“No, seriously,” she chuckled. “It makes you look macho. Almost like you spent yesterday doing something other than playing video games. Maybe something in the real world.”
“You’re one to talk. You spend all your time holed up in your room doing God knows what. Studying?” Riley asked with derision.
“Sadly for you, no. I’m naturally brilliant. I don’t need to study like some people.”
Although the comment was not directed toward him, Landon was slightly offended. He jumped in to stop the bickering.
“Anyway, I’m sorry about your eye,” Landon interrupted.
“Don’t worry about it. I know it was an accident,” Riley returned a few bites later. “But seriously, you’ve got to get better. I don’t know if I can take anything else flying at me.”
Landon looked down and fiddled with the eggs on his plate. “I hear you,” he replied.
“Well, you now have those private sessions with Dr. Brighton on Saturdays. Those should help, right?” Katie Leigh asked. Her tone was apologetic. She must have realized the callousness of her earlier words.
“I think that’s the idea,” barked Riley pointedly. “Why don’t you mind your own business for a change, you natural pain in the —”
Katie Leigh gasped before Riley could finish his insult. She looked as if she’d been stabbed by a dagger, but her expression quickly turned. She stood up from the table, holding tightly to the sides of her tray, and glared at Riley.
“Fine!” she exclaimed through a clenched jaw. “I don’t know why I put up with you. I hope your face stays like that forever, Quasimodo!”
Landon nearly choked on his bacon as he tried to hold back a burst of laughter.
“It’s a vast improvement from what you looked like before!” she fumed.
Katie Leigh stormed off down the aisle and made her way for the cafeteria’s exit. As she passed a trash can, she hurled her untouched plate of food into the bin before slamming the tray on the pile of empty ones.
They watched her leave, then Landon turned to Riley.
“Wow, that was . . . unexpected.”
“Whatever,” he returned. “Besides,” he added a little less confidently, “she’ll be back. Who’s she gonna talk to if not me?”
Landon and Riley finished their breakfast in silence. All the while, Landon couldn’t get his mind off the night before. The questions that roamed around in his head were driving him insane.
“Riley,” Landon started after finishing his glass of milk.
“What?”
“What do you think the Gymnasium is training us for?” Landon asked point blank. He intentionally didn’t tell Riley details of his encounter with the lucifugous thief the night before. Landon preferred to work things out on his own; however, if anyone knew about the inner workings of the Gymnasium, Riley was the one to ask. He’d made a reputation for himself as being the most socially informed student who somehow knew everything about everyone, whether that information was private or public.
“What do you mean?” Riley asked. “You had orientation. They’re ‘training us to control our abilities so we aren’t menaces to society.’” Riley had adopted his pompous professor voice.
“Yeah, that’s basically what they told me. It’s just . . . I was in the Library last night . . . and I started wondering, wha—”
“Hold on. What were you doing in the Library in the middle of the night?” Riley interrupted.
“Uh, that’s not important.” Landon quickly returned to the previous subject. “What about the Restricted Tower? Do you have any idea what’s in there?”
Riley answered, “Nope. It has been closed off to the students since before I got here. I’ve never even seen someone go in it. Not professors, scientists or anyone, but I heard once that they were doing all sorts of sick, sadistic experiments in there.”
“Really? What do you think they’re experimenting on?”
“Seriously, Landon? Come on, nothing bad is going on in there. The Restricted Tower is probably just some giant storage unit.”
“Then why is it restricted?” Landon asked plainly. “Is that really the time?” Landon added suddenly after getting a quick glance at the clock on the back wall of the cafeteria. “I’m supposed to be at Tactometry right now. I’m gonna be late. I’ll talk to you later.”
Landon got up and raced out of the cafeteria to his training session. If only he was permitted to skip it. Questions still consumed Landon’s brain, so he knew he’d have some difficulty concentrating during his lesson. He needed to know if there was more going on at this place that even Riley didn’t know. What is in the Restricted Tower?
What had the girl stolen? She was carrying a messenger bag, so there must have been something in it, and Landon couldn’t imagine it was something she’d brought with her. Whatever it was, it had to be something small. She only carried the small bag. Maybe she stole a file or something from the labs.
Also, she was psychokinetic, like him, and a powerful one at that. But she left. Did that mean that there was somewhere else for people like them? Landon was under the impression that all the people with abilities like theirs were brought to the Gymnasium, so . . . where was she going?
And the most looming question of all, the one that weighed most heavily on him: Who was the mysterious night bandit?
• • • • •
Professor Tzu, a short, middle-aged Asian man with greying hair and a round face, informed the students that their practice time would be spent outside in the valley, rather than the usual classroom.
The weather was quite amenable. The sun shined brightly over the Eastern ridge and felt warm on the skin, but the valley was cool and breezy, making it comfortable.
