Chapter 15
We went back to our fifth class and made it through without any problems, but when it came time for my next study session I flatly refused to let Jace or Kat either one bend time. They weren't happy about my intransigence, but I'd managed to get a passable amount of homework done during fifth hour, and I was going to take a 'D' on an assignment before I was going to let the two of them wipe away one more memory that didn't need to be wiped away.
As luck would have it, I managed to get just enough work done in each class to continue to be ready as the next class rolled around. I've always hated working under a deadline, so it made for a stressful couple of hours. I was going to have a lot of catching up to do over the weekend because of all the stuff I hadn't gotten done during class, but that was what the weekend was for.
Kat ditched school right before PE started, which I thought meant I was going to have to fly solo, but apparently Mr. Lake and Ms. Stacker decided it was time to let the two different PE classes mix, so we were playing co-ed volleyball.
Predictably, Jace was chosen as one of the captains. Less predictably, he chose me as his first pick, which caused a round of giggling from the girls and a lot of rolled eyes from the guys.
"You just made a huge mistake. I've got to be the world's worst volleyball player. Our team is going to suck."
Jace gave me another lazy smile. "Oh, ye of little faith."
I hit him in the arm, but it was like hitting warm marble. I was pretty sure that I'd just done more damage to my fist than I had to his arm.
"Biblical quotes are less funny coming from you than they would be from other people, Jace."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I looked around before responding, but we were far enough away from the other captains that I thought we were probably safe.
"I mean quoting another faith's holy book when you probably had a holy book of your own at some point a few thousand years ago comes off as being kind of mocking."
"So what you're saying is that because I'm not like everyone else around here, I don't get to share their beliefs?"
"Wait, are you trying to tell me that you're a believer?"
"Yep. So were you once upon a time, Selene. Just because we can bend space and time doesn't mean we can't believe in a higher power."
He'd stumped me with that one. I opened my mouth to respond, and then just closed it again and shrugged. "With someone else I'd think they were trying to mock me still, but I think you may actually be serious."
"More than serious, my doubting Thomasina. Watch, I'll show you. Who's the worst athlete here—I mean besides you?"
I stuck out my tongue at Jace, but I pointed at Sally Westernaught, whom he promptly selected for his next pick. That proceeded for the next four selections as we filled out the spots on the floor and selected one more person to rotate into the game.
By the time the teams were formed up it was obvious that we had no chance of winning. We had five girls who were more likely to flinch away from the ball than hit it, Jace, and one other guy who I suspected was going to fake an injury shortly into the first game so that he could sit out and avoid humiliating himself.
The worst part of it all was that each person on the team knew that we were all losers. Jace surveyed the six of us and smiled. "I could tell you that I don't care about winning or that I just want us to all have fun, but that would be a lie. I want to win because a lot of the people on those other teams look like the kinds of jerks who would have picked most of our team last.
"I'm going to make you a promise. If you'll hit the ball when it comes to you, I'll do my very best to make sure that it goes over the net."
Sally shook her head. "I've heard this story before. We want everyone to play, don't just stand there, yada, yada. The truth is that you're going to get pissed if we don't hit it just right to set you up to spike the ball."
"I'll tell you what, Sally. I won't spike the ball until you tell me that it's okay to do so, and I don't really care where you hit the ball as long as you hit it. Try me—hit it the worst possible way you can and I'll bet you twenty bucks that I don't get mad."
"Fine, you're on."
We shook out into our spots and waited while the other team served the ball. As fate would have it, the first serve went straight at Sally, but rather than getting out of the way like she usually did, she got under the ball and bumped it…straight away from the net.
I figured it was going out of bounds and the other team was going to get the first point in what was going to be a very short game, but somehow Jace made it across the court and casually hit it back over the net.
I'd been watching Jace the entire time, expecting him to bend time in order to make it to the ball, but he didn't seem to be moving inhumanly fast, he was just somehow better than anyone else I'd ever watched. The other team had started out over-confident and they'd already started turning away from the net when they saw that Sally had hit the ball in the wrong direction. They never even saw Jace's return hit coming.
"Good hit, Sally—that's exactly what I'm talking about."
From someone else the words would have come out condescending, but not from Jace, he was obviously just happy that Sally had hit the ball.
"Dang it, I should have thought to stipulate that you had to keep your cool for the entire game. Okay, you want your twenty bucks now, or later?"
"Keep your money. I really do just want you all to hit the ball."
What followed was the most enjoyable series of games I'd ever participated in. One by one Jace converted us. Initially he had to call out our names to get us to go after the ball, but before long we were all enthusiastically bumping and even setting, something that most of us probably thought would never happen.
It was just too fun watching Jace race across the court and dive for the ball not to try and hit the ball when it was our turn. It almost turned into a game to see how far we could push Jace, how bad our bumps could be before he couldn't get them anymore.
That almost cost us our second game, but when the other team started talking trash, we all started pulling together. Once Jace wasn't having to move so far out of position he was deadly. It seemed like the ball always went exactly where he wanted it to go. Sally sent the game-winning serve over the net, and from there on out we were unstoppable. We didn't shut anyone out, but we came close a couple of times. By the end of the hour, we were playing the only other undefeated team and all of the kids from the other teams were gathered around to watch us.
