Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) (25 page)

“Ready?” Original Sasha asked, descending the stairs. Clone Sasha was behind her, Now Aunt Dee knew about our powers.
She’s probably lying on the floor somewhere, calling out, “Lord, have mercy!” 

We turned around. Peters jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow. “Hey,” he said, gazing at Clone Sasha. “You didn’t tell me there are
two
of them! Which one’s yours?”

“Both
of us,” they said, echoing each other and smiling slyly. “Just not at the same time.”

“Nice,” said our teenaged Earth Science teacher.

“Jason,” said Original Sasha. “Being close to the source isn’t affecting
just him
.”

I blinked and there was another Sasha standing in front of us. Peters rubbed his eyes. I recognized Original Sasha – the analytical, left side of her brain, and Clone Sasha, the creative right side. The third Sasha wore black military fatigues. Her hair was pulled back and she didn’t smile at all. “She’s my amygdala,” she said, “where my emotions come from inside of my brain.”

“Wow,” Peters said, as Sasha re-combined. “Can I do that?”

That’s a good question. Could I do something new?

They followed me out of the storm cellar and into the night air. I padlocked the door behind us and slipped the key into my pocket, just in case Selby sped by here on a whim. Now away from the source, Peters started aging again, a little bit at a time.

I put my arms around both him and Sasha and leapt for our high school gym.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

the fights of my life

After dropping off Sasha and Peters, I hurried back to the storm cellar to get the source.

By the time I returned to the school, Peters was our age again. Both he and Sasha were impressed by the ease with which I lifted the glowing green rock.

For me, it was impossible to tell how much it
really
weighed. It didn’t seem much heavier than my backpack, but it was awkwardly-shaped – like a giant, misshapen lowercase letter “t.”

To no one’s surprise, one of the gym doors had been propped open. They were expecting us. The lights were on, too.

Sasha made sure Peters stayed far enough away from me at all times, so he wouldn’t get younger or older. As we entered the building, I spotted Rhapsody tied to a wooden chair at center court, with her mouth duct-taped shut.

My heartbeat quickened. I’d never been so nervous and scared at the same time. I couldn’t see Rhapsody’s eyes from so far away. I’m sure she was crying. Call me nuts, but I don’t think she wanted just anyone to save her – she wanted
me.
I knew better than to try it now.

“That’s far enough,” rumbled a voice from the catwalk. Welker stepped through the guardrails onto the bleachers and walked down them to the gymnasium floor. “Bring it to me.”

“Free her first,” I said, talking about Rhapsody.

“You’re not the one calling the shots here, Mr. Champion. I am.”

When Sasha and I came a couple yards closer to my friend, I dropped the source. It thundered through the parquet floor. “Can anyone else around here lift it?”

Welker reached behind his back for a pistol, cocked the hammer, and fired it at Rhapsody’s head. When the gun popped, she jumped and my heart skipped a beat.

Sasha whispered in my ear. “Do what he says and stop egging him on, Jason. Please!”

“Whose side are you on?” I asked in all seriousness.

She nudged me forward. “The
winning
side, I hope.”

I heaved the source back onto my shoulders and slowly stepped forward. Then it happened. Warmth came from my right front jeans pocket, exactly like the heat at the front of my neck. I smiled. Rhapsody eyes darted back and forth, but once they met mine they stopped.

“Where do you want it?” I asked, closer to Welker and Rhapsody than I had been before.

“Here,” he said, pointing at a spot next to his feet. One of his eyebrows rose.

Oh no, could he read my thoughts now?  I uncorked my mind to run free with anything unrelated to a prism. A flash of images scrolled across my mind’s eye. Sasha starred in a few, and I’m glad
she
couldn’t see my thoughts.

Welker closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “Teenage boys,” he said with disdain.

I seized the opportunity to dip my hand into my right front pocket and retrieve the green ice Debra had slipped into it. Covering it in my palm, I pretended to cough and readjusted my grip on the source to include both hands.

