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  “Caleb, don't go back there and start rifling around, foraging for clean clothes. If you'd actually wash some, this would not be an issue.”

  I ignored that and plowed forward. There, in a dim little corner were all the mismatched clothes. I rifled through the whole thing and got a vintage AC/DC T-shirt that was littered with the fine holes on the bottom (a theme with my shirts), and threw that on.

  Mom put out her hand and quietly said, “Maybe a shower would liven you up.”

  I scowled harder, then a vision of Jade popped into my head. She showed up smelling like a vanilla bean and I was there smelling like... like... a kid that woke up in a pool of drool. Life just seemed complicated now. Where were the days when you could just be? I grabbed some mismatched socks, the last pair of boxer briefs, no free-ballin' for me and took off for the shower.

  I took an extra-long time in the shower and even cleaned my feet. Feeling super spiffy and primed I glanced in the mirror. It was fogged up so swiped it with my arm. I searched carefully for signs of my impending manhood. Seeing nothing (I think I had, like, three armpit hairs), I left the steam pit of a bathroom.

  I sat down in front of a fried egg sandwich. “Huh, what gives?” I asked Mom.

  “I thought you could use a little pick-me-up.”

  For today she was absolved of her sins.

  Dad strolled in. “Hey Pal.”

  “Hey.”

  “You showered!”

  I scowled, showering was an event that warranted comment?

  Parents.

  “Caleb, I was thinking that we try some experimentation in the cemetery, in a controlled atmosphere, one in which there isn't a charged, emotional dynamic.”

  Dad looked at my expression.

  “Don't worry about how you do, son. It's about gaining some control over this ability.”

  I wondered if having the Js with me would make it easier or harder? I deliberated. I decided it would be easier with the Js than without. After all, it had been them from the beginning of this whole mess.

  Mom put her hands on hips encased in pajamas, her favorite outfit, and added, “I want to be included too. The Js get to go.”

  Sliding onto the bench beside me, she gave me a level stare.

  “I read most of the papers that John gave me.” I told her. “The main scientist, Daniels-something...”

  “Byron, Byron Daniels,” Dad interjected.

  “Yeah. He said that if there were another Parker, that the kid would be limited to what certain groups wanted.”

  Mom sent Dad the oh shit look and he gave a minute shake of his head, later.

  “You know this Dr. Daniels?” I asked Dad.

  “I know of him. He works in related fields.”

  I looked at the clock and stood up, Mom gave me a hug.

  “I haven't died mom,” I said, pulling away.

  “I understand,” she commented, “but sometimes moms just want to squeeze their boys.”

  “I know,” I said and took off for the door, whipping my hair out of my face. I turned and walked out the door, jerking my backpack off the chair as I went. I stuffed my feet into my shoes, closing the door behind me. I was looking forward to another day with Jade and my best jamming day of the week. Little did I know that the day would start off weird and just get stranger as it wore on.

  ****

  The school commons was in the center of a humungous room with circular tables. Lockers flanked the entire room and bled down into the halls leading to our classes. Eighth graders had the commons lockers and the sixth and seventh (sevies) graders dealt with the jostling hallway. We all hung out in the commons and stalked each other's activities. I had time before Morginstern's class and could hang with the Js before and if I was really lucky, Jade.

  I spotted Jonesy right away, his dark face a chocolate dot in the crowd. He raised a finger in salute and looking around I didn't see John or Jade. Sucked.

  Jonesy wore that expectant expression I knew so well. “Hey man, what's up?”

  “I heard you got nailed for skipping homework.”

  “Yeah, I had to make up, like, ten CE's.”

  My mouth hung open. “My parents would've executed me for that many missing current events.”

  Jonesy looked down and shuffled his feet, then looked up with a sheepish expression. “Yeah, no pulse for now...”

  “No pulse?”

  Incredible.

  “Yeah, but my mom knows I am going to hang with you all day Sunday so I either didn't do that,” NOT an option for The Instigator to be absent, “or no pulse for a week.” Spreading his hands out, sacrifices must be made for the greater good.

