The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  “All right, crush girl, let’s go to school.” I smiled.

  “Crush girl? You and Ryan are the ones who are finally speaking after a year of pining over each other. At least I’m being bold.” Nancy was almost offended, but her grin stayed in tact.

  “Fine. I’m crush girl, you’re slut girl.” I ducked before Nancy could hit my head with a laugh.

  Nancy laughed with me and put her arm in mine as we walked to her door. “Hopefully school will be uneventful and boring. I need to have at least one day of relaxation.”

  Great. Now I knew I was in for trouble. Might as well dare the universe to spit on us. But of all the places I could be right now, school did appear to be the safest. Jill would seem like a good friend compared to what I had been through the last couple of days.

  “Can we eat something? I’m starving.” I knew we were short on time, but I needed a full stomach to face the day.

  “Sure. We can watch my mom fumble over every word with Jason. I swear she’s driving him crazy!” Nancy rolled her eyes.

  “Unlike you.” I couldn’t resist.

  “I’m driving him crazy in other ways.” Nancy squeezed my arm with a small laugh.

  We walked down the winding stairs and made our way through the house to the kitchen table. Jason was there with George and Vianne fawning over his every word. It was kind of cute. Jason was the oldest by far of the entire group. George and Vianne were only in their forties, though everyone at the table looked eighteen.

  Vianne’s eyes lit up when she saw us enter. “Girls, sit down. Have a quick bite.”

  The doorbell rang at that very moment.

  George stood up as if being with three girls and Jason put him at his limit of tolerance. “I’ll get that,” he mumbled under his breath as he hurried to the front door.

  Nancy and I sat down across from Jason who was stuffing a cheese omelet in his mouth.

  “Jason, here, was just telling me how brave you were last night, Chelsan.” Vianne smiled from ear to ear.

  I nearly choked on my toast. Did Jason really tell her what happened? My mind raced. She obviously seemed fine about the whole thing, proud even, but the more people that knew my secret the more danger they would be in. I was about to respond when Jason cut me off.

  “If Chelsan hadn’t noticed that mugger and called the cops, that poor lady would have been breathing through a tube the rest of her life.” Jason smiled eagerly at me.

  So proud of himself. What an idiot. Why would he even make that up?

  “Anyone would have done the same.” I jammed a fork full of scrambled eggs before I was forced to say anything more.

  Jason’s annoyed eyes met mine. “Vianne was just asking why we came in so late last night. Filling out paper work, giving our statements. It was a good thing Nancy was there for support. I know Chelsan really appreciated it.”

  Oh. Maybe he wasn’t such an idiot.

  “Anything for my girl,” Nancy said with a grin.

  “You guys ready?” Bill’s voice came from behind us.

  I turned around in my seat. Bill was there with his usual smile to greet me. I felt a rush of emotion when I saw him. Bill had really been there for me from the moment he gave me a brand spanking new electronic reader to picking us up last night at the virtual bar. Nancy and Bill really were my best friends. I never knew how much they cared until my life became the current nightmare I was living. It was hard for me to accept that Bill may have feelings for me other than friendship. I had to admit there were times where I was tempted because of how safe he made me feel, but I truly didn’t feel that way for him. I cared about him so much I almost wish I did like him, to spare him any hurt. I didn’t want to be the jerk that broke his heart.

  Bill grabbed a piece of my toast and shoved it down his throat. “We’re going to be late.”

  “We’re coming, we’re coming, geez Bill,” Nancy said.

  “You guys have your stuff?” George asked from the hallway.

  He walked in followed by Ryan.

  My heart jumped in my throat and I suppressed the urge to laugh. Ryan didn’t miss a beat. Aside from the quick wink he acted as if he hadn’t just spent the morning with me upstairs.

  “I was just talking to Ryan here and he was telling me about the new hydro-converters they installed at the school. Pretty state of the art stuff,” George said as if he was incredibly impressed by Ryan’s knowledge. “I might want to hire you when you graduate.” George patted Ryan’s shoulder like a proud father.

  Nancy guffawed. “You and everyone else on the planet! Dad, Ryan’s already had about a million offers from the top science research labs in the world. Get in line. He’s the kid who solved Trildion’s Theorem. Duh.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but I’d like to try college first,” Ryan said diplomatically.

  Regardless of Ryan trying to let George down with grace, he still looked pretty humbled and embarrassed. George probably thought he was being generous, but Ryan’s I.Q. put him above and beyond any job George could offer him at the Science Corp. It was basically considered the lower end of the science community, like making hydrogen fuel cells for cars and appliances and such. Good money, but not much respect in the science world.

  Ryan walked over to me, his sandy blonde hair ruffled in all the right places, and kissed my forehead. My knees nearly buckled.

  “Hey,” I said, trying to hide the shake from my voice. I kept on flashing to this morning when he held my face in his hands…

  “Hey,” he said in an “oh so cool” tone. How could he do that so consistently?!

