by Travis McBee
She had finished with what she had come for and was exiting the stall, giggling at the memory of the strange thing called toilet paper that was used on Earth, when she heard the hiss of the bathroom door as it slid open. She didn’t pay any attention to the new comers at first as she placed her hands under the sanitizing station on the wall.
“Well looky here Amy,” A high voice of cruelty said behind her, “If it isn’t a Bridger in our bathroom.”
“I see that Anvi,” a lower yet still feminine voice responded, “Now what should we do about it?”
Abby wheeled around and saw that the two girls that had been sitting behind her during the game were sneering at her. One was incredibly skinny with curly brown hair and the other one sported jet black hair and deeply brown skin.
“Leave me alone,” Abby said surprising herself with the boldness in her voice, “I don’t want any trouble,”
“Oh but we do,” The dark skinned girl replied with a sneer.
Abby bolted for the door but a hand grabbed her hair and restrained her. She swung her arms behind her trying to break the hold on her but another hand grabbed her arm on the wrist and began to drag her backwards towards the stall she had exited moments before.
“Let go of me,” She grunted feeling some of her hair pulling free from her head
Her demand was met with a sinister series of giggles and the two Starview girls fought harder to drag her into the small cubicle. Abby fought furiously and ignored the searing pain in her head as she pulled relentlessly for freedom but she couldn’t overcome the two girls.
“Bridgers are pieces of crap, right Amy?” The tanned girl said mockingly.
“Right,” the other girl snickered as she fought to hold onto the struggling Abby.
“And where does crap go?”
“In the toilet,”
The girls both began to laugh in a crazed fervor as they wrestled Abby into the stall. She could see the glistening steel of the toilet and knew what the girls were about to do. They were going to give her a sucker. She suddenly longed for the funny toilets on Earth that were filled with water when she imagined the lid of the toilet jamming into the back of her neck as it tried to create the neat seal so that it could suck its contents away. Unfortunately the suction would still come and she grimaced as she remembered tales of it pulling peoples hair out of their head as the toilet tried to clear itself.
“You’re going to enjoy this Bridger,” the skinny girl laughed.
Abby’s hands flailed around and purchased a hand hold along the wall. She pulled herself back but she didn’t manage to hold on long as she felt a hand rip at her fingers until they fell away. A hissing noise filled the room and she moaned as she imagined the toilet warming up for her.
“What are you doing!” a voice shouted across the room from the door that had just slid open.
The hands holding Abby suddenly relented and she fell back out of the stall as her attackers bolted for the door. They ran through without resistance as the group of girls entering stood shocked at what they had uncovered. Abby looked up and recognized Cassandra White leading the group of Bridgeworld freshman girls.
“Abby!” Cassandra shrieked as she caught sight of her face, “What happened?”
“They-they tried to-to-to give me a sucker.” Abby stammered as tears of retreating fear and rising gratitude streamed down her face.
“Did you come in here on your own?” Cassandra asked looking around the room.
“Yeah,” Abby mumbled.
“Abby! This is Starview you must have heard the stories! You can’t just go wandering about on your own,” Cassandra’s tone had adopted some of her usual smugness that had been absent so far.
“I thought they were just stories and not real,” Abby mumbled embarrassed.
* * *
“What happened to you?” Corey remarked as Abby sat next to him in the stands minutes later. Cassandra had accompanied her back to the stands before she left them to return to her seat next to Corey. Tears were still fresh on her face and Corey had noticed them.
“Nothing,” Abby replied quickly, sensing the girls behind her.
The game was about to start again and Abby could see Will walking out into the gym with his helmet held in his hands. He looked up at her and waved with a big smile on his face. She returned the smile and the wave although she didn’t feel all that cheerful after what had just happened.
* * *
Will walked calmly out of the locker room with the happy sounds of Coach’s speech still ringing in his ear. He held his helmet in his hands as he meandered across the gym and glanced towards the glass wall. The crowd was split into a wave of silver smashing against a wall of white but a dash of white in the silver caught his eye. He spotted Abby and Corey sitting right below the strangely placed Starviwers and waved at her while offering a smile. She returned the smile and wave and he hoped she had known it was him that had managed to score most of the points that day instead of Jon. He knew she didn’t really care about zegma but he still felt the drive to show off for his girl and so far he had done just that.
He slid the helmet over his head and breathed a sigh of relief as the colors and sound around him dimmed to a manageable intensity. The gravity abandoned him moments later and he felt himself drift backwards towards the wall as his suit was magnetized. As the beeps chimed down he hoped for a repeat performance of the first half and when the wall released its grip on him he slammed his feet into the wall and tried to make it happen.
* * *
An hour later he stood upon a bench in the locker room cheering wildly. Bridgeworld had managed to defeat Starview a hundred and fifty to twenty five, which was the largest margin in the history of the rivalry. Will had gone on to have an incredible second half scoring stick after stick with what seemed to be incredible ease. Jon had done well as usual, but on that day Will overshadowed him and if it wasn’t for the anonymity of the sport he would have been the hero of the school. None the less the team knew who had scored so many sticks and they cheered Will with uncontrollable fervor.
