Bugged Out!

by Matthew Porter

“Shut up, Nick,” snapped Abby. “What if he stays like that? Oh, no...oh, no.” Her pacing and breathing quickened.

  A few more seconds passed, and then Jeremy fell to the floor with a confused wince.

  Nick bent over him and stared him in the face. “You know what? You’re not worth the trouble. See you around.” He triumphantly walked away.

  The three of us followed him, leaving Jeremy behind.

  ***

  Nick was silent in the car when we left the school. He didn’t joke around like he normally did; just stared at the road. He drove to Old Shiloh and skidded to a stop in an empty parking lot. He pounded his fists on the steering wheel. “Guys, I’m sorry I almost lost it. It’s just that guys like him…guys like him make me so mad!”

  “It’s okay, Nick,” said Abby quietly.

  There was a long, awkward silence before Nick spoke again.

  “Kelly, J-Man, I have to tell you something, but I don’t want you to think any differently of me, okay?”

  Abby looked at him intently. “Nick?”

  “It’s okay, Abbs. I’ve got to tell them this.”

  “We won’t look at you any differently, Nick. Why would we?” said Kelly.

  “Does it have to do with what Jeremy said you did?” I inquired.

  He hung his head down, looking ashamed. “What he said was true. I did get kicked out of my old school for fighting. But you need to know the whole story.” He took a deep breath. “There was this kid, Kyle Anton. He was one of those entitled kids who bullied everyone. He would get away with it, too, just because of who his family was. Kinda like Jeremy, but worse.”

  He had to take another breath to compose himself. “Anyway, there were a few girls around school who said that he harassed them and stuff, but he never got in trouble. One day, he went past verbal harassment and tried to attack Abbs. He was assaulting her in a little alleyway between the high school and the middle school. I heard her scream as I was walking back from lunch. When I saw him throw her on the ground, I lost control. I ran and grabbed him by the neck and told Abby to run. I kept slamming this kid into the wall and punching him in the face. After the police came, I was still hitting him. I couldn’t stop. I actually blacked out. It took three police officers to get me off him, and they threw me into the back of a police car in front of the entire school.”

  There was another long, awkward silence. Then, he continued. “Well, it turned out that this kid’s dad was the mayor of Inverness, and of course he believed his son over everyone else. He said that I assaulted Kyle for no reason, and that I told my sister to lie and say it was because he attacked her. Kyle’s dad gave me an ultimatum: move away or go to jail. So, I moved. My family stayed behind, because my grandma’s sick and my mom’s taking care of her. Abbs was the only one who came with me, because I refused to let her go to school with that creep. So, now you know. Please...don’t think any differently of me. I didn’t want to tell you because…I’m ashamed of it, and I didn’t want to lose your friendship.”

  “Nick, we do not look at you any differently,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. I didn’t know how to console friends who were upset, mostly because I’d never really had friends before this.

  “Of course not,” said Kelly softly. “Don’t worry, we’re still your friends. And there are a few crucial things you didn’t consider. First, you were protecting your sister.”

  “It went way past protecting her,” he said, still looking down at his feet. “I let my anger control me, and the kid ended up in the hospital.”

  “You did it for me, though,” Abby said, patting Nick on the back. “We’ve gone over this a million times…”

  “I still shoulda handled it better,” Nick mumbled.

  “That brings me to another point,” said Kelly.

  “What’s that?” he asked, finally looking up. He looked at her through the rear-view mirror, and his face was flushed with guilt.

  “That’s in the past,” she answered. “Don’t dwell on it, learn from it. Look at who you are now. You were chosen to be an agent of the Edania Organization. And to top it all off, you were chosen to be the leader.”

  “So, we’re still friends?” he asked.

  “Of course we are.” She put her hand on his shoulder.

  “Thank you,” he said, touching her hand. He looked back at me. “We still cool, J-Man?”

  “Yes, of course. The three of you are the only friends I have. I am not going to end it because of a choice you made before we even met.”

