That took me aback. “Leave you alone? What are you talking about?”
“Well, people are saying you’ve all got a sleeping disorder,” Eugene said. “And they say it’s contagious. Nobody knows if it’s by touch or just in the air, and it’s got people freaking out. Some people tried to get their parents to ask the school to ask your parents not to let you come back here, to send you to some kind of special needs school.”
I reeled. This was nuts. I mean, literally. We pass out in class, and people think we’re diseased and going to infect them with some kind of crazy sleeping sickness?
But then again, this was high school. As far as rational places went, it wasn’t. And it wasn’t like we could tell anyone what was really going on to ease their fears. “Oh, don’t worry, guys, it’s just that when we sleep now we go to an alternate dimension called Midrealm where we’re all wizards and battle Chaos to save your lives!”
I smiled weakly, but it wasn’t at the absurdity of the thought. I had to say something to Eugene. “Oh,” I said. “That’s pretty funny. Um, yeah. The doctors say it’s definitely a sleeping disorder. But don’t worry, it’s not contagious. And they said we won’t pass out again. It was just…the first onset. We’re good now.”
Eugene stared at me, unconvinced. “If it’s not contagious,” he pointed out, “then how did you all get it at the same time, in the same room?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s something in the schoo — ” I backpedaled quickly. The last thing I wanted was to freak out everyone in the school and make them all think they were going to catch the same “sleeping disorder” we had. “I mean, uh, no, we just all kind of have a recessive gene, I guess. When it triggers in one person, there’s this kind of chain reaction thing, you know?” I was talking desperately. The scientific impossibility of what I was saying boggled my mind, but Eugene wouldn’t know that. “And I guess somebody was really tired in detention, because their gene kicked in, and then mine did, and then Sarah, and then Bob’s your uncle! Weird, huh?” My voice cracked right at the end, and I plastered a grin on my face to cover it.
Eugene stared at me. If I’ve ever seen anyone less convinced of anything in my life, I sure didn’t know about it.
“Um, okay,” he said slowly. “Can I go now?”
I let him go and leaned my head against the locker in front of me, enjoying its cool touch on my brow. Like I really needed another reason for people to shun me. Now I was even more of a social outcast at school, and in the other half of my life, I had magical powers that a powerful wizard wouldn’t even let me use without chucking me off the top of a building.
“Yaaay for Calvin,” I whispered.
The bell rang and I made it to my first class. The second class, too, passed beneath my notice. None of the teachers called on me, which they usually love to do when I’m not paying attention. Maybe they were taking it easy on me because of the detention incident. Great. Even the teachers were treating me different.
The whole morning was a blur of droning faculty voices and weird stares from other students until the lunch bell finally rang. I slumped my backpack onto my shoulder and made my way down the hallway. The only consolation was that when kids saw me coming, they now cleared a wide berth, making my passage down the hallway a breeze. Look ma! I’m Moses! I thought to myself. It wasn’t enough to bring a smile.
Finally I made it to the cafeteria and went down the lunch line. At least the lunch lady didn’t treat me any different. Her frog-like scowl and greasy hair poking out from under the hairnet should have been depressing like they normally were, but today they actually cheered me up, simply because they were just like they always were.
I moved through the tables and spotted Sarah sitting alone. Sarah never sat alone. I figured she was going through the same thing I was. That meant that at least she wouldn’t avoid me, so I plopped down on the bench across the table from her.
“Calvin!” she hissed. “The last thing I need right now is for you to sit with me! You’re going to make it worse!”
“Make what worse?” I said, not bothering to lower my voice. “Your sudden drop in popularity?”
Sarah looked around sharply with wide eyes. “Keep it down, twerp!” she said. “I’ve actually got a social life to lose, here.”
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for how this is affecting you,” I said solemnly.
Sarah cocked her head, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Really?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “I wanted to, but I can’t. Because I’m totally not.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Oh, good one.”
“I figured that as long as we can’t, you know, talk to or hang with anyone else, we could at least make some plans for when we go back.”