  Right. “Well,” I clapped him on the back, “thanks for that.”

  “No problem.”

  Carson and Brett strolled by. Carson paused and said, “Hey Queers, how's it hangin'?”

  Brett looked at Carson, and said, “Dumb question Carson, that's all they know, how each other is hangin'.” They laughed at their brilliance.

  Jonesy gave me that knowing smile. I was tired of them. I hoped Jonesy got them good. Jade appeared, making a wide berth around the chumps. She put her small hand in my bigger one, turning to look (contemptuous expression) at Carson and Brett who were unsuccessfully containing their glee.

  I was distracted. Jade did actually smell like a vanilla bean. Then Brett interrupted my sniffing.

  “Not exciting enough for ya? Gotta use Jade as a cover?”

  “A cover for what?” she asked.

  “Their fagness, obviously,” Carson claimed.

  Jade did a smooth roll-her-eyes up in her beautiful head look.

  Girls were uniquely talented in the rolling eyes department.

  “I'm not a cover for anything. By the way: listen up, dumb asses, haven't you figured out that you guys aren't important enough to worry about covering for?” she said, hands on hips, head tilted, that hot considering look painted on her face.

  Nice... feisty! Suddenly, Brett was standing not two inches from Jade's nose and she stepped back.

  “Hey!” I yelled, shoving Jade behind me.

  Brett was in my face now (that was just fine), poking his finger in my chest. We stood eye to eye, that small growth spurt putting me right where I needed to be.

  “Keep your slut in line there, pal, or I will.”

  I grabbed his finger and twisted it while I said, “She isn't a slut, mouth-breather,” and gave him a hard shove.

  He stumbled into Carson but rebounded fast, coming for me. Things slowed down. Feeling Jade's presence at my back, I got ready to abuse and then Carson said, “Cool it Brett, Morginstern's coming.”

  “What's going on here young men and woman?” he nodded at Jade, including her in his political correctness. My heart was still hammering in my chest with the post adrenalin surge.

  Brett and Carson wore sullen expressions, which didn't faze Morginstern one bit.

  “John told me you were having an issue out here and may be late to class. You know that I frown on the first period 'slouch'.” A dissatisfied furrow formed between his eyes.

  Huh, clever-John had been cookin' up a way to get us out of this little disaster. Nice.

  “I wasn't trying to be late, honest. I got distracted by Carson and Brett's interesting dialogue.” I threw a glance their way, digging their identical expressions of confused dumbness. Jade smirked. She was definitely getting it.

  Morginstern folded his arms across his chest and stared at us.

  Pointing a finger at Jade, then Carson and Brett, “You go now to your respective classes.” He watched them walk away and I saw Jade turn around to look back at me. I smiled back.

  Morginstern gave his attention to Jonesy and me. “I think I caught sight of a skunk and smelled a skunk so there must be a skunk.” I had heard that before from Gramps. It was time to purposely misunderstand the expression.

  “What do you mean, Mr. Morginstern?” I asked.

  Jonesy was busy giving me the wide-eyed, figure
this out.

  Morginstern's eyes narrowed, looking right into mine, I held his gaze. “I think you know exactly what I mean. I have to go teach class now, with the two of you, but,” he stabbed a finger in my direction, “I know there is discord between you, Carson Hamilton and Brett Mason. I know.”

  The laser eye fell on Jonesy (equal-opportunity lecture), “... and you... you're always around when these situations erupt.”

  Jonesy made some vague effort to look innocent but I had to admit, he almost always looked guilty.

  “Get to class boys and no more loitering, I'll be watching.” He walked back to class and we followed, our tails tucked between our legs.

  We went through the door, the last bell already rung and every kids' eyes on us. John was making strangling motions around his neck when our eyes connected. I gave him the slashing index finger across the throat gesture, can it, I mimed.

  Jonesy and I sat at the round table and Morginstern went to the front of the room explaining that he was unexpectedly delayed due to an incident out in the commons that needed his personal attention.

