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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"You were late." Sage hears a familiar voice croak behind her.
She turns around to spy her boss, Dawn Wu, limping over.
When Sage started working here at Jupiter Fusion Feast + Fortune Cookie Factory about a year ago, she'd written Dawn off as a doddery old lady who probably couldn't see two inches in front of her own face.
This had been Sage's mistake.
Turns out Dawn has eyes like a hawk, a wicked smile, and a barbed tongue.
Some of the many reasons why they get along so well.
"Yeah, I know," Sage admits, wiping down yet another table, "something, uh, came up..."
She isn't being totally inaccurate...
"Something?" Dawn misses nothing. It can be an incredibly irritating habit.
"Well, I was just leaving detention-"
"You got detention already?" Dawn is impressed.
"Yeah, I may or may not have cursed out my history teacher in the middle of class." Sage pulls a blade of black hair behind her ear.
"Did he deserve it?" Dawn raises an eyebrow.
"Most definitely. It was a noble hill to die on. Anyway, so I'm walking down the hallway and I hear noises coming from the high school tubhouse. And before you know it I'm inside the hangar there and I see this dumbass, who happens to be the star of the tourneytub team, manifesting the largest ass humor I think I've ever seen. I didn't want it to bash the idiot's brains in, so before you know it, I'm in a tub pile driving that ugly mother's skull into the court. It was all a blur really." Sage says.
She realizes it's the most she's said all day.
"Have you been holding out on me, Sawyer? You never mentioned you were a tub jockey." Dawn says. Her brown eyes twinkle with amusement as she puts her hands on her hips in mock astonishment.
"I'm not!"
Sage reconsiders, "Well, I am now, cuz as punishment for being the awesome hero who saved the day, Dr. Howder has forced me to join the school tourneytub team."
"Congrats!" Dawn says.
"Um, no! You know me. I don't exactly do high school sports!"
"Apparently, now you do."
Sage groans, turning back to the table she's been wiping over for the last several minutes. Jupiter Fusion Feast + Fortune Cookie Factory is closing down for the night. Other staff members dim the lights down, flip chairs over tables, and brush the rich wood floors. Even though the kitchen's closed, the smell of teriyaki and soy sauce still wafts through the air. At the center of the cozy restaurant, Dawn's pride and joy laps lazily against a rectangle of guardrails. The koi pond. Somehow looking into its depths and watching all its colorful residents flit about always manages to fill Sage with a deep calm she hasn't really been able to find elsewhere.
But tonight she only finds annoyance. It reminds her of the cage closing in around her.
"So how did it feel?" Dawn cuts the quiet falling between them.
"How did what feel?" Sage moves on to the next table.
"You know. Flying around out there. Sitting pretty in a tub's cockpit. From what you're telling me, you're a bit of a natural." A hungry expression passes over Dawn's face.
Sage can't lie to her. She also can't stop the smile now slowly spreading across her own face.
"It felt- It felt like- Like nothing I've ever felt before. Like me and the tub had somehow fused together in just those few split seconds. And by that point nothing in the universe could possibly come between us. The tub's limbs were my limbs and the clouds became my canvas." Far beyond the confines of her cage.
"Yeah," Dawn stares wistfully into the depths of the koi pond, "sounds about right."
"Doesn't mean I'm happy joining the team though," Sage holds up a warning finger, "being in the tub was about freedom and movement. Being on a team means rules and rigor and dealing with other people. You know how I feel about other people!"
Dawn laughs. "It seems you've managed to wriggle yourself into a real tough pickle there, kid. Just remember to enjoy the ride, OK?"
"Ugh! You don't know the half of it. Now the eejit star of the team has gotten her leg snapped like a tiny toothpick, so who knows how long she'll be out. And oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, the Coach managed to get himself fired after all this nonsense went down. So the Jackalopes officially do not have a coach anymore!"
Dawn freezes upon hearing this new piece of information. "Oh?"
"Yeah. It's gonna be complete chaos. Total disarray. It's gonna be a real hoot, let me tell you! Honestly I expect nothing less from that imbecilic institution. I mean if I had my say, I'd-"
Dawn interrupts Sage by tapping a distracted, fluttering hand on the girl's arm.
"Could you, uh, hold down the fort while I make a time sensitive phone call in my office?" She says.
Sage looks around the empty restaurant.
"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure I can handle this, Boss."
"Good girl." And with this, Dawn limps across the room and into her small office alcove.
She picks up the well-loved receiver to an ancient land line, then hesitates over the machine's large buttons. Dawn kneels down to rummage through some drawers in her desk. She finds what she's looking for, pulling out a gigantic phone book. She blows off the dust clinging to the cover and starts flipping through its voluminous pages.
"Aha!" She whispers to herself so loudly Sage can hear her clear across the restaurant. Dawn leans forward and dials a number.
"Hi Jill. It's Dawn Wu. Yes, from the Fortune Cookie Factory. We've met a few times at town hall meetings. Yes, yes, of course you remember me. I'm calling because I've just been informed you may have a new vacancy..." Dawn realizes she's left her office door wide open, only now kicking it closed with her one good foot.
But not before she shoots Sage a very obvious, very conspiratorial wink.
***
Photo courtesy of Max Ducourneau on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@maxducourneau. Edited.
