Pulse of Heroes (10 page)

Since word had gotten out that the students
were moving in, the little town was up in arms and nervous all over
again. Michelle’s mom was no exception. She told Michelle that she
was not to leave any door unlocked in the house no matter what time
it was, that the alarm system had to be on during the day, and she
also forbade her from going beyond their backyard into the woods.
Which meant that Michelle was going to directly defy the new rules,
because nothing was going to stop her from checking out the
happenings at the school.

On the first of the year Samantha showed up
at Michelle’s house wearing khakis, boots, a hat, and carrying
binoculars. Michelle took one look at her and busted out laughing.
But Samantha wasn’t having any of it, and argued that Michelle
should dress the same. So she quickly raided Toby’s closet for some
oversized camos. Maybe Samantha had a point about not wanting to be
seen. James was supposed to meet up with them at Michelle’s, but he
called to say that he was running late.

The girls waited for him down in the front
yard. While they waited, Michelle’s mom pulled up into the driveway
returning from her morning gym routine. She saw the girls and
approached them, going on about New Year’s Resolutions and how the
gym was so packed that she couldn’t find a place to park for 30
minutes. Once she finished ranting, she looked at the girls as if
seeing them for the first time. She wanted to know why they were
dressed like that, and why was Samantha carrying binoculars.
Samantha was ready with a perfect answer. “We are going bird
watching,” she said, completely straight-faced.

“Bird watching?” Michelle’s mother was really
confused.

“Yes,” Michelle replied. “Those are Sam’s
mother’s bird watching binoculars. We thought for our New Year’s
Resolution that we should do something that had to do with
nature.”

“And get more exercise,” Samantha added.

“She wasn’t supposed to be here yet,”
Michelle told Samantha after her mom went indoors. Now they had the
dilemma of walking out from the backyard without alerting
Michelle’s mother. They quickly devised a plan to sneak across the
neighbor’s yard, but first Samantha would have to drive them away
in order to hide the car up the street, then they would have to
make their way back on foot without attracting too much attention.
Samantha texted James and told him to park at her house and start
walking towards Michelle’s, and they would meet him on the way.

After Samantha found a semi-hidden parking
spot on the shaded side of the street, the girls waited behind
another overgrown hedge. This was exciting and fun, Michelle
thought; they should do stuff like that more often. They saw James’
car drive past. “He should be here in two,” Samantha said. And a
few moments later, they heard James’ voice as he was approaching.
They guessed that he was on the cell phone. But as he got closer
they heard another voice. Someone was with him. It was Tim.

Michelle immediately turned around to face
Samantha with an accusatory look, but all she had to do was look at
Samantha's shock to realize that no, she didn't set this up. So
many feelings and thoughts went through Michelle’s mind within a
second: was she happy, sad, pissed off, complemented, excited, and
why should she even care at all? But Michelle and Samantha were not
the only ones that were shocked, because when the guys finally
spotted them in their commando-style outfits they both took a step
back and looked at one another, confused.

“I guess I misunderstood the seriousness of
this mission,” James said, looking at his own clothes. “I hope
jeans and a hoodie will do, right?”

That's right, Michelle thought, she must look
like a complete fool in her brother’s huge camouflage outfit. She
had been forced to roll up the pant legs and the sleeves, yet she
was still swimming in them. She avoided looking at Tim, and that
was quite obvious to all of them. It was definitely uncomfortable
and somebody had to break the silence. “Hey Sam, Michelle,” Tim
said.

“Hey Tim.” Samantha said in her cheeriest
voice possible, “What brings you here?” Michelle was still avoiding
his eyes.

James explained that he and Tim had been
shooting hoops, and he had just invited him to tag along. It's not
like there was much to do over winter break. “Besides, we thought
you ladies might need a little extra protection from these strange
creatures in the new school,” Tim added teasingly. Michelle
exploded with anger.

“You told him! How dare you?” she yelled at
James.

