by Cheree Alsop
I shook my head quickly. “No, not that. It’s more that I was worried and I thought, well,” I let out a sigh of frustration at the betrayal of my brain. “It’s good to be needed.”
She smiled at that and wiped her tears away with the corner of her blanket. “You’re different than when you’re at school.”
I nodded. “There’s a reason for that.” I couldn’t deny the searching look she gave me. I was starting to realize that I couldn’t deny her anything. I closed my eyes and she put her head against my chest.
I spoke with my chin brushing her hair. “My first day of school was on a Wednesday about six months ago. School had only been going for a month by the time the integration laws passed. Kale hoped that since it was so close to the start of the year, I would be able to fit in.”
I took a breath and let the memories of that day swarm over me. I had been filled with anticipation and excitement. I had been naïve. “I was jumped in the hallway right after second period. Brayce’s gang and a bunch of other students dragged me into the boys’ bathroom.” I felt Ava’s muscles tense. I held her closer. “They beat me with books and bats. I didn’t defend myself.”
“Why not?” she asked when I fell silent.
I let myself say what I had felt that day, as painful as it was to admit. “I wanted to snap their arms and legs. I wanted to break their skulls against the tiled wall. I wanted to disembowel them and let them bleed to death on the floor. I wanted to be the very killer you accused me of, because that’s how I was raised.” I shook my head and whispered, “I’ll leave if you want me to.”
She was quiet for a moment. I was about to rise when she shook her head against my chest. “I’ve felt all of that and more for the people who hurt me. I don’t think you can help it when you’re unable to fight.” She looked up at me, understanding so bare in her beautiful green eyes I wanted to ask her who had made her feel such hatred so that I could make them pay. “Why didn’t you defend yourself?” she asked again gently.
I looked at the wall across from us. Her room had pictures on the walls of sunrises and beautiful scenery. The picture I looked at was of an old barn with the sun showing through its slats. The grass around it was green and bright with warmth. It looked as though you could step into the frame and never look back, content to live in the simplicity of the moment forever.
“I didn’t want to let Kale and Saro down,” I admitted. “So much was riding on the ten of us who had been deemed able to start school. If I messed things up at Crosby, other Galdoni would pay.”
“What happened to the students who beat you?” she asked.
“They got reprimanded.”
“And you?” she continued, her voice quiet.
“I got threatened with expulsion if I caused another fight. Principal Kelley called Kale. I could hear them talking on the phone.” A slight smile came to my face. “Kale never asked me about it. I think he knew what had happened. But he pulled me aside the next day before I left and said that if I ever found myself backed into a corner, to give as much as I got.”
She gave a small laugh at that. It made me smile to hear it. “I sure like Kale,” she said.
I nodded. “He’s great guy, and Saro, too.”
She lay against my chest for a few more minutes, both of us content just to be. Eventually, she pulled away. “I don’t think I’ll be sleeping tonight. Want to watch Superman?”
She rose and opened a drawer, then held up the movie proudly.
“Where did you get that?” I asked in surprise.
She handed it to me. “Skylar let me borrow it from the Center’s library. She gave me a key so we could watch it whenever we wanted.”
At my lifted eyebrows, she laughed. “It’s good to have friends.”
I nodded. “Guess I should make some.”
She pushed my shoulder. “Come on.”
I followed her to the door, then hesitated in the hallway. “I should probably grab a shirt.”
She threw me a smile that brought a blush to her cheeks. “I don’t think you need one.”
She led the way to the stairs and I followed wordlessly.
***
“Reece, come join us.”
I looked around in surprise. Ava was waving from the big round table she shared with five of the cheerleaders. They looked equally surprised that she had called to me.
I carried my tray slowly toward their table, feeling the stares of the others students on me as I did so. I hesitated at the sight of the empty chair Ava had pulled over.
“I, uh, like to be outside,” I said.
