Title: Ear To The Wall
Fandom: Masterminds Series - Gordon Korman
Rating: G
Length: 570 words
Content notes: References to canonical gaslighting and manipulation by parents and authority figures
Author notes: Familiarity with at least the first book in the trilogy is recommended.
Summary: Randy listens to a conversation that he isn't supposed to hear.


The recorded voice drifts through the speakers, washing over the students assembled in the courtyard. According to that voice, Randy is supposed to imagine a breeze rolling through his mind, scattering all his concerns and blowing them away, but instead, he keeps replaying the conversation that drifted upstairs from the kitchen last night, when he was supposed to be asleep.

"The more time Randy spends with outsiders, the more of them will figure out that this isn’t a normal town."

His dad’s words were sort of alarming, but also sort of not. The adults love to talk about how special their hometown is, how friendly and peaceful, while ignoring the fact that, unless a kid can find creative ways to amuse himself like Randy and his best friend have done, it can also be pretty boring. But it was the word "outsiders" that made him keep listening. He’s never hung out with anybody who wasn’t born and raised in Serenity.

"That will happen whether he leaves now or in a year. I’m more worried about Randy’s questions for us than what his new classmates might ask him. He wouldn’t stop pestering me about what happened to Eli on their little biking adventure."

Mom was probably talking about the day that Eli had wavered on his bike and finally collapsed as soon as they rode outside the city limits, and the purple uniforms had scooped them both into a helicopter before Randy could even ask what was wrong. She’d been the one to suggest explanations like "dehydration" and "heat exhaustion" when Randy asked.

"He believed you, eventually. Especially when Dr. Bruder backed up your story."

"At least he’ll be too far away to talk Eli into any more mischief."

"The encouragement doesn’t matter as much as the subject’s response, and we already have plenty of data on that."

Randy was still trying to figure out what that meant when the bottom step creaked, and he raced back to his room like… well, like the Purple People Eaters were chasing him, helicopters and all. Eavesdropping might as well be a crime in Serenity, but if his parents and Malik’s dad have come up with a "story" that’s somehow different from the truth, keeping secrets that sound suspiciously like lies, they aren’t exactly falling in line with the community’s Essential Qualities, either.

The only thing that freaks Randy out more than all the talk about sending him "far away" (when?) with "new classmates" (where?) is the knowledge that those secrets aren’t only about him. As the meditation instructions drone on, he tries to imagine how Eli would react to a warning that the parents in town are hiding something important. The best he can hope for is an eye-roll and some version of, Yeah, right, Hardaway. They’re fixing up a spaceship in your secret sub-basement, right? Was it the same one that flew over us on its way to Roswell?

For all Randy knows, that’s the truth, and the aliens have chosen him and Eli as their newest test subjects. He’d almost be relieved at that explanation. It’s the easiest one to laugh at, for now.

Amber Laska hears him chuckle and turns her head to shoot him a glare. Randy sticks out his tongue in response, and she tosses her hair and closes her eyes again.

He has a feeling that, whatever happens next, he’ll need to keep his own eyes open.