“I didn't know it was meant to be secret,”
James said, now completely confused at Michelle’s level of anger.
Even Michelle was asking herself why she was so upset. The answer
came to her as soon as she finished the thought; she was
embarrassed that Tim might think she's insane. Then she felt even
angrier with herself for caring what Tim thought to begin with.

“Fine,” Michelle said. “But from now on
nobody talks about this to anybody, nobody!” she added, looking at
Tim for the first time.

There were stacks of rolled up newspapers
leaning against the door of Michelle's neighbor's house. It was
obvious that nobody had been home for a while. So the four of them
crossed through the neighbor's backyard without a problem and were
in the woods in no time. Once in the woods they spoke only in
whispers. Michelle was leading the way with the three of them
directly behind her. Every once in a while Tim would try to catch
up with her, but when Michelle felt he was in her periphery she
would walk even faster. Suddenly, they heard a loud crunching sound
up ahead of them and they immediately stopped in their tracks. They
stood there listening and they heard it again. Tim took a few steps
forward and made his way to Michelle's side. As much as she didn't
want to admit it to herself, she did feel a little safer with him
there so she didn't say anything. They heard the sound one more
time, and Michelle pointed out that it was more to the left rather
than up ahead of them.

“Girls, stay here. James and I are going to
go check it out,” Tim said, taking the lead.

“I'm coming too,” Michelle said out of pure
determination.

Naturally, Samantha didn't want to be left
there all alone. “What am I supposed to do, just stand here by
myself?” she protested. Just then they heard more of the sound and
it was getting closer to them. None of them could breathe. There
was a movement not too far ahead, and they saw a deer emerging from
the woods and crossing the path in front of them with a small fawn
in tow. They all burst out laughing, releasing all the tension of
the last half hour.

After another few minutes, they reached the
premises wall. It stood roughly nine feet high. Michelle noticed
right away that tall floodlights had also been erected since she
had last been there. Floodlights? That was not a good sign. The
whole thing was starting to remind her of jail walls, like the ones
around San Quentin. Samantha followed Michelle’s train of thought,
and she could sense that Michelle was having second thoughts. “We
don’t have to do this, Michelle,” she said quietly.

Michelle wasn’t sure what she should say,
because she was stuck midway between doubt and determination. They
gave her some space to think. “How about a vote,” she asked. “Who’s
for or against it?” Samantha immediately announced that she was
against climbing up there, arguing that the lights wouldn’t have
been installed if there wasn’t a problem with the students
escaping. James wasn’t sure yet, but the glare Samantha gave him
helped him to make up his mind.

“The lights are not only pointing to the
inside of the wall, but they’re also pointing in our direction, to
the woods,” James added, in proof that he did think for
himself.

“Ladies and gent’s,” Tim said, “You two
thought it was a serious enough matter to wear concealing outfits,
and we have already come this far, right? I say we take a quick
look and then get the hell out of here, what do you say?” Tim
turned towards Michelle. Why did he have to be such the
leader-type, Michelle thought, and why did he have to be so
handsome? Tim gave her the confidence she needed to continue.

“Yes,” Michelle said, “Lets do this.” She was
no coward.

“Fine,” Samantha said, “but I’m not going up
there.”

Michelle and Tim searched for a good spot to
climb up the wall, but there wasn’t one. So Tim held his hands
together to give Michelle a place to set her foot on. James did the
same, and once Michelle was propped up, she rested her elbows on
top of the wall and surveyed the scene.

To the left there were two large moving
trucks with several figures unloading items and carrying them in
the direction of the building. There were another two figures off
to the side talking, and she suspected that one of them was Xander
because of the lengthy and slim silhouette. She asked for
Samantha’s binoculars to try and get a closer look. Michelle needed
a better angle, she thought, so she decided that she could stand on
one of the tree limbs that were arching over into the property. “I
don’t think that’s a good idea,” Tim said, noting the less then
adequate circumference of the branches. Michelle argued that if she
stood on them for a few seconds she would be fine. Just in case she
did fall, Tim climbed up on the wall too, directly underneath.
James and Samantha were standing under the tree as well, ready in
case Michelle fell in their direction. Michelle used her arm
strength to pull herself up. She carefully stood up on the branch,
with one arm holding on to a branch above it. With the other hand
she held the binoculars against her eyes.

