The Paragon Element (Book 1)

by Jeff Hale

“Oh, no doubt he had it coming, but damn, I didn’t think you were like that. I mean, I guess I don’t know you that well anymore. That’s fucking cool, Rick. Guess people won’t fuck with you so much anymore, huh?” Jessie gave me a cautious squeeze then headed back towards the snack truck.

  I sighed and shook my head. My friends were going to have to get used to the new and improved me, even if it did put them on edge. I followed her and got a bag of chips and a candy bar. Yeah, not exactly nutritious, but it was probably more so than the cafeteria food.

  “I remember how you were before. That ball would have hit you in the head and you would have just let it slide so you didn’t have to fight anyone. Hey, how did you catch it anyway? I heard you were sleeping?” Malcolm asked as the three of us sat down together at the Wall. Must be practice day since he was dressed down in exercise pants and a wife beater tank. He took a bite from his stick of beef jerky as he waited for my answer.

  “Oh, they must have been mistaken then,” I said, looking away from him. I hated lying to my friends, and if I could get away with not looking at them as I did, all the better.

  “But there are at least four people in my math class last period that saw you were sleeping,” he said with more conviction.

  “Bah, you know me, Mal, I wear my sunglasses,” I tapped them for emphasis, “all the time if I can get away with it. So how could they even tell?”

  “Meh, good point. Rumors are usually a bunch of bullshit anyway.” He put his arm around Jessie. She sank into him a little and got comfortable.

  “Wait… what…?” I asked, pointing first to Jessie, then to Malcolm and back again, my mouth hanging open from shock. Malcolm. And Jessie. An item?

  “Yeah, we got together yesterday.” Jessie gave me a smile.

  “Hope you don’t mind, I know you guys dated a while back, but I figured it wasn’t breaking the guy code since it was so long ago,” Malcolm offered up.

  I shook my head and smiled. “No. No. Not at all, it’s fine. Really. I’m happy for you guys.” I said, the feeling genuine.

  “Don’t worry, Rick. I’ll get you a girl.” Malcolm reached over to pat my shoulder.

  “Right. Cause I can’t get my own?” I asked in a mock hurt tone.

  “What? You mean you’re single… by choice?” Malcolm asked, looking as shocked as I had felt about them getting together.

  “Yeah, don’t you know? He’s a working stiff now. He doesn’t have time for us sexy ladies.” Jessie giggled.

  “Yeah. Working stiff, all right. Dude, seriously, you need to at least find a good woman for one night. Get the rust out of the pipes.” He shook his head.

  “You’re just as bad as Dave, you know that?” I asked, glancing back at the school.

  “He’s the one that put me up to it once I told him that I had taken Jessie off the market,” Malcolm admitted, giving me a sly smile.

  “Fucking wonderful. Why is it that everyone is more worried about my sex life than me?” I asked rhetorically.

  “Whoa, there. Chill. I’m not. Just doing a friend a favor is all. Dave wanted me to get onboard with getting you laid, and I figured why the hell not. I’ll back off if that’s what you want.” He held his hands up.

  “Yes. Please. Just give it a rest. I hear about it every day from Dave. Don’t need it at lunch too. Next thing I know he’ll have my neighbor old man Keller sitting on my doorstep when I come home from work,” I said in annoyance right as the bell rang. I said my goodbyes to Jessie and Malcolm and headed into the building as they started to make out.

  On my way to my locker I got similar responses to earlier. People were moving aside and letting me through without a second thought. Damn me, but the news did travel fast. Maybe I had thrown that ball harder than I should have? Caving someone’s nose in with a basketball was far from impossible, but from the distance I had managed to do so was impressive. Maybe I should have aimed for the chest?

  “Nah, his face is probably a few notches prettier with his nose caved in. It was a bit porkish to begin with,” Talon said as he appeared next to me.

  “Yeah maybe, but I’m sure the agency is not going to be happy about getting those charges dropped.” I was careful to think my answer at him. I’d had instances where I caught myself talking to him out loud, just from habit.

  “Probably not, but you can deal with them. Anyway, slow week so far, huh?”

