Bugged Out!

by Matthew Porter

  The bell rang, and everyone stampeded out of there. I grabbed my bookbag and started to walk out, but Nick stopped me.

  “I’ll pick you up at about six-thirty. That cool?” he asked.

  “That...should be fine,” I answered as calmly as I could, but anxiety flowed over my whole body again.

  “Cool,” he said happily. “So that means we’ll be at your house by six forty-five, Kelly.”

  “I can’t wait,” Kelly answered, smiling.

  “Ooh, Kelly,” said Abby as we walked out of class. “You have to tell me where you got those shoes.”

  Kelly looked down at her shoes. “I got them at this shoe store at the mall. We should totally go there!”

  “I really need a new pair,” said Abby with so much excitement, you would think they were talking about getting their own microscopes or something.

  Nick let out an annoyed sigh. “You and your shoe obsession are getting out of hand, sis,” he said.

  Abby squinted at him. “You’re one to talk, Mr. I-Have-Seven-Different-Pairs-of-Basketball-Shoes,” she said, crossing her arms.

  “Wait a minute,” he protested. “That’s different.”

  Abby shrugged. “I don’t see how. You have different shoes for your sports, and I have different shoes because they look cute.”

  “I have two pairs of shoes,” I said awkwardly. The three of them stared at me, and my face felt hot. “Uh...what I meant to say was. I... I think I forgot something back in class. Excuse me.”

  I walked down the hall, staring at the floor.

  I felt like an idiot. I couldn’t do this. How could I have thought I could? You’re foolish, James, I thought. Foolish, foolish, foo—

  The self-rebuke at my dreadful social awkwardness was interrupted by a scraping sound coming from the wall. I looked over at it, expecting to see a student vandalizing the wall with their pen or something, but the hallway was empty. At least, that’s what I thought before I caught a glimpse of something turning the corner and scurrying up the wall.

  I followed it to make sure I wasn’t imagining things and saw...whatever it was, quickly disappearing into an open air duct. It looked like an insect of some kind, but surely my eyes were playing tricks on me because it looked like it was the size of a rat.

  Perhaps I need a new pair of glasses, I thought as I adjusted them. I investigated the air duct, the curious part of me hoping that whatever kind of insect it was would show itself again.

  While I did not see whatever it was, I could hear it. I followed the sound of it inside the vents, chasing it all the way down the hall. I was so focused on the ceiling that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, and I ran right into someone, my glasses falling off on impact.

  “S-sorry,” I said, picking up my glasses. I put them on and saw who I had bumped into. I couldn’t believe it.

  It was the strange woman who was staring at us at lunch.

  “It’s no problem at all,” the woman said in a calm voice. Suddenly, she got closer to me, so uncomfortably close that her face was an inch or two from mine. “You’re just the person I wanted to talk to, James.”

  I took a step back. “How do you know my name?”

  She backed up a little. “That’s not important. I need you to listen to me. Terrible things are about to happen here.”

  “Um, all right,” I said, taking another step back. “Well, I have to catch the bus, if you don’t mind.”

  She grabbed my arm. “Please, James, you must listen. The fate of the Force-Pointe Islands may very well depend on you and your friends.”

  I jerked my arm away from her and ran. When I reached the main stairway, I saw a flash of light from behind me. I looked back and the woman was gone.

  CHAPTER 2:

  NIGHT ON THE TOWN—James

  I ran outside as the row of busses pulled out one by one. Luckily for me, mine was the second to last in line. I knocked on the side of it, and Mrs. Hackett, the bus driver, opened the door.

  “What’s wrong with you, James?” she yelled, glaring down at me from her seat.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Hackett,” I muttered.

  I sat down next to Kelly and she asked me what was wrong.

  “Nothing, really,” I lied. I couldn’t tell her about the strange woman or the giant insect; she wouldn’t believe me. I had more important things to worry about, anyway. Like not making an utter fool of myself tonight.

  When I got home, I tried to pass the time by doing homework, but I was finished with all of it by 4:00. I tried to read a medical journal, but I was too anxious even for that. My social anxiety was so prominent by then that the strange things I’d seen that day slipped from my mind.

