Chapter 4

I got home later today. Something was different about this scene from June. Two cars were parked and the lights were turned all the way on. Mom wasn’t normally home by now and my friend should be with his father right now.

A woman’s silhouette came out from the door. Another, smaller silhouette followed from her hand. I remembered the human following. His short, sandy, messy hair couldn’t be forgotten even if you tried. That child is named Peter.

“You can’t be left alone like this! What if a stranger came over and took you away? I could never live with myself if the boy I trusted with you failed.” His mother ranted on. She stomped down the wooden steps leading to the cars.

The boy kept quiet and walked. At some points he was running to catch up with her anger. I saw his eyes focus on the shoe laces he tied himself.

The mother scowled at me as they walked by. I know what I did wrong and felt sorry for the poor kid. The cold air was too much for me to handle in this wind breaker. Mom sure was going to give me a mouthful when I enter, which is now.

“Where were you?” great start. “You left a child, alone, outside and I worried whether or not you died on the way home!” She was up in my face. I could hear her sigh heavily when I didn’t answer her.

Could I tell her what happened at school today? I was scared to show my wings because of how she could use me. Here I was dealing with something that might be frowned upon by parents.

“I was at school. They were having sports try outs starting today and I decided to check it out.” Whatever she thought I did didn’t show on her face. She became calm. I placed my bag on the empty chair in the living room and went to me room.

The whole world was shut out from in here. My small collection of video games and each console that came out was in here. The computer and laptop dad got me was also stored behind the consoles. Books were also stacked on top of each other anywhere I found room.

Silence filled the room as I laid on my stomach on my bed. It was fine for an hour until a knock jump started my arms. “Matt, dinner’s ready.” I stood up and walked to the door. Mom was standing with a plate of meatloaf and a cup of chocolate milk for me.

“Can we talk?” I turned back to the bed and left the door open. She sat on the foot of the mattress and I sat at the head. “Why didn’t you tell me about staying after for sports? I could have told her you wouldn’t be here and to send Peter to his dad’s.”

I ate while thinking of a reason why. There was three hours of time I could have told her and I didn’t. “There isn’t an answer for me to give you on why. I sort of forgot to mention what was going on.” I took another bite and stared into the ground meat.

“The next time something comes up, tell me first so I can handle whatever else you have for the day.” She smiled at me. “Now tell me what sport you were interested in,” a topic I didn’t want to speak about. How was I going to avoid this mess?

I thought back to the paper Brendely showed me in the library. It had cheerleading, football, soccer and volleyball. What was a more believable sport for me though?

“Someone suggested I got into football if I had some experience throwing one.” Mom’s face lit up. She knew dad tried to get me to join a team in one of those children football teams that were organized of boys, and maybe girls, from around the town. I refused his offers every time he asked.

I got up with an empty plate in hand. She quickly jumped up and took the plate with her. We went into the kitchen where she threw the plate into a sink and cleaned the other dishes. I grabbed a water bottle and went back.

I stopped at my door and faced down the hall, where she was, and I yelled, “I’m going back every day this week just so you know in advance.” There was a crash. I almost went charging back to the kitchen when she yelled to me she was alright.

Everything was quiet again as what the girls said to me kicked in. Whatever they meant sure had to do with tomorrow and how I was. But did they know about them? Was everything that visible in my shirt? I thought about what to keep for then and went to sleep.

The next morning was different for us. Mom had me go to the kitchen table and eat with her in there. She placed a bowl of cereal in front of me and I vacuumed it down before she could sit down with hers. We sat there silently for what seemed to be hours. I had to leave for school at 7:20 for me to make it on time for the first bell. Mom left at 7:00 so I wasn’t too worried of her seeing me take off.

I arrived to the entrance without people looking at me coming from the tree. I only got into some trouble when a student ran into my side and just brushed up against my wing. They didn’t pay attention too much as to what they ran into and kept going.

I ran into Max on my way to the library. He was in a hurry and not the late-to-class kind of hurry. The wide eyes he had scanned every inch of the walls and floor. Was there something he forgot?

“Hey Max!” I waved over to him. When he turned to face me, I saw flames in his eyes. Literal flames only angels could see. That usually meant a normal human was dealing with a sinful action during the time.

