“Ah!” I thought. I laid down my book, Moby Dick, for the seventy-second time. I love that feeling of satisfaction you get whenever you finish a book. It makes you feel so accomplished!
I had had ten minutes of lunch left, and had decided to spend it with my favorite book.
Now I walked to class with that sense of accomplishment filling my head with happiness.
I was the king of the world.
And then someone stuck out their foot and tripped me.
I fell.
Everyone started laughing. And all that sense of accomplishment that had floated around my head suddenly left and went to the bully who tripped me.
I decided to let it go. After all I could pummel him with my new found powers. Plus all the exercises we did made me feel great.
For the first time I looked over to my… foot-sticker out? Tripper? I don’t know. Anyways I examined him. Long, shaggy blond hair that fell to his broad shoulders, muscular arms, and a tanned skin tone. Then I looked at his eyes. They were green. And the only green I know that looks like that, belongs to a superhero. A very fast superhero.
The day flashed by in a blur.
A blur that made me think of Jake. A blur that made me feel angry and hurt on the inside.
In what seemed like no time at all, I was sitting on the bus. Harrison sat on one side of me and Carly took a seat to my right. When Jake saw the three of us, he made a big show of turning around and heading to the front of the bus. He took a seat next to Kevin and Karen. The twins. And I mean the twins! Kevin is the center on the football team and Karen is junior to only Carly on the cheerleading squad.
Jake went into an engaging conversation that was so loud everyone on the bus heard it. But no one, not even the bus driver would tell the coolest guy in school to shut up. In fact almost everyone looked, enviously, at the Twins. Karen flipped her auburn hair, while Kevin ran his fingers through his own matching hair, though his was considerably shorter. They listened quietly as Jake continued his loud conversation, stopping only to check if each other hadn’t died of boredom.
I probably would of died immediately.
And then, for the first time Kevin spoke. “Hey Jake! Good job with tripping up Kleinazoid earlier today. Way to go man!”
“Hey that freak was seriously freaking me out!”
The Twins laughter rang out through the bus. It was short, but to me it sounded like it lasted a million years. Jake purposely looked over to us. When he ran his eyes over Harrison and I, his face twisted in disgust. His ex-best friend returned the ugly face. I did the same.
But when Jake looked over at Carly his disgusted look fell into one of sadness, and perhaps hope. His green eyes softened and his gaze lingered on her for a while.
Carly noticed and returned his look with a rude hand gesture.
I stifled a laugh.
Jake’s face molded into one of complete and utter sadness. He turned and listened to the Twins voices. His face held a lost look on it.
He started nodding unconsciously, he looked like he was in another world.
I knew that look. It was one of defeat. I often see it in my competitors’ faces. Except in P.E. But never was there a face that held so much defeat.
I found myself feeling sorry for him. But then I waved the kindness away with the memories of laughter.
I suddenly noticed Carly passing a note to Harrison. I looked over at the note in his hands.
It read: ‘Tree house at 5’. We nodded. On the paper I wrote: ‘What’s with the note?’ Carly’s eyes skimmed over it. After a while, she wrote: ‘Jake has super hearing’.
My face fell when my eyes saw the words she had written. “WHAT!”
Every face in the bus turned to look at me. The Twins blue eyes sparkled when they saw me.
To make a long story short I spent the rest of the ride home being bombarded with spitballs. To make a short story shorter, it didn’t feel good!
At four forty-five I headed and took the walk to the tree house.
It takes me fourteen minutes and 38 seconds to walk from my house to the tree house.
As I walked I wondered what we were going to do. We couldn’t do fights, so I don’t see what else there was to do.
As I neared the tree house, I took out my amulet and placed my hand on the hammer. I felt the engravings for a while. Then I turned it around and examined the back of it, where the microphone and tracing chips were placed.
Exhaling loudly, I pushed the “Find” button on the amulet. A 3D map appeared. It showed Harrison in the sky doing flips, it showed Carly underwater, looking around at all the different species of fish and newt. There weren’t that many. It showed Jake at the…the…Tree house!
My heart thumping quickly, for some weird reason, I quickly pressed the ‘Call’ button of the amulet. Once again a 3D map appeared, I picked the amulet numbers that appeared in the sky and in the water. It answered immediately.
