by Susie Salom
Brooke shakes her head.
“People like that guy are just as much a part of nature as the stars.”
“You sure about that?” she asks.
“Think about it, everything has got to have a reason for existing,” he says. “Not just the obvious things of beauty like the ocean and the moon but also things like mean people and—”
“Walrus butt whiskers,” I say.
Cam laughs.
“No, I’m serious. They could be like mini antennas.” I lift my index fingers and wriggle them.
“I just can’t believe you actually hit that guy,” he tells me. “He makes the Colossus of Rhodes look like Mr. Potato Head’s little brother.”
“Yeah, well, Reed told me not to let him bait me anymore.”
“How do you mean?” Cameron asks.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I guess kind of like don’t let him get under my skin.”
“I’ve always wondered what people mean when they say that,” Cam says. “I mean, where does that saying originate?”
“I know where it comes from,” Brooke puts in.
Cameron lifts both his eyebrows, waiting for her to go on.
“In the bad way, like you’re saying”—Brooke nods at me—“it comes from supposedly evil spirits that used to tunnel into people’s thoughts and make them do things they otherwise wouldn’t do.”
“Freaky fratelli,” I say.
“But there’s also another way,” Brooke says. “A much nicer one.”
Cam turns to face her.
“The other way that someone gets under your skin,” Brooke goes on, “is when they share your heart. When someone gets under your skin in the good way, it’s like their spirit talks to your spirit.”
“Well, what if you don’t believe in spirits?” Cameron says.
The bell rings and the three of us start to gather our stuff.
“Think what you want,” Brooke tells him as she swings her backpack over her shoulder. “But in my experience, we find what we look for.”
Or maybe—I think as the three of us go to our separate homerooms—like the amazing Polynesian wayfinders, we find what we’ve learned how to see.
“Today we are going to learn about controlling the axis of your adversary while protecting your own,” Coach Yeung tells us as we’re all lined up in our gym clothes.
Mine still don’t fit. It’s been more than a week and I haven’t had that growth spurt Mom keeps saying is right around the corner. I’m still the same and these clothes are still massive on me.
“Turn and face your partners.”
Reed and I look at each other.
“By touching the skin of your opponent,” Coach is saying, “you can listen to, or understand, the type of force they are emitting.”
“What’s emitting?” someone asks.
“Think of the sun,” Coach says, “and how it emits light. Each of us emits an energy and through the sense of touch, our nerve endings take in that stream of energy being emitted by another. The more you develop your awareness of that energy by practicing with your partner,” he tells us, “the more you can read intention through touch. This goes back to the axis. Imagine a pole running head to foot through the person standing in front of you.”
I look at Reed and picture a street lamp sticking out of his gym shirt.
“That is their axis. With contact, you can get a sense of which way the pole is tilting. Then you can use that information to your advantage during combat. But you have to remember that a person is never still during engagement. There are constant readings you can take to stay ahead of the moves of your opponent.”
I wonder if that’s at all like getting under someone’s skin?
“If you can remember that the opponent you’re engaging never stays the same, then your ability to advance, subvert and defend will evolve with the living fight. Then maybe”—Coach smiles his warm, buttery smile—“your inner ear will begin to catch a piece of the silent song.”
Reed and I start. At first, I’m distracted by a billion little thoughts. Like everything that didn’t happen between Sheroo and me this morning and how Mom never wants to just park it right there and listen to why I should be allowed to stay on NAVS. But after Reed comes at me a few times, it’s like the brain below my neck takes over.
Reed moves his arms around me and I lift mine like sails, using both to make big, flowy circles. I’m warding off Reed’s hands but I don’t feel like we’re separate. First we’re doing the same circle, then we start to do two circles at once.
