At least until Coach Donnely yelled at them.

  “Move back to the forty-yard line. New kid, you go first.”

  Lonny snorted as they moved back.

  “You have this. Now I want to see more height. You have okay aim but you tend to be a bit shallow, still. Get under the ball, each time. Load it up!” There was another slap to his back then, and he practiced the move in his head first, before kicking the ball.

  Lonny was right, it really was low, when he did it. Too far to the left, too. Inside the goal posts but only just barely. Still, after the other boy went, he had a second chance.

  That time, he did better.

  Chapter two: Night and Day

  “Again.” The man sounded almost bored, as Jake tried to split the uprights from fifty yards. He got it, about two thirds of the time. Next to him Lonny did it perfectly that day. When Jake finally got it right, or at least was closer to that state, they had to move back again.

  To the sixty-yard line.

  From there, using the kicking block, he... Managed to miss every single kick of the ten he was allowed to take. He felt like shrugging, since he wasn’t a football player. Lonny made most of his kicks, though. Even when the rest of the team was called over. Actually everyone was.

  “Give me a line with nine... People in it. We’ll take turns. Rush the kicker. Keep the ball from getting down the field. Tackle them if you have to. Go!”

  That game, or he supposed, exercise, wasn’t really a fair one. They didn’t have a defensive line at all, which he was nearly certain they were supposed to. He got the idea though. They were rushed, with intimidating and large men, or in a few cases, decently cute girls, running at them, holding their hands up and trying to distract them. Not with pure pain being delivered, cracks about tackling them aside, just intimidation tactics. Yelling, screaming and more than once with some death threats being called out. Yawning, he managed to kick the ball correctly every time.

  That didn’t last long, the Coach clapping.

  “Good enough for early in the year. Lonny, make sure your newb is up to speed on everything. Now, where’s Hines? Principal Holms wants me to make sure we have tutoring set up.”

  Jake jogged over, the top and bottom of his right foot sore, if in different ways. The trick was, that the top stung and the bottom just needed a bit more conditioning time, he thought. Most of the pain from the burn, all of the cracking and bleeding, had stopped a few weeks back. When Sophie had coated him in magical chicken blood.

  “I was thinking about that, on the way down. We should meet up, in the evenings, three times a week before the school year and get everyone used to doing that. We could memorize the playbook, or the cheers. It doesn’t really matter, as long as we get everyone used to showing up and working, really.” That part was a risk. Tutoring the bad students was going to be hard to do though, if they felt like it meant they were stupid. If everyone had to do it, then it would be easier to manage. At least he hoped that was the case.

  The slightly hung over man blinked. Then did it again, several times.

  “You’re Hines? I thought you were a half crippled nerdy guy. Like, tiny.” He held a hand down toward the ground at least a foot under Jake’s head.

  Grinning, he nodded.

  “That’s me. Well, you saw my incredible kicking skills out there.” He shook his head, the adult glaring at him, then nodding.

  “Sure. That needs some work. You’re a sophomore?”

  “Freshman.”

  There was a weird nod and then something written down on the clipboard. After a moment, the man dug for something under the top sheet and handed it to Jake.

  “Good plan, then. Keep working with Lonny each day, for now. Also, hit the weights. This is the playbook for the year. We might have other plays but this is the basic set I want everyone to know. I’d go into how we need to protect it, since other teams want to steal it but, they won’t. Lawrence isn’t always the bottom of the league but we’re always about halfway down the rankings. Still, get everyone trained up on that before the season starts and I’ll have to name you the king of football for the year.” There was sarcasm in the words. As if he doubted it would be taking place.

  The book wasn’t that thick.

  He nodded, since it would be a good enough tool to use to motivate everyone else. At least the football players.

  “Got it. I’ll set that up.” Then, waving, he headed toward the weight room, since it was a lifting day. There he noticed that Terry was working with the same new guys he’d been with earlier. They all were kind of built, Jake noticed. Seeing him looking, one of the guys smiled at him and waved a bit.