“What’s the problem, Darryl?” I heard Harrison ask.
“Jake’s waiting for us at the tree house!”
“What!” They responded simultaneously.
“Mission abort to...” At the last minute I remembered about Jake’s super hearing and I whispered the last word, “the washington monument.”
“Roger that!” And with that the call disconnected.
“Well...um...Bye!” Carly said before hanging up as well.
I turned around and once again opened the 3D map. I saw Carly and Harrison heading in the same direction. In fact Harrison was almost on top of Carly.
I shrugged and headed in the direction that they were heading. After all I didn’t know which way to go. My motorcycle had a GPS but I left it at the tree house.
I followed the direction they were going and found it led deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest.
For the first time I looked at where Jake was. I saw a large tall spire labeled: The Washington Monument. I wondered just how strong his super hearing was. I silently cursed myself for not bothering to think of that. That explains why Harrison and Carly were so close. And they weren’t walking along side each other, because they’d be tempted to talk.
I started running.
Harrison
IX
Something jumped on me from behind. A hand found it’s way onto my mouth. I regretted walking. I had started walking for no reason other than the reason that it just felt right. I could see the city in the distance. Then I remembered the person on top of me. I struggled to get the person of me. I made a fire sword and wielded it at the person. It was Darryl.
“Darryl? What do you think you’re doing?” I asked struggling to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“Sorry, Harrison!” he apologized. He looked around.
He picked up a small stone and threw it right in front of me. Carly sprang forward brandishing an icy sword of her own.
“Jeesh guys! Easy with the swords!” Darryl yelled, with his hands in the air.
“Ha...sorry ‘bout that.” Carly looked at the ground in shame.
“It’s ok.” He touched the ‘Find’ button on his amulet and a map appeared. Silently, he pointed to the 3D picture of Jake standing at the Washington Monument. My jaw dropped open. Darryl put a finger on his lips. The universal sign for ‘Shut Up!’. Carly and I both nodded. He drew a house and wrote ‘white’ on top of it. He pointed to me.
I nodded.
We entered my house and went straight to my room. But something was wrong. My chair was swivelled in the opposite direction. But I could see the few strands of blond hair poking on top.
“Jake.” I said, my voice colder than Carly’s icy sword.
“Hi Harrison.” he responded.
“How did you get here?
“I found the tracking chip. I put it on top of the Washington Monument.” He looked at Darryl as he spoke.
Darryl checked his amulet. Sure enough it said that Jake was at the Washington Monument. Darryl swore silently.
>
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I want to apologize to Darryl. It was an accident tripping him. But I missed the feeling of being on top.”
“What do you mean?” Carly asked. Her icy eyes softening a little.
“I feel so out of place in this group. I mean you and Harrison control fire and water. Darryl’s smarter than anyone in the history of the universe! But me I’m just the defense guy. What use am I?” He said sadly.
“Um...Your force field can withstand anything! You’re faster than light!!! You’re pretty useful” Carly smiled her eyes losing all of their anger, “Also you have crazy hearing and seeing powers! I want that!”
Jake smiled. His cheeks turning slightly pink. “Oh, and sorry Harrison for being a jerk.”
I punched him in the shoulder. “It’s OK! You’re not completely useless!” He laughed. A sound I hadn’t heard for a while. Darryl laughed as well. Soon, we were all helpless with laughter. A knock ended that.
“Harrison? You in there?” It was was my sister.
“Yes, Tessa, I’m here.” I said. “And so is Jake.”
At the mention of Jake’s name, my sister popped in excited. She jumped up and down. Her cinnamon-colored hair bouncing up and down. Her hazel eyes, wide. Jake rubbed his now pink neck and smiled, embarrassed. “Hey Tessa.” He said. Tessa squealed in response. Her caramel skin turning slightly pink. She stared adoringly at him.
“Well Tessa, we were just about to go swimming!” I said, “You could join us if you want!”
“I’ll be right down!” She squealed excitedly as she exited my room.
Jake turned to me annoyed. “Carly go see if my sis has a spare suit.” I interrupted before Jake could yell at me. I gave each of them a swimsuit. “The bathrooms are there and there. I’ll be in here.”
They left. I smiled.
