Soul Mate by Leah Huffine, Emily Neu (mind reading books .txt) 📕

“When should I alert the population?”

“As soon as possible, we don’t want people missing their dreams.”

“Yes of course sir.” An intern was walking along side a scientist scribbling down notes in a small black notebook.

“This is a huge deal,” said the scientist, “Are you absolutely positive it will happen? If we misread this, people will never find their soul mates.”

“I am. It will happen on the night of August 11th, 2037, exactly one year from today.”

The scientist nodded. “Very good. Tell the others.”

The intern nodded as she turned toward a large door. “Yes sir.” She stepped inside to find hundred of eyes looking at her. She cleared her throat. “There is going to be an eclipse exactly one year from today, the first we’ve had in 14 years."

“Thalia Gray, if you don’t get up this very minute, so help me, I will ground you for a month!”

I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to my surroundings. Dim light was leaking in through the old, tattered blinds, lighting up my room. I rolled on my side looking at the clock. 9:30. Crap. I sprang out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

“Thalia!” My mom called again.

“I’m coming!” I yelled running down the creaky wooden stairs while throwing on a jacket. My mother and sister were sitting at the kitchen table watching me. “What?”

“You’re late, again!” Zoey said with a mouthful of food.

“I know, I know. I’m terrible.” I walked over to my mom and gave her a quick kiss on the check. “Bye mom!” I reached behind her and grabbed a piece of French toast and my bag.

“Remember you don’t have softball after school.”

“Right.” I said already out the door. I almost forgot about the eclipse. All the girls at school will be going crazy and all the guys will be so scared and nervous. Me on the other hand, I wasn’t too worried about it. Even if I found the man of my life and what not, he could leave as quickly as he came. Just like my dad.

When I arrived at school, all the halls were empty. I tried unsuccessfully to sneak into biology, but of course, Lilia, captain of the cheer team, ratted me out like every other time I was late. Then, of course, I received a four day detention starting tomorrow.

I threw my stuff down at my seat in the back and opened my text book. As soon as the teacher, Mr. Donningham, turned his back on the class, everyone broke out into excited whispering. My friend, Viviana, turned to me and said, “So did you hear about the eclipse?”

“Obliviously Viv, have I been living under a rock?” I rolled my eyes and tried to concentrate on the lesson.

“Well I didn’t find out until two days ago. Are you nervous?”

“That’s because you’re blonde. And no, not really.”

“Really? Because I’m a wreck about it. I mean, what if there’s no one in my dream?”

Oh here we go. “Viv, you’re going to be fine.”

“Thalia, would you like to share?” Mr. Donningham said glaring intently at me.

“Sir?”

“I assume you have something important to say if you were going to interrupt my class like that.”

“I’m sorry sir. It won’t happen again.”

He sighed. “I know you are all excited about the eclipse, but you still have to pay attention.” That was easy for him to say. Mr. Donningham found his soul mate forty years ago. Just then the bell rang and students swarmed out of the room as fast as possible.

The rest of the day blurred past. The whole school was focused on their dream and possibly meeting their soul mate. Viv would not stop talking about it.

“What if he doesn’t like me?” she asked.

I sighed. “Viv, he’s your soul mate of course he’s going to like you!”

“I’m just worried, you know?”

“Yes I know.” I said patting her on the back.

Then, later at lunch, I overheard Lilia and the rest of the cheer team talking. “I hope he has a 6-pack.” She was saying. “Oh, and green eyes and blonde hair!” She was practically drooling. I rolled my eyes.

When I got home, my family was waiting for me.

“Man, I wish I got to see my soul mate, but no you have to be fourteen and over.” Zoey said pouting into her soup.

“You only have two more years to go.” I said patting her back.

“Yeah, but the last eclipse was fourteen years ago! It could be twenty before I find my soul mate! I don’t want to be forty and see my soul mate as this weird old man!”

“Zoey please, you won’t be forty when the next eclipse happens.” My mom said setting my soup in front of me.

“I better not be.”

My mom sighed and turned to me. “Be sure you go to bed before nine. If you’re not asleep, you won’t dream.”

