Initiates (The Book of Adam 3)

by Scott Gelowitz

  Adam turned away from Kassie but he had noticed her smile as he did. She was enjoying herself.

  “I’ll try not to hurt you,” she said.

  “Thanks,” Adam replied.

  When she grabbed him, he forgot what he was supposed to do because of the tremendous force she was able to apply.

  “You’re supposed to try and escape,” said Kassie.

  Adam realized that he had been distracted, but tried the technique and failed miserably.

  Kassie let him go and gave him a few pointers before trying a second time. That time it went much better. He didn’t get out of the hold quick, but he made it out.

  Then he made the mistake of looking in Kevin’s direction. He watched as the small girl tried to hold on to Kevin as he bent over to break her hold. She was so light and he was so much bigger than her that she ended up on his back, looking like a child going on a horsey-back ride.

  Adam burst out laughing and quickly stifled it as others around him stared.

  Kassie had seen what Adam had seen, but she had done a much better job at controlling her laughter.

  “Let’s do it again. I want to make sure you’re safe,” said Kassie, sarcastically.

  “Do your parents put steroids in your food?” asked Adam, “I swear you don’t look anywhere near as strong as you are.”

  “I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult,” said Kassie.

  Again, all Adam could say was, “Uh…”

  “Does that mean I look really weak or that I should look a lot bulkier for the strength I have?” she asked with a straight face.

  Again, “Uh…”

  Kassie grinned. “Just kidding. You need to learn how to talk to girls almost as much as Jimmy. I won’t tell them that though.” She jabbed her thumb in Jimmy’s general direction.

  “Thanks,” said Adam. “We had better practice some more, though. Just try not to break any ribs.” He chuckled and assumed the position.

  “Here goes,” said Kassie and she clamped him tighter than ever.

  Adam managed to get away faster than the previous time, but still not smoothly. They practiced a few more times until Linus came by and offered some advice. It helped, but Adam still wasn’t nearly as smooth as Kassie had been.

  Val called out for the class to stop what they were doing.

  “You may not have realized it, but we’ve been at this for a half hour. Seeing as this is your first class, we’re going to let you go now. You will be sore tomorrow, sorry. See you next week.”

  They all clapped and the noise level rose as conversations broke out all around.

  Adam felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find Derek behind him.

  “That was – interesting,” said Derek.

  “I didn’t see you. How did it go?” asked Adam.

  Derek shrugged. “She got away – I got away, so I guess it went ok. I saw you with Kassie.” His face broke into a big smile.

  “She’s my best friend’s sister,” Adam replied quickly, although he did blush slightly.

  Derek just nodded while he smiled.

  “Besides, she’s crazy strong like her brother. I thought she was going to break my ribs.”

  “Really?” said Derek. “I wouldn’t have thought she was weak, but never thought she’d be that strong.”

  Adam nodded as Kevin and Mark joined the group.

  “That was fun,” said Kevin. His voice was full of sarcasm. “I saw you laugh at me when I was trying to escape,” he said to Adam.

  “She was so small you didn’t have to escape, you just had to walk away and she would have been dragged along for the ride,” said Adam, grinning.

  “She was so proud of herself because she got away, but I barely held on because I was afraid of crushing her like an empty Coke can. How did you do?” Kevin asked Mark.

  “Better than I expected. They paired me with a girl named Pam, and she was really strong, but I got out really easy. She needed a few tries but it’s really tough to hang on if the technique is right,” he replied.

  “That reminds me,” said Adam. “Did you know how amazingly strong your sister is?” Adam said to Kevin. “Did your parents have you all start lifting weights while you were in the crib?”

  Kevin chuckled. “Yeah, she’s much stronger than she looks. That’s partly why I didn’t mind Trevor dating her. If he tried anything that she didn’t like, she’d wrap him up like a pretzel.”

  Adam realized that someone else was standing just outside of the circle of conversation on the opposite side from where he stood. When he moved his head a little, he saw that it was Jimmy trying to blend into the conversation.

  The others noticed Adam looking and turned to see for themselves.

  “What,” stammered Jimmy as all eyes fell on him followed by grins.

  “Tiiimmmmberrrrrrr,” yelled Mark and he made a crashing sound.

  Jimmy blushed.

  “Go easy on him guys,” said Adam. “He tried his best.”

  Adam tried to keep a straight face, but moments later he burst out laughing. “Sorry,” he said through the laughter.

  Val cleared his throat behind Adam, startling the group.

  "Just the people I've been looking for," he said once they gave him their full attention. "I wanted to talk to you about extra classes we've planned for you, due to your unique circumstances."

  Derek took a step backwards and turned to leave.

  "It's for you too Mr. Gunderson," said Val, stopping him from going any further. He turned and gave a confused look to Val.

  "You are all at a high risk of something happening to you so we feel we need to help you protect yourself as much as possible," Val continued, "You'll come here every Wednesday at 7 p.m. for an hour of intense training. Understood?"

  They all nodded.

  "Great. See you then," he finished before walking away.

  The boys said nothing and followed soon after. They walked in silence until they reached the hallway leading to the main hall.