  Terry called him over.

  “Jake! These goons are the guys you wanted for cheerleading. If they can make it. Coach Ramis didn’t come today, so I don’t know about that part. They’re decent guys. They all hate football, for some reason, which is a moral failing, of course.”

  That part was weird, since if he was back home in California, anyone saying that would have been joking or even making fun of other people liking the sport a bit too much. There, in Texas, half the people he talked to would have simply nodded at the idea. That not wanting a huge lineman to crush them was a thing that showed weak character, instead of common sense.

  “I’ll put word in about that. You’re all working the same lifting program as the football team for now?”

  No one knew but Lou, hearing the words, pulled some extra sheets that had the whole plan printed out and passed them around to the new guys. One of them glared a bit, at Lou but the normally obnoxious tan skinned guy winked back at him.

  “Adam. So, you’re finally going to do something with that talent of yours?”

  Jake was ready to stop the guy from speaking, to prevent him from being rude, when he went on.

  “Nice!” Then he looked at Jacob and explained. “Adam is probably the strongest guy at Lawrence. He won’t go out for a sport though. I mean, nothing. I’m not certain how you got him in at all, even for cheerleading, Terry. Did you offer to blow him if he did it or something?”

  Jake nodded, and kept his tired face blank.

  “If so, you get to do that, Lou. So keep that in mind before saying things like that? Bring the topic up though and you’re going to be expected to pay off. Otherwise it’s just rude.”

  It barely made sense but Adam snorted, while curling the largest of the dumbbells. Absently. The guy was fit looking, and had a good bit of muscle but that was a hundred and twenty pounds, according to the side of the gray metal mass. Which, looking around, got him to notice that the top half of the set was gone already, in use, by several of their people. Adam looked at him and noticed where he was glancing, the tall white guy shrugging as he set the thing down.

  Then spoke to Jake, directly.

  “I’m not gay. I have reasons for not playing sports but cheerleading, I mean, that has school spirit, too, right?” He seemed nearly upset but as if he was hiding that he wasn’t just making conversation.

  “That does, actually. How much can you lift, overhead?” Pantomiming the move, he pressed upward. Which had everyone nodding, since it was a real exercise.

  They did that then, using one of the machines for it. Each of them tried it, pushing on the sturdy metal bars. All of them did well enough. Jake’s lift was the lowest in weight that way, of course. Adam actually looked around, then maxed the machine out, pressing three hundred pounds over his head. For reps.

  Making it seem easy.

  Getting Dave to come over and try it, doing the exact same thing. Bix was smart enough to pretend to max out at two-eighty but Lou actually glared, and barely made it four times at two hundred pounds. That was the top for the normal people there. Jake only did a hundred and forty, which got one of the other new guys, the one who had smiled and waved, to nod.

  He’d managed to do one-ninety, which was respectable, apparently. At least if you weren’t secretly super powered and failing to hide it very well.

  “You weigh what, about one-thirty?”

  “About that. Maybe a bit less. I haven’t been eating as well as I should, lately.”

  “Still, anything over your body weight on an overhead press is legit. I’m Scott. Scott Cleper.”

  Jacob went still, then tilted his head a bit.

  “Do you know a Captain Cleper? Um, Audrey Cleper, I mean?” He held a hand out, to show the height of the small woman. The boy, who was decently tall, and had black curly hair, nodded. Seeming baffled.

  “Yeah. My mom. She works at the base near here.” He seemed worried but Jake nodded, happily enough.

  “Yeah, that makes sense. A few of us have parents or other family that work out there. Adam, you do, too?”

  The tall boy, who was probably a senior, frowned.

  “Yes... I do, in fact. Why do you say that?”

  Jake just tilted his head and didn’t answer. After a moment, he gave a nod.

