Trust: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 2)

Through the end of August and most of September, there wasn’t much talk about anything Thusian-related. Not because we didn’t want to, but just because there weren’t any new leads. Riley and Cora spent a lot of time going back and forth from the site of the last quarry party, looking for any evidence. Each time they found nothing. They even went back to the broken dock to see if there were any clues from last year’s party. Despite not finding anything, Riley was still determined to keep looking, and that meant Cora would be too. It seemed to me that he was just trying to spend more time alone with her, and it was working.

  As determined as Riley and Cora were, Genevieve was not. She had no interest in going to look for evidence. She said, “I don’t need evidence to know that they did it, so I don’t see the point of looking.” I hated the fact that I agreed with her on this because it did seem like a big waste of time.

  Everything with my group of friends had returned to normal. Livi eventually forgave Eric, but now he was by her side even more, which I didn’t think was humanly possible. Once Eric took over as Varsity quarterback, things should have changed for him. The quarterback position held a certain status at our school, but he was in no position to take advantage of it. Livi had him on a short leash, and by the looks of it, he was fine with it, just happy to still be with her.

  We did have a new addition to our group, Bryce. He had joined our group of friends permanently—our six was now seven. Even though he didn’t have a girlfriend, he fit in pretty well. Part of me kind of felt sorry for him because he was a new student, and I could relate with how difficult it was to move a lot. I found myself going out of my way to include him in things, but deep down inside I still felt some jealousy toward him. Every time he talked to her, I would listen closely to see what they talked about. It was driving me so crazy that I had to do something about it, but what? Maybe I could try to make Elle jealous also.

  “Amber, do you know McKenna? She’s in our grade,” I asked during lunch.

  “Yeah, I have English with her,” Amber said.

  “Did you see her hair this morning? I think she curled it. She looks pretty that way, don’t you think?”

  Why did I just say that? The whole lunch table stared at me. Eric’s mouth was half open with his sandwich hanging out.

  Elle had stopped talking to Bryce and said, “Nicholas, it did look nice. Come to think of it, she always looks pretty.”

  Her eyes met mine. I looked away, feeling embarrassed and ashamed. My attempt to make her jealous backfired miserably. Now I felt bad for what I had said, and on top of it I was still jealous of her talking to Bryce. What was I doing? I didn’t know how to play these games. This relationship stuff was becoming complicated. Why couldn’t we be sitting under the stairs in our own little world right now, sheltered from everything but my love for her?

  “The football team sure is on a roll,” Livi said, breaking the deafening silence.

  “They are on a serious roll thanks to Chad, Eric and Bryce. This team could easily beat some college teams,” I said, trying to force the ugly feeling of jealousy aside by praising Bryce too.

  “We can’t forget their coaches,” Elle said, leaning up against me. My stomach did somersaults. I guess she didn’t care about my stupid comment, which was a relief.

  The football team was unstoppable. They weren’t winning by small margins like last year. Our offense now would easily put up 45 points on any team that we faced, and our defense was holding teams to seven points or less. The Winsor Cougars were ranked number one in the entire country. Chad, Eric and Bryce were all likely to be First Team State and National. Several Division One schools were looking at both Bryce and Chad, and even Eric got some looks from scouts.

  “So, are you guys going on the field trip to the Saint Louis Art Museum?” Livi asked our lunch table. “Eric and I are.”

  “Chad and I didn’t get lucky enough to go this year,” Amber said.

  Livi looked upset but perked up when I said, “Elle and I are going, and Bryce too, right?”

  “Yes,” Bryce said, taken off-guard. He had been staring at a table full of girls who were eyeing him as usual.

  “Well, great then. Eric and I will save you seats on the bus tomorrow morning.”

  Eric nodded.

  After the night of the quarry party, Livi always spoke for Eric. I guess that was part of his punishment, and knowing him, that was far worse than anything else that could have been done to the “greatest show on earth.”

  The next morning, Eric and Livi were taking up three seats in the back of the bus. Bryce got on a minute after Elle and me with only half of his shirt tucked in. He was also sporting black sunglasses. It was sunny out, but sunglasses on the bus were really too much. The five of us all sat together. The two girls sat with each other, already chatting away. Eric sat behind them, listening to Elle and Livi. Bryce and I sat across from Eric. Bryce was on the inside, looking out the window. I nudged him, making him look over at Eric.

  “Man, he is whipped.”

  Bryce laughed. “Yeah, I’m kind of jealous.”

  “Of Eric and Livi?” I asked, puzzled.

  “No, it’s not that I like Livi, but I am envious of their relationship, and yours too.” Bryce looked down into his lap.

  “Bryce, my friend, I’ll see what I can do about that. You are a big time football star. Finding a special someone shouldn’t be too difficult.” I was beginning to sound like Eric.

  He smiled.

  Now that I knew he didn’t want to be with Elle, that he just wanted a girlfriend, I felt better and my jealousy disappeared. When I glanced out the window, I caught a glimpse of a dark circle that protruded out from behind Bryce’s sunglasses.

  “Hey, I don’t remember you getting that at the game Friday,” I said.

  He slowly removed his glasses, exposing an ugly black eye.

