“What do you mean?” Carly asked. Her icy eyes softening a little.
“I feel so out of place in this group. I mean you and Harrison control fire and water. Darryl’s smarter than anyone in the history of the universe! But me I’m just the defense guy. What use am I?” He said sadly.
“Um...Your force field can withstand anything! You’re faster than light!!! You’re pretty useful” Carly smiled her eyes losing all of their anger, “Also you have crazy hearing and seeing powers! I want that!”
Jake smiled. His cheeks turning slightly pink. “Oh, and sorry Harrison for being a jerk.”
I punched him in the shoulder. “It’s OK! You’re not completely useless!” He laughed. A sound I hadn’t heard for a while. Darryl laughed as well. Soon, we were all helpless with laughter. A knock ended that.
“Harrison? You in there?” It was was my sister.
“Yes, Tessa, I’m here.” I said. “And so is Jake.”
At the mention of Jake’s name, my sister popped in excited. She jumped up and down. Her cinnamon-colored hair bouncing up and down. Her hazel eyes, wide. Jake rubbed his now pink neck and smiled, embarrassed. “Hey Tessa.” He said. Tessa squealed in response. Her caramel skin turning slightly pink. She stared adoringly at him.
“Well Tessa, we were just about to go swimming!” I said, “You could join us if you want!”
“I’ll be right down!” She squealed excitedly as she exited my room.
Jake turned to me annoyed. “Carly go see if my sis has a spare suit.” I interrupted before Jake could yell at me. I gave each of them a swimsuit. “The bathrooms are there and there. I’ll be in here.”
They left. I smiled.
Carly flipped into the pool. I went in via the zip line. Tessa dived in from the diving board. Darryl did a cannonball.
Jake went into the pool slowly. In the shallow end.
We laughed.
Jake blushed.
“Come on in Jake! The water’s great!” We teased.
His face turned redder than a tomato. He went into the deeper water slowly. Jake’s biggest secret was that he never learned how to swim. This was how I decided to repay him for being mean to us.
Carly gave him a mischievous grin. “I know why don’t we play catch. I’ll be it!”
Carly gave us to a count of twenty, and then we spread out to the furthest edges. For a while, Carly pretended to chase us. Then with an extra push of her powers she swam towards Jake. Jake panicked and started splashing around in the shallow area. Not thinking for a second to use his powers. Carly stopped right in front of him and said,
“Tag you’re it!”
Jake groaned.
He counted to twenty and opened his eyes. Tessa had stopped right in front of Jake. And I had no doubt that Jake knew about it. Jake made a fake swing for her and she dodged giggling.
While she was underwater Jake used his super speed to doggy paddle to the end of the pool. He tagged me and gave me an innocent smile.
We were drying off when Mum came into my room.
“Hi boys! Hope you had fun!” She smiled at Jake as she placed the tray of snacks on my living room table.
I stifled a laugh.
When she left I let it burst. Darryl joined me. We laughed for five minutes straight. When we wiped the tears from our eyes and picked ourselves up from the floor.
We were still smiling as Carly walked in with Tessa. “What’s up guys?” They chorused.
“Nothing much.” We replied in the same three-part harmony.
“Cool.” Carly said, “Hey! Can we have some of those chips and salsa in your living room Harrison?”
I had forgotten all about the snacks Mum brought in. “Sure.”
“Thanks” she replied. We all went to my living room to eat. To put it short it was terrible. After our first bite we all swallowed and then excused ourselves to the bathroom.
We vomited for a minute. Then we decided what to do with the salsa. Jake suggested to feed it to the dogs. Carly quickly reprimanded him for even thinking about it. Nursing his hurt wrist he deftly apologized. Tessa suggested burying it six feet underground. I said make it two feet. In the end we went along with Tessa’s idea. We took shovels and Tess carried the salsa down. A couple of times we had to hide from mum.
