Unusually, Kyla's desk was at the back of the room for Honors English. But that was due to an assigned seating chart that Ms. Ramirez deliberately designed to place the trouble-makers in the front row where they could cause the least amount of trouble, and the good students in the back, where they would be good students no matter what.
On most days, Kyla groused at this. She sat up front in every other class because she didn't want to be distracted by her less-attentive classmates. But today was a little bit different. Today, Honors English was a perfect opportunity to observe one Jonathan Malachi Gibson.
As the boy entered the classroom, just a few seconds before the late bell rang, and sat down at his own seat just one row in front and one row to the right of Kyla, the girl focused her attention on the burgundy Jansport backpack that he placed on the floor beside his chair. It was there. The "magical wishing stone," which was really just a magic receptacle, was sitting in that backpack. She could sense it.
With a wave of a #2 pencil, Kyla established a connection between herself and the stone. With this short-range link, she could charge it with her energies. At a medium range, a few hundred feet, she could use those energies to influence Jon. Farther than that, she would need a proxy, like Karyn, to utilize what was stored in the stone. But first it had to be charged.
The bell rang.
"Somos listos?" Ms. Ramirez rapped on her desk three times. "Okay, who can tell me about the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"
Kyla was only half paying attention, her focus attuned to the pencil in her hand, and the invisible stream that was gently but consistently flowing from its tip to the front pocket of Jon's backpack.
"Did nobody do the reading last night?" the teacher stared daggers at each one of her students. "Su madre! Kyla, not even you?"
At the sound of her name, Kyla's concentration, and her connection to the stone, broke. She looked up at her teacher, fumbling for a moment. "I'm sorry, Ms. Ramirez. I wanted to give everyone else a chance to answer first."
"Well, they didn't," Ms. Ramirez huffed. "Please save them, tell me about Darth Plagueis the Wise."
Kyla closed her eyes for just slightly longer than a blink and took in a breath through her nose. "He was a Sith Lord who was so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life."
This satisfied the teacher for the moment, but class continued on essentially the same: Kyla would charge the stone a bit, then Ms. Ramirez would ask a question that nobody could answer, and Kyla would be forced to break her link to answer it. So by the end of class, Kyla was exhausted from splitting her attention, and the stone was only partially-charged.
"It doesn't matter," Kyla thought to herself. "This will be enough, for now."
