Secrets

by Shannon Pemrick

  I thought for a moment. The others had the volleyball and I hadn’t thought to bring a spare.

  “Heads up!” Ryoko yelled.

  I looked up to see the volleyball flying through the air at me. Getting myself into position, I bumped the ball into the air and looked at Raikidan. He looked at me briefly and then back at the ball as it came back down. Positioning his hands like I had shown him, he hit the ball off his wrists but his arms were angled too much and the ball came flying at me. Pulling back, I barely managed to escape and the ball hit the net.

  “Yeah, he sucks,” Blaze muttered.

  I glared at him before looking at Rylan, who was picking up the volleyball. Without having to ask, he tossed it back to me. Catching it, I spun on my heels. I looked at Raikidan, who was looking at me with apprehension. My brow furrowed. He couldn’t expect to get it right the first time, could he?

  “That wasn’t too bad,” I encouraged. “You just need to have your arms at a flatter angle. The angle is supposed to be just small enough to pass it to a teammate or get it over the net.”

  Raikidan nodded. “All right. I guess I’ll try again.”

  I nodded and set the ball so it would come down just right for him. Raikidan, distracted by my alien move, barely managed to hit the ball this time and it flew off in a random direction. I laughed and ran after the ball. When I came back, I set the ball again, and Raikidan took the maneuver better and was able to get a better, but still not perfect, hit on the ball.

  I retrieved the ball once again, but before I could set it up for him, Raikidan grabbed my hands and stared down at the ball. His brow was furrowed, so I waited for him to say what was on his mind.

  “Eira.” His voice was barely above a whisper, as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear. “Would it please you more if I just didn’t play?” my brow rose with slight confusion from his choice of words. “I’m not getting the hang of this fast enough, and I’m keeping you from your game. I know you said you need even teams, but I’d be more of a hindrance than help at this point. You’d be better off with an unevenly-teamed game.”

  I waited a moment to speak to make sure my words came out right. “It would please me more to see you play.” He looked at me intently. “It’s just a game, Raikidan. It’s supposed to be fun. It doesn’t matter if you can do this perfectly or not. It doesn’t matter which team wins in the end.”

  Raikidan took the ball from me. “Very well. Now, show me how to do that weird pass you did.”

  I chuckled. “It’s called a set. It’s used to set up a teammate to spike.”

  “What’s a spike?”

  I grinned. “Let me show you.”

  Taking the ball back from him and spinning on my heels, I tossed the ball to Blaze, who barely caught it.

  “Hey watch it!” he yelled.

  “Set it for me,” I ordered.

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so.”

  “You’re too far away.”

  “No, I’m not, now set it or I’ll have someone more competent do it.”

  Blaze grumbled and set the ball high, giving me the chance to run over there. My sarong untied and fell to the ground, but it didn’t stop me. Pushing off the ground, I slammed my open palm down on the ascending volleyball as it came into reach and forced it into the sand on the other side of the net. Raid jumped out of the way before it could hit the spot he chose to stand in and grumbled. I landed gracefully on my feet and let out a quick breath from the extra effort I put into the spectacle.

  Ryoko chuckled as she picked up the ball. “Hey, lady, mind putting some clothes on?”

  I stuck out my tongue at her and she copied me. Turning away, I picked up my sarong and tied it back around my hips as I walked back over to Raikidan.

  “That is a spike. Unlike normal passes, there aren’t as many chances to set one of those up so there will be a slim likelihood of you actually being capable of trying for one.”

  “Was it necessary to run all that way?” he teased.

  I shook my head. “Don’t you start or I’ll change my mind about you playing.”

  Raikidan chuckled. “So that move you called a spike looked simple enough, but how to do you do the set?”

  I chuckled. Spikes weren’t always as easy as that one, but I was going to stay quiet. If I was lucky he’d find out for himself.

  “The set position is actually pretty simple,” I said as I started to place his hand in the right shape. “Your index fingers and thumbs come together into the shape of a triangle while you other fingers fan out and curve up so they can cradle the ball.”

