Pulse of Heroes (3 page)

Michelle woke up with her hand stretched out
in front of her, still reaching for that pearl in her dream.

* * *

About a month earlier…

Michelle slammed the button on her alarm
clock with her fist. She heard loud voices and at first she thought
she might still be asleep. But as her eyes began to focus on the
wood beam above her bed, it became clear that the voices were just
her parents making a ruckus in the kitchen. Michelle was mature
enough to understand that parents are people too, with problems of
their own, so the occasional argument or slight raising of voices
didn't really bother her. But she had hardly slept at all that
night, staying up well past midnight trying to make up missed
homework assignments. She hoped her parents weren’t arguing about
her, because they had recently become unusually interested in her
school progress. She wasn’t sure if it was because her older
brother Toby had moved to Arizona for college, or if it had to do
with her father getting voted onto the Town Council. Because after
that their quiet little life had taken a change; some for the
better, and some for the worse. Michelle looked over at the clock
again, this time with her mind more awake and she realized that she
must have hit the snooze button at least twice. It was definitely
time to panic.

Michelle glanced in the mirror, shrugged and
grabbed her book bag. On her way down the stairs she heard the
familiar sounds; yep, that was mom plopping the teapot down onto
the range, and the annoying tinkling sound was her father playing
with his key chain as he always does when he's feeling stressed.
Her parents lowered their voices when they heard the stairs creak
under Michelle's feet.

“Morning Mom, Dad. What's going on?”

Michelle's mother smiled from her cup of tea.
“Morning baby. There’s still some hot water. Would you like a
cup?”

“What, you're going to pretend that I didn't
hear everything you guys just said? Why is everybody so upset? Did
somebody die or something?”

“No, no. Nobody died, Michelle. I don't
understand you kids today, always obsessed with morbid things.” Her
father gave her a serious look from across the table, then closed
his laptop and got up to leave, tucking it underneath his arm. “I'm
off to the office. Michelle, do you want a ride to school?”

The drive to school was quiet. Michelle
conveniently crunched on her father's half-eaten toast from
breakfast while staring at the road. She could feel the tiredness
inching its way through every muscle of her body. She had to shake
this off. What a night, she thought to herself. She had tried to
make up almost three weeks worth of homework in one evening but had
been forced to give up when the words in her notebook started
dancing around off the pages. Most mornings she appreciated the
redwood-lined road that led to the school, but this particular day
she felt like she was in one of those old movies where you could
see that the people in the car were not really moving, but instead
it was a film of the passing scenery being projected on a large
screen behind them. As she got out of the car, her father tried to
explain that he didn’t have authority from the city to share any
information as to what he and her mother had been discussing, and
in fact he probably never should have told anyone about it this
early. Michelle understood, but she thought her father was taking
this whole Town Councilman thing a bit too seriously.

As Michelle headed up the stairs of Meadow
High School’s main building, she was about to enjoy some of the
benefits of being the daughter of a newly elected Councilman.
Everybody said hello to her now, even if they didn’t know her well.
Michelle wasn't popular, but neither was she unpopular. It was
difficult to gauge her rank, because there were definitely the
trendy kids, and then there were definitely the unpopular kids that
for some unknown and futile reason had ended up in that category.
But Michelle was neither. She had her few friends, and she did the
normal things like going to the movies and shopping at the mall.
She was even invited to a party here and there, but all in all, she
felt quite invisible. ‘No salt or pepper,’ as her great aunt Eranka
would say. Michelle hadn’t had a boyfriend since the eighth grade,
and although she told everybody that she had gone way past first
base, the truth was a bit less exciting. Her great aunt had told
her not to worry because she was just going through, for the lack
of better words, the typical ugly phase, or the cocoon phase; the
one before the beautiful butterfly emerges to see the light of day.
Michelle didn't take the ‘ugly’ thing too seriously, since Eranka
was from the old country and didn't speak English ‘too good’. And
besides, judging from the pictures she actually looked a lot like
Eranka, who back in her day had won Second Place in her village’s
Beauty and Grace competition. As Michelle headed to her
first-period classroom, she could hear many different voices
greeting her. There was Eddie, who hadn't said a word to her since
kindergarten, and Pia, who sat behind her in biology all last year
without ever acknowledging her presence. And even Mrs. Howard, who
had given her a B- in freshman English just because she didn't like
her handwriting, was suddenly smiling at her.

It was eight minutes till lunchtime, and
Michelle couldn’t take her eyes off the clock. She could have sworn
that the second hand was actually jumping counterclockwise before
returning to its regular rotation. When the bell rang, Michelle
practically flew out of the classroom. As she tried to make her way
to her locker, somebody suddenly gave her a shove from behind. Not
amused by this latest development, Michelle turned around and was
ready to start in on whoever it might be. But it was only Sam,
Michelle’s best friend and neighbor, without the annoying BFF
title.

“Wow, are we a little tired today?” Samantha
commented. Michelle rolled her eyes.

“Hey, you're lucky I didn't deck you right in
the face.”

“As tired as you look, I think the only thing
you can deck right now is your head on a pillow,” Samantha
teased.

For whatever reason, a mistake had been made
in Michelle’s schedule. She had wanted to study Italian for her
foreign language, but the computer placed her in German, and
although she had reluctantly settled into German class, right at
the last minute someone dropped out of Italian and she had decided
to go ahead and transfer. It was a struggle for her to make up so
many missed assignments, but she was determined to catch up with
the rest of the class.

Staring into her Swiss Miss cocoa, Michelle
was nodding off, even though Samantha was excitedly discussing the
latest school events. It was something about trying out for the
fall musical. But Michelle just didn’t have the time for any
extra-curricular activities. She did love to dance, but she was by
no means a pro, and she hadn't done it in a while. When her father
began his campaign for Town Council earlier that year, the whole
household went into an economic upheaval because he started working
less hours at his regular job, and the idea of continuing any dance
lessons while he took a considerable pay cut just didn't seem like
a mature choice. Dance lessons were expensive.

