“And then he told me to channel everything I had into one pitch. Anger, fear, frustration. So I took a deep breath, fired one and boom, my powers kicked in. You should have heard the sound it made. A perfect strike. I think I figured out how to control them.”
Sophi and I were sitting on her roof after school the next day, despite temperatures that hovered around freezing. When we didn’t feel like heading out to the clearing in the woods, this was Sophi’s other favorite hangout spot.
“He said I’m destined for amazing things,” I continued, seemingly without taking a breath. “That if I can combine this with my quarterback skills, I’m going to be a ‘very hot commodity’ to big-name colleges. This could put me on track to be a pro athlete!”
Sophi patiently listened to me recount my first incredible pitching session with Kieran, her nodding and smile indicating she was trying to share the excitement with me, but I noticed as soon as I reached the part where my powers kicked in, her brow furrowed. When I finished, there was nothing but silence, her green and blue eyes staring through me.
“That’s it?” I asked.
Another pause hung in the air. Then she spoke.
“What are you doing?”
“You mean right now? I’m telling you about my—”
“No, I mean, you’re using your powers to throw fastballs? You’re excited about it, too? What happened to the boy I knew who was totally against using powers on the field?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“We all know what happened with me and Dex the night of the championship game. Plus, what about keeping up appearances?” I shot back.
“Sounds to me like you were doing just fine before you used your abilities,” she answered with an edge in her voice. “This just feels wrong. Who knows who this guy is?”
“He’s a friend of Coach Carson’s!” I slapped my hands against my thighs, realizing my rising anger might lead me to slip off the roof. “He happens to be one of our trusted protectors who told me he’s already gotten calls from those same big-time schools asking about me. This is a huge opportunity for me and I can’t do it without my powers!”
Sophi reached out and grabbed my hand. No shock, though. She meant business.
“What are you saying?” she said calmly. “You’ve said it before: cheating is wrong. You weren’t in control when you threw to Dex. Now, you are.”
I took a second to think and squeezed her hand a little harder. I had a confession to make.
“You and Dex can tap into your powers whenever you feel like it. I’ve never had that ability and, to be honest, it’s made me jealous.”
“I know. I was talking to Kenny about what happened in the championship game the other day and—”
Wait, what?
“You’ve been talking to Kenny? When? How?”
“We text, we chat sometimes.”
“You’re texting with Kenny?”
Zzzzaaaaapp!
A shock nearly sent me flying off the roof. Sophi yanked her hand away. Strike one.
“Alex!” Uh-oh, she used my name. This wasn’t good. “You need to stop. I’m allowed to have guy friends who I talk to, especially someone who gets what we’re dealing with. You and Dex don’t trust him, but I can tell you he’s a good person who didn’t understand what he was going through until he met us. Don’t you remember how confused and alone you felt when you discovered your powers?”
“You don’t think he’s trying to steal you from me? The way he puts his arm around you like he did at the mall?”
Strike two. Her eyebrows scrunched over her eyes even further in anger.
“Not every boy I talk to is trying to steal me. Yes, I’m your girlfriend, but I am not your possession.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said, averting her stare. “If you played against a guy like that on the football field, you wouldn’t trust him either.”
Strike three. I swear I saw her hands glow for a second before she decided not to blast me off the roof.
“So I don’t get how to trust someone because I don’t play football?” she said, her voice quivering. “You should go.”
I opened my mouth to defend myself, but I was too ticked off and afraid I might say something I would regret. Yet, I knew she was right. I shimmied past her into her open bedroom window and headed out the front door without saying goodbye to her parents. As I headed for home, I felt anger coursing through me. For the first time since the days before we started hanging out, Sophi didn’t understand me. I wasn’t using my powers for evil! Coach Carson said it was okay and colleges are watching me closely. What’s the worst that could happen? Plus, why was I the only one who saw Kenny’s real intentions with Sophi?
Vvvvvvvvvv.
It was my cell buzzing, but these days, my heart pounded after the attack at the mall whenever I felt my phone go off. I pulled it out and, to my relief, it was my own phone ringing. A text message from Dex.
Dex: Think I did something stupid.
My heart started thumping even quicker.
