Lucas Ryan Versus: The Hive (The Lucas Ryan Versus Series) (3 page)

“No, Mr. Parker, no trouble here,” I smiled, and quickly scooped up my money from the ground and shoved it in my back pocket. Taylor ran his hand behind his neck, nervously.

“Good.” Mr. Parker smiled, and turned his attention toward my bodyguard. “Big game this weekend Mr. Swift. You can’t afford any setbacks.” His accusing eyes whipped back to me from behind his thick glasses. I rolled my eyes slightly.

“It was all just a silly misunderstanding,” Taylor said, shrugging his broad shoulders.

“I doubt that,” Mr. Parker warned. I huffed out loud at his judgmental tone. This teacher has been picking on me for my entire high school career. Taylor’s eyes pleaded with me not to push it any further.

“Everything’s fine, Mr. Parker,” Taylor said. Mr. Parker nodded in agreement.

“Head to your next class, Mr. Swift, I’ll handle things from here.”

“Handle what?” I asked, a little too upset. Taylor frowned at me. Instantly, I felt bad for losing my temper and lowered my head. He nudged my arm with his as he walked past me.

“See ya later, Luc. Be good,” he said, with a crooked smile. I managed to smile back at him, but just a little one. As he made his way through the small crowd that had gathered around us, he was welcomed with cheers of “Big Country” and pats on his back. He sighed and I nodded to him in understanding, just before he was swamped by his celebrity.

“Office. Now, Mr. Ryan,” Mr. Parker said.

“Why?” I asked, upset.

“You’ve been warned many times before that your amateur business ventures are illegal on school grounds.”

“But...”

“But nothing! It’s one thing if you want to ruin your future, but you seem intent on taking Mr. Swift with you,” his voice filled with disgust.

“That’s not true!” I snapped.

“Taylor Swift is a shining example of this proud school and all that is stands for. You will NOT taint that,” he scolded, tapping his foot.

“Gimme a break! All you and this school stand for is using my best friend and his God given talents! You don’t care about the real Taylor!” I had officially lost my temper now, and with it, any self-control I had left. The last of the remaining kids in the crowd winced at my big mouth. A few of them even giggled, quietly.

“Office! Now!” he yelled, and his giant glasses fell from his face. Without thinking, I quickly caught them just below his angry grimace. The sun shined through them with a dozen colored flecks of light. He watched me stunned and embarrassed. I felt like throwing them as hard as I could in the opposite direction, but I swallowed that image down like a jagged little pill. Mr. Parker’s face turned bright red. Then I thought, what would a hero do? What would Taylor do?

I handed them back to him.

“Fine.”

LEVEL 03:
Burden In My Hand

I really needed to get my act together. I was on thin ice with my parents already. A school suspension would not go over well. I turned up the volume on my mp3 player and tried to relax as the music flowed through my earbuds. With a tiny hum, I waited for Vice-Principal Chan and her wrath. I grew up knowing her and her husband. Friends of the family. That changed when I started high school though. Ms. Chan distanced herself from my family when I started as a freshmen, I’m not sure why. She was always very kind to me, but she was not the biggest fan of my hijinks. She always gave me a second or third chance. But what about a fourth and fifth chance?

Nervously, I sat outside her office in a small plastic chair, watching the office secretary watch me, watching her. Renee Johnson, sweet and carrying, but a little flaky. She always had a smile waiting for me when I came in for my special office visits.

I smiled impatiently. “I’m innocent this time, I swear.”

“Of course you are, Lucas,” she mocked me, politely. I leaned back as far as I could in the kindergarden sized waiting chair. My mind spun at the thought of the length of detention I was sure to receive this time. My thoughts became scattered and I couldn’t focus on anything. Something began to feel off...feel different. Waves of heat rolled over me. It was completely uncomfortable. As if a giant was standing behind me, breathing its hot, sticky breath on me. The image made my heart race.

“What’s wrong with me?” I asked no one. This wasn’t the first time I was in trouble, so why was I acting like this. I needed to calm down, get my nerves in check. I pulled from my backpack a shiny touchscreen computer tablet and started flipping through the different applications on its screen. Maybe a quick game of
Tetris
would clear my head. As the different colored game blocks slid down the screen, I let out a long sigh. Suddenly, the screen flickered as if something was interfering with it. Little digital lines distorted across the screen in faint pulses. I shook the tablet gently in annoyance.

