Average Joe and the Extraordinaires

by Belart Wright

  The hall erupted with laughter. Even Dozz joined in until Fleez gave him a bear hug and made their shirts match. Remarkably, no one was suspended throughout the whole ordeal, though they were all reprimanded.

  Everything had gotten a lot better with Kate as of late. She and Joe took a few days to get closer, and spent most of their time together after school. She had taken it upon herself to nurse Joe’s injuries. She made him food, massaged his neck and back, and made him take hot Epson salt baths. Joe thought he’d surprise her in a few days with tickets for the fall ball which was quickly coming up. He knew she would be ecstatic when he presented them to her.

  The word around the school was that Patrias had either gotten into a car accident or had been fired. The teachers were mostly tightlipped about anything concerning him. The one’s that said anything just said he was sick and left it at that. Joe didn’t feel the need to tell anyone the truth. He didn’t want any of them asking how he knew what he knew. He figured they’d all find out eventually anyway.

  That left Joe with time to study and focus on his school work. He attacked it with as much ferocity as if he were still on Patrias’ Zero Tolerance list.

  At the end of the week, Joe stood outside in the blinding sun as it beamed down on the school’s student parking lot, waiting for Mod. He looked over and saw him approaching the car with a rather somber look on his face. His sister walked by his side. Mod walked over to the passenger side door, opened it and sat down in the passenger’s seat, while Kate walked over to Joe’s side to give him a light kiss on the lips.

  Kate: “Hey, baby-cakes, I missed you.”

  Mod scrunched up his face.

  Mod: “Gross!”

  Kate: “Nobody asked you, booger-face!”

  Kate’s voice took on a light English accent when she yelled, something she always tried to suppress. Joe couldn’t help but laugh.

  Joe: “I missed you more, sugar-lips.”

  Mod looked equal parts disgusted and disappointed.

  Mod: “Not you too. You’re both going to make me hurl.”

  Kate ignored him this time. She traced the brim of Joe’s collar playfully with the tip of her finger.

  Kate: “What are you up to today, hun?”

  Joe: “I guess me and Mod’ll go visit a few friends of mine.”

  Kate: “He hasn’t told you?”

  Joe: “Told me what?”

  Joe looked at Mod, who was facing in the other direction.

  Kate: “He has a date.”

  Joe: “You’re kidding! With who?”

  Mod turned around, looking annoyed.

  Mod: “You don’t have to sound so surprised about it.”

  Joe: “I’m just happy for you is all. Who’s the lucky girl?

  Kate: “It’s Meribeth Hilday. I set it up. It’s just … after what those bullies did to her she’s been so down in the dumps, and I’ve always known that she has a crush on Mod. She’s liked him since they were children, which this lug-head never noticed.”

  Joe laughed.

  Joe: “So he’s the lug-head and I’m the lunk-head? I don’t know which one’s worse.”

  Kate: “Lug-head’s worse.”

  Mod: “I’m not going.”

  Kate: “You will and you will like it. You owe her for sitting back and doing nothing while those mongrels hacked her reputation to pieces.”

  Joe: “She has a point, Mod. Plus Meribeth is actually pretty cute. I thought you’d be able to see past everyone’s petty opinions of her.”

  Mod: “I can. That’s why I’m taking her out to the movies. I don’t care who sees us.”

  Joe: “But you just said—”

  Kate: “He’s just being difficult ‘cause this is his first date. In a way it’s kind of cute. Too bad my brother voids the cuteness factor. But since he’s occupied, what will you do now?”

  Joe: “Well, maybe you can come with me then. I could introduce you to all my new friends.”

  Kate shook her head and smiled.

  Kate: “No, you go and have fun. I still have a paper to work on. Just call me when you get back home.”

  Joe: “Okay.”

  She kissed him on the cheek and walked back towards the school.

  ************

  After Joe dropped Mod off he headed to the city, to an old apartment complex that he had come to know well. It had been several weeks since he had last seen Borland’s apartment, and to him it looked like nothing had changed, outside or inside. The same security guard sat at the front desk and eyed him in the same suspicious manner as he had long before.