The team continued to cheer as they walked out of the locker room and into the hall which would lead them back downstairs and to home. As Will walked through the door he spotted a flash of white to his left and turned towards it. A group of Starview students was walking down the hall and Will recognized the camaraderie of teammates, and even though they were wearing the plain white monogarbs like the rest of the Starview students, he knew they were the zegma team they had just beaten so severely.
“Laugh while you can bridgers!” a burly boy with a clean shaven head jeered at him, “You don’t have long,”
“Oh bug off you sore loser,” Joshua Collier yelled back with a mocking laugh
The Starview team looked furious and Will was convinced that he was about to be on the receiving end of a ferocious charge but Coach Bower chose that moment to exit the locker room.
“Get lost,” he ordered the Starview team and to Will’s appreciation they did just that. They turned around and were soon lost behind a corner.
The team sighed a collective breath of relief at the prevented fight and began laughing again about their victory as they made their way to the hanger. Will was bothered by what the boy said but he couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement of the victory he had been so instrumental in and before long he was cheering as wildly as any of them.
* * *
“I didn’t know the cafeteria could be this lively!” Jon shouted to Will from the other side of the table.
They were sitting at their customary table for dinner but that dinner was anything but customary. “Starview didn’t seem so bad eh?” Corey laughed as he looked around the hyped up cafeteria, “Those stories don’t seem to be very true. No one bothered me at all.”
“Speak for yourself,” Abby said sourly.
“What do you mean?” Will asked looking at her, “What happened?”
Abby related the story of what the girls had done to
her and how Cassandra had saved the day at the last moment. Will began to fume halfway through the story and Corey looked disgusted with himself for letting her go off alone.
“So they tried to give you a swirly?” Will asked when she was done, “I didn’t know girls did stuff like that.”
“What’s a swirly?” Jon looked at him bemused, “They tried to give her a sucker man.”
“We call them swirlies on Earth but that’s not the point,” Will replied angrily, “Did you tell anyone?”
“No,” Abby answered, “I don’t see the point, nothing happened anyways,” she added withholding information about how her head still ached where hair had been dislodged.
“Yeah I guess you’re right,” Will said shaking his head, “They’re all talk for the most part anyways. Just like that guy that heckled me when we were leaving the locker room.”
“What guy?” Corey perked up at the new story, “You didn’t tell us about that.”
“It was nothing.” Will said, “I was walking out of the locker room with the rest of the team and some of their players was walking down the hall. Well I think it was their players, they weren’t wearing a zegma suit. Anyways we were all celebrating and he takes a look at us and shouts, ‘Laugh while you can Bridgers, you don’t have long!’ and runs away laughing. It unnerved me at the time but I think he was just pissed off and trying to scare us. Besides we all got back fine right?”
They all agreed and didn’t talk about the want to be intimidator any more. Jon had already forgotten by the time they began eating their third course, which had amazed them when it showed up on the line, and the amnesia soon passed to Will so that by the end of dinner he had completely forgotten about the Starview player and his thinly veiled threat.
Chapter Nineteen
Meeting The Folks
Will sighed as he looked up from his homework spread across his micro. He rubbed his eyes in frustration. Two weeks after his best game of the season and he was stuck in the Study Hall immersed in so much work he couldn’t see an end to it. The room was relatively quiet even though there were over a hundred people in it. The Study Hall was almost always crowded since the teachers had once again upped the workload as the season progressed.
Will was about to dive back into his studies when he felt a pair of cool hands slip over his eyes and a sweet voice whispered in his ear.
“Guess who,” the voice breathed.
“Abby,” Will smiled and turned around to see his girlfriend sporting a massive smile.
“Guess what!” She whispered excitedly
“What?”
“My parents invited you to my house for the weekend!” she practically squealed with delight.
Will looked at the excited face of his girlfriend and found he didn’t quite feel the same way. After all the proposition of meeting a girl’s parents is always daunting at best, throw in the fact that he was from an entirely different world, quite literally, and the idea seemed downright terrifying. He wanted to turn her down but as he looked into her eyes he knew he couldn’t.
“Sounds great,” he said feeling dread steal over him.
“Yay!” She cried and gave him an engulfing hug and a quick peck before running back out of the Study Hall.
Will watched her go and let out another sigh but this one was born of fear. Now he had several tests to dread; History, Intergalactic Relations, and the not so dissimilar test, Meeting The Folks.
* * *
That Friday Will accompanied Abby to the hanger and boarded one of small shuttles with her. It was still large, about the size of a school bus, but it was dwarfed by the massive figures of the Terra Shuttle and the main School Shuttle which sat beside it. On board were about twenty other students who were heading home for the weekend.
