by bret Wellman
“I believe you’re good.” She caught my wrist to stop me from walking away.
“No. You don’t. You proved that yesterday.”
Frustration flashed across her face. Her blue eyes burned with shame.
“I didn’t mean it. Spencer and the others told me no matter what, I couldn’t trust you.” She let her hand fall to her side.
Why couldn’t she just go her way and let me go mine? I turned and started walking toward the school.
“I’m sorry.” She didn’t bother to try and stop me again but instead started walking next to me.
“I believe you okay? No matter what anyone says, I believe you.” She said as we walked. I kept looking forward. “It may be foolish, but I do.”
“Why now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wow, that has to be the best explanation I have ever heard…” I said.
She was silent for a moment. “I can’t explain it, it’s just that I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.”
“Oh, so you can think now?”
“Yes.” She sounded irritated, good. “You said you lost your powers. Being a mental user means you could very easily be faking it. But I don’t think you are. Everyone else disagrees; they don’t see you like I do.”
“So what do we do now?”
“I guess we just keep things the same.”
I sighed. “Then what is the point of telling me all of this?”
“Because what I did yesterday was wrong and I wanted to let you know.”
“Well you did and I forgave you so feel free to ditch me.” I picked up my pace, so did she.
I could feel her glowing blue eyes on my face. “I don’t want to ditch you.”
I closed my eyes and let out a sigh of frustration.
“I want to make it up to you.”
I stopped walking and turned to look at her. “What does that mean?”
“It means that if you ever need help with anything just ask.”
“What would I need help with?”
A faint smile touched her lips. “You will think of something.”
“Is that so?” I said then forced myself to start walking again.
We were approaching the front doors to the school. I could feel her shoulder brush against mine. It provoked a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Spencer and the others are going to be pissed.” She said. “But I don’t care anymore.”
Her eyes were piercingly intense as we made the last few steps up to the school. The strange feeling in my stomach spiked with every word.
“Thanks.” I whispered as I opened the door for her.
“See you in gym.” She said and turned down the hallway.
I could only stare in disbelief as she disappeared around the corner.
Chapter 6
I walked slowly to math, playing what had just happened over and over in my head. It took me a few seconds to notice Ashley was talking to me once I reached my seat.
“Hello?” Ashley said, sounding annoyed.
“What’s up?” I said, snapping out of my train of thought.
“Oh my gosh, do you want to be my partner today or not?”
“Sure.” I said, glancing at today’s project for the first time.
The rest of hour Ashley only grew more and more annoyed with my distracted train of thought. I didn’t care too much. I felt too good to let it get to me. Despite her annoyance with me, she still jumped at the chance to walk with me to my next class. Why? I will never know.
Before we had gone twenty feet she admitted to hearing that I had gone to the movies with Page. I just nodded and explained how I had told her I couldn’t date anyone at the moment. I hoped she got the hint.
The rest of my morning classes passed on as the clock ticked. The scene from early that morning with Brianna was starting to feel more and more like a dream with every passing minute. I found it hard to believe she had actually confronted me.
I had to know if she was going to change her mind or keep going in this new direction. Neal went on and on about a date he went on the other night with his new girlfriend. I acted interested until we parted and I was quickly crossing outside to the field house and parting the doors to the gym.
As I stepped inside I thought about what I was going to say. It had to be good, I didn’t want to make her relapse again. If I could persuade Brianna, then I might be able to persuade the rest of them. It would prove to Adrian and Lillie that I wasn’t useless. I would prove my worth and therefore they wouldn’t talk down to me anymore.
When I got to the bleachers I slowed when I saw that she wasn’t there. To try and hide my new sense of disappointment, I grabbed a basketball and started shooting hoops.
On my second shot somebody tapped me on the shoulder making me jump. I hadn’t heard anybody walk up. They must have snuck up.
I was slightly confused when I turned to find nobody there. But when I turned back Brianna was standing in front of me with her arms behind her back, a big smile on her face.
“Can I shoot one?” She asked. I handed her the ball and stepped to the side. The way she lined up with the ball made it clear that she wasn’t willing to let me out of her site when I was so close. She still didn’t trust me enough to even let her guard down for a second. I had to push further.
“I could get used to this.” I said.
“Me too” She eyed me closely “If you’re not mad at me anymore.”
The smile wavered on her face.
“Who said I was mad?” I said.
“Good. So how was your day?”
“I have had worse.” I said. Don’t ask me why but the next words came out without me thinking about the consequences. “What’s it like dating a douche like Blake?” I immediately bit my tongue.
She just rolled her eyes. “I’m not dating Blake. He’s just obsessed with me and I don’t bother to blow him off.”
That made me feel better than it should have. The kid really got on my nerves I guess.
“I was going to say…” I paused to shoot a basket. “You’re way too cute for him.” When I turned back she had her arms crossed.
