“It's something I found on the Internet. It might give us some clues about what you can do.”
I glanced at the first page which read:
'Affinity for the Dead' or, AFTD, is not just a genetic marker, but a new reality.
Huh, I read on about the boy that had made headlines only a few years ago.
A boy like me.
Jeffrey Parker, eighth grade student, is the first to hit the radar with full-blown, “Affinity for the Dead.” As everyone understands, in 2010 Geneticist Kyle Hart and his scientific team mapped the Human Genome, thereby giving us every genetic marker that we hold as humans. This invaluable information would eventually lead to a pharmaceutical breakthrough that has now unlocked those previously unknown codes.
Flashes of psychic ability have been witnessed for centuries but now that the “key” to unlock this “door” has been discovered we will continue to have teenagers manifest different abilities that begin to awaken during puberty.
Parker is (unbelievably) able to raise the dead from their graves. He claims that he, “hears voices” that ask him for, “different things.”
I looked at the Js, Jonesy was quiet for once, a miracle.
John said, “I read the whole thing. It talks about all the different abilities we all may have.”
“Whoa, hold on!” Jonesy said. “I want something cool.”
I raised my eyebrows, like I wanted AFTD? I'd struggled to appear average, no special attention was good.
His cheeks flamed even with his dark skin. “Listen Caleb, dude, no offense but I don't want what you got.”
John glared at Jonesy. “I'm tellin' the truth!” his eyes anxious. “What happened in the cemetery made me want to piss my pants. That dead guy... damn!” he slapped his knee.
We laughed... so Jonesy.
The cerebral-downer was a temporary solution. One mess at a time.
“What about after the test?”John asked.
There he was diggin' around at the crap I had just decided not to think about. He was like that. I gave him a less-than-friendly look.
“I don't know... I thought I'd wait and see,” I said.
“Not good Caleb.” John said. “You know that ass-hat Carson and definitely Brett, are thinking about ways to make your life miserable.”
I had actually thought of that. I wanted to get through the testing, then tackle the terrible twins. Didn't know if I'd be able to before they ratted me out to some adult that would make trouble.
“I heard Jade LeClerc saying something to Brett,” John said. My head whipped in his direction, I so wasn't interested in Jade being near that asswipe.
Why was she talking to Brett Mason? The girls walk on the far side of the hall to avoid him, the perv. I asked John.
“She told him to 'go to hell'.”
“What?” I yelled.
“Chill out. I overheard them before sixth hour PE.”
That would have been before PE today? I noticed Jade didn't turn and say “hi” to me like she usually did.
My hands clenched into fists. “Was he doing something to her?” Just the thought of that butt-munch saying one thing to her made me want to punch him in the face.
“Calm down,” John shrugged. “I heard your name mentioned, then she told him where to go.”
Jonesy gave the thumbs up, “They saw me come around the corner and she took off. Brett asked where all my 'queer-bait' friends were.”
Jonesy started pacing in tight circles around the room, excited. He's kind of a violence lover.
I could relate.
“Did you let him have it?” Jonesy mimed a fist punching his open palm, making a satisfying thwack.
John just looked at him. “Would you stop? You understand the bully laws, right?”
Those finer details were lost on Jonesy as a huge grin overtook his dark face.
I knew that look.
“What?” John asked. He thought Jonesy was gonna get us in trouble (usually true).
“I'm thinkin' about a bit o' payback,” Jonesy said.
Uh-oh, we knew what that meant. Jonesy had rigged payback schemes, some not so successful, with Brett and Carson in the past.
You'd think they'd catch on.
“Jonesy...” I started. He held up his hand to silence me.
“Just listen. Brett and Carson are dumber than rocks, right?”
John and I looked at him, ya think?
“How about I have them try a cool experiment before the APs and get 'em all distracted from their plan to sabotage your life?” For Jonesy, this was bordering on brilliant. I turned my finger in a circle, keep talking.
“How about the tube and Aqua Net trick?” he asked.