“You excited?” Abby asked squeezing his hand.
“Oh yeah,” Will lied.
In some ways he had told the truth since excitement simply means being roused to an emotional response, but Will would more accurately have described his feelings as being scared stiff. As much as girls had always liked Will the mothers of those same girls had always seemed to view him as distasteful for some reason. It was a reaction the father’s often shared as well and more than one had sent open threats Will’s way upon meeting him.
“Mom and dad can’t wait to meet you,” Abby told him, “And I think Mitchell is pretty excited as well.”
“Mitchell?” Will asked with the image of a family pet popping into his mind, one with a few too many eyes and a strange color skin for some reason.
“Yeah my little brother,” The image of an adorable green puppy with five eyes dissolved, “Have I never told you about him?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” Will searched his memory banks and thought that she very well might have mentioned him at one time but he couldn’t be sure.
“Oh, well he’s a pretty cool kid even though he’s a doofus. You’ll like him.”
“Sounds like an oxymoron,” Will laughed, “Those are always fun.”
Abby laughed and clenched his hand as the shuttle began to rumble off the ground. Soon they were cruising out of the open hanger door and Will glimpsed a small pod coming in as they exited. He glanced across the black wall of the school as they drifted slowly away from it and then with sharp jolt the school disappeared and the stars formed lines of speed as the shuttle hurtled towards their destination.
* * *
Abby lived on the small planet of Ageo. It was a wet planet from what Will could see as they dove through the atmosphere with bodies of water stretching out in every direction. The sun that beat down upon the planet was a playful yellow and the little land Will could see was a generous green that seemed wholesome and inviting.
The shuttle sliced through the air and headed towards a small shuttle port on the outskirts of a small town that reminded Will of Pleasant Valley even though the buildings were vastly different. Each structure was nearly identical, rising to a few stories in height and built of the same brown material that seemed to make up every city Will had visited outside of his home planet. The streets, however, were filled with pedestrians that seemed happy and pleasant from Will’s vantage point in the sky and that camaraderie reminded him of his home town. He could only spot a half dozen pods flying through the air and that added to the small town feel since most people were walking instead of driving about impersonally.
When the shuttle sat down on the ground and the door slid open Abby rose to her feet with youthful exuberance and Will couldn’t help but smile at her excitement even as his stomach churned at the thought of the imminent meeting. He stretched his legs out under him and stood up. They had taken seats near the back of the shuttle and he had to wait as the rest of the passengers cleared out before following Abby down the aisle and out the door into the bright sunlight and clear air of Ageo.
Will blinked in the sunlight and when his eyes adjusted to the glare he saw Abby running towards a group of people huddled together near the shuttle. The group was dominated by a mountain of a man with boyishly long black hair and a beaming smile. At his side was the striking image of an elder Abby which Will guessed was her mother. She shared the same dark red hair and Will could already see her glinting green eyes and genuine smile as she surveyed her daughter. At the woman’s side was a boy who Will inferred to be Mitchell. The boy appeared to be around eleven and he shared the same red hair and green eyes as his sister and mother.
“Will get over here so I can introduce you!” Abby cried after being released from a hug from her father.
Will trundled over and smiled at the family. He was unnerved to see Abby’s mother’ eyes did not share the returning smile from her lips but was glad to see the massive man seemed genuinely pleased to see him. Will nearly laughed when he caught sight of the look of curiosity that had sprung upon Mitchell’s face.
“Mom, Dad, this is Will,” Abby said, “Will, Mom and Dad,”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Will said offering his hand
to Abby’s father.
Mr. Phillips stared at the hand in confusion and Will retracted it, quickly realizing he was still not on Earth and handshakes were as alien to them as apple pie. The quick withdraw didn’t prevent the eyebrows from rising on the three Phillips’s faces however and Will felt himself blushing.
“Well shouldn’t we be heading towards the house?” Abby said breaking the silence before it could crystallize into awkwardness.
“Yep,” The large man replied, “This way!”
He led them over to a pod that sported wide windows all the way around so that it closely resembled the cars of Earth. Will climbed into the back of it after Abby, and Mitchell climbed in after Will so that he was stuck between the two siblings.
The pod had no sooner lifted off than Abby and her mother began chattering wildly about things that Will neither understood nor cared about. His interest was instead focused on the planet that slipped by under him. The world that stretched below him was peaceful enough but in every direction he saw water stretching into the distance in blue waves. He hadn’t been paying attention when they had been coming into land on the shuttle until it was too late to see much more than the town but now he could see that the small town was built upon an island.
“So Will,” Mr. Phillips called from the front seat, “Tell us about yourself. All Abby says is that you’re a great guy.”
“Well um,” Will hesitated as people often due when asked such a vague question, “My parents are from Broglio but I was born on Earth. My parents are both Bridgeworld graduates so I automatically got a bid.”
“Who do your parents work for to get stationed on Earth?” Mrs. Phillips asked without turning around to look at him.