“He’s not my type anyway.” she shifted uncomfortably. “What about you, are you dating Page now or something?”
“No.” I said quickly. “She’s not my type either.”
“Oh, not that I care, I don’t think you would do anything bad to her. I was just venting the other day with the whole 'is she one of your perks' thing.”
I absently rubbed the back of my neck. I had forgotten she had accused me of that.
“Ha, as if I needed that. Page was all over me.” I instantly regretted it. That was definitely disrespectful of Page and she didn’t deserve it. I would have never said that if I still had my old mind. “Not in a bad way or anything…”
Brianna looked at me like she was trying not to laugh. “Whatever you say stud muffin.”
“It’s true! I had to tell her we were just friends.” I hated talking about Page like this but in a way I wanted to prove my point.
“Can I ask you something?” She said from behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder after shooting a basket. “Why did you keep trying to make me believe you? Anybody else would have given up on me.”
“I don’t know, I guess I like your blue eyes and pig tails.” I left out the part where I was trying to prove myself to Adrian and Lillie.
She giggled. “Well, thank you.”
I shot another ball that bounced off the rim before it could fall through the basket.
“What happened to your powers?”
When I turned around she had a serious look on her face, I detected concern too.
“Aren’t you supposed to be really, really smart?” she asked.
“You don’t think I’m smart?” I said.
“You know what I mean. Why aren’t you like Adrian and the girl?”
“Adrian and Lillie. After you and the others escaped from the government buildings
the Kingdom invented new weapons. They were designed to disable our powers. While we were trying to escape I was shot by one. I’m lucky Adrian was there to guide me the rest of the way to safety. By then it was too late and my mind was gone.”
“I’m sorry” she said.
“You keep saying that.” I pointed out. “Anyway, it’s good we escaped when we did. The Kingdom wasn’t too far off on completing a mind control formula.”
“Mind control?”
“No one will ever try to escape if you have control over their mind.”
It wasn’t a lie. The documents on the mind control formula were the last straw that made us decide to leave.
I watched a shiver run over her body. She glared at me questioningly.
“What?”
“So you don’t have any power left at all?”
“Not that I know of.” I shrugged. “I’m surprisingly good at math I guess.”
“Hmm, so you can’t even defend yourself?”
“I’m still trained like an assassin.”
“Yes, but you don’t have any power.” She smiled then nodded. “Doesn't it make everything harder?”
What was she getting at? I sensed a point to her questions. I should have thought out my response better but I figured it wasn’t a big deal.
“Everything is at least ten times harder. Before, I knew how to do everything. Now, I swear it’s like I don’t know how to do anything.”
“How about hockey, do you think you can do that? And if so, do you want to be on my team?” She asked, hopeful.
Okay so maybe her point wasn’t anything philosophical like I had suspected.
“Yea, I don’t think I could handle another game with you hitting me the whole time.” I could still feel the bruises on my shins every time I took a step.
“Sorry.” She said for the millionth time.
“Stop saying that. Besides, I’m pretty sure my team won that game.”
She didn’t smile. “William, I’m ashamed of how I acted.”
“You’re too hard on yourself.” I said.
She shrugged, her body filled with tension.
“Make it up to me today and let’s win this game.” I watched closely at her reaction as I spoke. The tension she was holding seemed to lessen.
“Deal.” She looked set, like she now had something to prove.
“Good.”
“How do you do that?” She asked.
“Do what?”
“All I want to do is feel bad about what I did yesterday but you turn me around and make me want to laugh.”
That was intriguing “I didn’t know I was doing anything.”
“Well you are and it’s really frustrating.” She complained.
“You don’t like it?” I asked.
“Yes, I mean no… I don’t know.”
“Well that helps.” I said sarcastically.
She crossed her arms and looked at me skeptically “Are you sure you lost your power?”
“What?” I said, alarmed at the sudden relapse. “I did, I swear.”
A smile crept onto her face. “Not even a little?”
I eyed her suspiciously “Only in math…”
“Huh, I always wondered what it would be like to be smarter than a mental user.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. It just so turns out that I am naturally smart.” I said.
“If you say so, no smart person I know would have rushed out to save me from those soldiers. I guess that means you’re so smart that you can see reasoning when no one else can right?” She was laying the sarcasm on thick.
“I did see something no one else did.” I said.
We walked over and picked out a couple of plastic hockey sticks from a cardboard box. They were all different colors and I wasn’t sure if they were quite sturdy enough to actually hit a puck.
“Oh yea, and what was that?” She asked.
“A scared little girl.” I teased.
“I was not. Come on, if you thought I was scared of a couple of soldiers than you must have lost a lot more than your original smarts” She said.
“Then I must have just seen someone waiting to be rescued.”
“Nope, I could have saved myself.”
“A defeated assassin?”
“Not at all.”
“Then I’m afraid I’m just not as smart as I thought.” I shrugged.
“Told you so.”