  "Don't know about you guys, but I'm starving," said Mark.

  Jimmy made a shocked face. "Oh wow, I just realized something," he said. "I'm so sorry for teasing you over the years."

  Mark stared at him with distrust. After a few moments hesitation he asked, "Why?"

  "All these years I thought that your belly stuck out because you ate so much, but in reality you’re like one of those poor children you see on the TV with big bellies because they’re starving. I feel so terrible for teasing you." Jimmy held an honest face for a few seconds before grinning wide.

  “Why don’t you go tackle another potential girlfriend,” said Mark, using his fingers in the air like quotation marks when he said the word girlfriend.

  Jimmy’s face changed in an instant and he blushed more than they had ever seen.

  “Enough you two,” said Kevin. “I’m hungry too, so let’s go grab a snack.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  After a quiet breakfast the next morning due to the fact that they were unexpectedly sore and tired from the self defense class, they sat in silence at their desks waiting for Horton to arrive as usual. When he did, late again, he immediately noticed the state they were in.

  “The first self defense class is always the worst because you use muscles you didn’t think you had,” said Horton.

  “Mark hurts everywhere except his thumbs,” said Jimmy.

  “And Jimmy has a headache,” Mark shot back.

  Their banter caused everyone to smile.

  “Seems like you’re awake enough to learn something,” said Horton, “so we’ll dive into more of your regular class work this morning. This afternoon you will be spending an hour in the Mathematics and Astronomy lab. Tomorrow you will be in my lab in the morning, and the next day you will be in the Natural Sciences lab.”

  With that they started to work on English Arts. They were assigned a novel to read, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea, and Mark groaned at the news.

>   “Kevin’s probably read this already,” commented Jimmy.

  “No,” he replied. “I like to read adventures and fantasy type books. This isn’t on my list.”

  Horton smiled at Kevin. “But this is an adventure,” he said.

  “Isn’t it just about a guy catching a fish?” asked Mark.

  Horton nodded. “Yes, but it’s much more than that. An adventure doesn’t have to be a globe-trotting larger-than-life story. Adventure can happen on a much smaller scale and still be world changing to the adventurer. Just look at the adventures you’ve all had in your own small part of the world over the past year.”

  He had a good point.

  “There’s a reason this book is so loved, and I hope you discover it too,” he said and told them to begin reading.

  Lunch came quicker than expected and Horton let them go early once again.

  They hung around the cafeteria and heard from Kassie that her entire class felt the same pains as the boys did, and Derek confirmed what she said.

  “Kim, the girl that Jimmy was paired with, says her ribs are sore from when they fell over and it hurts to breathe,” said Kassie.

  Jimmy hung his head and tried to hide his face.

  “She didn’t say anything bad about you,” Kassie told him, “other than the part about you crushing her, that is.”

  Jimmy put his head on the table while everyone chuckled.

  Soon lunch break was over and the boys climbed the metal stairs to the Astronomy lab. When they stepped in the room, nothing had changed from the first time they had been there, except that there was a lot more light. They each sat in a desk at the front of the room and waited until their instructor arrived.

  When Dreena stepped inside, she looked somewhat different than she had on the first day. Adam quickly figured out what had changed. Her hair color had gone from platinum blonde to fluorescent green, and instead of being spiked on the top of her head, it was brushed neatly over to one side. The combination of that and the clothes she wore gave the impression that she was a punk-rock singer more than an instructor.

  “Awesome,” she said when she saw the four boys seated at the front. “I’ve been waiting for you guys.” She shuffled up to the front and sat on her desk.

  The boys looked at each other wondering what she meant.

  Dreena picked up on their look. “What I mean is that I’ve known your dad for a long time,” she said as she pointed at Mark, “and I’ve met your mom quite a few times,” she said as she pointed at Jimmy, “and both your parents,” she said as she pointed at Kevin, “and I knew your mom really well,” she said, pointing at Adam.

  The news stunned Adam, since he was expecting her to say Edward, not Mary.

  “Although I hear she’s been pretty depressed since your dad died,” she continued.

  Adam hadn’t thought about Mary as being depressed before that moment, because that was how Mary had always been. It just seemed normal for her. But since Dreena had mentioned it, it made sense.

  “She’s been the same way all of my life,” said Adam in return, and his friends confirmed what he said.

  “Yeah. You were pretty young when it happened. To you she would have always seemed that way. I knew her before that, and she was a lot of fun.”

  The words didn’t seem to go together for some reason. Mary. Fun. A lot of fun - nope. None of those things belonged in the same sentence and Adam’s brain nearly rejected them outright.

  “That would be news to me,” said Adam. Again, his friends confirmed what he said.

  “Don’t get me wrong, she never had my sense of style and she wasn’t crazy wild or anything, but she had a great sense of humor. We can chat about her some more another time, though. Right now you’re here for a taste of Astronomy. Have any of you had any interest in Astronomy?”

  All four of them shrugged and said nothing, trying to be polite.