Reed holds my gaze with his. I think about how wayfinders use the shadows on the underbottoms of clouds to be able to tell if land is nearby. There isn’t anything in the color of Reed’s eyes that tips me off to what comes next, but I do notice that, behind him, the mats are stacked in fours and there’s an orange volleyball sitting on top of one of them. There are no clouds in the sky outside the windows by the ceiling and when I glance at the ground during a really big figure eight, I notice one of Reed’s shoelaces is broken. And, just for a second, the world isn’t tugging away from itself at the edges anymore. Because it’s like Mr. Arriéta told Meowsie on the very first day. Every thing is every things.
“Excellent, Kyle,” Coach says. “Very well done, Youngblood. I think, as partners, you’ve had a moment and a breakthrough.”
A moment and a breakthrough.
I’ll bet not everybody has those.
“That a good thing?” I ask.
Coach tips his head the tiniest bit and looks me in the eye. “It’s a very good thing.”
“Coach.”
Coach’s assistant walks through the doors to the gym.
“Phone call,” she tells him. “Yer sister.”
Coach strides to the front of the room. “Okay, class, tomorrow we will be exploring the roll back and the press. But for now”—Coach motions to his assistant—“I’m leaving you in Coach Calandra’s hands.”
He tells her something then does a little jog to the door before disappearing into the hall.
“All right, kittens, listen up.” Coach Calandra claps. “Coach Yeung has gone to take an important phone call and in the meantime, we’re gonna have a little break and do somethin’ fun.”
A couple people cheer and the assistant coach grins.
“Anyone in this class know howta play”—she stops all dramatic—“Steal the Bacon?”
No one answers.
“Y’all don’t know how to play Steal the Bacon? Well, saints above and beside, this is a glittering tragedy. You, there.” She points at Donna.
“Donna,” she says.
“Right, go and git a clean towel from the locker room, hunny.” She claps again. “We’re gonna cook us some breakfast! All right, counting you off. One, two, one, two, one, two.”
She goes through the whole class and separates us into teams. I’m a one and Reed is a two so we get sent to opposite ends of the gym. Marcy gets sent to Reed’s side of the gym and Donna comes back with the towel and gets sent to mine. I look around at who else is on my side and see Ino Nevarez out of the corner of my eye. I don’t want to stare at him straight in the face so I focus on the towel in Coach Calandra’s hands as she goes over the rules.
“Okay, now, team one goes first.” She points at Donna. “We’ll start with you. Now, jest call out a name from team two and when you do, the both of you’ll race to the center of the gym”—she straightens the towel and lays it right in the middle of the two teams—“to see who gits the bacon first. Then you race on back to yer side and the one who stole the bacon gits their team a point. All clear?”
Easy enough.
“Okay, Donna, you go on an’ call out a name.”
Donna lifts a fist to her lips and clears her throat.
“Reed!” she yells.
Quick as a flash, Reed starts running for all he’s worth to the center of the gym. Donna starts like one second after he does and the lead he gets on her is too big so he grabs the bacon and sta
rts running back. Donna stops in her tracks and Coach Calandra shouts at her.
“Well, go on, sugar! Don’t throw in the towel!” She laughs. “Catch that old Thunderbird and getcher bacon back!”
So Donna guns it after Reed but, by then, it’s too late. He’s made it home safe and his whole team starts cheering and whooping and stomping.
Okay, I see how it’s done. I stretch my neck and crack my knuckles and get on the edges of my feet, ready to fire the second my name hits the airwaves.
“Okay, boy, now it’s your turn.” Coach Calandra takes the towel from Reed and walks to the center of the gym to lay it down. “You call out a name and see if you can beat another member from team one.”
Reed wipes his cheek with the back of his hand and hunches down like he’s waiting for the gun.
“Kyle!”
I almost start to run before he even says it. It’s like hearing him use my actual name instead of Fedora sends lightning through my legs. I’m pumping them as hard and as fast as I can with my eyes zeroing in on the towel in the middle of the gym. That bacon is mine.
