sick.

“What’s happening?” Oliver asked, feeling a little panicked.

“Your mind is attempting to look through the dimensional layer,” Doctor Ziblatt explained. “It is a very unusual experience, especially the first time. Human brains aren’t exactly designed for this kind of work.”

Oliver’s heart started beating very fast. His palms started sweating. He reached up and tugged at the collar of his shirt. He could feel perspiration running down his neck.

Suddenly, he could take it no longer. He dropped the card on the table and tore off the goggles. He grabbed the table to steady himself, fighting back the urge to dry heave.

“Haha!” he heard Edmund’s sneering voice. “Oliver can’t even do it with the goggles!”

“Mr. Branner,” Doctor Ziblatt snapped.

As Oliver gasped for breath, he felt Doctor Ziblatt rest a gentle hand on his back. “Perhaps you ought to see the nurse?”

“No, no nurse,” Oliver stammered. He was embarrassed enough as it was. He’d never live down having to go to the medical room on his first attempt to access his powers. “I’m fine.”

He stood, his head swimming, his stomach swirling. He felt his legs weaken beneath him. Doctor Ziblatt gripped him by his elbow.

“Mr. Black,” she said over his head. “Can you help Mr. Blue back to his seat?”

As Oliver’s vision started to come back to him, he saw Ralph hurrying toward him. But Oliver’s gaze went past Ralph to Esther; his attention seemed drawn to her. She was looking down, averting her gaze. She must be deeply embarrassed on his behalf by his failure. It only made Oliver feel worse.

Ralph reached him then, scooping an arm around his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ollie. Everyone struggles to begin with.”

Oliver tried to take comfort in his words. But the background noises of Edmund and his friends giggling seemed to drown them out.

“Mr. Black is right,” Doctor Ziblatt added. “Everyone struggles.” Then, as she turned away, she muttered in a voice she must have assumed was too quiet for Oliver to hear, “I guess he’s not the special one we’ve all been waiting for after all.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Doctor Ziblatt’s words played on Oliver’s mind for the rest of the class. He felt like such a disappointment.

He was so consumed with his embarrassment that he hardly took in anything she said, and he didn’t dare look to his left at Esther. The image of her crimson cheeks seemed seared into his mind.

When the lesson was over, Oliver couldn’t get out soon enough. He hurried for the exit, trying to position himself in the middle of his group of friends. But in his haste to maneuver himself within them, Oliver bumped his shoulder against someone.

“Sorry!” he said, turning to see whom he’d collided with.

He saw shiny black hair. Emerald green eyes. It was Esther.

“Don’t worry,” she said quickly, immediately tipping her eyes down to her feet. Then she hurried away.

Oliver couldn’t help but think she was trying to get away from him as quickly as she could. He felt crushed.

As the students made their way out of the lecture theater, Oliver felt a slap on his back. He turned to see Hazel smiling kindly.

“Don’t look so sad,” she told him, encouragingly. “You didn’t do that bad!”

“I made a fool of myself,” Oliver said glumly.

Walter grinned widely. “At least you didn’t barf,” he quipped.

Oliver just grimaced.

Ralph looked down at Oliver with an empathetic expression. “Just put it all behind you,” he said. “There’s always the next class.”

“Another chance to fail, you mean?” Oliver said glumly. “Great.”

Simon patted his back. “Cheer up, mate. It’ll be fine.”

Walter added, “And it can’t get any worse than it did back in Doctor Ziblatt’s class, right?”

Hazel punched him in the arm.

“Ow,” Walter moaned, rubbing the spot where she’d hit him.

Just then, Oliver felt a vibration in his overalls. He pulled out his plastic timetable. The coordinates had changed, indicating that he was required on the fourteenth floor. There wasn’t any time to rest at all. No time to absorb anything he’d just learned. Everything at the School for Seers was go, go, go!

“We’d better hurry,” Ralph said, placing his own vibrating timetable back into his pocket.

Oliver felt a sense of dread as he followed them across the rapidly moving walkway. He felt like he’d bitten off far more than he could chew. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to be here at all. Maybe he didn’t belong.

Everyone piled into the elevator, riding it up to the fourteenth floor. Then they headed to another classroom. On the door, the word Transformation flashed in soft white letters. Oliver gulped.