  Dreena nodded. “I get a lot of that. There are a lot more people into math than Astronomy, and you know how many people are into math.” She chuckled at her own joke. “We won’t be concentrating on math here today since we only do that for those in older grades who really show an aptitude. You guys are a little young for that skill to show yet, but once you are exposed to it, Astronomy may hold some interest for you. Do you know what Astronomy is?” she asked.

  Again, they all hesitated.

  “Isn’t it the study of planets and stars?” asked Jimmy.

  “Close,” said Dreena. “It’s the study of everything outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. By studying everything around us, we can predict a lot of things that are happening here on the Earth. The Teneo were so good at it that they made predictions about weather events hundreds of years ago that are still coming true today. Some members of the League have even had the ability to predict future events, but that’s pretty rare, and it’s all influenced by the movements of the universe.”

  The boys all looked at each other and their eyes widened. Again, Dreena caught the look.

  “I forgot that you guys know Aggie and Martha. Now that’s a pair of famous seer’s in the League. But they’re not the most powerful seer’s, though. They are fairly tame, seeing only local events and things close to them. The League’s most famous seer was named Michel de Nostradame,” said Dreena.

  “Nostradamus?” asked Mark.

  “Yes,” replied Dreena.

  “He was real?” asked Mark again.

  “Definitely,” replied Dreena again.

  “How’d you know that?” Kevin asked Mark.

  “He was a character in an old video game I played,” said Mark.

  Kevin hung his head. “Should’ve known,” he said.

  “Michel de Nostradame was an astronomer in the 1500’s and he was able to connect with the universe in a way that no one has since. He made a bunch of predictions and wrote them all down in quatrains – four lines with alternating rhymes. Some are still coming true today, but let me give you an example of a more modern quatrain you might know.”

  She cleared her throat. “Well, it’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now go cat go,” she said in a country-singer type of accent while she swung her hips in a strange fashion.

  “Do you know that one?” she asked with a big grin, like it should be easy.

  The boys shook their heads and looked to see if any of them knew the reference.

  “You’re kidding, right?” asked Dreena.

  They continued to shake their heads.

  “You’re the first class I’ve ever had that didn’t get that one,” she said with surprise. “It’s ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ by Elvis Presley,” she exclaimed. “It’s one of the most famous songs ever.”

  She was obviously a huge fan and quite disappointed.

  “But we’re not into classical music,” said Mark.

  “Classical…” Dreena stopped for a second and seemed insulted by Mark’s comment until she noticed him grinning.

  “Very funny,” she said and shook her finger at him.

  “Did Nostradamus write those lyrics?” Jimmy asked, but he was unable to say it with a straight face. “Elvis was popular around that time, right?”

  “I hadn’t heard that you guys were such comedians,” said Dreena, “although that was pretty funny,” she admitted after a few moments of consideration.

  “Thank-you very much,” said Adam in imitation of Elvis Presley’s famous drawl.

  They all burst out into laughter, including Dreena.

  After they controlled themselves again, Dreena continued.

  “Where were we? Oh yeah, predictions. Even though none of the Teneo were able to channel visions like Nostradamus, they were able to determine that seers like him were tied to the movements of planets throughout the Universe. There are a lot of things tied to those movements and events, and that’s what we study here. We have a fantastic telescope in the observatory, and because of our location and elevation, there is very little light pollution so we can see a lot. Follow
me and we’ll go take a look at it.”

  She stood up and walked over to the observatory door and the boys followed. The door wasn’t locked like the first time they had been in the classroom. As they stepped inside they saw a massive telescope that had to be at least thirty feet long and five feet in diameter sitting in the middle of the room.

  “It’s getting old now, but when we upgraded it about twenty years ago it was the best one in the world – mainly because we used Teneo technology. The next Astronomy class you have will be in the evening so we will use this to look around,” said Dreena.

  Adam was excited about the possibility. He didn’t want to learn about all of the planets and stars, though. He just wanted to see some of them and then figure out how the telescope worked.

  Dreena led them out of the observatory and stopped outside of the Astrodome.

  “We almost got locked in there the first day,” said Jimmy.

  Dreena smiled. “I heard,” she replied. “Don’t worry, I can show you how to find the way out.”

  She opened the door and gestured for the boys to follow. She stayed at the door as they filed past her and she shooed them further into the room before closing the door.

  It took a few moments for their eyes to adjust, and Dreena remained silent for a while.

  “You should be able to see now,” she said and they all replied in agreement.

  “Can you see over here?” she asked. “The door has the word ‘door’ written on it in stars. Do you see it?”

  They all agreed. It was easy to find since they had seen it once before.

  “Good. Now look around and tell me what you see,” said Dreena.

  Adam looked around and immediately noticed his favorite constellation not far from straight up. “It’s the Big Dipper,” he said.

  “Right,” said Dreena. “In order to find the door, first you need to have the North Star straight above you. If you can find the Big Dipper, you can find the North Star. Do you know how?”

  “Follow the two stars on the end of the Big Dipper straight up to the nearest bright star. That’s the North Star and it happens to be the first one on the handle of the Little Dipper,” said Adam.

  The others clapped sarcastically.