We finally arrived in the middle of the forest. A good distance away from the tree house. Carly, Jake, Darryl and I each took our shovels and began digging, while Tess looked around. “Cool! I want a tree house here! It could be purple!” We sighed and resumed our digging as Tess went on daydreaming about her perfect tree house. We both knew that she would get her tree house when she turned eleven.
When our hole was three feet big we called Tessa. She unceremoniously dumped the salsa in the hole. When we had finished piling dirt on top of it and were just leaving I noticed that I had left my shovel. I told the others to go on without me.
When I got to the clearing I noticed a blond boy sitting on top of the tallest tree. I was about to call out to him, when I noticed he was wearing a cloak. But the cloak was as dark as a shadow during the brightest hour. That, and the tentacles waving around as if they were alive. I gasped silently. I picked up my shovel and ran as fast as I could. I could feel his eyes boring into my back.
I didn’t say a word to the others when I got back. I was too scared. The boy was weird, he seemed to radiate fear and that was not natural. Not natural at all.
“Hey, Harrison are you alright?” Jake asked.
“Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?” I said nervously.
“I dunno. You just seem kind of jumpy!” He replied.
“No! I’m not jumpy! Or nervous or scared or anything!” I said, “Ha, ha…”
“Okay! If you say so.” Jake said.
I tuned out of the conversation after that. Nodding, occasionally. But mostly just watching out for that boy. That boy, with the freaky black robes. That boy, who seemed to bring up all my childhood nightmares. I wouldn’t sleep well tonight!
I woke up from my fifth nightmare that night drenched in sweat. I checked the time. Three more hours, until 7:00. This time I was too scared to fall back asleep. I crawled out of bed and tried to do something that wouldn’t remind of my nightmares. Anything that wouldn’t remind me of the tortures that blond boy gave me. Anything but being slowly torn apart. Anything but being skinned alive. Anything but being dumped in a tank full of flesh-eating piranhas. Anything but being thrown into a pit of nails and snakes. Anything but watching my friends die slowly. Anything but knowing that I would be next.
Jake
X
I was so glad that everything had smoothed out with the others. I fetched my tracking chip and put it back in its place. Everything was back to normal. Except for Carly. I had forgiven Harrison, but I still held strong feelings for Carly. But she would never know. My nerve was lost.
I stifled a sigh as I listened to Mr. Wharton tell us about scientific notation. I tuned out and imagined next week’s basketball game. “He shoots….he SCORES!” I said to myself. Then I felt a thousand eyes burning into my back. Turning slowly I gave a little pathetic chuckle. “Heh-heh...heh.”.
“Well, Mr. Patterson,” Mr. Wharton said in that horrid, wheezy voice of his. “Perhaps you would like to share what you were day dreaming about in the middle of my class!”
I smiled and said, “It was awesome! Mr Wharton was this worm who could regenerate! And we kept stepping on him!” That brought a lot of laughter! No doubt it would be all over the school by next period.
“You know what else is funny?” He asked sarcastically. I shook my head. “DETENTION! And thanks to Mr Patterson, everyone can write down all the rules of Scientific Notation!”
The class groaned. I smiled. Anything to get out of math!
