A Place Worth Living

by B D Grant

  Mick looks me over like a science class specimen. I stick my tongue out showing him my half chewed lunch.

  “He gets irritated when people stare at him but he didn’t want to punch the girl that called him a wuss.” So he did hear what she was saying about me. Mick finishes his last plate and stretches, rubbing his stomach.

  “So..” Boston’s eyebrows jump up in anticipation,“He’s alright or not?”

  Mick is distracted again watching people walk by. He finally says, “He’s no Nikki that’s for sure.”

  “Hey guys!” A younger girl says cheerfully siting down beside Mick.

  She has brownish-red hair a little longer then Anne’s. Her big hazel eyes are locked on Mick’s waiting.

  “Here we go,” Boston mumbles.

  Mick’s mood changes from positive to negative like someone flipped a switch. “It’s not going to work, Nikki,” Mick says avoiding her gaze.

  She looks at him unfazed, “What are you talking about?”

  I begin to notice a fuzzy feeling. I take a deep breathe like I need to calm down from too much excitement. Boston seems to be doing the same.

  Mick hits the table with his fist, “Stop it!”

  Nikki jumps. Everyone at the table and some from the surrounding tables turn around to see what’s going on. They don’t look at Mick though, they look right at me.

  All of them are waiting for me to explode. I’m not going to give them the pleasure. I stay as calm as I can as the fuzzy feeling vanishes and is replaced with aggravation.

  We wait for Nikki to say something but she doesn’t. Then it registers, she was the one that caused the fuzzy feeling. Nikki’s a Tempero like Mick.

  Mick, with his fist still on the table, is giving an infuriated look in Nikki’s direction, “Get out of my sight before I ring your skinny neck.”

  He doesn’t yell this time but everyone at our table can clearly hear him. Like a deer in headlights, Nikki seems incapable of moving from the shock. She finally takes her eyes off Mick and looks at Boston and I. If she’s expecting us to come to her aide we let her down. I stab at my food wanting her to leave so the extra attention we’re getting will stop.

  She stands up, grabs her tray, and leaves the table. She trips over her feet half-way to the cafeteria door but recovers without falling. She forced feelings on me. I should be mad but I feel too bad for her. She hurries out of the cafeteria and the people around us resume their conversations.

  Boston picks up a slice of pizza. “That was a long time coming,” He says handing Mick a slice.

  He accepts it happily. “The sad thing is that probably won’t stop her,” Mick says with a mouthful of pizza.

  A teacher walks up to us, “Is everything okay over here?”

  Boston answers before either of us can, “Just teenage love gone awry.”

  I can’t help but grin.

  The teacher smiles politely at Mick, “Let’s not yell about it next, okay?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The teacher goes back to his table. Mick slouches back in his chair like nothing happened. He looks at Boston who’s grinning at him, “You aren’t funny.”

  Boston looks at me, still grinning. “He thinks I am,” he says talking about me, “So are you going to tell me what you really think of Kelly.” Boston picks up the last slice of pizza as if he might give it to Mick if he answers. Mick moves to take it from him. Boston pulls it back so he can’t reach it, “Not until I hear it.”

  Mick drops his outstretched hand, “Fine. He hasn’t lashed out even with people staring at him. I’d say he’s good, better than most.”

  Mick takes the pizza.

  “Well thanks roomy,” I tell him.

  Mick grins. He holds the pizza out that he has already taken a bite out of toward me, “Want a bite?”

  “Nah, I’ll pass.”

  He shrugs, taking another bite.

  “So is what people are saying about you true?” Boston asks me.

  Mick was right, the gossip has begun.

  “What are they saying?” I ask.

  Boston looks at Mick, “You haven’t told him?”

  Mick pushes his chair away from the table and gathers his things, “Why would I? I don’t care if it’s true.”

  He raises from his chair and leans over for his tray. Boston grabs the tray before it gets off the table, “You’re not going anywhere. You might be needed.”

