"When a Psychic Applies for College"

Author's Note: The character in this story is from a novel that I plan to write at some point. All you really need to know about her is that she has multiple psychic abilities, including the ability to talk to animals (sort of).


Tabitha glared at her computer screen upon seeing the latest supplement prompt she had to write:

“How will you contribute to the sense of community here at our college? (Limit: 300 to 500 words)”

It wasn’t quite the same as the other supplement prompts she needed to write, but it was similar. Not similar in subject, but similar in that it would be impossible for her to come up with an answer that was entirely truthful.

She wasn’t exactly in the mood to write it now, but then, she doubted that she ever would be in the mood. Reluctantly, opened up another word document. First, she copied and pasted the prompt into the document. Then, she spent the next ten minutes staring at the prompt until she was no longer even reading it, or even looking at it. Now, she was simply staring past it. There was only one thing going through her mind: How the heck do I answer that?

Her attention was diverted by some movement to her right. Glad for the distraction, she glanced to her right to find that her cat had jumped up next to her and was now looking at her inquisitively.

Despite the cat’s coloring (entirely black), her name was Tabby. This had been Tabitha’s mother’s idea, who thought it was funny--she never seemed bothered by the fact that she’d practically named her cat after one of her daughters.

Judging from the look on Tabby’s face, the cat wanted to speak with her. Tabitha was better at talking to animals since she’d discovered the ability, but she still required contact to at least start the conversation. She began to pet Tabby.

Actually, it would be a bit of a misnomer to call this a conversation. Technically, Tabitha would be directly communicating with Tabby, but they wouldn’t be talking, per se. Animals didn’t think in terms of words, so it wouldn’t be possible for Tabby to actually talk to her. Instead, Tabitha would be interpreting Tabby’s feelings; she would also help Tabby to interpret her words as feelings.

The first feeling Tabby sent her was one of curiosity. Tabitha decided that she was wondering what was annoying her.

“It’s this stuff I need to do for college,” Tabitha thought to Tabby.

Tabby felt confusion. Tabitha thought for a moment; it would be difficult to explain what “college” was to a cat, especially since Tabby probably didn’t have any idea what school was.

“Next year, I’m not going to be living here anymore. I’ll have to start living on my own. But first I have to convince someone to let me live at their place.” Tabitha figured that that was as close to an accurate explanation as she was going to get.

Tabby sent a sudden pang of hurt. Tabitha thought she could almost hear Tabby exclaim, “You’re leaving!?”

Tabitha smiled sadly at the cat. “Yes. I’ll visit, though, don’t worry. And I’m not leaving yet.”

There was yet more curiosity from Tabby, but this time, Tabitha knew she was wondering why she had to leave.

“Well, would you have wanted to live with your mother after you grew up?” Tabitha asked her.

Tabby seemed to understand that, but she would still miss Tabitha.

“Yeah, I’ll miss you too,” Tabitha told her. After that, Tabby didn’t seem to have anything else she wanted to know, so Tabitha stopped petting her and went back to (not) writing her supplement.

After about fifteen minutes, during which she’d managed about three sentences, she began to feel a little tickle in the back of her mind. That meant that she had a vision waiting for her. Unlike in movies, her visions didn’t jus over-come her all of a sudden no matter what the situation. She could actually ignore them for quite awhile, if she wanted to, but if she ignored them for too long, then it gave her a giant headache. Besides, sometimes they were pretty important, so she did her best not to ignore them. But she had learned that when she was seeing a vision, it looked like she was asleep. People tended to ask questions when other people randomly fell asleep, only to wake up a moment later. Fortunately, there was no one around except for Tabby, so she allowed herself to succumb to the vision.

At first, all she could see was a piece of paper--the text was blurry. But it slowly cleared, revealing itself to be a letter from her number one choice for college, Frances College. Once the smaller text became clear, Tabitha could see that it was an acceptance letter!

Once she made this realization, the vision ended, and Tabitha felt her eyes snap open. She smiled. Frances would accept her! Though her abilities annoyed her to no end sometimes, they did have their perks. She couldn’t believe she would actually get to know who had accepted her without even mailing the application out.

“Tabitha? How’re your supplements going?” Her mother had appeared in the living room and just like that, her good mood disappeared. Despite knowing that she would be accepted to her number one choice, she would still have to apply to all of the schools she had been planning on applying to. If she only applied to Frances, her mother would kill her. And it wasn’t as though she could tell her that she knew for sure that she would get accepted.

“Fine, Mom,” she grumbled. That seemed to satisfy her mother, who exited the room again. Tabitha begrudgingly resumed her brainstorming, even though she knew it would be for nothing.