“He prefers to eat with the birds,” one of the girls explained. I looked at her. A blush rushed across her cheeks as if she had just realized how the sentence came out. She opened her mouth with an apologetic look, but Ava saved her the trouble.
“Too much time behind walls,” she said with an understanding smile.
I smiled back with a nod.
Ava stood up. “Let’s all go eat outside.”
Her friends stared at her as if she was crazy.
She turned away without giving them a choice. I glanced back to see the girls exchange looks, then rise and follow us.
It felt surreal to lead Ava and five other girls to the trees that lined the soccer field. As soon as I sat down, birds landed in the tree branches over our heads and started to chirp.
“What are they doing?” Ava asked.
The girls sat down around us and looked up at the birds.
“Waiting for their lunch,” I said. I crumbled a piece of bread from the top of my ham sandwich and spread it on the grass next to me. The birds immediately flew down and began to eat.
“That’s neat!” Emily, the brunette cheerleader, exclaimed. “Give them some of yours, Sam.”
Sam, the girl who had told Ava about the birds in the cafeteria, immediate tore the crust off her bread and threw it to the birds. They flew over and began pecking at it. “They’re so cute!” she exclaimed.
“Sparrows,” a girl with short blonde hair said. At everyone’s surprised looks, she shrugged. “My dad’s a birdwatcher. Those are sparrows, the black ones are starlings, and that one with the red breast is a robin.”
“Here robin,” Alice, the head cheerleader, called, throwing two French fries at the bird. Two starlings swooped in to steal them. “Hey!” she protested.
Feeling a bit brave, I whispered to Ava, “Watch this.” I held out a piece of bread.
The little sparrow I had come to recognize from my many trips to the tree hopped toward me. His head was darker than the others and one of his wings hung slightly askew like it had been broken once, though he flew as if it didn’t bother him.
“Oh my goodness,” Ava exclaimed softly as the bird took the bread from my hand.
I smiled and handed him another piece. He took it and flew away. When I looked back, Ava was watching me as though I was completely different than she had expected. The look sent a rush of warmth through me.
Footsteps heralded Seth’s approach. I smiled at the look of shock on his face. “What, I mean, why. . . .”
I tipped my head to indicate a spot on the grass. “Just sit down,” I replied.
“Gladly!” He took a seat near Sam. She threw him a shy smile before turning back to her food. Seth looked absolutely pleased with the arrangement as he tore into his hamburger with enthusiasm.
“It’s nice out here,” Alice said. She leaned back on her elbows. “We should eat outside more often.”
“Yeah,” Emily echoed. “It’s so full of fresh air and stuff.”
Ava glanced at me for approval. I shrugged and she smiled. “I like it, too,” she said quietly.
The sun felt so good against my wings I stretched them without realizing what I was doing. I glanced up to see Alice watching me. “You’re wings are beautiful,” she said.
I pulled them back in. “I’m not supposed to do that,” I replied quietly.
“What?” she asked.
“Draw at
tention to his wings,” Seth answered with his mouth full. “It’s against the integration laws.”
Surprised, Alice sat up and several of the girls drew closer. “What else aren’t you supposed to do?”
Unused to the attention, I glanced at Ava. She nodded encouragingly. I pulled up several blades of grass and kept my attention on them as they fell through my fingers. “We’re not allowed to fly, fight, or train.”
“Train,” Alice said, shaking her red hair back from her shoulders. “Isn’t that what Galdoni do?”
“Yeah,” Emily said. “That’s like telling my brothers not to play Frisbee.”
“Or forbidding us from practicing,” Sam said. She ran a hand through her straight blonde hair. “How crazy is that?”
“What’s Frisbee?” I asked.
They all stared at me. “What kind of a life did you live?” Sam asked. All the stares turned to her.
I shrugged, unable to come up with an answer. “At least it got me here.” I looked at Ava. She smiled at me and I returned it.
“What’s going on?”
I grimaced at Brayce’s grating voice. The birds flew away as his shadow hovered over our group.
