by Mettey, Tim
Eric blew his car horn right at 8:00 p.m. I ran down the stairs and out the front door, just in case Cora had changed her mind. Eric was sitting in his Beetle with his music blaring. The base was thumping and rattling his little car. After five minutes in there, I couldn’t take it anymore. I turned down the music.
“How do you still have your hearing after listening to music so loud?”
“Did you say something?” he asked, pretending like he couldn’t hear me.
He turned the music back up again and started to head bang. He definitely had the right hair for it. His long brown hair danced around to the beat of the music. I wished he’d pay more attention to the road than the music.
We spent the drive listening to the deafening rock music. When we got to the first gravel road outside of town, right off the main street, Eric turned down the radio. There was a worn out wooden sign that read, “Filler’s Quarry.” Eric pulled out a piece of paper. On it were handwritten directions and a crudely drawn map.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Directions to the party.”
“You need a map?”
“Yeah, there are over a hundred roads throughout the quarry and as many entrances. This makes it impossible for anyone like parents or cops to crash it without a map, even though almost everyone in town knows we’re having the party tonight. These quarry parties have been going on since my dad played football. I think my dad was jealous. He would have come if I’d invited him or if he’d found the map. I had to hide it in my boxers. He’s having a midlife crisis.”
We drove up and down gravel roads that all looked the same for ten minutes. Never once did I see a sign of another car, but just when I thought we were completely lost, I saw the glow of lights up ahead. There were at least a hundred cars parked all around a lake. Eric turned up his music again and we rattled into a parking spot. I got out quickly.
A group of JV football players were standing next to an old wooden dock that reached to the middle of the lake. This was no average lake that you would find out in the woods. It had been dug out and filled with water over time. The lake was enormous. There were a couple hundred people surrounding the lake next to the parked cars. There were several large lights on poles around the lake and some stretched over the water. The water was grey and murky. There were piles of rocks all around the lake, blocking all of the other possible entrances. There was only one way in and out.
Eric and I walked up to the group of JV guys at the end of the dock. Eric blurted out, “So what’s the rite of passage and who did he challenge?”
A guy I barely recognized from the team spoke up.
“Oliver challenged Chad, and you will never believe what they have to do! Oliver got an old car and they are going to drive down the dock. The last one to jump out before the car hits the water wins!”
“No way!” Eric said. “The dock will barely fit a car. Where are they supposed to land when they jump?”
“They are going to jump into the water.”
“No way!” Eric said again, even more excited. “Where did he get the car?”
“He bought the car from the junk car dealer in Alexandria. You know, the one with the big chicken out front.”
In an even louder voice, Eric shouted, “This is going to be the best rite of passage challenge ever!”
By the time it was 9:00, it looked like most of the school had shown up. I stayed with the pack of JV guys who were standing close to the dock, so I wouldn’t be noticed in the crowd. All of the varsity squad was standing where the dock connected to the gravel road. It was incredible that this many people were here.
“Eric, what do we do now? Are we just supposed to stand around and wait for this challenge thing?” I asked.
He looked at me shocked. “Of course and . . . we look for hot girls!” He brushed his hair out of his eyes like he was in a shampoo commercial.
There was a loud sound from behind us. I swung around, and at the entrance to the lake was a late model primer grey car with one of the headlights out. The car revved its engine and backfired. Thick black smoke plumed out of the tail pipe. The guys around the dock scattered. The crowd began to cheer. The car’s wheels began to spin, shooting rocks backward. For so much revving and spinning of its wheels, it didn’t go very fast.
As soon as the car hit the dock, both car doors flew open. The car looked like a plane going down the runway. The car was quickly running out of dock to drive on. A group of varsity players raced behind the car. With about half of the dock left, the passenger in the car jumped and landed feet first into the water with a big splash. The driver was still inside. Half of the guys chasing the car stopped to help Chad up onto the dock. Then, with barely any dock left before the car plunged into the water, Oliver dove out of the car head first, entering the water in a perfect dive. The car went off the edge of the dock and hit the water with a large splash. The car’s engine gurgled and sputtered, then died. The car sank into the depths of the lake in a matter of seconds.
The crowd roared to life. The rest of the varsity team pulled Oliver out of the water. He threw both arms up in the air, and the crowd cheered even louder like he was their king who was about to address his loyal subjects.
Oliver was eating up the attention. I thought I could actually see his head getting bigger. I looked around the lake at the cheering crowd. I noticed one person who wasn’t cheering in the middle of a group of girls. She was very noticeable, sitting on the hood of a blue sports car with her arms folded. I moved through the crowd of cheering JV guys to get a better look at the one other person who didn’t buy into the Oliver hype. Maybe she could be an ally or a friend. To my surprise, it was the girl from the stands, my angel, and she was no illusion. She looked mad, arms crossed, but still as beautiful as she was earlier at the football game. Even with such an obvious disapproval for what was going on, she still was a bright light in these dark surroundings. Eric hit me on the arm.
“Dude that was incredible, wasn’t it?”
“She sure is,” I said under my breath.