Nearing them both, I knelt down and rolled the source to the exact spot Welker indicated. I also placed the green ice from my pocket near Rhapsody’s right foot. She covered it with her black boot’s sole and smiled behind the gray tape on her mouth. In a few more seconds, she’d be invisible.         

That’s when Welker did the unthinkable. Faster than I could react and stop him, he shot Rhapsody in the head.

“No!”

Shooting up to my feet, I punched Welker in the chest as hard as I could. My fist would have punctured the body of a normal human being. However, he flew backwards through the gym wall and crashed outside somewhere.

I didn’t want to feel blood gushing under my feet, or to see her dead body. “No,” I cried, pounding my fists through the floor. Asia, Selby, and whoever else plus Welker would be here soon. We’d have to fight, defend the source. And I’d have to do it without my friend.   

“Jason – watch out!”

Sasha’s warning came a split-second too late. An entire section of bleachers smashed on my head, knocking me into the court surface up to my elbows. I raised my arms to stop it, but the wood just splintered around my invulnerable skin. They had someone strong, too.
Good.

I searched the underground area with my feet until I touched concrete. Using it, I pushed myself to the surface level. Large fragments of wood and metal lay around me. A heavy blow landed at the back of my neck, but instead of hurting me, it ticked me off.

I spun around and punched without looking. It was Peters. He caught my fist, lifted me at the waist, and tossed me over his head.

Crashing through the side bleachers and the wall, I landed in the parking lot and rolled to a stop. I jumped through the hole and landed back inside of the gym. That’s when a breeze rushed past and claimed the green ice prism from my neck.

The source still sat in its spot, pulsing with power. Peters grabbed me by the neck and slowly lifted me into the air. If he gestured with his hand, even a little, he could kill me. I gasped and couldn’t talk because of the pressure. This wasn’t how I imagined dying – at fifteen with my Earth Science teacher strangling me.

My eyes bulged. Peters must have thought it was because of him, but I saw Welker coming behind him. With a head full of steam, Welker tackled Peters from behind. I dropped to the ground and landed funny on my right leg. It popped and I screamed in pain.

Original Sasha grabbed hold of me underneath my arms and dragged me close to the source. “Stay here.”

“Where are
you
going?” I asked in all seriousness, with my right knee on fire.

Original Sasha pointed to the corner, where Asia had put up a force field to protect herself from Clone Sasha and Angry Sasha – my nickname for her third clone. Original Sasha left me to join them, though all three wouldn’t be able to dent in it.

Without my necklace or the ability to stand up, neither could I. Backing up against the source was the best thing for me right now.

Chaos broke loose around me. Peters and Welker clubbed each other with any object they could find – bleachers, office doors, light fixtures, basketball backboards. It was a professional wrestling match with real props. Sasha’s two clones wailed at Asia, who had not let her shield down. 

Meanwhile, I waited for the source to mend my knee. I didn’t even want to test my leg and be stopped by the blinding pain again.        

Selby flashed in front of me and knelt down. “You’re missing all of the fun,
Freak,”
he said, rubbing me on the head like a dog. “You’ve got to be the stupidest kid alive to bring this here.”

“I’m
stupid? I didn’t kill my parents and leave the bodies in the house.” 

“What are you talking about? My parents aren’t dead.” If Selby looked anything like I do when Rhapsody called me “Captain Obvious,” then it was no wonder she called me that. He had no clue.

“I saw their bodies. You’re folks are dead.”

For a split-second I witnessed the innocence Sasha must see in him. He didn’t cry or break down. His eyes didn’t flicker with doubt. He nodded, biting his lower lip. Selby didn’t hate his parents, but he didn’t love them, either. I know how that felt firsthand. They were gone, and he understood it as fact. The evil inside him moved over for a small spark of compassion to flicker alive.

“I’m sorry,” I said, finally.

Suddenly Selby’s humanness eroded away and darkness shadowed his face. He kicked me in the stomach and knocked the wind out of me.

Over and over again he did it, first at a regular speed and then faster. I could hear my bones snapping and I felt my organs giving way. He stopped. Not because I begged or he had mercy on me.

Beating me bored him.