  All eyes swiveled to us. I hated that.

  I was in a foul mood because of the rough start. Jonesy caught my grumpiness like a cold and gave it to John. All three of us grumped together in silence, sanding our boxes.

  Finally, John said, “Listen... I know it wasn't cool for Morginstern to break that up but would it have gone to plan if you guys had let it fall apart before the cemetery?”

  No, it would definitely not have been cool, it would have ruined the Aqua Net Payback.

  Jonesy looked abashed. “I so want to do this on Sunday.”

  “I knew that, it's why I made an executive decision,” John said.

  “A what?” Jonesy asked.

  “He means he decided, on his own, what was best for our group.” I looked at John as if to say, come on.

  “No, you guys have to learn idioms.”

  Jonesy was utterly confused. I was gonna show off.

  “It's not really an idiom, ya know.”

  “Yeah, it is,” John shot back.

  “No, an idiom is an expression that is not literal to its meaning.” Mom was a word-freakazoid and had drilled this stuff into me.

  John looked perplexed but rallied. “Okay... so what you're saying is that I really am the executive of the group and my decision was allowable.”

  Uh-oh. I hadn't thought about the consequence of taking on John's Undeniable Logic.

  “Well, Jonesy and I,” Jonesy nodded solemnly as if he understood and was in complete agreement with my thought process, “have not appointed you the executive formally.” I hesitated here, “but the expression, executive decision is not opposite to its real meaning.”

  I then leaned back in my chair, mirroring Johns crossed arms.

  A slow grin spread over John's face.

  He began nodding. “Pretty damn clever, Hart.”

  We bumped fists and that sealed our coolness. We resumed the Dreaded Sanding.

  Friday droned on without further incident. Jade and I hung with the Js while eating lunch. Jonesy got Carson on board, giving him the time to meet Sunday. We whipped out our pulses and set our reminder chimes, synchronized and ready or kinda ready.

  The speakers began blaring out a message about the upcoming tests. Mrs. Calvert was reminding us that all eighth grade students' Aptitude Testing would begin on Monday morning so, “... be sure to get a good night's sleep and a proper,” who ever said that, I wondered, “breakfast.”

  We rolled our eyes. I was the only kid that actually ate breakfast. Most of the kids would show up on Monday morning starving big time.

  I gave Jade a hug as she walked off to her class and watched her progress. The Js watched me watch her.

  Jonesy shook his head. “Man, you got it bad.”

  John nodded in agreement. “Yeah he does.”

  I was kinda disgusted with them.

  “Oh and you two are going to be different when you like somebody?” I dismissed them with a wave of my hand, heading to class.

  After suffering through English and PE, we were ready to jam. It was lame I really couldn't talk to Jade in those classes. Even Miss Rodriguez's hotness didn't entice. Now that Jade was the GF, it was so just English now, except when she pulled out all the stops with a righteous outfit.

  I told John this and he looked at me in horror.

  “Miss Rodriguez is still completely hot. You having a girlfriend so does not change that,” he said with real reproach.

  “Well, maybe she is still pretty hot,” John gave me the, ya think? Look.

  I rolled my eyes, “... but, there is Jade and she's plenty distracting. I bet all I'll pull out of that dumb class is a 'B'.”

  “Yeah, your parents will have a shitfit if you get a 'C'.”

  John was laughing but I didn't think it was that funny, not all of us could just have a heartbeat in class and get an 'A'.” I mentioned that most obvious fact and he shrugged. That was John, he wasn't going to admit he was smart, no-oh.

  Mr. Cole came over and asked John to play a measure or two on the piano to see if he could sub for Alex sucking at a measure. John stared at the sheet music and began playing and I listened. The adults called John a natural.

  The notes floated out, he used all the dynamics, gaining volume and softening at the correct times. When he approached the fifth measure, Cole stopped him with a hand.

  “Okay, today I want you to work with Alex, he needs some fine tuning.”

  John went over to where Alex was sitting and they looked over the sheet music. Meanwhile, I bent over my piece and got my fingers in position to play my chords.

