A song for our brave competitors:

You're trapped now,
You can't squirm your way out.
In Mattie's web you've fallen,
It's too tangled to escape from.
So tighten your belts,
And put on a stoic façade.
There is a great prize to win!
And to the losers, great shame.

Prepare your minds.
Prepare your hearts.
Prepare your powers,
The battle will soon start.
Anything goes,
So be wary of your fellow man.
The crowds are waiting for you,
Go give them a show they won't forget.

Gretel, Foresight Interpretation Class, Hour 1

Omen Notebook, Entry 3-

A brand new omen today. I'm kind of excited by it. Usually I'm alone in my prophetic dreams, but this time I had an animal with me. The animal was misty, and a strange color the English language doesn't have a word for. My advisor identified it as my spirit animal, which means that specific dream vision was linked to my accumulating destiny. Unfortunately, my roommate woke me up in the middle of that afternoon nap to ask which looked better, the red jean jacket or the blue jean jacket. Doesn't she realize that when somebody's eyes are glowing and they're muttering under their breath that a vision is in progress? Maybe it isn't common knowledge. All I know for sure is that if my prophetic dream means that I'm going to peak in high school, I'm going to be a bit disappointed. And that my roommate should go with the blue jean jacket. The protection ward against stains it has will obviously aid her during @Matching by Mattie's big event. Maybe my spirit animal was trying to warn me not to go to the battle... but it'd be such a waste to throw out that $100 ticket I bought.

I wish my prophetic dreams gave me straightforward answers. Not to be cliche, but they usually only raise more questions. This time all I got was a song. I thought @Pacifica could relate to it... don't worry Pacifica. We've all been through that ethical epiphany.

Yes, no, maybe so.
The world ain't always fair.
Yes, no, maybe so.
It's a weight we all must bare.

No, yes, what a mess.
Powers can be a blessing.
No, yes, what a mess.
Repercussions can be frightning.

Maybe so, yes, no.
They say Justice is blind.
Maybe so, yes, no.
Karma isn't so kind.

Yes. No. Yes. No.
Are we right to take action?
Yes. No. Yes. No.
Are we better off hidden?
Yes. No. Yes. No.
Are we heros or villians?
Yes. No. Yes. No.
Are we all capable of good?
Yes. No. Yes. No.
Are some of us destined for evil?

Can we contain the animals we could become?

Yes. No. Maybe so.

Whoa, totally crazy news broadcast today. It probably didn't help that I was watching it upside-down from the ceiling, but it was still pretty cool. The student broadcast class did a great job with it. Their astral projections were spot on, I felt like I was really on the edge of that gigantic crater.

My roommate completely missed the broadcast because she was in the Hex Ed changing rooms (a strict no projection, scrying, or teleporting zone), but who didn't hear about Cimmerian Labs by the end of the school day? First the faulty electric security, then the leakage of liquid nitrogen into the halls, followed by a random stampede of rouge invisible cats (who some speculate were black and crossed everyone's path). They finally got rid of the cats, only to discover critical fungus levels in the ceiling panels of the laboratory. The entire ceiling, in all rooms, on all levels rotted into collapsed fragments that hit everyone and everything! What a mess! Of course the employees called for help, and the police were freaked because they didn't know there were reclusive pseudo-scientists in a mega laboratory in the woods. By the time authorities got there though, something (a lone invisible cat, a ceiling tile, a klutzy intern...) had set off one of their experiments. Nobody knows what it was that made the entire complex disappear into thin air, but speculation around school is getting crazier by the minute. The crater is still smoking, and there's no sign of life for a 20-mile radius. Except a possessed toad. And the F.B.I. trying to cover it all up. Good thing Psyhigh Student Broadcast can get through any police line with its "unconventional methods".

Those poor fools in Cimmerian Labs must have been really REALLY unlucky to get saddled with that fate. Karma was super harsh. Greg, Hannah, and I have a bet that the Illuminati is involved. If anybody else wants in, right now the pot is $40, minimum donation to enter is $10.

My professor is a pain. Today Prof. went on about the Compensation Theory and Hereditary Structures. You'd think after listening to a 1 1/2 hour lecture on the topics I'd have a better understanding of it, but I don't. I'll try to explain it here, because as the great Mole People of Tectonic Plate Nine once said, "Teaching a mole about things you don't understand helps you and that mole to understand a little better." I still can't understand how they're mighty empire crumbled.

Okay, so first is Compensation Theory. Which stems from the common question heard in psychic households across the world, "Why me?" Why do I (or you, or any of us?) Have psychic powers? Compensation Theory says... um... that... oh, duh - our powers are compensation. Something terrible has or will happen to that individual, so the Creation Powers gave them a unique ability to balance out and/or combat the burdens placed on them by the Fates. (I think I'm starting to get this now!) It certainly explains why so many of us psychics have tragic backstories. Flawed personalities. Social anxiety. Non-standard family units.

