by Simon Archer
“Bullshit,” Andie huffed. She held onto me while I tried to stand again, but this time, I was able to hold my own. I balled my fists and held them out in front of me.
Matt pounced yet again, and this time, I was a little slow to dodge out of the way, and we tumbled together onto the floor. He tried to swipe at my face, but I caught his wrist and then twisted us both around, so I had his arm pinned behind his back.
I used the leverage to threaten a break, and muttered, “Stop it.”
“Fuck you, Inferno Boy,” Matt snarled.
“The name’s Nick. And I said stop.” I wrenched his arm hard enough to strain it, but not to break it. Even if he’d heal, I wanted to make a point, that even without my powers, I could keep him in check.
Matt groaned in pain, and I released his wrist before kicking him across the platform to join his sister and their crony.
The horn blasted its final plea, and just like that, the battle was done. Matt, Kristen, and Jack were all on the final platform, and so were we. I glanced around and saw that Elianna had also made it, as well as a few other familiar faces.
Beside me, Eric hooted in victory. “Woohoo! Yeah, we did it! Team Nick, all the way!”
Andie took my hand and helped me back up. I swayed a little, in danger of falling again, but she held on firmly. We locked eyes. I was the first to look away.
“Thanks for helping,” I said to the floor. “I’m strong, but I can only use my power for a bit. Don’t worry, I’ll recover. Just need a minute.”
“Nick, you did great.” Andie snatched my chin and forced me to meet her eyes again. “If Matt and his sister can’t see that and want to be stubborn, let ‘em. You’ve got Eric and me now. Right, Eric?”
Eric pumped his fist into the air and bounced on his feet. “Heck yeah! Team Nick, all the way! Screw you, Barbur twins!”
Matt flipped him off, but there was no real heat behind it now that the battle was done. He helped his sister stand up again and then hugged her in congratulations on their mutual victory. He whispered something in her ear as he looked back at us. At me.
“He knows my weakness,” I whispered to Andie. “Next round won’t be so easy.”
She hugged me with one arm and waved to the twins with a mocking smile. “We’ll be ready, Nick. I’ve got your back.”
I met Matt’s eyes, and he held mine in turn. We kept in contact even while Gemma congratulated the victors, and they all cheered on the platform, roaring with approval.
“Appreciate it,” I told Andie. “I’m gonna need it.”
Chapter 3
A few hours later, I found myself seated at a table with Andie while the smells of fine dining danced around the room. My nose followed the trail of a well-seasoned steak, dressed in crisp green chives. There was a platter of fresh ruby red tomatoes beside it, swimming in a bed of lettuce. Cheeses of various imports were chopped and prepared on fine platters. An entire dish of chicken parmesan sandwiches caught my eye, as they were made with garlic knots. I watched as a blonde woman plucked one from the table and then split it open so that the melted cheese inside stretched outward.
She was the same woman I’d seen duplicated on the obstacle course that morning. She smiled when she noticed me watching her antics and walked over with the sandwich on a plate. Bowing slightly, she kept the plate balanced on her palm.
“The name is Adelaide Jones, sugar,” she said. “You can call me Adelaide if it pleases you. You must be that Nick Gateon that’s got Gemma all flustered. You’ll see a lot of me around here.”
“Gemma’s... flustered?” That was news to me. She’d seemed rather focused on her duties as an instructor. We hadn’t spoken two words since Andie and I broke the record on the obstacle course.
Adelaide rolled her pretty green eyes and waggled a finely manicured nail at me. It was ruby red and matched the color of her dress. “Of course, sweetie! All day, she’s been watchin’ you with extra care. Practically bitin’ her nails, she was. I’d heard through the grapevine that she and Douglas rescued you as a boy from that terrible man. Kept in contact, did she?”
“Yeah,” I admitted with a slight flush to my cheeks. “She did. She connected me to some mentors that helped me learn self-defense while powerless. Checked in every six months, actually.”
