Gym Class
I glanced around the high school gym. A little worn and dirty, but still in relatively good condition. I saw a man, most likely McCallen, and a group of scrawny high school students completing warm-ups. At the sight of this, I had inescapable flashbacks to Manticore. From the looks on their faces, the others did, as well. I pushed Manticore out of my mind.
“Mr. McCallen.” Zack called out to the man.
“That’s Colonel McCallen to you.” he replied.
“Yes, sir!” we all responded, snapping to attention.
No salute, just attention. He gave an amused smile.
The man looked older than Lydecker. He had short brown hair that was becoming very gray and brown eyes that looked like they had seen everything.
“We are here to ask you a few questions.” Zack continued.
“As long as you are in this gym, you are part of this class. Finish warm-ups with these guys and then maybe we’ll talk.” McCallen informed us. (Yeah. ‘Cause that’s realistic. Who wrote this stuff? Oh. Yeah.-T)
We all glanced around at each other. Krit shrugged his shoulders. Why not?
(It’s not like we don’t do enough running around. How ‘bout some more!-E) (Can I run behind Krit?-T) (I called it a half hour ago!-E) (It’s like shotgun; you can only call it when you get there, so Ty wins!-K) (*Zack appears in a premonition to Krit* Don’t even think about it. Oh. And use the force.-Z) (What? What force? What’s the force?-K) (Star Wars, Krit. Duh.-Z) (Star Wars? What’s that? Ah, damn pop culture!-K)We moved to join the group of students who became an ocean of murmuring waves. I could pick out a few snippets such as:
“Who are they?”
“CIA, I bet.”
(‘Cause no one knows what the CIA really does. For all we know, they could travel around interrogating high school gym teachers.) (Or they could be in league with the Girl Scouts!) (Oh, no! What is this world coming to when our government teams up with Girl Scouts?!)A group of girls in the back were giggling.
“Brunette.” one said
“No, no. The blonde.” the other replied.
(Hey! I’m way cuter than Zack!-K) (Did someone call me?-Z) (Krit did!-E) (coughbitchcough.-K) (I was trying to find Cade. What do you want, Krit?-Z) (Uh...I forgot. Nevermind.-K) (coughidiotcough.-Z)“Class, pay attention!” McCallen said in an incredible C.O. voice.
Everybody’s head snapped up.
“Push ups. I start the clock when everyone is down.”
We all moved into ready position. This was child’s play.
“Go.”
We all began repetitive push-ups. The rest of the class seemed to be having trouble, barely able to complete five. We continued on happily.
(Okay. No one does push-ups happily. That is a flat-out lie.-T) (I like to do push-ups.-Z) (Shhh.-T)The rest of the class seemed to have faded out. We continued pushing.
“Okay, okay. Stop.” commanded McCallen.
We all sort of cocked our heads at him, questioningly, waiting for our next command. McCallen was looking at us with interest. I could tell he was wondering how far he should push us.
“Laps?” I offered.
“That’s right. I almost forgot. Laps.” he agreed.
The rest of the class groaned loudly.
“But first,” McCallen interrupted their groaning, “jumping jacks.”
They groaned louder.
“Everybody up. Count on when your hands hit your sides. Everyone counting or you do more. Everybody stop on twenty-five or you do more. Ready? Begin.” he said quickly.
This was just too easy. I glanced at Zack with a raised eyebrow. He rolled his eyes in response. He thought it was easy, too.
(Of course it’s easy. They’re jumping jacks. They have no point whatsoever. All you’re doing is jumping around like an idiot, waving your arms up and down!-T) (I like jumping jacks.-K) (You would.-T) (Hey!-K)I smiled as I heard Krit and Syl competing to see who was louder. My money was on Syl. The girl had a set of lungs, alright.
We reached twenty-five and all stopped with a slap as our hands hit our sides. A few students forgot to stop.
McCallen shook his head, looking disappointed.
“Twenty-five more. Everyone say thank you to Reese, Jones, and Miss Smith.”