Michelle immediately recognized the faces as
the same ones from the mall. The guys were moving in boxes after
boxes, nothing out of the ordinary, but what she thought was odd
was the way they were carrying the furniture. These were large
pieces, very nice wood and upholstery, yet each person was carrying
one item at a time. One guy was carrying a whole couch above his
head. Another had a huge wooden table. “Wow,” she said in
shock.

“What is it?” Samantha wanted to know.

“They’re carrying furniture,” Michelle
answered.

“That’s not too surprising. I mean, they are
moving in,” said James.

“No,” Michelle continued. “They’re lifting
huge pieces by themselves, with no help.”

Tim struggled to see for himself as he inched
up, looking in the direction of the trucks. When he did see someone
lifting a decent-sized armchair he boasted, “I could do that, no
problem.”

Michelle switched her view towards the
standing figures. She was right about Xander; he was holding a
sheet of paper that obviously had a list of some sort and he was
crossing things off as each item went past him. When she recognized
the other person as the boy with the strange blue eyes she almost
lost her balance, but righted herself. She brought the binoculars
to her eyes again and now Xander was alone. The other guy must have
stepped out of view; she felt frustrated. The branch underneath her
began making light cracking sounds and everyone agreed that it was
time for her to come down. But just as she turned to head down, she
caught sight of another armchair being carried out of the truck.
“Holy mother of…” she whispered.

“What is it?” James asked, alarmed at the
tone of her voice.

“Nothing. I thought I saw something but I
didn’t,” Michelle answered. What was she supposed to tell them;
that she had seen the very same armchair before in her dream, the
one that had a pearl on it, on the beach?

Another crack from the branch and Tim ordered
her to come down before she hurt herself. But at the same moment
the boy with the strange eyes walked back out into her field of
view and was standing in a perfect position for her to get a good
look at his face. She ignored Tim and continued looking. My God,
she thought, he was beautiful. Way beyond handsome, he looked like
those Greek or Roman statues she had seen on the History Channel.
Only he wasn’t white or cold like marble; he was like one of them
had come to life. Light brown hair with streaks of golden blonde
fell in waves framing his face, strong jaw line and full lips that
seemed almost rosy, a perfect straight nose, masculine and not too
thin or turned up, and large eyes with thick dark lashes under dark
brows. He was perfection. Suddenly, his eyes rose to look right at
her, huge, blue, with golden green emanating from the pupils. He
was looking into her eyes through the binoculars. She felt
bewitched, fixated. Was that possible? Could he be looking at her,
could he really see her so far up in the tree? She wondered, but in
that same split second the branch underneath her gave out, sending
her straight down. Tim reached to grab her, but it all happened
just a little too fast. Michelle gave out a cry as she fell past,
trying to grab his reaching arms. Samantha gasped. It was too late,
Michelle was on the other side of the wall, and she was in
pain.

Michelle was on the ground massaging her left
leg while quietly whimpering to herself. Samantha was crying on the
other side of the wall.

“James, I’m going to lower myself down and
grab her. You hold my legs,” Tim said, visibly shaken, but trying
to take charge. Both James and Samantha held on to Tim’s legs as he
leaned forward with his arms outstretched. Michelle looked up at
him, and without a word understood the plan. She wasn’t sure that
standing up on her legs was a good idea, and anyway she would be
more conspicuous then. So she crab-crawled over to the wall and
reached out to Tim’s arms. While holding on to him she began to
raise herself up, and eventually stood. But the pain was very
sharp, so she had to keep all her weight on just the right leg. Tim
assured her that if she just put one leg against the wall he would
do the rest and pull her up. She had no choice; it had to be the
left. She painfully raised it while she tried to use the muscles in
her right leg to push herself upwards. Tim began pulling,
encouraging her to take just one more step. Michelle felt the pain,
but she also felt embarrassed and scared. She was almost to a point
where Tim could reach down and grab her from under her arms, but
just then a loud siren started blaring.