Hidden Talents

Martin thinks that if he doesn’t have any special powers, he’s not the one to teach the others how to use them. Hoping someone else will pick up the slack, he starts by telling Cheater to use different words than the ones he thinks while taking tests so they don’t sound identical to another student’s answers.

Martin throws a sudden punch at Flinch—the boy ducks easily and early—so Martin suggests he stall for a second before ducking to hide his ability. Martin throws a second punch, but Flinch waits too long and gets hit in the chin. Stunned, he shakes it off but says he’s never been hit before, and it’s painful. They try a few more swings, and Flinch gets better at it.

Torchie is next. He can burn down the school, so he’s the most dangerous. Lucky brings them a squirt gun; Flinch and Cheater use it to put out flames that erupt from a piece of paper that Torchie focuses on.

Martin tells Lucky to resist the temptation to pick up jewelry or wallets; Lucky nods but looks doubtful. Martin asks test questions, and everyone thinks up the answers so that Cheater can practice paraphrasing what he picks up in his mind. Martin continues to throw random punches at Flinch: “It was fun” (170).

As part of a class exercise, Flinch writes that he enjoys being good at athletics and also good at thinking, which he does so much that he sometimes seems distracted to others. He loves inventing jokes, and if it were possible, he’d win gold playing dodgeball in the Olympics.

Trash struggles to stop things from flying away from him. Martin says, “Don’t try to stop it […]. Try to do it” (172). It works: Trash begins to get control of his ability. Torchie tries the same method, and accidental fires become less frequent.

They all keep an eye out for other students with powers but don’t find any. They begin to call themselves the “Psi Five,” while Martin gets the nickname “Coach.” He wishes he had a power, too.

Cheater’s practice with changing the wording of answers that occur to him finally pays off when he finally receives an “A” on a test. Martin throws punches at Flinch for hours while Flinch tightens his reaction time, so it looks almost natural.

Principal Davis sends out a memo reminding staff to organize their paperwork, so it doesn’t become “a great quantity of clutter” (174).

During a detention period at Ms. Nomad’s classroom, she knocks over a pile of paperwork, and Martin volunteers to clean it up. He notices some memos and reports that make it clear that Edgeview might be closed because it’s not very good. He reports this to his friends.

Cheater announces an upcoming pinball tournament at the arcade. Trash doesn’t understand, so they fill him in on their secret escapades in town. That evening, the group heads for the arcade, where Flinch quickly pulls ahead in the contest. Trash, though, can nudge things mentally, and his ball generates such high scores that he wins the first-place trophy; Flinch finishes second, and Martin takes third: “The Edgies never had a chance” (176).

Outside, a dozen Edgie boys confront them and order them to get out of town. The visitors quickly depart, but at the city limits, Cheater senses someone still wanting to beat him up. They turn and see several Edgies following them. Lucky says he’s tired of being pushed around; the rest gather around him and face the gang.

The Edgie leader, a big football player named Walden, shoves Lucky, who pushes back, his effort enhanced by Trash, and several Edgies fall down. Martin calls out that he’s already been in prison for assault; he’s lying, but it rattles the Edgies. Flinch taunts Walden, who swings and misses. Torchie holds a thick branch that begins to glow in the middle; Cheater reads Torchie’s mind, and, aided by Trash, he leaps in the air, shouts “Hiyaaaa!” and snaps the stick in two. As one piece falls, Trash hits it with his hand, and it sails high in the air and crashes through a house window.

The Edgies run away; they’re in such a hurry that Walden leaves his letterman’s jacket on the ground. The Psi Fives run to their tunnel.

Giddy with success, they start to climb up the rope ladder to Lucky’s room. Flinch goes first, but Bloodbath appears in the window and says, “Look what we have here” (182).

Bloodbath snaps the rod that anchors the ladder, and it collapses, sending Flinch crashing to Earth. His arm is broken; they help him up, grab the ladder, and head for the front door. It’s locked; Trash concentrates, and the door unlocks.

Inside, they pose Flinch so it looks like he fell down some stairs. Martin goes to Mr. Briggs, who’s on overnight duty, and tells him about Flinch. An ambulance takes the boy to the hospital. Back in Martin’s room, Lucky says, “This is war,” and the boys agree it’s time to make Bloodbath pay (187).

Ms. Nomad writes another poem:

There in the garden that was and is my mind

I find a rose, a flower. But oh it’s so unkind.

Sharp thorn, such pain.

Not just once, but again.

Can I dare to feel my thoughts and think my feelings?

Or must I sit and stare at empty ceilings? (188)

On Saturday, Martin is called to the principal’s office. A few other boys are there, too, including Bloodbath, who asks Martin what he’s in for. Martin realizes Bloodbath didn’t notice who was with Flinch at the bottom of the rope ladder. Martin says he got into it with Parsons. To keep Bloodbath occupied, Martin asks what he’s there for; Bloodbath says he wrote his name on some kid’s face. Laughing like a baboon, he pulls out a marking pen and threatens to write on Martin’s face, too.

