Lies, Lies, and more L.I.S.E

PART 1 {Park Alevillo} Trickery dressed in Green

"What a stupid name." He always thought to himself. It's like his adopted parents couldn't decide whether he was Mexican or Asian, so they landed on both. There was no going back now, not when they got so emotionaly attatched to calling him Ale (like Ally but with some weird British or Irish accent).

His mother was Irish actually and his father was African American, they were all about equality I guess. Which was just as well for him. The school counselor and 'school counselor' kept saying he needed specially designed training and a "boarding school" that can help him harness his potential. In other words, it sounded like he was special needs, maybe borderline autistic, no offense.

His mother was nodding her brunette head so dramatically Park thought it was going to bob off. His dad seemed only half interested but kept glancing at Park trying to read his face.

He knew his parents were worried about him. Over the years, no matter what ethnicity he might be, his tanned skin kept slowly becoming paler and paler, more sickly than just downright pale. His dark shaggy locks grew messier and messier. Park just couldn't bring himself to care. The only thing about him that seemed alive was his monolid green eyes. Strange for a maybe Korean (or other, but most people guessed Korean) Mexican boy.

Selsdin stared into them now. Trying to read him almost as much as Park's dad was. When Selsdin introduced himself Park couldn't help but snort.

"Selsdin? Is that like some off brand Sebastian?" His mother gave him her infamous side eye and shook her head. His dad managed a chuckle.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Selsdin said. It was obviously sarcastic. Park hated it.

"I am the representative from Lincoln International School of Elements." He flashed his wide white smile at Park.

"You're the representative?" His mother questioned politely. "I'm sorry but may I ask, how old are you?"

His mom had a point. This man(?) was only a teenager. Sure his caramel hair seemed tame and his healthy pinkish tan skin made his blue eyes pop, making him seem more mature and attention-grabbing, but good looks don't qualify you to be a representative for such a prestigious school.

"Oh," Selsdin chuckled. He motioned for them to sit at the chairs in front of the school counselor desk. Not Selsdins desk. At the moment they were at Park's normal, regular school. St.Mary's Alternative School. "I'm only 16 and a half. I already have my temps." Selsdin waited for a response.

"Congratulations." Park's father said, in the watery tone he used when he was impatient. You had to really know him to pick out his emotions. He almost always hid them away, just like Park did.

"Mr. Levi Hemmingsway likes to send students for scouting and recruiting to make them feel more comfortable. He's our head principal. And we almost always have the other school counselor present to back us up, to make sure the information is credible." He turned his blue eyes to Ms. Clark, St Marry's school counselor. She seemed dazed but nodded at Selsdin to continue. "I must say I have been watching your Alevillo for quite some time."

If Park wasn't interested before, he was now. Sure he had two first names, but hardly anyone knew about that. It was never on school record, and he wasn't even health insured. His parents were like that I guess, equality and naturality, whenever we go we go (die) type people. How Selsdin figured out his second first name Park had no idea. Park wasn't even sure if he had a birth certificate.

His parents pushed past that point.

"You have?" His mother asked.

"Yes." Selsdin smiled back all charmingly and pretty boy-y. Park could see his mother physically melt into her chair. He was getting frustrated now. "He caught our attention as soon as he was kicked out of his last school. The circumstances of the expulsion seemed... eerie to the Head Principal. He pulled me aside to look into some old files. It seemed like it wasn't the first time something like that had happened." Hearing Selsdin say this out loud made Park realize what a total cliche this was. He also somehow felt embarrassed that Selsdin knew his background yet Park didn't know anything about him.

"They were just mindless pranks, no harm done. The teachers were just a bit shaken up...the twelve times it had happened." His dad defended him, but it sounded pathetic.

"The teachers seemed to remember very vividly, and each story sounds very similar to the last." Selsdin pushed on.

"Listen," Park finally spoke up. "It was nothing, okay? A prank, like my dad said. And anyway, why would these incidents make you *want* me to go to your school. These are exactly the reasons I was kicked out of the other ones."

Selsdin managed a weak smile. "Because Ale," His mom caught her breath, she was the only one that called him that. Park didn't let Selsdin know that hearing his name like that made his breath weak. "those are exactly the reasons people come to L.I.S.E (the school acronym: Lincoln International School of Elements). You aren't the only one there who can do what you do." His eyes were shining, any more and they might set Park ablaze.

"Do what I can do? I just trick people... I think." The more they talked, the more he hated it. He didn't want to be special. It was a total cliche!

"Yes, trickery. That's exactly it Alevillo sir." He said, sir, like it was seriously jokey. Like they were best buds. "And we can teach you to trick people in ways unimaginable."

That would have been a good line to end a chapter with. A big bang. A cliff hanger. But this was reality. Park Alevillo wasn't reading one of his mangas.

"So it's a school for magicians?" His dad said.

"Would he be learning algebra? I don't want him to make any more teachers temporarily blind again. He needs algebra. He only ever remebered geometry. But he won't be allowed to trick teachers." His mother rambled on. Selsdin was hardly paying attention. His eyes kept glancing back to Park. His father noticed.

"The email said full scholarship, room, and board. But I don't like the idea of him living with other troublemakers. He just started to make friends here in Wisconsin." That was a lie. Park only showed him what he wanted to see. A full table in the library rather than his only son sitting alone in the dark isles of sections M-P. In truth, Park had no friends. He's had more of a conversation with Selsdin than he has had with anyone of his classmates the whole two weeks he's been in this school.

This school.

He hated St.Marry's. A couple of days ago he would have given anything to transfer somewhere else. All Wisconsin was was cows and fields and the Packers. Green and Gold everywhere. Go Pack Go! was even written on coffee cups.

But now the idea seemed a little more nerve-wracking than he thought it would be. A whole school, with expectations for him. And he would be living there, year-round, even summers if he chose. But it was also exciting, they encouraged his trickery, whatever it was. They were gonna train him. It had taken him nearly two years to master the whole *blinding* thing. And it wasn't even real. He just showed the teachers what they wanted to see. And they *didn't* want to see Park. So he made himself disappear within their eyes, also... along with everything else in their field of vision. It left them stumbling about the classroom, arms extended, lost in darkness that wasn't real. Eventually, they ended up asking Park for help, even though they didn't want it from him, anyone but him, but he made it so all they could think about was him. He always ended up helping them in the end, but not before he could steal a few paintbrushes and if he was feeling lucky a stapler. He was so busy thinking about the new possibilities he almost didn't notice Selsdin's too blue eyes staring into Park's too green ones.

"I'll go." Park spoke before he could think.

"Ale, you don't have to." His mother said.

But he did, he knew he did like he knew he had two feet. Like some weird unconscious phantom of a feeling. It felt like that when he blinded his teachers. He never thought to himself, lift right arm, before he actually did it. It happened like a subconscious not thinking.

That's how it felt saying he would go. That's how it felt incapacitating annoying adults. And that's how it felt seeing Selsdin smile in affirmation.

Ms. Clark just nodded in approval, eyes still glazed over. She thrust the transfer papers lifelessly toward Park's parents. "Sign here."