Dark Waters (Warriors S1B5)

Chapter 5

Earth date: 01/04/2012, 09:35

We had five minutes to get from class to class. I was tardy to social studies, kept back in English class by classmates who couldn't stop talking. Betwixt and between grabbing my textbook, someone buffeted into my locker. I lolloped back, culling my fingers back from the closing locker door.

Keenan Carter beetled against my closed locker door and smiled an unfriendly smile. "You're a f*cking weirdo, you know that?" he drawled.

My mind was blank, and I spluttered, "What?"

"What?" Keenan ingeminated in his version of my accent. "God, why are you even here, you stupid f*cking paddy?"

My mind wasn't blank anymore. It was back home, with Mother splenetic because I couldn't tell her what we'd learned in Sunday school or for dillydallying too long in front of fantasy books at the library. My mind found a familiar track and ran on it. "I-I'm sorry," I jabbered out.

"Yeah, you should be." He snagged a hand deep in my hair and wrenched hard enough to draw tears from my eyes. "Now go get me gold, leprechaun."

A hand sheared Keenan's wrist, chopping his hand out of my hair. Max elbowed Keenan in the stomach, doubling him over. He clapped an open hand over Keenan's face and pushed, bouncing the back of Keenan's head off of my locker door.

"F*ck off, Carter," Max growled.

Keenan slid to the floor, gripping his stomach. He tried to say something, but only managed a wheeze that vaguely resembled words.

"Agreed," Max snarked. "Glad to know you know you're a dumb*ss." He impelled Keenan out of the way. "Bye." He opened my locker and handed me my textbook. "You alright?"

I scrutinized him, then at my textbook, then at Keenan, attempting to shamble down the hall with his head high, even though the last of the people in the hallway were looking from him to us, pointing and giggling. "Um, yes," I said. "Thank you."

Max vellicated. "You're late," he monotoned, and walked past me, down the hall to his class.

I made it to social studies right as Mr. Yancy was closing the door and took my seat in the back of the class. I opened my social studies notebook and found a notecard slipped in it. I took a quick look at it, made sure Teresa, the girl sitting next to me, was busy writing her Do Now, and then shoved the note into my copy of The Serpent's Shadow.

The note said, in Max's handwriting, We're swimming after school. Don't forget your swimsuit.

Earth date: 01/04/2012, 16:18

As I nocked an arrow, I tried to rivet on Will's technique.

Will had been showing me a different schema of archery. Ms. Niamh had taught me the classic technique: breathe slow, draw the bow back until the string was by the corner of my lip, aim and release. Will had abetted me to change up my technique. "You're going to be in combat situations, not shooting at stationary targets," he had said. "Which means your focus needs to be a high rate of fire with good accuracy." He'd shown me what he meant, dropping a hail of tennis balls from the ceiling and then shooting a dozen of them with his bow and arrows.

Now, I steadied my breathing and did my best to push away thoughts of splashing water and flailing hands and my mother screaming prayers, of Keenan Carter and shrimp aliens and Max defending me. The ceiling mechanism was activated by a button on the floor. I pressed the button with my foot.

The ceiling slid open, and tennis balls fell like rain. I released and watched an arrow pierce a tennis ball, bounce off another tennis ball, and hit the ground. One. I grabbed another arrow, nocked, fired. Two. Third arrow to the string. I pulled back.

"Daph!"

I became cognizant of someone yelling my name, and between me blocking out the noise and the din of dozens of tennis balls bouncing off concrete, I hadn't heard them. I lowered my bow and looked over my shoulder. Joey was behind me.

"It's time," he hooted over the fading sound of bouncing tennis balls. "Mr. Cole wants to talk to us before we head out."

I nodded and put my bow down and followed Joey out of the range and down the hall to the main hub, where the rest of the people were. I stood in an empty space around the holographic table. I watched the lights dim and the table glow, then sprout 3-D light shapes.

"This should be an easier takedown than our previous uninvited guests," Mr. Cole began.

"Knock on wood," Monica added.

Mr. Cole continued, "We have several things working to our advantage. The Hautik is dangerous, make no mistake, but it's also cold-blooded. It will put up less of a fight than if it were in summer-temperature water. Speaking of which, the water."

"I thought you said the water was a bad thing," Kristi inquired questioningly.

"It is. And isn't. The Hautik will have the homefield advantage, yes. However, with the water comes a gaping chink in the Hautik's armor."

I looked at Margaret, who'd seemingly had the same thought as me. "Sound," we opened simultaneously.

Mr. Cole nodded. "Travels faster and more powerfully through liquids than air or solids."

"And the Hautik is setting itself up," Monica appended. "It's a cold-blooded creature residing in icy-cold water, so it's constantly churning the water around it to keep warm."

"And you can track that, can't you?" Joey asked.

Mr. Cole nodded yes. "So, the plan. We have a boat, a small craft. We'll drive it out to where we've tracked the Hautik. We have a solar replicator, a powerful heat source, attached to the bottom of the boat, and we'll turn it on when we're in range, draw the Hautik to us like a moth to a flame."

"Alright!" Frazz grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Let's throw some shrimp on the barbie!"