Battlefield (7 page)

 

“So Orlando couldn't break out to help us tonight because Alan wants him to do research?” Cadence asked as she and JD walked along the long path connecting the Lunar Falls High School parking lot to their football field.

“That's what he said. I mean, cool and all, but it seems kind of weird. I'm not sure if I'm buying it,” JD said with a shrug. The two walked quickly, both trying to stay warm. They were going to spy on Orlando, and hopefully talk to him during the halftime break. Cadence, naturally, thought it was immature; she said so several times to JD over the course of the night. He ignored her. Besides they had nothing better to do, and if Orlando was told to go by Alan, then why shouldn't they be there, too?

“I don't know why Alan didn't say anything. Why wouldn't he bounce by to tell us, too? That's not like him. He's always so into our business, magically popping into my bedroom in the middle of the night to try and get me to go out and fight evildoers,” JD said.

The two paused their conversation as they approached the ticket booth. Cadence stared at him expectantly.

“This was your idea,” she said.

With a groan, JD dug around in his wallet for six dollars to pay for the tickets. “Do I look like I'm made of money here? ‘Cause I'm not, you know.”

“Ask for reimbursement from Orlando then, when we catch up with him if it's such a big deal,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Believe me, I will. Anyway, we need to have a talk with Alan about popping in and out randomly. This is America, ya know?” The two made their way to the visitor bleachers.

“Yeah, he walked in on me in the shower the other day. He didn't realize I took them at night. Not like he has any respect for personal privacy either, because he didn't think anything of it. I guess where he's from, people aren't very modest.” She found a spot in the middle of the stands. Hardly anyone was there.

“No, really?” JD gasped mockingly. He wasn't sure what to say to her about Alan invading the bathroom. She didn't seem to like it, so he didn't feel the need to address it. If she had, then he may have inquired further. “I mean, the guy practically prances around naked as it is. Which is crazy, by the way, because it's so flipping cold out right now. So where did you put those binoculars?”

Cadence slapped his hand before tugging her bag closer to her. “I don't want you digging around through my things. There's stuff in there I'd rather you not get your hands on, okay? Here, sheesh.” She handed him a pair of opera binoculars.

JD snatched them up and peered through. Across the field from them the stands were packed with students and parents. He was searching for a lone figure decked out in black, but then noticed the school colors had black in them. That made the task much more difficult for him. “Okay, so everyone and their mother comes to these things. I'm finding small groups of emo kids everywhere.”

“Try not looking for groups. Who would he know anyway?”

“I dunno,” JD said and did another quick scan across the bleachers before sighing with frustration. Maybe Orlando hadn't come after all and had decided to stay home. He turned his attention on the cheerleaders. “Might as well get something out of this...” he mumbled to himself.

“What?”

“Nothing.” There were so many good looking girls. He glanced at Cadence, almost hoping she'd notice and get jealous. She didn't, or if she did, she didn't care. If anything, she looked bored. The game wasn't exciting. Lunar Falls had a substantial lead over the other team, and the fans weren't enthusiastic. The end of the second quarter came, and he watched the cheerleaders bounce away from their post to go get things like water, food, and mingle with their friends.

His eyes followed a cute blond girl as she ran up into the bleachers to Orlando, who watched her with more interest than JD ever thought the guy would have for a cheerleader. His lips were no doubt saying something horrible and mean to her. The way her face showed a playful agitation, however, suggested she liked it.

“I don't believe this. Here to work, my butt. He's totally flirting with the cheerleaders,” JD said.

“What? Are you kidding me?” Cadence made a grab for the binoculars and shoved JD to the side. She peeked through and chewed on her lower lip. “I don't know. They look like they're fighting.”

JD grabbed them back so he could see as well. “No, they're flirting. He's all hunched forward and actually paying attention to her. If they were fighting, he'd be like ‘
pfft
as if'.” He spoke in Orlando's famous deadpan. “‘I'm too cool for you because I'm a rich, emo kid who can do whatever I want,'” he paused. “Yeah, he's definitely into her. He's all fiddling with the hem of his jeans.”