They went inside and Oliver saw that it was decked out just like a science laboratory, but not like the type at school with wooden benches and a handful of Bunsen burners. It looked more like the high-tech laboratories of a medical or chemical company. The place was gleaming white.

“Students, take your seats,” the teacher said. He was a young man with a moustache.

“That’s Mr. Lazzarato,” Ralph said, leaning in to Oliver.

Oliver nodded, trying his best to absorb yet more information into his very saturated mind.

Mr. Lazzarato began to speak. “Last week, our top student was Miss Kerr. She was the only student who managed to successfully rearrange the chemical matter she was given to create a small fire. So let’s all give a hand to Hazel.”

Everyone clapped, and Oliver looked over to see Hazel beaming.

Mr. Lazzarato continued. “Today I’m hoping for some good things from Mr. Black. With a biological specialism, this task should be easiest for you.”

Oliver saw Ralph blush deeply. From what he’d told Oliver, he struggled with his powers. Not much came easily to Ralph.

Walter huffed then. “I swear, having a magnetic specialism is the worst,” he grumbled. “We’ve never done a single task where I’ve had the chance to excel.”

Mr. Lazzarato continued. “Mr. Cavendish,” he said, looking at Simon. “Can you hand out the worksheets? And Mr. Branner, please hand out the boxes.”

Simon went up to the front of the class and collected the stack of papers. At the same time, Edmund headed toward a cart that had several small thermoplastic boxes on it.

“What are those?” Hazel mused aloud, squinting to try and see into the boxes.

Oliver craned his neck. In each box there appeared to be a small, white mouse.

“Mice!” he told her. “We’re not going to dissect them, are we?”

Simon appeared then with their worksheets. Oliver quickly read the title and saw that far from dissecting mice, their task was to rearrange their anatomical components.

“I’ll never be able to do this,” he stammered.

“Don’t worry, neither will I!” Ralph said jovially. “I mean, you saw me with the leaf. I’m useless.”

“At least you can do that,” Oliver replied. “I can’t do anything!”

His failure in Doctor Ziblatt’s class was still consuming his thoughts.

Just then, Edmund reached their bench. He was pushing the cart with the boxes on it, each with a white mouse inside. Edmund dumped a box in front of Ralph, then one in front of Hazel. When he got to Oliver he held up a box different from the others. It was covered in wires and had a computer attached to one side.

“More training wheels for Oliver,” he sneered, dumping the box down. “Most of us can do transformation without tools. But you’ll have to rely on some help just like those goggles in the last class.” He paused and grinned devilishly. “Speaking of which, it was so embarrassing for you. Everyone saw you staring at Esther in the holograph! And then your little panic attack! Haha, it was hilarious.”

Oliver felt his cheeks growing hotter and hotter as Edmund spoke. Not just from embarrassment but from rage. He thought he’d finally escaped the bullies in his life but clearly he had not. Even here, at this wonderful, magical place, he was being picked on. He tugged at the neckline of his overalls.

Beside him, Hazel spoke under her breath. “Just ignore him, Oliver.”

But Edmund wasn’t done. He could tell he’d gotten under Oliver’s skin with his comments. He laughed nastily. “You should know you don’t stand a chance with Esther Valentini, by the way. She’ll only ever date the best switchit player in the school. And that is me.”

A sudden lump formed painfully in Oliver’s throat at the thought of Edmund and Esther together.

Walter leaned over suddenly. “Edmund, we all know I’m the best switchit player. If Esther cared about switchit, she’d be dating me!”

Edmund snapped his mouth shut and glared at Walter. “You wish,” he spat, before storming off.

Oliver deflated. He looked over at his friends. “Thanks,” he muttered.

He turned his attention to the task at hand, and looked down at the box. It was covered in buttons, screens, and other electronic components. Inside, a small white mouse scurried around.

“Am I going to hurt it?” Oliver asked with concern. “Rearranging its atoms sounds painful.”

“It won’t feel a thing,” Hazel told him. “The first thing to do is suspend it in time.”

“Of course…” Oliver murmured.

Mr. Lazzarato began reminding the class on the first steps to freezing their mouse in time. Oliver, however, just had to press a button. It felt like cheating to skip out that first step, but his powers weren’t strong enough for him to attempt such complex things without his “training wheels.”