Alex: ?
A long pause. I was ready to run back home.
Dex: I challenged H to 1 on 1.
I wanted to throw my phone into the sidewalk. Really? That’s it? We’re in the middle of some tense times and you’re telling me the stupid thing you did was challenge Huma (whom he’d been hanging out with a lot lately) to a game of one-on-one in basketball, the game she dominates? But after what I had just gone through, it was a welcomed distraction.
Alex: She’s gonna wipe the floor with u.
Dex: Yeah, but I gotta test out my powers. Come watch Monday after school.
Alex: K.
For a second, I thought about telling him Sophi and I were quarreling, but she was his friend too. I suddenly felt alone.
***
I needed to do a workout to continue my pitching training on Monday, so the timing to watch their game worked out. I made my way to our state-of-the-art gym after my final class of the day and found Dex dribbling and taking shots by one of the eight baskets set up along the sides of the main court. He went in for a layup and got some serious air to make it look easy as he got about eight feet up … except the ball rolled off his fingers and clanked off the side of the rim.
“How’d it look?” he asked.
“Awful. When’s the last time you played basketball?”
“No, I mean, I didn’t try to jump as high as I can. I don’t want to make it look too suspicious, especially to someone as tall as her.”
“Oh, sure.” As if a couple of feet lower would make my five-foot friend’s cat leap look slightly less athletic. “Why are you doing this again?”
He took a jumper from the foul line that was nearly an air ball. I grabbed his rebound and fed him again. This time, he hit a shot, then looked around the mostly empty gym, save for a basketball coach wheeling in a rack of balls at the other end.
“When I’m around her or talk to her on the phone, I feel this weird sensation in my body,” he said in a hushed tone. “Like my powers just disappear.”
“You guys talking smack about me?”
Dex and I jumped back as Huma entered the gym with a grin.
“Oh, hey, Huma,” I waved and stepped aside as she came over.
“Hey, Alex. Just messing with you, Dex. You have to relax,” she said. As she came in for a quick hug, she smacked the ball away from him and began dribbling. This wasn’t the same shy girl I’d seen at Winterfest or in the weight room. I guess dating Dex had given her new powers while potentially taking away his.
“Sorry, I get a little competitive before games and practices.” She must have read the expression on my face.
“Like I said to you last night, no mercy,” Dex cut in. “Play to seven. You shoot for ball.”
“Are you sure?” she said. “This seems like a really bad idea.”
“Even if it’s 7-0, I promise it isn’t.”
She responded by swishing a jumper from the free throw line.
I felt a slap on my back and whirled around to confront the attacker … only to look up and see Kenny. What was he doing here? Then I saw Sophi behind him.
“Bruh, what’s going down? Is this game about to get started or what?”
I couldn’t respond with the millions of thoughts running through my brain. Sophi came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Dex invited me, I told Kenny about it,” she said into my ear. “Yesterday is behind us. Kenny’s a friend, nothing more.”
I swallowed and nodded.
“Hey Ken, what’s up?”
“I came to watch our boy get trounced by his lady friend!” He laughed.
“You never know with Dex,” I said, trying my best not to smile back.
We grabbed a seat in the nearby stands as the game began. Dex checked the ball to Huma, who immediately started backing him down. That meant her butt was basically in his face as he tried to get low enough to stop her. Her height was too much for him to handle as he was bumped all the way back to the basket. Huma whirled around and put in an easy layup. It was an easy 1-0.
Dex bounced it to Huma behind the free throw line. She decided to take pity on my smaller friend and pulled up to take a jump shot. Dex jumped a hair too late and, to the naked eye, it looked like he’d barely gotten off the ground. Swish. A 2-0 lead.
“Why is he doing this again?” Sophi asked, shaking her head.
“It’s a test,” I said. “He thinks his powers shut off when he’s around her.”
“How is that even possible?” Kenny asked.
“I have no idea.”
Dex checked the ball again, but this time, he got his body right up to Huma’s, swatting at the ball as best as he could. She held the basketball above her head, not taunting him as much as she was just trying to keep it out of his reach. Finally, she dribbled with her right hand and took a couple of lateral steps.