“What a sweetheart, that woman. Don’t let the icy routine fool you, she really cares for her students. But listen to me ramble on, you have so many other people to meet!” She sat the plate down, then dug through her little black purse for a business card. She passed it to me with a smile. It read ‘ADELAIDE JONES, STAFF.’ Descriptive.
“I take it you fill a lot of roles here at the Academy, Miss Jones?”
Adelaide grinned at the idea of being referred to as ‘Miss,’ and tossed a hand at me. “Such manners, Mr. Gateon.” Andie, who’d been distracted with a big slice of a beautiful velvet cake, glanced over and smiled a little secret thing. Adelaide returned it and then gestured at the business card I still carried. “You call me if you ever need a hand, alright? Any friend of Gemma’s is a friend of mine.”
“I will,” I promised and pocketed the card for later. Adelaide wiggled her fingers in farewell and headed towards the staff table.
Andie elbowed me with a grin. “Already shmoozing the staff, Nick? I like this plan.”
“Not on purpose.” I smiled and gently elbowed her back. “Can’t help it if I’m charming.”
Andie snorted and looked me up and down with a hunger in her eyes. “Among other things.”
I cleared my throat and looked around. Matt, Jack, and Kristen were seated at a table opposite us and, by coincidence, in the perfect position to glare. Kristen and I locked eyes, and then she jabbed her brother with a spoon and pointed at me with it. Their whispers were quiet, but I already knew the content of what they had to say. I hated that there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Andie caught my sour look, as well as who it was pointed towards. She wrapped an arm around me and pecked me on the temple, still the easy loving soul I’d met earlier that day.
“Fuck ‘em,” she spat, shrugging a little. “Let ‘em bitch.”
“I just wish I could—”
“Stop that.” Andie met my eyes. “Anyone who judges you based on hearsay and stupid rumors isn’t worth your goddamned time. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. You’re not the only one who’s suffered a little discrimination, you know.”
I did a double take and studied Andie a bit more closely. Her arm was warm around me, but I could sense the shift in tension, a sudden, silent ghost in the space between us. I rubbed gently at the tense muscle between her shoulder blades, trying to be comforting. Her beautiful brown eyes, while still glistening with happiness, carried a trace of darkness in them.
“I’m sorry, Andie. You’re... you’re fantastic. Who would even...?” Discrimination wasn’t a word that I’d put to my own situation, but I wondered who had judged Andie unworthy of anything. She was nearly a better fighter than I was and had easily smashed a record that had taken me years of training to even dare attempt. Add that to natural beauty and a smile that could light up even my father’s mood, and it just didn’t make any sense.
She laughed at that, but her eyes cast down to the table all the same. “You’re sweet, Nick.” It was clear she didn’t quite believe me.
I tsked and poked her side with my finger. “I believe the word you used was ‘bullshit’? I’m a lot of things, Miss Stretchy, but a liar isn’t one of them.”
She laughed again at the reference, and her smile persisted this time. I drank it in, happy to know that I hadn’t pressed her too hard, too fast. Still, she said nothing in response to my praise, and so I rubbed at the tension between her shoulders again.
“Talk to me. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing,” Andie said quietly, though by her tone and somber expression it was clearly anything but. “Old history. I’m fine, really. It’s stupid, I shouldn’t have brought it
up.”
“Nonsense.” I waggled a finger at her. “We’re a team now, remember? Team Nick. You beat up my demons, and I beat up yours.”
She shook her head, but she was smiling again, and that’s all I really cared about. She pulled me in closer, and the easy grace was back right where it belonged. “I think I’d like to see that, to be honest. You’re incredibly hot when you’re kicking ass.”
I lifted a brow at her, intrigued. “Is that so?”
“Oh yeah.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.
“Well, remind me to striptease next time.”
We both laughed, and she released me to snatch some hors d’oeuvres off the plate of a passing waiter. They were little crackers with fine pepper and cheese, and she passed me one before popping one into her mouth.
“God,” she moaned, and the look of utter joy on her face was almost sexual as she met my eyes. “Everything here makes my mouth all tingly.”