  Joe stopped at the vending machine after he walked into the lobby and decided that his luck was on the rise. He found a row of delicious Snickers candy bars. He put in his money, tapped in the code, and picked up his mouth-watering bounty. Only this time he wasn’t hungry for it. He decided to save it for Melissa.

  This time around, he intuitively noticed more people giving him quick glances as they passed. He not only noticed the overt stares, but the sly ones as well. He was confident there were many he didn’t notice, but he felt good at what he did.

  He took the elevator up to the sixth floor and walked down the hall towards Borland’s apartment. He was greeted along the way by the old lady with the cold blue eyes. Everything’s still the same, he thought, until Melissa opened Borland’s apartment door. There were bright and vibrant pictures hung all over the walls, all made with colorful construction paper. There were pictures of flowers, small suns that were gathered like marbles, and multicolored butterflies each layered with different colors of construction paper. Dahlila sat on the couch which was covered with a colorful cover depicting the sun and clouds. She lazily grinned and barely waved at Joe from her seat.

  Melissa: “Joe! I missed you soooo much!”

  He bent down to hug the little girl, and with his free hand pulled a box of playing cards from his shorts pocket.

  Joe: “I brought playing cards and board games with me. This one’s new, it’s called Flipz. The others are in my backpack.”

  The little girl’s eyes widened.

  Melissa: “You’re going to stay?”

  Joe chuckled.

  Joe: “Not forever but, you know, for a few hours.”

  Borland yelled from the kitchen.

  Borland: “So are you gonna stand there like an idiot or what? You’re letting all the cool air out.”

  Melissa: “Come on, we can all play!”

  ************

  Joe used his weekend to just sit back and rest his body. It worked extremely well. Once he was back in school, Fleez and Dozz thought it suitable to welcome him back to school with a “welcome back stinkball,” their words, according to the note in Joe's locker. Nasty yellow sulfurous gas leaked from several of the lockers around the halls, showering everyone in a blanket of stink and smoke. Several kids ran through the halls coughing and covering their mouths.

  Mod: “No wonder they didn’t show up yet. Let’s get out of here.”

  There was chaos all around throughout the halls. Amidst the chaos was something that made Joe’s heart nearly leap out of his chest. He stood still, transfixed by what he saw. Only now did he realize how dry his throat was.

  Patrias: “Don’t worry, kids, everything’s under control.”

  He stared straight at Joe with stony eyes.

  Patrias: “I’ll take care of all this in a snap.”

  He smiled and lifted his hand to the sky. Today he wore more rings than Joe had ever seen him wear. There was one on each of his fingers. Joe was relieved to see that the man wasn’t carrying his wand at the moment, his killing instrument. No wand, no magic.

  Click!

  Patrias snapped his fingers and water erupted from the overhead sprinklers. The smoke and the smell were washed away quickly, but so was the student body, who all ran for the exits. Joe was the only one standing with his eyes on the principal. He stood briefly paralyzed as he pieced together just what those rings were for.

 
; Patrias: “Don’t run and don’t hide, my dear students! This is a new day and there will be some changes around here. No need to fear. I’ll make sure you’re all taken care of.”

  It was then that Joe ran to his friends.

  Epilogue

  She picked a cool dark night like tonight to make her task less strenuous. Plus, she hated to sweat, and that’s all she seemed to be doing in Orangetown as of late. Tonight she had ditched the bright colors, which she’d lately used on her bike, for deep shades of black. She accomplished this change with a mere thought. Her clothes matched her bike and the night sky. The deep blacks were accented with dark purples. She’d tied her hair into a long braid earlier to make it less unruly, even though she could’ve just made it shorter with no effort at all. She hated to use craftes when she didn’t absolutely need to anyway. She still wasn’t as good at them as she wanted to be.