“Of all the things I want to be thinking about right now, right at the bottom of the list is — ” she looked around cautiously and lowered her voice further “ — Midrealm. You don’t know what it’s like, Calvin. No one will talk to me. Not even…” she stopped talking abruptly and blushed. “Well, no one. They look at me like I’m some kind of freak.”
“Hey, welcome to my life up till now.”
“Hi, guys,” said Miles, appearing from nowhere with his girlfriend Clarissa. “Mind if we join you?”
“Go ahead,” I said, motioning to a chair. “Nobody else is going to.”
“So it’s not just me? Good,” said Miles with relief. “Man, I’m not used to this. I mean, I’m sure this is normal for you, Calvin — no offense.”
“None taken,” I said, taking a bite of my lunch.
“But, like, even my track team will barely talk to me. We’ve all been on the team since junior varsity, and now I’m persona non grata?”
“Can I just say that I’m impressed you even know that term?” I said. They ignored me.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Clarissa. She brushed her hand up and down Miles’ arm comfortingly.
“Really?” I asked. “Why’s that, Clarissa? Explain it all.”
“It’s going to be fine,” Clarissa continued, “So one thing happened, and now people are looking at you different. Tomorrow, someone will puke in the bathroom or someone’s shorts will fall off in gym class. Everyone will start talking about that and forget all about you guys. It’s not like this is going to happen again. Didn’t the doctors say it was some kind of spontaneous gas leak?”
I stared at Miles. He widened his eyes as if to say, Roll with it.
“Um, yeah,” I said carefully. “Probably that. There’s a small chance it’s something else, so they’re going to check up on us again, but hopefully it never happens again.”
Clarissa shot Miles a look. “What? What ‘something else?’”
Miles gave me a dirty look and turned to her uneasily. “Well, it’s probably the gas leak. They just want to be careful, that’s all.”
Clarissa didn’t look totally convinced, but she did turn back to speak to the rest of us. “Okay, so fine. Pretty soon this will all blow over, and everything will go back to normal.”
I shrugged. She was wrong, of course, but I couldn’t say that. That would require an explanation of why she was wrong.
I stood, suddenly not wanting to participate in the conversation any more. My bowl of lunch slop was only half-finished, but my appetite was gone. “I’m going to take a walk outside,” I said. I gave Sarah and Miles a meaningful look. “See you guys later.”
“Dibs on your dessert,” Miles said, snatching the hard-as-nails brownie from my tray. I went to the trash, tossing the rest of the food in, and made my way through the empty hallways to the doors leading outside.
Being under a blue, open sky should have made me feel better, but instead I couldn’t help thinking how much more lustrous it would have looked in Midrealm. Everything felt that way. The grass looked muted and dying compared to over there. The light breeze that ruffled my hair felt somehow limp and defeated. I lived in two worlds now, and there was no denying it: True Earth just wa
sn’t the same any more.
“What’s up, punk?”
The sudden voice shocked me out of my thoughts, not because of the words but because of who was saying them. I knew that voice too well. It was Chuck. Chuck the school tough guy. Scratch that — the school bully. Blade was a tough guy, and he’d given me my fair share of knocks, but Chuck was mean.
My eyes darted to the sound of his voice, and I let out a long breath of relief as I saw he wasn’t talking to me. But the breath caught when I saw someone else I knew: Blade.
Blade was leaning against the outside of the school gym, taking a break from the sun in the shade of the bleachers ten feet away. He was smoking. It sent a little tingle through my body; smoking was totally against the rules. If I’d seen him alone, he probably would have gotten me in a chokehold until I swore up and down I wouldn’t tell anyone about it.
Right now, though, Blade was totally focused on Chuck. You wouldn’t have known it to look at him. His eyes were averted, looking down at his cigarette on the ground as he ground it to nothingness beneath his toe. But it was plain in his bearing and the tension in the air. It reminded me of two tigers I’d seen once on Discovery Channel. Both of them pretended to ignore the other, dismissing them. But once one of them struck, it was an all-out battle to the death.