  6:00 had come and gone, and I found myself looking at the clock every two minutes until it read 6:50.

  What if they don’t come? What if they never intended to in the first place? I knew they didn’t like me. As the thoughts ran through my head, I heard a loud car horn.

  I looked out my bedroom window and saw Nick and Abby waving at me from a dark blue Mustang convertible with two white stripes down the front of it.

  In my excitement, I almost fell down the stairs. I caught myself and started to walk out of the house when my mother yelled out to me from the kitchen.

  “James, where are you going?”

  “I’m going out with Kelly and our new friends,” I answered.

  There was a moment of silence before my mother replied. “Okay, be back at a decent time, and no robbing banks or anything.”

  “Mother, why would we rob a bank?” I asked her.

  She laughed. “I was just kidding. Have fun!”

  I closed the front door and ran to the car.

  “What’s crackin’, J-Man?” asked Nick as I buckled my seat belt.

  I looked at him, confused. What exactly was a J-Man?

  Abby laughed. “That’s Nick talk for ‘How’s it going, James?’”

  “Oh, I am quite well. How are you two?” I said, trying to remember all the conversational etiquette Kelly had been trying to teach me since first grade.

  “Good,” said Abby. “Sorry we’re late.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, trying not to sound too worried about it. “It’s not like I was looking at the clock every two minutes or anything…”

  We arrived at Kelly’s house fifteen minutes later. She was standing right inside her front doorway, talking to her dad. He was a somewhat strict military man who tended to rub people the wrong way sometimes. But he was a good father, and always took care of me whenever I had to stay with them.

  Kelly’s dad crossed his arms and gave her a disapproving look, but he nodded at her and she waved goodbye before walking out of the house.

  Kelly plopped next to me and buckled her seat belt.

  Abby turned around and gave Kelly a friendly smile. “Sorry we took a little longer than expected,” she said. “We drove our mom to the airport and Nick took his time saying goodbye to her.”

  “Aww, it’s good to know there are still some sons that love their mothers so much,” said Kelly, looking up at Nick with a wide smile.

  He blushed and leaned back in his seat. “Yeah, what can I say? I’m a big momma’s boy.”

  “So, what are we doing tonight?” Kelly asked, holding her hair as the wind blew past.

  Nick seemed to notice this, because he put the top up. “I dunno, I was thinking maybe—”

  “We have to go to the shoe store you were telling me about!” said Abby eagerly.

  “George’s?” Kelly said, matching Abby’s excitement. “It’s at the mall in Force-Pointe City. Just head toward school.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “I don’t wanna spend all night in the shoe store!”

  “There’s a bookstore at the mall as well,” I suggested. “That’s where I like to go when I’m there.”

  Nick sighed. “Isn’t there, like, I dunno, an arcade or somethin’?”

  “There is,” I answered. “It’s always loud and crowded, though.
”

  Nick looked at me through the rearview mirror. “Wanna go to the arcade while the girls look at shoes for who knows how long?”

  I gulped. I didn’t like the idea of going somewhere with so many people in such tight quarters…breathing on you. I looked at Kelly for help, but she nodded at me encouragingly and whispered, “It’ll be okay.”

  “That sounds...fun,” I said. I had a hard time getting the word fun out, because it didn’t sound fun at all.

  As we drove, the other three were conversing with ease. They talked about sports and shoes and other such things. After a few moments, Kelly elbowed me and raised her eyebrows. She glanced toward Abby and Nick, then back at me. “Conversation,” she whispered.

  “So,” I said, fidgeting with my fingers. “Where do you two live?” I looked at Kelly for reassurance, and she nodded.

  “It’s the Force-Pointe High dormitory,” Abby answered. “Nick and I moved here, but the rest of our family still lives in California. Our mom flew down with us to help us with the move, but she had to fly back home right away because she and our stepdad have to take care of our grandma.”