They hear Principal Davis in his office. He’s shouting that, because of pressure from town, the inspection has been moved ahead, weeks early, to the upcoming Friday. Mr. Langhorn’s voice asks what happened to the mayor’s support; Davis replies that Mayor Walden suddenly changed his mind. Martin realizes the Psi Fives fought the mayor’s son, whose jacket, with its name tag, was abandoned near the broken window. The battle with the town kids caused the inspection to be moved forward.

Davis gripes that if they don’t pass inspection, the school will be merged into a larger school that’ll be more crowded with fewer teachers per student. Angrily, he dismisses the students waiting for him. Bloodbath says to Martin, “Guess this is our chance to bring Edgeview down” (191). Martin hurries to his room and tells his friends that if the school gets merged, it’ll be to a place far away, and the Psi Fives might get split up. Besides, if Bloodbath hopes to ruin the inspection, they should resist him.

They need to learn Bloodbath’s plans. The boys turn toward Cheater, but he worries that Bloodbath’s gang is too dangerous. Trash says the Psi Fives are smarter and have “a few secrets” (192).

As part of a class exercise, Trash writes that he enjoys drawing: “It feels good to create something new. It feels bad to destroy things” (193).

Trash shows the group what he can do. He makes a notebook rise off a desk and open up while three pencils draw on it. Suddenly the notebook hits the ceiling while the pencils rebound off the walls. Trash says “Oops” and promises to keep practicing, but Martin is amazed by his progress.

On Monday, the teachers seem nervous. Langhorn yells even more than usual, while Ms. Nomad acts “disgustingly nice.” Mr. Briggs receives a letter from a chemical company that once turned him down for a job. They now have a new opening and want him to come in for an interview.

Bloodbath grabs Hindenburg, the boy who farts hugely and locks him into a closet with Torchie, who pounds on the door, begging to be set free from the horrible stink. Torchie’s flame-starting ability ignites Hindenburg’s gas, and the explosion blows the door off the closet. The two boys are ok, but Torchie says the smelly experience was “awful.”

Cheater’s still afraid to get too close to Bloodbath, who’s both cruel and prejudiced. The boys decide to create an incident, and when Bloodbath is distracted by it, Cheater will sneak up behind him and listen in on his thoughts. Flinch jokes that Bloodbath’s mind will be completely empty. Cheater worries that spying on someone’s mind is wrong, but Martin convinces him it’s for a good cause.

At lunch, Trash causes some trays to fly up in the air, and Bloodbath stands to look but soon loses interest. Cheater is right behind him, his face scrunched up in concentration. Bloodbath begins to turn around but gets hit in the face by flying tapioca; he wades into a food fight; Cheater escapes and reports that Bloodbath was thinking, “Thirty minutes for a candle” (205).

In science class, Mr. Briggs tells the students about the inspection and that they should act as they normally do, but the kids have an uneasy feeling about the future. Martin lingers after class, wanting to say something nice.

Mr. Briggs says Martin is right about Edgeview being the last stop for teachers and students. Briggs has been kicked out of several schools for his unusual teaching methods, but he likes teaching here. He adds that all the staff do their best in a difficult situation. He says, “Whatever happens, it’s been a pleasure” (208), and he holds out his hand; Martin shakes it awkwardly and leaves quickly.

Principal Davis sends out a final memo before the inspection. In it, he asks teachers to try to ignore Martin’s taunts and keep small kids away from big ones, lest the inspectors witness an impromptu game of human volleyball.

Early the next morning, six inspectors arrive, three women and three men. They wear business suits and hold clipboards. At breakfast, they stand to one side and watch. Cheater senses that some are afraid of the kids.

Bloodbath and his gang are unusually quiet. As he gets up to leave, Cheater slips behind him and picks up the thought, “Twenty candles, all set to go” (211). Lucky finds in a closet a candle attached to a fuse for a powerful M-80 firecracker. They look in the next closet and find two M-80s attached to a water pipe. They’ll never find all of them in time.

Martin asks Torchie to concentrate on putting out all flames at school. He focuses, then says he thinks he got them all. The next class goes by without an explosion; after class, Lucky finds another M-80 pair, their candles extinguished.

All morning, the teachers wisely avoid calling on Martin. In one class, though, Bloodbath seems angry. Cheater walks past him on his way to the pencil sharpener and returns with the news that Bloodbath is planning a lunchtime incident.

At lunch, the boys learn that all the ovens stopped working just before the first classes. Torchie switched off all flames on campus.

Cheater says, “Rumble,” and Bloodbath’s gang gets up, spreads out, and sits at different tables. Trash begins to concentrate, his face squinched up. Bloodbath sits with Martin’s group, then looks at the clock. Cheater signals “twenty” to Martin; the clock reads 17 minutes past the hour.

At 20 past, Bloodbath and his gang all stand up. Lunging at the nearest students, they all promptly fall over, cursing, each tied to a table leg by one of their shoelaces, courtesy of Trash. Teachers pull them back up and remove them from the cafeteria. Trash looks exhausted; Martin thanks him.