We groaned. That had gone really bad.
John scowled. “No way Jonesy. You remember what happened when we tried it!”
“Exactly! It's the perfect thing! It'll take one of them out and distract them around AP time. Then, after testing, if the cerebral-whatever-it-is works, they can flap all they want but if you're not popping the big AFTD guns, there's no proof.” Jonesy spread his hands wide, bow to my invincible logic.
Of course, sometimes his logic could bite us all in the ass.
I ran my hand through my hair, thinking furiously. Today was Monday... so almost a week for strategy.
I said, “Okay, but you're going to what, steal your mom's hairspray?”
“It's Aqua Net, there is no substitute,” he said, mildly insulted. “We've got spiders entombed in the corners of my parents' bathroom from my mom using it forever. Pretty damn effective.”
I told him it was effective but disgusting.
Jonesy got defensive, “My mom swears by the stuff. She never has to redo her hair.”
Well... good for her. Jonesy's mom's hair was stiff. I could throw a pencil and it'd stay. There was no moving it. Jonesy called his mom's bathroom time, The Ritual. Aqua Net sure worked when we tried fun-with-fire. It was worth singeing Carson's nose hairs.
John didn't like it. Out of the three of us, John was the most cautious. Of course, he'd gotten his eyebrows burnt off. They took about three months to grow back and his parents had been super-pissed.
“Come on John, just restating the obvious here. Wouldn't it be cool to get those turds back and off our backs at the same time?” Jonesy asked.
“Yeah, but if they really get hurt...”
“They won't,” he said.
Dismissing John's worries I turned to Jonesy, thinking of a possible problem, “what if they tell us to stick it?”
“I'll tell 'em the same stuff I told you; we already did it and it's fun.” He said with a sly wink because it had certainly not been fun: singed eyebrows. I could almost taste the foul perfume even after a whole year. “Then, if they smell a trap, I'll say they're sissy-sucking-titty-babies.”
John gave a satisfied nod. “That'll work.”
Jonesy could handle it with his boatload-of-charm.
The cemetery was the best place because Carson and Brett wouldn't want us to think they were scared after the raising-the-dead-guy episode. Jonesy said he'd talk to them tomorrow and see if they swallowed the hook. Meanwhile, Dad would get the cerebral-blocking drug and I'd be set. Now I just needed to find out what was happening with Jade, maybe start with a conversation, geez, so original.
CHAPTER 5
John and I always sit together in our classes. We have Miss Rodriguez for English. She's a first year teacher so she's not bored and raging at us yet. Her back was to us while I sly-pulsed to John about Sunday. We had a satisfying view of Miss Rodriguez (she's pretty hot), when she suddenly turned, burning holes into me.
I jerked like I'd been slapped, so busted, I didn't know what she'd said! I looked at John and he was wide-eyed, don't look at me!
“Caleb Hart,” Miss Rodriguez said, my whole name, not good. “What tense is this here?” She pointed with the dry eraser pen to what I had, until just now, not noticed.
My cheeks grew hot and I wanted to sink
underneath the desk. I stared numbly at the question: My family has been making plans for a snowboarding trip.
Well, definitely future tense but perfect or progressive perfect, I wasn't sure.
I sneaked a glance Jade's way and she'd written PROGRESSIVE in block letters on the back of her notebook. I slid my eyes back to Miss Rodriguez, who was looking less hot all the time.
”Future Progressive, Miss Rodriguez.”
She smiled brilliantly at me, her gaze wandering over the thirty of us.
“It's nice someone is paying attention to the correct tense. Now remember class,” she turned back to the white board, “at this age, it is assumed that you speak correctly, now it's time to know the 'why'. Grammar achieves this by teaching how our language supports speech.”
My heartbeat slowed to a trot, that was close.
I looked at Jade again and she gave me a shy smile. I smiled back. She'd saved my ass! It was the first outward sign she liked me more than just a “hey” in the hall when we jostled through the crowd. Brett's eyes narrowed, noticing our interchange, smirking. Jade saw where I was looking and I watched the smile wash away.