  Mick looks between the two of us then rolls his eyes and sits back down. Boston inhales deeply, “Well you see…”

  Mick leans forward, closing the space between he and I, finishing what Boston is hesitant to ask. “Are you scared of heights or what?”

  I look at him for a minute thinking. How did they know? Anne and Mr. Grad were the only ones there, “Does it matter if I am?”

  Mick puts his head down on his hands. Boston puts his hand on my shoulder like I just told him I have a month to live saying, “It matters when you’re a Dynamar. You have to be big, tough, and fearless.”

  I roll my shoulder away from his hand, “I’m fine with just being big and tough.”

  He looks like he’s seeing a little child in front of him, “It’s great that you think that but that hasn’t been proven.”

  I would prove just how strong I am if I could get mad but I can’t. I have Mr. Tempero Mick to thank for that.

  Boston looks at Mick who still has his head resting on his hands, on the table, “Maybe the other guys don’t know.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Mick says to the table. He sits up with an exaggerated smile and says cheerfully, “You’re screwed.”

  I still can’t get mad so I grab both his hands that are on the table in one of my hands. He looks confused by the gesture until I start squeezing. He seems worried for a minute then his smile returns as I start to feel the fuzzy feeling again. It’s the kind of fuzzy feeling you get when you find out your girlfriend can play video games as good as you. I jerk my hand back and look around making sure no one saw the loving gaze I just made at Mick while my hand held his.

  “I want another roommate,” I say standing up to leave.

  “Not going to happen,” Boston says getting up too.

  Mick is still smiling from his triumph, “We need to prove to everyone that there is no merit to what they’re saying.”

  He grabs his tray and despite me wanting some space from them both, we all walk together to dump our trays. We pass the table Mase and his friends are at on the way to leave. A heavy set Dyna sitting by Mase says hey to Boston and they exchange pleasantries as we walk by.

  “We’re going sky diving later. You wanna come along, Kelly?” Mase asks me.

  Just what I need from this guy. Abby is sitting across from him rolling her eyes at his remark but she looks at me waiting for an answer. I stop walking and turn to face Mase.

  I turn my focus to Abby and Lena, sitting beside each other, “How is ya’lls day going ladies?”

  Mase shoots up from his chair. Instead of Boston, it’s Mick that steps between us. Mase is unfazed by him. He stands there glaring at me, “Are you talking to them again?”

  “No, I was asking you and your friends. I am pretty sure I made the ‘ladies’ part clear.” That does the trick. The heavyset guy stands up next to Mase. He doesn’t intimidate me. He’s fighting not to smile just like Abby and Lena.

  Mase grabs his chair and throws it in my direction, then charges at me. Mick ducks from the chair flying at us. I swat it away. He gets to me quick but I’m ready. He hits me, grabbing my midsection to bring me to the ground. I use the force of his blow to fling us around. We hit a table. My maneuver only got us turned to our sides when we hit it. He isn’t the main one that takes the hit like I planned but he at least doesn’t have me pinned with my back on the table or on the ground like he was wanting. I’m still on the losing side though.

  His first punch is aimed for my bruised eye. I move so his fist glazes the side of my head. I grab his throat, squeezing. Mase pulls his arm
back again about to throw another punch when Mick grabs his arm. Two teachers are behind us now, one is the teacher that talked to us after Mick and Nikki’s tift.

  Mase’s arm falls down to his side. The rage in his eyes is gone. I take advantage of it and squeeze tighter. I feel it then, a calming ocean smothering me. I can breathe but the lust to fight is totally forgotten.

  “Great job,” the teacher says to Mick as we get off the table. “Next time do it before school property is thrown.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Can you handle him or do I need to walk him back to his room?” He asks Mick.

  Mick grabs the back of my upper arm, “I got him.”

  I snap my arm away from him.

  “I’ll be with them too,” Boston says.

  The teacher looks to Mase, “We expect more from a Valor.”

  “I..” Mase tries to respond but the teacher interrupts him, “Your mother will hear about this.”