Slowly he approached me and clenched his fists. “This is your fault they came after me!” he yelled. “It was your idea to tell the coach I wanted to join and now guys are after me.” I watched as he curled up into a ball and started crying.

The only logical thing I could think to do was to bend down and comfort him the best I could. This got me a strange look from a girl who wore scantily clad clothing. She wasn’t something that would bother me. Another person came up to us with a towering shadow. He was probably six feet tall and almost or just above 200 pounds.

“Move it kid before I beat you up along with this leech,” he ordered roughly. I stood up, but didn’t move. This aggravated the towering male and caused him to close in on me. “I said move it!”

“Or else what will happen again? I didn’t quite hear why this is going on.” I raised a cupped hand to my ear and leaned forward. His face was turning red and he gritted his teeth.

“Or else I’ll have to beat up your pathetic corpse as well.” He placed an arm on my shoulder and gripped it tight. Brendely was on a computer in the library close to the glass separating us. She turned her head and ran out here.

“Let go of him!” she screamed. We both jumped an inch hearing the high pitched sound from her. He eventually let go and walked off, mumbling something about Max and I.

All three of us entered the library and sat at a table. The flames in Max’s eyes were still there. Did he attempt to murder that male before running from him? “What was that all about?”

“I would like to know too, Max. Why was he just trying to beat you to a pulp?” I glared over to him. It was making him feel uncomfortable which wasn’t good. I eventually stopped and looked over to the clock. The time was 1:12 and it was going by slow.

There was something grabbing my empty hand on the table. It felt warm and welcoming all around. “He thought I was going after some of the girls who were on the team last year. But you believe me that I wouldn’t do that at first glance, right?” We just met each other yesterday. Could I tell what kind of females this male liked? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I may be an angel from heaven, but that doesn’t mean I know every single soul’s preferences.

The final bell rang and we all went down to the gym together. Max wasn’t as angry with me as it looked earlier. Brendely gave me a mouth-full on what I needed to be able to do. She wanted me to do something called a full when I was standing still to start. I told her it would only happen if she showed me how to do it. I received a big sigh in return.

In the locker room, I just managed to hide my exposed back because Max had issues changing in front of others. My heart almost stopped when another boy came in. He was a bit on the large side in terms of fatness. I grabbed my bag as soon as he reached the locker wall. We exchanged nods and went the other way.

Max came out a few seconds later and we walked up the stairs. The mats were already set up when we entered. The three girls who talked to me yesterday were inside doing flips and stretching their legs up to their heads. “The boys return once again to the drama of girls cheer. Come to actually try out today Mr. Angelic?” The three giggled in their group. My wings tried to burst through my shirt which was awkward.

“As a matter of fact, I did. Today I got some workout clothes that would be more fitting than what I had yesterday.” Now I had the baggiest shirt on and shorts that went about an inch past my knee. They were just enough to hide everything. “I take it you girls set everything up today?” I asked.

“Yes we did! You did well enough yesterday for your first time, but we did it better.” The oldest looking of the three grinned as she spoke. It wasn’t enough for me to not one-up them.

“I have it memorized now for tomorrow and the rest of the season.” Max turned his head in my direction. I won’t lose to a bunch of human girls on being nice. “Don’t men do the heavy lifting for you three? Why would you want anything to do with it?”

They laughed in their group. Brendely came in soon after and her eyes changed to red again. Whatever they did to her wasn’t goof I guess. “Hey BrenBren! It’s good to see you again too.” They smiled and walked closer. Brendely’s fists were clenching tighter and tighter.

“What do you want Christy? Come to ruin my life for me? Brendely was on fire from head to toe. I assume you can guess what that means. I stepped between the four and looked down at Christy. She wasn’t that pretty, but she was familiar in some way.

“Mr. Angelic, are you in love with her?” The flames grew larger as they came closer to my wings. Saying one answer would lead to these flames lighting against my shirt and then my skin. Saying the other answer might lead to lies being spread about me which no one wants on their first week.

It took some time of thinking to choose but I’m sure the Saints taught me good for these situations. “There is not an answer to your question as everything is undecided based on one day of knowing Ms. Brendely.” The girl on her right clapped slowly. She was half a foot taller with lighter hair.

