Destiny's Road, page 27
part #1 of Destiny Saga Series
"Both of you were selected through recommendations from your teachers. We are still working on testing criteria for adding students to the program. Why, who were you thinking about suggesting."
"Zoe Bell."
"That's your girlfriend or, if the rumor mill is to believed, one of them. Why do you think she should be included in the program?"
"I am not crazy about there being talk about us around the school, but yes she is one of my girlfriends. And I think she would be a good candidate. Her past tests may not support it, but look at her recent work and talk to her teachers about her recent performance."
"If her previous work didn't stand up, why do you think she is now up for the challenge? Why should she be judged on just recent performance?"
"She has always been smart. Maybe she was just bored and unfocused before. All I can say is, recently she has started to really focus. Her work should prove that out."
"OK. Normally I would not take a suggestion that was clearly biased, but you have a solid track record, and Principal Polaski thinks you hung the moon, so I will talk to her and her teachers."
"Thanks, Mrs. Runkle."
"No problem. Now let's go over your current assignments and upcoming work, to make sure you are all set."
I was only half paying attention as we went over my work, since I was already confident I could handle what was assigned. Instead I started to think over how to talk to Zoe about this. We hadn't discussed it, but with the signs she had been showing since she was ... altered ... by me, this seemed like a no-brainer. The only hard part would be to get the teachers to look past her work prior to the changes.
The rest of the day was uneventful, except that there was a lot of chatter at the lunch table about our trip. Several of the couples also wanted to go, but there was limited room. Amanda had already promised she would set up another weekend, to take the guys who couldn't come this time.
When school let out, we all made a mad rush for Megan's Suburban. I climbed into the back seat with my girls, while Josh and Amanda took the Captain's chairs in the middle. There was a guy up front that I didn't recognize, but guessed it was probably Megan's boyfriend. He turned around, looking past Josh and Amanda, to stare at me.
"So, you're the kid I keep hearing about?"
I won't lie. He came off as a bit obnoxious and annoyed me a little.
"I guess that would depend on what you have heard."
"Well, that somehow you managed to swing three girlfriends, and convince them it was a good idea."
Megan reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Alex, don't."
"It's okay, Megan, I don't mind answering questions. Yes, I have three girlfriends, all of whom I love and I believe they feel the same about me."
"And how did you talk them into that."
Zoe had started to frown and finally spoke up, "He didn't talk us into it. We had to convince him."
He made a "humph" sound and turned around. We were pretty silent for a while as the conversation with Megan's boyfriend, who I later learned was named Alex Turner and a senior just like Megan, set us on edge. After about forty-five minutes of driving, Amanda announced she needed a pit stop. At the gas station Alex and Josh also hopped out. Megan took this opportunity to turn back and talk to us.
"Cas, I am really sorry about Alex. I don't know why he is acting like that. Normally he is really a nice guy."
I gave her a small smile as I replied, "It's okay Megan. I don't know why but I just rub some people the wrong way. I will stay out of his way this weekend, and try and not cause any trouble."
"You shouldn't have to do that. We invited you so you could have some down time after everything that has happened. The last thing you need is more stress. Maybe I should ask Alex to go back home."
"No, don't do that. It's not fair to him. I will be okay and I promise to relax. Honest, I think if I just stay out of his way we should avoid any problems."
By that point the guys were back at the car so we shut up, although Alex did take the opportunity to glare at me. While I had put on a confident front for Megan, I wasn't sure we would be able to avoid trouble all weekend. I wasn't certain, but the pattern of some people liking me and some people hating me on reflex seemed to be at work here. It was something to discuss with Doctor Chang, but Alex seemed to fall into the same category as Margret and Officer Jawarski.
For the rest of the drive, I mostly talked to my girls while Amanda and Josh talked to Alex. From what little bit I could overhear, he actually did seem like a nice guy, and kind of funny too. We got to the lake just before evening settled in. While I helped Josh and Alex unpack the car, just dumping all of our stuff in the main room, the girls called to order some pizzas for dinner. Then it was time for Megan to split up the room assignments.
"Okay, normally, I would take the master bedroom; but, since there are four of you guys, why don't you take it, Cas."
I could see Alex's eyebrows furrow at this.
"No, we are guests. Give us one of the guest rooms. We'll be fine."
She started to argue back, but saw my expression, and backed off.
"Okay, then, Cas, you and your ladies take that room," she pointed to one of the other bedrooms, "and Amanda you take the room you normally use. Let's get our stuff situated and dinner should be here in thirty minutes."
When we got in the room it was clear the bed would be a little small for all four of us.