There were a few grumbled, sarcastic thank you’s before McCallen shouted “begin” and we started again.
By the time the entire class stopped together, we had done over one hundred. I could hear panting coming from the students. None of us had even broken a sweat.
“Laps.” McCallen reminded everyone, “Go!”
I guessed that we were running laps around the gym so I started off at a reasonable jog. Apparently, my reasonable jog was much faster than the jog of the students. Our group ended up some strides ahead of everyone else.
“So this is what regular kids do?” I questioned Zack.
“Yep.” Zack nodded.
“You go to high school?”
“Off and on.” Zack shrugged.
I took that to mean he had showed up for a few days here and there between traveling across the country looking for the X5’s.
(Ditcher!-E) (I had a good reason.-Z) (Still...ditcher!-E)“Kind of like Manticore for normal people.” Ty commented quietly.
(Or minimum security prison.-T)“Uh huh.” Syl agreed.
“It’s not so bad.” Max argued.
“What, high school or Manticore?” Krit teased.
“Smart ass.” Max grumbled.
“So I’ve been told.” Krit agreed.
I suddenly noticed that the entire class had stopped and we were the only ones jogging. Everyone was staring at us. I slowed to a stop and the others stopped behind me.
“Class, go get the basketballs and set up in your teams from yesterday.”
McCallen instructed.
The class filed out of the room, presumably to get basketballs. McCallen strode over to us.
“You said you had questions?” he said.
I bet the entire class had questions by now.
“We came to ask you if you remember the names Lydecker and Royce.” Zack said.
McCallen froze and stared at us.
“Son of a bitch, he actually did it, didn’t he?” McCallen said quietly, his voice sounding amazed.
(Oh, language! You’re in high school, mister.-E) (Yeah, I got in trouble for reading this part out loud in school. And I wasn’t even saying it. I was reading it.-T)“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Zack frowned, although he obviously did know what McCallen was talking about.
Did everyone know about Manticore or was it just me?
“A simple yes or no would do.” I supplied.
“Yes.” McCallen said stiffly, “I remember Deck and Royce. They were under my wing for some time.”
“Sounds like you three were pretty close.” Krit commented, his eyes narrowed.
“They were close. They called me their mentor, but...” McCallen trailed off.
“When was the last time you saw Deck?” Max pressed.
(Yesterday, at Dairy Queen.)“Not for a long time.” McCallen shook his head.
He sounded sincere enough.
“And Royce?” Zack stepped in again.
“Almost as long.” McCallen answered.
The door to the gym opened and we all whirled around, tensing up. I relaxed when I saw it was just a kid with a basketball.
(Probably some poor freshman the others shoved through first to see if everything’s okay.-T) (I used to be that freshman.-E) (*laughs*-T) The rest of the class filed in behind him. We got a mixture of looks from them as they moved past. McCallen fell back into his role as gym teacher and ignored us while he put the students back to work.I glanced to the side as I picked up on a conversation.
“You go!”
“No way!”
“Go on! You’re not afraid are you?”
“Of course not!”
“Then, go!”
“Oh, alright, alright.”
A kid was forcibly separated from his group as he was shoved in our direction. He looked pretty nervous as he walked up to me.
(‘Cuz Cade is sooo scary!-E) (Wow, that was a lot of sarcasm.-T)“So are you guys like...FBI or something?” he asked.
“Or something.” I agreed.
“Oh.” he said and looked down at the floor for some time.
I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to say anything else when he suddenly spoke again.
“Are you guys aliens?”
(Aren’t aliens little and green?-K) (You’re a moron, Krit.-Z) (But he’s sexy, so it all evens out.-E) (*glares at Es*-Z) (Yay!-K) (*mutters* Too much X-Files.-T)I smiled, “Not quite, kid.”
“Oh. Okay. Are you army? ‘Cause they’re like aliens.”
“Uh...sort of.”
“Are you here to recruit people?”
“Definitely not.”