  “Okay, that’s simple enough, but how do I push it back into the air?”

  “By using the ball’s momentum against it. When the ball lands in your hands, you push it back up and then your teammate takes the chance to spike it, as long as you made the ball go up correctly.”

  “And what if I don’t set it up right?”

  “Well if you don’t do it right, it could go over to the other side of the net and be an easy set up for the other team.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “So, are you ready to start playing?”

  “No, but I might as well.”

  I laughed and motioned him to follow me. Everyone got into their positions, and Blaze was the first to serve the ball.

  The ball sailed past me and landed hard in the sand. Blaze snickered, his inflated ego getting even bigger over his lucky point gain. I looked at Ryoko and she nodded. It was time to stop pretending. At some point in our game, Blaze felt the need to tell us how bad we women were at this, so we decided to mix up the teams. It was now a battle of the sexes, and for the most part we had been letting them think Blaze was right. Not anymore. We were going to come back with a vengeance, and it was going to feel good, or at least, that was the plan.

  I pretended to not care and tossed Blaze the ball. “Guess it’s your turn to serve again.”

  “Damn straight,” Blaze boasted.

  “Let them have a turn, Blaze,” Rylan said. “It’s no fun when you hog the ball.”

  “Well if they played better they’d get a fair chance,” Blaze shot back at him.

  Raid rolled his eyes and stole the ball from under Blaze’s nose. He tossed it over to Ryoko with a sly grin, but Ryoko didn’t return the grin, which didn’t set well with him. But contrary to what he was probably thinking, it wasn’t Rylan who was stealing her focus. I knew that look in her eye as she stared at the ball. She was plotting.

  “Hey, Ryoko, any day now would be great,” Blaze taunted.

  Ryoko blinked and then shook her head as if she had been spacing out. She glanced at me before looking at Shva’sika and Genesis. The two nodded, signaling they knew what to do, and Ryoko took a deep breath before she served the ball. The volleyball soared over the net and came back seconds later when Rylan hit it. Genesis took the opening and bumped the ball back over, but Raid countered her pass. Unfortunately for him, his pass was too high and short, and Shva’sika took the opportunity to set the ball up for me. I made myself hesitate, so as to not give ourselves away yet, before rushing up to the net and spiking the ball. Blaze, caught off guard by our supposedly new skill, was unable to stop the ball from colliding with the sand.

  He looked at me in disbelief. “What the hell?”

  I shrugged and walked away from the net. “Lucky shot, I guess.”

  “You had to insult them, Blaze,” Rylan muttered bitterly.

  Raid ran his hands through his hair. “We’re so screwed.”

  I chuckled before taking my position in the back of the court and bending over to stretch. Ryoko served the ball again, and the four of us worked together to rack up the points against the boys, to catch up with the score we’d let them make.

  I stretched again when the boys d
emanded a break from our assault, and we kindly gave it to them. We all stayed on the court while the boys went into a huddle. Zane, Argus, and Seda were laughing from their shaded spots as they watched the boys try to figure out a way to make a comeback.

  Argus and Seda shared an umbrella and sat rather close together, and I tried not to smile. It wasn’t good to see things that weren’t there. Seda and Argus were just friends, and with Seda’s psychic nature, I wasn’t sure if that would ever change. Few could handle what she was. Nioush was a prime example of that.

  As I looked at Seda, a pain plucked my still heart. She was only able to be here with everyone because of that stupid watch. She couldn’t come out in public without it—not until things changed. So, why were we here having fun when there was work to be done? Without us helping to cause things to change, she would have to hide. It was only once we achieved our goal that she could truly be who she was. But I would never see that. It wasn’t meant to be for me.

  “Don’t worry, Laz, that day will come, and you will be there to see it,” Seda messaged.

  “Don’t start making things up on me, Seda. You and I both know that isn’t my fate.”

  “Life has infinite timelines, created by every possible choice out there. Every choice changes our course in destiny.”

