Prologue

My name is Natalie Howard, a high schooler, I'm 18 years old and I come from a family of four, have an elder brother who schools outside the country by scholarship, well. I have an average family, my dad works as a secretary, and my mom is a beverage store manager, I wish I was normal like everyone else, why is that? My dad calls it a curse my mom calls it a gift, this is my secret ability, my ability to read people's minds, it all started after a heart transplant when I was 6, three days after I had a heart transplant after suffering from heart disease for two years, my parents finally raised the fund for the heart transplant, and that put me into a dilemma, i was still in the hospital when it all started, the doctor was thinking I had an obvious resemblance with his dead daughter, why the nurse was thinking the doctor back ass looks sexy... I was so confused hearing their thoughts so loud, I had asked the doctor if I really look like his dead daughter, he was so surprised, he asked how I know and I told him he said it... My mom and everyone had denied him saying it, I was thrown into a complete dilemma, and mom was thinking I had ear issues, I had told her I don't even if it was from her thought, my mom had apologized to the doctor and had stayed with me asking questions. She finally figure out I was hearing people's thoughts, she had made it easier for me to differentiate between people's thoughts and voices, and she had made sure she keep it secret saying a gift like that was rare and could attract unwanted attention.

Dad had found out after I told my mom he was having an affair, I was 12, dad had said it was all a lie, my mom had look at me and I told my mom what exactly was in my dad's mind, my dad was fearing divorce, and he still love my mom, he was just playing his boss to get a raise so as to keep up with my mom in the contribution to the house, it had came as a shock to hear me say it, my brother was also amazed, Ever since then my dad has always believe I was cursed.

My talent had benefit and much disadvantage, I couldn't concentrate on my studies anymore, I couldn't have friends, and I had to transfer schools once a person discover my gift, after transferring two schools, I finally adapt to it, I had headset, music prevent people's thoughts from disturbing me, but what of in class during teaching, I use my headphone under my winter cap following only what was written but not the words it was hard coping, my mom had helped too, she had reconstruct my room to be sound proof, and make sure I'm always in human free environment, our house was restricted to human movement, and my brother had help too by stopping his friends from visiting but this happened after yelling every time people's thoughts get crowded in my head, I fainted two times because of it, the first one happen in my first school when all my classmate have different thoughts and I was hearing it all, I yelled and fainted, my mom had rush out to school clinic after she had, I had complained to her everyone was making noise, everyone present to visit me was shocked except my mom, and my brother, he had brought his friends as usual and I was working on my homework, they wouldn't stop disturbing with various thoughts, I had stomped into the sitting room and insulted them for making noise which there wasn't, they were playing scrabble, but their thoughts was so loud,

Jeremy was crushing on my brother's crush despite knowing my brother's feelings for the girl, John was so eager to beat my brother in the game, Chris was planning to steal my brother's cracker and Ethan was imagining kissing me, I had said it to their face, every single thing they were thinking, all of them at that time was calling me a psycho lunatic, and I had yelled at them for that asking them to get out, I had left my brother speechless, not because of that, but because of his friends thought, his own thought was rowdy, steal his cracker? Crushing on his crush? His mind was full of questions which were disturbing, for a 17-year-old boy he was huge and bumpy, we had that trait, I was huge too, and I was 15 at the time, my brother Nathan was a complete replica of my dad and I took after my mom, the bus stop and I felt a tap, the man's thought crowded my ears with that, yes contact make the inner voice more audible I removed my headset to look at the man, he was a pervert, he thinks I had sexy thigh, I draw down my school skirt which only stopped two inches to my knees, I draw it down, on looking at him.

"The bus has stopped," he said bringing my attention to the bus, I climbed down making my way to school, it was the first day of resumption, glad I'm now in the last year of high school.