Blade still hadn’t said anything, so Chuck spoke again. “You deaf or something? Did that happen when you got tired and went to the hospital?”
Blade looked up at him coolly. The electricity in the air increased. “You got something to say, or are you just gonna keep whining at me? Because your voice is getting on my nerves.”
I suddenly realized what was happening. Everybody at school knew that you didn’t mess with Blade. He was on the top of the totem pole when it came to tough guys at our school. Rumor had it he’d once gotten into a fight with Chuck and two of his friends, and had smacked all of them around so bad that they’d never dared mess with him again. If Blade had wanted to, he could have run his own crew of kids, stealing from people, threatening them, generally making all of our lives miserable. But he wasn’t interested in power games.
Chuck, on the other hand, was. And now that public opinion had turned on the six of us who had gone to Midrealm, Chuck was trying to leverage that. If he could make himself seem tougher than Blade, he could take that top spot.
Chuck snickered at Blade’s words. “Hey, look at that, he can hear,” he said. “I was worried you had brain damage after you fainted the other day.” He folded his arms across his chest. Chuck wasn’t as thick as Blade, but he was a few inches taller. He was trying to use it to loom, to intimidate Blade. From what I could see, it wasn’t working.
Blade picked at his teeth with his fingernail. “Nope. I mean, I am a bit more dumb, but not from passing out. It’s because every time you speak, my IQ seems to drop a couple points.”
I couldn’t help but think, Oh, snap!
Just like that, Chuck lost it. He lunged forward, swinging for Blade’s head. Blade ducked, and Chuck’s fist slammed into the brick wall. He grunted in pain, then cried out as Blade grabbed him around the waist and tackled him to the ground. Chuck’s head slammed into the concrete with a crack loud enough to make me wince. Blade knelt on Chuck’s chest, his knee putting enough pressure on to make Chuck wince, and let loose with one punch. Chuck’s head lolled to the side and he clutched his nose, mewling like a kitten.
And that was it. Blade got up and walked away toward the opposite side of the gym. Chuck stayed down, wisely deciding that if he got up, Blade might come back for him.
I scampered past Chuck’s limp form, making sure to give him a wide berth, and caught up with Blade just as he reached the corner.
“Nice one, dude!” I said. “That guy’s such a jerk. Now that things are a little different, maybe I could start…you know…hanging around? Just so he doesn’t keep stuffing me in lockers?”
Blade looked at me disdainfully. It made me stop, my face falling. The look in his eyes wasn’t friendly. It was the look of a predator.
His palm lashed out faster than I could react, slamming into my chest and knocking me on my butt. Fortunately we were in grass now, but it still hurt. I rolled over, feeling like an idiot as I tried to rub the pain out of my rear.
“Things are different on the other side,” Blade said, “but that doesn’t make me your friend here.”
He walked away once more. I stared after him, hating myself as tears formed in my eyes before I could stop them. As soon as he was out of sight, I got up and scrambled back to the building before Chuck could get up and take out his anger on me.
The rest of my classes that day were the worst. Even when we did science, my favorite class, I couldn’t be bothered to listen to what the teacher was saying. The hurt I felt at Blade’s face, the way he spoke to me, was way worse than the lingering soreness in my tailbone. The fact that Eugene and my other friends stood as far away as possible didn’t help, either.
I asked for a hall pass to go to the bathroom twenty minutes before the last bell. I shoved my backpack in the locker and waited by the school’s front doors. As soon as the last bell rang, I escaped into the afternoon air. I wouldn’t take the bus today. I didn’t want to put up with uneasy looks one second longer. I walked the whole way home, even though it took me an extra half hour.
My mom was sitting in the living room. She shot to her feet as soon as I opened the front door. “Calvin!” she cried. “What happened? We were worried sick.”
“Sorry. I had to stay late to work on a project,” I lied, hating myself even more. “I would have called, but you know. No cell phone.”
My mom gave a huge sigh of relief, then pursed her lips sternly. “Nice try, mister, but I told you: not until you’re fifteen. Borrow Sarah’s phone next time. After what happened the other day, I just can’t stand worrying about you like that.”