  “You’ve checked my fate many times. It’s stayed the same.”

  “I don’t have access to all the timeline branches. There is still a chance it will change.”

  “This is me we’re talking about, Seda. Fate has never been kind to me.”

  She sighed. “Try to have an open mind.”

  “Laz, watch it!” Ryoko yelled, pulling me away from my conversation.

  I ducked just in time to miss being hit by the ball.

  “That was close,” Genesis mumbled. “You okay, Eira?”

  “Yeah I’m fine. It didn’t touch me.”

  “That’s not what I meant. You kinda went somewhere else on us all of a sudden.”

  “My fault!” Seda yelled over to us. “I was distracting her! Sorry!”

  I stuck my tongue out at her as if going along with it, and the others knew to just accept it. I picked up the ball and threw it over the net so the boys could serve it again. As we continued to play, the sight of approaching soldiers caught my eye, but only because I recognized the one leading them. Zo walked over to the three sitting under the shade, and evidently found no reason to be courteous, because he went straight to being a thorn in everyone’s side.

  “So, Argus, looks like you’ve finally gone and gotten yourself a new girlfriend.”

  Argus’ eye shut in embarrassed frustration, and his cheeks tinted pink. Seda’s face also flushed. “She’s not my girlfriend, Zo.”

  “Pity. She’s cute,” he teased. “Name’s Zo, sweetheart.”

  “Uh, Seda,” she introduced extending her hand. Her lack of a fake name surprised me, but then again, the real her was dead, according to records.

  Zo took her offer and kissed her hand. That’s when he noticed the watch. “Not common of women to wear men’s watches.”

  Seda pulled her hand away and spoke quietly. “It was my father’s…”

  “Oh, um, my apologies.”

  Ryoko and I looked at each other, and then at the others, who all nodded. It was time to either get rid of him or get to work.

  Zane sighed. “Zo, is there a reason you’re here, or are you here just to bother us?”

  Zo opened his mouth to defend himself, but my shout stopped him. “Heads up!”

  The volleyball flew right at them. Most of his lackeys had enough time to dodge the renegade ball, but the hard sphere ultimately pegged Zo in the head. Wow, his reflexes suck.

  “Nice going, Eira,” Blaze joked.

  I stuck my tongue out at him and ran over to the umbrellas. Zo already had the ball in his hands by the time I made it to them. “Sorry about that. Ryoko didn’t set that up right for me.”

  “It was so not my fault!” Ryoko shouted.

  I rolled my eyes and made an attempt to focus my attention on Zo, even thought he was giving me a look I’d rather he not give. “So what are you doing here, Zo?”

  Zo spun the volleyball on his finger. “Just patrolling to make sure the park stays safe with so many people around.”

  “Not that there are a lot of people on this end of the lake,” Argus muttered.

  Zo gave Argus a funny look, but Argus was looking elsewhere so he placed his focus back on me. But before any more conversation could transpire, a squeak escaped my lips when someone picked me up and threw me over their shoulder.

  “C’mon, Butterfly, you’re wasting time, and we have a game to finish,” Raikidan scolded as he turned around.

  “Rai, put me down!” I shrieked. “I haven’t been gone long. I don’t even have the ball!”

  Raikidan turned and held his hand out to Zo. The two men stared each other down until Zo reluctantly handed over the volleyball. I let out a quiet sigh. I hated the tension between them. I didn’t understand it.

  “I think you do understand,” Seda teased.

  “Don’t you start,” I threatened. “And you shouldn’t be talking to me like this. There’s a psychic in this patrol.”

  “Calm down. He’s on our side.”

  I could faintly hear his low chuckle, but I pushed him out of my head. I grunted when my body bounced on Raikidan’s shoulder the moment he started walking away from Zo.

  “Caveman,” I muttered. Raikidan shook me a little while grinning, and I smacked him in the head, a small laugh giving away my lack of anger. “Asshole.”

