Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

My aunt was behind the counter organizing some shelves when I ran in. Frown lines appeared on her face when she saw me. "Why did I get a message today saying you missed class? And why are you here? I thought school wasn't over for another," she paused to check her watch, "twenty minutes."

The fact that I hadn't made it to my first class had completely slipped my mind. It felt like a million years ago. "Uh, I woke up late and had to walk Graham."

She nodded curtly. My aunt wasn't the type to lose her cool easily. She liked having all of the facts before yelling at Tanner and me. "And why are you not in class right now?"

There was no easy way of breaking the news, so I just came out and said it. "There was an incident at school. It's on lockdown."

She covered her mouth and gasped. "Is everyone okay? Where's your brother?"

"I think the football team might have already left. They have a game later today against Lincoln. Tracy Banks is hurt. The paramedics came right as I was running off campus. I didn't know what to do. It happened right before class, so I left as quickly as I could."

My aunt reached forward and pulled me into the tightest bear hug I had ever gotten. I let her awkwardly pet the back of my head. Her cell phone rang. She immediately picked up the call. "Tanner, where are you?"

I took swift advantage of the opportunity and ran behind the counter to call Mr. Saltzman. I dialed his number, repeatedly, but it went directly to voicemail each time. After the fifth attempt, I left a message telling him to call me at the café as soon as possible. I wanted to go into more detail, but I didn't think it was wise. Without my phone, I felt completely helpless.

"Tanner's on the bus." She joined me behind the counter. "He says he's been texting you, but you haven't responded."

"My phone is missing. Someone must've grabbed it by mistake in all the confusion."

Her phone dinged, alerting her to a text. "It's from the school. It's saying the lockdown has been lifted and that the rest of the school day has been cancelled." She was just putting it away when it dinged again. "Crap." It was uncommonly foul language coming from my aunt and it caught me off guard. "Sarah's water broke. She was supposed to work the afternoon shift. Do you mind covering for her?"

"Mr. Saltzman isn't back yet, and I have to walk and feed Graham."

"You will. I promise I'll only keep you a few hours. And I'll knock a month off of your punishment."

It was too good a deal to pass up. It was also probably in my best interest to hang around until Mr. Saltzman called back. He might even know a thing or two about tracking an invisible girl.

Customers slowly began to gather in the café to discuss the events. By the second hour of my shift, it was packed. People were shocked to learn about the vandalized trophy case and the attack on Tracy Banks. As a student, I received a lot of sympathy followed by a barrage of questions. Everyone had heard about how Alex had been the one to push Tracy, even though it was completely false. MaryAnn, a skinny woman with short black hair, a hawkish nose, and a longstanding reputation for being the town gossip, asked me point blank if I believed Alex was a terrorist.

One customer had his laptop with him and began streaming the local news. About fifteen people huddled around him at once. There was quite a bit of shoving and pushing until he set up his portable speaker at full volume so everyone could listen in.

"And now we bring you breaking news from Stanley High School," I heard a newswoman say. Several people made shushing sounds. A few of the older clients adjusted the settings on their hearing aids.