I DIDN’T THINK the day would ever be done. My afternoon should have been fun with a home economics class right after lunch, and a creative writing course rounding out the day. Biology actually seemed interesting to me, which surprised me. And Mariah was so grateful to see me, I felt bad for considering leaving. Apparently, her first day of high school wasn’t going so well. But my mind wasn’t focusing as I kept pondering my strange morning.
Xander was already in his car when I got there. I climbed in and buckled up before he peeled out of the parking lot, with an unnecessary squeal of tires that left him grinning ear to ear. I rolled my eyes but held my tongue. On the ride home he chattered away about the antics of our fellow students, but I only half listened, my mind still churning.
As I walked into the house, I dumped my backpack on the bottom step and headed straight into the kitchen, barely noticing when Xander slammed the door behind himself. I rummaged in the fridge for something to eat, settling on a chicken leg from last weekend’s dinner. I gave it a test sniff and it seemed ok, so I threw it into the microwave. Xander snagged a bag of Doritos off the microwave and plopped in a chair at the breakfast bar to eat them. I poured us each a glass of Coke while my snack nuked, then grabbed the chicken. Not bothering with a plate, I ate it out of the Tupperware, flinching as the hot meat burnt my fingers.
“So how did your first day go?” he asked around a mouthful of chips.
“A little shocking,” I said, smiling a little. I don’t know why, but I knew I couldn’t tell him what had happened with Nate today. I spent the bulk of my time trying to figure it out—I don’t think I heard a word my algebra teacher said. What practical use would I ever have for polynomials and non-linear equations anyway? So what if I’d have to tell Mr. Foxworthy that I was not smarter than a fifth grader! But aside from radioactive materials buried in the school courtyard contaminating the soil, or salmonella in the chicken nuggets causing a shared delusion, I was coming up nil.
Xander gave me a funny look, and I tried to derail his train of thought. The day had been pretty average after algebra. I had nothing to distract my brother from what I wasn’t willing to share. If I told him the truth, I knew he would freak out. Xander had always been very protective of me. I decided to use half-truths and let him lead himself astray.
“There’s this guy—I’ve known him for a while now but there’s never been anything between us. Today, when I was around him, there was something… different. I don’t know how else to describe it. He kind of scares me, but I can’t stop thinking about him. How do I know if I’m feeling something real, or if I’m just getting a stupid crush?”
Xander was quiet. One side of his face quirked like it does when he’s really thinking about something. It might seem odd for me to talk to my brother like this, but he and I had always been very close. Nathanial was the only thing I didn’t feel I could talk to him about. Xander hadn’t taken too kindly to his six year old sister announcing she was going to marry his best friend, and ever since, he had done everything in his power to keep me and Nate apart—to the point that Nate rarely came to our house. It had gotten worse this past summer, since Nate got back from summer camp. It was some sort of military “make your boy a man” kind of camp. He came home a different person—all hard and muscular and manly. He caused quite the stir among the girls at school, and a couple of them had already set their sights on him. As if I needed another reason to keep a lid on my feelings, there was no way I could compete with that.
“Well,” Xander said, rubbing his chin with his forefinger, “is he dangerous?”
My forehead tightened, and I cocked my head in confusion and surprise. I don’t know what I expected him to say, and I had no idea how to answer that. Was he dangerous? Had today been a fluke, or was Nate some sort of threat to the girls of Lincoln? But my mom always trusted him, and she was usually a good judge of character. “No, not really. I don’t think he’d hurt me on purpose, at least. But he is capable of seriously hurting someone”
Xander gave me a big grin. “Well then it’s a no-brainer, girly. You should stay as far away from him as possible. I don’t want a criminal record, and it will be unavoidable if he hurts you.” He stood up and walked around the island to where I stood and put his hand on my arm. “The only guy a girl can trust is her daddy—and her big brother, of course.”
“Did you seriously just quote Grease? I think I’m gonna have to revoke your man card.”
Xander winked and gave me the double guns as he headed out the back door. It wasn’t long until I heard the distinctive thud of him shooting hoops in the driveway. I washed the empty Tupperware and our glasses, folded up the Doritos bag and put a chip clip on it, and wiped down the counter. I couldn’t help a wry smile as I collected my book bag off the bottom step and headed upstairs to do my homework.
I couldn’t believe teachers gave homework on the first day, but I had a sample test for algebra to “establish what we already know”, a five hundred word essay on what writing means to me, and a conjugation worksheet for Spanish. No matter how hard I tried to focus, my mind kept wandering back to the gymnasium this morning. Finally deciding I wouldn’t be able to focus unless I tried to figure something out, I grabbed my laptop off the top of my dresser and sat on my bed Indian style. I ran my hands over it admiring the pretty green skin with a tribal butterfly on it. My parents gave it to me as the traditional eighth grade graduation gift, and I absolutely loved it. Placing it on my knees, I opened it and clicked on the browser. Since I had no other ideas, I started by Googling electricity. After scrolling through a page of scientific explanations, I tried several other phrases, like “people who generate electricity”, “electrocuting people”, and “electric power”, but the closest I got was an article about people generating massive amounts of static electricity and I knew this was so much more. I remembered Nate referring to it as “getting hit by lightning” so I searched that. I tried several combinations until the phrase ‘lightning man’ brought up a comic about a superhero who could generate electricity after being struck by lightning. It reminded me of a movie I’d seen a long time ago about a boy who was struck by lightning and got strange abilities, but also remember blowing it off as a bunch of hogwash. I let my mind linger on the idea for a moment before pushing it aside. Realistically, people can’t generate electricity and that’s all there was to it. I decided I must have fainted for some unknown reason, since that was the only rational explanation. It didn’t explain the pain or the way my body was immobilized, but what did I know?
I thought about what I knew of Nate, which wasn’t much. His parents died when he was pretty young. He lived with his Mom’s best friend—who he called his aunt. She was a stewardess for an airline and would sometimes be gone for weeks at a time. Nate stayed with us during her absences until about four years ago when he was allowed to stay by himself. He started coming over less, seeming to prefer to have Xander hang out at his house. I always assumed it was because they preferred the privacy, but now I wondered if Xander knew something I didn’t. Should I talk to him and find out what he knew, or would he go after Nate? The questions swirled in my mind until I came to the conclusion I trusted my brother. He wouldn’t be friends with someone who was dangerous—at least I didn’t think he would.
Whatever happened, I wasn’t going to figure it out today. I tossed my laptop to the end of the bed then picked up my homework and started on those conjugations.