Dex finally got a hand in and knocked it away, grabbing it near the foul line. Finally, he had a chance at something. He must have figured he had no shot at driving to the basket given how much taller she was than him, so he took a jumper. Huma knocked it back with ease, but not far enough for it to go out of bounds. Dex ran back and grabbed it. Now he was behind the three-point line and lined up to take a shot I knew he wouldn’t be able to hit. Huma stepped up and jumped to block it.
It turned out not to be a shot at all. Dex had pump-faked and left Huma out of position behind him. He had nothing but space and the basket in front of him. He took a bunch of dribbles as Huma watched from behind the arc.
I fully expected one of those ten-foot jumps he’d been known for, maybe even a surprise slam dunk. But as he stopped his dribble and took two big steps, he jumped and only lifted a couple of feet. Clearly, he was expecting a higher jump too, because his would-be layup banged off the bottom of the rim.
“Yaarrrgh!” Dex came down from his failed layup holding his ankle and yelping in pain. We jumped down from the stands and raced over.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” he said as he flexed the ankle and as Huma looked on with wide eyes. “I just turned it when I landed. It’ll swell, but I’ll be fine.”
We heard a whistle blow and turned to see the girls’ basketball team was about to start practice.
“Dex, I’m so sorry. This was a mistake,” Another whistle blow, more urgent this time. “I have to run, text me as soon as you’re home.”
“Help me to the locker room,” he said with a grimace. Kenny and I leaned down and helped him up, putting his arms around our shoulders, which meant we both had to stoop low. Sophi indicated she would wait in front of the athletic center since we were off to the boys’ locker room. “Feel better, Dex!” she called after us.
As soon as we reached the locker room, Dex hopped off us and walked without a problem over to one of the wooden benches in front of the lockers.
“Wait, you’re fine?” I asked in shock.
“No, I’m not,” he said, irritated by the question. “What happened to my powers?”
Kenny and I exchanged relieved looks.
“Dude, you seriously put a scare in us,” Kenny said. “Plus, your girl up there isn’t going to be too pleased when she finds out you faked it.”
Dex glared at him.
“I know that. But what if we’re in real danger and I can’t run away fast enough or climb up somewhere when someone’s chasing me?”
A little shiver ran down my spine. He was right.
“Do you think it could be her fault?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know, but I know who would—my dad,” I answered. “Come over tomorrow after school and he’ll figure it out.”
Dex nodded. I noticed how quiet Kenny had gotten.
“What does your dad know about this?” Kenny said, his eyes filled with the same fire I’d seen on the football field not too long ago. “Why haven’t I gotten an invitation like that?”
Shoot. I forgot I hadn’t told Kenny my parents were involved. The awkward silence hung in the dank air of the locker room.
“Look, man,” he said, his icy blue eyes boring holes in my head. “I don’t know how many ways I can say it. You can trust me. What happened on the football field is over. We’ve got real life to deal with now, and if we don’t stick together, something really bad is going to happen.”
I glanced at Dex to see his reaction. His head was lowered, his gaze averting either of ours. Suddenly, Kenny’s hairy hands grasped my shoulders. It took all my mental strength not to fling them off of me and take a swing at him.
“You need to know something else: I am not trying to steal your girl. We’re just friends, I swear. But if you keep acting like a jealous jerk, she’s totally gonna end it with you.”
What do you know about her and me? I shouted in my head. Have you been giving her relationship advice too? But I gritted my teeth and nodded.
He let go of my shoulders.
“You know, after the game, I was so bummed. I stayed out on that field for like 30 minutes. Then I was told about you guys, how there were kids out there just like me who could help me discover who I am. Yeah, I was still angry about how the game ended, but I realized there was something bigger I was involved in and maybe you all could help me feel a part of that. I hope you can still make that happen.”
“Now, I’m gonna go hang out with Sophi,” he continued. “Come join us after your workout. You too, little dude.”
He walked out of the locker room, past that enormous creepy picture of Vance Strange staring at him.
“Are you going to go?” I heard Dex ask. But I wasn’t paying attention to him again.
“Did you notice something weird about what he just said?”
“No.”
I turned back to look at a confused Dex.
“Who told him about us?”