English ended and we swarmed into the hall like bees, weaving our way to our lockers. PE was next period and looking at my watch, a retro thing from my dad, and realized I had maybe four minutes to talk to Jade. My eyes surveyed the long hallway, looking for the sweep of black hair. I'd overheard her say she was part Cherokee Indian, that's where the black hair came in.
Score! I scoped the hair like a black flag in the crowd. Shiny, spilling around her shoulders with movement as she talked to Sophie. I waved.
Sophie saw me and leaned forward, saying something to Jade. Jade turned and my heart paused in my chest, her effect on me was that powerful. No guy wants a girl to know that they're enthralled, so I blanked my expression.
She smiled wider as I made my way to where she stood by her locker, my backpack a solid weight, swinging as I moved.
“Hey,” I began with my best casual smile.
“Hi Caleb,” Sophie said then looked at Jade. “Gotta go!” she winked and a brilliant bit of color spread over Jade's cheekbones.
I'd have to get things warmed up.
“Thanks for your help in Rodriguez' class,” safe intro.
“It looked like you could use it,” she smiled.
“Hey! I knew it was future, I just didn't know the other.”
“Riiigghht...” her eyes glittering with humor.
I huffed at her comment but it was for show, it wasn't that hard talking to her after all.
Her cat-green eyes looked up at me, smokey rimmed with soft, Kohl-colored make-up, not too much. She was hot, just looking at her made my chest tight, my heart a stutter-rhythm.
I had to warn her about Brett, “Here's the thing, Brett and Carson have me in their cross hairs and maybe who I hang out with.”
She gave me a steady look, a puzzled expression furrowing between her brows.
“Do we hang out?” she asked.
Truth now. “I want to.”
I'd rather die than say how I feel but I needed the guts to own it. I waited for her response.
“Me too,” she said, looking up from under the black lace of her eyelashes; wow.
Relief flowed through me. Even with all the scary shit I was dealing with, for starters, the whispering of the dead a background symphony, Jade made me feel invincible. I could do anything.
The bell shrilled... crap! We had like thirty seconds before PE.
Laughing, we sprinted down the hall, Jade's hair streaming behind her like black water. We'd just make it through the door. Griswold would make us pay.
There's creative discipline for kids that aren't ready for PE.
Our bodies slid through the door and I watched the school clock click to 1:46, shrilling the final bell.
Griswold raised an eyebrow, “Glad you two could join us. Suit up, you both have extra calisthenics today, obviously.”
Carson and Brett watched this development with interest. That's swell, just what we needed.
Jonesy was in line, giving me a look of restrained horror. He was so easy to read. You decided to make a move on Jade...now?
I looked back at Jonesy, so sue me.
After PE, I kept my fragile connection with Jade, I said I'd see her tomorrow. I had seventh hour band, we had a fifteen minute break. I whipped out my slim, credit-card sized pulse cell I'd gotten for my birthday.
Depressing the touch pad with my thumb the screen came alive:
Activated and I thought, Jonesy, then belatedly, John.
I almost lost my three-way, I was so distracted by thoughts of Jade. Their response lit up my screen with the familiar luminescent green characters:
Hey, What the profanity-block! is with you and Jade being late for PE? MJ
I depressed my thumb again, Chillax... I finally told her I want to hang out-CH
What? You actually talked to Jade? This is the worst time in the world Caleb; and I hear she's a hater.- John Terran.
Swiping my thumb, She doesn't 'hate', she's just quiet.-CH
Are you going to tell her? About...-John Terran.
No profanity-block! way Caleb, it's bad enough that Carson and Brett know, we can't have this Jade-complication!-MJ.
I have a feeling about her. Just trust me and stop being ass-clowns about it.-CH
The screen went dark for a moment:
K, but she needs to see your skills, you feel me? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I talked to the real ass-clowns, (must be Brett and Carson I thought...) it is them, do you have your thumb on the touch pad Caleb? I'm getting feed back.-MJ
I jerked my thumb off. That was stupid, sometimes I forgot to lift.