“And that means what?”

“He's nervous and thinking about how hot she is,” JD said, like it should have been obvious. He watched as the girl gave Orlando a shove. “'Oh, Orlando,'” JD started to speak in a loud, high-pitched and girlish squeak. “'You're way over my head, but I wanna be—‘”

Cadence smacked before he could finish. “You're sick.” She grabbed the binoculars from him again and shoved them into her bag. “Ask him what's going on.”

JD stared at her. “N—now?”

“Yes, now.” She folded her arms in front of her and glared across the field. She wasn't jealous was she? He hoped not. There was no way he could compete with Orlando. The guy had everything JD did, and then all of the things he didn't on top of that.

With a sigh, he pulled out his phone and sent Orlando a text message.
“Having fun with ur new friend?”
Perhaps that had been rude of him; perhaps it would have been a better idea to send something more productive; perhaps he should have just called. Perhaps, but he didn't. He secretly hoped Orlando wouldn't reply, and then he'd have an excuse to chew him out later, but sure enough, no longer than three minutes later his phone started to vibrate with a reply.

“'I don't have friends,'” JD read out loud and scowled, typing in another message. He resisted the urge to say something snotty and offensive about the girl Orlando was with, no matter how much he wanted to. “We're at the game. Meant the cheerleader.”

He should have gone the rude route. “Jealous? What would I be jealous of? I'm so not jealous,” he gasped and texted that exact message in response to Orlando's claim, and scowled, knowing full well the other boy was no doubt smirking underneath his mass of dark hair.

“Sounds to me like you two aren't talking about business,” Cadence said. She grabbed the phone from his hands, sent a quick message, and then stood up. Soon she was pulling on JD's arm, trying to get him to stand up along with her.

“What?” JD asked.

“We're going over there. This is stupid.”

“That's just because—” JD stopped after Cadence shot him a glare. He ended up mumbling to himself. “He started it.”

“I don't care?”

JD rolled his eyes and picked up his phone when it started to vibrate again in his pocket.

“You're jealous because I have someone who's interested in me. Come over here. I don't care. There's nothing interesting going on.”

“I'm not jealous,” he repeated before shoving his phone back into his pocket.

“Not jealous of what?” Cadence asked.

“His blondie.”

“You're into blondes now?”

“No!” he paused. “I mean, some of them are okay, but that doesn't mean they're my type or anything.”

“Oh, so you have a type now?”

“I've always had a type. I just have never told you what it was. Doesn't mean I can't admire the others as well.” His eyes caught hers, and he shifted. He'd tell her another time when she didn't have such an angry frown.

“You're such a guy,” Cadence said with a sigh. She picked up her pace, joining the massive crowd of students, parents, and faculty who were all a part of the Lunar Falls spectators. He almost lost her in the crowd, but when she noticed how much he was lagging, she grabbed onto his forearm with her hand. Albeit roughly, she was still touching him, so he wasn't about to complain.

“You say that like it's a bad thing. Should I not act like a guy? Would you rather I act like a girl? A dog? A duck?” He countered her over the noise of the crowd.

“No, that's not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” They pushed their way onto the bleachers and spotted Orlando sitting in the stands about a third of the way up and near the middle aisle.

Cadence ignored him and directed her attention to Orlando, forcing a smile on her face. “There you are.”

The blond girl stared at the two of them, more specifically at Cadence. “Who are—?”

“They're acquaintances. I told them I was busting out tonight and to meet me here so we could discuss business,” Orlando said.

“Business?”

He shrugged. “Just a hobby of mine I do on the side. I'd tell you, but if I don't, it makes me seem a lot more interesting and dangerous than I really am. I kind of like being the new bad boy on campus.”

The blonde put a hand to her lips. “You know, you go right on and think that, Little Miss Sunshine.”

