I ARRIVED FOR my first day of high school fairly early. Evelyn met me at my new locker. Her brown hair was smooth and straight, and her swooping bangs disguised a long face. Her overly large lips were covered in hot pink gloss, and her fairly linear eyes were surrounded by lots of black eyeliner. She wore a sassy red and white sundress with brown sandals—making me feel a little frumpy in my green polo, jean shorts, and bright green Chucks. We walked to class together since we both had the same English class. I liked the teacher, and English was always a good subject for me.
Second period, I had P.E. It was the first time I had a gym uniform, which I self-consciously changed into. I seriously hoped no one would notice my flat chest or scrawny body. Our school gave students a choice between weight lifting, calisthenics, yoga, and sports. Because of this, all four years were mixed into one class for whichever track they chose.
We filed into the gym where the teacher had the lower classmen stand on the half court line and the upperclassmen on the three point line. After calling attendance, he paired us off randomly into teams for badminton. Since when is badminton a sport you played in gym? I patiently waited as he called names off the list, but found my mouth suddenly dry when I finally heard my name called off in an emotionless voice.
“Amelia Hoffman and Nathanial Peplow.”
Nate was my brother’s best friend and two years older than me. I had a huge crush on him when I was younger—really the only boy I’d ever liked. I thought I was going to marry him until he started to be mean to me about three years ago. I guess once he discovered girls it was inevitable he would realize I was one of them. The worst part about it was a part of me still wanted him, it was a little tiny part that I shoved into a corner to cry itself to sleep.
Reluctantly I walked up to Nate, who shuffled his feet and gave me a chagrined smirk without meeting my eyes. I shrugged, refusing to let my heart flutter in my chest. His brown hair had gotten longer over the summer and fell into his gorgeous eyes. I’m not talking emo, and certainly not Justin Bieber, just long and shaggy—and kind of hot. Hating myself for lingering on someone so not worth the effort, I pushed the thought aside. He only noticed my existence to make it miserable. Nate towered over me—trapped in a ten year old body everyone towered over me. He was solid with strong features that made me think of classic Hollywood leading men. “Not helping!” I mentally sing-songed at myself.
“What was that?” Nate asked, still not meeting my eyes.
Heat flooded my cheeks, and I muttered something noncommittal while staring at my scuffed up Converse. I have never been more relieved in my life than I was when Coach MacDonald assigned us each to a court and passed out our birdy-thingy. I threw myself into the game ignoring all the awkwardness and pent up emotions that wouldn’t leave me alone. Nate and I were nearly unstoppable. It almost seemed as if I could sense where he was. I knew if he would be there to lob the shuttlecock back or if I needed to, but I refused to linger on the strange awareness—calling it a sportsman sixth sense. Hey, denial isn’t just a river in Egypt!
At the end of the period it wasn’t a surprise we were at the top of the boards. Nate slapped me a high five and pulled me into a bear hug—my feet lifted off the ground as he spun. The minute his hand touched mine a bolt of electricity went through me, and when his arms closed around me it got worse. Every muscle in my body went rigid with pain. My skin felt like it was shrinking and my head pounded. My world shrank to a tiny pinpoint, and all I could focus on was the glowing presence that was Nathanial.
As he set me on the ground my rigid body turned to liquid and I slumped to the floor. I was only vaguely aware of him scooping me up and shouting something as he ran out of the gym. I expected him to take me to the nurse’s station behind the office, so I was shocked when I heard the school doors slam shut behind us. He placed me on the ground beneath a stand of trees across from the door, his hands gentle on my face.
“Come on, Lia. Come on back to me.” He said in a voice that echoed strangely in my ears. He pressed something cool and damp into my palm, and then ran his hands up and down my arms briskly. Slowly the pain receded and awareness returned, but my body still felt like Jell-O. “Take it easy, don’t try to move yet.” Nathanial said quietly, his hands never leaving my skin.
“Wha…” I mumbled, blushing at the slurred voice before swallowing and trying again. “What happened?” That sounded better, but my voice was weak and strained like I had spent too much time screaming.
‘Shhhh. It’s ok. I’ll explain later. You need to rest now.”
We sat for a few minutes—him murmuring and rubbing my arms, me trying to figure out what was going on. I studied his face from beneath my lashes, the concern in his eyes obvious. I concentrated on trying to twitch a finger or wiggle a toe. My heart raced in fear as I wondered how long until someone else came to help. Was I dying? Why couldn’t I even wiggle my toes? “Seriously, Nate, what the hell happened? Shouldn’t you take me to the nurse? I should probably go to the hospital.”
“Trust me, you don’t want anyone here to know about this, Lia. If you wanna call your mom and have her come get you, that’s fine, but you can’t tell anyone at school about this. I’m so sorry. I thought I had it under better control. I just got kind of emotional, and it’s harder to control when I get emotional…” He trailed off, looking at the ground miserably. He tore the head off a blade of grass and tossed it before looking back up at me sheepishly. “I promise I didn’t do it on purpose, Lia.”
“Whoa, wait. You haven’t called my mom or anything? What…” I trailed off, unsure how to finish the thought. I wasn’t good with confrontation. When I get angry my tongue seems to get tied in knots and embarrass me. It’s very hard to make a valid point in an argument while stammering. “What did you do to me, Nate? And why exactly can’t I go to the hospital?”