  I knew Force-Pointe High had a single dormitory for students whose parents lived on Canaan Island or worked on Paradise Island who wanted their kids to go to school in the city, but I’d never heard of students living there from out of state. I wondered why they would come all the way to the Force-Pointe Islands to go to school if the rest of their family still lived in California.

  “I’ve never been inside the dorm. How is it?” Kelly asked.

  “It’s nice, I guess,” said Abby. “It has two bedrooms, but more importantly, two separate bathrooms. I’m glad I don’t have to live with the chaos that is Nick’s bathroom. He is so disorganized.”

  “Hey, I know where everything is in my bathroom,” Nick said defensively.

  She snapped her head toward him. “Oh, really? Is that why you asked where your toothbrush was before we took mom to the airport? Or your deodorant? Or your cologne?”

  Nick chuckled. “Yeah, well, I found it all, didn’t I?”

  Abby rolled her eyes and looked back at Kelly, who seemed to think it was humorous.

  ***

  Force-Pointe Mall was one of those multi leveled super malls. I wasn’t quite as grand as Mall of America, and there was no indoor amusement park, but it was still quite impressive with its 200 stores. When we walked into the mall, Kelly and Abby separated from us to head toward George’s shoe store.

  “Alrighty, J-Man,” Nick said, eagerly rubbing his palms together. “Let’s go beat some high scores.”

  As we walked down the busy concourse, I saw the woman in the trench coat again. She was walking toward us from the food court and, just like in the cafeteria at lunch, nobody seemed to notice her. Nobody stopped to look at the strange way she was dressed; nobody even said, “Excuse me” or “Watch where you’re going, lady!” She was wearing sunglasses again, but I could swear she was looking directly at me and Nick.

  Luckily, we were almost at the arcade; I quickly veered into the narrow hallway and scurried into the busy room. Seeing that woman, how she was dressed, and the fact that nobody else seemed to notice her made me nervous. Not to mention the fact that she was following me.

  “Woah, J-Man, where’s the fire?” Nick asked as he joined me inside.

  Part of me wanted to tell him about the woman and my encounter with her at school, and how she seemed to be following me, but I didn’t want him to think I was insane.

  “I…I was just excited to come to the arcade,” I lied.

  He considered me for a moment. I was never a good liar, and I was sure he saw the anxiety written all over my face. But he nodded and slapped me on the back. “Let’s go play some games, huh?”

  I looked back toward the entrance. No sign of the woman. That should have made me feel better, but then I remembered I was in an arcade filled with people.

  My heart started beating erratically as I weaved through the crowd. I practically knocked Nick over when a little kid coughed right next to me, sending millions of microbes into the air for everyone to inhale.

  “You okay, man?” Nick asked, looking at me as though I’d just fractured my spine.

  I tried to collect myself. “Y-yes, I just… This is a lot of people and—” I’m probably going to contract influenza and die from that little boy. “I’m more used to sitting at the bookstore reading a new reference book.”

  Nick chuckled. “You really are into learning a bunch, aren’t you?”

  I looked down at the floor. “The pursuit of knowledge is a noble venture,” I said. “There’s an old proverb that says to use wisdom and knowledge in all things, and that is something I aspire to do.”

  “I wasn’t teasing you or anything,” Nick said apologetically. “I think it’s pretty cool, even if it’s not my style.”

  The arcade was large and filled with all the games you could think of. Children and adults alike were enjoying themselves as they played games of chance, skill, and dexterity. The machines rang with bells and alarms and other sound effects, and lights flashed all around. It was a nightmare.

  “Aw, man!” Nick yelled with excitement. “They’ve got a basketball free-shot game!”

  It was at the far corner of the arcade near a game called Skee Ball.

  I looked at the crowd of people between us and the basketball game and shivered. “I think…I’ll stay over here for a few minutes,” I said.

  “You sure?” he asked.

  I sat on a gray cushioned stool situated in front of a machine. “Yes, I’ll join you shortly.”

  He stood there for a moment, then nodded. “See you in a few, then,” he said, then jogged away.

  I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. This wasn’t a big deal. Just going to the mall with my friends, like all the other teenagers.

