“Thanks,” said Troy, not sounding as sarcastic as I thought he would.
“No worries, mate,” said Jex. Not even his retort had the kind of snark I’m accustomed to hearing.
“Y’all sure I’m not missing something?” I asked.
“Actually, you’re missing homework hour,” said Doctor Tenly, fiddling around with a smoking orb on a nearby shelf.
“Crap. Then we have team training, right?” I asked Jex.
“That’s right,” he said.
“Where are we meeting?”
“Can’t be said in front of the competition,” said Jex.
“I’ll leave,” said Troy. “Want to meet for dinner after training? We have ours tonight, too. I’ll be famished.”
“Yeah, okay. Sprinkles?” I suggested.
“Sounds good,” he said.
“Um, bring Airi,” I said. “And I’ll bring Trey.”
“Pretty sure the maker has already made the match,” said Troy.
“I was just thinking if we went on a double date, Airi would for sure know I’m completely cool with her dating Trey.”
“I get it, and you’re right. It’s the only way she’ll chill once and for all.” Kissing me on my forehead, he said, “I’ll bring her. See you tonight.”
“Hey, don’t leave, fish boy. I can see the start of having a forlorn Savior on my hands if you go. No need to make her sad, right?”
Troy eyed Jex suspiciously. “All right. I’ll stay.”
“That’s unusually kind of you, Jex,” I said, giving him the same wary eye as Troy.
“I want all members of my team to be happy. And, well, Doctor Tenly and I are still setting up the location, to be honest. You’ll be transported there when it’s time, so there’s nothing to talk about, really.”
“Will I have to eat another petal? They kind of upset my stomach. And even though Mom is totally used to me sitting around, catatonic-like, I’m not sure she’d love a fake catatonic me around the place.”
Doctor Tenly snatched something off the desk. “Here, pin this on whatever you’re wearing this evening. When it’s train time, it will know where to take you.”
The pin was a small silver and turquoise dolphin. “Jewelry is way better than eating a petal.”
Doctor Tenly and Jex laughed like conspiring clowns, but before I could pry, Jex scooped me up and flew through the ceiling.
“Jex! I didn’t get to tell Troy goodbye!”
“Then I spared you the pain of having to say such a painful word.”
Flying over the beach houses, it dawned on me. “You wanted him to stay, just so you could sweep me away from him, didn’t you?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about. You have homework to finish before training. I’m just being a good coach.” His smile said otherwise.
What a jackass…a clever jackass, but a jackass nonetheless.
“All right, here we are,” he said, gently carrying me down to my house. “See ya later, Savior.”
“Oh, plan on it. And plan on sore wings, among other parts.”
“Ah, the anticipation grows,” he said, setting me down.
The minute my feet touched the sand, I hopped through my window, grabbed one of my barely-worn workout tops, and pinned the dolphin to it. I then shouted a ‘hello’ to Mom and plowed into my homework.
“Sweetie?” Mom’s eyes were terribly tired. She hasn’t been sleeping much since learning everything, and her new job has awakened her inner perfectionist. I’m not sure how many batches of cookies she tossed this week because they weren’t good enough to feed a snot-covered bull, as she put it. “Didn’t you want dinner? I could whip something up.”
“No way, you need to relax. Trey and I are going to meet Troy and Airi at Sprinkles, anyway, so you have no excuse but to put your feet up.”
“I’m too tired to be bullheaded. Shock, right? Mr. Gibbs did ask if he could cook for me tonight.”
“And you didn’t jump at that? You are exhausted,” I said.
“I’ll call him,” she said. “If he cooks fish for me, I might kill him.”
About an hour later, I dressed in my training togs and put the finishing touches on my sloppy homework.
“Baby girl, Mr. Gibbs is on his way over,” said Mom, peeking in my room. “You look like a little cat burglar.”
“Yeah, this is what I wore when I broke into Zale’s mansion and stole the sto—uh, when I took that nice long walk and fell down a slide that dropped me right inside their mansion, where a party of ghosts gave me the stone as a parting gift.” Mom hasn’t fully accepted the whole burglar-for-a-daughter thing, so I have to massage the truth…a lot.