“You think the short blonde would go out with my friend? He wanted me to ask you.”
(Well, they’re about the same height so why not?-K) (*Syl appears, punches Krit, and leaves*) (Ow!-K)I glanced over at Syl and then at the boy that the kid pointed out.
“Not a chance.” I said honestly.
The kid smiled.
“Didn’t think so.” he said and ran off.
I smiled again as I turned around to see Zack and Krit were being assaulted by most of the girls in the class. Zack looked about to panic. Krit looked rather amused.
(So you like being hit on by high schoolers? Sicko!-T) (*smiles sheepishly* Well, you’re a highschooler, Ty...-K) (*looks ready to kill Krit*-Z) (Ewww!-E) (Hey! You’re not any older than me, Es, and I seem to recall a little bit of hitting on Krit in that last comment. Besides, it’s not like I’d be a freshman if I actually went to high school. I would be a senior.-T) (True dat.-E) (*rolls her eyes at Es’s reference to Teen Girl Squad. Check it out at homestarrunner.com if you dare*-T) Zack saw me looking at him and silently begged me to save him. I debated on how long I should let him suffer and decided that it would be too cruel to let it go on for too long. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t go over and enjoy it while it lasted.“How old are you anyway?” a girl was asking Zack.
“Twenty three.” Zack said, trying to regain his composure as I walked over.
“Wow. You don’t look more than nineteen.” the girl continued, “I’m eighteen, you know. I’m a senior.”
“No, she’s not! She’s a junior.” another girl ratted her out, “I’m the only senior in the class.”
“I really like the tattoo.” a third girl said, “What’s it mean?”
Zack clamped a hand over the tattoo on his arm. He was probably really wishing I hadn’t stolen his jacket this morning now.
“You have a tattoo?” a fourth girl shuddered, “You know, they do those with needles!”
(I had no idea!-Z) (Was that a whole sentence from Grunty?!-T) (I am impressed!-E) (*sit down and pouts*-Z)“Girls! I don’t see you running basketball drills!” McCallen snapped, making the girls immediately disperse with longing looks at Zack and Krit.
“I want my jacket back.” Zack said.
“Nope.” I said with a grin, folding my arms.
“Zackie boy doesn’t know how to respond to being hit on by high school girls, do you?” Krit teased.
Zack glared at him and Krit ducked behind me.
(Has anyone else noticed that Zack never smiles? Always glares or frowns, no smiles.-E) (Poor Zackie needs his Cadie-Wadie to make him smile! Uh oh! Gotta run! *Ty hightails it before Zack can reach her and is chased around the room*-T)I was getting looks of death from all the girls now. Probably because I was standing between Krit and Zack. Practically a Zack and Krit sandwich. (You know, you shouldn’t have your dessert before your dinner!-E)“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” he said quickly.
Zack took a menacing step forward and Krit quickly moved off to join Syl. Not Ty, amazingly enough. Ty was with Max, still attempting to get information out of McCallen.
“You could have intervened.” Zack pouted.
“Could have. But, sorry, sir. Your orders weren’t clear.”
Zack frowned at me and I stuck my tongue out at him. I moved past him, shoving him lightly with my elbow as I did so. He followed behind me.
This mission wasn’t half bad.
***
All we could get out of McCallen was that Lydecker had had this dream of making a better soldier.
(Good thing we got that out of him ‘cause none of us had any idea.-K) Royce had thought he was nuts and they had gone their separate ways. That was about it. At least, that was all McCallen would tell us.I was getting very distracted by the way the other girls were treating Krit.
(You need a Wet Paint shirt, Krit?-E) (Guess so. You know I’m just so irresistible that no one can keep their hands off me.-K) (Right. *rolls her eyes* I think Krit’s ego needs some deflating.-E) It must have been obvious since I repeatedly glanced back in that direction, but Max didn’t comment. I couldn’t help tuning in my hearing to hear what was being said.“So where’d you go to high school?” a girl asked.