  He gave me a rather hard high-five, and my hand went numb.

  “Nick, I’m glad you told us. It means a lot that you trust us enough,” said Kelly.

  He smiled weakly. “I felt like I had to tell you so you didn’t get the wrong idea about me.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that,” I said. “I can see you are a good person—better than me, anyway.”

  He turned around and lightly punched me on the shoulder. “Hey, that right there, that’s the bullies talking. You’re a great person. Don’t sell yourself short.”

  “Sorry,” I said, and I looked down at the floor.

  “Don’t be sorry,” Nick said. “Just lighten up on yourself.”

  I had spent my whole life being bullied by others. I was not used to having a friend build me up like that. Well, Kelly always tried, but she’s a female, and it was different.

  “Hey,” Kelly said. “Let’s go do something to get our minds off all this.”

  “Let’s go bowling!” Nick said, getting out of his sad stupor.

  “That was a quick turnaround,” said Kelly.

  “Just following your advice,” he said, starting the car back up.

  Abby smiled. “I’m game. It would be nice to focus on something else.”

  “The best bowling alley is in Force-Pointe City near the high school,” said Kelly.

  Nick sped out of the parking lot and drove back to Force-Pointe Island.

  ***

  At the bowling alley, we got a pizza and some soda before we began our game.

  “We need to hurry up and eat so I can show you guys how it’s done,” said Nick excitedly.

  “Oh, please, I’m going to mop the floor with you,” Kelly said playfully.

  Kelly grabbed for her drink, and a purple light shot out of her hand and surrounded the glass, and it floated about a foot above the table. With a gasp, she quickly put her hand to her side, and the glass slammed on the table and shattered. Soda spilled all over the table. Kelly, Abby, and I quickly stood, but Nick was a little too slow, and the soda poured all over his lap.

  “Cold! That’s cold, that’s so cold!” He shot up and began dancing around.

  Kelly’s face turned crimson. “I am so sorry, Nick. I couldn’t help it. It just happened.”

  Nick stopped dancing around and grabbed several napkins. “It’s n-no problem. It isn’t your fault. Plus, I hear looking like you peed yourself is in this year.” He cringed a little.

  Kelly’s embarrassment aside, it was intriguing to see her power in action.

  I had never actually bowled before, and the idea of wearing someone else’s shoes made me want to die. But they convinced me to give it a try. It was much more fun than it sounded, and it really did get our minds off everything, if only for a little while.

  The game came down to the final round. Kelly and Nick were tied.

  Nick chuckled. “Nobody can beat King Nick at bowling. Bring it on, Ms. Kelly.”

  Kelly smiled. “We’ll see…”

  Kelly bowled first and got a spade…or was it a spare?

  “Beat that, Your Majesty.” She sarcastically bowed.

  “Piece of cake,” Nick said as he grabbed his bowling ball.

  He bowled and knocked down nine pins on the first shot. As he began running to throw the second ball down the alley, something happened to my vision. It was like what had happened in the Trial Room’s forest, as if I had night-vision goggles on. I could make out everyone’s heat signat
ures and every slight movement.

  My vision zoomed in on Nick’s hand as he threw the bowling ball. A target appeared on his wrist. A robotic voice spoke inside my head. “Variation in technique, variation in technique. Inferior form.” I saw a dotted line go down the alley before Nick let go of the ball. The line veered to the left and into the gutter. When Nick let go of the ball, it followed the dotted line perfectly into the gutter. When I heard the machine taunting Nick for getting a gutter ball, I snapped out of it, and my vision returned to its normal pitiful self.

  Kelly jumped for joy. “What do you have to say now?”

  “Eh, beginner’s luck,” said Nick.

  “I beat you fair and square,” she said, getting up in his face.

  “Yeah, whatever,” Nick mumbled, though he had a grin on his face. “Good job, Kelly.”

  A woman’s voice broadcast from the speakers. “Attention, bowlers, we are now closed. Please make your way to the reception desk to return your equipment. Thank you, and we hope to see you again soon.”