  “I’ll check with Coach Ramis. To see how she wants to run the try outs for you all. We’ll be going over the needed cheers and all that, too. We’ll get together and practice that stuff, before you audition, if we can. That... You’ll all probably make it. You know, unless you suck. In that case you’re the cheer team’s water boy. That’s a thing, right?” He sounded mean, for a moment but everyone laughed, affably enough and moved off to start lifting. Adam and Scott both looking at him.

  Adam was at least still seeming baffled.

  Scott on the other hand kept smiling at him. Clearly flirting. It was off-putting. Mainly because the guy was actually good looking. Jake wasn’t gay but he had to admit that the attention was kind of working for him, in the moment. A little too much so, in fact. To keep from getting a hard-on he had to focus on his own lifting, to the point where reality sort of fell away from around him.

  Only the work being important. Leaving only the tension in his chest, arms, back and legs, as he tried to recruit all of the muscle fibers he could. Ignoring the discomfort. Pushing himself, and following the workout plan.

  It wasn’t until sometime later, as he was working at a bench press machine that he noticed Bix and Lou were both there, next to him, cheering him on. He hadn’t noticed that happening at all. He pushed, struggling and locked his arms, after what felt like a long time.

  “Booyah!” Lou yelled, half the guys in the room clapping, for some reason. “That’s what I’m talking about! Fifty pounds up from your previous best lift, in three weeks of working out. Boom.”

  Even Darren, the surly team psychopath, clapped a bit.

  “Not bad, Jake. Good, really, for a freshman. You juicing?”

  Bix snorted but Lou seemed honestly curious. As if that might simply be the truth. Settling the weight down, Jake shook his head, getting that the guy was asking about steroids.

  “Nope. I wouldn’t even know how to get those. Plus, they sound expensive.” Both were things he might get around if it were needed.

  Also, while he wasn’t doing drugs, he had probably gotten a bit of help from Sophie Lewis, who’d sacrificed some chickens in a blood magic spell for him. Several of them, actually. They’d done the spells more than once. It was to help with healing but it could have aided with other things. Darren simply shrugged and nodded.

  “Good. You don’t need that crap. Anyway, I’m out for the day. I have to meet up with Clara later.” It was clear he nearly said more. Probably about why they were meeting up.

  Jake nodded.

  “So do I. For totally different reasons. More to the point, I need to meet up with her yard. Her whole family has really bad hay fever, so I do that for them.” Which was true, really. All of it. He went on, since Darren seemed a bit upset, for some reason. “I don’t really know Clara very well, to be honest. Being the nerdy tutor guy and all that.” To him it seemed pretty obvious what he was doing.

  Solidifying his role for the year with the people there. Just saying the words out loud, like that would make them real.

  Darren nodded, after a moment but didn’t threaten him at all, which Jake had half expected. Telling him to stay away from his girl or something silly like that. Instead the guy shrugged.

  “She’s pretty cool, really. You do tutoring?”

  He nodded.

  “Yeah. For the team and the cheerleaders. It’s mandatory for everyone this year. You get good grades, right? So you’re on my team for that, working with everyone else. I mean, you don’t have to help but everyone has to show up for it, so it’s that or sit there, doodling and wondering why you can’t go home and sleep like you want to.” Sleep sounded like fun. He yawned, and shook his head, smiling.

  Which had half the room doing it in sympathy.

  “Man, don’t do that!”

  That came from Rodrigo, across the room. Jake didn’t really know him well but he was part of the football team and had shown up almost every day for the pre-pre-season practice.

  “Sorry!” He had a bit of work to finish up, so did that, quickly, to find Bix waiting for him when he walked outside. Dave as well. Along with Adam and Scott.

  Adam was still glaring at him but didn’t yell or ask any questions.

  Jake just shrugged.

  “We’re supposed to have a camp out, in a few weeks, at some lake near here. Are you both in for that? Alex, the cheerleader, is putting that together. I mean, we have adult supervision coming and everything, so it won’t be that fun but...”

  Oddly Scott chuckled a bit. Sending a tickle over his skin.