“Different places.” Krit said, “I travel a lot.”
“How interesting.” the girl said, making eyes at Krit.
“So who are the girls you came in with?”
“Well, she’s the boss’s girlfriend. And the blonde over there is my best friend. And the one over there is an old friend, practically my sister.” Krit said and I assumed he pointed out Cade, Syl and Max.
“What about her?”
“Her? Well, she’s...she’s....special.”
“Special Ed.” a girl muttered.
“You like her, don’t you?” another girl interrupted, “That’s so sweet!”
(Awww! How cute!-E) (*yells as she runs past, Zack on her heels* Shut up, Es!-T) (You sound more and more like Zack every day.-E) (*runs back towards Es and punches her*-T)“Hate her.” two other girls chorused.
(I hate her, too.-E)“Girls! I don’t see you running basketball drills!”
At the sound of McCallen’s voice, the girls ran off.
I glanced at Krit and saw he was looking at me. Quickly, I looked away. He hadn’t denied liking me, but he hadn’t agreed either. Krit had been acting weird ever since they’d let me out of my room. And truthfully, I didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t know how to act around Krit after what I’d done while I was in heat. What did Krit think about me now?
(I still thought you were cute and lovable.-K) (See, told you I was cute and lovable.-T) (Lies, all of it!-E) Oh, god. Why did that have to happen? Damn feline DNA. (Umum Krit.-E) (Is that like the Campbell Soup thing? Umum good?-K) (Oh, he’s umum good alright.-T) (I’d give my best gun for ear plugs.-Z) (Liar.-E) (You’re right. I’d steal them.-Z) (Oh, my God. I was right! And Zack told me!-E) (It’s all a plot.-T)Suddenly, the doors to the gym slammed open. I jumped and snapped around to see men in black uniforms pouring through the doors.
“Not these guys again!” I heard Syl complain.
I immediately saw the gun aimed at McCallen and pulled him to the floor.
“Down!” I yelled.
The high school students all hit the floor.
(High school students hitting the floor. That never happens.-T) (Dirty!-E) (Boy, I should’ve gone to high school more.-K) Zack and Cade were closest to the doors and engaged the enemy first. Max was a blur as she ran at the guy with the gun and disarmed him. Max doesn’t like guns. I stayed with McCallen. If the guy with the gun had been any indication, they wanted to take McCallen out. Which meant he could be useful to us.I had time to watch as Syl rolled over Krit’s back and punched a guy in the face, Cade jumped and delivered a double kick that sent another guy reeling backwards, Max ran up the wall and took out a third guy, and Zack probably broke ribs with a hard punch to a fourth guy’s stomach. Then, some of the black uniforms made it to me. I picked up a basketball and sent it flying into the first one’s face. His nose broke and started gushing blood. I turned my attention to the two with him. A well-placed kick broke a kneecap. Another kick did some damage to the other guy’s jaw. I grabbed a shirt collar and flipped “damaged jaw” over to land hard on the gym floor. Another blow and he was unconscious.
I turned around just as “broken nose” came up behind me with a gun. I heard cracks as I snapped the gun out of his hands. I swept the guy’s legs and he hit the floor. I dropped, a knee pressed down hard on his chest and a hand at his throat.
“What’s your mission here?” I demanded.
The guy just sneered at me through the blood still gushing from his nose. I felt disgusted and knocked him unconscious, as well.
I turned to see that the uninjured men who weren’t engaged in fighting were busy dragging away their injured. They didn’t want us interrogating anyone. Although, judging from the one I had just talked to, they were well-trained enough not to break easily anyway. These guys were professionals.
(Professional whats? Professional phone sex operators?-K)I heard a click and whirled around. More black uniform men had come in through the back. One of them had a gun leveled at me.
“Freeze, damn it!” he growled.
I froze.
“You may be able to dodge bullets,” he continued in a low voice, “but I doubt you could dodge bullets coming from six guns at the same time.”