"Well, we normally all sleep smashed together anyways. Now we will have a reason to get really cozy."
All the girls were staring at me but Tami spoke up for them, "Cas, what is going on."
"Everything's okay. You know how we talked to Doctor Chang about how some people seemed biased against me? I think this is one of those cases. Whatever is happening to me, I think it affects some people negatively. Alex is one of those people. From what you guys have said, and what I could see when he wasn't paying attention to me, Alex seems like a pretty nice guy. I think his problem with me isn't his fault, it's part of whatever my deal is."
"Well, I don't like it. This was supposed to be a relaxing weekend," Vicki said as she sat on the edge of the bed.
"And it will be. We will make it work. I will talk to Megan, and try and find a way to explain his reaction to me. I don't want this to hurt her relationship with the guy. Now let's put our stuff up, and get out there so we don't miss the pizza, 'cause I am starving."
When we got out into the main room I was surprised to find that Alex wanted to pull me aside and speak with me.
"Cas, I want to apologize for how I treated you in the car."
His tone of voice and expression did not match his words. It was pretty clear Megan had read him the riot act.
"No need. Listen, I know you don't particularly like me; and really, that's okay. From what I have seen, you seem like a good guy. Maybe we just have clashing personalities. It happens, sometimes. I will try and stay out of your way, and keep from bugging you. You just focus on Megan and having a good time. We don't have to be friends, but I am confident we can remain civil around each other."
Hopefully he would buy that, and I could set up a truce with him. I stuck my hand out.
"I guess that would be okay."
He didn't sound convinced, but he shook my hand and we went in our different directions.
The rest of the evening we ate pizza and played some board games. I got crushed at Monopoly, but that was okay by me. What really mattered was everyone had fun, and the agreement to ignore each other seemed to be holding between me and Alex. I did pull Megan aside when he went off to throw out the trash.
"Hey, don't hold his reaction to me against Alex, okay?"
"I am glad you are being so calm about this, but I am not okay with how he has been acting."
"No, I mean it, really. Don't hold it against him. Some people have a negative reaction to me and can't help it. I don't really understand it myself, but something about me puts off some people, no matter how nice they normally are. This isn't the first time this has happened. I watched you two when he didn't know I was around, and he seems like a nice guy. I am sure you two normally get along great. So please, just accept that he doesn't like me, and it isn't his fault."
"Okay, I will try."
That night we were so tight for bed space that Tami, who was the smallest girl in our group, ended up sleeping on top of me. Actually, I found I really enjoyed that, and made a mental note to find an excuse to sleep in tight quarters again. Having three girls nearly completely cover you while you sleep might be the best alternative to a blanket ever!
The next morning I got up to go do some exercises and was surprised to find all three girls getting dressed also.
"What's up?"
Vicki looked over at me while she was pulling on running shorts.
"We're going with you. Both Tami and I have been feeling really energized, all week. We talked to Zoe, and she mentioned the same thing happened to her afterwards, also."
I frowned as my dark thoughts started to resurface, but then pushed those back down, and tried to put on a happy face.
"Okay. Well, Zoe is up to a six minute mile, but it still took her a little time to work up to that. So I will keep the pace a little slower today and we will just go for some distance.
I know I didn't fool the girls, and all three exchanged a look, but they didn't say anything. It was already the middle of October and the it was starting to cool down a little bit, but for Texas that meant the high eighties instead of ninety degrees, so we were all in light clothes and shorts. We ran just about ten miles, although that was a best guess based on our pace since we didn't know the area, or have marked off distances.
Zoe had been getting used to my faster pace, so she was only somewhat winded when we got back and Vicki and Tami were both still good, despite being a little more worn down. They both made it clear they wanted to go through our whole routine, so I led them through the rest of my morning workout; which included situps, pushups, and the like.
By the time we finished I noticed we had a small audience.
Amanda actually applauded when we finished, "Do you guys do that every day?"
"Zoe and I do and Vicki and Tami are just working up to it."
"I thought I saw you guys go out running?" Megan added, looking interested.
"Yeah, we did a quick ten miles. We are about done, though. Let's all grab a shower and then we are ready for whatever you have planned for the day."
Josh was shaking his head, "You know, I have known Zoe for a long time. Even in middle school she never could keep up in gym class. Now you she is out here running ten miles and doing a whole bunch of situps and pushups."
Zoe tried to blow it off, "I have been training with Cas for a while. He's helping me get in shape."
It was time to head off this conversation, "Okay, guys, enough talk about exercise. Let us go take showers, and then we'll be up for whatever you want to do."
