Monday, June 28

BEGINNING OF BOOK 4!!!

Chapter 1

Ivy’s cleaning Ruben’s house. He comes home while she is wiping the ceiling fan and starts talking about his psych appointment. There is a chat that gives up some background info for those who haven’t read books 1-3. They chat about art and why Ivy “owes” Ruben.

Tuesday, June 29

Chapter 2

Ruben comes back from his psych appointment (which he is quitting) and tells Ivy about his ideas while she makes him lunch. They discuss the money problem associated with Ruben’s idea of starting a business, and Ivy says she wishes she could help. Ruben goes to research grants, and Ivy goes to sleep in the beanbag chair. * Ruben wakes Ivy up and tells her to read Mr. Grant’s homepage. He asks her to think the proposition over about going to “perform” for the one million dollar prize Mr. Grant is offering for proof of “psychic talents.”

Tuesday, July 13

Chapter 3

Ivy and Ruben get on a bus to go to California. They meet Libby and Kevin, a mother and son who are going to Sacramento. Ivy discusses their plans with Libby while Ruben draws pictures with Kevin, and it provides some background information.

Chapter 4

The bus ride continues. Ivy draws a picture of herself for Ruben and then makes a wind to cool them off. She has a small dinner and goes to sleep.

Wednesday, July 14

Chapter 4 continues with the bus ride. Kevin is getting whiny. Ivy reminisces about the past. Ivy does a lot of sleeping and the day disappears, and she and Ruben watch the sunset.

Thursday, July 15

Chapter 4 continues. Around midnight, they get to Sacramento and Libby and Kevin get off. Ivy gives Libby Ruben’s friends’ address. She isn’t able to sleep and just watches the stars, feeling strangely human since she is in these circumstances just like anyone else, inside a bus. They arrive in L.A. that morning, and she and Ruben get off the bus. Ruben is excited to be in his new “home.”

Chapter 5

Ivy and Ruben go to Ruben’s friends’ house. Ivy goes to take a nap, and the other three go out for lunch. Ivy wakes up a couple hours later and has a glass of milk, and she meets the dog of the house. Then she goes out exploring and checks out L.A. She comes back and eats the food Ruben bought for her, and then she makes him promise not to promise any of her money to anything before she actually has it.

Monday, July 19

Chapter 6

Ivy deliberates over what to wear, and then discusses her anxieties with Ruben over breakfast. She feels reassured after their chat and takes off on her trip to the Grant Institute. She feels sick on the way and has to lie down. After she feels better, she completes her trip and goes into the building.

Chapter 7

Ivy goes to McLaughlin’s office. She shows him her stuff and he calls Grant and makes an appointment for tomorrow, which disappoints Ivy because she doesn’t want to fly back and then have to fly BACK in the morning. McLaughlin gives her a room on the sixteenth floor, where she meets Drew, the dude who pretends to be stupid to keep his job and go through files. He tells her about the other people who have applied, and she is interested in one whose test results were inconclusive but claimed to be telekinetic. She asks Drew over lunch to get the guy’s address for her. Then she goes back to Grant and goes to sleep.

Chapter 8

Ivy meets Tony Anderson, the guy who wants to do some tests on her. She goes out to dinner with him and they talk about her powers, and he is extremely interested in her telekinetic sense as well as the way she moves things. He does a lot of talking over her head and eventually talks her into a testing session the next day . . . following Ivy’s conditions, of course.

Chapter 9

Ivy watches TV, then goes out to meet Drew. She flies him home and he gives her the info on the dude named Max who is a supposed telekinetic. They discuss how she might react to another telekinetic person.

Tuesday, July 20

Chapter 10

Ivy has her testing with Tony and ends up walking out on him because she feels that he put her in danger. Then she does the Grant experiment, convinces Grant, and talks to him outside. A bunch of weird tabloid reporters take her and Grant’s picture. She thanks Mr. Grant and flies home, and she gives Ruben the check for a million dollars.

Wednesday, July 21

Chapter 11

Ruben immediately gets an account at a bank, then they go apartment hunting.

Friday, August 6

Chapter 11 continues . . . Ruben’s got a place to set up his workshops.

Saturday, August 7, thru Friday, September 3

In Chapter 11, Ruben gets everything set up, and Ivy helps him with his errands. She watches lots of movies, eats lots of chips, and learns to swim. Ivy feels depressed because she’s not very useful, and Ruben encourages her to think of a dream and chase it. She admits she wishes she could find someone else like her, and Ruben goads her into calling the number Drew got for her and getting in touch with Max. She does so, and then her world brightens as she’s happy to have a “mission” once again.