Immediately, the five other men with him pulled guns and cocked them, all aimed at me. Everything in the room stopped.
“None of you move, you damn freaks!” the guy yelled, “One of you move and everyone in this place gets turned into Swiss cheese.”
(I like cheese.-E) (This guy’s really original.-Z)“What do you want?” I asked slowly.
“Just don’t move.” the guy snapped.
He was nervous. We scared him. So obviously he knew what we were capable of. I doubted Royce would condone the shooting of a bunch of high school kids. So I guessed that this guy had panicked. Which made him dangerous. Especially if the rest of these black uniform guys listened to him.
“I’m not moving.” I said.
“Well...good.” he said, his eyes darting from me to each of the others.
I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. The rest of the black uniforms were taking the remaining injured out. One of them slowly approached McCallen, his eyes on me. I twitched, but didn’t move. The guy had a gun.
(I think we’ve established that everyone has a gun.-Z)I reacted, moving as fast as I could. I grabbed the gun, knocked the guy out, and leveled the gun at the guy in charge.
“You shoot and I shoot.” I said evenly before the guy could react and pull the trigger.
The guy was sweating. He didn’t know what to do. He knew my reflexes were faster. He knew he was dead if I pulled the trigger.
“No one fire!” he yelled suddenly, “Retreat!”
The black uniforms quickly disappeared out of the building. I sighed with relief. I popped the clip out of the gun before throwing them both to the ground. Slowly, McCallen and the students got back to their feet. Everyone was silent.
“Um...” one kid said, his voice making me jump, “Is this going to be on the final?”
(Moron.-E)Everyone unfroze and noise seemed to flood the room. I saw Zack run out the door, probably to see if any of the black uniforms were still around. I decided that I now completely understood why guns made Max nervous.
“Ty?”
I jumped again and whirled around to see Krit standing behind me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I almost let myself fall into his arms, but I didn’t. I just looked at him.
“I’m fine.” I said, “I know why Max doesn’t like guns.”
“Me, too.” Krit agreed.
“I was worried that guy might hurt these kids.” I said, gesturing at the students that were now in a clump around McCallen.
“Yeah. The kids.” Krit said slowly without looking at them.
(Lame.-Z) (Did you just call me lame?-K) (Well, what you just said was pretty lame, Krit.-Z) (*has a heart attack*-K)This was very awkward. I ducked my head and moved past Krit to join the others. I heard Krit follow.
“I really don’t like this Royce guy.” Max said.
“This has got to stop.” Cade agreed.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Syl said.
“I’m okay.” Max nodded.
“Zack’s fine, too.” Cade said.
“Krit?” I turned around and saw that he hadn’t quite made it over to us.
The girls had sort of intercepted him.
“Are you okay?” I heard multiple girls asked him.
“Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god!” a few kept chorusing.
(That’s just a little annoying.-T)“That was so cool!” one girl said.
(We like her. She’s like our groupy.-T)I was distracted as Zack walked back in.
“They’re gone.” Zack announced.
I saw Cade grin as she pushed Zack towards Krit and the girls.
“Krit needed to talk to you, honey.” she said.
“Damn it.” Zack muttered.
He bravely strode through the group of girls to Krit.
“What, Krit?” he demanded.
“Huh?” Krit asked, confused.
“You needed to talk to me?” Zack pressed.
“No.”
“Oh, Cade’s gonna get it.” he said.
(Wow. Cade’s a bitch. I like it.-E) (Don’t call her that. And I don’t like it.-Z)I think that’s when he realized that he couldn’t get out of the swarm of girls now that he was in it. Then, I noticed that the guys had swarmed around Syl and Max.
“I knew you guys were aliens.” one guy said.
“Take me to your leader.” another guy said meaningfully.
(That’s so gross!-E) (And a very horrible pick-up line. What are we teaching our kids today?-K)“Oh, god.” Max said.
The rest of us all rolled our eyes.
“Uh...Ty? I think we better bail out the boys.” Cade said, pointing to Zack and Krit.
