“What, pray tell, do the 'government guys' wish from you?”
Persistent as hell.
John took over, “I think they want to use Caleb to do things for them that are bad, like spy-type stuff.”
I guess that was pretty good as explanations went.
“Nefarious things?” Clyde clarified.
“Yes, exactly those things,” John said, relieved.
Nefarious was a recent vocab word. They had a witch as the visual prompt from some lame old movie that had everyone singing in it. It meant wicked intent or something.
“What?” Jonesy asked.
“Later,” I hissed.
Jonesy looked offended, he'd get over it.
“Very well,” Clyde said, straightening the lapels of his coat, what there was of them.
He looked over at the zombie group silently for about a minute or two. I was just about ready to ask what he was doing when they all shambled over to the freezer.
“Now this is what I was talking about,” Jonesy said.
The zombies did the GI Crawl back through the tunnel where I heard a general commotion of metal grinding.
“Are they lifting up those cars?” Jade asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“They're strong.” she said it like it was a bad thing.
“Yeah they are.”
She should have seen Gran.
We pondered zombie strength.
A sudden thought occurred to me. “I told you guys to piss off? How come you showed?”
John grinned.
“What?” I asked.
“You weren't answering your pulse, I knew something was wrong.”
“We can't get pulse-signal in there,” I said.
“For an hour?” John raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, I guess that would have given me pause,” I said, noticing that a fine blush had worked its way up Jade's face coloring her cheeks a delicate shell pink.
Jonesy, not one to let awkwardness pass unnoticed, said, “You guys getting all c.o.z.y in there!”
Jade wanted to die. I wanted to die. Jonesy... what an ass. But, he had saved the day. Choices, choices.
“Anyway,” John said. “Let's try to make good and go by the ice cream shop so we can make a pretense of having done what you said you were going to.”
“First: this is the question we all need to ask ourselves,” he paused for dramatic effect, we all looked at Jonesy, “am I the man, or am I the man?” He stomped his feet, bowing.
We laughed. Today he had definitely been The Man.
The zombies trudged back out, and we peered in, John had his LED with him again, God love him! The tunnel tightness was appreciably widened. Even stocky Jonesy could get through.
We stood up, brushing off our clothes. In the midst of our self-congratulating, Clyde turned his serious rotting eyes toward us and said, “Master,”(geez), “put us to rest now that we have completed this task.”
I looked up at Clyde, who was a good shot taller than me, realizing that the rotting flesh smell wasn't affecting me much but my friends were at a respectful distance. I couldn't help but notice that Jade's hand was covering her nose and she was breathing out of her mouth.
I leaned in a little to Clyde, who met me in the middle, his neck making a disturbing sound as his face peered into mine from a hand's breadth away. “I may need you again, because things come up.”
“What 'things' are you referencing?” Clyde asked through what sounded like mud. Maybe I could put him together better next time.
“Things like bad people showing up.”
“Nefarious people?” Clyde reiterated.
“Yeah... them.”
“Indeed,” Clyde said, straightening.
Clyde looked solemnly at me. We needed to get outta here.
Jade, the Js and I walked toward the cemetery. Me, the pied piper, trooping ahead and the zombies following; skirting behind the tree line so the observant adult wouldn't get in an accident.
We entered Scenic Cemetery (felt like home now), traveling over to Clyde's grave. I turned around and had an unnerving moment in which Clyde was on a full sprint and the others were behind him, the one that had the unfortunate feet episode a little slower. They came directly for us. Jade didn't even pretend that she wasn't scared by the fleet of fluid zombies approaching at top speed, she moved behind me.
The Js backed up out of the way of the graves.
Clyde landed on his grave in a graceful, acrobatic move. The others laid down on top of theirs. I released the thread that held them to me, reaching out for Jade's hand as I did. Realizing I probably didn't need help, everything felt so much more real, organized...easier. I thought, rest.
And they did.