“You might want to get back to your post, She-Ra. The carnage is about to start again.” He gestured at the stadium clock.

“She-Ra, I like that. She's the princess of power,” the cheerleader said before going back to the field. She did make sure to glance one more time at Cadence and JD as she went. Orlando's business comment no doubt had her curious as to what was actually going on.

“She knows her ‘80s cartoons,” Orlando said.

“Amazing.” JD rolled his eyes. “So what's going on, dude? Did Alan really tell you to come here, or were you just making it up so you could get us off your back? If you're not into this, then you should say something now.”

“Doubting me already? Do you think I'd be here if I didn't have to be?” The two stared each other down. “Don't let what you saw with her deceive you, all right? She came to talk to me, not the other way around. If I had it my way, I'd much rather be alone.”

“I'm sure you would.”

Cadence put a gentle arm on both of them. “Look, you two need to stop fighting so much. Please? It's counterproductive.” There she was, using big words and unfamiliar phrases again. It was the only thing that was making the whole situation feel weird for JD.

“Noted.” Orlando's blue eyes then narrowed. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Cadence and JD said, exchanging looks.

“Alan, I thought I heard him with his weird telepathy thing he does. I mean, in my head,” Orlando said quietly. He frowned again. “He doesn't sound good. He sounds like he's...I think we need to go.”

“Convenient, that as soon as we get here, once more Alan gives you a message only you can hear. One telling you to leave,” JD said.

Orlando glared. “I said we. Look, it's not my fault he's doing this to me, okay? I don't know if it's because of my,” he lowered his voice, “thing, or what it means exactly. Okay, I—” He stopped when Alan spoke again; only this time all of them heard it.

“Help.”
It was just one word, and his voice sounded drained, as if he were straining himself to get that one word out to them.

“All right, I heard it,” JD said. He gave Orlando an apologetic and weak smile. “Where is he? Did he say what he was doing when you were talking earlier?”

“I don't know, something about how he felt a strange presence or something equally as cryptic. You know, he was being Alan. I didn't think much of it, or his whole ‘infiltrate' the football game thing.” He paused and frowned. “I guess I should have, huh?”

“Let's talk and move. We're wasting time, and he sounds like he's in serious trouble. He can't be far. The projection of his message wasn't strong, so he couldn't have done it from anywhere further than a block,” Cadence said and gave his arm a tug.

“You can tell all of that?”

“Yeah, it's easy,” she said with a shrug. She led the boys down the bleachers. “The message still comes into the brain similar to normal sound. It's just a more direct method of communicating, and selective. Kind of like when you listen to music through your headphones. Only you can hear it, but it still goes through your ears. So you can calculate the decibels and then the energy it would take for the brain to produce that many, and go from there. Then you have your answer.”

“Whatever you say,” Orlando said. He gave the blond cheerleader one last glance. The two exchanged a look, and he even waved at her. It was enough to make JD die of a heart attack. Orlando was being nice to someone? He was acting timid, and not like himself. He had to have a thing for her.

Once they were away from the rest of students, they resumed their conversation.

“So Alan is close? Like how close?” JD asked.

“I would deduce that he's somewhere here in the school,” Cadence said. She kept her tone and body language light. “He did say he wanted to investigate this area. There must be something going on here after all.”

“Woohoo,” Orlando dead panned. “All right, so he's in the school. How do you propose we get in there without getting caught or arrested?”

“The school's open, duh. The football players have to change somewhere. But you gotta show us how to get in.” JD rolled his eyes, secretly pleased he knew something Orlando didn't. He felt productive and helpful for the first time since they agreed to help.

Orlando nodded. “This way should be open since it's closest to the locker rooms.” He motioned to the school building. They crossed through the parking lot. The doors were open, and a handful of students lingered outside, chatting quietly amongst themselves. He motioned for them to turn left right away, and they found themselves in a barely-lit hallway.