“Well, more or less, you just got struck by lightning.”
“Wait, what?” My brain stopped processing for a prolonged moment unable to wrap around that one. How the hell had that happened? “So basically I was filled 1.21 jiggawatts? Can I travel through time now?”
Nate shook his head with a crooked grin. “You haven’t gone Back to the Future, McFly.”
“Ok, seriously, how did it happen?” I felt something close to panic welling inside me. This was crazy, right? I couldn’t really move, and he was telling me he somehow generated enough electricity to render my nervous system useless? On the freak-out meter—I was burying the needle in the red.
“I don’t really know how it happens, but sometimes when I get excited I get this… charge, I guess.”
“Electrifying!” I snapped a little hysterically. I wasn’t sure if this was my standard brand of sarcasm meets smart ass or my brain attempting to deal with something that should be dismissed. I should have been calling him crazy and running away, right? Oh wait, I could barely move my legs! “Seriously, Nate, this isn’t right. I think maybe we should call my mom. Like, now. Or better yet—an ambulance.”
“Will you give me five more minutes? If I don’t have you on the mend by then, I promise to call anyone you want me to.”
I stared at him for a long minute, trying to radiate all my fear and panic. He merely pleaded me with his eyes, and somehow I caved, nodding. I knew it was crazy, stupid even, but part of me said I should stick it out.
He didn’t speak. He slowly untied and removed my shoes, then my socks. Holding my left foot in his lap, he rubbed in small circles starting at my toes and slowly moving up my leg. Once he got to my lower thigh he dropped the leg with an awkward clearing of his throat and started on the other. As his strangely gritty fingers gently kneaded my flesh, there was a strange tingling. At first I thought it was more of the weird electricity he generated, I considered pulling away. Then I realized this tingling was more of an awareness of his touch, a feeling I didn’t want to analyze. But whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not, something was different between Nate and me.
Thankfully, I didn’t h
ave time to dwell on it before my skin prickled with pins and needles as sensation returned. I clumsily climbed to my feet with Nate’s help. After some uncoordinated shuffling, I was able to move on my own. I pulled away from him uncertain what to think.
“I’m so sorry, Lia. I didn’t realize you were so close.” Close? He hugged me! How much closer could I be? “I think you should stay away from me for your own safety.” Nate said, meeting my eyes for the first time in this whole ordeal. I loved his eyes. They were a warm brown, like sunlit honey, with a vibrant yellow-green ring around his pupils. A girl could lose herself in those eyes. I gave myself a mental shake, refusing to allow a gooey moment with the boy who just about killed me a short time ago. Besides, I didn’t want to be that girl—the one pining away for some guy who never even noticed her.
I glanced at my watch, though it felt like we’d been out here for ages, it had only been about fifteen minutes. But I was late for my algebra class. Of course it wouldn’t break my heart to miss that class all together, but good girls, like me, don’t skip class. Since we’d rushed so hastily from class, we were both still in our gym uniforms. I seriously contemplated calling it a day and seeing if my Mom would come get me, but I had some classes in the afternoon I was really looking forward to. Besides, I wanted to be lab partners in Biology with my friend Mariah, and if I didn’t show up, the teacher could pair her up with someone else.
“We should go get dressed. How much trouble do you think we’ll be in?” I asked as I started toward the school doors.
“Not as much as we would be in without these puppies,” he said, pulling a pad of hall passes out of his pocket and gesturing to them like Vanna White.
“Do I even want to know how you got those?”
“A good thief never reveals his sources.”
“Too bad you aren’t a very good one. You’re not even on par with a juvenile delinquent.”
“Oh, you will eat those words, Miss Hoffman. I’ll give it to you from both barrels until you quiver with awe at my skillz.”
Our eyes met as we both grinned, and we stood with just an open door between our bodies. For a brief moment, I let myself imagine his heart fluttered as much as mine. In that moment, I could picture us holding hands and sharing an ice cream sundae. Then my more realistic side surfaced reminding me of my mixed feelings. Not that long ago, I would have run away, if I could have moved, yet here I stood entertaining impossible fantasies. I cleared my throat and awkwardly said goodbye before heading into the girl’s locker room.
I pulled out my regular clothes, and began to peel off my uniform. That’s when I noticed the smears of dirt on my arms. I remembered the coolness in my hand and on my arms as Nate rubbed them, and how I felt a surge of energy at the touch of his slightly gritty fingers. A quick glance down at my legs showed more smears there. So it wasn’t some weird connection. It was something in the dirt. I mentally tossed ideas around as I scrubbed the worst of the dirt off, and dressed quickly. I brushed and recaptured my hair in its elastic band, then swiped on some Chapstick before grabbing my books and reluctantly headed to math class.
By the time I got there, I had missed nearly half of it, but Nate’s forged note said I’d been in the nurse’s office. The teacher, Mr. Orson, looked like the music teacher from The Simpsons, bald on top with long white hair and beady eyes. Trying not to giggle imagining him in a grey sweater and bow tie, I grabbed an open desk near the window and tried to pretend I had a clue what he was talking about.