  “Seriously, we’re late.” Bill’s voice deflated the mood like a depression.

  I looked over at him and I could tell he was trying to hide his irritation at my obvious feelings for Ryan. I wanted to make him feel better, but I didn’t know how, and I figured the more he saw us together, the easier it would eventually be.

  “Okay, I’ll get my stuff,” I said as nicely as I could to Bill, which appeared to make a visible improvement in his expression. It went from angry to shaking his head in exasperation.

  “Already ahead of you.” Nancy walked over to the counter and tossed me a backpack. “Your reader is in there.”

  Vianne, George and Jason walked the four of us to the front door.

  I turned to Jason before we left the house. “Are you going to be here when I get back?”

  Jason leaned in to whisper in my ear again, which made both Nancy and Ryan completely annoyed. “I just wanted to make Nancy jealous. Think it’s working?”

  “Yes. Now answer my question.” I couldn’t believe I ever had a crush on this man-whore.

  “Of course. We’re in this together. I’ll research as much as I can about Turner and about your special gift. When this place is clean, I’ll tell you everything I know about the ceremony he performed. We’ll figure this out, get you safe. And get me safe while I’m at it.” Jason pulled away with a grin.

  Ryan grabbed my hand territorially and threw one last look of “aggressive boy speak” over at Jason. It didn’t faze Jason at all. He walked back into the house with Nancy’s parents.

  As we were climbing into Bill’s hover-car Nancy leaned in close to me. “What did he say?”

  I sighed. This was going to be a long day.

  Driving to school was actually nice. I sat there quietly while the three of them filled me in on what our cover story was. It was basically what Jason had told Nancy’s parents with a few added details. Bill seemed to have accepted my power with as much enthusiasm as everyone else had. His only issue being that he hadn’t seen me do it yet. Ryan told him all about the plant I brought back to life and the two of them actually bonded. Well, if my curse can bring my boyfriend and one of my best friends together then bully for me, I guess. Boyfriend. It had a nice ring to it.

  And during the whole ride over, Nancy would always manage to bring the conversation back to the topic of Jason.

  I couldn’t help but smile. These were the peop
le who were going to stick with me through everything no matter how hard or how ugly. And I suddenly felt extremely lucky. My mom would be so happy.

  Bill drove his hover-car into the designated parking area for students. It was about half-full.

  “I’d prepare myself if I were you Chelsan. We’ll keep you surrounded.” Bill was in strategic mode and I wasn’t sure why.

  “What do you mean? I thought it was going to be safe at school?” Maybe he was just being cautious.

  Bill exited the car and opened the back door where I was sitting. He leaned in and smiled at me as if I were a completely naïve idiot. “Chelsan, your whole trailer park was demolished and your mother died, people are going to treat you differently. There may be press as well. This is a big story. Especially since you go to this school, you’re the only person of meager means to have been accepted. I’m surprised Jason isn’t on this.”

  I stepped out of the car with a grumble. I knew he was right, I hadn’t thought about those kind of consequences I was so focused on the someone trying to kill me part. “This is going to suck.”

  Nancy came around and gave me a supportive squeeze. “It’ll be fine. Mostly people will just stare and feel sorry for you.”

  “Keep an eye out for Jill. If Joan was right about Turner giving Jill’s dad orders, who knows what she’ll do to you.” Ryan had positioned himself next to me and I felt his hand wrap around mine like I belonged to him. If everyone was going after me today, I wanted his hand permanently attached to mine.

  We walked through the school’s third floor entrance to a melee of flash photography and screaming reporters.

  “Here we go,” I mumbled under my breath.

  I couldn’t believe the amount of people that were swarming around me like locusts. Nancy, Bill and Ryan quickly formed a circle of protection around me acting like my own personal guard dogs.

  “CHELSAN! CHELSAN!” The press was shouting my name, edging closer, I felt like a celebrity.

  Bill leaned down so I could hear him from above all the ruckus. “Reporters aren’t allowed in the classrooms. We just need to get you to Mr. Alaster’s.”

  Nancy took the lead and literally shoved anyone who was in our way, including students. Most of the inhabitants of Geoffrey Turner High never gave me a second thought except to spit on me or shove me on Jill’s orders, but now they looked at me like stunned deer. I couldn’t figure out if this was good or bad. Their expressions certainly didn’t give me much help. I was like a slow moving hover accident that they couldn’t keep their eyes off of.

  We inched our way toward Mr. Alaster’s class on the first floor. The whole time questions were shouted from the reporters around us. Mostly they wanted to know about the tornado and the mysterious green smoke I claimed to have seen. Others were asking about Bruce and where he could be located. So far, nothing of real panic. I could ignore them in good conscious. I just wished that this story would get old and they’d leave me alone soon.

  Just as we were about to enter Mr. Alaster’s class, the entire press corps stopped in their tracks as if someone had hit them all with a stun gun. They appeared to be listening to something.