  Over his mind, as well. Since he was reading it. Jacob went blank then and smiled. The guy went still, clearly understanding that he knew what was happening, if nothing else. Part of it. Jake wasn’t very psychic, really. He’d just had a lot of training in certain things that let him notice what was going on. Meditation and mind control.

  After a moment, the probing stopped, the good looking, obviously super psychic, kid just giving him a very odd look.

  Adam tilted his head however.

  “Sure. If I can find the time. You’re Jacob Hines? I’ll... Ask about you, then.” That sounded kind of sinister but Dave nodded, as if that made real sense to him.

  Which it might. His parents were both augmented soldiers after all. Whatever the other kids had going on, with one parent like that, he probably got a double dose of. Being careful about what you said in public and making certain everything odd was reported, instantly, seemed to be part of the plan. It should have been, at any rate.

  When Dave spoke, it was to Jake.

  “Oh, um, can I stay over this weekend?”

  Scott grinned.

  “We’re having sleepovers now? Sweet. My mom’s going out of town, so I can have you all over? We could even invite some girls, if you want, Bix. You like that kind of thing, right? Girls?” That could have been insulting but it wasn’t meant to be, clearly.

  No, it was just a question. Feeling out what might be going on that way, for later.

  Bixby gave a single nod. Frowning a bit.

  “We... need to not talk about too much. Not in public. My parents don’t even work out at the base and I can tell that there’s something big going on out there, now. We could see about getting them cleared, up at Terrace Springs? Jake should do that. The people in the front office love him. Me, not so much. Half-vampire. That’s not so popular.”

  That wasn’t totally true. People were a bit scared of him but only a little bit. No one tried to keep him from going to school with a bunch of juice boxes, even. Then, he really didn’t have much trouble that way. He drank blood each day, Jake thought but had been sticking to animal, even after his Uncle Roger had moved back to human, the week before. That wasn’t about impressing anyone either. Jake certainly didn’t care whose blood he drank, as long as it wasn’t his, after all.

  Still, Jacob pointed at Dave.

  “My house, this weekend. I’ll pass your information to the needed people. Adam, I need a last name for you.” He waited, the large, fit seeming tall guy, who looked to be nearly twenty, stared back.

  “Evans.”

  That would, he thought, just about work. Nodding, he took off, up the hill, not looking back. Not speaking, until Bix did it, about halfway up.

  “Okay, you got that Scott seriously likes you, right? I mean, at least he wants to bang. I could smell it on him and it wasn’t directed at me or Dave.” There was a smile but it lacked in teasing, for some reason.

  Jake took a breath, pulling the black cart with the empty water container on it, the sun starting to make the world go hot as he did it.

  “I got he was flirting earlier. That seems... A bit off. He’s also psychic. Probably not in Clara’s league but I was able to feel him trying to read my mind.” His mother could do that.

  The idea that cute little Captain Cleper had a son that old was odd to him. She looked so young. Then, so did his grandparents. It was a thing he couldn’t count on meaning that much, any longer, it seemed.

  The pale kid next to him smiled a little.

  “He’s decently strong, too. Physically. Not like Adam or Dave but he might have been downplaying things. I got a bit carried away and didn’t fake that well enough, earlier. How about you?”

  He scoffed a little.

  “That was all my very best. I was in a trance when I was bench pressing, trying not to get an erection from the flirting that Scott was doing. He’s cute but I’m not gay, so that was weird. I mean, it doesn’t bug me that much but I don’t go around catching wood from guys like that.” He hadn’t in the past, at least.

  There was a shrug then.

  “No big thing. It might be you, or it could be something about him. A projection power, maybe? Either way, it’s not a problem so much. Not once you know about it. What do you have for the rest of the day?”

  There was a lot, honestly. More than he really wanted to deal with. He knew he needed to sleep, too. Which was going to be fun, dream-wise, he didn’t doubt. Probably featuring him being tortured that day, given how he’d spent his night. A thing that was probably fair, more or less.

 

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