The source had healed Peters. Why wasn’t it healing me, too? My vision blurred and I coughed. My body hadn’t budged, but the thing didn’t help me at all. I was dying, and nobody could stop it.

This time I would be buried. My mother would welcome me to the afterlife with open arms. And I’d be at peace. I closed my eyes and waited for death to wash over me. 

“Cap! Cap, wake up!” My world shook. “Sasha!”

Everything faded in and out. I heard one female voice, then two, maybe three. Someone turned me over and warmed the base of my neck. The broken ribs cracked into place, and my internal organs healed. I gasped for air and rolled to my side, coughing.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Rhapsody and Clone Sasha tending to me.

“Rhapsody,” I managed. “You’re alive?”

She reached her hand to my chest and it disappeared inside of me. I jumped, but she pulled her hand back without a problem. “I can control it.”

“Since when?” I asked, hugging her from the ground.

“Since I
had
to. Get up and get that thing out of here.”

Welker and Selby were both fighting Peters, who was aging again. They were far enough away from the source that its effects didn’t reach him. He’d die if I removed it.

He’d used us as puppets for the past week-and-a-half to find it. Then, he’d wanted to kill anyone standing in his way. Even with erased memories, he’d became a newer, more violent person every time the green ice wore off.

Nothing this powerful belonged in anyone’s hands, not even ours. I had a good idea where to put it, but was it safe?

Original Sasha agreed with Rhapsody. “Whatever you’re thinking,
go.”

“No,” I refused. “Not yet.”

Running over to the closest concrete wall, I buried my hand inside. I yanked out pipes, one by one, until I smelled gas. One way or another, this fight would end soon.

Selby zipped over to confront me. I swung one of the pipes with such force that it lifted him into the air and sent him flailing over the catwalk.

Welker stopped beating Peters long enough to notice it. My Earth Science teacher dropped to the ground, a frail old man.

“You don’t want to die, is that it?” I asked Welker. The smell of the gas was overwhelming, so I stepped away from the flow. “That’s why you want it?”

“That’s why
Jeff
wants it.” He moved closer to me with hostile intent. His golf shirt was ripped at the pocket and the collar, and his slacks and shoes were in shreds. Half of the jewels on his ring shined bright red, while the white ones were clear. A
gold
prism hung from a chain around his neck.  

On the other side of the gym, Rhapsody phased through Asia’s force field. Once Asia dropped it, Sasha’s clones ganged up on her long enough to remove her red ice necklace. While they slapped her around, she probably regretted taking that video of Selby and Sasha and releasing it.

Meanwhile, Original Sasha moved to my right side. “His powers aren’t permanent with
that,”
she said, pointing to Welker’s fading ring. “It lengthens his life, too. Those are big parts of it.”

He twisted the ring around his finger. “You’re half right. I can see who has the brains in this relationship.” Welker stared Sasha straight in the eyes.

“I’m
the brains of this relationship,” Original Sasha said mechanically. The whites of her eyes flickered blood red, the color of the jewels on Welker’s ring. He had control of her mind.

“Good,” Welker said, pleased with himself. “Now, kill him.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

things get much worse

When Sasha had said that I’d never have both her and the clones at the same time, I didn’t think she meant them beating on me.

They left Asia and whaled away at me. I lowered my level of invincibility enough to feel the blows. They snapped at me like wet towels. If I hadn’t, the bones in Sasha’s hands and feet would have shattered.

More importantly, they created a distraction long enough for Welker to get to the source. Among Sasha’s six flailing arms, I searched for anywhere safe to put her and her clones. Luckily, a fort of blue mats survived in the corner of the gym.
Perfect.

I tossed Original Sasha in that direction. She fell harmlessly to the mats, and the impact knocked off her concentration. The clones vanished into thin air, leaving me to face my principal.

I jumped between Welker and the source. Since he couldn’t be killed like a normal human being, I could cut my anger loose on him.

Welker lifted his hand, the tips of his fingers twitching inward. “Not so fast.” 

My limbs and facial features froze, but thankfully, it didn’t spread to my lungs or heart. Like it or not, he controlled me now, too. Could he also read my thoughts?

