James Knight: Teenage Superhuman - Book Two

Cosmic Twins: The Heart of the Fire - Chapter Three

...THREE YEARS LATER.

  I felt a tap on my shoulder, and my eyelids fluttered open. I cleaned saliva from my mouth before removing my hood, uncovering the messy curls I had little luck taking care of that morning.

  Mr. Sandoval, my teacher, leaned against my desk. "Ah, Mr. Marian, welcome back to earth." He said. I lifted my head to face him. Mr. Sandoval sighed as he watched me straighten my notes on my desk.

"Mr. Marian, I'm assigning you to Hunter Holmes. He's at the back, three tables behind you." I turned around to face Hunter. He winked at me with a cocky smirk, watching me toss my notebooks into my bag, and stomped off to the back row.

   I wandered down the rows past the students and threw my backpack on the table. I searched my bag for a pen, avoiding Hunter's bright blue eyes, screening me before he offered me one from his collection.

"Hey," He said quietly as Mr. Sandoval continued his speech. I took the pen and turned to face him. "The guy in front of us stole your pens," Hunter said, my right hand grasping his pen as I gazed at my cousin in the next row.

   Of course, he did.

"That's Sebastian, my insensitive foster cousin," I whispered, my gaze fixed on the whiteboard as I began writing.

   The guy beside me chuckled and replied hushedly, "You're a foster?" He asked.

"I was a foster kid until my dad officially adopted me." I gulped deeply, refusing to respond as panic rushed through my body. Being away from the only person I trusted wasn't easy, but knowing Noah was probably freaking out about this calmed my nerves as I tried to channel him.

   We had a secret sense for each other. It was something special between the two of us. I could often see what Noah was doing, feel Noah's emotions, read his thoughts from remote distances, and send telepathic messages to him. Our connection was special; he could do it for me and anyone else. These powers worked great when I was scared, sad, anxious, mad, or lonely. I had him cheer me up and calm me down.

"I'm Hunter," the boy said, bringing me out of my thoughts. I watched his jaw clench and flex from the corner of my eye as he focused on me.

   I kept my gaze fixed on my notepad, sometimes peeking at the board to jot down notes. Hunter studied me, watching me jot down notes before the bell rang.

"Hey, uh, you want your pen back?" I inquired as I watched him gather his belongings from the desk. I held the pen out for him to take it, and his eyes brightened.

   He muttered, "You can keep it," before standing up from his seat with a smile. Gee, thanks.

"I'm Bryce," I muttered back. Yep, I lost his attention. He walked away, laying a slip on Mr. Sandoval's desk before taking off the classroom.

"Hey, Bryce," Noah invaded my mind.

"What?" I mused my brother back.

"You should go after him. He was flirting with you, mate."

"Shut up, Noah!" I accidentally growled out loud. Not many students left in the class, but everyone was watching me.

"Ooh, you're in trouble, mate. Have fun getting out of that one," Noah chuckled at me, and suddenly, his voice disappeared. I huffed, rolling my eyes, grabbed my stuff from the desk, shoved it in my bag, and stormed off into the hallway.

∆∆∆

   Physical Education was the only time I didn't have the freedom to look like a freak with a miraculous amount of strength, speed, and agility that I sometimes find arduous to hide. I had little control over them, which made me nervous, but Sebastian knew that and often used it to his advantage.

   Coach Haynes thought it would be a great idea for his football team to use us in our PE session to get a little practice before the tryouts.

   They were looking for boys to replace Jack Johnson and Hero Romero. They graduated last year, not that it meant much. The NFL promoted neither of them like Coach thought they would. Sebastian became the best thing that happened to the football team. He was impressive but a stereotypical jerkish jock type in his second year of high school.

   Coach Haynes scanned the bench as he cleared his throat and grunted. "As you've heard, we have football tryouts tomorrow. My team has volunteered today to help us with the search." I looked out onto the football field, nervously gnawing on my fingernails.

   Sebastian's eyes locked on mine as a smirk bubbled across his lips, and he tossed the football in the air and caught it in his gloved hands. Coach Hayne's eyes dragged to me with headphones blasting in my ears. Looking up at Coach Haynes, I threw my earbuds around my neck.

"Is everything okay, Bryce?" Mr. Haynes asked. As I shifted on the bench, my eyes opened in surprise, and I felt uneasy in the glare.

"Uh, yeah, everything is perfect." I expected his next word.

   Coach Haynes blew his whistle, unaware of my near-sonic hearing. "Good, you're up first." He said. I put my hands over my ears and walked onto the field. I wandered away from the fence, racing into the center of the field and straight ahead of Sebastian. Sebastian watched me, counting aloud from ten before he chucked the ball at me, and I caught it on instinct before I froze in the center of the field.

"Throw the ball, dork," Sebastian grunted. I rolled my eyes and turned to face Jason Gray.

   I threw back my arm, looking for an open player. The football team watched me like hawks. I shifted my gaze to Coach Haynes on my right. Hunter sat down on the bench and handed him a slip of paper. My palms sweat as the ball glided down in my fist. Sebastian glared at me with a smirk, and I returned his stare.

   I chucked the ball as the ball hurtled towards the opening metal gap in the far-right field. The ball flew far past the field, the school, the parking lot, and beyond. I chewed my nails to calm my sudden nerves.

    Sebastian raced over me, squeezing my shoulder as everyone watched the ball disappear beyond the school, and mumbled, "You are so screwed when we get home tonight," before kicking me in the back of my ankle.

   Coach Haynes approached us and slammed his clipboard on the floor. "What the hell was that?" he roared. Sebastian looked at me with a grin as my eyes lit up. Shit. Fuck. Son-of-a-bitch.

"That," he exhaled deeply. "Bryce was freaking awesome," Coach Haynes applauded. I gave a slight nod in disbelief. What the fuck did I do? What the fuck was I thinking?

"You're in deep shit, mate," I heard Noah's voice echo. Yeah, no shit, Noah. Thanks a lot. Dexter and Thomas were going to kill me when I got home.