  The other teacher crosses her arms and shakes her head in disappointment. With the fight diffused both teachers go back to their table. Mase gets his chair and brings it back to the table. The heavy set guy sits down saying, “Remind me to never ask him how his day is going.” The girls giggle but Mase glares at him.

  Boston blocks my view, “We should go.”

  Mick is quiet following us out of the cafeteria to the courtyard. Boston, of course, is anything but quiet, “Cheer up Kelly. So what more people know about it than we thought. We can come out of this okay.”

  “I don’t think this is the big deal y’all are making it out to be and what’s this “we” stuff?”

  “We’re friends aren’t we?”

  I think for a minute then say, “I guess so,” I don’t add, For all of a few hours. but I think it.

  “I know so, and if you have a weakness we all have a weakness.” Boston slows down for Mick to catch up to ask, “Are you on Kelly’s side?”

  Mick looks at Boston then at me, “Choosing Mase or a guy I barely know. That isn’t even a choice.”

  “Good.”

  He didn’t answer the question. Mick picks up steam pushing ahead of us.

  “He chose me, right?”

  “You aren’t the only one that can’t stand Mase. You’re just one of the few that stand a chance fighting him.”

  Boston has me recount the obstacle course once we make it to my room. Mick picks up his dirty clothes that are all over the room while I talk.

  “So my sweet Anne pushed you off the pier? I dig sneaky chicks.”

  I am laying on my bed with Boston sitting at my feet. I straighten my leg, hitting him rather hard with my foot. He pushes my foot off him and looses balance at the end of the bed.

  I say sternly to Boston, “She isn’t your anything and you better not dig her. What about that Nikki girl? She’s clearly single.”

  Boston catches himself with grace before falling on the floor.

  “You can have her,” Mick tells him.

  Mick pushes on some clothes crammed in an over-stuffed drawer until he can shut it.

  “I’m a good guy. Any girl I end up with would be lucky,” Boston assures us.

  I think about Mase and his crew of thugs, “She could do worse but she doesn’t need to be worried with you.”

  Mick throws some shoes in his closet, not caring where they land, “He’ll lose focus on her like he always does.”

  Boston fains hurt, “What are you saying, Mick?”

  “You’re easily distracted.”

  “Am not.”

  “What happened to you focusing on our new friend and his… issue?”

  “Right, right. We need to show everyone heights aren’t a problem for you,” Boston says oblivious that Mick proved how easily distracted he can be.

  We smile at each other.

  Boston sits down on Mick’s bed, across from me. “Maybe sky dive with a big group of students,” Boston says.

  Mick is sniffing some socks he picked up off the floor. I close my eyes trying not to listen to Boston’s ramblings.

  “What kind of strings will you have to pull to get a new student off campus this soon?” Mick asks.

  “Good point. He could go on the roof and spray paint a girls name on the side of the building. How do you feel about in-school-suspension?” Boston asks.

  I don’t reply hoping Mick will distract him and I can go to sleep.

  “Kelly?”

  Someone kicks my bed.

  I reluctantly prop myself up on my elbows, “I think this is stupid and anyone that thinks I’m less of a man can kiss my knuckles.”

  “Like how you made Mase kiss your knuckles,” Boston laughs.

  I cut my eyes at him. I sit up slowly to the sitting position acting like I’m about to attack.

  Boston freezes looking at Mick, “Mick?”

  Mick looks at me amused, “He’s not angry, just annoyed.”

  “Is that part of your ability too? You know my emotions too?” I ask him.

  Mick sits on top of his now clean desk, “Temps can only change them but Boston needs help reading peoples’ emotions sometimes because he’s under the delusion that he is always a pleasure to be around.”

  Boston is not disheartened, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m the guy everyone likes.”

  Mick points at Boston as he tells me, “And it is that kind of thinking that got him on Mase’s bad side.”

  Boston shakes his head, “It was a misunderstanding that we have since resolved.”

  Mick shakes his head back, “He acts like they’re friends thinking eventually it will happen but now he treads carefully to not piss off any Dyna.”

