flashback

s i x t e e n

Fletcher

     I walked down the sidewalk with Dan and Ceon. Ceon was staring at me; I stared down at my shoes. We crossed the street quickly and quietly. I thought of everything I’d been through with these people. I realized how much they meant to me. Sarai, Matthew, Rio (despite how much Danyelle hated him, then), Ceon, and Danyelle. Even though technically, she was the one who got us into the whole mess, she devoted all her time and energy to helping us out of the mess. And she brought Theo into the picture, too. He didn’t have the greatest rep, but he helped us, and Dan seemed to trust him.

     Ceon and him apparently had some kind of history. Not a good one—and Ceon is one to get envious… I mean, he was jealous of Danyelle. How could you be even jealous of Danyelle? And as for her history at her school, how could kids even have hated her? I was pretty sure if they’d only look past her dyslexia, they’d see that being her friend was the best place to be. She was funny, smart, and being able to read well didn’t mean being smart to her. She was strong and brave, and a good friend. That was all that mattered.

     All these things ran through my mind as I practically jogged to keep up with Ceon and Dan. “Guys,” I breathed. “Why are you going so fast?”

“We can’t be spotted,” Ceon said quickly, still speed walking.

I smirked. “I think there would be a bigger chance of that on public transportation.”

Danyelle laughed. “No choice, Fletch. What are we going to do, rent a limo? It’s funny, though,” she said. She reached into the back pocket of her shorts. “Hold on,” she told us. “Private caller?” I heard her mumble underneath her breath as she stared at her Blackberry. She answered it quickly. “Hello?” She stopped, her face blank. Then she rolled her eyes. “Mario?” she said.

     Ceon drew in his breath, and I wondered. What did Mario do that was so bad? “Mario, I’m not in the mood to talk to you.” Danyelle said stiffly. Then she gasped and stopped short in the middle of the sidewalk. I bumped into her, Ceon bumped into me. “What?” Ceon asked frantically. “What?” I asked anxiously. Danyelle ignored us. “Oh my God…” she said quietly into the phone. Then she continued walking. We followed her apprehensively. “Okay, well we’ll have to be more disguised. Good thing your mom… yes, yes. So meet us at the station in about thirty to thirty-five minutes… yes… yes, okay.” She sighed. “Bye.” She slipped the phone back into her pocket in her shorts and slid her hood over her head. “Guys,” she said.

“Don’t make eye contact with anyone. They might recognize us… Mario says that the news broadcast is a hit. Some moron from Ruby Studebaker High recorded it and put it on the Tube. So far, it’s got about 40,000 hits. That’s not too much, but Mario says each time he refreshes the page, about 20 more hits are added. So in about 3 hours, we’ll probably be up to half a million hits. He even says that the broadcast was aired in Placentia, Boreal, Overton, and a lot of other cities.”

I cringed. Not good.

Danyelle took a breath and continued. “Luckily, there’s hope. Mario’s mom, before she became a cop, was a makeup artist. She taught him some tricks, and he’s going to come to the station and help us with some wigs and masks and such. Good thing he came through for us, and didn’t come with us to Sheathing after all.” She looked sheepish.

Ceon made a constipated-looking grimace, just as we stepped at the train station, where an uneasy looking Theo stared at us, clinging to the hands of Sarai and Matt. Danyelle grabbed Sarai, I took hold of Matt. Ceon helped Theo with the bags.

     I overheard Theo whisper to Danyelle. “God, Danny. Vickie knows. She wants to turn ya’ll in,” Vickie? I thought. Who the hell is Vickie? Whatever. Danyelle gave Theo some reassuring words, like “It’ll be too late, anyway” and “She thinks we’re from Boreal anyway, so she’ll throw them off our tails”. I walked into the train station, Theo and Dan trailing behind me paying for our ride, with Sarai, and Theo’s bicycle. Ceon stood with his head down; I did the same and Theo adjusted his cap low on his head. The station wasn’t as crowded as I had expected, but there was a police officer on the other side of the partition. He didn’t give us a second glance, thank God.

About 3 minutes had passed when we heard the low rumbling of the train in the distance. Dan adjusted Sarai higher on her waist, Ceon ran a hand through his hair, and Theo took his fingers out of his belt loops. Matt bounced on his heels.

When the train stopped, I let everyone go ahead of me. Matt walked into the car, and I watched him carefully. After I stepped in and found a seat next to Ceon, I watched us whiz past the station in Sheathing forever. Matt struck up a froufrou conversation with Sarai and their gibberish filled the train. No one seemed bothered.

I looked at the faces of everyone around me, Dan, Ceon, Sarai and Matt, Theo. I made a mental note to draw this moment in my sketchpad later. I made a mind picture in my brain and vowed to keep the image in my head for all infinity.