Wednesday, September 8

Chapter 12

The beginning details Ruben’s first day with his workshop open.

Thursday, September 9

Chapter 12 continues with Ivy going on her first plane flight. She finds she has a problem with claustrophobia. Ivy sort of makes friends with the mentally challenged lady beside her and is instrumental in calming her down when she freaks out over turbulence. She arrives in New York.

Chapter 13

Ivy gets her bag stolen at the New York airport, and she ends up getting the guy back for doing that to her. Then she goes to Max’s. * The two meet and Ivy manages to witness Max using his ability without his noticing. They go out to dinner and Ivy sees him do it again. They chat about many things and then Ivy offers Max a ride home.

Friday, September 10

Chapter 14

Ivy discusses her past with Max. Then she tries to give him a “telekinetic lesson,” which isn’t successful.

Saturday, September 11

Chapter 15

Max and Ivy go to the video arcade, and Ivy discovers that Max is using his powers to win in skee-ball without knowing that he’s doing it. She proves to him that he is doing it, and he suddenly understands how he can do it on command, by “aiming,” as he calls it. He does not adjust well to realizing that he’s attained his goal, and the two have a discussion about it. They test his limits, finding out that he isn’t strong enough to fly. Ivy takes him home.

Chapter 16

Max cooks dinner while sitting in one place, as practice. Ivy realizes that he can move hot things while she isn’t able to. She tries to teach him how to move things a little bit more gently because he just smashes things around. He challenges her, saying that his “technique” is just as good as hers and she isn’t his boss. After dinner, Max checks Grant’s Web site to see if he can get the prize too, but it is down since Ivy has claimed it and apparently it is a one-time deal. She announces that she wants to visit Nina soon.

Monday, September 13

Chapter 17

Ivy goes “home” to visit. She chats with Adele, then goes to try and find the others. No one is home. She visits with the ocean and then goes and finds Zeke in his treehouse. She meets Sharon, Zeke’s smart friend who plays chess. Sharon asks Ivy about the usual stuff, having heard a lot about her. Zeke details basically where he thinks everyone is. Then Ivy goes back to the house, chats briefly with Adele, and heads to North Carolina to visit Nina.

Chapter 18

Ivy visits Nina and sees the new baby, Erik. Ivy and Nina talk about their current lives and then Carl comes home, forcing Ivy to leave if she doesn’t want to piss him off. She goes to the playground and watches it get dark, then builds a sandcastle and plays on the equipment by herself. Then she goes around the city, turning her thoughts over. Finally she goes home and makes a wind art piece with the ocean, and she feels better. Weaver comes up to her and they take a flight together. When Ivy goes to bed Bailey notices her, and she says they’ll talk in the morning.

Tuesday, September 14

Chapter 19

Ivy does “errands” with Bailey. They meet up with Nina and take her away from recess to the deli. Then Ivy flies her back. Nina says she wants Ivy at her birthday party even though her dad is against that. * Ivy goes shopping for the parts her “family” needs and bullies Bailey into taking them back for her. Bailey goes home to nap and Ivy goes to play basketball with Bill. She plays and Bill is impressed with her ability. Then she calls Ruben. She gets the shocking news that a woman claiming to be her mother has sent her a letter asking to get in touch. Ivy flips out and goes to the store to read the magazine article in the tabloid paper Portal, and she sees all kinds of weird lies printed about herself but with enough truth to identify her to someone who knew her. She goes home in a haze and takes the magazine with her, and won’t come out of her room for her party. First Zeke tries to get her out, then Adele, but finally Bailey gets in there with her and talks her out. She goes to her dinner and tells about what she’s been doing.

Friday, September 17

Chapter 20

Ivy chats with Adele about her past, her hand in raising Tab, and Adele’s ability to predict the future. Then Ivy discusses her concerns about her mom really existing out there, and what she should do about it.

Sunday, September 19

Chapter 21

Ivy listens to Max bitch and moan about how hard of a time he’s having getting used to his new self concept. She teaches him some things that help him realize how fun and useful a power like telekinesis can actually be. Max tells her that he looked for other telekinetics on the Internet and didn’t find anything of interest. Then he wonders if she and he owe it to science to try and breed more of “their kind.” She does not react well to this and tells Max why that is not possible. Then they discuss the nature of their energies and Ivy teases Max about not being able to hold things still like she can. Then she tells him about finding out she has a mother who’s apparently human. Max imposes a deadline on her that she must contact her mother by the end of tomorrow if she wants to stay with him anymore.