I looked back in that direction and saw that some of the girls were now touching, placing hands on Zack and Krit‘s arms or chest.
(Wet paint! Wet paint!-T) (Oh, I wanna touch Zack...I meant Krit! Oh, God, I meant Krit! *starts bashing face with a nearby basketball and contemplates listening to N Sync to drown out any thoughts of Zack*-E)“Zack, honey.” Cade called, pushing her way through to him, “Here’s your jacket back.”
I couldn’t recall the last time Zack had looked so appreciative. Or the last time I had seen someone look at Cade with that much animosity. I was suddenly glad that they no longer had basketballs.
“Krit, are you okay?” I asked, staging worry.
I flung my arms around his neck and kissed him. I could sense Krit’s surprise. I broke off the kiss when I felt someone kick me in the foot. I was on my toes and it made me stumble slightly. Krit caught me, looking worried. Probably thought I had hurt myself or something. I almost cried out in surprise when he picked me up and carried me out of the cluster of girls. I chose to ignore the names they called me.
(I prefer the names I call you.-E) (Ho.-T) (That would be one of them.-E)“I knew you weren’t okay.” Krit accused.
“Krit, really, I’m fine.” I said, “You can put me down.”
“But...”
“One of the girls got a little jealous and kicked me. That’s all. I’m okay.” I said.
Krit looked at me skeptically, then slowly put me down.
“Zack’s gonna kill you.” I said.
Krit glanced at Zack.
“Only if he makes it out of there alive.” Krit joked, brushing it off.
“Okay, help me save Max and Syl now.” I said.
“They’re hitting on Syl? Aw, man.” Krit groaned.
(Well, she is about their height.-E) (That’s so funny!-K) (He he. She’s gonna kill you.-T) (Only if she reads this.-E) (Or if I tell her. *shift eyes and diabolical grin*-T)“What?” I asked.
“Syl’s gonna mess with their minds. Poor, stupid kids.” Krit said, “Poor, poor fools.”
“That’s not very nice.”
“She’s my sister. I’m allowed to talk about her like that.”
I rolled my eyes again and headed in that direction.
***
Alright, these girls were gonna kill me if I didn’t make an exit soon.
“Zack, we should talk to Colonel McCallen and get home.” I reminded him.
“Okay.” Zack agreed, allowing me to lead him out of the group.
I looked at him questioningly when Zack jumped about a foot in the air.
“One of those girls touched my...!” Zack said, eyes wide.
(I just don’t want to know.-E) (Well, it was probably his ass since he was walking away.-K) (I said I don’t want to know! No one should be touching Zack, especially not anywhere that makes him jump! Anything that scares Zack has to be naughty. Very, very naughty.-E) (Or very, very scary. *pales*-T) (Women happen to find me attractive. I was made that way. It was bound to happen.-Z) (Now I’m the one who needs ear plugs.-T)I tried not to laugh and just continued to pull Zack towards McCallen. He broke away and headed towards the others when he saw what was going on with Max and Syl. He scowled at the high school boys and they slowly dispersed.
“Call me!” one of them shouted to Syl.
That taken care of, we all turned to McCallen.
“Alright. Those guys attacked for a reason. They want you dead. Which means you know something.” I insisted.
McCallen sighed.
“Royce wants to do what Deck did. He wants to create his own perfect soldiers. Him and Deck have always competed. Royce can’t stand it that Deck might be one up on him. Which he obviously is.” McCallen said, looking at us.
(So, basically they have a relationship of ‘anything you can do I can do better.’-T)“Man, you guys need to get a life.” Max said.
“We weren’t here.” Zack said firmly.
McCallen nodded silently. We all followed Zack out the door.
(Congo line!-T) (Everybody congo!-E) (I refuse.-Z) (We’re stunned.-T) (Yeah, color me amazed.-K) (That isn’t a color! *pulls out her crayon box and checks to make sure* Yeah, that’s not a color!-E)--------------------------------------------------------