  I stared at him, not sure how he could have gotten it during the game; I’m sure I would have noticed. “What happened? That thing looks nasty.”

  Bryce sank down in his seat and whispered so only I could hear, “I really don’t want to talk about it. It was just an accident,” he said, regaining his composure and putting his glasses back on.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I whispered, so no one else could hear.

  Bryce nodded his head yes.

  I guess whenever he wanted to talk about it he would, but I would definitely be keeping an eye on him to make sure there weren’t any other unexplained injuries.

  The bus dropped us off at Memorial Presbyterian Church on Skinker Boulevard, because they weren’t letting traffic into the park where the art museum was located. The Presbyterian Church was magnificent. Its tall stone walls and slender windows seemed to reach up into the clouds that filled the deep blue sky. It was exactly how I imagined the outside of the Thusian Vault would look.

  After walking down the street, we were finally at the park entrance. The five of us and a couple of others had drifted back behind the rest of the group. We were walking down the middle of the road toward the art museum. I could see it off in the distance.

  Riley’s class was also attending the field trip. I’m sure if his classes weren’t originally going, he would have found a way to come, or had Cora or Genevieve come as a chaperone.

  Melissa and Erin had joined our group and were right next to Bryce, of course. It was funny to see them around him. It reminded me of last year and how they wouldn’t leave me alone, but he didn’t seem to mind all the attention he was getting. Finding him a date would be a piece of cake. Elle and I were in the center of the two groups—Bryce, Erin, and Melissa on our left and Eric and Livi on the right. Squealing tires from behind us startled me, instantly slowing everything around me. The fire in me exploded. I turned to see a St. Louis public transit bus barreling down the middle of the street toward us with a long blurred streak off the back of it. It was moving fast. I reached out and pushed Livi and Eric toward the curb. I went to grab Elle, but she already had my shirt in her hand pulling
me out of the way. I had to get to Bryce, but he was already moving to the other side of the road with Erin and Melissa both under his arms. Time resumed to full speed when we were all out of the way, and the bus roared past, not hitting anyone.

  Riley was standing next to me. “Is everyone okay?” he asked, looking directly at me. I looked around at the others. Eric and Livi looked fine, but Melissa and Erin looked shaken up. Both Bryce and Elle looked like nothing life-threatening had just happened.

  “Make sure you kids stay out of the road this time. I don’t want any of you missing the excitement of the art museum,” Riley said sarcastically. We all caught up with the rest of the group.

  Riley hung back with me. When Elle was just far enough away, he said, “I think that bus was trying to hit you.”

  “I think so too. Did you see what happened?”

  “No, I missed it,” Riley said.

  “Bryce picked up Erin and Melissa and got them out of the way, and Elle grabbed me to pull me out of the way. They didn’t move as fast as me, but they did move quickly.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “I’m sure. We have two candidates.”

  “Thank goodness. I was getting worried,” Riley sighed.

  Elle and I walked through the museum alone. She led me to exhibit after exhibit. I was consumed with which one of them could be the 4th. I was definitely drawn to Elle, but was I drawn to Bryce, too? I did go out of my way to include him in our group and now I was trying to get him a date. I guess he could be the one.

  “Hello, Nicholas, are you in there?”

  I was staring at a brightly colored painting of four little girls playing. “Sorry, I’m just preoccupied,” I said to Elle.

  “With?”

  “The whole bus trying to hit us thing. It seems like that sort of thing follows me around.”

  She took my hand. I had to test her to see if she was the one or not, but I couldn’t think of how to do it. I couldn’t just ask her, “So do you slow down time or do you have super speed or strength?” I would have to be subtle because she could see right through me. Her blue eyes had no problem getting whatever they wanted from me. I would have to bury my feelings for her somehow so they wouldn’t cloud my judgment.

  “Nicholas, don’t be upset. You aren’t to blame for any of that stuff,” she said.

  “I know, but I’ve been having these horrible nightmares and the bus coming after us reminded me of them.”

  “I’m so sorry.” She leaned closer to me, so no one could hear what we were saying. “Tell me about it.”

  “I feel like I’m being smothered, like this horrible dark weight is trying to crush me. And then right when I can’t take it anymore, I wake up.”

  “Nicholas, that’s awful. You shouldn’t worry about those silly dreams.” She leaned in closer to comfort me. Her soft hair brushed my face. My mind went blank.

  “If you want, I could come over and be with you, instead of you coming to my house every night. I’m sure Cora wouldn’t mind.”

  She was right, Cora wouldn’t mind. Her offer made my heart pound. She was distracting me from my task. I had to ignore her offer, as difficult as it was, and continue with my test.

  “So have you had any of those types of dreams?” I was surprised that I could get the question out.

  “Bad ones? Of course, you’re not alone,” she responded, rubbing my hand for reassurance.

  “So what are your nightmares like, Elle?” I asked, still focusing hard.

  “I don’t really remember. At a young age I began to block them out and now I only remember the good ones. So if I wake up a little tired and with no memory of my dreams, I assume I had a bad dream that night.”

  That was not helpful at all. She could be having the same sort of dreams and she wouldn’t even know it. Great, now I was back to square one.