  Nick threw his hands down. “Aw, man. I wanted to bowl another game.”

  “Why? I would just beat you again,” Kelly snarked.

  He chuckled. “All right, you want some of this, Ms. Kelly?”

  She stood up straight like she was trying to intimidate him. “Bring it on, King Nick.”

  We went to turn in our shoes. I sat next to Nick to take mine off. “I saw what you did,” I said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “What did I do?”

  “You let Kelly win. My Scan ability showed me that your last throw was different from the others.”

  He looked away from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. My hand slipped. Just a bad move. She won fair and square.”

  “Whatever you say,” I said, but I didn’t believe him.

  The fun night came to an end, and once again, I couldn’t sleep. My mind was haunted by the grisly sound of those insects and the piercing scream of the girl who’d been captured by them.

  CHAPTER 9:

  attack of the giant mantis—james

  Everyone’s abilities were getting more out of control day by day. Nick, for example, almost burned half the boy’s locker room to the ground.

  It was Tuesday, and we were in the locker room after physical education. Max Cassedy was harassing Nick about assaulting the ne’er-do-well back in California.

  “Did you ever go to court for that whole attempted-murder thing?” he taunted. “Did you threaten the judge, too? That’s probably why you aren’t in jail right now.”

  Nick slammed his locker. “Get out of my business before you regret it,” he threatened.

  “Ooh,” Max mocked. “Am I going to end up in the hospital, too?”

  Nick got close to Max and glared up at him. “You might if you don’t shut up.”

  Max smiled idiotically. “Calm down, little man. We wouldn’t want you to get expelled, would we?” He patted Nick’s shoulder and walked away.

  “Those guys make me so mad,” Nick muttered, clenching his jaw. With no warning at all, a fireball formed in his closed fist.

  “Um, Nick?” I said, trying to get his attention.

  “What?” he said, still glaring toward Max, who was leaving the locker room.

  “Do you not feel that?” I said in amazement.

  He looked at me and cocked his head. “Feel what?”

  I pointed down at his hand. His eyes widened as he looked at the glimmering flame.

  “What the heck?” he said, turning around and putting his fiery hand into his locker so nobody could see it.

  “At least you finally made a fireball,” I pointed out.

  He looked at me as he waved his hand around, apparently trying to snuff the fire out. “This is the perfect time for that, huh? How do I turn it off?”

  I shrugged. “How would I know? I’ve never created fire in my hand.”

  He let out an exasperated sigh and looked around the room. His alarmed face eased when he looked across the room. I followed his gaze and saw the large green tin trash can in the corner.

  He quickly looked around. “’Kay,” he said. “Nobody seems to be watching.”

  “Wait, you’re not thinking of—” Before I could finish my sentence, he tossed the fireball across the room and it landed in the trash can with a loud ping.

  He sighed with relief. “Doesn’t look like anyone noticed.”

  “Good thing, too,” I said, amazed that nobody seemed to see the bright ball of fire whizzing across the locker room. “How would you explain that?”

  He started to sniff the air. “Hey, do you smell that?”

  I breathed in and wrinkled my nose at the quickly intensifying smell. “Yes, it smells…like something is burning.”

  It turned out that somebody had thrown all their old homework away in the trash can, and the contents had quickly caught fire.

  We looked at each other in panic as the other boys in the room started to scramble around. The room got dark as smoke billowed from the trash can.

  The fire alarm blared, and suddenly water poured from above us as the sprinkler system turned on. Everyone who had been in the locker room had to go outside soaked to the bone with our dry schoolmates. After the fire department came and everyone in the locker room was questioned, Nick looked drained and anxious. I didn’t blame him. If I had almost burned the boy’s locker room down, I’d be pretty on edge, too.