  The machine I was sitting at beeped at me. I turned toward it and saw that it was called 100 Questions. It was a trivia game.

  I went to the front desk and purchased a few tokens, then came back and put two of them into the slot.

  The instructions were simple enough to follow. There were three modes: Average Scholar, Super-Genius, or King Brainiac. I chose King Brainiac, the game’s hard mode. There were ten rounds, and each round had ten questions. You choose between three categories for each round, with each round increasing in difficulty.

  I’d made it through the first three rounds when Nick ran up next to me.

  “What’re you up to?” he asked.

  “Playing this quiz game,” I said as I successfully answered a question about technological advancements of ancient cultures.

  Nick knelt and squinted at the screen. “‘What innovation did the ancient Romans develop?’”

  The possible answers were dye, fireworks, hydraulics, or the alphabet.

  “Toga parties aren’t on here?” Nick said, then chuckled. “Then I’ve got nothin’.”

  I chose hydraulics and got the point. “How’s your basketball game?” I asked.

  He smiled. “I beat the high score already,” he said proudly. “I’m gonna try to one-up myself but wanted to check on you real quick.”

  “I’ll join you after I finish,” I said. “I’m on the last question of round three.”

  Nick nodded, then ran back toward the basketball game, where he had a small crowd of people—mostly girls—waiting for him.

  I was on the ninth round by the time Abby and Kelly arrived, and they both seemed pleased with their shopping adventure.

  “Where’s Nick?” Kelly asked.

  Abby sighed. “Over there,” she said, pointing toward the basketball game. “Big surprise.” She rolled her eyes, then headed toward the crowd surrounding Nick.

  “Everything okay?” Kelly asked, looking at me worriedly.

  “Yes,” I answered, turning my attention back to the game. “I’m almost done with the final round.”

  “So, you’re doing alright?” Kelly asked, sounding a l
ittle surprised.

  I glanced at her. “I was feeling a little panicked, but I’m fine now. This trivia game has proven to be quite cathartic.”

  Kelly sighed. “I guess I was all worried for nothing…”

  I was on the final question: Which is the world’s deadliest animal? The possible answers were the inland taipan, the Komodo dragon, the great white shark, or the mosquito.

  “Such a disappointing final question…” I mumbled as I picked mosquito, which killed millions of people a year by spreading disease.

  The red light on top of the machine turned on, and an animated version of Albert Einstein came up on the screen.

  “Gratuliere!” it said in a bad German accent. “You ’ave received ’die high score, you truly are die meister of trivia.”

  “Hard mode, indeed,” I said as I stood up.

  Kelly laughed. “It’s probably hard for most people. Anyway, let’s go join Nick and Abby.”

  Kelly and I headed toward the basketball game, where Nick had gathered an even larger crowd. He really seemed to be raking up the points, or however you say it. In only twenty-five seconds, he had made eighteen hoops and he was still going.

  “Hiya,” Nick said, glancing at us right before making another hoop.

  “Looks like you’re having fun,” said Abby.

  “You know it! It’s always fun to beat the high score, then beat it again,” he said, tossing the ball, but this time it missed. “Ack!” he said as he picked up another basketball.

  Abby looked at the crowd of girls, then back at Kelly with an annoyed expression. “Just wait until he actually starts to show off.”

  The timer ran out, and Nick had beaten his high score by two points. Next thing I knew, the crowd was cheering loudly as Nick ran a victory lap around the arcade.

  “Is your brother always this energetic?” Kelly asked Abby, who was trying to squeeze herself between the wall and the quiz game.

  “Yes…he’s always been like that,” Abby said, rolling her eyes.

  Nick ran up to Kelly and held up his hand. “High-five, Miss Kelly!” he said with a wide grin. Kelly giggled and slapped his hand. He puffed his chest out, flexed his arms, and said, “Yup, nobody can beat King Nick. I’m the champ!” A moment later, he slouched and rubbed his stomach. “Man, I’m hungry. I’m ready to grub on some food. Ooh, who’s got good burgers around here? I’m totally in the mood for a big, juicy burger.”