My Soul to Keep

CHAPTER 16



The nurse finally released me just in time for lunch. As soon as I entered the cafeteria's double doors, stares, whispers, and silence filled the room. Ignoring everybody, I made my way to Jessie and Jeremy. They both had full trays sitting in front of them and I growled a little, knowing Jeremy had helped Jessie get her food. I made a mental note to punch him in the face after school. He had his back to me, and Jessie couldn’t see me.

Beth and Jenny tried to wave me over to their table and I was half tempted to join them just to help heal my pride. Jealousy was a new experience for me.

"I hope he's okay…" I heard Jessie say as I finally walked over to our familiar lunch spot.

"I'm sure he is. Don't worry about–See, here he is," Jeremy said when he finally saw me. "You okay, dude?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be right back. Gonna get some food. Sorry I had to leave you, Jessie. Johnson made me go to the nurse's office. She finally realized nothing was wrong with me and let me go eat."

"That's okay. What happened?"

"I'll tell you when I have something to eat." Leaning over, I planted a kiss on her temple. I half expected her to pull away or giggle, but she just smiled. With a quick glance at my best friend, I saw him frown a little. "Be right back."

I headed over to the full lunch line. The kids ahead of me seemed a little uncomfortable standing next to me. I'm sure the tale of my sudden mathematical genius and allegedly glowing red eyes had travelled around the school six times in the few short hours I spent in Nurse Jane's office. Only one thing travelled faster than light. Gossip.

I grabbed a tray, some Jell-o, a salad, two sub sandwiches, a bowl of pudding, two bowls of tater tots, a tuna sandwich, and three cokes. I slid my tray up to the check out and punched in my lunch number without even so much as a glance at Gladys. I made my way to our table and set the tray down.

"Hungry much?" Jeremy's voice broke my attention from the mountain of food in front of me.

I heard a voice behind me say, "See, I told you he smoked a big fat blunt. That's why his eyes were red!"

I blushed and ate. Ate some more, and by the time I was finished, Jessie let out a little giggle at the small burp that escaped. I smiled at her and she sat there shaking her head.

"You sure you're okay?" She sounded really concerned.

"I'm fine. Just felt dizzy. I'm sure the food will help."

"With as much as you ate, I should sure as hell hope so," Jeremy said in disbelief.

"So what happened in algebra? Everybody's been asking me. I just told them I didn't see anything unusual," Jessie chimed in.

"Did they laugh?"

"No, I think they were embarrassed. Spill it, what happened? I know you solved super-equation number five. It's all Johnson could talk about after you left."

"Honestly, I don't know. I've always sucked at math. It's almost like I knew what I was doing. Maybe I just got lucky…"

"I hope some of it rubs off on me," Jeremy said. "I have a trig test next week that I'm going to flunk."

"You wish. You're on your own. I don't think I can even spell trigonometry, let alone know that the word itself has historical origins from both the Greek language as well as Sanskrit. Both of which combined the words triangle and to measure. Did you know that trigonometric functions are used to describe cyclical phenomenon such as waves? It's really cool. I'd trade you for algebra any day…"

I wanted to crawl into a small hole. A very small hole. And die. Jeremy looked at me like an alien had burst out of my chest. Or wings. Jessie just looked amused.

"Okay, what did you do with the real Connor, you evil clone?"

I laughed at Jeremy's joke and gave a heartfelt, "Just kidding!" We all shared a laugh, but Jeremy wouldn't stop staring. I was actually grateful when the lunch bell started ringing. I'd take Social Studies over scrutiny any day.

* * *

I stared at the line of jocks across the gym from the group of skinny, pimply, about as athletic as a one legged fat kid, group of kids surrounding me. They could smell our fear. It wasn't bad enough they always pitted the athletes against the mathletes, but what was triple unfair was they ended up with all of the balls anyway. It wasn't dodge ball so much as a firing squad execution. PE ranked right up there with algebra.

Every one of the jocksters smiled as Coach Cobb walked into the middle of the gymnasium, whistle in lips. He held out his hands toward both teams, looked everyone over once, and nodded. He finished crossing the floor, turned, and blew his whistle. The jocks let out primal screams of rage and hurled their bouncy red balls of death like precisely aimed missiles. The group around me screamed like little girls and scampered around in little circles as they got picked off one by one.

Within a few seconds, half of our ranks were decimated. Kids littered the floor, broken and bleeding, as the balls bounced back toward the jocks.

I saw the ball screaming toward my head out of the corner of my eye. Without even thinking about it, I turned and plucked it out of the air like it had been standing still. The six-foot-two, knuckle dragging Neanderthal who threw it stared at me. I could see the confusion on his face. He didn't understand how such a thing was possible. His teammates started laughing at his misfortune and all targeted me at once. Six balls flew straight at me. I had zero chance to catch them all. I did the next best thing. I dodged them without dropping the one I had. So that’s why they call it dodge ball!

The balls hit the wall behind me and I turned, grabbing one with my free hand. They had all bounced, so no one was out, but at least I had some ammunition. I turned and launched one at a jock. It hit him right where I aimed, too. Being smaller than most people, my parents had always drilled into me one simple thing. If you get into a fight, go for the jewels and run. I didn't expect the lesson to find its way into my dodge ball technique, but it did. I swear I heard a tiny splat as it impacted him right below the waist. He dropped like a sack of dodge balls.

Another ball flew straight at my head. I still held onto one ball and had no chance of catching a second at that speed. I held the ball I had in both hands and used it as a shield. When two rubber things impact at super speeds, the effect is quite interesting. The ball landed in the bleachers on the opposite side of the gym. I launched my last missile and took another one of the opposing team out with a direct hit to his chest. It was glorious.

In the seconds it took all of this to happen, the rest of my team crawled away in defeat. Everyone else had been knocked out. That left eight remaining people on the jocks side to just little old me. I gulped. I was surely doomed. The two I knocked out had been a fluke. I have never been good at dodge ball.

But you were never good at math either…

The voice spoke volumes to me. I wasn't some little snot nosed, wimpy kid anymore. I was one of the Fallen! I grinned and picked up a rolling ball from the floor.

"Who's next?" The jocks looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Maybe I had. Who the hell cared?

One of them ran for the imaginary line running through the gym and launched his ball. I tossed the one in my hand over my head, caught his, tucked it between my legs, plucked the one out of the air and launched it at him. As he turned to run, it caught him right in the back, knocking him to the floor. I didn't give the rest a chance to regroup. I pulled the one from between my knees and hurled it at three of them standing too close together. It hit one, bounced, struck a second, but missed the third. He made a sign of the cross before apologizing to his teammates and scrambling to find a ball to throw. Five to one, the odds became a little more even. Or less. Whatever.

The remaining jocks decided to coordinate their efforts and attack me as a team. They almost got me while I caught one ball as I dodged the rest. They were down to four. I threw and dove for another ball as the sound of rubber on flesh told me there were three left. Three balls flew at me at once, I ducked and launched. Poing, two left.

One of the two ran toward me and threw, I caught the one ball, but the other had thrown while I made the catch. He almost got me. I leaned into my roll and spun in a somersault on the gym floor, firing as I got to my feet. The impact of my ball sent him back three feet and to the floor. And then there were none. I turned toward my team expecting cheers…and was once again met by slack jawed silence.

"Freak," one of them muttered.

The jocks were helping their final fallen comrade up off the hardwood floor. They looked like they wanted to hang me from a tree by my own intestines. I gulped and looked at the coach. I couldn't hear his thoughts, but I read his expression perfectly.

Have Connor Sullivan tested for performance enhancing drugs.