  Boston gets off the bed and reaches under the bed, “Better safe than sorry.”

  He pulls his arm out holding more socks. He tosses them at Mick. Mick doesn’t try to catch them as they fall on the floor at his feet.

  “You are rarely safe and you’re never sorry.” Mick tells him.

  “You have no idea how safe I am and am only sorry when I mess up.”

  “So you’re sometimes sorry,” Mick says looking at the socks on the floor in front of him.

  “I haven’t messed up yet, so no.”

  Mick rolls his eyes, picking up a notebook and pen. Neither of us are buying it.

  “If you don’t mess up then what do you call cleaning the welcome center?” I ask.

  Mick looks up from doodling in his notebook. He nods approvingly at me for calling Boston out.

  Boston looks around suspiciously like someone might be listening to our conversation. “Between us?” He whispers to Mick and I. We shake our heads yes. “It was planned,” Boston says quietly.

  Mick doesn’t look surprised by his lack of an actual answer.

  “What?” I ask Boston confused.

  A chime noise goes off in the hall.

  “You heard me. No repeats either,” he says getting off the bed and heading for the door. Mick does the same. When he passes me he turns his notebook page so I can see what he drew.

  “I think I captured him pretty good.” Mick tells me. It’s a drawing of a cow pooping with Boston written over the poop. “That’s a bull,” Mick clarifies.

  Boston is full of b.s.; I couldn’t agree more.

  “That’s good.” I tell Mick.

  Boston turns around and snatches the notebook, “Real mature.” He gives it back to Mick and walks out the room saying, “I hope you’re never undercover as an artist or you’ll be screwed.” Mick hands me a new notebook on his way to the door.

  “What’s that sound mean?” I ask.

  Mick stops to kick an article of clothing deeper into his closet, “Lunch is over and it’s time for ability advancement. Come on.”

  On Sunday afternoons they have class where students break up into ability specific small groups. A kid from stage two stops us in the hall. He looks to be twelve maybe thirteen, which would make him a fairly new stage two. He tells us he’s here to bring me to meet my group for a
bility advancement.

  “No offense, but why are you bringing him anywhere?” Boston asks him.

  “He’s part of my group,” he tells him looking at me cheerfully. “I’m Evan,” he says.

  To my relief he doesn’t offer me his hand to shake. I don’t want to shake any more hands for a while.

  I introduce myself, “Kelly.” then turn away from him. “So I’m going to be in a group of other newbies?” I ask Boston and Mick.

  They exchange looks.

  The kid looks at them, “Newbie?” Then it clicks with Evan that I think he must be new too. He looks back at me, “You are the only new person in the group. You just did horri—”

  Boston cuts him off, “Don’t say anything you might regret to the biggest guy in your group.”

  Evan looks at the ground for a short time as we walk down the hall. He finally looks back at me, “Your testing scores weren’t quite high enough for them to place you in your age group, but my group is off the chain so its not that big of a deal.”

  I look at Mick and Boston, “Are y’all in groups with stage three’s?”

  “Of course,” Mick answers.

  Boston elbows him. He’s oblivious to our conversation because he’s busy watching a Dyna our age bow up to a another stage three that isn’t a Dyna. As we walk by, the conflict dissolves as Mick does his Tempero magic. The smaller guy looks around for the person who came to his aide. The hall is filling up. Mick doesn’t say anything so the guy slips away without thanking him for the Dyna’s mood change.

  Mick and Boston leave me, going to their groups. Evan leads me out of the building, turning right.

  “So you’re the group leader or something?” I ask following him.

  “We take turns being in charge during missions.”

  “Oh.”

  I’m assuming he’s taking me to the field but we turn to the woods before we get to the pool. I get pumped up walking into the woods. I don’t know what to expect. I could see these Dynas playing a trick on me, the new guy. I hear some rustling the deeper we walk, but I don’t see anyone. The rustling stops and so does Evan, looking around saying, “Come out and meet Kelly.”