  She snuck into the penthouse apartment complex easily enough. She was trained to move through the shadows effortlessly, but it was her own natural grace and ease of movement that gave her such an advantage moving in absolute silence. The security had no idea that she was there, even when she literally stood only a few steps behind them.

  Her destination was on the uppermost, the fifth floor. That’s where her target was. After four floors of stealthy evasion, she only had one more floor to go. She continued to avoid the stairs. She didn’t want to make it too easy for herself. She chose to use the apartment below her target to infiltrate his penthouse. She snuck into the apartment, taking care to avoid possible creaky parts of the floor. She made it to the door of the balcony and opened it slowly, and once outside closed the door behind her.

  She climbed up to a window above, and from there climbed up again to the larger balcony of the penthouse suite. She whipped out her lock-picks, but put them away when she saw that his door was already unlocked. He always spoils the fun, she thought.

  She walked into the lavish apartment and found her mark sitting comfortably near his fireplace sipping a glass of wine and reading some old tome similar to the ones she used to read long ago before she came to America.

  Robert Grabas: “Welcome. Come on in. Rest your feet, my little night owl. I’ve been expecting you.”

  He pointed to a chair at the side of the table that was next to him. He did so without looking up from his text.

  Robert Grabas: “Go on, have a seat. We have much to discuss.”

  She did as he had bid. She did so wordlessly but slowly, out of a natural sense of rebellion.

  Robert Grabas: “So … it seems you’ve managed to rough up a few of my pawns, and now it looks like they may even be facing jail time.”

  Liandra: “Yes, but knowing you it’s only a minor setback for your operations.”

  Robert Grabas: “And a very temporary measure I assure you. Patrias is already free, as a matter of fact. Good effort anyway. But I’m curious, why waste such effort into spoiling my plans? Was it really all for that girl?”

  She stared at him, at his gray hair. She still wasn’t used to seeing him with it, though his face was still the exact same from all those years ago. His question was disingenuous. He knew that she knew that he was digging for something under the surface, both figuratively and literally.

  Liandra: “No, but I did have my reasons. I know what you’re after.”

  Grabas laughed brazenly.

  Robert Grabas: “You only know part of what I want. Did it ever occur to you that what I’m looking for may actually help us both? Our paths are not so different.”

  That was a start, but she needed more.

  Liandra: “My teachers died before I could figure out what my purpose really was. I don’t know where my path will take me or even if whatever those monks saw in me is still there. I have a hunch that you’ve found some piece of the past and a purpose for your dreams.”

  He laughed again, this time longer and heartier.

  Robert Grabas: “So you’ll use me to get something that you don’t even understand? You’re just filled with surprises. I can’t say that I approve of that foolish course of action. You’re useless to me like this, but you’re more useless to yourself. You won’t get anywhere until you figure out just who and what you are. Your dreams and nightmares mean nothing until you do.”

  So, somehow her history had played a part in all of this, but she had no clue how. Before the Order of the Owl was decimated, they’d told her as much. She thought about what Grabas said. He was right, she couldn’t argue it. She had collected clues, but they were only pieces of whatever he was planning, she knew that. It was his history that she was now following and she hoped that led to more answers for her own. She needed to get more from him before she left tonight. She needed him to let slip just a tiny bit more.

  Liandra: “I’ve seen what you’re digging up under that stadium.”

  He laughed derisively at her.

  Robert Grabas: “So what? Do you want to blackmail me?”

  Liandra: “I know that there is a small cache of a certain rare mineral hidden under that stadium. You’re mining it and testing it.”

  Robert Grabas: “Is that all?”

  She was on thin ice now, she knew. There was no way she would play her one trump card on this encounter. She had seen what the man was so desperately trying to hide under the stadium, or rather she had seen the gigantic lock that hid his secret. There was some sort of vault, she knew, in the deepest layer of the place. It was surprisingly unguarded but impenetrable all the same. She didn’t think it suited her purpose for Grabas to know what she had seen. She didn’t have the key needed to open it anyway. She instead played it cool by getting a little hot.

  Liandra: “You’re doing more than mining. You’re also testing on humans. I’m going to stop you. Whatever it takes.”

