Battlefield (9 page)

On his way to the stairs, he passed by his sister's room. Why did she have to start dating now when he had so many other responsibilities? And no matter what she said, she was his responsibility and always would be. He lingered outside the door, taking a moment to listen in on what she was doing.

“I know, it's just how he is though. He thinks everyone is out to get him. He's always been cynical, but he's letting it shine extra right now. I think part of it is Mom and Dad being gone all of the time. The other part is Dallas. You remember me telling you about that, right?—I guess you're right. There wouldn't be much to be optimistic about with everything going on. It just makes me sad. I don't want to be optimistic either, but if I'm not—I have to be though. If I don't look on the bright side, then how is he ever going to be hopeful again? I don't want him to fly off the deep end.”

Me? Fly off the deep end?
Maybe once upon a time, but Orlando felt stable now. Things were a lot better now than they had been for a while. Did his sister really think he was crazy? That stung. He lifted his hand to knock on the door, but stopped as she continued.

“I'm glad you think so. He means the world to me. I don't know what I would do if anything bad happened to him—I won't do so much when my parents come home for good, whenever that's going to be. I'm believing they'll be back soon, but that's just me being Miss Sunshine again. Do you ever feel like it's you versus the rest of the world?”

All the time. Orlando wanted to chime in. He wanted to talk to her, but the more he heard, the more he had to hold back.

“I did have a lot of fun, I just feel bad—I know but—I—You're sweet, Jon. I hope you don't mind my saying that. I just had to tell you—Really? I'd like that. We can try again next weekend, yeah. I promise this won't happen again—I'm not sure, but we can talk about it later. I'm glad you called tonight.”

He couldn't listen to any more of it. He ran down the stairs and threw the pants at Alan. “There you go, and it's light. Just how you like your clothing; you know, minimal.”

“Thank you,” Alan said. He appeared much better and ran his hands over the fabric. “Where did you get these?”

“My closet. You can keep them if you want,” Orlando said.

“Do you know where you had gotten them before they were in your closet? These are not something you should have randomly acquired,” Alan frowned.

“They're pants man, relax,” JD said.

“No, see.” He put a hand to his forehead and shook his head. “Perhaps I'm just not quite well again. Maybe my mind is, what you call, playing tricks on me. The material doesn't seem right. This doesn't seem normal for something that would be found here on your planet.”

“It's silk,” Orlando said.

“My shirt is what you call silk.” Alan ran his hands over the dark brown vest he called a shirt. “Regardless, it does not matter much. I'm still feeling confused. How did you acquire them?”

“My parents. They travel a lot.”

“I see. I would like to meet them. I'm sure they have many interesting stories from their journeys.”

“Whenever they come home next, sure thing. I think you need to tell us what happened tonight.”

JD glared, and it threw Orlando off. Why was he so mad? What was he doing wrong now?

The other teen shook his head. “Maybe we should relax and chill for awhile first. You know, let his brain rebuild or something?”

“No, it's fine,” Alan said softly. “I should explain. I've been enough of an inconvenience to you all, and you deserve better than that. As I had informed Orlando earlier, there was a lead from my ship suggesting that there was unusual and suspicious activity from within his school. I went to investigate. What I found confirmed this. Were you aware that there are hidden tunnels and rooms in your school, Orlando?”

He shook his head. “I knew they were in town here. I didn't know the other towns in the area had them too.”

“They do. I do not think this is a coincidence either. I found a member of another tribe lurking near your workshop room this afternoon.” Alan chewed on his lower lip for a moment. “I lied to you, Orlando. My ship was not the one who told me of the school's connection with this tribe. I had an inside source, and it was this source who did me in.”

“I don't understand. What do you mean inside source?” JD whispered.

“You've got a lot of explaining to do, and I think you should do it now. Seeing you like you were, it…” Orlando stared at the ground, unsure of if he wanted to confess how he felt. He had to learn to trust though. “It freaked me out. I don't want to do this if I'm only going to be in the dark. You can't use us. Cadence said we had to work as a team, and you're part of it, too.”

There was a long and awkward silence before Alan opened his mouth to speak again. “I see now why you were chosen. I'm not proud of this though. My inside source is an old friend of mine from home. It's been a long time since we've last seen each other. I have this,” he said, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a silver bracelet studded with small, black stones. “This is how I knew they were here. You see, it's a precious piece of jewelry that's part of a—”

It was quiet again for a long time.

“Part of what, Alan?” JD asked gently.

“A courtship ritual.”

Again, there was more silence, and this time it felt like the silence lasted for far longer than it should have.

Orlando's jaw tightened. “So all of this is about some girl? You told me to ‘infiltrate' the enemy so you could find a girl to hook up with?”

