10/17

Episode 2, Chapter 7

"CaseofSpades, what's up?" Parker said on the party chat. He had sent Casey an invite the moment he got the notification his friend was logged on. In a series of texts, after Casey got out of drills earlier, the two had planned on chatting as soon as Casey could log in.

"PacMan, I wasn't sure if you would feel up to this tonight," Casey said. "Sick on your birthday is rough, man. What kind of timing is that?"

If you only knew the half of it, Parker thought, but he kept it to himself. "Yeah, tell me about it," was all he said.

"Oh, dude, I've been waiting all day to tell you this!" Casey exclaimed suddenly. "You will never guess what Morello said this morning. It was the funniest thing."

"Oh yeah, what?" Parker asked, interested. Casey liked telling a good story.

"Get this, we were lining up after drills this morning and Morello starts bugging the captain to let him run back to the office because he needed pee, or take a crap or something. Like really whining at the Captain about it," Parker's hands tensed on his controller. A lead weight formed in the pit of his stomach as he realized where this was going. Casey, oblivious to Parker's distress continued. "So Captain tells him to just go already and the guy takes off running like he has demons after him. But then, we make it back to the hall and there he is, standing in the middle of the meeting room waving his hands through empty space and looking like he had seen a ghost or something. So the captain yells 'Morello, what the hell?' and Morello just stares at him like he doesn't know what to say. Then, his face gets even whiter and he runs to the bathroom. He finally comes out about the time we are all dressed and ready to go and he asks if it's possible for stomach problems to make you see things."

"What?" Parker asked, his own stomach doing flips. He wished Casey would get to the point already, but if he rushed him, it would seem suspicious.

"Yeah, that's what we all were like too. The captain was like 'What are you talking about Morello,' and Morello said, get this," Casey gushed, on the verge of laughter at what he believed was a good joke. "He said 'When I got back to the meeting room earlier, I could have sworn I saw Carlisle and, I think it was his dad, disappear in a puff of smoke.' He was completely serious too." Casey busted into laughter.

"Wow," Parker replied, forcing himself to laugh too, despite the cold dread gripping his spine. Parker was not the paranoid type, but he had no idea what was happening to him right now. He was pretty sure that Casey and Bannah, and maybe even some of his other friends in ROTC at school would never give him away or hurt him if they had a choice, but, too many movies, video games, books and histories told gruesome tales about what happened to people that ran out of choices. Parker was not willing to put anyone, especially himself, in that position. He did not want anyone knowing about his powers until he knew more. Unfortunately, Casey was a pretty smart dude under his goofy, sarcastic exterior, and he had been Parker's closest friend since they moved to the area at the beginning of last school year. If he did not act as natural as possible right now, there was good chance Casey would pick up on it.

"Yeah," Casey chuckled, "Crazy, right. The poor guy looked really shaken up. Captain told him to go to the nurse. Then he made a crack about you getting everyone sick." Parker did not have to fake the groan and following laughter that came from that statement. If Captain Riley had made that connection, Parker was not going to the hear the end of it until the Captain got a chance to rub it in.

"Huh, that's crazy," Parker said after Casey stopped snickering. "Is Morello okay? Who else did he tell that story to?"

"Yeah, he was fine. He was at after school drills. I guess he wasn't running a fever or anything. The nurse told him it was probably a blood sugar thing. She told him to start eating breakfast before drills and sent him home with some pamphlets for his mom about blood sugar issues in teens."