The rest of the day was pretty enjoyable. We took a boat out on the lake, did some swimming and water skiing. The water was a little cold, but still it was a really relaxing way to spend the day. I also found some time to hang with Josh, and we played a little one-on-one. By this point I was really aware of the physical changes I was undergoing, and had already noticed some looks from Josh and a few others. I purposefully held back a little during the game, and made a note that I would start having to do the same during football. With as weird as things were getting, the last thing I wanted to do was to start drawing a bunch of attention to myself.
Alex and I managed to generally stay out of each other's way, and remain civil. This gave me some hope for a future relationship with Margret, since whatever the deal was, both of them seemed to share it. He even nodded to me when they dropped us off.
I hadn't expected it, but the girls were right, I was feeling a lot less stressed and moody after a weekend away.
Chapter 27
With all the excitement from the previous few weeks, I was happy that the week following our mini-vacation was fairly calm. Coach was really pushing me in practice, to get me up to speed with the rest of the team. Honestly, I was looking forward to playing in my first real game, that weekend. It did help to keep my mind off the fact that Mrs. Bell and Doctor Chang would be sitting down with me and the girls, to go over what they had learned over the weekend.
That isn't to say nothing happened. It seemed to be a rule of thumb with my life, this year. It was impossible for a few days to go by without something notable taking place. The first thing came on Monday night, while I was finishing up my homework and Zoe was working on her homework on her computer ... or, at least, I thought that was what she was doing.
"YES! I'm in."
"What are you in?"
She looked back at me with a strangely guilty expression on her face.
"Umm, nothing. Sorry, go back to your book."
She has a terrible poker face and I was instantly intrigued, so I set my school books down.
"Nuh-uh. I don't buy that. What are you doing over there?"
"Well, I was talking to some guys over in an IRC chat room, mostly about networks and websites and vulnerabilities. And they mentioned some places where they were testing, umm, some of those vulnerabilities. I was curious so I, uhh, tried it out myself."
"Testing vulnerabilities? That sounds like a euphemism for breaking into something. So, which place were you testing out vulnerabilities?"
She looked away from me, and didn't say anything for a minute.
"Zoe?"
Finally she sighed and said as she looked at me, "NASA"
"You broke into NASA?"
"Well, just their computers."
"You hacked into NASA's computers?"
"I just wanted to see if I could."
"You know that's against the law, right? Like, go to jail against the law."
"Yeah, but I covered my tracks well. I did test runs against a bunch of people I know from online first to make sure I was safe."
"And what do you plan on doing now that you're in?"
"Nothing, just look around. I don't want to actually cause anyone any problems; I just wanted to see if I could do it."
"I am surprised you were able to get into NASA. With all the big brains there, you would think it would be pretty darn secure."
"Yeah, but the big brains work in the lab. They still have all the normal bureaucratic office people. Red tape makes for terrible security."
"I guess. Well, just be careful and don't go poking the bear. Try and stay away from government systems from now on, because that could really come back to haunt us."
"Yeah, I know. I just really wanted to know I could do it."
"Okay, good job, I guess."
Even though she looked appropriately apologetic, she was having a lot of trouble hiding her excitement and pride. I wasn't that worried she would keep doing this, or take things to a level where we could really be in trouble; that just wasn't her. It's hard to be annoyed at her when she was so happy. She just looked too damn cute. I picked my school books back up, and left her to her computer.
Besides the upcoming meeting, and the game on the weekend, there was one more thing that had been bugging me that I needed to take care of. I hadn't seen Tina since she dropped off my stuff, after Margret kicked me out.
I left a little early, and told Zoe I would meet her back at home and walk her to school. I then ran off to Tina's bus stop. I managed to get there just as she was arriving, and was able to stop her and talk before she joined the rest of the kids.
"Hey, Tina, wait up."
She turned and looked at me, and I noticed she didn't smile. "What's up?"
"I hadn't talked to you in a while and I wanted to make sure everything is okay."
"Yeah, it's fine."
"So, do you think you might have some time to come hang out with us one day soon?"
"I don't know, maybe."
This was not going how I expected it to go. Before Tina had been starting to get really close. "Okay. Well, if you can, let me know. Zoe also mentioned she missed spending time with you. I don't know if you heard, but I am back on the football team. I'll be playing in my first game this weekend. Do you think you could come watch?"
"Maybe. Look, I have to go catch the bus. I'll talk to you later."
With that she turned around and walked away. I moped my way back to Zoe's house, where she was standing by the front door waiting for me.
"I am going to guess that didn't go well."