They appeared luminescent for just a moment, sunlight swirling around them, shimmering. Then, they leaked back into their graves as if they had never been.
Jonesy sighed, like he'd been holding his breath.
He clapped me on the back. “I'm so glad that you're my friend, dude.”
“I hear that,” John said.
“Me three,” Jade said.
“Hey. How come you didn't whammy me?” I asked John.
John was pleased with himself.
“Yeah, John, what gives?” Jonesy asked.
“I read up on being a Null. I guess you can shield your abilities.”
News to me.
“I have been practicing and this was my big trial run. Of course, it helped that they were all raised before I came. And,” he paused, “I was standing away from you when you put them away.”
We all looked at the undisturbed graves. Wild.
“How do you do it. The blocking?” Jade asked.
“Shielding,” John clarified.
“Whatever, how?” Jonesy asked.
“I think about something completely different.”
“Visualizing?” Jonesy asked.
John looked at him, surprised. “Yeah, that's it.”
Jonesy broke out into a huge grin. I knew that John had stepped into some kind of trap.
John studied him.
“Whatcha thinkin' about John?”
“Ah-nothing, just something different.”
“Riiiiggghhht. I am sure it's really different.”
A bright blush rushed up John's face, playing off his orange hair. Jade stared. I stared. We waited.
“It's nothing,” he mumbled, glaring at Jonesy.
“It's not nothing it's a some one,” Jonesy said.
John's face looked on fire.
“It's okay John, I'm feelin' ya, bro,” Jonesy said sympathetically. Jonesy was never sympathetic, something was up for sure.
“Come on, let's go get ice cream,” John said, shooting Jonesy the evil eye.
Jonesy turned, winking at Jade and me. I was sure wondering what John was using to shut down the Null in him. It'd be interesting to find out. Jade looked at me, her eyebrows raised. I shrugged, I didn't know either. But I was gonna find out.
We hopped on our bikes and rode off toward the ice cream shop, the only tame thing we'd done tonight.
CHAPTER 27
We sat around a tall, round table surrounded by stools; more like perching than actual sitting. Jade had picked out what I thought of as “black-tongue” ice cream (licorice). Possibly the grossest flavor on the planet. I had the best flavor and so did the Js. Well, Jonesy insisted on half-ruining his scoop of bubblegum with another scoop of upside-down pineapple (disgusting), but insisted it was the tightest flavor. How could fruit elevate ice cream in any way?
“I'm going to pulse Andrea and let her know we ran into you guys and we're still at the ice cream shop.”
“She gonna buy that?” Jonesy asked.
We all turned to Jade.
She nodded. “Yeah, she figures I'll sit here, staring at Caleb, then with you two showing up, we'd stay longer. And, the bonus is I don't have to lie. We did have ice cream, we did see you guys here.”
“ 'Stare', at m
e?”
“Yeah, it's like a joke. She thinks that I stare at you when you're around.”
I felt a goofy grin on my face.
Jade staring at me. I could get used to that.
The Js ignored us, shoveling ice cream. Jade and I smiled at each other. Another weird girl thing: Jade got her ice cream in a cup. That was like against a religion. I didn't know whose, but somebody’s.
We finished up, separating the trash and slipping out the door into the early summer heat.
“Wow, it's hot,” Jonesy complained.
“No, it's just that they had the air conditioning in there set on frigid,” Jade corrected.
The Js and I looked at each other.
“It was perfect in there,” John said.
I nodded, that's what I thought.
“Well, I get cold easy and they had the air on and I was eating ice cream,” Jade said, see my logic?
We didn't.
It felt like a raging inferno out here and decent in the ice cream shop.
We shrugged, girls.
The Js took off toward their houses and I got Jade back to hers, giving her a quick kiss. Actually, I let my mouth linger on hers just a little bit, then took off for my place.
Riding up to the front door I saw Onyx with his cold, wet nose pressed to the narrow window, tail wagging.