Reed moves fast. Even though he just ran the length of the gym to beat Donna, it’s like he has more energy and speed, not less. I’m looking at the towel but can feel him getting just as close as me. I pretend like there’s an earthquake and the gym is cracking open like the crust of an overbaked pie. The bacon is actually my cat Circe so I dive to grab her and am already half turned around to run to my end of the gym when I feel the towel jerk back.
Reed’s got it, too!
We grabbed the towel at the same time! I whip around and hang on with both hands but Reed is pulling from his end, just as strong. I lean back with all my weight but Reed digs in his sneakers on the gym floor and I don’t budge.
Then I get an idea.
When he leans away in his direction I let go, just a little, and he tumbles backwards. Then I grab the towel even stronger and turn around to run with it like I’m home free.
But he’s still holding on. I drag him a few steps before he gets his footing and starts pulling back in his direction.
“Steal the bacon!” everyone is yelling.
“Go, Kyle!”
“Get her, Youngblood! It’s yours!”
Our sneakers are cutting into the gym floor and leaving scuffs all over the place when I feel Reed grabbing more of the towel with one hand over the other. He’s pulling in closer with each grip and I can’t move. All I can do is dig in my heels to stand my ground the way he was doing before.
He gets up close enough for me to hear him and says, “Surrender, Fedora.”
“Death first!”
He laughs but grabs so much of the towel that all I have is a tiny bit left in my hands, which are all pink and a little sore from the struggle.
“Surrender,” he says again. Then, he karate chops what’s left of the towel between us and I feel the vibration all the way to my teeth.
I let go of the towel.
It drops into Reed’s hands and he just stands there, shocked.
“Why’d you surrender?” he says, instead of running away with it. And I stand there, too, and stare at him.
“I know how we can lead Cameron out of the maze.”
He smiles at me, breathless, while the sound of everyone else in the gym booing and shouting cutdowns fades into the walls.
“You do?” Reed asks.
“I do.” I smile back at him.
Then I snatch the towel from his hands and sprint back to my side of the gym, outrunning the burning hot lava and doing a final, heroic leap over the line to rescue Circe to safety.
That night in bed, I’m on hyper alert as I listen for the sound of a bubble popping on my screen. I lie perfectly still in the middle of my covers with pillows standing on both sides and one on top. It’s my fort. Even if it is a kind of saggy one. The room is all dark except for the light from the street lamp that’s coming in through the shutters.
Marcy isn’t interested in joining NAVS. She says she thinks there’s a reason I’ve been picked for it, though—even if Mom has grounded me. She told me today that sometimes life is like a puzzle that you have to figure out. For example, why did I stand up for her? Why did I get a cool punishment instead of a crud-muffin one like pimple puss? And why, after everything, did I get grounded from the punishment that I now want?
I told her duh. Who wouldn’t stand up for her? (She said lots of people.) And that I got grounded because—
See, that’s the thing. I don’t really get why I can’t do NAVS. I mean, yeah, I should have told Mom we were getting into the pool at Donna’s. (And that Mrs. A. wasn’t gonna be there. I mean, I guess I kind of knew since Donna never had her check the note.) But, come on, totally grounded for life because of that?
My screen bubble pops and I’m busting out of my fort before I even look at the avatar. When I do, it’s not one I’ve ever seen before. It’s a huge … shrimp.
MasterOfCeremonies: NAVS meeting tomorrow morning in the library at 7:45. Attendance a MUST!
I stare at the message for like five hundred lives. The meeting is in the library. During school hours when I’ll already be there, anyway.
My fingers fly as they type a response.
the_amazing_kyle: who’s the shrimp?
MasterOfCeremonies: That’s a CAMARÓN, thank you very much.
A dolphin avatar pops up on the screen.
Donita: be kind to your friends in the ocean.
I laugh in the darkness at Donna and Cameron and something heavy—like a boot—thunks against my wall.
“Cut it out!” Roger yells. “I’m tryna sleep, you little fart blossom.”
