Little Did She Know

Cameron had always lived a regular (and in her opinion extremely boring) life in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was remarkably intelligent but was viewed as an anxious individual. She dreamed of one day being someone extraordinary but never realized just how fast her normal teenage life could change.

As Cameron stared out the window while on the bus from a basketball tournament, she noticed something odd. There was a shooting star outside in the middle of the day! "How odd" she thought figuring it must be something else but figured there was no harm in making a wish. "I want my life to change in some major way" Cameron mutters under her breath realizing that this was merely a childish legend, her wish would never come true.

The next day Cameron awakens to find that everything seemed perfectly normal and felt disappointed in herself for believing something so incredibly foolish. Then her mother walks into Cameron's bedroom "Cameron come get breakfast" she says cheerily. But Cameron notices just above her mother's head there is almost a cartoon-looking thought bubble with writing in it! In this bubble Cameron sees writing in sharp red letters: "This lazy teenager, is it really that hard to get up on time? Cameron gasped sharply realizing that her wish had somehow been granted. Her mother looks confused "Are you all right sweetie?" she asks quickly. Cameron startles and responds "Oh, I'm fine mom, I just um... haven't put on my glasses yet. I could barely see you!" "Oh, okay then" her mother says but Cameron can see she is really thinking "Seriously what is wrong with this child?!".

Cameron gets ready for school. She realized that everything was changing now but tried to focus. There was a major science test that day and if she got an A, she would make a 4.0 GPA for the first semester of 10th grade. Her enemy Logan (whom maybe she didn't completely hate) had the same stakes for this test. Cameron and Logan had a rivalry going back nearly 10 years. It all began when the two of them were precocious students, already knowing how to read at an advanced level in 1st grade.

  Logan and Cameron notice each other walking into Mr. Jones' room that day and Logan decides to smack talk a bit (it helped him prepare for tests). "Cameron" he said slyly "I bet you are ready to get that 3.99999 GPA again!". Cameron rolls her eyes dramatically and realizes that... she could now read his thoughts! She sees the thought bubble above his head and reads "Cameron, I really like you and I hope you do well on this test". Cameron miraculously manages to show no sign of shock and responds sarcastically with "Of course! I sure do love to fail major tests!" Logan follows that with an exceptionally drawn out sigh. Mr. Jones shouts for everyone to get to their seats so they can start their biology test.

As Cameron starts to answer the first question, she realizes to her horror that the thoughts of everyone in the classroom are perfectly visible to her.

She gets up to ask Mr. Jones if she could go to the nurse claiming she had a headache, but to no avail. Cameron’s high stress life made for an extremely panicked moment in the classroom and she could not focus during the rest of the test. She could sense her imminent failure, proving Logan right. After finally getting through its Cameron texts her mother claiming she has a migraine and needs to go home, thankfully her mother agrees as she is also a migraine sufferer.

  As Cameron arrives at home, she realizes that she needs to tell someone about this. She grabs her phone and texts her best friend Dawn “I am going insane” and proceeds to explain everything that had happened that had happened in that last day of insanity. Dawn responds with “Um, Cameron are you okay?” At this point Cameron really starts to realize the impact of one frivolous, stupid wish. No one in their right mind would ever even consider believing her. The girls decide to meet at Starbucks the next day and attempt to discuss.

  Cameron walks to Starbucks trying not to have an anxiety attack. She talks to the barista ordering a mocha as usual. Dawn arrives shortly thereafter and says to Cameron, “So you say you can read thoughts, right? What am I thinking right now?” Cameron responds sadly “You think I am completely off my rocker (the exact phrasing in the bubble) I know you don’t believe me but I don’t understand it either.” Dawn stares back in awe. “Cameron, we need to get this checked out by a psychologist or something, this is amazing!” Cameron just nods slowly, “All I wanted was a change in my life, this went way too far”. The girls decide to attempt to explain the situation to Cameron’s mother but she kept insisting that they were playing an elaborate prank on her.

  They manage to convince Cameron’s mother to set them up with a psychologist in the off chance that any of this could be explained. The appointment with Dr. Yang was set for 2 weeks from that present date. Cameron kept trying to live a normal life like always, but found it hard to even make small talk anymore. She got incredibly anxious over every little thing and started to have panic attacks. A week later she became depressed, no one thought to talk to her. They all assumed the overachiever finally went completely insane. Finally, the appointment with Dr. Yang came. Dawn went along with Cameron for moral support, but neither knew what to expect. In Dr. Yang’s office he starts off by saying that he had been told Cameron was having delusions and tells her she has Schizophrenia, a medical condition. He explained that it could be controlled by medication but her life would be different now. She desperately tries to explain what is happening but he slowly picks up the phone, mutters a few words, and tells Cameron “We are going to bring you to a place where you can get better”. Cameron is horrified, she doesn’t belong in an asylum! Cameron takes off running down the street, never stopping. She has never been heard from again.

                                    A short story by Aspen Ollila