  “Yeah, doesn’t matter though. I still have to go into the office. I still have to do paperwork. I’m still not in the field doing what I love,” I muttered unhappily.

  “Sucks, huh? Well I’m just glad I’m not you. I have more interesting things to do. Ciao.” With that, he dissipated away.

  I put my books into my locker, grabbed the ones I needed for homework and headed home. Another evening, another stack of paperwork, including what homework I had. I was surprised my eyes weren’t crossing by now. Between work and school, I think I had read and written a dictionary’s worth of words

  School the next day was… interesting to say the least. When I arrived in the morning both Dave and Nina were looking at me like they didn’t know what to expect from me.

  Dave, wearing a shirt that read ‘Your little princess is my little whore’, looked me up and down and slowly smiled. “Damn, dude, didn’t know you had it in you!” He slapped me on the back and sat down on the lower wall.

  Nina, who had re-dyed her hair to purple with red streaks and was dressed like a punk version of a cheerleader, hugged me and sat next to Dave. “Yeah, I’m proud of you, Rick. Looks like being out there on the streets did some good at least. I’m happy to see you stand up for yourself for once.” She lit a cigarette and gave it to Dave before lighting her own. I lit one as well and knelt in front of them.

  “So have you seen the new girl yet?” Dave asked.

  “No. Didn’t even know there was a new girl. Hell, how do you know even? We have a student body of over three thousand people,” I asked.

  “I have a class with her, silly,” Nina said. “You have to meet her. She’s such an innocent sweetie. She’s only here temporarily, but I think you’ll get along with her just fine.” She smiled at Dave conspiratorially.

  “No,” I said simply.

  “Why not?” Nina pouted.

  “You’re not hooking me up with one of your friends, new or not, and that’s the end of it.” I stood and walked towards the school, effectively ending the conversation. Nina was always trying to hook me up with some friend of hers, usually ones she knew from the rave scene. Most of those girls were druggies, and massive tramps to boot, yet Nina swore that they were good people. Right.

  The majority of my day went by without incident, although I did go talk to the Dean about introducing the basketball to Lance’s face. Apparently no charges had been filed against me, and the school was even skipping giving me a suspension, agreeing with my claim of self-defense. After all, Lance was a known bully. Once Health class rolled around things got a little more interesting. As I sat in my seat I noticed Kelly openly staring at me. I finally got fed up and turned to look at her.

  “What?” I asked, annoyance clear in my tone.

  “Why?” she asked, as though confused about something.

  “Why what?” I retorted.

  “Why did you try and put a basketball through Lance’s face?” Her tone suggested curiosity more than anything.

  “Because he tried to hit me in the head with it.” I shrugged.

  “Oh. So he deserved it. Got it.” She nodded once then turned back to face the front of the class.

  Now it was my turn to stare at her. I was completely perplexed by her attitude towards me. She turned to look at me again, and flashed a smile.

  “What?” she asked.

  “What’s with you?” I asked in return.

  “How do you mean?”

  “You’re usually extremely rude to me, that is, when you aren’t outright ignoring the fact that I exist on the same planet as you. Why the sudden friendliness?”
>
  “I see no reason to be a bitch towards you anymore, and you’re complaining?”

  “No. Suspicious.”

  “Ah well, maybe we can talk more after class, hmm?” She pointed back to the front of the room as the teacher came in.

  Class went by agonizingly slow. I desperately wanted to know why the object of one of my biggest crushes was suddenly being nice to me. After class I followed her out of the classroom and tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Oh. Hi, Aerick. So what’s up?” she said, like it was just another normal day and that we talked all the time.

  “Nothing, except this odd behavior from you.” I gave her a suspicious look. I was watching for anything and everything. If her gaze even twitched past me once, I knew I would be ready to get jumped from behind. It had to be a trick. Had to be.

  “Not odd. Just different. I decided that maybe I should get to know people before I judged them.”

  “And you just decided this one day out of the blue?”

  “Well, no. It didn’t happen suddenly. Well maybe it did. I just got tired of being judged myself, and I realized I was doing the same to other people, so I decided to not be that way.”