“Adrenaline kick-starts your abilities, and your brain sustains them,” he explained. “My mistake – I’ve been trying to
control
you. Stopping you is easier. You’re a rhinoceros in a ballet.” 

“Rhinoceros in a ballet” sounded insulting, so I cursed at him in my mind until it hurt and hoped he read every last four letter word.

A blast of hot wind dried the beads of sweat on my forehead. Selby was close, although I couldn’t see him. He didn’t take my necklace this time, though he easily could have.   

“Rhapsody won’t get to see George or convince Ruby that she likes boys after all.”

How does shock happen in a paralyzed brain? For mine, it held all of the emotion, but none of the physical reaction.

Is that why she got teased so much? No wonder her parents were so excited to meet me. They thought I was proof that their daughter wasn’t gay. Either way, it didn’t make much of a difference to me. She’s still human. 

Welker turned away and stared at the source. Without me, he’d need to lift it out of here himself. He thought Rhapsody was dead. That worked in our favor – but not if he could still control Sasha, Asia, and Selby. I wasn’t strong enough to beat three superhumans by myself.
He’s won.

He relaxed his mental grip on me enough so that I could talk. I kept the ability to think and put two and two together, barely. “Selby’s parents,” I muttered out loud. “Why?”

“Pawns,” he said. “An opening move to free a bigger piece, if you will. I was looking for something.”

What was he talking about? He’d admitted to murdering two people, but what did it matter?
He controlled the police.
It was the only reasonable explanation for why they hadn’t arrived yet.

The gym had been flooding with gas for minutes. Even with the gaping hole in the wall letting fresh air inside, I started feeling dizzy. If he didn’t kill us, the fumes would.

“Where do you want it?” I slurred, resigned to the truth. We’d lost a battle none of us had known we’d have to fight. None of us even knew
how
to fight.

What were the rules? How could we win? What were we fighting for?

Welker wrote the address inside of my brain. What’s there? I just wanted it over and done. “Fine,” I said resentment eating a hole in my stomach. “What do I get?”

“A normal life, whatever
normal
is for trash like you. That’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?
Isn’t it?”

Trash.
Anger built inside of me and my fingers broke through his control and wiggled. Normal wasn’t an option anymore. “You don’t even
know
where my mother’s grave is, do you?”

Stunned, Welker clutched his fist closer tighter, freezing me again. I tried moving, even jumping this time. Sweat streamed down my face. I groaned and tried again and again.

He squeezed his right hand tightly, shaking it with intense effort. That’s when I noticed the jewels on his ring had almost cleared of color. Sasha was right, after all. The red jewels didn’t retain power permanently, like ours did. 

“I’ll take that,” said a female voice. Welker’s ring passed through his hand and floated through the air. Rhapsody materialized and tossed it to me.

My arms now freed, I caught the ring and crushed it.

Welker whipped out his automatic pistol and fired it at both of us. Bullets bounced off of me or passed right through Rhapsody and ricocheted off of random pieces of wreckage. Welker couldn’t kill either of us and Sasha was out of his range. I’m surprised the shots didn’t start an explosion.

Grinning, he aimed at the gas leak and fired in its general direction.

On instinct, I aimed myself towards Sasha and pushed off of the ground, landing in just enough time to shield her from most of the explosion with my body.

The flames spread around us, like a thick wool blanket in the heat of summer. Debris pelted my back – a hard rain of bricks, mortar, and metal. Sasha shrieked, squirming beneath my touch. Some of the fire had gotten to her exposed skin.

When the temperature let up a little, I looked around. Half of the gym burned. The wall where I’d ripped away the pipe was completely gone, reduced to charred rubble, jagged pipes and tossed cinderblocks.

Sirens wailed in the distance and grew louder. The closest fire station was three miles or so from the school and the police department not much further away than that. Though no jail could hold us, Spivey would lock us up. Our abilities were hard enough to understand and more difficult to explain.      

Cradling Sasha with my left arm, I carried her past the flames to the center of the gym. She whimpered a little from the pain and I held her tighter.