“I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I don't know what ‘hook up' means. There was nothing for me to hook up on her.” Alan frowned.

“He's talking about a romantic rendezvous,” JD said.

“I see. If I may continue, though, you will find this all applies to the war. It has driven us apart. We are to be wed, but that will not happen so long as the fighting continues. She will not leave her people, and I will not leave my cause,” he paused again. “Are you familiar with the terms guerrilla warfare or biological weaponry?”

Orlando nodded, and Alan did not give JD a chance to respond before continuing. “That is her task. I went searching for her to try and talk her out of this madness, but she will not listen to my reason, and now I fear she's getting involved much deeper than she should. I didn't mean to be deceitful. You see, the bracelet, when it comes in contact with its mate, begins to glow. It is quite beautiful and bright when activated. When I first landed, there was a faint aura. I have been following it and trying to find where she was ever since I got here. It led me to your school.

“I confess I was excited at first, but what I saw when I found her again was even more worrisome, and now I'm even more afraid for your planet and especially for her. I do not trust or like this green tribe one bit.”

“Green tribe, blue tribe, red tribe? You all are sophisticated with your names,” Orlando mumbled.

“I am only referring to them by color for simplicities sake, much like you insist on shortening my name to something ridiculous because you can't pronounce it, let alone remember it. Would you prefer I confuse you further?” Alan snapped back. Neither of the teens had ever thought him capable of anger. He was usually so calm and innocent. Both jumped back with surprise.

“No.”

“All right, now do you want me to continue?”

“What is she doing? What's going on that's so dangerous, and how can we help?” JD asked.

“I don't think that you're ready to help. You are not solid enough as a team. We are not.”

“When we are though, then we'll need to know what to do.”

“True. I'm not quite sure yet, but she is helping the other tribe gain supplies to do something with the human natives of your planet. Not good things. I didn't get close enough to hear the details. The blue tribe is the supplier, and the green tribe is the creator of whatever this project is. That much I am certain of. My focus is to try and stop these deliveries. Your training will be a setback, but we will find others to take your position until the timing is right.”

“So what else happened then? Why were you a vegetable, literally?” JD said.

“That I'm unsure of. During my searching I came in contact with my betrothed.”

“And?”

“And her followers here on Earth were ordered to attack me. Something one of them did to me affected my consciousness. I was there, but an empty shell.” Alan rubbed at his forehead, brow furrowed.

“Scary,” Orlando whispered. “And you like this girl, why? I mean, if she's trying to hurt or kill you, why marry her still?”

“I take it you have never been in love,” Alan said. Orlando shrugged and then went to go and grab the pizzas from the oven as it conveniently dinged. “And what about you, JD? Do you understand?”

The other boy chewed on his lower lip. Orlando wouldn't have thought him as the type to fall in love, or if he ever did, he'd be the one who fell hard and fast. Clearly, the way JD looked at Cadence proved he was capable of some kind of feelings.

“I've had girlfriends. And I've had girls I've been intense with, if you catch my drift,” he said at last.

“Woo-hoo, so you've gotten laid. Don't need to be delicate here,” Orlando quipped. He did his best to try not to let it bother him, but he was convinced he was the only virgin on the planet at this point. In some ways, he didn't care, but it also further proved how “different” he was, again.

JD rolled his eyes. “I didn't know you wanted to get deep into our respective personal lives.”

“I didn't.” Orlando gave JD a glare as he walked from the kitchen to the living room with the pizza. “But anyway, to answer your question, Alan, no, I've never been in love.”

“Too cool for girls?” JD said.

He shook his head and decided to take the wiser option of taking a bite of food instead of the guy's head.

“Nothing? I'm kind of disappointed.”

“Oh, `cause this is the highlight of your day, right? Or are you just using this as an excuse to start our pillow fight?” Orlando finally snapped at him and then continued before JD could spout off whatever reply he was concocting in his head. “Alan, is there anything else?”

He shook his head, watching the two teens interact with one another. “Why would you start a fight with a pillow? That doesn't seem very effective.”

 

Alan snored, not loudly, but enough to keep JD awake most of the night. And when it wasn't Alan, it was Orlando. The guy talked a lot while he slept. Most of it was incoherent phrases, but it all revolved around the same topic: Dallas. Orlando also rolled around a lot. Somehow in the course of nine hours, he had rotated a complete one-hundred-and-eighty degrees from where he had started. JD was glad he had decided to sleep on the couch after all. At around eleven o'clock, Orlando brought down a couple of air mattresses. Alan got one, and he insisted JD take the other. After a few minutes of bantering, he finally let it go. If Orlando had slept on the couch, he probably would have fallen off.