“Oh, well, it looks completely appropriate for a night of butt-kicking,” she said, her face no longer contorted at the mention of the word ‘stole.’ “Where will you be tonight, anyway? And how will you get there? Should Mr. Gibbs and I bring you?”
“Thing is, I don’t know where I’m going, exactly.” Ooh, here comes the bug-eyed, on the verge of panic face. “Wait, wait…don’t freak! See this little dolphin pin? It’s supposed to let me know where I’m going and I think may—” Uh, why was my mom turning into a tree…and my bed into a little pond...and my room into a wooded area with Jex now leaning on the tree formerly known as Mom?
“Welcome to Knotty Nook Woods, now home to one team Normals training sessions,” said Jex.
“Well that’s just fabulous,” I said. “This pin thing took me away from my almost freaking out mom while I was trying to calm her down.”
“Imagine she went into full-on freak when she saw you fade away right before her eyes,” said Jex, laughing.
“She saw me fading from the room?! Oh, God,” I said, the warm tingle of a panic attack squeezing my lungs.
“Aw, don’t worry about her, Savior,” said Jex. “Her snugs will explain things. Think Treeva was going to stop by after you left, anyway. Time to work!” Jex opened his arms, directing me to join my teammates, who just appeared in one large group.
“Uh, before we get started, I’d just like to say something about the wish thing,” I said nervously. “Please, don’t be mad, but, I kinda, um, don’t actually know—”
“What you wished for,” supplied Trey. “Doctor Tenly told us already, Squiggle. It’s okay. We trust you…even Polly. Right, Polls?”
Polly huffed and crossed her arms. “Yes, fine. But if you wished for butt boils, I’ll rip out your eyelashes and nose hairs one at a time.”
“Deal,” I said.
“Frankly, I think butt boils would be an improvement for some,” said Jex. “Now that we’re all here, I have a few administrative issues to cover.”
“Would one of them be why day-blind, here, was allowed to come?” asked Polly, tapping her foot.
“Not that it’s any of your concern, but I thought it would be good for Maile to train as much as possible,” said Jex. “Is that a problem for you?”
“Yes. I don’t trust her,” said Polly.
“Well, then, she just became my assistant coach. What do you say, Maile? You in?”
“Absolutely!” shouted Maile.
Polly narrowed her eyes on Jex as he shot her a satisfied look. “I don’t like you.”
Shrugging his shoulders and crinkling his chin, Jex said, “I really don’t care. If we’re done with the trivial nonsense, I’d like to remind you that these sessions will be tailored for the Overfalls events only. You will still meet with Treeva to work on honing your specific talents. For tonight’s purposes, I need to observe your abilities, so I know what I have to work with.” With a small swirl of his hand, a golden clipboard floated in front of him. Touching a finger to the clipboard, a list of our names appeared on the page.
“Nice trick,” I mused.
“Angel perk,” he said, winking. “This little beauty will transcribe my thoughts, observations, and plans during the duration of the Overfalls. It can also report on your weaknesses, strengths, insecurities, and other things I may overlook. Right now,
it’s noting all of your talents.” Noticing tons of script next to my name, Jex said, “Just note Savior next to Marina’s name and move to the rest.” It quickly filled in everyone’s main talents, but left Gully’s blank. Jex stared at it oddly before turning to Gully. “What’s your gift, Gully?”
Tugging on her pigtails, she coyly said, “Um, I read code.”
“Can you be a little more specific?” Jex asked.
“I can put puzzles together in under sixty seconds,” she said, swaying side to side.
“Ooh, I can see it now—death by flying jigsaw puzzle pieces. Oh, I’m sure Katrina will be petrified,” quipped Polly.
“It’s not just the jigsaw kind. I mean, I can decode all sorts of things…word puzzles, picture puzzles, symbol-based puzzles… anything, really. There’s just one catch,” said Gully, taking her hair down. “Hair-when-my-down-talk-is-can’t-I-right.”
“What the fu—” said Meikle.
“She’s actually a bit frightening right now,” said Polly.
Maile giggled. “Gully just said, ‘When my hair is down, I can’t talk right.’ That’s why she never wears her hair down. When it’s pulled back, like in a ponytail or braids, she can communicate normally. If her hair is even a little bit loose, she’ll start jumbling her words, and you wouldn’t understand her decoding. You can tie your hair back up, Gully.”