Carly flipped into the pool. I went in via the zip line. Tessa dived in from the diving board. Darryl did a cannonball.
Jake went into the pool slowly. In the shallow end.
We laughed.
Jake blushed.
“Come on in Jake! The water’s great!” We teased.
His face turned redder than a tomato. He went into the deeper water slowly. Jake’s biggest secret was that he never learned how to swim. This was how I decided to repay him for being mean to us.
Carly gave him a mischievous grin. “I know why don’t we play catch. I’ll be it!”
Carly gave us to a count of twenty, and then we spread out to the furthest edges. For a while, Carly pretended to chase us. Then with an extra push of her powers she swam towards Jake. Jake panicked and started splashing around in the shallow area. Not thinking for a second to use his powers. Carly stopped right in front of him and said,
“Tag you’re it!”
Jake groaned.
He counted to twenty and opened his eyes. Tessa had stopped right in front of Jake. And I had no doubt that Jake knew about it. Jake made a fake swing for her and she dodged giggling.
While she was underwater Jake used his super speed to doggy paddle to the end of the pool. He tagged me and gave me an innocent smile.
We were drying off when Mum came into my room.
“Hi boys! Hope you had fun!” She smiled at Jake as she placed the tray of snacks on my living room table.
I stifled a laugh.
When she left I let it burst. Darryl joined me. We laughed for five minutes straight. When we wiped the tears from our eyes and picked ourselves up from the floor.
We were still smiling as Carly walked in with Tessa. “What’s up guys?” They chorused.
“Nothing much.” We replied in the same three-part harmony.
“Cool.” Carly said, “Hey! Can we have some of those chips and salsa in your living room Harrison?”
I had forgotten all about the snacks Mum brought in. “Sure.”
“Thanks” she replied. We all went to my living room to eat. To put it short it was terrible. After our first bite we all swallowed and then excused ourselves to the bathroom.
We vomited for a minute. Then we decided what to do with the salsa. Jake suggested to feed it to the dogs. Carly quickly reprimanded him for even thinking about it. Nursing his hurt wrist he deftly apologized. Tessa suggested burying it six feet underground. I said make it two feet. In the end we went along with Tessa’s idea. We took shovels and Tess carried the salsa down. A couple of times we had to hide from mum.
We finally arrived in the middle of the forest. A good distance away from the tree house. Carly, Jake, Darryl and I each took our shovels and began digging, while Tess looked around. “Cool! I want a tree house here! It could be purple!” We sighed and resumed our digging as Tess went on daydreaming about her perfect tree house. We both knew that she would get her tree house when she turned eleven.
When our hole was three feet big we called Tessa. She unceremoniously dumped the salsa in the hole. When we had finished piling dirt on top of it and were just leaving I noticed that I had left my shovel. I told the others to go on without me.
When I got to the clearing I noticed a blond boy sitting on top of the tallest tree. I was about to call out to him, when I noticed he was wearing a cloak. But the cloak was as dark as a shadow during the brightest hour. That, and the tentacles waving around as if they were alive. I gasped silently. I picked up my shovel and ran as fast as I could. I could feel his eyes boring into my back.
I didn’t say a word to the others when I got back. I was too scared. The boy was weird, he seemed to radiate fear and that was not natural. Not natural at all.
“Hey, Harrison are you alright?” Jake asked.
“Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?” I said nervously.
“I dunno. You just seem kind of jumpy!” He replied.
“No! I’m not jumpy! Or nervous or scared or anything!” I said, “Ha, ha…”
“Okay! If you say so.” Jake said.
I tuned out of the conversation after that. Nodding, occasionally. But mostly just watching out for that boy. That boy, with the freaky black robes. That boy, who seemed to bring up all my childhood nightmares. I wouldn’t sleep well tonight!
I woke up from my fifth nightmare that night drenched in sweat. I checked the time. Three more hours, until 7:00. This time I was too scared to fall back asleep. I crawled out of bed and tried to do something that wouldn’t remind of my nightmares. Anything that wouldn’t remind me of the tortures that blond boy gave me. Anything but being slowly torn apart. Anything but being skinned alive. Anything but being dumped in a tank full of flesh-eating piranhas. Anything but being thrown into a pit of nails and snakes. Anything but watching my friends die slowly. Anything but knowing that I would be next.