JD spent most of the night watching movies on one of the thousands of channels the Holmes family subscribed to. He was tempted to explore the house, but knowing his luck, he'd end up getting lost. Besides, the house was too quiet and creepy when the lights were off. The shadows played tricks on his eyes, but it was the silence that bothered him the most. JD liked noise. In his house, there was always something going on, and there was no dead, empty space like in the mansion. The rooms were all packed full of things. It felt lived in and warm, inviting even. How could Orlando stand it?

The last to go to bed, he was also the first to wake up, and hungry. He waited for twenty minutes to see if anyone else would join him, texted Cadence to let her know he was awake, and ran into Orlando's sister on his way out of using the bathroom.

“It might be a while. Go ahead and help yourself to whatever you want to eat,” she said.

At JD's house, breakfast was always a production. His father was a stay-at-home dad, and it was a rare occasion that anyone would eat only cereal. Being the oldest of five, it was often his job to help.

She said to help himself to whatever he wanted, so he decided to cook. It took a few minutes, but he was soon navigating his way around the kitchen as if he'd lived there his entire life. He could tell that Orlando's sister was startled. Her jaw dropped as she spread cream cheese over her bagel and watched him crack open some eggs, plopping them into the pancake batter. Again, it was too quiet, so he took it upon himself to start humming.

“I thought I heard you. When I awoke you weren't there, and I was curious as to whether or not you had left for home already. What are you doing? It smells good,” Alan said as he wandered into the kitchen. He noticed Orlando's sister and nodded. “Greetings.”

“I'm making food. Go ahead and sit down; it'll be done soon. Did you sleep good?” JD said and glanced over at, what was her name? He couldn't remember Orlando's sister's name for the life of him. He didn't want her to notice how weird Alan was though. If she was paying any attention, she wasn't reacting.

“Well enough. I was more comfortable here than I was back on—” he paused. “Back home. I'm surprised, but pleasantly so. I feel much better than last night.”

“Good.” JD flipped a couple of the pancakes, and soon there was a stack ready for eating. “Who wants some?”

“I'm good, thank you,” Orlando's sister replied as she took a bite from her bagel.

“I will eat,” Alan said.

“Me, too,” Orlando said as he walked into the room. He went to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice and another of milk. “Honey Bunny, I didn't know you could cook.”

“I'm full of surprises,” JD said with a grin. He was in a fantastic mood, and not even Orlando's attitude could bring him down. His phone vibrated, and he saw Cadence had finally replied.

'Glad you survived. Sorry was out w mom. Are you all awake now?'

'Yes. Come by ASAP,'
JD sent.

“Lyssa, can you hand me the puzzles?” Orlando asked as he took his glasses of juice and milk to the table. He sat down next to his sister. “Please?”

Lyssa, that's her name.
He dished up three plates of pancakes and then searched for the butter and the syrup. Again, his phone went off.

'Is everything ok?'
Cadence asked, and he smiled. That was just like her to care so much.

'Yes. I wanna fill u in,'
he sent and then settled in at the table. The quiet returned.

“I thought you were going to give yourself blue hair,” Lyssa said as she finished her breakfast.

“I have all weekend, so don't sound so disappointed,” Orlando mumbled.

“Right, should I expect you all for lunch, too?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Orlando rolled his eyes. “Whatever I do today, you can be sure you won't see me doing it. You don't need my permission to go out and see your new boy toy if that's what you're wondering.”

“You sure made it seem that way last night.”

“Like I said—”

“Orlando, what exactly is this food?” Alan said.

“Alan's a foreign exchange student,” JD explained cheerfully in an effort to cover his bases. After all, almost everyone knew what a pancake was. He watched as Lyssa took this as a good opportunity to excuse herself from the table. It was good to have a break in the tension.

“It's a pancake,” Orlando said.

Alan nodded, taking another bite. “We have a food like this back home. It's thicker, more of a sponge-like texture, and a bit sweeter in flavor, but this is good.” His smile faded however, and he stared at his plate.

“Homesick?” Orlando asked. It was quite possibly the first time he'd ever shown concern for another person, at least that JD had seen.

Alan nodded again. “Terribly so.”

“When do you get to go home again?” JD asked.

“What you would call five years is how long I am to serve. Or until the war has ended or moved to a new location,” Alan said in between bites of food.

“How long has all of this been going on?”

“Six years.”

That was surprising to JD because the way Alan described it before made it seem as though this battle was being waged for decades. Six years felt recent, and yet like a long time all at once. Orlando sat back in his chair and scratched at his chin, his unnaturally black hair falling over his face and hiding any emotional response he might have been having. JD decided to start doing the dishes, anything to keep busy, and not look as though he were awkwardly trying to think of a new topic for conversation.

“Did you volunteer?” Orlando asked.