Rog and his beauty sleep. I mean, come on, it’s not even nine. He’s gonna make more noise than me and then Mom’ll come in here and ask me what I’m doing on the computer when I know the rule is no electronics thirty minutes before bedtime.
MasterOfCeremonies: We can’t afford to waste any more time. The experiments in the pool at Donna’s didn’t get us any closer to figuring out a communication system. It’s time to get serious, team.
Logan: agreed
Donita: not my fault.
MasterOfCeremonies: No one is blaming anyone. But we either go forward as a team, or stop.
Logan: I vote go forward
I rub the tip of my nose. There’s a milk shake in my stomach. All blwaa and blwaaaa like my guts are, I don’t know, in a milk shake making maker.
A blender.
I glance at my closed door and picture Mom taking off her rings and rubbing in her night creams while Dad reads something off his tablet. (He gets to stay on electronics before bed.)
Okay, so how bad can it be, really? If I just go to the meetings before school? Because it seems like everything is falling into place without me even trying. And plus, if Sheroo’s gonna be eating lunch with her new friends anyway, I might as well be hanging out with Brooke—where is she, btw?—and the NAVS team at recess, too. I mean, it just makes sense.
Put it this way: The competition in the Civic Center is still more than a month away. Which means there’s plenty of time to help the team solve the maze without going to anyone’s house behind my parents’ back and find a way to let them know I never quit. Because why would I have gotten such an important clue to the maze during Steal the Bacon after Reed’s and my moment and a breakthrough if I wasn’t even meant to share it? Exactly.
Logan: so its settled. We’ll see EVERYONE tomorrow at 7:45?
I push down the sour milk shake in my stomach until I almost can’t feel it at all.
the_amazing_kyle: I’ll be there.
I’m surprised how nervous I am as I walk to the library the next morning. I almost wish Sheroo would see me and make a scene or something so that I’d have an excuse to go to the bathroom. Then later I could say sorry! Couldn’t come to the meeting because there was a crisis in the hall. You know how it is.
But the way is clear straight to the door from the moment Brooke, me and
Reed get off the bus to the minute we walk in and see Cameron and Donna already sitting at a table.
“Good news, everybody,” Reed says. “We think we’ve found a way to lead Cameron out of the maze.” Then he turns to me and says under his breath, “Fedora.”
Who, me? Wait, what are we doing again?
I stand with buzzing knees in front of Cameron, Donna and Brooke—all people who I know for a fact are smarter than I am—and then open my mouth to see what pops out.
“We need rope,” I blurt.
Reed looks at Cameron then Donna and says, “Okay. Anyone know where we can fetch some rope?”
“From the Drama department?” Brooke says.
“Good morning!” Mrs. A. walks into the library. “Sorry I’m a little late. Please”—she rolls a hand—“keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Mrs. Arceneau, we need rope,” Cameron tells her.
“Well, that should be easy enough,” she says. “So long as you don’t plan to plug it in.” She smiles at her own joke then sets her bag on the table. “I expect we can go through the P.E. department to get that.”
“Brooke was thinking props from the Drama department,” Donna says.
“And what do we need the rope for?” Mrs. A. asks.
Everyone turns to stare in my direction.
“Yeah, what are we going to attach it to?” Cameron asks.
I take a breath. “You.”
“You’re going to pull me with rope?” he says.
“No, we’re not gonna pull you with the rope.” I shake my head. “I mean, what would be the point of just leading you around? There has to be some give and take,” I say. “A message that we send so you can use your own head to think about it and react.”
“And how are you going to use rope to send a message?” Mrs. A. asks me.
“I think we should actually have some rope,” Reed puts in. “So she can show us instead of tell us.”
What he said.
“Brooke,” Mrs. A. says. “Why don’t you and Kyle go to Miss Romero and see if we can locate some rope?” She turns to me. “How much do we need?”
“Enough to tie Cameron to another team member,” I answer, “but also to leave room for someone else to stand in between.”