“All right, everyone,” Professor Tzu said, “I want you all to spread out. I’ve hidden a set of items on the grounds and hope you can find them before the day is up. This will require more than just sensing. As I have told you before, your abilities will develop a sort of haptic perception, which will allow you to discern objects based on how they feel, like when you hold something in your hands and can figure out what it is just by touching it.”
Landon wasn’t paying much attention. His mind still lingered on the events of the night before. As thoughts of the shadowed girl, the helicopter and the mysterious items hidden within the messenger bag swirled through his head, he gazed at the two small divots in the gravel where she had stood.
“You seem distracted.”
Landon jumped out of his head to find Celia standing beside him. Looking around, he noticed that the entire class had dispersed and was excitedly moving about the valley.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just trying to figure some things out.”
“Well, Tzu wants us to pair up and find everything on this list.” Celia held up a small sheet of paper with a list of miscellaneous items printed on it. “It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt.”
Landon looked at her.
“Come on then. We have to get going if we want to win this thing.” Celia grabbed hold of Landon’s hand and dragged him along as she made her way toward the lake.
Just as they reached the shore, Celia pulled Landon around so that he was standing in front of her, and she shoved the sheet of paper into his hand.
“Memorize the list.”
“Memorize it?” he asked. Celia was alarmingly forceful.
“Yeah.” Celia looked very serious when she said it.
Landon took the list and read over it a few times.
1. #2 wooden pencil
2. Screw
3. Earphones
4. Shoe lace
5. Blue marker
6. Paper clip
7. Penny
8. ½ inch marble
9. Thimble
10. 2” match
11. Wire clipping
12. Green Army Man
13. Key
14. Jingle bell
15. Rubber band
16. Glass lens
17. Pocket watch
18. Contact lens
19. Zipper
20. Steel Ring
“Ugh, what is it with people and rings around here?” Landon mumbled to himself.
“So you ready?” Celia asked.
“Uh,” Landon replied. “I think so, but I have one question: How are we supposed to find all of this stuff in just one session if we have to search the entire valley?”
“Wow, you weren’t paying attention at all, were you? We all have a different sector of the valley and a different list of stuff to find. Our area is from that tree over there due north into the woods and due east until it hits the lake.” Celia pointed to a solitary pine tree growing between the Gymnasium and where they stood. “So we need to find all of our stuff before anyone else gets theirs for us to win.”
“What do we win?” Landon asked.
“Uh . . . being the winner,” she replied as if it was obvious. “And I don’t lose.”
“Well, you’re off to a bad start having me as your partner.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re better than you give yourself credit.” Celia and Landon stared at one another for a minute until Celia awkwardly patted Landon on the shoulder and then sprinted off toward the woods. As she got farther and farther away, she turned her head and yelled over her shoulder, “You start here and I’ll look in the woods!”
Landon continued to watch her until she disappeared behind the thick line of trees. Since their orientation, Celia excelled at everything she attempted. She was a star pupil in Telekinetics and had no issues in Tactometry or Thought Reception. If there was really an award for “Most Awesome New Student,” Celia blew him out of the water. The only point Landon could have possibly claimed against her was that his extensity radius was one meter wider than hers. That was not much of a feat considering the wealth of skill she could employ within her twenty-four meters compared to the minimal capabilities Landon had in his twenty-five.
Within minutes of starting, he found the pencil and the rubber band through sheer observation, but he knew Professor Tzu would not make everything so easy to acquire.
For the next hour, Landon scoured the area Celia assigned to him. With his mind still lingering on the events of the previous night, he reverted back to old methods of accessing his abilities, and like before, they produced less than stellar results. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t concentrate.
Eventually, Celia came out of the woods carrying a small pile of items in her hands. She gave Landon a contemptuous glance when he presented her with only the two items he’d stored in his pocket. When they looked over the list, they realized they had fourteen of the twenty.
Celia silently turned away from Landon and methodically walked around the lawn and lakeshore, stopping ever so often to pick things up off the ground. Well not so much pick them up but hold her hand open in front of her and have the item jump off the ground and into her hand.
Landon managed to become the storage unit for Celia, fighting to hold all of the items in his arms as she walked back to him with one object after another. In minutes, they had nineteen of the twenty items with only the steel ring remaining unfound.
Before heading back out to find the final elusive object, Celia glanced up at Landon to see the embarrassment written on his face.
“Come on. You’re gonna to find the last one,” she said, waving for Landon to follow her.
Landon was taken aback. Celia was so competitive—how on earth was she going to put the fate of their winning the exercise on his shoulders? But he obeyed and caught up with her while struggling to hold on to the nineteen objects in his arms.
She walked casually, which surprised Landon even further.
“So what’s really on your mind?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Landon returned.
“Well, you’ve been distracted all morning, and I know you don’t do well unless you can really focus. So what’s getting you?”
“There was some craziness last night that I can’t seem to get out of my head.”