Okay, now I can see just myself, LMAO. They're idiots, I told them they're too chicken profanity-block! to try it. It worked shrugs. They'll meet us at the cemetery, same day and time.-MJ
You gonna get the hairspray from your mom?-CH
Aqua Net, my man. And yeah, she never uses every squirt. I scoped a can in the reprocesser, I'll snag it.-MJ
Isn't she gonna notice? If she's like my mom, she's a total freak for the reprocessing credit on the garbage bill.-CH
Nah, I'll offer to take the separator out for once and she'll be so happy I volunteered for a chore she won't care, LOL-MJ
I think we're going to be sorry.-John Terran
Cork it pal, don't be a fun-sucker.-MJ
sighs, we gotta get to band. I'll bring your pick, you left it at my house.- John Terran.
That was John, all-business and worrying.
Thanks. K, talk to ya later Jonesy.-CH
Later.-John Terran.
See ya.-MJ
I swept my thumb over the touch pad setting my pulse to hibernate.
****
Band was a righteous seventh hour class, a subject I actually liked, alien concept. John's parents believed in music, they were zealots (old zealots, they were my grandpa's age). John could play everything but he really jammed at the piano. He could read music and play a piece he listened to only a few times. I struggled through learning the notes. Oh well, it was the only time during the school day that I could drown out the whispering.
John and I jammed together on a new piece Mr. Pierce had given us. We were working out the kinks, the volume on the amp turned up three quarters to full volume making my teeth rattle in my head. John flashed me a grin. He was a pretty serious dude most of the time. I was lucky to have the Js, which made me think of Carson and Brett and the cemetery.
John heard me hit a flat in my chord and winced. My concentration was sucking big time.
We wrapped up the session, hanging our guitars on the rack with about fifteen others. I made a basket with my pick in the box marked Caleb S. Hart (swish).
I followed John out of class. Fresh, late-afternoon spring air hit my lungs and I sucked it up. I could taste summer on my tongue and that meant Gramp's house at Lake Tapps. No school and screw off time with the Js.
I took some time to answer John, he was way-different than Jonesy. He wouldn't press me for an answer.
“You don't see that she's special?” I asked with a duh in my voice.
“Well, she's good-looking but complicated. And that we don't need right now. And you heard about her family, right?” John asked.
I stopped walking and looked at him. “Yeah, I know her dad's a psycho, so?”
“Hey, don't get defensive on me. But you do like a project.”
I was back to walking, with a scowl.
“Jade's not a project.”
He sighed. “It's more than that. She lives at her aunt's and she's not much better than the dad.” John said, as if by sheer force of logic I could control who I liked. Attraction doesn't work like that.
“So how's that her fault?” I stopped again on the side of the road, hands hanging loose at my sides. Cars drove past, breaking the sweet smell of spring with their passing. I felt that pressure building in my head. Getting pissed seemed to make it harder to block out. And the odd road kill hanging around didn't help, I thought sourly.
John saw my expression. “I shouldn't rant on Jade. I don't feel great about including her in this mess.”
“Like I pulsed ya, I trust how I feel about Jade. And besides, you guys are stressing about my AFTD but have you thought about what you'll test-out for?”
“I have thought about it,” John conceded.
“Have you noticed something?”
“No... there won't be anything for me. I'm already halfway through puberty and nothing. The tests will confirm that. Not everyone manifests.”
I looked up at John, way up. He was a pretty tall dude for fourteen. He'd be fifteen soon, in September. His dad was taller, like NBA-tall. His hair stood about four inches away from his head like he had stuck his finger in a pulse socket, a fro-and-go (I smiled thinking of Jonesy's names). He let it riot, that was John. He was him all the time, the most real person I knew.
The Death Series, Books 1-3: Death Whispers, Death Speaks and Death Inception (The Death Series, Volume 1) Page 4