“It’s fitting,” he continued. “The birds eating with the birds.”
“Birds eating with birds,” Tavin parroted with a laugh.
My muscles tensed. I didn’t care what he said about me, but Ava was present. I wouldn’t stand by and let him insult her. My hands clenched. Seth grabbed my arm.
Before I could act, Alice stood with her hands on her hips. “Those birds you scared away have more intelligence in their little wing feathers than you do in your entire body.”
Brayce’s mouth fell open. Tavin and Manny laughed until he silenced them with a look that threatened death.
“That’s right,” Amelia, Alice’s second said. “So use your two brain cells to go back to the school.”
Brayce looked from the cheerleaders to Seth, then me. I could see the rage burning through him, but he was outnumbered. It didn’t take a Galdoni to see that he was afraid even though they were girls.
“You better watch yourself,” he told me.
“You mean watch me eat with beautiful girls on a sunny day?” I replied.
He stormed away. Tavin, Manny, and the hulking Chad followed.
A bell rang, signifying five minutes before the end of the lunch hour.
“We’d better get ready for the assembly,” Alice said, rising. The rest of the cheerleaders stood with her. She smiled at Ava. “You want to come?”
Ava gave me a questioning look. “Go ahead,” I told her. “I’m not a huge fan of assemblies. Too many people in one place.”
She nodded with a smile. “Catch you later?”
“Definitely,” I replied, warmth spreading through me at her look.
She hurried with the other girls toward the gymnasium.
“Alice!” a boy called. I looked up to see four members from the football team waiting for them.
One put an arm around Ava’s shoulders. She didn’t shrug him away like I expected. Instead, she smiled up at him when he opened the door for her.
Jealousy filled me. I wanted to break his arms for touching her. I wanted to make him suffer for bringing a smile to her face. I should have been there instead.
“Reece, you alright?” Seth asked. He looked from me to the students disappearing inside the gymnasium. “Dude. That’s Randy Jenkins. I didn’t know he liked Ava.” He glanced up at me and his eyes widened. “Oh.”
I met his gaze. “Don’t say ‘oh’ like it means something.”
Seth shook his head. “I didn’t realize you liked her like that. She and Randy hang out but it’s probably just—”
“She should hang out with him.”
Seth stared at me like I was insane. He blinked at me owlishly and tried to smooth down the cowlick at the front of his short red hair. “What?” he asked after a moment.
I shrugged and pretended not to care. “She should hang out with him. He’s probably a good guy.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “And you’re not?” he asked.
“I’m a Galdoni,” I stated as though that should answer everything.
He shook his head. “Don’t settle for that, Reece. Being a Galdoni doesn’t make you bad or good. It’s just who you are.”
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “It makes me a trained killer. She doesn’t need that in her life.”
“How do you know what she needs?” he pressed.
I sighed. “She needs normalcy, Seth. She doesn’t need the kind of crazy that comes with a Galdoni.”
“Do I need to remind you that she is a Galdoni?” he pointed out.
I shook my head. “She’s different. You know that as well as I do. She wanted a normal life and she deserves one.” I gritted my teeth, but the words slipped out anyway. “Now if I can just tell my heart that.”
“Why?” Seth asked quietly.
“Because I want to break that Randy guy’s arms,” I replied.
Seth laughed. “See; I told you that you like her!”
I tried to punch his arm, but he dodged out of the way and grabbed our trays. “I’ll see you after the assembly, Romeo,” he called back with a grin.
I shook my head and watched him go. As much as I tried to pretend I was fine, the image of Ava and Randy walking inside the gym together was killing me. I didn’t know what to do. I was worried that if I saw Randy again, I might actually kill him. If I saw Ava, I wasn’t sure what I would do.