“The boy can avoid answering questions! I wonder where you learned that from.” She received a slight shove from the girl on the left with more giggling. They went back to their spot and continued doing their things. Brendely brought us to the opposite side of them and stretched out.

There was a tap on my shoulder when we finished her routine. I turned around to see the quiet girl who didn’t say anything earlier. “Amanda wants to know what you can do.” She grabbed my arm and dragged me over. Brendely stood there with the biggest flames I couldn’t imagine around her. What kind of sin did she commit?

Amanda, from what I could tell, was standing next to me. It was like I was being examined by that coach again. Christy was in front of me with a big grin on her face. They all wore shirt that were really big, like me. “Think you could do a back tuck for us?” she asked. I didn’t know the motions for any move they did here. Handstands, handsprings, round offs, cartwheels and rolls were all I saw yesterday.

“Do you mind showing me how one would do a back tuck?” Christy snapped her fingers and the silent girl did a curled up back flip. It seemed simple enough with what I could work with.

“Now do what Emma just did. One of us will have to spot you though as to make sure nothing happens.” I walked over to Emma and faced the four watching.

Before I could let her touch me, I told her one thing. “Be careful where you grab. My back isn’t good friends with hard physical contact.” It wasn’t friends with sleeping either. She sighed and carefully grabbed the bottom of my shirt. I jumped and moved my wings to flip me upside down. My legs were also squeezed together like I was jumping into a pool of water.

When I landed, my legs were straight out and my wings were tucked in tightly. The flames around Brendely were dying down a bit as her mouth was left wide open. Max looked confused as to what happened.

“You were lying before about not knowing how to do one, were you?” Christy asked. Emma’s hands were up and away from me. She went over to the two girls and whispered something to her. “I see. So you really think that?” Emma nodded.

Max came over. He wasn’t sure of anything now and how it should be. Whatever he saw was pure talent for all they knew. “How did you just do that?” he asked scratching his head.

“Beginner’s luck?” I laughed and he joined in. The other groups of girls came in talking away. They stretched out and talked again. Max and I sat against a wall and drank water while we waited. Brendely came over with silence. Her flames died down to nothing which was good.

The boy I saw in the locker room was up here. He was in the middle of a conversation with other girls to notice anyone else. The coaches came in and most of the team began stretching. Brendely stomped her way over. “You’re such a liar! There is no way you could do that without someone teaching you beforehand.” They all stopped for a second until the louder coach scowled.

She walked over to the six of us. Christy scowled too at Brendely. “What seems to be the problem here ladies and gentlemen?” I stiffened up next to Max who also seemed afraid. We were all quiet, trying to avoid her. “Well?”

“These three asked me to do a trick.” I pointed back to Christy and her friends. “When I said my experience with cheerleading was nothing and I did this back tuck thing, she thought I was lying. We have everything set straight though so it shouldn’t be a problem anymore.” I answered the angry coach.

I felt like maybe my wings were noticeable because now she was examining me. “Do another one. If what you say is true then no one needs to spot you.” I stepped back and prepared my wings again. This time there was over 50 humans observing me, for a dumb flip thing I can do in the air.

When I landed, the group the other girls made started whispering to each other. My face started heating up as the third boy’s eyes saw me. Whatever he was thinking wasn’t a good sign for me. “That was exceptional. Is there anything else you want to present?” the coach asked. I shook my head and she walked back to the other coach.

Everyone else finished their stretching and we were doing these leg things like Emma was doing, just not as high and we didn’t grab our legs. Our arms changed from side to side as we kicked sideways to above our heads when we kicked forward. After every set, we would jog down the hallway to the other side of the school and back. We did another set and ran back down. Max wasn’t doing too well as we started the second jog.

“Do you want to slow down? I wouldn’t want to tire out my new friend after one day.” I chuckled a little and he frowned. If it was a necessity, I could carry him back to the gym.

“It’s fine. Just go at your own pace, I’ll be there when I can.” I slowed down and kept at his pace. He was much slower than I would like to be, but I’m here for him after all. What was going on inside his head?