  He slowly shook his head while he shrugged his shoulders.

  Robert Grabas: “You need to figure out just what it is you're stopping first. Once you learn a thing or two you might even decide to join me. It’s not my place to teach you these things, however.”

  She realized that he wouldn’t be fooled into revealing any more of his plan, not tonight.

  Liandra: “Funny, because you take the liberty to teach me at every turn. Maybe it’s because you’re getting old.”

  He subconsciously rubbed his gray hair.

  Robert Grabas: “Well, I’ve laid out the path for you to follow, but I cannot make you become enlightened.”

  Liandra: “I’ve had better teachers.”

  He laughed as she rose from her seat.

  Robert Grabas: “And they’ve done a wonderful job.”

  She sauntered over to the window, leaving him behind to his book.

  Liandra: “I’ll be in touch.”

  Robert: “You always are, when you want to be. But hey—my security is lax on the nights when I'm expecting you. So please, use the front door next time.”

  Liandra grinned and turned to face him one final time.

  Liandra: “Where’s the fun in that?”

  Thanks Yous and Reviews

  I must thank you all for purchasing, downloading, and reading my book. I love to write and the ultimate validation for that seems to be when others can get lost in and enjoy what I’ve created. Well I hope you enjoyed it anyway. There is no way that I, a starving artist, can achieve my goals without you glorious readers so please continue to check out my work and root for me. I am ridiculously grateful for your precious time.

  This is my first official novel and so I really need to kick up some dust and bring attention to my work. To that end I’d humbly like to ask you to please review my book at the websites below. Just give your honest-to-goodness opinion, good or bad. Make it long, make it short –I don’t care – just make it. Without those reviews it’s very tough to make a splash in the indie book scene.

  Amazon Review Link

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  I’d also like to extend an offer to you all to be a part of my ARC group and receive
copies of my future books before they are released to the public. To do this you just have to review this book then send me a link or screen capture of your review to belartwright@gmail.com along with a request to receive an ARC of my next book, which will be Average Joe and the Beauty.

  Again, thank you and many blessings to you my glorious reader.

  Acknowledgements

  No man is an island and so I'd like to thank a lot of people for being involved in my life. I'd like to thank my whole pantheon of family and friends. Though I consider myself a loner, these folks have proved me wrong time and time again with so much support and understanding. None of the folks in my sphere were naysayers and most supported me and my ambitions through and through.

  I want to thank my friends, mainly my brothers at FlubberKnuckle Studios. My core group of "brothers" has mainly consisted of Mark our ifso-facto leader, Ryan the brains of the outfit, and Alex the heart of it all. Our friendship has continued strongly since those days eagerly debating and swapping videogame and anime knowledge at our 9th grade 4th hour lunch table. We've since become best friends, business partners, co-creators, and mainly brothers. Beyond these four are the solid additions of Lloyd who is working on a special novel of his own, Will who like Alex is also the heart of our little group, Gabby who is forever the troll and also the first reader of my novel Hell Warriors, and Sophie who is for all intents and purposes FlubberKnuckle's first lady but beyond that an incredibly big hearted person and gifted smartass.

  I want to thank my family the Blacks from whom Average Joe gets his surname. The talent of my siblings bolstered my own confidence in myself. Seeing that they all held so much talent in some way, shape, or form over the English language helped me search inside of myself for a greatness that could match theirs. To all of my wise beyond their years brothers: Shannon, Billy, and Anthony. To my beautiful and gifted sisters: Ari and Bridgitt. To my cousin Maurice and my nephew Aric who are both so close to my age and heart that they are like brothers. To all my lovely young nieces and nephews: Alyssia the brainiac, Ayanna the troublemaker, Jovantae the gentleman, Auji the genius, and Jovae the little powerhouse. To my gracious mother Regina, my loving aunt Elaine, and my wise and powerful granny...umm granny. Thank you all! This book is dedicated to you and your struggles. Thank you all for being there for me and with me!