Embedded in the floor where I’d left it, the green source still glowed with energy. The explosion had knocked the remaining bricks off of it, and in their place were the beginnings of another prism set.

I’d expected to find blackened skeletons in Welker’s and Peters’ places, but I didn’t. No such luck. They were both gone. No sign of Selby or Asia, either. I hoped Rhapsody made it out in time. 

Without warning, a pocket of gas exploded in front of us. Asia swallowed herself and us in a force field. “Get it out of here!” she yelled at me. “You’re the only one who can.”

“Asia!” Sasha screamed, reaching out her hand over my shoulder. Asia stretched out her arm, too, and the two of them almost touched fingers. “Don’t!”

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Go!”

I doubted that, after what had happened to Welker’s red and white ice. Heat started leaking through the shield. Whatever we did, we had to do it now. “You’ll die!” I argued. “Get a green prism and hold onto me – I can do it!”

Her face said everything Selby’s had before he almost beat me to death for the umpteenth time. I might be able to do it all and I might not. She didn’t want me to try.  

I grabbed hold of the source’s long end and set it across my shoulder in a fireman’s carry, then leapt through the open side of the building with Sasha by my side.

Something I’d learned about my superhuman nature – it affected my muscles and skin, but things still affected me. As we flew through the thick waves of black smoke, I choked. So did Sasha. I was happy to hear her cough. That meant she was breathing. Neither of us said a word about Asia.

“Where are we?” Sasha asked as we landed. Her face was streaked with sweat and soot.

“I’m not sure.” It was the address Welker had given me – an historic, Victorian-style house at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere. Every other home on the street had been gutted or abandoned.

Adhesive was stuck to the black mailbox’s right side. Had it spelled “Welker”? Or “Peters”? We checked inside of it. All of the mail was addressed to “our neighbor,” or, “resident.”

Besides that, the outside of the building was in disrepair. Asphalt shingles had blown off of the roof and landed into the front yard. Weeds had sprouted up, higher than the ones at Reject High. White paint flecked off of the wood rotted by weather exposure and age.

We tip-toed through the front yard – a dog had been to visit and left a few smelly presents behind. 

I smashed the padlock latching the front door, and we navigated our way through the foyer, its connecting hallway, and into the dining room. The inside of the house reminded me of a cross between a museum and antique shop, if nothing was labeled and the janitors never cleaned.

Fine china and knick knacks covered the dining room table. A bookcase held a collection of romance novels that smelled like rotten cheese. In the corner stood a pogo stick and a pony you could ride with a quarter. A pair of samurai swords hung on the wall. To their left was a Mona Lisa replica.

Welker, the history teacher, liked to collect things normal people considered garbage, I guess. This house was full of his type of treasure. He could probably be on an antique cable TV show if he wanted. Ray loved to watch that program on Saturday mornings.

Sasha almost hopped onto my back when we heard the pitter-patter of rodent feet across the ceiling. “Hate rats,” she said, digging her nails into my forearm. “
Really
hate rats.”

I doubted if anyone actually
liked
rats. “Come on. I think it’s downstairs.”

“What’s
it?”
she asked me.

“I’m not sure.” It could be a trap.

We held hands all the way to the basement. I found the entrance completely by accident, almost tripping over a metal handle buried in junk and trash.

I lifted the door and went down first, using the glow of the source as a flashlight – which worked well at its brightest shine and terrible at its lowest point. Eventually, we made it downstairs in one piece.

I pulled the chain on the ceiling light and wondered if we’d see rows of dead bodies. After all, it did smell awful down there, worse than anything I’d ever imagined.

If we had found dead people, or our personal files, that might actually have been better than what was down there.

One way or another, Welker had been monitoring us from day one, anyway. He knew our parents, where we lived, and our discipline records. Whatever he didn’t know, he could have read their minds and figured it out. That must be how he knew about Rhapsody and her parents, and how Sasha’s intelligence intimidated me sometimes. God only knows what he pried out of Selby’s brain about his folks. No one knew what Asia’s deal was, but Welker apparently did.