  I was jammin' out a good set and then that cop from the accident walked in. My heart began hammering in my throat, blood rushing to my head making a faint roaring in my ears. What in the hell was this? John looked up from helping Alex and saw Garcia and about crawled up his own corn cob. My fingers stilled.

  I set the guitar down and stood.

  Garcia went right to Cole and said, “Hey Tony, I just wanted to borrow Caleb for a sec.” His voice formed the question like it was a request but I didn't think so.

  “Sure thing Officer Garcia,” he winked.

  They're friends, swell.

  Garcia looked at me, crooking a finger. I left my stuff where it was and followed him out the door into the parking lot

  He faced me. “So, how are you, Caleb?”

  “Since last week, fine.” I mean, we just saw each other. We were alone, without anyone hearing what was said, I was gonna be careful.

  “You remember that I said that I'd keep an eye on you?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, it's come to my attention that there's a couple of young men that are becoming a problem at the school.”

  I so didn't need this.

  “There's no problem,” I rushed out. Calm down Caleb.

  Garcia raised a brow. “Really, because I've heard different reports.”

  Ah-huh, somebody had diarrhea of the mouth. “We're not great friends or anything, that's for sure.”

  Garcia switched topics, tricky bastard. “Doesn't,” he looked down at his notepad, he still wrote stuff down instead of pulse-pad, “Jade LeClerc live fairly close to the Mason boy?”

  Yes and why did Garcia care? I was liking this less and less. He was doing more than keeping an eye on me.

  “Yeah.”

  “There's a situation that has been escalating in that neighborhood that you need to be aware of.”

  Was he warning me... or warning me?

  He waited while bees droned lazily, the sun warming our faces.

  Garcia sighed. “Listen, Caleb, I'm here to help, not run your life.”

  I waited.

  “Okay, I have a feeling about you and I'm going out on a limb. I know the Mason kid is under tremendous pressure at home.”

  I just bet he is.

  “Miss LeClerc has escaped, by a slim margin, a similar backgrou
nd, but not the same can be said for Mr. Mason,” he intoned solemnly. “I was hoping, when there's a huge potential trauma for kids realizing some form of paranormal ability, if you might restrain yourself from exacerbating this situation.”

  He lost me, what?

  Garcia sighed again. “Listen, don't spin Brett up like a top right now, he's like a bomb waiting for detonation.”

  “Gotcha.” The bomb reference I understood.

  Garcia's shoulders relaxed and a lopsided smile appeared.

  “Maybe you can mention this to the Js.”

  Sunday. At. The. Cemetery.

  I clamped down on my expression, but a little leaked out. Sergeant Raul Garcia's smile slipped. Him calling John and Jonesy the “Js” struck me as odd too. I didn't like it.

  “Yeah, okay,” I responded.

  The bell shrilled and Garcia glanced down at his watch. We had that one thing in common. Everyone else had a pulse, all pulse technology kept world time perfectly.

  John lurched out the door, coming to stand by me. He and Garcia were about eyeball to eyeball, John was gonna be tall I thought for the millionth time. But Garcia was all-that-is-man, broad shoulders (he hit the gym pretty hard), with bulging forearms.

  John looked sorta unfinished. That was okay, we were still boys, we didn't have to be men yet.

  I didn't know this then, but soon boyhood would slip away and manhood would arrive like a thief in the night. Inch, by insidious inch.

  ****

  Jade came up as Garcia was leaving and gave me the look that I was already beginning to love, where she looked thoughts at me and I knew what she was thinking. No paranormal skills necessary.

  I pressed her head against my chest in a tight hug. “Yeah, it's the same cop from the accident.”

  Jade bent her head back from me, her hands grasping my forearms. “Garcia?”

  I nodded. John stared at Garcia's car as it became a white dot in the distance.

  “What did he want?” John asked, still staring.

  “He wants us to lay off Brett.”

  John looked at me, then at Jade, then back to me again.

  “Really,” I said.

  “That's so not going to work!”