We were losing rather badly despite how awesome Jace was—right up until Jace made it up to serve, at which point he sent one bullet over the net after another. He racked up points like the other team wasn't even playing, and then botched what should have been his last serve.
Sally had long before given Jace permission to spike the ball so we returned the other team's serve with a quick bump, set, spike and then rotated Sally into the server's spot.
She served, the ball volleyed back and forth several times and then I managed to set the ball well enough that Pete Parks spiked it home for the game-winning point. There was a big, cheering hug-fest after that. It felt like the geeks had risen up to destroy the jocks and popular kids—which we had, but we all knew that it never could have happened without Jace.
I drifted over to where he was getting a drink of water.
"You botched that last serve on purpose, didn't you?"
"Of course I did. I played two years of college volleyball a little while back."
"Did you amp yourself up back then too?"
Jace gave me a sheepish grin. "Sometimes. It depended on what the stakes were. Today the stakes were making sure that a bunch of kids got a chance to feel like winners. That seemed worth losing a few minutes' worth of memories that I'll never miss."
"Won't you? I talked to Kat and I understand more of what's going on. At some point you aren't going to be able to remember her anymore."
"Remember Kat?"
"No, the o
ther her—me, the other me. I know how you felt about her, I can see it in your eyes when you look at me. I don't want to be the reason that you lose your memories. They are all that you have left of her."
Jace took my hands in his and ran his thumbs over my skin in slow, almost sensual circles. It made my heart flutter and my mouth go dry, but I wouldn't have asked him to stop for anything.
"I'm going to lose those memories eventually, Selene. It's funny, but that's the only certainty of my—of our—existence. We may not die, but it's only a matter of time before we forget every single thing that's happened to us.
"I'm not going to live in fear, Selene. That may be what Kat chooses, but I'm going to live in a way that lets me be proud of the memories that I'm creating as I create them. I'm not looking forward to losing my memories of the time I spent together with you during your last incarnation, but I am looking forward to spending more time with you in this incarnation."
It was perfect. I could feel myself melting inside, but I tried not to make it too obvious. He might have been madly in love with me in a past life, but there was a part of me that was still worried that my coming on too strong would scare him away.
"I'll go get my clothes and then I'll meet you back here so we can wait for Kat to get back?"
"Sure. I'm not going anywhere, Selene."
The possible double meaning behind his words didn't go unnoticed on my part. Once again, he almost seemed to be reading my mind.
Most of the rest of the class had disappeared while we'd been talking, so the girls' locker room was basically empty by the time I made it to my gym locker. The last two other girls left while I was grabbing my clothes, and then I turned to find that Sandra was only inches away from me.
"I know it was you."
"What are you talking about?"
She gave me a cutting look. "Don't play stupid. You changed the note, rewrote it so that it looked like I was a complete slut."
My heart was racing. It was just the two of us, but I'd never been in any kind of fight before. I took a step back. "I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't do anything to your stupid note, but it would have served you right if I had. You've been nothing but nasty to me since kindergarten."
"It was no more than you deserved. I could always see the real you behind the innocent façade that you tried to fool everyone with. I always knew that you were nothing more than a scheming little slut who couldn't wait to get her hands on any guy I wanted."
"Do you hear yourself? You sound like a crazy person, Sandra. I'm seventeen years old and I've never had a boyfriend. I've never even come close. You've slept with at least half of the varsity football team—in what bizarro world am I a threat to you?"
She hit me. She'd probably meant for it to be a slap, but she hit me so hard that my shoulder hit the lockers. I never even saw the blow coming, and the force of it was shocking.
The old Selene, the one who had let Sandra get away with years of torment without ever standing up for myself, was cowering in a corner of my mind, but the new Selene, the one who was starting to believe she was on the cusp of becoming a demigod, grabbed Sandra by the hair and slammed her head into the closest bank of lockers.
Sandra stumbled away from me with surprise written across her features. I was shocked too—despite years of fantasizing and the incidents of rage lately, I hadn't realized I was capable of that kind of explosive violence. My surprise didn't stop me from stalking towards her though.
"Don't you ever hit me again or I'll do a lot worse to you. I'm tired of your crap. Things are going to be different starting right now. You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. You screw with me and I will bury you. If you have your friends mess with Ari or if you have your dad fire my dad, then I will come for you and make you sorry in ways that you can't even imagine."
She was beyond surprised now. I could see the fear in her eyes, but I couldn't blame her—I was scaring myself in that instant. I could see it balancing on the edge of a knife as she wrestled with her fear. For a second I thought I had her, thought that she was going to be scared enough to finally back off, but something pushed her the other direction and she curled her fingers into claws and practically hissed at me.
"I knew it. You can protest all you want, but now he is here and it's happened just like I knew it would. You stole him away from me before I even had a chance to get to know him. Every bad thing that I suspected about you is true, and you're kidding yourself if you think that I'm going to let you get away with this. Things are going to be different because I'm different. Don't say that I didn't warn you, Selene."