I took the little pink slip with joy. I literally skipped to the principal’s office. He wasn’t there so I took a seat in the waiting room. From my position, I could see the secretary’s computer. I read the words: Gradebook. And conven
iently it was open on my name. I read it:
Report Card for STUDENT: PATTERSON, Jake Christopher
MATH:
Teacher: Mr Wharton Grade: C+ Percent: 78 Position: 15th
ENGLISH:
Teacher: Ms Thompson Grade: D- Percent: 63 Position: 20th
HISTORY:
Teacher: Mr Lin Grade: D Percent: 65 Position: 12th
GEOGRAPHY:
Teacher: Ms Smith Grade: C+ Percent: 76 Position: 9th
PHYSICS:
Teacher: Mr Tibbs Grade: D- Percent: 52 Position: 16th
BIOLOGY:
Teacher: Mr Shay Grade: C- Percent: 71 Position: 19th
HEALTH:
Teacher: Mr. Zimmer Grade: D Percent: 66 Position: 24th
MODERN LANGUAGES SECTION FOR QUARTER 3:
FRENCH:
Teacher: Madame Belle Grade: D- Percent: 56 Position: 27th
PERFORMING ARTS:
DRAMA:
Teacher: Mr Russell Grade: A+ Position: 2nd
PHYSICAL EDUCATION:
Teacher: Mrs. Breedlove Grade: A+ Position: 1st
OVERALL ACADEMIC SCORE: 55%
OTHER SUBJECTS: 100%
GPA: 0.12 GRADE: D-
Your child’s academic results are under the necessary score to pass on into ninth grade. If your child fails to get 70% or higher by the end of the academic year he will be required to go to summer school. If he fails to meet the appropriate standards in summer school, he will be held back.
Yours sincerely:
SKamininski DougTurn
Middle School Principal: Superintendent:
Shari Kaminski Douglas Turner
Northview Academy
Filii hodie, et imperantes cras!
Children today, Leaders tomorrow!
I looked at my grades in shock. Summer school! Whenever someone puts a season in front of school, it’s bad! But summer. I imagined my summer marred by stacks of homework. I shuddered. Never! I had to quit joking around and get serious. At my school, you get a kind of mock report card, a month before the real deal.
“Jake?” My visions of stacks of A’s piled around me, ended abruptly. The principal was here.
“Hi, Mrs. Kaminski!” I said, putting on my best suck-up impression of Darryl. “ I have this for you!” I handed her the pink slip of paper. Her coffee brown eyes skimmed over it. Tucking her thick dark hair behind her ears, she sighed.
“Mr. Wharton said you disrupted his class with sports comments and talked about murdering him?” I stifled a laugh at her confusion. “This isn’t funny!” But I could see her smiling.
“Jake one more detention and you could repeat! This and your grades! I suggest you buckle down and get serious. See me at the end of the day. And bring something to study with!”
“Yes, Mrs. Kaminski!” I said seriously.
I left her office.
Cell biology research investigates the structure and function of individual proteins and the assembly of cellular membranes and organelles, and the molecular mechanisms of interactions between cells and between organisms and their environment.
I struggled to stay awake as I read the chapter. Even in super speed it took me twenty minutes to read that first chapter.
I had eight to go.
My math wasn’t excellent, but even I could figure out that eight times twenty equaled one-eighty. Or was it one-sixty? Okay, maybe you do need a genius to figure that out. Anyway, I only had ten minutes left of detention. I decided to work on math. I spent the remainder of that ten minutes doing my thirteen timetables. Mrs Kaminski walked into the room.
“JAKE!” She yelled, sounding like a prison warden. “Your time is up! You may leave!”
“Bye Mrs. Kaminski!” She seemed shocked by my politeness. But quickly recovered.
“Goodbye, Mr. Patterson.” She said formally. I left without slamming the door. Her eyes were practically out of her head. I smiled.
As I was leaving the school, I saw a strange short boy with a head of tangled blonde curls leaving the basement with an eerie look on his face. He looked familiar somehow. But I shrugged of the thought. No one could radiate evil like him. No one could have the same green-black eyes that looked like they would envelop you in torture. He gave me a creepy smile that seemed to say: ‘You’ll be next!’ I shrugged it off thinking it was figment of my imagination. I looked up at where the boy had stood. I was completely alone. He seemed to have vanished into thin air. I turned my hearing on, but could hear nothing other than the sound of Mrs. Wharton’s voice and the janitor cleaning up. I unconsciously created a force field around myself. The light blue shield seemed to get rid of all haunting thoughts.
I smiled as I walked home.
I forgot all about the creepy boy and his shadows. But I didn’t forget my parent’s yelling, when I arrived home an hour late.
I texted Harrison as soon as I got to the confines of my room.