Landon hadn’t really spoken to Celia much since they arrived at the Gymnasium. They were more acquaintances than friends. They shared almost every training group, but she had proven herself to be in a different league than Landon, elevating her into a superior social cast in the Gymnasium. That aside, Landon wasn’t sure what he could tell her about his late night run-in with his mystery woman. He didn’t feel right telling anyone until he knew for himself what really was going on.
“Really? What happened?” she asked, concerned.
“Uh, it’s really nothing. I need to just put it out of my mind.”
“That’s probably best. . . . So why do you think you have so much trouble with all of this?”
Landon’s face drained of color, and he felt his palms get sweaty.
“I honestly have no idea,” he returned timidly.
“Well, I think it’s because you’re too hard on yourself.” Celia looked over to Landon, who was staring at his feet. “I think if you just lightened up a bit, you’d be showing us all up.”
Landon lifted his head and looked over at Celia, who now looked out over the water of the lake. The morning sun gave her an ethereal glow.
She then turned to look back at Landon and, with a crazed look in her eye, said, “Come on! . . . We’re going swimming.”
Before he could even respond, she was diving into the water; her shirt and pants laid on the sandy beach.
“Come on! Have some fun!” she yelled after letting out an invigorating woo! upon bursting out from under the water.
Landon stared at her, dumbfounded for a moment. There’s a hot girl in her underwear asking me to go swimming with her. . . . How is this happening? The excitement grabbed him, and he couldn’t help but join her. He cast the nineteen objects in his arms aside, manically stripped down to his boxer shorts, and ran into the water, high-stepping to catch Celia.
As he dove under water, his breath was taken away. The water was icy, but invigorating in the best kind of way. Somehow the constriction of his muscles loosened the tensions in his mind.
When he came up for air, he looked around and saw that Celia was about ten yards away. He swam over to her, a smile stretched across his face.
Once close enough, he stopped and began treading water. Celia was giggling beside him but had a maniacal grin. He then realized she was looking up and when he did the same, he watched as a ball of water she had lifted into the air plummeted toward him and engulfed his head. He was laughing out loud when he resurfaced and started to splash her in retaliation, pushing his hands forward with all his might.
The splashing went on for minutes, but when Landon turned his head to avoid getting water in his face, he noticed the water of the lake looked really agitated, like the ocean in the middle of a thunderstorm. He continued to push water toward Celia, but soon realized that with every shove of his arm, the water all around him formed into waves and crashed in Celia’s direction.
“Landon Wicker and Celia Jackson!”
The voice came from the shore and was barely audible through the sound of the splashing water, but Landon and Celia both froze in place. When they looked over, Dr. Brighton stood on the beach with a book in his hand and a disapproving scowl on his face. They both kept their eyes down as they returned to shore, not daring look Dr. Brighton in the face. The water quickly subdued and returned to its usual ebb and flow.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working on your Tactometry exercise right now?” Dr. Brighton asked as the two attempted to pull their clothes onto thei
r soaked bodies.
“Yes, sir,” they replied in unison.
“So what were you doing out there?” he asked.
“Well, we found nineteen of the twenty items on our list and we were looking for our last when we discovered it was actually hidden on the lake bottom,” Celia replied.
Landon looked at her, confused. Was she making this up?
“Then why did you not just lift this item off the lake bottom and draw it to you with your abilities?” Dr. Brighton asked. “If you sensed it, you could easily lift it, correct?”
“Of course, sir,” Celia continued. “But our Tactometry training would be over for the day, as we were only tasked with discovering the twenty items in our designated area. It was the last item on our list, and since it is such a beautiful day, we thought it more engaging to swim and retrieve it rather than simply pluck it from the depths with our gifts.”
Landon never said a word; he just stood there, looking at Celia as she wordsmithed their way out of danger. She is amazing at this, Landon thought.
“Look, sir, if you don’t believe me, here’s the ring.” She held out her hand and resting in her palm was the steel ring, shining in the late morning sun. She then pointed to the place in the sand where Landon had dropped all the rest of their objects. “The other nineteen are right there in that pile.”
Dr. Brighton looked down at the pile of items strewn about on the lakeshore for a minute before turning back to Celia and Landon.
“Very well. I’m not against having fun, just please make sure to check in with your professor before deciding to go for a swim. I guess I’ll see you both tomorrow morning, and Landon, I hope you’re ready for Saturday. After what I just witnessed, I think I have an idea.”
Dr. Brighton headed back up to the Gymnasium. Celia and Landon finished getting dressed, collected their items, and hurried across the lawn to check in with Professor Tzu.
As they walked, Celia broke their silence by bursting out with uncontrollable laughter. Landon looked at her for a split second and then joined. He couldn’t figure out what was even that funny, but he couldn’t help himself. Something inside had snapped and he now couldn’t control himself. They were laughing so hard their stomachs started to hurt, and they continued to laugh as they presented their twenty items to Professor Tzu. He nodded with approval.
The Search for Artemis (The Chronicles of Landon Wicker) Page 12