“I did. We do not draft, as you call it, unless it is absolutely necessary for our defense. My nation's involvement in this fight is strictly because we disagree so strongly with what is going on, but we are not directly affected beyond trade repercussions. Even then, those are so minor they would not be a motivating factor to get involved.” Alan took another bite, chewing slowly.

Orlando nodded, and JD was impressed that he could not say something sarcastic if he tried.

“Is your sister your caretaker? I see your parents are not in the house today, nor were they last night. Is this normal?” Alan asked.

“Normal for our country, you mean?” Orlando raised an eyebrow and watched as Alan nodded. “No, it's not. It's actually frowned upon to not have a parent in the house. Lyssa is over the age of adulthood though, so she's considered a suitable legal guardian for me until I turn eighteen, which will be in a year. That's when people here are called adults.”

“Why are you disobedient to her?”

He rolled his eyes. “I'm not disobedient.”

“Dude, you are, but Alan, what you need to understand is that this is normal behavior between siblings. Do you have any brothers or sisters?” JD laughed from the sink.

“I have a brother who's significantly older than me. I haven't seen him in a long time, and I have a younger sister who's a young child. I was just under the assumption that those who are in charge are treated differently.” Alan shrugged.

“Usually, but with my situation things are a little complicated. I have to take care of her as much as she takes care of me,” Orlando said.

“You're still pretty mean to her,” JD said as he scrubbed out the last pan. Orlando was glaring at him. “What?”

“Why are you cleaning?”

“I figured I'd give your maid one less thing to do.”

“Actually, we don't have a maid. I would have done it after you left.”

He raised an eyebrow. “It's not a big thing.”

“And neither is how I treat my sister. It's none of your business anyway,” Orlando snapped.

“I was just curious. I've studied your culture for a long time, but witnessing it first-hand, I find it is full of a lot of contradictions and exceptions to rules,” Alan said as he finished his food.

“I bet we'd find the same thing if we visited your home, too.” He stood up and brought his plate over to the dishwasher.

“Perhaps. How long am I permitted to stay?”

“How long are you going to need a place? I'm pretty sure I could hide you here somewhere, so long as you stay put. I can set something up in the ‘bat cave'.”

“You have a cave of bats?”

“It's a cultural reference,” Orlando said, then sighed heavily. “The room we were in when we first started showing off our powers, and you gave us the four-one-one and blah, blah, blah? That's what I'm talking about. My sister doesn't know where it is, and I'm pretty sure we can make it at least a somewhat functional living space for you by the end of the day.”

“That would be greatly appreciated.”

There was the sound of knocking, and then loud bells played the beginning notes of the Westminster Chimes from London. Alan jumped, and Orlando stood up. He ran a hand through his hair before disappearing from the kitchen. JD moved away from the sink to follow, wondering if this was Cadence joining them. He could only hope. Orlando was fast, and JD was soon lost. The only guide he had were their voices.

“Cute pj's,” Cadence said, and when JD heard that, his pace quickened.

“Ha, what are you doing here?” Orlando asked.

“Well, it's just about eleven o'clock.” Cadence stepped inside, and JD joined the party right as she reached out to pat Orlando's shoulder. “I thought I'd check to make sure you're all doing okay.”

“Alan is no longer quoting vegetables, and we're all still breathing,” JD said with an uneasy laugh.

“Wonderful, I have something I want to show him.” She made a gesture for Orlando to lead way.

He rolled his eyes and turned on his heel to walk them back to the kitchen. “Invite yourself in, make yourself at home, and do whatever you want; I'm going to go change.” He made a sharp gesture for her to sit down at the dining room table before leaving them again.

“I thought you said you guys were ready.” Cadence sat down and took a pancake off of the remaining stack.

“Usually when I say to come by ASAP, you don't arrive until three hours later. At the very least, you call first.” JD went back to cleaning up.

“Good morning Cadence. JD has shared with me pan cake. It was quite delicious,” Alan said.

She smiled. “I'm glad you're feeling better. You had us all worried. You want to fill me in?”

Alan nodded before giving her the quickest version of the entire story he could.

“And now Alan can't go home, so we have to make him a place to hang out while he waits to gain back all of his abilities. So I don't know exactly how that's going to work, but Orlando seemed to have one of his elusive ideas,” JD said.

“I wouldn't call it elusive. It's called shopping,” Orlando said as he re-entered the room. His dark hair was combed now and no longer a mess of tangles. He wore blue jeans, holey ones, but they were blue at least, and a black t-shirt for some band JD had never heard of. It was about as normal as either of them had ever seen him. He brushed his hair out of his eyes briefly.

“Hurry up and get dressed. Alan, try this on.” He threw a pile of clothing at him.

JD nodded and went to his bag to get his new outfit. “Wait, if you're not being elusive, what's the plan?”

“JD, doll, get dressed,” Cadence said with a giggle.