“Sorry,” I repeated. “But speaking of which, I’m pretty tired. Probably still recovering. I’m gonna go to bed.”
“Don’t you want dinner?” she asked, surprised.
“Not hungry.” That part, at least, was true. I made my way to the stairs without another word and went straight up to my room. I didn’t bother getting undressed. I just fell on to my bed, desperate to get to a world where, at least to some people, I mattered.
I woke to chaos.
The second my eyes opened, the first thing I heard were bells ringing. They weren’t normal, every-hour-on-the-hour bells, either. It was a long, steady, percussion that screamed Alarm! Danger! Attack!
I shot up in my bed. Unlike the last time I’d woken in Midrealm, this time I was wearing something, since I’d made very sure to go to sleep in my pants. As I came to fuller awareness, I could hear the distant roar of shouting voices. I knew we were high in a tower in the Runehold, which meant that a ton of people had to be outside for me to be hearing them all the way up here.
Darren was standing there, looking at me anxiously. “Sir Calvin,” he said with a gracious nod. “Welcome. I’m afraid I have to ask you to remain here for now.”
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s happening?”
Darren looked nervously at the door. “Greystone will see you once all the rest wake up. Until then, you are to remain here.”
“That won’t be close to five hours!” I shouted. “What’s happening outside?”
Darren glanced at the door again, agitated.
I sighed and closed my eyes. “Darren, I’m sorry. But I order you to tell me what’s going on.”
He stared at me, his instinct clearly warring with the oaths I knew he’d sworn. Honor must have won out. “The barrier gate is under attack. But Greystone and the legions are attending to the matter. He’s ordered us to keep you here until the crisis is solved.”
“Is he at the gate, or here in the Runehold?”
Darren clammed up.
I rolled my eyes. “Darren, I can keep ordering you around or we can use common sense. Just tell me: is he here?”
<
br /> Darren nodded reluctantly.
“Take me to him. Please.”
“I shouldn’t, Sir Calvin,” he said.
“I think you should. But I’m not ordering you. I’m asking. Please.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. “It’s most unjust of you to appeal to my kindness, Sir Calvin.”
“I only do it because I know there’s a lot to appeal to,” I said with a smile. “Now, are you going to do it?”
Darren’s shoulder sagged, and he nodded.
I jumped out of bed and threw on my undershirt and tunic, then slid into my soft leather boots. Darren threw open the door and I followed him into the hallway. We moved through it toward the staircase and came across Barius standing outside Raven’s door. He must have decided that it would be immodest of him to wait in her room, and chosen to wait outside instead.
“What are you doing?” Barius said gruffly, moving to block our passage. “Greystone said to keep them here.”
“I just want to talk to him,” I said, not sure if that was the truth. I wanted to help, but for now talking would do. “Don’t blame Darren for bringing me. I ordered him.”
Barius narrowed his eyes at me. “Greystone has commanded — ” he began.
“And even Greystone is bound to obey us,” I interrupted. “Listen, I don’t want to come across like some arrogant jerk. But I won’t be cooped up in my room without even an explanation of what’s happening. The safety of Midrealm is my responsibility. What kind of Realm Keeper would I be if I stayed in my room, my head buried in the sand like an ostrich?”
Barius snorted. “I’ll never understand why at times you’re the most bizarre of all the six, and at other times you half talk as if you were born here.”
“Glad to give you a puzzle to mull over,” I said, pushing past him and waiting for Darren to follow. “Mark my words, Barius: I may not be as old or wise as the others, but this is where I live.”
I took the lead from Darren, vaulting down the stairs two at a time until we reached the bottom. In the great hall I found Greystone, sitting in his old worn chair. Rather than sitting at the table we’d gathered around the day before, however, he was seated at a new one that seemed to have been temporarily placed in the great hall for an impromptu meeting. Several others were clustered around it. I recognized the armor two of them wore; it was the silver and red of the Runegard. Two others wore less fancy armor, and a third wore none at all, but clothes of fine fabric with elegant designs worked into them.
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