Wrangling teenage emotions is hard enough on good days, but what if on bad days they could manifest as giant flesh and blood monsters?
Pacific Rim meets Friday Night Lights as knee-jerk rebel Sage Sawyer is forced to join her high school "tourneytub...
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Peter Donkersmit can barely remember a time when he didn't hate hospitals.
The cold sterile hallways. The endless beeping of unseen machines, counting down to something he doesn't even want to think about. The maze of plain walls stretching further than his eyes can see. Everything, absolutely everything, de-saturated. The colors. The people. Himself. Like trying to interact with the world through a foggy mirror.
And the reflection he can't even recognize.
All the memories flickering through his mind don't help.
Peter really wishes he didn't have to be here. But he does.
For Talia. For Artie.
Peter, Artie, and Genesis all sit outside Talia's room, nervously awaiting any sort of news. After Talia got loaded into the ambulance, Gee drove the two sophomores here in her white jeep. She threw Artie's wheelchair in the backseat and helped Artie climb in. They hadn't even had to ask her. Everyone innately understood where they were meant to be.
Artie is rarely seen without his trusty goggles, but he's here now, head in his hands, sitting in his wheelchair beside their waiting room seats. Peter pats him on the back reassuringly.
"Talia's gonna be OK, man. She'll be back jockeying Calypso in no time. You'll see!" Peter says.
He knows he's said the wrong thing almost immediately, because Artie lets out a long, soft groan. It probably wasn't the wisest move to remind his friend of all the work he would have to put in to get the wrecked tub up and running. Assuming Talia would ever need it again.
Artie leans back, wet brown eyes almost pleading with Peter.
"Why didn't she tell us what she was doing?" He says.
Peter shrugs. "I dunno. It was the end of practice. She probably thought we were all too tired or something."
"Then why didn't she wait? She could've waited instead of listening to Coach and getting herself-" Artie can't even bring himself to finish the sentence.
"You know Talia. When she gets a thing into her head, no one can stop her."
"But we're her teammates. I'm her brother! Doesn't she trust me enough to have her back?" Artie says.
Peter doesn't really have a good answer for him.
"Maybe she thought- Maybe she thinks- Maybe I'm not good enough." Artie speaks into the silence.
Genesis, sitting on Artie's other side, now forcefully joins the conversation.
"Artie Amphigore! Stop being ridiculous. You're the most talented engineer I know. You speak the tubs' language, both their mechanics and their code, fluently. I've seen you forge diamonds in the rough from scrap metal lesser men would leave in the dust. You're the gosh darn tub whisperer!" She puts her hand over Artie's arm.