  Ryan leaned in with a sigh of relief. “It’s their ear pieces. Stopping like that means that they’re all getting some breaking news story. This might just be your lucky day. For them all to be silent like that, the news will be pretty big.”

  I took a deep breath of thankfulness as Nancy reached for the door and started to open it. Hopefully, whatever it was that they were listening to was way more interesting than me.

  A slow buzz of excitement started at the end of the hallway and came to a roar in a matter of seconds. But instead of deserting me like I expected them to, they shoved their way closer, eyes alight with the fire of a burning story.

  They were screaming at me all at once, desperate for me to answer, but I couldn’t differentiate what any of them were trying to ask me.

  “Come on.” Nancy shoved me inside the room with Ryan squeezing my hand harder than before. Bill came in with us even though he had Calculus first period.

  And just as Nancy was shutting the door in the reporters’ faces I could hear one reporter above the rest. “What do you think about Vice President of Population Control Geoffrey Turner coming to meet with you today in person?!”

  Nancy slammed the door shut and looked at me with horrified eyes.

  Gulp. What was that?

  My whole body went numb. Turner’s coming to meet me? Today?! My mind reeled and I thought my brain was going to explode.

  Mr. Alaster was suddenly in my face, full of concern and sympathy. “Let’s get you to your seat. I can’t believe you actually came to school today. You should take it easy. We can send your work home with Nancy,” he said this in a rush. Mr. Alaster apparently wasn’t used to the news being right outside his door practically salivating through the window. It was like watching cats in front of a mouse hole, just waiting for me to come back out so they could pounce.

  I let Mr. Alaster lead me to my seat even though it meant parting with Ryan’s hand. Ryan didn’t even let poor Ernie Gelson have a choice when he made him switch seats so that Ryan could sit next to me. Nancy, of course, sat in her usual seat, on my other side, and Bill stood awkwardly behind me.

  Mr. Alaster patted Bill on the shoulder. “You may go to your first period now, Bill. I have things under control here.”

  Bill gave me a last look of encouragement and then braved his way through the door. Roars of questions greeted him and most likely a team of them would follow Bill all the way to Calculus as well.

  That’s when I noticed Jill and Joan staring at me from their desks a few seats back. It was hard to say what was going on in their little pea brains, but whatever it was it didn’t look favorable to my cause. Jill was downright hostile. Which isn’t exactly new, but the way she was looking at me made me worry. She knew something and I wanted to know what it was. Maybe it would help me prepare for Turner’s visit today.

  I tried to breathe evenly and slowly. Turner wouldn’t kill me today, not with all these witnesses. Unless, he made it look like an accident. I could hear the headlines now: “Geoffrey Turner consoles survivor when she accidently falls down a flight of steps…”

  Jason said it best: I was so dead.

  I had to stay ahead of the game. I had to be smarter than him, like my dad when he flipped Turner’s spell back on itself and saved my mom and I. I had to keep reminding myself that I had a power that Turner couldn’t touch.

  I swallowed in dread.

  Maybe he could.

  I thought about the soldiers yelling “Zombie 442.” I thought about the green smoke. I thought about my mother’s vision of Turner’s arm slicing open and then sealing back up with an ugly white scar…

  He had powers. Or access to them.

  And they may trump mine.

  I just didn’t know.

  I didn’t want to start sweating in a fit of panic in front of everyone in the class so I settled on taking deep breaths. And besides, I couldn’t give Jill the satisfaction of seeing me in such distress. She was probably on orders to spy on me and I didn’t want to give Turner any indication that I was scared to death of him. And I was.

  Mr. Alaster kept on looking at me but pretending that he wasn’t. And although I could tell he was concerned, it was making me more nervous.

  “Settle down. Settle down. I still have a class to teach despite all the excitement,” Mr. Alaster said to an already quiet class. His mind was so focused on the reporters outside he hadn’t even noticed that the classroom was silent. “Click your readers to page four-hundred and six.” And he delved into a long and boring lecture that no one really paid attention to. Half the time I don’t think even he was listening to himself, his eyes kept roaming from me to the frosted glass square of the door and the silhouetted forms of the press on the other side.

  The click of the PA system made Mr. Alaster jump slightly.

  “Oh! Everyone quiet! A
n announcement!” Mr. Alaster waved his hands as if we were all screaming loudly.

  Again, no one was talking. If I weren’t so terrified, I’d actually find his behavior kind of funny.

  The Principal’s voice crackled through the speaker hanging over the door. “May I have your attention please?” A pause then a deep breath, “It has come to my attention that Vice President of Population Control Geoffrey Turner will be gracing us with his presence at our school today. This will be the first time he’s made an appearance here since the grand opening twenty years ago so I expect all of you to be on your best behavior. His sole mission is to express his condolences to one of our very own, Ms. Chelsan Derée after the tragedy that destroyed her home and family. Our hearts go out to you, Ms. Derée. The assembly will be after class. Have a good day and back to work.”