“That’s weird,” I said, scratching my head. Then the music inside my earbuds began to distort with a matching buzzing noise. More heat rushed over my body again and I felt a little dizzy. It only took me a moment to realize that the pulsating interference was happening at the same time as my heat waves. That wasn’t possible...was it?

“Lucas, are you feeling all right?” Renee asked. Her eyes were wide with concern from behind the front desk. Apparently, I looked as bad as I was feeling.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, just excited about meeting with Ms. Chan,” I tried to sound normal. The waves of heat had started to fade and my tablet screen stopped flickering. I turned the music off in my earbuds and tucked the chords in my pocket. The lights in the office flickered on and off a couple times. It happened fast and I rubbed my eyes to be sure I wasn’t seeing things. Quickly, I looked around the room and something caught my attention. Actually, that’s not exactly right, something made me look down. Something unnatural. It felt as if someone had locked their hands on both sides of my head and slowly pointed my stare to the middle of the office floor. When my eyes finally focused, I could not look away. The heat returned, but only behind my eyes. It hurt at first, like a blowtorch inside my head.

“Ouch!” I fell to the ground with my eyes wide open and burning. With my stare still glued to the middle of the office floor, my vision ached and my brow filled with beads of sweat. My heart pounded inside my ribcage. I could feel the force of it pushing against the cold, dirty tiles. That’s when I first saw...
it
.

What lay before me made no sense. It confused me. It bewildered me. It terrified me when it told me to
PICK IT UP
. I know that sounded crazy, but inside of me only one thing felt real. The urge to reach out and embrace this tiny thing...to pick it up.

“Am I dreaming?” I whispered soft enough, that it might as well have been an inner thought. My hand slowly reached for the foreign object. I was lightly shaking with anticipation and fear. I studied its strange appearance as my arm stretched out for it.

It was only the size of a matchbook. Its sides were rounded and smooth. It had to be a rock or gemstone, but its shape gave me the impression that it had been molded or shaped to its current form. It had no color because it contained all of them. My mind knew that wasn’t possible, but it sparkled every color I had ever seen. It even gleamed with a few colors I never knew existed, never imagined. As soon as my eyes could focus on one color, it would switch to another as if the color before it was never there. The sight was maddening and beautiful at the same time.

“Pick it up,” I said, just before my fingers reached its kaleidoscope surface.

“Lucas, are you sure you’re okay?” Renee asked. She had leaned her body over the edge of the front desk to get a better look at me on the floor.

“I’m fine...I...I just slipped,” my voice cracked. That’s when things became really weird...

~ Pick it up. ~

“What did you say?” I asked Renee, confused. She blinked at me in disbelief.

“Huh, I didn’t say anything...”

~ Don’t be afraid. ~

“Did you hear that?” I asked, again. She only stared at me harder. In my head I heard the words clear as can be. It sounded like a robotic whisper. I was going crazy. I must be very sick. I started to panic.

~ Pick me up. ~

The metallic whisper echoed inside my head. It felt soothing and comforting. Instantly, I began to calm down. My fingers slid over the mysterious thing, just inches from its surface. I let them dangle there for a quick second. In that moment, its shape began to change and slowly pushed upward toward my fingertips. I gasped. With my eyes pulled tightly closed, I enclosed my hand around it. Time stopped and the fire behind my eyes vanished. There was no sound. Only a low vibration throughout my body. Mostly in my chest. I tightened my grip around the thing as best I could. It felt like I was trying to close my fingers around a ball of liquid. It felt slick but dry.

“Incredible...” I smiled, wildly. I slid my legs underneath me and sat up with my hand still around the object. Slowly, I rose to my feet. As I did, the mysterious, talking jewel changed inside my fist. It became a solid, dark black stone. It looked as smooth as glass, but felt sticky. Like a thousand tiny suction cups were coating it. I lifted my arm and found myself straining. It was heavy...real heavy. It felt as if I was holding a bowling ball in my palm. Holding the stone to my chest, I made sure no one could see the beautiful burden in my hand.