  Raikidan chuckled and continued carrying me back to the volleyball court. I stopped struggling, knowing full well he wasn’t going to let me walk on my own. He finally put me down once he set foot on the court, and I smacked him in the arm before ducking under the net and taking my position with the girls. Raikidan handed the ball over to Raid, who waited for the guys to get ready before serving the ball.

  The game went smoothly—for a while—until Genesis and Shva’sika forgot to communicate. Their bodies collided, the ball went flying into the lake, and we were all left in stitches. The two argued about whose fault it was, which only made us laugh more. Ryoko and I were the first to get our laughter under control, and we looked at each other. Someone was going to have to go get the ball, and if it was going to be between Shva’sika and Genesis, we’d be waiting a while.

  “Race ya!” she challenged as she took off toward the water.

  “Hey, no fair!” I yelled. “Cheater!”

  Ryoko laughed and continued running. I took off after her, and it didn’t take much to catch up. Our feet touched the waterline at the same time, but Ryoko was the first to reach for the volleyball. Unfortunately for her, she fell and splashed into the shallow water. I picked up the ball and laughed at her.

  Ryoko glared at me. “You pushed me!”

  I continued to laugh. “Ryoko, I didn’t push you.”

  “Yes you did! You knew I didn’t want to get my hair wet, so you pushed me.”

  I stopped laughing and looked at her sincerely. “Ryoko, I didn’t touch you.”

  “Felt like someone touched my back.”

  “You fell on your own.”

  Ryoko looked down at the water and scratched her head. “Wow, I suck.”

  I laughed again, but my laughter was cut short when something crashed into my body and I fell into the water. I sat up and glared at Raikidan and Rylan, who stood near us laughing. It was a little obvious now, Ryoko’s accusation was partially correct.

  Ryoko roared with anger and snatched the floating volleyball between us and chucked it at them. “Assholes!”

  Rylan stopped laughing and ducked just in time for the ball to miss him and hit Blaze, who was laughing back a
t the court. Everyone else laughed at his misfortune, but Ryoko and I were too pissed off to care who it hit.

  Raikidan stopped laughing when he realized I didn’t find what they did funny. “E–Eira?”

  I narrowed my eyes and ground my teeth. “I’m going to skin you!”

  “Dude, run!” Rylan urged.

  The two took off in opposite directions down the beach, and Ryoko and I jumped to our feet to pursue them. I lost track of how many times Raikidan looked back to gauge the distance between us, but every time he did, I gained a little bit of ground on him. Raikidan finally came into my reach, and I shoved him into the sand. I slid to a halt in the wet sand and kicked it up into his face in anger.

  “Ass-hat,” I spat before storming back down the shore.

  I pulled my hair clip out of my hair and teased it roughly with my fingers to get as much water out as possible. Twisting my hair back up into the hair clip, I messed with my unruly bangs, but gave up. My bangs always curled up when they were wet, unlike the rest of my hair, and only a flat iron or heat on my fingers ever fixed it.

  As I headed up to sit under the shade of an umbrella, Shva’sika grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around. “Back to the water you go.”

  “What gives?” I complained.

  “It’s time you cooled off from this heat. You’re already wet, so you might as well hang out in the water.”

  “But I need to get out of the sun. I’m going to burn, even with sunscreen.”

  “You’ll be fine. Besides, you could use a little color.”

  “I don’t need to be as red as my bathing suit!”

  “Calm down. You’re not going to burn. You still have a little while before you need to apply more sunscreen.” Shva’sika lowered her voice. “Besides, I’m starting to understand why you can’t stand that Zo guy. He’s giving me the creeps and won’t go away.”

  “You’re just getting creeped out by him now?”

  She hushed me. “Yes. It takes a lot to creep me out.”

  I sighed. She had a point. Not wanting to be anywhere near Zo or his goons, I walked back down to the shore with Shva’sika. I dipped my feet into the water and sighed. I looked up to see what Raikidan was doing, but I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t where I had left him, and there weren’t any new foot prints to tell me had wandered back this way. It was for the best anyway. I’d probably try to drown him. given the chance right now.