“I know.” I said looking down into the thick noodles in my soup. “Mom, what if I don’t see anyone?” Alright, I admit, I was just a tiny bit nervous.

“I’m sure you will see someone. Look at you, you’re so pretty and smart, who wouldn’t want to be your soul mate?”

I smiled. “Thanks Mom.”

Later that night, before I went to sleep, I took a good look at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t see how anyone could like me. I hated my curly, auburn hair. It was crazy and frizzy and was always in my eyes. My eyes, they were the worst shade of hazel; too much brown and not enough green. Then, my clothes were ratty and old. I’ve been wearing the same teddy bear pajama pants since the third grade.

I sighed, It’s going to be a miracle if I see someone I thought as I crawled into bed and closed my eyes.

 I woke in what seemed to be a clearing in the forest. There was fog everywhere which made it extremely difficult to see. There was a white stone bench in the middle of it all. There was no one here, but me. I sat and studied my teddy-bear pajama pants, trying hard not to cry.

“What’s wrong?”

I looked up, startled. There was a tall, tan boy standing in front of me. He had bright green eyes, messy, dirty blonde hair, and was skinny, but slightly muscular. He was wearing shorts and a white t-shirt.

“Nothing!” I said wiping the tears away. He smiled, and when he did, I swear it made the forest grow brighter.

“My name is Luka. What’s yours?” He said sitting beside me.

“I’m Thalia.” I said still completely dumbfounded. “What- I mean- where do you live?” I asked, the words stumbling out of my mouth.

“I’m sorry Thalia, I was told I couldn’t tell you.”

“Why not?” That wasn’t fair.

He smiled sadly. “All the boys are given instructions on what to say, we can’t give away to many details. I do have some information for you though.”

“Really? What is it?”

“I need you to remember some numbers for me, it’s important.”

“Oh, ok.” Was he serious? Numbers?!

“Ready?” I nodded. “55.7517 and 37.6178”

“How am I supposed to remember that?” I was getting mad.

“Just do it, ok?”

“Fine.” I said.

“Thank you.” He said and looked away. I went back to studying my pants when the little forest began to slip away. I looked at him a little frightened. Despite everything, I didn’t want to leave. “Don’t worry.” His voice began to fade. “I will find you-”

I woke up to the same dim light seeping in through my window. I sat there for a moment, reliving the dream when I remembered the numbers. I practically fell out of bed and searched high and low for a pen and paper. When I finally found one, I scribbled down the numbers:

55.7517 ~ 37.6178

“Thalia, what’s going on?” My mom said coming in my room. “Is everything ok?”

“Mom, I’m fine, I just had to write something down and couldn’t find any paper.”

“Ok,” She smiled. “So, how was the dream? Tell me everything!"

“Um, well his name was Luka and he had green eyes and dusty dirty blonde hair.”

“Very nice! How cute was he?” She sat on the edge of my bed and motioned for me to sit.

“Very, I guess.” I sat next to her and she wrapped her arms around me.

“Come on, you can do better than that! You’re not giving me much to work with here! On a scale of one to ten how cute was he?”

“Mom!” I pushed her arms away.

“What? It was an honest question. What did he say to you?”

“Not much.” I took out the piece of paper with the numbers on it. “Do you know what these stand for?”I asked showing it to her.

She shook her head. “I have no idea. Did he give you these?”

“Yeah. He said they were important.”

“Huh,” she said handing me the paper. “Well, I have to go get breakfast ready and you’d better get ready for school. Come down when you’re ready.”

As soon as I stepped in the school, I could tell everything was different. I got a lovely view of a new couple sucking each other’s faces off. New soul mates I thought. Then, couples that had been together for years suddenly broke up. When I finally found Viv, she was smiling from ear to ear.

“I’m guessing you saw your soul mate.” I said sitting next to her.

“Oh yes, Thalia he was amazing! His name is Ashton. He’s super cute! He has black hair and blueish-grayish eyes! Oh he was so wonderful!”

“That’s great! What did he say to you?”

“All kinds of stuff! We talked the entire time!”

“That’s great Viv!”

“How about