However, then there's the Hereditary Structures. This when it gets confusing. So, this comes from the fact that certain families have a history of psychic powers. Some sort of gene is passed on generation to generation, causing a variety of psychic powers to emerge (though usually the powers are similar... at least I think that's what Prof. said). But how can both the Compensation Theory and the Hereditary Structure exist? Do tragedies cause powers or powers cause tragedy? Do our children inherit our burdens and hence our powers, or are the powers the inherited burdens? Ugh, this worksheet is hard. I need to take less cryptic notes during class. Focus less on the rhyme scheme and more on the content, you know?

Prof. said he wanted us to write down our thoughts on Compensation Theory and Hereditary Structure. So here are mine: I believe that they are two separate, unrelated causes of powers, though on occasion they do overlap. I believe that science supports the Hereditary Structure, but the Compensation Theory needs more research on the victims of Witch Trials before being accepted or denied.

But most of all, I believe that we shouldn't let our pasts define us. Who cares about a heart-breaking calamity? Who cares about a cursed family? Move ahead with your life, and focus on what good your powers can cause rather than what terror they once had! I believe that instead of the cause, we should study the effects! Most of all, I believe we all deserve to sleep at night without our pasts haunting us from the darkness!



But believing in something doesn't make it real.

Dedicated in the Memory of Psychic High School's Ghost Hunter Extraordinaire:

Goodnight Ghostie it's been fun,
But I know I'm not the only one,
Who feels our adventures must cease,
Goodnight friend, rest in piece.

Nasty noises in the halls,
Spirits banging on the walls,
The voices I thought were in my head,
Were really echos of the dead.

We thought we could be friends,
But some wouldn't follow the trend,
It's hard to accept things you don't want to see,
Like murderers hidden in 4th hour Chemistry.

Then @Deadeye came, eyes a'blazing,
He didn't mind his welcome was unamazing,
With traps and plans and an agenda,
He arrested the baddies (and *Atlantica*).

Goodnight Ghostie it's been fun,
But I know I'm not the only one,
Who feels our adventures must cease,
Goodnight friend, rest in piece.

To the tune of fara shaka:

Suits and glasses,
Suits and glasses,
Nothing good! Nothing good!
Hiding your eyes,
Is hiding your soul,
Ding dang darn. Ding dang darn.

Hang on @Nobody. I know somebody who will be ready to spring to your aid. *calls out into the big wide world* @*Atlantica*!!!!! We need a superhero to jump off rooftops!!!!! ...um... amd you'll make some new besties!!!! (That'll get her attention I hope....)

Do you guys know that one student? Yeah you do. They have that face, that always has that expression. And it makes your stomach clench with apprehension. And they talk to you. With that voice. And your head starts to pound with repressed scowling. And then they ask for a high-five. And you start out with a fist-bump and have to switch to a high-five. They think it was funny, and laugh with THAT LAUGH. But you know it wasn't a fist-bump, you were one second away from punching them. And you have to bite your tongue to keep back the spiteful retorts, and force a smile as they say goodbye. That kid. I hate that kid. Why doesn't that kid hate me? I don't want to be their friend. I don't. I swear, every time I hear "Hey, Gretel! See any cool dreams, huh? Huh?" in the hallways, I wish I could disappear like @Nobody. Or make them trip up with bad luck like @Pacifica. Or send them subliminal messages to leave me alone like @Matching by Mattie. Or make the hall lights burst so I can slip out in the dark chaos like @Scilph. Or walk right through walls like... well, like @Walls. But I don't have those powers. All I can do is have dreams of the future. And see me and that kid have an annoying conversation the next day. Two aggravating encounters for the price of one.

Sometimes I wish I was a cool psychic.

Gretel, Foresight Interpretation Class, Hour 1

Omen Notebook, Entry 2-

There is a symbol that I see both in dreams and in waking reality. A coin on the ground, often a penny. Sometimes a dime. Never a nickel. My notes from class suggest that this is an omen of good luck to come, but in my past experience finding coins on the ground repeatedly means a spirit is following you. Especially if you're always walking right to/right over said coin. The spirit is most likely attempting to alert you to its presence, and show that it means no ill-will toward you. Unfortunately for me, this spirit is usually my great-uncle Ferdinand who's convinced I'm his daughter. He keeps leaving notes for "Jezebel" and signing me up for Business Classes he liked to take. I'll write to Grandpa later and see if he can come pick up great-uncle Ferdinand. It's hard to take a test with him trying to whisper the (often wrong) answers in your ear.

Gretel, Foresight Interpretation Class, Hour 1

Omen Notebook: Entry 1-

In my more positive prophetic visions, I often see a cottonwood fluff. Not a huge glob of it, just one carefree puff floating off in the wind. Usually it comes near, then rises just out of my reach and away out of sight. The correlation of single cottonwood fluff to pleasant prophecies has lead me to the conclusion that a single cottonwood fluff is a good luck omen. That is, as long as it floats free. If it gets stuck in the grass or something... yikes.