The Boy has returned and made the good word smells in my head. The Dog wagged his tail harder.
I tore open the door and closed it quietly behind me. Onyx was on my heels as I walked into the kitchen and Mom was there of course. She and Dad were talking in conspirator’s tones. I gave Onyx's head a good rub.
Thunk, wag-wag.
They looked up as I strolled in. “Whatcha doing Parental Unit?” Snagging a peanut butter-chocolate chip cookie.
“Hey,” Mom fumed. “Those haven't cooled for the jar.”
I paused, cookie halfway to my mouth. “Okay and that makes what sense? Does it matter if I take it from the plate before it goes into the jar or after it's cooled and in it?”
Dad was grinning in the background. “I like the cookies to cool first,” she emphasized. “Then, I've got more cookies to put in the jar. There are less cookies when you vacuum them off the plate before I can put them in their proper place.”
Weird Mom-logic.
I sat there with the cookie in my hand.
“Ugh! Just eat it, but no more!”
Dad grabbed one off the plate before Mom could put them all in the jar. She glared at him but he was spared the “cookie jar speech.”
Mom turned and opened the fat chef dude in blue cookie jar and carefully placed the cookies inside.
Dad gave me the look. “So what did you and the LeClerc girl do tonight?” he asked with interest.
That was easy.
“We went to the ice cream shop.”
“On East Hill? Terhune's?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“I liked it when it was Baskin-Robbins,” Mom said.
“Remember Shakey's Pizza?” Dad asked to no one in particular.
Mom nodded. “Those were the days, all you can eat and we'd just walk over there from KM.”
“Mom, that's a derelict school now.”
“Caleb. You understand 'diversified' is appropriate.”
“Yeah. But derelict sounds better.”
“It depends on who's listening, I suppose. I'll admit it's a great adjective,” Mom said.
Was Mom conceding my victory on a non-politically correct word?
“KM is Vo-Tech. now, right?” Dad asked Mom.
“Yes.”
“Well, pal, I guess you won't have to worry about the 'derelicts' as you'll be attending KPH.”
Mom frowned. Secretly, I think Dad really liked my sense of spontaneous language use.
After supper, I ran upstairs to my clean room, Onyx following. I had saved a cheeseburger chunk in my pocket. I got it out and looked at it. It was no longer plump, summarily squeezed down into a different size altogether, the ketchup and mayo oozing out.
It looked bad.
Onyx wagged his tail.
The Dog smelled something delicious from the Boy.
I shrugged, I was betting the looks wouldn't matter. It didn't, he engulfed it without a glance.
“Was that good, boy? Did you even taste it?” I laughed.
I fell asleep with a book on my chest and Onyx on the foot of my bed. He'd ignored the spot I had made for him. That was the way I liked it.
I fell asleep with Jade in my mind, choking out other thoughts.
CHAPTER 28
Monday arrived with all the kids milling around in the commons waiting to hear which high school assignments they'd have. Everyone was gathered in their tight groups whispering about who went where. Brett was the big topic of conversation as he was a mundane like Jonesy but wasn't going to Kent Lake High. If we were really lucky he'd go to KM; derelict central. He'd fit right in. Of course, there were the inevitable transfers. Some kids came “on-line” late and had to be reassigned. Their abilities had never even tripped the AP Test (that was rare). It felt wrong to split the three of us up, Jonesy was the glue of the group.
Tiff had strolled up and gave me the “guy-fist.” She wore a flaming red hoodie, pulled halfway down her face, of course, and skin tight black jeans with black tennis shoes. She was leaning forward in earnest now. “It's a good thing that you figured out a hidey-hole for our coolness,” she paused. “Otherwise, we'd be exposed to... The Man,” she finished in a hushed voice.
“What?” Jonesy asked, baffled.
Tiff did a hard eye-roll. “Sort of a doofus,” she said.
“Hey!” John huffed. We could call Jonesy any number of names but no one else could.