Gully pulled her hair into two tight ponytails. “That’s why I’m so anxious about my hair falling down. If some emergency decoding situation came up and my hair was down, you wouldn’t understand anything I said.”
Jex just stared at her with no expression whatsoever. “I’m utterly flabbergasted.”
Pulling her ponytails as tight as she could, she said, “Thanks.”
Moving closer to her, Jex whispered, “Now, does that mean you could, say, read treasure maps?”
“Oh, yes, those are lots of fun. Treasure maps, secret pathways no one else can see…all that stuff. I’d have the treasure’s location in under two minutes, if that.”
“Utterly flabbergasted,” Jex said again. “Well, let’s get started with what I like to call our introductory training session. Remember, only one Normal at a time, which means you do not offer help to the person being tested OR to yourself, should you be in danger during one of your teammate’s tests. If anything goes wrong, I’ll have it fixed in a snap. Okay? Okay. First up…Ophelia.”
“Why me, why me, why me, why—”
“Because you’re gifted! Accept it, embrace it, and for God’s sake, stop with the ‘why me,’” shouted Jex. Ophelia’s eyes widened for a moment before giving a resigned nod. “I’d like you to meet Rips. He’s a buddy of mine and a—”
“Discatt Demon,” said Polly, holding her nose. “They have a very specific scent, as in foul.”
“Which is only noticeable to the demon community,” Jex clarified. “Lucky you.”
“Really don’t like him,” Polly muttered to a disinterested Meikle.
“Um, I don’t see him,” I said, searching the woods.
“Good Christ, Rips! Come on, now. Rips? Rips? RIPS!” roared Jex.
“Can’t a beast finish his beer in peace and quiet,” said a squeaky voice. From deep within the base of a massive tree, a squatty creature emerged with light brown, bark-like flesh, tree limb-shaped horns, massive green eyes, and curvy hands. He had three tufts of moss on each side of his head, and wore old brown boots on his feet. He was cute, in an ugly sort of way.
“Rips, I told you what time we’d get started. Ya should’ve gotten on that beer well before,” said Jex, shaking the little beast’s hand.
“That’s just it, I did! But my tongue told me to have another one! Gotta keep at it 'til the tongue’s numb.” Rips had a contagious laugh. Heck, his toothless grin alone made me giggle. “This my first victim?”
Ophelia released a sad little whimper.
“Yeah, do what we talked about.” Jex quickly added, “Hey, nothing more, got me?”
Rips scrunched his nose. “Darlanhee-ha-mushtklay.”
Polly was in absolute stitches. “Oh, I’m in complete agreement, stinky little demon thing. Do you know what he called you, Coach?”
Seething, Jex spread his wings in such an intimidating manner that it was borderline terrifying. Who knew an angel could scare the crap out of someone? Even Polly stopped laughing.
“Ready, Ophelia?” he said, still glaring at Polly.
“Yes.”
As soon as the confirmation left her lips, Rips hurled rocks, boulders, and tree trunks in her direction at an ungodly speed. But before the first rock even left his stubby hand, Ophelia’s eyes and hair turned blue; not a single object could get near her.
With a large group of rocks and tree trunks floating between Ophelia and Rips, Jex shouted, “Stop! Excellent. Nicely done, Ophelia. We won’t try and dig the ninja out of you just yet.” His gentleness was something I didn’t see too often. It was rather comforting.
“Thanks for that,” she said, joining me. “Did I miss any?”
“Not a one,” I said.
“Now, Meikle, I want you to make this mess of rocks and tree trunks disappear. Can you do that?”
With an ‘angel, please’ look on her face, Meikle swiped her hand sharply to the left and then immediately upward and back down. The mess of time-frozen objects swirled together and now stood in the form of a birdbath. “Work for you, Coach?”
Beaming, Jex said, “Oh, yeah. Trey, the birds need water.”
Smirking, Trey turned himself into water-dude again, formed a small pitcher with his hands, and poured water in the birdbath. When he was done, Jex gave Rips the go ahead nod. The Discatt Demon set the wood ablaze all around us, trapping us within the flames.