I broke the rules and flew to the roof of the gym. It was a new building with wide windows and a lower roof that transitioned to the higher roof with another set of windows. If I pulled up on the ledge, I could peer down at the crowd of students below. Instead, I sat with my back against the wall and tried to clear my thoughts. I could hear shouting inside as the cheerleaders rallied the students for the football game that weekend. I buried my head in my hands.
Chapter Eight
Lights flashed. I knew the Arena was going on. I wanted to be there, to see the fight and participate in it. Galdoni were living and dying for honor, guaranteeing their spot in the heavens. I tried to picture them. They would be wearing the masks and armor of warriors, gold, silver, and bronze. I wondered what armor I would be given for my first turn in the Arena. It was too bad I had so long to wait. Galdoni weren’t allowed to fight in live matches until they were at least sixteen. I had two more years to go.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to fight because it was the thing to do, or because it was better than sitting in my little cell picturing how I would die. Death was inevitable. Death was guaranteed. I wasn’t afraid of death. At least, that was what they told us. Maybe all I wanted was to get to the Arena and prove to myself once and for all that I could face it.
The screams in my head became real. I blinked and realized I was still sitting on the roof of the gymnasium with the second wall of windows at my back. I frowned. There should be shouts and cheers, not screams. I pulled up and looked in the high windows. My heart stopped.
A man in a black suit flanked by two Galdoni stood in the middle of the gymnasium floor. He held a gun and was pointing it at the students and teachers who were screaming and cringing together on the stands.
The Galdoni on either side held knives and swords. Thank goodness for Galdoni honor, even it if was antiquated. Our training was hard to push aside. Honor that dictated death by a sword and giving death by a blade would probably save lives today because there was only one gun instead of three.
“Where’s the female Galdoni?” the man demanded.
I found Ava in the crowd. Her friends and the boys who had been with them were pressed around her, hiding her wings from view. The action gripped my heart in a fist. They were risking their lives to protect her.
I shoved my wings back hard and rose high into the air. I flattened my wings to my sides and dove toward the windows that spilled light onto the gymnasium floor. I punched
my left fist forward at the last minute. The glass shattered and I plummeted toward the floor.
I didn’t use my wings to slow me. Instead, I landed on the man with the gun with the full force of my momentum. He crashed to the ground and the gun slid away.
“Kill him!” a Galdoni yelled. They were on top of me before I could gain my senses again.
“Reece!” I heard Ava shout.
I rolled to the right, breaking free of the punches and kicks. The fiery slice of a knife blade down the arm I held over my face let me know how close I came to getting blinded. I jumped up and grabbed the Galdoni’s knife arm, chopped his elbow so that his arm bent, and spun toward his body. I drove my elbow into his stomach; his breath left him in a rush. I slipped my right ankle behind his left one, and swept his legs out from under him. He fell to the ground and the force of my weight against my elbow drove the air from his lungs. I spun in a crouch and slammed a haymaker into his jaw.
I turned in time to avoid the second Galdoni’s knife. He lashed out with his short sword. Pain traced my cheekbone as the tip of the blade cut deep. His momentum spun him to the left. I took advantage of it and punched him behind the ear followed by a two-handed slam to the ribs. He stumbled forward and dropped the sword, but he held the knife tight when he turned back, fire in his hate-filled eyes.
I could hear sirens in the distance. Help was on its way. I had never fought a grown Galdoni before besides Lem, but that was just practice. I could hear Lem’s words in my mind.
“Use the thing you have that they don’t. They might be bigger, faster, stronger, or just plain meaner, but you have something your opponent is lacking. Find that weakness and use it against them.” I pushed my wings down.
“Running away?” The Galdoni called. He lifted his huge pale wings and rose as well, chasing me toward the high gymnasium ceiling. I fainted to the right, then tucked my wings and dove left. He followed close behind. I felt the tip of his knife brush the feathers of my right wing. Screams echoed up from the students below. I tucked my wings tight and spun left. He followed close behind.
“Give up, boy,” the Galdoni said in a growl. “You’re dead already.”