Relationships

Alice Astrid:

"Maximus," I shout. I look at the big idiot as he scratches the back of his head.

"What?"

Pulling back my arm, I throw my fist and punch Maximus in his arm.

"Ouch," Maximus cries. He looks at me while rubbing his arm. "What was that for?"

Pulling back my arm and punching Maximus again, I point at the door.

"Get out," I yell. Maximus opens his mouth to say something but whatever he was about to say, I cut him off by pushing him out of Shocker's room and slamming the door shut. Letting out a sigh, I take a deep breath and turn around. When I do, the first person I see is Shocker.

Shocker, and his team, are all looking at me. Their wide eyes are cornering me, basically pushing me against the wall and keeping me pinned there.

"Uhh," I start. I clear my throat and look away.

"Come on," I think. "Say something. Anything at all."

I open my mouth to say something but the words get stuck in my throat. I have to clear my throat again before I can talk again.

"What Maximus said," I start, clearing my throat for a third time. "About me having a...crush on you."

Shocker's team slowly turn away from me and to Shocker. He looks at each of them before they turn back to me.

"It's not true. It's just that, I do talk about you a lot."

"Why," the girl with short orange hair asks.

"It's because..."

I search my head for the right words but nothing comes. My head goes blank and I stand there with an open mouth. I don't know how long I stay like this, but I close my mouth when I hear Shocker clapping his hands.

All of us, even me, turn to look at Shocker now. Bringing up his holo-display, he types in a message. When he's done, Shocker turns his holo-display over and shows us the message.

"Please finish what you can," the message starts, "I'll take Alice back to her room."

Putting his holo-display away, Shocker walks past his team and toward me. Taking my hand, I feel my face gets red. Shocker opens the door and I follow him as he leads me out.

Now, standing outside in the hallway, Shocker points up and down. I think he's asking which way my room is. As I prepare to answer him, I hear familiar voices. Shocker and I both look down the hallway.

"I can't believe that the guy Alice keeps talking about," Maximus shouts. "I mean, you should've seen him. He was quiet. Annoying quiet. And what's so 'interesting' about him?"

"Yeah," Griff says.

"Totally," Durmad adds. "You're so much better than that guy! Why else would the headmaster make you the leader of our team? It's because you are legendary!"

Feeling someone tapping my shoulder, I turn back to look at Shocker. Shocker points down the hallway, then brings up his other hand. His thumb and fingers are going up and down. Seeing this, I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Yeah," I say. "That is...my room."

Shocker nods his head and pats my shoulder. Nudging his head, I follow him as he guides me down the hallway.

"So," I start, "Can I ask why you don't talk? I'm trying not to be rude, but do you have a disability?"

Shocker shakes his head.

"Wait, you don't have a disability? So, can you talk?"

This time, Shocker nods his head.

"So, why don't you?"

This time, Shocker doesn't shake or nod his head. When I ask the question, Shocker stops moving. He freezes and stares into space.

"Hey," I say, grabbing Shocker's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Shocker doesn't answer me. He doesn't nod, shake, or even pull out his holo-display. He's acting like me from a few minutes ago when I was frozen.

"Hey," I repeat. "Shocker. Are you okay? Hey!"

Snapping my fingers in front of Shocker, he seems to return to normal. He shakes his head before lowering his head. Now blinking his eyes over and over, Shocker turns to me. He points at my room before turning and walking away.

"Thank you," I say, waving at Shocker as he walks away. However, Shocker doesn't turn back to me. He keeps walking forward like he's ignoring me. I couldn't help but feel a bit hurt.

"Did I do something wrong?"

I ask myself this as I walk back into my room with my teammates, sighing.

Shocker:

"What is wrong with you," the man yelled. He then hit and knocked me to the floor. Before I could get up, the man kicked me in the stomach.

I screamed and cried as I held my stomach. The man left me on the floor.

"Stupid kid," the man said as he walked away. As the man walked away, a woman suddenly appeared in front of me. She grabbed my hand and slowly pulled it away.

"Are you okay," the woman asked.

"I think so," I answered. "Ahhh."

"Don't worry. I'll be here. I'll always protect you."

I shake my head at this thought. Stopping and taking a deep breath, I breathe out and rub my eyes. Sighing, I rejoin my team. Pulling out my holo-display, I write a message.

"Any progress," I write.

"A little bit," Chadd answers. Chadd turns and points at a small stack of papers. A very small stack.

"At this rate," Honey says, looking over her holo-display. "We should be done by next year."

"Noooo," someone cries out. Turning around, I see Hothead, Jump, and their two team members standing in our doorways.

"Oh no," Clementine moans. "More people?"

Putting up my hands, I point at Hothead and Shocker.

"What?"

"He's saying relax," Hothead says, speaking for me. Stepping up, Hothead wraps his arm around my neck and pulls me close. "It's us. Don't you remember us?"

"Yes," Honey answers. "You're the other team that got in trouble with us. Why are you here?"

"It's because," Hothead says, letting go of me. "I am not spending the next year buried in homework. I have a brilliant idea that may or may not work. Who's with me?"

Hothead raises his hand and looks around. Of course, only Jump and I raise our hands. The rest of our two teams didn't.

"You have a plan that may or may not work," Alodia repeats. "Are you kidding me?"

I tap Alodia on her shoulder and shake my head.

"Listen," Hothead starts, crossing his arms. "I have an idea. I don't know how well it'll work. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. Just bear with me. Okay. Now, again. Who is with me!"

Hothead's hand shoots into the air. He holds it firmly in the air as he looks around the room. Again, Jump and I shoot our hands into the air and again, it's only the three of us.

I turn to my teammates who are looking between me, Hothead, and each other. I nod my head when they look at me and, slowly, very slowly, Chadd, Honey, and Clementine raise their hands.

"Oh you can't be serious," Alodia yells.

"Screw it," Renee says. All of us turn to him as he raises his hand. "Sulien--"

"Hothead!"

"Hothead," Renee corrects, "Said he had a plan and I would like to get him the benefit of the doubt. Beside, this is Yellow Sun Academy. We can't do all of this along with our regular homework. So whatever plan Hothead had, I vote we do it."

Alodia looks at all of us before sighing. She lowers her head and raises her hands.

"Okay," Hothead says, slamming his hand down. "Here's my plan. I know the most about survival and Shocker knows about the stars and which way is which. Jump knows a lot overall. That means I can handle the survival assignment, anything having to do with stars or direction will go to Shocker, and anything other than survival or direction, Jump can handle. You see where I'm going with this."

"Yeah," Alodia says, nodding her head. "We each do assignments based on our strengths and what we know best. Wow. That actually sounds smart."

"You sound surprised," Hothead smiles.

"I am."

Hothead's smile turns upside-down.

"I know a lot overall too," Alodia says, joining Jump's side. "Let's see what we can do."

"Chadd knows a lot about animals and I know a lot about plants," Honey says. "We can handle those."

Without another word, everyone digs into the pile and sorts the assignments. Grabbing an assignment about constellations, I watch our two teams work together, and can't help but feel a little better.