  Speaking of fires and explosions, Kelly had her own Segol-related crisis. That morning, she volunteered to help Mrs. Jackson, the chemistry teacher, get all of the materials ready for the day’s experiment about which substances were stable in water and which were not. A bucket of water was on the floor underneath one of the lab tables. Kelly accidentally caused a jar of solid sodium to float in the air. She tried to gently set it down on the table, but in her panic the bottle moved away from her and hovered over the bucket. She tried to grab the jar, but when she reached for it, it fell into the water. Now, for the experiment, only a very small amount of sodium was supposed to be added to the water. For all you chemists out there, you know that solid sodium is highly reactive and combustible when it comes into contact with water and tends to explode, which was exactly what happened. The bucket was blown into pieces. Kelly dove under the desk as plastic and glass shards flew everywhere. Luckily, she was all right, and she said nobody seemed to notice the bottle floating in the air. Mrs. Jackson wasn’t too thrilled with her, though, and she was dismissed for the rest of class.

  Then there was Abby. The good thing about her power was that it wasn’t destructive or harmful; the bad news was that it was making her anxiety about our overall situation much worse, which in turn caused her to Freeze-Frame ability to go even more out of control. The first incident of the day happened when she was walking out of the restroom as someone was walking in. The poor girl startled Abby, and she accidentally Freeze-Framed her. The girl was right in the doorway, so Abby was trapped in the restroom for a few seconds, but she said it felt like an eternity. She also accidentally froze a couple making out under one of the staircases because the fire alarm went off right as Abby got to the bottom of the stairs. She was so jumpy by the end of the day that she managed to Freeze-Frame four students near her locker when we met up with her.

  My ability didn’t seem to be working since I had the vision of the Ark behind that fence, but I was not complaining. Although I didn’t have to worry about destroying school property or turning my classmates into statues, my ability seemed to give me terrible headaches, and I would wake up with people staring at me as though I had sprouted two heads. I wasn’t worried that my ability wasn’t manifesting, though. In fact, I was quite relieved.

  ***

  That night, I was helping Nick with his biology homework at my house, and he got a little impatient.

  “What’s the use?” he said, slapping his forehead. “I’ll never understand this stuff. There are way too many vocab words, and, ugh!” He banged his fist on the
table and, with a flash of red-orange, his entire worksheet caught on fire. Panic ensued.

  “Not again!” he yelled, standing up so fast that he knocked his chair over.

  I ran to the linen closet and grabbed a towel. I quickly and inaccurately tossed it toward Nick. Despite the bad throw, he caught it and used it to put out the fire. His almost-completed worksheet was nothing more than ash on the kitchen table, which made him angry again.

  “Calm down,” I said, slowly holding my hands up. “We don’t want to blow my house up, do we?”

  Nick took a deep breath. “No, but this is so frustrating. When are we going to be able to control these superpowers?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we need to give it some time.”

  “Oh, easy for you to say,” he said, throwing his hands up. “You can’t accidentally catch stuff on fire when you’re mad.”

  I shook my head. “No, I get piercing headaches and rock back and forth on the floor. Control will come eventually. That’s what Kristiana said, at least.”

  He picked his chair up and plopped back into it. “It needs to come faster. I thought having powers would be fun, but it’s just super-frustrating.”

  ***

  And that was just Tuesday. What Wednesday brought was much worse. The good news was that Kelly and Abby had learned to keep their hands down as much as possible, and Nick was doing breathing exercises to control his temper every time the Hyena Gang was around. The bad news started after third period. I was walking to my locker to get my notebook for AP calculus when I heard a huge commotion coming from the main stairway. I took a detour to see what was going on, and what I saw sent a shiver down my spine.

  Two freshmen were sprawled out on the landing between the two staircases. They were pale, unconscious, and, when I got a closer look at them, had several puncture wounds on their bodies.

  Something moved out of the corner of my eye, and I was barely able to make out the forms of three rat-sized insects scurrying up the wall. Kristiana had warned us the insects would return, but it didn’t lessen the dread I felt in the pit of my stomach.

  Although the two freshmen were the only ones who’d been attacked by the insects, more of the little monsters were spotted crawling around the halls of the school. By the end of the day, it was all anyone could talk about.