I smirked and passed her back the cracker she’d given me. She popped that one into her mouth like the first and giggled after swallowing it down.
“I ordered us some steak earlier,” I said with a grin. “Should be arriving soon.”
“Good man!” She smacked me on the shoulder playfully.
Fine dining was something that my father loved when I still lived on the island. After pillaging the world and dominating its many economies, he’d taken to expensive luxuries like he was trying to prove a point. I’d rarely enjoyed dining with him, but his taste was well refined and hard to forget. I wondered if he’d be toasting me tonight with some aged wine, proud that I’d made it into the academy against all the odds. No doubt he was watching from afar and already knew about the record I’d broken. His record. His and Ice Bringer’s.
Strange to think that they’d been lifelong friends since the early days of the Academy. Word was the hero Judgment had been their mentor. I scanned the room and spotted him, a tall, ageless man with an ugly scar cut over his left eye. His real name was Efraim Siedel. He had long jet black hair, dark eyes, and sallow skin. Frankly, he looked like Dracula. Considering that he’d been living for at least the last hundred years, he probably was Dracula. When he turned to look at me, sensing my attention, his scowl twisted the scar over his left eye. He grimaced in disgust and marched toward me.
True to his name, Efraim was obsessed about law and order. Like Gemma, he was ageless and had maintained that law and order for a very long time. My father rarely spoke of him, but when he did, it was with the tone of a boy who wanted so badly to impress what had become a father figure. Call me jaded, but I already knew that I was in for some disappointment.
“Gateon,” Efraim spat. His voice was a smoker’s gravel. “I noticed your temper on the pyramid. Your father was quick to anger too.”
I glared back at him and didn’t justify that with a response.
Andie, however, had no such patience. “Matt was spitting fire from the get-go! I heard you're his mentor, maybe you should do something about that.”
Efraim squinted at Andie like she were a beetle that he longed to crush under his boot. She ignored it and popped another cracker into her mouth. She crunched it very loudly just to annoy him.
I put my arm around her again in a silent show of support and met Efraim’s eyes dead on while he tried to stare me down. After an eternity of this, I sat back in my chair and pretended I didn’t care whatsoever.
“I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Siedel,” I said nonchalantly. “I’m surrounded by all this amazing food and people I can call friends. I’m content.”
“Yeah.” Andie leaned into me and bobbed her head in agreement. “Maybe you should go check on Matt, he’s been giving us the evil eye all night long.”
Efraim wasn’t happy with my response, but there was little else he could do. He spun on his heel with a grunt of disgust and marched towards Matt’s table to seize the boy and cart him off to some unknown corner. I didn’t care to watch.
Eric slid into the chair on my right and plopped a plate of various fruits on the table. “Was that Judgment? You make fast friends. You know, he’s probably a vampire—”
“Not friends, believe me,” I corrected. “He was my dad’s mentor.”
“Oh,” Eric startled. He glanced at Efraim’s back, and then to Matt, who was busy explaining himself in nervous gestures. “I didn’t know that. That’s, uh... Yeah.”
Eric seemed to hate the silence because I could tell by the way he twisted in his seat that he was itching for a brand new topic. Fortunately, the dinner that I’d ordered for Andie and I had finally arrived, and two plates of perfect Angus sirloin were set down in front of us. It came with garlic knots that burst with steam when I cracked one open and savored the delicious texture of perfect bread within.
“I knew letting you pick the meal was gonna end up in my favor!” Andie crooned, clearly in love as she cut into the steak and found it just the right shade of pink.
I carefully cut a piece and then let the meat linger in my mouth while the juices danced around and played a heavenly tune with my taste buds. I felt a rush of endorphins sail up my spine, and I sighed, settling back into my chair. It had been a long time since I’d had a good steak. Far, far too long.
“Wow,” I said as I swallowed. “Wow.”
Andie gestured at her own plate and grinned from ear to ear. “I know, right?”