Monday, September 20

Chapter 22

Ivy goes and calls her mother’s number and ends up chatting with her brother, Ben. He invites her to dinner and she accepts.

Chapter 23

Ivy takes a shower and ponders how she should present herself to her family. She thinks that she’d better hold off on using her energy, and she decides to block it the way she used to in school, then tries to cook a snack for herself without using it. She fails miserably, not even being dextrous enough to cook a grilled cheese sandwich. She decides she’s better off “natural” anyway. She makes a new sandwich with her energy and takes a nap. * She wakes up worried that she’s late, but she isn’t. She makes it to the address and her brother lets her in. They look at the photo album together. Then he shows her his model planes, and she shows him her “stuff” by making one fly. She tells Ben about how she made the tabloids, and then her mother comes home. When she sees her daughter in the house she faints. When she comes to, she asks Ivy to have a chat with her in the kitchen. They discuss all their questions and how her mother reacted to having a telekinetic baby. They begin making dinner together.

Chapter 24

Ivy asks more questions and tries to help her mom with the potatoes, but she’s very bad at it. She listens to her mother’s tale of how she and her dad met. Ivy finds out her real full name, and her birthday and age and all that. Ivy feels a bit overwhelmed after a while, and Ivy’s mom wants to explain to her dad about her before he just sees her in the house and gets surprised. So Ivy goes up on the roof to think while she waits for her dad to come home. Ben ends up calling her inside by accident, and she comes into his room and asks him what their father is like. Then they play a video game. When Ivy’s dad finally does come home, Ivy’s mom has her come out and talk to him, and then everyone eats dinner. Ivy’s dad wants her assimilated back into the family, saying she “needs” a whole bunch of shit, and she doesn’t feel too good about that so she escapes, leaving Max’s phone number for a future contact.

Chapter 25

Ivy chats with Max some more when she gets home. He’s still upset about the same old thing, having told his uncle about himself but not sure how to deal with it, or how to tell people in the future. Ivy tries to give him advice about how to think of himself. They then do some experiments, Max trying to lift things that test his limits, and then Ivy proves to him that Max’s energy can also go through walls, just like her own does. The chapter ends with Max wishing he had someone in his same boat to talk to.

Saturday, September 25

Chapter 26

Nina and Ivy take a flight and have a talk. Nina mentions that she wants to meet Ivy’s brother, so she arranges it. * They go to New York and Ivy and Nina meet Ben and his two friends. They go to an arcade, and then Ivy offers to buy them all hot dogs. She saves Ben and his friends from getting hit by a car when they carelessly run out in front of one. Then she and Nina toy-shop, where Ivy buys Nina a birthday present. * They go to Nina’s house, and Carl is not pleased with Ivy’s presence at the party but doesn’t say anything. He finally speaks out against her presence when Francis is seen to be catering to her by putting her candles on the cake and singing her name in the song with Nina’s. Ivy and Carl have a discussion, which finally settles some of their differences. The chapter ends with Ivy actually helping Carl out in the kitchen.

Sunday, September 26

Chapter 27

Ivy’s father calls her and invites her to lunch. They talk about education and Ivy’s past.

Chapter 28

Ivy helps Nina with her family’s yardwork, and she and Nina talk about the future and how Ivy can keep in touch with her past by writing letters.

Monday, September 27

Chapter 29

Ivy talks to Ruben on the phone and gets pissed off because he’s got a new partner. Then she goes to the post office with Nina and talks about her list while she waits to get a PO box. Nina urges her to go look for the two girls on her list. Ivy goes around and starts doing some research for her list, and goes to the gym to find Joe. She is unsuccessful but leaves a message.

Tuesday, September 28

Chapter 30

Ivy writes e-mail to her pals and flashes back to doing all her errands, getting all the addresses. She falls asleep while waiting for a letter to Mandy, Nicky, and Andrea to print. Max comes home and teaches her to copy and paste. Then Max flips out again and Ivy gets very upset and ends up leaving the apartment for the night.

Wednesday, September 29

Chapter 31

Ivy talks briefly to her mom on the phone and gets invited to Ben’s birthday party. Then she goes to a psychiatrist’s office with Max.

Thursday, September 30

Chapter 32

Ivy begins flying off into God-knows-where to try to find Holly and Cindy Jane Perkins, the last people on her list of folks to keep in touch with. She thinks about issues that make her sad and angry, and makes some little storms to relieve her anger. She thinks about her friends and whether she likes being the only person she knows who can do what she can. She concludes that she wishes she wasn’t the only one. At the end of this chapter, Ivy stops to eat and ends up meeting Nicholas, “Guardian of the Winds” as he calls himself.