Cheater walks to the inspector’s table and asks to borrow a saltshaker. He returns, stunned, and says, “Adults sure have a lot of junk rushing through their heads” (218). He adds that they’re evenly divided about whether to close the school, and the only thing left is to interview a random student. Principal Davis brings a sheaf of papers to the inspectors; they pull one sheet at random. Davis frowns, walks to Martin’s table, and tells him he’s been chosen for the interview.

Martin is sure the inspectors will rile him up, and he’ll insult them all. He doesn’t know what to do. Lucky asks him if he really wants the school to survive. Martin thinks about the teachers who care and the kids who need the place; he answers yes. Lucky says, “Then it’s time to use your power, Martin” (220).

Lucky says the rest of them know about Martin’s power. Martin denies strenuously that he has any gift at all. Lucky grabs him by the shoulders, leans close, and says, “You hate having someone in your face—especially an adult. And when someone gets too close, you hit him hard. That’s your talent. You know where it hurts” (222).

Martin struggles, but Lucky holds on. Overwhelmed, Martin blurts out, “You’re pretty cocky for a kid who still wets his bed” (222). Stunned, Lucky backs away. Martin apologizes, but Lucky says it’s ok and that it had to be done. Martin can’t imagine how his cruel power can be of any use. Flinch says to be like Torchie, and instead of causing trouble, get it to stop—not the thing that hurts someone, but the thought that makes them “feel good.”

Elsewhere, Mr. Briggs writes a letter to the chemical company that offered him a job. He thanks them but declines the offer. He also asks if they have old scientific supplies or equipment that they might donate to his school.

Telling Martin to resist being an “annoying little monster” (226), Principal Davis ushers the boy into the meeting with the inspectors. Martin’s thoughts race: Can he reverse his power to insult others? If so, is it moral to spy on their thoughts?

The committee leader is a gray-suited woman, Dr Harper, who shakes Martin’s hand. Instantly, he knows she tried for years without success to get hired by a textbook company; he knows exactly how to insult her. He also senses that she wants children and is working and proud of her eyes. As he sits at their table, he also knows the sorrows and longings of the two men sitting nearby.

They want to know what he likes and dislikes about the school. He talks with them for a half-hour. As he leaves, Davis asks what he said; he replies, “The truth.” Davis groans. On the way out, he passes Bloodbath, who’s been called to the office. Martin walks down the hall, but Bloodbath catches up with him, throws him against a wall, and says, “You bastard.”

As part of a class exercise, Bloodbath writes: “If I wasn’t me, whoever was me would be beating me up. So it’s a good thing I’m me” (229). The note lies in his waste basket.

Saying Martin ruined his plans, Bloodbath prepares to smash the boy in the face. Behind Bloodbath, his sidekick, Lip, laughs like a hyena. Martin senses that Bloodbath’s greatest fear is being laughed at, and he points at Lip: “You going to let him laugh at you that way?” (230).

Bloodbath grabs Lip and rears back to punch him. Martin can’t let that happen, so he calls Bloodbath a moron for thinking Lip was laughing at him. Martin then laughs loudly and pointedly at Bloodbath. The bully casts Lip aside and whirls back to Martin; Lip runs away. Martin prepares for a beating.

As Bloodbath approaches, rage on his face, a realization rips through Martin: “I’d seen that same look so often on my father’s face. The face of a bully” (231). Angry, Martin punches Bloodbath in the jaw. Bloodbath drops and lies there, groaning. Martin realizes that all the hours throwing punches at Flinch prepared him for this moment. He turns and walks to science class.

Class gets out just as he arrives. His friends ask Martin what he said to the inspectors. He tells them he didn’t use his power; instead, he simply told them that the school would be better if the bullies were sent somewhere else so the rest of the kids could learn and get along. He also suggested that they give the students the hope of a chance to return to their old schools by offering them periodic evaluations.

The following week, Bloodbath and his friends are transferred. As Bloodbath leaves, Flinch taunts him, and Bloodbath keeps swinging and missing while Flinch keeps patting him on the cheek until Bloodbath is gasping from exhaustion.

The school also enacts a new evaluation system so that boys can leave when they’re ready, some as soon as a month from now. The boys ask Martin if he wants to leave; he says he needs to go home and fix things with his family because a lot of the damage wasn’t his dad’s fault but his own. The boys realize the same is true for each of them. They decide that if there’s only one month more together, “We’ll have fun. This is going to be a month to remember” (234).

Two months later, a form, signed by all his teachers, states that Martin Anderson is released back to his regular school district.

Martin returns home. His sister looks like she’s suffered while their dad only had her to bully. He becomes frustrated because Martin doesn’t talk back as much. It’s a struggle, but Martin gets better at staying calm.

He and the boys write to each other often. Trash sends drawings; Flinch sends jokes; Cheater sends trivia quizzes; Lucky sends a variety of little things he’s found; Torchie sends a recording of himself playing the harmonica. (He’s getting better.) They all decide to get themselves transferred out of Edgeview. Now and then, Mr. Briggs writes, too.

Martin decides it’s not wrong to use people’s favorite thoughts to make them happy, as long as he isn’t trying to get something from them.