Ophelia screamed, Gully ogled at the ‘pretty fire,’ and Meikle, Polly, and I calmly watched as Trey zoomed in, out, and around the flames, dousing them in less than a minute. Rips then birthed an enormous snowball from his mouth. My instincts screamed for me to initiate the golden shield, but Jex specifically instructed us to basically remain dormant, no matter what. The snowball exploded and rained down on us like an avalanche. We all fell to the ground, buried beneath the heavy snow, with no air and no way out. The panic rising from my toes to my head was short-lived, for the snow started swiftly melting. Still on the ground, completely drenched, I looked toward the center of the woods. Standing in the middle of us all was Trey, his hands and eyes full of flames.
“Human blowtorch. Seriously?” I said. “Anything you can do about the wet, there, flame boy?”
Trey disappeared as a gust of warm wind whipped around us…a gust of wind that smelled very much like my best guy friend.
“He’s in the wind!” shouted Gully, pointing at his barely noticeable face floating within the breeze.
“Correction,” I said. “He is the wind.”
Once we were dry, Trey reappeared in his human form. “Yeah, I can turn into anything I want. Really glad you touched me, Squiggle. That didn’t come out right.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’ve been rocking the foot-in-mouth disease since puberty whacked me over the head and left me stupid.”
Jex sauntered up to Trey. He didn’t say anything, but instead held his arm out for a little bro fist. “Three down, three to go. Gully, how 'bout it?”
“Sure. Whatcha want me to do?” she asked.
“What you do best,” he said. “Find Meikle’s message.”
Jex gestured to Meikle, who gently blew some leaves out of her hand. The leaves arranged themselves into jumbled letters and pictures on the ground. The letters were all over the place, and the pictures of chains around yellow and red waves splashing against a rock made no sense. I couldn’t decipher a dang thing.
In less than a few seconds, Gully clapped. “Oh, that’s so simple! Marina, Troy is worthy of being chained to a rock for some splashy fun.” After a moment, Gully said, “Um, what does that mean exactly?”
We all doubled over, bot
h at the message and Gully’s innocence.
“All right, enough of that,” said Coach Jex, calming us down. “Nicely done, Gully. Polly, you’re up.”
Polly sashayed to the center of the woods, put one hand on her hip, and flipped her hair with the other. “What would you have me do? Want me to take a little dive in stinky demon, over here?”
“Hey, some call that my natural magnetism,” Rips said, scowling.
“Honestly, you should just accept that you smell. Bad. The good thing is there’s a whole cluster of ripe little Discatt Demon chicks just waiting for your stinky little self.” Polly patted him on the head, no doubt believing she actually made his night; when she turned to face Jex, Rips lunged for her, but Ophelia stopped him, mid-lunge. “And that’s the thanks I get for soothing your ego. Some will never learn to be socially apropos.”
“Maile, will you retrieve Rips and calm him down for me while I test Polly?” asked Jex as Maile made for Rips. “Thanks. Actually, Polls—I can call you Polls, can’t I?”
“No.”
“Thought I could. Polls, I want you to do one simple thing…punch me.”
“Oh, with pleasure,” said Polly, rearing back. Before she could land her punch, Jex flew over her head.
“Missed,” he said, standing behind her.
Polly tried again…and again…and again, but her punch was sluggish and her movements were far too wild to catch an angel.
“We may have to forfeit if this is what you intend to bring to the party. No wonder you couldn’t escape Zale’s cage without group help. I’m sure the Zale’s were regretting bringing you to their lair, what with the pathetic show of no-talent you displayed,” he said, winking at me.
Ah, he was trying to piss her off. After all, it was Polly who said the trick to awakening the inner demon was to piss it off. If any being can achieve monster piss-off status with a monster payoff, it was the snarky angel. And, man, was it working! Polly’s eyes were black now, and her mouth dropped into a ferocious snarl; when Jex did his usual fly about, Polly followed him, jumping off trees like a monkey until she met him midair, jabbed him in the gut, and finished with a right uppercut that flipped him over and sent him clear across the woods.
OVERFALLS (The Merworld Water Wars, Book 2) Page 16