“Oliver is definitely the big man on campus now! There is no doubt about it!”
THE DEAL
CHAPTER NINE
The beginning of my first day at school went by quickly, but now I was trapped in fourth period biology with two of Eric’s friends. The two girls, whose names I didn’t catch, couldn’t believe I was playing varsity. I tried to diffuse them by emphasizing that I had only played in a scrimmage, but it didn’t work. All they wanted to do was talk about it. Mrs. Bellhorn, our teacher, had to be over a hundred years old and completely deaf. They talked straight through her entire “Welcome to Science” speech without her giving any reaction to the talking. The bell finally rang, setting me free. I hurried out of the classroom and lost them in the crowd of people in the halls.
My first day of school was almost over, but still no angel. I recognized some of the guys from the football team. It still amazed me how many people went to this school. I wondered why Cora hadn’t picked a large school like this before. It was so easy to blend in and get lost in the crowd.
“Excuse me. Excuse me. Can I have your attention, you busy little bees?” I recognized that person’s voice; it was my counselor, Joy Lemmins. She was being broadcast throughout the entire school using hundreds of small TVs mounted in the halls. She was wearing a flashy pink-plaid jacket. Her glasses were pulled down to read the announcements that were in front of her on a table.
“If everyone could report to their homeroomies,” she laughed at her little joke. “I know you were just there this morning, but we need to have our annual 10-10 Earthquake drill. Earthquakes are serious, so please listen to your teacher carefully so that we can keep you safe. Please go there now.”
She smiled at the camera for a second. A voice from outside of the viewing area said, “Cut,” but she was still on the TVs. She stood up and got her large jacket button caught on the table. She tugged so hard to free herself that she broke the button, and
the force sent her falling backwards into the backdrop. She landed on her back, feet straight up in the air. She started to scream a high-pitched squeal. Then the screen went blank. The students all around me were laughing at her.
I didn’t feel like laughing; I wanted to escape this horror. I didn’t want to take part in this earthquake drill. The thought of it made me sick to my stomach. I swallowed almost an entire pack of Tic Tacs on my way to homeroom, but I still felt sick. I sat down in Mr. Nickel’s class. He was a very tall man who looked like an eagle with his pronounced nose and little hair. He showed no emotion, so when he spoke it sounded robotic like he was reading a speech for the first time. He proceeded to talk about why earthquake safety was important, and coming from him it sounded even worse. I tried to block out everything he was saying. I didn’t want to hear it; it hurt too much. It hurt too much to remember. After his speech, he instructed us on how to protect ourselves from an earthquake.
“If we have another earthquake like the one on 10-10, the safest place is under your desk. So do it now and put your hands over your head until the bell rings. When the bell rings, you can go to your fifth bell class,” he squawked.
I curled up in a ball under my desk with my hands over my head, and I tried to fight the voices from the past coming back to haunt me, reminding me of everything I was trying to forget.
**
“Jim, I got back as soon as I could.”
“Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine.”
“Dave, what’s going on out there? It’s been too quiet here.”
“The quake leveled the city like we thought it did, and most of the neighboring towns, too. Most of the buildings in town are destroyed or are on fire. There are people searching frantically for friends and family in what is left of the town. Some of the firefighters are trying to fight the fire. I saw Jacob, Mason, and Lear from the department, but that was it. Isn’t the boy’s dad a firefighter?”
“I think he is, but I’m not positive.”
“Oh yeah, the National Guard has arrived. They have set up several temporary hospitals to get any survivors with critical injuries stable enough for transport.”
“Did you find your parents when you were in town?”
“No, I wasn’t able to find them at what was left of the post office, and I couldn’t get them on the phone. Whenever I call, I get the same message over and over. ‘I’m sorry. All circuits are busy. Please try back later.’ I’m pretty sure they are with my aunt on her farm. At least that is where they were heading this morning. This was their day off. That’s where I’m heading next. Did you get a hold of your folks?”
“One of my parents’ neighbors was here and said my mom was okay, but my dad punctured his lung and broke a couple ribs. They have taken him to Christ Hospital in Cincinnati. I guess they weren’t hit too hard by the quake, so that’s where people have been instructed to go if they can get there.”
“So what are you going to do with the boy? You should leave him with someone.”
“I’m friends with his aunt. She will be here any time. When I talked to her earlier, I told her I would wait with him here until she arrives.”
“You should have sent him with the rest of the kids so you could be with your dad in Cincinnati.”
“No, I need to stay with him and watch after him, especially after everything he’s done.”
“What has he done?”
“He has given us hope.”
**
The bell rang three times, snapping me out of my trance and ending the nightmare. I walked through the hall half-dazed, trying to block out any more of my memories of the earthquake. I found my fifth bell class, math. I was taking Advanced Geometry, which was normally an eleventh grade class. Cora always made sure that each new school I attended challenged me.
I sat in the front row, farthest away from the door. I could avoid eye contact with anyone that came in by sitting in this spot. Plus, I didn’t feel like talking with anyone.