Oliver pressed the button and instantly the mouse became completely frozen, its little nose pointing upward mid-sniff. It was a peculiar sight. Oliver struggled to get his head around the fact the mouse was stuck in time, like his brain couldn’t fully accept it. A bit like with the invisibility patch. He was starting to understand why a human brain could explode if exposed to too much Seer-related information too quickly!

“Got it!” Hazel suddenly exclaimed.

Oliver looked over, stunned by what he saw. In Hazel’s box, the little white mouse had changed. It looked like an adorable cartoon character, with big eyes and eyelashes. It was even standing on its hind legs.

“Amazing!” Oliver stammered.

“Gosh, Hazel,” Simon added. “That was jolly fast work.”

Walter clapped Hazel’s success, clearly thrilled for her. But Ralph had still not achieved anything.

“I thought this was supposed to be easy for me,” he said.

As Hazel went to show Mr. Lazzarato her mouse, the rest of the gang bowed their heads over their worksheets. Oliver tried to absorb all the information but never before had he felt so challenged. School had always been easy for him. Finally, he was somewhere he would be pushed to grow and hopefully, one day, excel. But that seemed very far away from his reach right now.

Oliver attached the electrodes on the box to his temples. He felt a strange pulsing sensation which seemed to make his mind become foggy. Then he closed his eyes and visualized what he wanted to achieve; a muscular mouse like some kind of wrestler.

The sheet had said it would take thirty seconds to take effect, and so Oliver waited, counting through the numbers in his head. It was remarkably difficult. The pulses coming from the electrode made it feel as if his thoughts were swimming in soup.

Finally, he made it to thirty and opened his eyes. The mouse was exactly the same. Disappointment bit at him.

“I can’t do it,” he said, sadly.

“Don’t worry,” Walter said. “It’s hard.”

But in Walter’s own box, his mouse had changed. Not a lot, but he’d definitely made its head bigger and its tail longer. Despite Walter’s claims that magnetism was a bad specialism to have, he’d still had more success than Oliver.

“What’s the worst specialism for a Seer?” Oliver asked.

Walter pondered for a moment. “Sonar, probably. Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m sure my test will show me that I’ve got it,” Oliver replied. “Either that or it will show me I’m not a Seer at all!”

Walter shook his head kindly. “You failed at your first attempt, that’s all. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Don’t get disheartened,” Simon added. “Try and try again.”

“Easy for you to say,” Ralph huffed, clearly growing frustrated with his own failure. “Your specialism is molecular. It’s a close second place after atomic if you ask me.”

They returned to their work. Despite his best efforts, Oliver had no success. He started to feel like the electrodes were hampering him. He understood that they were meant to teach him how to get his mind into the correct state, but he found the pulsing irritating.

He decided to attempt it without the electrodes. Switching his mind into the correct mindset wasn’t easy but Oliver did manage to emulate the same soupy, leaden feeling the pulse had given him. Only this time, his mind was clearer. Counting wasn’t such a struggle. He felt more in control, and the image in his mind of his muscled mouse was easier to hold on to.

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty…

Oliver opened his eyes. He squinted at the mouse, then tipped his head to the side, searching for any sign of transformation.

“It looks a bit bigger,” Walter said.

“No it doesn’t,” Oliver replied. He knew Walter was just trying to cheer him up.

Giving up, Oliver pressed the button that would unfreeze the mouse. He watched it come back to life, scurrying around the box and sniffing. Then suddenly it rose up onto its back legs so that it was standing tall, and flexed its arm muscles.

Oliver gasped. The mouse returned to scurrying around the box. Had he just been seeing things, or had he actually managed to change the atoms inside the mouse? Only a little, and nowhere near the wrestler mouse he’d been attempting, but it was still something! Maybe he wasn’t completely useless after all.

Oliver felt buoyed by his first tiny success. But he knew the test was still to come.

Mr. Lazzarato called an end to the class. Everyone packed up their things and started to leave.

Just then, a fist slammed down on the table in front of Oliver. He startled and looked up. He found himself staring into Edmund’s mean, black eyes.

“Next class we’re playing switchit,” he said, menacingly, “and I’m going to kick your butt.”