The two of us drowned in the flavors for a while, and I didn’t even notice when Eric slid further to the right, and someone else sat down beside me. It wasn’t until she said, “Hey,” that I jumped out of my own skin.
I knew that voice, even if it had been years since I had last heard it.
It was Kara.
Kara Johnson was a childhood friend from years past and a ghost of the life I’d long left behind. She had sharp blue eyes and vibrant red hair, and she was... well, she was a woman now. Apparently, people kept right on growing when they fell out of contact. Who knew?
“Hey, yourself,” I said, wide-eyed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you at the trials. I had no idea. You’re powered too?”
Kara smiled at my flustered expression and nodded slightly. She seemed... nervous. She rubbed her palms on her knees and darted a glance at Andie and Eric on either side of us.
Andie, of course, was a wonder at releasing tension. “Who’s the cute redhead?” she cooed.
“Um. K-Kara,” she stammered. “I’m a...” She wavered on the idea of ‘friend,’ and I frowned at that. Did she think I’d be mad?
“Kara was my childhood friend.” I carefully hugged her with one arm and waited until she accepted the touch before pulling her in fully. I smiled at her when she melted a little bit. It was strange to see her so tentative and nervous. She used to be a ball of constant energy. “We haven’t seen each other in years.”
Andie waved her arms like she was beckoning us to kiss... and for all I knew, maybe she was. “Well, time to catch up then!”
“It’s... it’s been a long time, Nick,” Kara began shyly. “I’m... I’m sorry I fell out of contact. I heard about the record you broke earlier, it sounds like you’ve been training hard.”
“I have.” I nodded and smiled again.
Kara and I locked eyes, and it was hard to part once I did. I used to drown myself in them. They were a crisp, clean blue, and her hair? This fireball shade of red, my favorite color in the whole world. Still embracing her with one arm, I rubbed her other shoulder in a silent show of support.
“I’m glad to see you, Kara,” I said with utter honesty.
“Same. It’s been... it’s been too long,” she admitted.
I released her a moment later and tentatively returned to my steak. Andie watched me slice it carefully with a focus that was obviously not on the dish before me. My entire world had dwindled down to the heat of Kara’s presence beside me, and the little smile she wore let me know that everything was alright between us.
“You said you were childhood friends?” Andie
frowned as her knowing brown eyes slid to Kara.
It was Kara who explained the story. Before my mother died, she had been my neighbor and the best friend that I never quite admitted to having. She was the girl that would ask me to play house with her on a daily basis, even though it was clear that I hated the entire experience.
She would demand that I treated her dolls with respect. I never did, of course. I’d beaten more than a few Barbies to death in boyish frustration and tossed others into various filthy places just for the look of devastation on her face. We would argue for a while, but it never really had any heat. She would always show up at my door the next day with a beaming smile and another game to play.
As we grew, the games and conversations differed... that Valentine’s Day right before everything fell apart, I gave her a bouquet of wildflowers, each carefully picked because they matched the hue of her eyes. I had watched my father do the same for my mother, and her smile had been inspiring. Kara’s smile wasn’t quite the same, after that.
It was even better.
“After your mother died, I fell out of contact. Your dad took you away to that island, so...” Kara gestured helplessly and then sipped a glass of wine she’d snatched from a roving waiter.
Now I realized why she’d been so tentative. “Kara, I’m not mad that we fell out of contact. Believe me, I know how my dad is.”
“Sure,” Kara said, not looking convinced. I poked her in the side with a roll of my eyes.
“Stop that,” I said with a grin. “I’m happy to see you. You’re a sight for sore eyes, and I’m glad for the friends right now.”
“Yeah,” Eric piped up. He gestured with a fist and eyeballed the Barbur twins. They were subdued after Efraim’s interference, focused on a conversation with Jack and some other guy. “We’re Team Nick now!”
“We kicked serious ass in the tournament,” Andie added with a grin. She waggled her fork at Kara. “I bet you did too. You’ve got a mental power set, I take it?”