My teacher was Coach Hoff, which was good because I was sure he would recognize me and not put me through the new student routine. The bell rang and everyone sat down. Coach Hoff walked in and started reading the attendance sheet, which he had on a clipboard.
“Hoffman.”
“Here.”
“Kramer.”
“Here.”
He missed me altogether. This was far worse than saying I was new because now I would have to raise my hand and get up in front of the class.
Then I heard a name that I did not want to hear. “Mr. Oliver Rails.”
“Yes, present,” said the smug voice from behind me.
“Finally, Ms. Yelling, are you here?” Coach Hoff called.
“Here.”
I slowly began to raise my hand. “Oh, Mr. Nicholas Keller, are you here?”
“Here,” I mumbled, lowering my hand quickly.
“Sorry about that. New students are at the end of the list and . . .” He continued to talk, but I didn’t hear him. His words ran together like gibberish. He said “new student” a couple more times and said something about football. I could feel the stares of the entire class boring holes into the back of my head. Why couldn’t he have just called my name? Oliver being in the class would be hard enough, and this was not helping things either.
It seemed like Coach Hoff talked about me for hours. Finally, he stopped. “Okay, class, we go to lunch at 11:20. You have twenty-five minutes to eat and get your butts back in the seats, ready to learn. See you back here soon.”
I was farthest away from the door, so I pretended to lean down to get stuff out of my backpack, hoping that most of the class would be gone by the time I got up.
“So, Keller is in our class. Aren’t we lucky?” I looked up to see Oliver with one of his buddies from the team standing just a few feet away from me, blocking the door.
“Hey, Oliver,” I said, pretending like we were friends.
“So how did a little tenth grader get into Advanced Geometry?”
“I took geometry at my last school.”
“Oh, a smarty,” his friend laughed. I tried to walk around them. Oliver stepped in front of me, blocking my escape.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
My muscles started to tighten and the fire began to burn.
“Keller, you need to be respectful to your superiors, in here and on the field.”
I looked up at Oliver ready for a fight.
“Oliver, leave him alone,” a female voice rang out from behind him. He looked back at her and that was my chance. I walked by him out of the class. I walked down the busy hall quickly, hoping she could buy me enough time to duck into the bathroom to hide. I walked into the first bathroom I could find, locking the stall door. My muscles began to relax as time passed. I grabbed my Tic Tacs from my pocket and popped some into my mouth. The cool taste calmed my stomach. At this rate I would eat a pack a day here.
What was happening to me? The sickness I usually experienced in the mornings was now happening all the time. I never felt this bad when I was younger, and those days were a lot more stressful. I came out of the stall carefully, making sure to see if the coast was clear. I was alone. I stared at my pale face in the mirror and splashed water on it to gain some composure before going back out.
I walked to the cafeteria watching out for Oliver and his buddy. There were hundreds of kids everywhere eating their lunches. Still, I knew that Oliver would not have a hard time finding me if he wanted to. I would have to hide.
A group of students was in front of me. I hurried up to walk with them to get food. When we got to the food court, I was stunned. They had everything you could ever want to eat and more. It was like a bunch of restaurants all put together right in the middle of the cafeteria. There were at least twenty people working the different lunch lines. They were all dressed in long white coats and hair nets. They looked like they should be in labs, not fixing food. All of the food was prepared for you while you waited
. No soggy old food; everything was fresh. They had the basics like hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches, salads, and snack food. In addition to those items, they had Mexican food, Chinese food, and a whole buffet line of different hot dishes. It took me five minutes just to decide on the pizza and fries. With everything that had happened before lunch, I only had five minutes left to eat and get back to class.
I sat down at one of the empty tables off to the side of the enormous lunchroom and began to eat quickly.
“What’s your hurry?”
I turned and looked up with a mouth full of pizza. It was her, my angel.
“Now, don’t choke,” she smiled. “You don’t need to hurry so much. Mr. Hoff always comes back from lunch at least ten minutes late.”
I slowly started to chew my food again, unable to look away from her beautiful blue eyes. She batted them at me and turned and walked away. Her voice was unmistakable. The beautiful girl from the stands and the party was the same one who just defended me. I couldn’t believe it. Maybe my luck was changing.
“Hey, Keller! You on this lunch too?” Eric was walking toward me with what looked like half of the buffet items on his tray. Matt, another guy who I kind of knew from the JV team, was right behind him with a bunch of french fries hanging out of his mouth.
“No, I have to be back in a minute.”
Eric flipped the chair around and sat on it backwards. Matt copied him. “Who do you have this period?” Eric asked.
“I have Coach Hoff.”
“You’re lucky,” Matt said with a mouth full of food. “I heard he sometimes doesn’t even come back from lunch. Most of the varsity team has him for math. At least that’s one class they all pass.”
“Well, Keller, it looks like we will have the same lunch after all,” Eric said.
I was done eating my food a few minutes after they sat down. I started to get up. I didn’t want to take the chance that Coach Hoff was going to be on time this year or risk possibly meeting Oliver in the hall.