Time was passing like a whirlwind. It seemed
like the school year had just begun and the Halloween decorations
were already going up. Every year the town went all out, with
people doing up their homes and storefronts. Even the trees along
the highway had ghosts and ghouls hanging from their lower
branches. It was a time-honored tradition that the younger children
in elementary school and kindergarten would make them out of
construction paper to decorate the roads, and the fire department
would hang them. They made everybody smile, and at nighttime they
actually did manage to scare a few people when the cars’ headlights
landed on them in just the right angle.

“Remember that time, when your classroom
spent four days working on that giant paper ghost and you stayed up
the whole night because you were worried that it would rain and
ruin it?” Michelle’s father was reminiscing on the way to school
one morning later on that week.

“It did rain, Dad. Don't you remember?”

“Michelle, that wasn’t rain, that was just
morning dew. And anyway, we all agreed that it made it scarier with
all the ink running down its face. You were so proud every time we
drove past it.” Michelle was proud; she could even remember the
large spider web she drew on the ghost, but now as she was looking
at the decorations swinging from the branches she wasn’t thinking
about Halloween. What she was really thinking about was what was
happening at home, because since the morning of the argument her
mom and dad had seemed nervous, and there was tension, invisible
tension she felt every time she walked in on their
conversation.

“Dad,” Michelle asked, unsure of herself.
“Are you and mom getting a divorce? I mean, not that it’s any of my
business, but I was just wondering. I would be okay anyway.”

Michelle’s father laughed nervously. “What on
earth would make you think that, and no we are not.”

Michelle was relieved; she didn’t want to be
another sad statistic. “You guys are always whispering nowadays
like you don't want me to know about something, and the other day
you gave me money to go buy clothes. You never do that.” Her father
promised that he and her mother would discuss the situation later
on that evening.

Well, at least the teacher didn't use a
bright red pen. That was the only positive thing that Michelle
could get out of looking at her score. The pop quiz in Italian
really shook her up. She was just not making it. Luckily this one
didn't count, but the reality was that she needed help. During
lunch break, Michelle decided to head over to the cafeteria,
because it was unusually cold and the thought of hanging out on the
bleachers sent a chill up her spine. When she walked in through the
double-glass doors, the difference between the frigid breezeway and
the tepid room was immense. Especially since the latter was filled
with warm steam rising from the two-week-old tater tots and
suspiciously bright orange pumpkin pies, not to mention that there
were way too many students crammed into the space. Michelle
suspected it was probably some sort of health-code violation. After
walking through the line and trying to choose the healthier meal
between the various unnaturally colored foods, she decided to
settle with the regular: Swiss Miss cocoa and a plain toasted
bagel. Looking around the room, there was hardly anywhere to sit.
But just as she was about to give up she spotted Rachael and Anna,
her cheerleader friends, and headed in their direction. The girls
were sitting while some of the star athletes of the school stood
clustered around them, and when they saw Michelle approach they
made space for her to sit. Michelle took off her jacket because now
she was flushed with the heat. There was no place for her to set
it, so she decided to lay it on her lap. But then Tim, standing
just a few feet away, announced that he would hold it for her while
she ate. Michelle looked up, surprised, and if she had felt flushed
before, she was definitely blushing now. Anna and Rachael giggled,
and it was obvious that Tim also felt a little embarrassed, because
he hadn’t meant for his offer to come out sounding so loud. Even
people from the next table looked over.

“What? I’m just trying to help. Be a
gentleman. Haven’t any of you ever heard of that before?” Tim
said.

Rachael teased back. “Don't you think a
‘gentle’ wrestler is kind of an oxymoron?”

“Well, I do play basketball too, you know,”
Tim joked.

“Well, you can be the gentle basketball
player instead,” Anna announced and everyone laughed.

Michelle was still embarrassed, but with a
sly smile she handed Tim her jacket anyway. She felt proud while
doing so.

Everyone in Meadow High had known one another
since they were practically babies. But Tim had moved to Willow’s
Creek about five years ago. Back then, Michelle, like every other
girl in school, had a huge crush on the new guy and he became an
instant star. With his sandy blond hair, tan skin and piercing
blue-green eyes, he was the poster child for a California surfer
boy. He did in fact surf, but since Willow’s Creek was several
hours east from any good beaches, instead he channeled all his
surfing energy into becoming the top wrestler in school. Michelle
sipped her cocoa and was already daydreaming: she and Tim, dressed
to the max, stepping out of a limo… but just then another group of
guys walked up and steered Tim away from the girls. Michelle, who
hadn't taken one breath, was finally able to exhale. Then she
realized that Tim had actually walked off carrying her jacket.
Well, she thought to herself, this can't be too bad of a situation
to be in. Maybe he did it on purpose. Maybe he’s just a big dork.
Michelle suddenly felt someone staring at her and turned around to
see Tim’s ex-girlfriend giving her such a dirty look that she could
have used a couple of showers to rinse it off. Bethany and Michelle
used to be friends, once, but then again so did everyone at the
school at one point or another.

As everyone was finishing lunch Sam walked up
to them, her hands covered with black and orange paint. “So much
for all the help I was supposed to get,” she complained. Now it was
Anna’s turn to feel bad.

“Oh my God! Samantha, I am so sorry. I
completely forgot about the posters for the dance,” she pleaded.
Samantha wasn’t buying it.

“How could you forget about it when you left
me a message just last night?”

All eyes were on Anna. But she was a master
at this type of behavior. She got up and wrapped her arms around
Sam giving her a huge bear hug.