“Yes. Oh my God! We did it, we’re psychic.” We started laughing from our stomachs, feeling elated and a little bit freaked out.

“Let’s not get too excited. It might’ve just been a fluke. My turn.”

Jessica redid her ponytail. “You’re right. Phew. Let’s take a moment to cleanse ourselves.” We closed our eyes and waved our hands over our faces.

“I’m going to think of a color this time,” I told her. “Are you ready?”

She nodded and we lifted our palms so they kissed again. I took a deep breath and tuned into my psychic power, ready to broadcast to my best friend. “OK go,” I said, finding her gaze again.

“Green,” I whispered in my head ’til it itched. “Green, green, green, green, gr—”

“Green!”

I screamed and rolled off the bed onto the carpet, kicking my legs up into the air. “We’re psychic!” Jessica rolled off too, giggling. “We have powers. Oh my God. Shit! What are we going to do with them?” I was practically hyperventilating. I’d kind of always suspected I was a psychic, but to have it proved, using such scientific methodology, was almost too much to bear.

“We should try one more time,” I said, twisting onto my stomach to get off the floor and back onto my duvet. “Three out of three.”

“Right, do you want to project, or shall I?”

“You can.”

“What category shall we pick this time? Colors again?”

“Yeah, but not a too obscure one,” I said, already wishing I hadn’t tempted fate by asking for a third go-around. “Not, like, azure or something.”

Jessica chuckled, shaking the bed. “Azure. What a word.”

We lost ourselves into giddy hysterics for five whole minutes, which kept reigniting whenever we said the word “azure” out loud. My stomach felt as if I’d done a hundred sit-ups. “Oww,” I kept saying, clutching my stomach. “Oww.”

“Azure.”

“Stop it. It hurts.”

“Mine hurts too.”

“Stop making me laugh.”

“You stop making me laugh.”

“...azure...” And we were gone again.

By the time we’d calmed down, Jessica had green eye shadow rivers carved across her high cheekbones, and I was actually having to hold my stomach down to stop laughing.

“OK OK OK. I’m going to stop laughing on the count of three. One, two, three.” Jessica snapped her fingers and regained control again—sat up in a cross-legged position. I clambered to copy her. “Are you ready for me to transmit?”

“One two three, go.” Jessica launched right into it, even though I’d been about to yell, “Wait.” Too late. I met her face, tried to wipe my mind, and blusteringly attempted to tune into her frequency. I couldn’t get the word “azure” out of my head. The laughter threatened to spill once more. No no no, Fern, concentrate. I took another deep breath, listened for her whisper. Pink? No... Blue maybe? An inky blue? No...pink. I think it is pink.

“Pink,” I said hopefully, and Jessica’s eyes fell with genuine disappointment.