  “And you decided to be nice to me why, exactly? I’m not exactly friends with any of the people you’re close to.”

  “So? Does that mean you and I can’t be friends?”

  “Well the friend of my enemy is…” I shrugged lightly.

  “Oh. That’s how it is? Okay. See ya,” she said casually as she turned to walk away.

  “Wait. I didn’t mean that, I’m just confused. The last time I tried to talk to you, you decided to play soccer with my crotch.” I winced at the memory. Why did I just bring that up to her? Likely she would try again.

  “Yeah. Sorry about that.” To my surprise she actually sounded genuinely apologetic.

  I took a half a step back and gave her a surprised look. “Sure you are. Look I really need to go. It’s been... different,” I said cautiously as I turned to head towards the Wall. I was thoroughly and completely confused now.

  “See ya tomorrow!” Kelly called after me.

  I got to the Wall and found Dave, Nina, Jessie, and Malcolm waiting there. Jessie was looking rather nice today in a low cut red blouse and a short cotton black skirt and Malcolm was in all black plus his duster.

  “There he is! Finally found time to hang out with your friends after school, huh?” Malcolm called out.

  “Sort of. I still have work,” I said as I approached them.

  “That’s too bad. We were hoping you could come to our orgy.” Jessie pouted, which earned her a playful glower from Malcolm. “Oh. Right. Boyfriend. Can’t talk like that anymore.”

  “Yes you can, babe. Don’t change on my account,” Malcolm said in a teasing tone.

  “Right. Anyway, has anyone here talked with Kelly recently?” I asked, trying to sidestep Jessie’s comment.

  “No. Why would I talk to that two-bit slut?” Nina asked, loathing and disdain obvious in her tone.

  “Because, she’s on some weird ‘I’m trying to be a better person’ kick,” I said.

  “Yeah. She’s been acting strange around Terry lately,” Malcolm piped up. “Like she doesn’t want to be with him anymore.”

  Jessie shrugged. “Maybe she doesn’t? I heard a rumor in P.E. today that Terry tried to date rape her.”

  “Can’t rape the willing,” Nina muttered.

  “I don’t know. It sounded serious. Like she was thinking about pressing charges,” Jessie said.

  “Still. You’ll never make me believe that she didn’t want it. She’s a ho.” Nina’s tone implied that she was done with the conversation.

  Jessie just shrugged and smiled up at Malcolm. She could be a pushover sometimes, not really one to press her views on others if they didn’t want to hear them.

  I sat down and lit up a smoke, hoping to visit for a little while before I had to take off for work. Nina glanced out towards the parking lot and an odd smile suddenly lit up her face. I looked in the same direction, and the girl I saw made my heart skip a beat.

  She was about five foot four and had a slender build, but what she lacked in hips, she made up for in the chest department. In spades. Her dark red hair was pulled back into a high pony-tail and I could see that the tips were dyed black.. Her face was soft, but seemed to carry a strong profile at the same time. She wore a loose, black, off the shoulder blouse, tucked into a red and black plaid school-girl skirt with handcuffs hanging from her hips, and a pair of low heeled black Doc Martens came up to her knees.

  There was something about her that made my breath come in short gasps. I couldn’t place my finger on why, but I knew at that moment deep inside of me that this went way beyond a schoolboy crush. She was headed in our direction and she smiled and waved when she noticed Nina. Nina waved back.

  “She’s something, isn’t she?” Dave asked, nudging me in the ribs, a slight smirk on his face.

  I didn’t respond. I just stared, the only thought running through my head was that she was headed over here and I had absolutely nothing to say. I found myself lighting another cigarette despite myself; I tended to chain smoke when I got nervous.

  “Nina! It’s good to see you again!” the girl called over as she crossed the street in between the school parking lot and the Wall.

  “Katelyn! Come over here, girl! I want you to meet some people!” Nina was just about jumping up and down with happiness. I groaned inwardly as Katelyn approached, her eyes on me the entire time.

  “So I’m thinking this must be the infamous Aerick?” Katelyn asked as she stopped to stand in front of me. There was a slight accent to her words and I was pretty sure it was Irish.