“Whatever,” she waved our indignation away. “Are we still on for the haunted thing?”
Jonesy nodded thoughtfully. “Well... depends on your behavior. If, and I say, If, you treat me good, then you can come.”
John and I nodded, we couldn't accept any dissing from the females.
“I think Tiff is just tired of explaining all her comments is all,” Sophie piped in.
“Be clearer. The Man? What-the-hell is that?” I asked.
Jade clarified, “I've heard adults say it like 'the boss' or something.”
Okay, that made sense.
“Yeah. 'The Man' is our government,” Tiff repeated.
“If you say so. Anyway,” Jonesy said real slowly. “We've got a place now...”
“That Brett and Carson know about,” Jade added.
“Yeah,” John said dejectedly.
“... and, 'The Man' isn't going to find it,” I said.
“What if they lead them to our new spot?” Sophie asked.
“It's okay, between my skills and Team Dead, we'll be okay.” Jonesy said with surety.
“Your 'skills'? What skills?” Tiff asked.
“Hey... I'm the one that comes up with the ideas, plans and other cool stuff to entertain everyone,” Jonesy said.
John and I were wisely silent.
“Mostly you get us into trouble,” Jade said.
Uh-oh.
“But it's a helluva lot of fun!” Jonesy said.
The secretary's voice came over the pulse speaker, “Eighth grade students, listen up: stand in line according to your last name in the same formation as Aptitude Testing.”
We walked to our respective lines. Carson came out of nowhere and stood in my line, both H's, geez.
“Hey Carson,” I said, feeling the waters.
“Don't talk to me, Hart, ya freak.”
“You too,” I said, a smart grin overtaking my face.
Carson glared at me. I turned away from him, I could ignore him.
Jade and Sophie were in line B, and John and Tiff were in line C. I was looking around for Brett and caught sight of him a few people behind Jade. My heart sped.
He saw me notice him and reached out a hand to touch Jade's hair. Sophie was talking to Jad
e and her eyes widened. Jade saw her reaction and turned as his hand brushed her face instead of her hair.
Jade cringed away from the small touch, stepping back. Her eyes found mine and I left the line, striding over to Brett.
“Don't touch her.”
“Gets you all fired up, Hart,” Brett smirked.
“Need another zombie lesson, Brett?”
Brett's eyes narrowed. “Ya know, someday, you're not gonna have Jonesy or one of your freak zombies around to save your ass, then what? Huh?”
He looked at Jade. “She lives by me and you're not always around.”
Brett turned his attention to her. “Yeah, you're a freak like your boyfriend here,” not sparing me a glance, keeping those beady eyes fixed on her. “It's okay if you know what I think. More than okay,” he smiled. Jade shuddered and I put my arm around her.
Ms. Griswold strode up, arms pumping stoutly by her sides. “Hart, Mason...problem here?” she asked, her nasal voice shredding my eardrums.
“No problem,” Brett responded.
Right.
“Mr. Hart, aren't you in the wrong line?”
“Ah,” playing dumb, “I don't know.”
“I think you do. Get going,” she swung her clipboard to indicate line A, “over there.”
She waited while I gave Jade a squeeze, crossing her arms over her ample chest and tapping her foot. I reentered my line where I had been.
Carson turned and said, “Nice going, dumbass.”
“Shut up, Hamilton.”
Carson turned away, a smile of triumph on his lips.
The line went on forever but finally I received my ticket which simply said:
Kent Paranormal High, appear for registration on September 2, 2025, between 7- 8AM for class roster.
Everyone got their tickets, comparing schools. Jonesy got Kent Lake High, Math and Science. That was expected but there was an addendum which stated:
Secondary Aptitude Testing for Paranormal abilities will be administered within the first two weeks of instruction.
We looked at each other, this was new. Once placed in the school which matched your aptitude, that was it.
John said, “There must be kids slipping notice.”
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