Me: Hey Harrison
Harrison: Hey Jake, whaddup
Me: A lot! grades bad. might need 2 go 2 summer school!
Harrison: WHAT!
Me: ik! i’m gonna ask darryl to tutor me!
Harrison: WHAT
Me: STOP IT! Ur not helping!
Harrison: Sorry. what should i do?????
Me: I dunno? tutor me in math?
Harrison: sure. i got an a in that! but mayb ask kaminski 2 switch math teachers
Me: ok
Harrison: c ya l8r
Me: bye
I switched off my phone and got out my biology book again. This time I managed to read all nine chapters.
Mom found me and hour later sleeping with the book on my head.
Carly
XI
“Wake up Carly! Carly, Carly, Carly! Wake u-.” Groaning, I switched off my alarm clock. It was a gift from papa’s company O-CoolTech. He was their number three inventor.
I made my way to the dining room. Eirik had made another traditional Norwegian cuisine, that consisted of open sandwiches and homemade cloudberry smoothies. I wolfed down the food and got ready for the day. Today was report card day! The week went by so slowly, but finally it was here!
I was so happy! I had worked really hard this year! Last year I had gotten an acceptable B. But the University of Washington Cheerleaders excepted only a GPA of 3.5. And unlike most schools it started in eighth grade. I was so pumped out!
I literally flipped through the day. At the end of the day I told Coach Irene that I had sprained my ankle, and put on a fake limp, favoring my left leg.
Once I was out of sight, I sprinted home. I yanked the door open and raced to Papa’s office. He was sitting reading a letter.. A big smile sat on his face. “Here. Read it!” He said. I took it from his hands. It read:
Report Card for STUDENT: MARTINSEN, Carly Anne
MATH:
Teacher: Mr Wharton Grade: A- Percent: 90 Position: 5th
ENGLISH:
Teacher: Ms Murph Grade: A- Percent: 90 Position: 4th
HISTORY:
Teacher: Mr Lin Grade: A Percent: 95 Position: 2nd
GEOGRAPHY:
Teacher: Ms Roberts Grade: A+ Percent: 101 Position: 1st
PHYSICS:
Teacher: Mr Tibbs Grade: A- Percent:92 Position: 4th
BIOLOGY:
Teacher: Mr Yamin Grade: A Percent: 95 Position: 1st
HEALTH:
Teacher: Mr. Carter Grade: A+ Percent: 102 Position: 1st
MODERN LANGUAGES SECTION FOR QUARTER 3:
GERMAN:
Teacher: Mrs Abbing Grade:A+ Percent: 100 Position: 1st
PERFORMING ARTS:
BAND:
Teacher: Ms. Chang Grade: A+ Position: 2nd
PHYSICAL EDUCATION:
Teacher: Mrs. Breedlove Grade: B+ Position: 9th
OVERALL ACADEMIC SCORE: 96%
OTHER SUBJECTS: 90%
GPA: 3.74 GRADE: A
Congratulations! Your child has been promoted to honors class! This is active at the start of the new academic
year!
Yours sincerely:
SKamininski DougTurn
Middle School Principal: Superintendent:
Shari Kaminski Douglas Turner
Northview Academy
Filii hodie, et imperantes cras!
Children today, Leaders tomorrow!
I screamed.
“Bravo! Carly you earned a treat! You can invite four of your friends to a pizza party. Here’s a hundred dollars! Keep the change!” He smiled his wide-tooth smile as I squealed and hugged him and kissed him.
Then, I raced to the room I shared with Hilde. I found her on her bed. She jumped up when I came in.
“You’ll never guess what happened! I was promoted to an Honor’s Class!” We yelled in sync.
We screamed. Holding hands, we jumped around. I then performed a series of flips, while Hilde did a series of cartwheels around the room, ending in a splits. When we were finishing our routine, papa walked in.
“Hi Papa! Heh heh!” I said pathetically.
“Hi onkel Andreas!” Hilde said.
The Super 4 : Dark Death Page 5