I could see the struggle in her expression as she banished laughter from her body.
Near the bleachers I could hear the gym teacher blow his whistle for everyone to gather around. Without thinking I grabbed Brianna’s hand. She ripped it away and took a step back. For a moment she looked scared, but then she relaxed and began to laugh at her reaction to my touch. I probably should have been mad but the look on her face made me lose it, I began to laugh and soon both of us were feeding each other’s laughter. Far too late did I see Blake staring, his face was beet-red and he didn’t miss a step we took. He looked furious. But why, it’s not like Brianna was dating him. You would have thought I had just broken a window out on his car or something.
He stayed in his seat as the teacher called off attendance. Hopefully that meant he would leave us alone.
As I sat and waited for the gym teacher to split us into teams I tried to forget about Blake. I had far bigger issues in the Kingdom than him.
When the teams were all split up Brianna had been sent to another team but quickly traded places with a student to be on mine. Blake did too, only he was on the other team.
The second the game started it was clear which team would win. Though some of the kids we faced were actually on the schools hockey team, Brianna’s and my superior team work and discipline from the years at the government building had us at an advantage. We passed the puck up and down the court scoring as if we were the only two playing. Blake knocked a few of our teammates down but failed to hit one of us, we always knew he was coming and effortlessly dodged him.
“Go long.” She called as she lined up at the other end of the court.
I braced my knees as I heard the loud smack of her hockey stick hitting the puck. Seconds later I caught it with my stick right next to the goal. The other team’s goalie hadn’t quite grasped what had happened in time to stop me from easily tapping the puck in. I tried hard not to laugh as we scored yet another point.
“Come on guys, we are playing like crap.” A kid on the other team complained a few seconds later as Brianna and I passed the puck around him. He worked frantically to try and steal the puck but it was never quite within reach. “It’s not fair.” I couldn’t help but feel empowered by how helpless we made the other team look.
I caught Blake swearing at his other teammates a few times. He was actually getting so angry that I decided to slip out of class early before he decided to whack me with his stick or something. I waited until the puck was at the other end of the court and then slipped away to the locker room.
By the time the gym teacher called for the end of class I was on my way to my car. Better to leave school early and let him cool off.
“William.” I heard Brianna call from behind when I reached the parking lot. When I turned to look I was surprised to find she had already changed.
“You didn’t think I was going to watch you skip and not skip myself, did you? I kind of felt bad for our team though. They lost their two star players.”
“Yea” I nodded “I think we gave them a big enough lead to hold out though.”
She stepped up and started walking by my side.
“Do you want to drop me off at my house?” She asked. “I don’t have a car.”
Where had this girl come from? She was acting one hundred percent different from yesterday.
“Sure, as long as you don’t think this is all part of my plan to capture you.” I didn’t think that was pushing anything.
“I think I could get away pretty easy. You know, since you don’t have any powers anymore and all.” She said.
“We would still be in a moving vehicle.” It was starting to sprinkle, turning the pavement a darker black than it already was. Beads of water were building up on all the cars.
“You can’t hit the gas pedal if you are dead.” She pointed out.
I just laughed and kept walking.
“Though I would probably just maim and disfigure you.” She continued, making sure to get the point across.
I stopped to face her, leaning back on my car with my hands in my pockets. I didn’t know if she wanted to go right away, so I decided to drag out my time with her as much as possible.
“So, you’re saying that I shouldn’t try and capture you?” I asked. She smiled and nodded, clearly happy I had seen her reasoning.
I looked over Brianna’s shoulder. Near the field house I could see Blake burst out the doors sprinting in our direction. He was still in his gym clothes and he was madder than before, which seemed impossible.
“I told you so.” Brianna was still smiling. She had no idea of the huge force charging in our direction.
I grabbed her arm above the elbow and pulled her up against my car.
“What’s wrong?” She asked.
I took five or six steps toward Blake in an attempt to get as far away from her as possible. I didn’t want to be anywhere near her in case a fight started.
“Stay back there.” I said and pointing toward my car. Blake was only twenty feet away, still sprinting.
“I guess I will let you take this one.” She said, sounding alarmed.
I braced for him to tackle.
“Blake!” Brianna screamed.
I could have dodged Blake’s lousy tackle, but I knew the best way to handle this fight was to lose. That way he would use his victory to get over it and not hold a grudge. The wet pavement ripped the back of my shirt as we slammed into the ground. I could feel the air slip from my lungs and I struggled to get it back. Had I not been trained by the Kingdom I would have been panicking. Instead I pushed away at Blake’s chest in a phony attempt to escape his grasp.
He got up on his knees in an untrained posture and wound up to throw a punch. How easy it would be to adjust my body weight and throw him to the ground. How simple to just move my head at the last second making him punch the pavement, breaking his hand. They were both good sound options that would have worked perfectly. Instead I closed my eyes as the whole world shook from the blow.