Chapter 33

Ivy and Nicholas compare notes and talk on a multitude of issues. They make some winds together and talk about how they feel about it. Ivy decides she wants to keep in touch with Nicholas but she doesn’t know how.

Chapter 34

Nicholas and Ivy talk all day on many subjects, including God, fate, life, their own abilities, and family. They make “twin wind” together and Ivy gets extremely tired over the ocean, just barely managing to bring the two of them to safety before she falls asleep.

Chapter 35

Ivy wakes up and it is night. Ivy, encouraged by Nicholas, tries to climb a rock and fails, and then is lectured by Nicholas about giving up and cheating. Ivy goes out over the ocean and thinks about all her “handfuls of families.” When she comes back in, Nicholas tells her about the Zodiac symbols and what they mean, and then they stir the fire back to life. Finally Ivy invites Nicholas to check out her house the next day and they take a test flight riding on Nicholas’s trunk. Then they go to sleep.

Friday, October 1

Chapter 36

Ivy and Nicholas make the journey back to the house on the beach, flying on the trunk because Nicholas doesn’t like flying with nothing under him. They arrive and are met by Tab on the beach, and she gives pie to Ivy. Then they take the house tour and talk a bit. Finally Ivy takes Nicholas to meet Adele, and they suddenly hit it off, recognizing each other (Adele from dreams and Nicholas from symbols). Ivy gets really annoyed at this connection, feeling possessive over Nicholas and not willing to share him, so she leaves.

Saturday, October 2

Chapter 37

Ivy talks to Adele about Nicholas and how much of what he believes actually works. Ivy asks Adele if she “likes” Nicholas, which she denies adamantly. Then Ivy goes through the pool to her brother’s party. * When she gets there, her brother is excited to have her, and they talk about how the presents are not really what Ben wants but he puts up with it because he wants to be a good son. When they sit down to dinner, Ivy has lots of trouble twirling her spaghetti (she has to cheat to get it to wind around the fork like everyone else) and ends up feeling extremely self-conscious. Finally she accidentally tries to pass the butter with her energy, which really puts her on edge, and after her dad makes a half-assed comment, she escapes, lying that she feels claustrophobic and she’ll be back soon. Ben chases her and talks her into taking him flying with her. They have a chat about the family and about her power, and after they’ve loosened up Ivy takes Ben on a ride around the city, doing stunts he asks for. When they return, Ivy’s parents have talked over the problems and agree that she has to use her energy to feel comfortable, and they need some time to get used to it. They break the ice by having Ivy do the dishes and then they have dessert, taking photos so she can once again be in the family albums.

Sunday, October 3

Chapter 38

Ivy and Nina have a discussion and do a couple pebble sequences, and Ivy gets frustrated that Nina knows something about her future but won’t tell. She flies away to avoid saying anything rude to Nina, and cleans the kitchen and the kids’ room to blow off some steam, feel useful, and do something nice for Nina. Then she returns to the ground floor and “makes up” with Nina. Then she goes through the pool . * Ivy’s back in L.A. and wants to visit with Ruben, but when she returns to her old place, no one is home. She eats and swims, and then returns, and still no one is home to see her. She naps and when she wakes up Jesse and Ruben are there. She does not react too well to meeting Jesse, though he doesn’t seem to notice. She sits in on their “jam session” and becomes bored, so she leaves, annoyed with Ruben for not treating her specially.

Monday, October 4

Chapter 39

Ivy learns to brush her teeth and discusses hygiene with Max. They have a talk about various things and Ivy has a bit of a revelation about how very different she is and gets depressed. She holes up in Max’s room for a little while and then goes out to “pay back” the people who have accepted her. * She goes to Miss Margaret’s and chats about various things, and pays back the money she borrowed long ago. * Then she arrives home with toys for the kids, and they play. Adele yells at Tab and Thursday for playing with outside toys inside, and then Adele and Nina have a silent argument. Ivy gives a box of Tarot cards to Nicholas, and he says he has to put his mark on them.

Tuesday, October 5

Chapter 40

Ivy goes to Holly and Cindy Jane’s old barn and can’t find them, so goes to the nearest house and meets the Perkins’ mother. She is able to visit with Holly but Cindy is sick and can’t come down. Ivy gives Holly her contact information and they arrange to be pen pals. * When Ivy returns home she finds Nicholas and asks for her Tarot reading. He gives it to her and she is completely amazed by its accuracy. Nicholas notes several interesting/strange things about the reading and tells her that the “king of cups” (which she interprets as being Ruben) is important in her future. She says she was planning to visit him tonight anyway.