  I looked up slowly, taking her in again as I did so, and I still had nothing to say. With her this close, I saw that her eyes were a light greenish-blue in color, and that she wore only minimal make-up, just enough to accentuate her features. Her eyeliner was thick, but it looked really good on her.

  “Not much of a talker, is he?” she said, glancing at Nina.

  “Oh, believe me, he’s not the silent type. He’s just… shy,” Nina said, patting me on the shoulder in the process.

  “Yeah, he can talk, last I checked he wasn’t a mime or anything. If he was, I’d a killed him a long time ago,” Malcolm remarked.

  Malcolm could have a quirky sense of humor when he felt the need. Katelyn gave him an appraising look, then cracked a smile at his joke. Short, a nice rack, an accent, and she thought my friend’s weird joke was funny? Could she get any more attractive?

  “That’s Malcolm, and his recently acquired girlfriend Jessie is the girl over there that is so skinny you want to shove a box of Ho-Ho’s up her ass,” Nina said, smiling the whole time. The Ho-Ho comment was one she made on a regular basis, and we all knew it was an inside joke. If anyone else ever stated it that way to Jessie, she’d probably sacrifice them to some dark god in their sleep.

  “Hi, everyone. I’m Katelyn.” Her wave encompassed all of us and she sat down next to me close enough that her leg was against mine. She smelled good, like melon, and defensively, I moved away from her. “So, I was hoping to meet everyone, especially this Serena that Nina was telling me about. Looks like she’s not here today?” she asked, sounding almost disappointed.

  Great. Nina had done her usual gossip and tales, but hadn’t bothered to tell this girl that Serena was dead, or that the subject was off limits. I immediately became irritated, but I wasn’t sure if it was at Katelyn or Nina. “First off, personal bubble there, lady. Next off, that’s really none of your business. I don’t know who you are. I know you know Nina somehow, but that’s not enough for me to trust you.”

  “Well, like I said, my name is Katelyn. I’m from Washington State, though I was born in Oregon and my family is originally from Ireland. We’re here for about a month or so while my stepfather,” she said the word with some disgust in her voice, “makes a corporate deal for our farm. So I’m enrolled he
re until we go back. Mom doesn’t want me missing any of my schooling. Of course, she used to be a teacher, so I think that’s why she feels it’s so important that I don’t miss anything. I met Nina yesterday, which was my first day, but she was completely cool to me, and we became friends pretty quickly.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ, she talks more than Val does. I didn’t think that was possible. And she’s a farm girl to boot. Wonderful,” I muttered, thoroughly annoyed that I had nothing better to say. It wasn’t her fault, but I was damned good at deflecting.

  “Hey! What’s wrong with me being a farm girl?” Katelyn asked, sounding almost offended and a little hurt. “And it’s not really a farm per se. We grow grapes which are sold to wineries, so we make quite a bit more than the average farm.”

  “Did I ask…? Nevermind. Look, I don’t deal well with new people and…” I began to say, my voice lowering to a growl out of annoyance.

  “I couldn’t tell,” she retorted snidely.

  “And I really would appreciate not being interrupted. Now, my advice to you is to just leave me the fuck alone,” I said in a tone of finality. I had to get away from this situation. I had to get away from her. I almost couldn’t breathe around her, and my brain was threatening to not function correctly. Not only was she absolutely gorgeous, which made it hard enough to remember to breathe and think clearly, but she also had some… quality about her that made me think that she was some angel that had fallen and graced me with her presence. I hadn’t felt like this around a girl since Serena.

  “Aerick! What’s wrong with you? She hasn’t done anything to you, and you’re already treating her like just some other person. Doesn’t it mean anything that I consider her a friend? You know I’m picky about my friends.” Nina was pissed… again.

  “Yeah, but not picky about who you try to set me up with,” I muttered as I stood up.

  “Hey! You weren’t trying to set me up with him, were you? I can find my own man, thank you very much,” Katelyn said as she swatted Nina on the arm.

  “No. I wasn’t, and that was a shitty thing for you to say, Aerick. Really,” Nina said quietly, looking a bit remorseful.