“Incredible,” Renee said, mimicking me. I snapped out of my daydream and found her curious stare. She nodded towards me with a smirk and hung up the office phone. In my foggy state, I hadn’t even heard the office phone ring.

“What?” I asked, nervous.

“You can go.”

“Huh?” I was lost.

“Today’s your lucky day. Ms. Chan can’t make it right now...family emergency.”

“Emergency?”

“Yep. Principal Garner is on vacation too. So, you get out of jail free today.” She laughed at her remark, more proud than she should have been. I let out a deep breath and reached over for my backpack. I made sure not to let the unbelievably heavy stone fall from my grasp.

“Okay, I’ll see ya tomorrow,” I joked. She shook her head with another laugh.

“Stay out of trouble, Lucas.”

I raced out of the office and headed straight for my locker. The mysterious object reflected my worried eyes within its shiny surface and started to feel cold. Ice cold and growing heavier by the second. Within the first few steps down the hallway, the muscles in my arm were already beginning to ache. I wasn’t sure how much longer I would be able to carry it.

Moments later I was walking up to my locker. Urgently, I opened its door and scrambled to make a clear spot for the rock on the bottom of the locker. When I tried to set it inside, my fingers felt stuck to it. Almost as if we were one. After a few seconds of trying to shake my hand free, I had to use my other hand to pry it away from my fingers. Slowly, it separated from my skin, leaving a cold pink welt on my palm. It fell to the bottom of my locker with a metallic thud. I glanced around the school corridor to be sure no one else heard it. With a deep gasp, I slammed the locker door shut.

“This is impossible. What have I found?” I asked the locker door. Was I in some crazy science fiction movie? Was I dreaming?

~ Pick me up. ~

The metallic voice was back. I didn’t know what to do.

~ Pick me up. ~

I ripped open the door again and found the mystical orb lying there like a glassy piece of coal. It looked a little bigger than before. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and snapped a picture of it. The flash from the camera flickered three times. It was only supposed to flash once. It seemed to happen in slow motion.

On the first flash of light, it looked like my locker was engulfed with faint smoke. The smoke looked black and filled with moving particles. They were bright yellow and rushing through the blackness like fireflies. On the second flash, those streaks of yellow reached out and wrapped themselves around my phone. If it hadn’t happened so fast, I might have dropped my phone, but I didn’t have time to react. On the third and final flash, the smoke was gone and the golden fireflies entered the smooth glass screen of my cell phone. It tickled my hand as it did. Flashing yellow streaks swirled around the screen, bouncing off each other like fireworks before settling into the background. It left a small, pulsating birthmark on the touchscreen.

“What the...” I thought I was going crazy. I slowly closed my locker again and slid down the sheet metal of the lockers, to the floor, and caught my breath.

~ Pick me up. Please. ~

“What is happening?” I asked, trying to ignore the voice in my head. From above me someone answered.

“Soundcheck.”

“Huh?” I said, dazed. From the floor Morgan smiled above me. She looked curious and sweet. Her schoolbooks loosely clutched to her chest, and her hand pointing down the hall.

“Tonight’s the big concert, Luc. Remember the flier...from this morning...”

“Umm...” I stared up at her.

“They’re setting up now for a quick soundcheck,” she said, with a wink. I stood up, swiftly.

“All of them? Do you think
she’ll
be there?” I asked, stupidly.

Morgan rolled her eyes. “Of course, it is
her
band after all!”

“Sorry, Mo. I’m having kind of a...umm...crazy day.” My pulse quickened. “What should I do?” I sounded pathetic now. I couldn’t quite shake the last twenty minutes of my life.

“Go talk to her. It’s the perfect opportunity.”

“Really?”

“Go! Now!” Morgan grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me toward the auditorium. I shuffled my feet slowly, picking up my pace as I walked forward. Morgan gave me a quick thumbs up and ran off down the hallway. I swallowed hard and pulled the red flier from my back pocket. My fingers slid along the worn creases and I read it for the hundredth time.

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ONE NIGHT ONLY

THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF

“SISTER RED”

DOORS OPEN @ 7 PM

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