Chapter 41

Ivy runs into Sharon and Zeke while Sharon is on her way to an LGBT meeting. They discuss what LGBT is for and Ivy wishes she had something like it for people like her. Ivy then goes back to L.A. through the passage and hopes to find Ruben alone, but he is with Jesse. Jesse makes a comment that they have “company,” which makes her feel as though Jesse is claiming rights to the house and is calling her company. She mouths off to Jesse and he retreats, and Ruben, angry, demands that she justify her actions. Ivy stifles the urge to do very bad things to Ruben and is ashamed of herself and scared and upset, and talks to Ruben about it. Jesse is invited out by Ruben and he explains he didn’t mean she was company, and they make up, agreeing to “share” Ruben, and have a silly string war. * Ivy writes a letter to Drew while talking to Jesse about being unique. Jesse reveals he’s dyslexic. * Ruben demonstrates a dance and interpretation of music idea to Ivy and has her rate him, and they talk. * Ivy dreams about having a telekinetic technique class, and Ruben wakes her up. Her dream has caused a lot of shaking that Ruben thinks is an earthquake. Ivy thinks about her dream and realizes that she could help people with special powers by starting a support group, similar to the LGBT idea and Ruben’s workshops.

Wednesday, October 6

Chapter 42

Ivy discusses her “support group” idea with Nina while flying with her baby brother Erik. Nina reveals she can “read the universe,” which is a roundabout way of mind-reading if she really wants to. They clarify some of the purposes of the group. * Ivy has a mini-crisis while looking at herself in the mirror and realizing how different she really looks from regular people. She comes to the conclusion that she must be changing, that her mind is judging her looks from a human viewpoint she never had before. * Ivy discusses her mini-crisis with Adele and they talk about the group’s future and their responsibilities. Ivy decides to call her group “Handprints.”

Thursday, October 7

Chapter 43

Ivy and Bailey discuss “Handprints” while they shop in the mall. Ivy tries to convince Bailey to join while Bailey rejects the fact that she is very different. Ivy bullies her and rubs it in and finally makes her realize that she does belong in the group, and she reluctantly agrees. Ivy buys her a dress in which she looks very pretty as a gift. * At home again, Ivy is putting together the bookshelf she has bought for the house, and Adele scolds her for being extravagant. It is revealed that she must not cover the house’s needs or else she will cause people who need to stay to leave. Ivy agrees not to buy house gifts without consulting Adele.

Saturday, October 9

Chapter 44

Nicholas and Ivy walk in NYC with plans to meet with Robert and later Ivy’s parents. They abandon the plans because Nicholas wants to listen to wind. Ivy meets with Robert alone (after flying briefly on a whim), and they make some plans for Ivy’s new clubhouse, with an interesting jaunt into some facts on Robert’s life (i.e., he always wanted children and couldn’t have them). * After meeting with Nicholas for a moment, Ivy continues to her parents’ house, where she plays shock tag with her brother and her father gives her a book. * When she meets with Nicholas once more, he reveals that he’s stopped a crime with his wind. * Ivy is back in California and gives Jesse his first flight, under Ruben’s urging. They execute tricks together and Ivy takes comfort in the fact that she is still in charge of her relationship with Ruben.

Sunday, October 10

Chapter 45

Ivy and Nina go grocery shopping for party foods, for the debut meeting of their Handprints group. A lady criticizes Ivy for holding Nina’s baby brother the wrong way, and Nina ends up convincing the lady that everything is okay somehow. Ivy wants to know what she did since she apparently hypnotized her or something, but Nina refuses to explain and keeps walking away from Ivy and pretending nothing happened. Ivy gets exasperated and unintentionally stops Nina from getting away by holding her still, and Nina freaks out because she feels Ivy has bullied her. Eventually they straighten out how they feel about the situation and Nina reveals that she has the power to make the thoughts she places in others’ minds “sound” like their “gut feeling”; in other words, she can make them believe things. Ivy tries to make Nina promise she will never use the power on her, and Nina refuses and says she might need to someday. They call a truce and say that before either of them uses their powers on the other, they will at least say “please” first. * At the clubhouse, Nicholas, Ivy, Max, Nina, and Bailey meet all together for the first time. They have introductions, define the club’s purposes and what they each want out of the group, and “christen” the clubhouse with handprints in paint cemented with promises.