Chapter 2

         The next day, Jessica asked me to take her to the island beyond the beach. I thought that would result in a fight with James. As a matter of fact it did in a way.

         That morning, I sat next to Jessica on the bus headed for the beach.

         "What do you plan to do at the beach?" she asked me.

         "I'm not sure I don't really like water, it kind of puts me out. I can still swim though."

         "I can't swim myself, but I like to go to the beach to stick my toes in the water, or sunbathe."

         My heart leaped when she said she couldn't swim. At least I wouldn't be the only one who didn't spend all of my time in the water.

         "I'm sorry about the last fight. Is James okay?" I asked.

         "Oh, Aden, you are so . . . noble sometimes. Look, I think it was nice of you not to break his nose, though he would have deserved it."

         "Well, I didn't want to overextend and start using my pow- " I stopped short.

         "Start using your what?" she asked.

         "Nothing," I said and that was my final word on the subject.

         "Have you ever been to the far out island?" Jessica asked.

         "Once, have you?" I replied.

         "No, I can't swim, and when I was going out with James, he wouldn't take me, but I've always wanted to go."

         "If you want, I'll take you because you're my friend. Would you like to go?."

         "I'd love to. You're my friend too, you know."

         "I wasn't sure if you considered me your friend or classmate."

         "Of course you're my friend, Aden. Anyway, James can go boil his head for all I care while we're at the island." Jessica lightly punched my arm. "We're here, let's go."

         The bus had pulled up next to the locker room entrances. I changed clothes and put my belongings into the locker I had rented. I walked down to the pier where I found Jessica and James bellowing at each other. Everyone else was already at the beach, walking to the tide pools, surfing, or swimming.

         "So you're going out with that freak?" James shouted.

         I assumed he meant me.

         "What's it to you if I am? Jealous?" Jessica yelled back at him.

         "You've been lying to me all along. Not only have you liked someone else, you lied and said you weren't goin' out with him."

         James pushed Jessica off of the pier. Apparently he was unaware that she couldn't swim. He was about to turn back towards me when we heard Jessica floundering about in the water.

         Before I knew what I was doing, I was after her. I yanked off my shirt, dropped my towel, ran past James and jumped in as Jessica panicked and submerged. I pulled her up, and held onto her at the waist with one hand and the edge of the pier with the other. As soon as James overcame his shock of seeing me, he stepped over to us snarling, "You!" and stomped on my hand. Even though he was barefoot and it didn't hurt too bad, he surprised me. I let go of the pier and went down for a couple of seconds and came up coughing.

         "S-s-sorry," I said to Jessica. "He surprised me."

         "That's fine," Jessica told me and turned to James to say, "You moron, can't you leave me alone?"

         I realized what James was going to do a moment before he did it. I pushed Jessica up onto the pier and dove underwater just as James jumped in. He would have landed on my head or shoulders if I had moved one second later. I swam several yards away from the pier and came up treading water. James was a pretty good swimmer, but he fumbled just as he was about to grab me. I swam underneath him back to the pier and surprised Jessica who jumped back a good two feet.

         "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," I said.

         "You say sorry a lot more than you need to; although I have to admit, having someone apologize to me is . . . well, unusual."

         James had recovered and started paddling back to us.

         "Back up please," I told Jessica.

         She did as James hauled himself onto the pier.

         "Okay, Jenkins, you're going to pay. You're gonna pay big time."

         He came at me but I ducked under his arm. I sidestepped him when he came again, and he slipped in his own puddle of water and fell back into the ocean.

         He came up sputtering. "Okay Jenkins, I'll leave you alone for now but you're gonna get a good beating before school's out, got it?" Before I could reply, he continued. "I'm only doing this for Jess, not you, and if she chooses you over me . . . I can't see why . . . that may be upsetting for a while, but I'm tough and I'll get through it. But if you try to take her away from me, or force or threaten her, then I won't be responsible for my actions."

         "Okay," I said, "thanks for the lecture. Jessica can go with you anytime she likes."

         I looked at her and back at James. He hauled himself out of the water and shouldered past me.

         "You commin' Jess?" he asked.

         She shook her head. He gave one last hateful look at me and left. When he was out of earshot I nodded to Jessica and sat down on the side of the pier. She came and sat next to me. I kept my head down with no idea what to say.

         "Thank you for showing him he's not the top dog."

         I looked into her eyes and could've sworn they were twinkling.

         "I didn't want to hurt him, but he fell in the water anyway."

         "Only because he slipped in his own puddle."

         "I hope I didn't hurt you when we were in the water, although I suppose you wouldn't feel it."

         "Feel what?"

         "Let's refrain from talking about this."

         "Please? For me?"

         "For you? Are you my princess now?"

         "No, let's go to the island, it's pretty far out, I don't think anyone else will want to go that far."

         "I don't think James will like you and me being alone together."

         "Aden, what in the world goes on in your mind? I know that you're extremely smart, but your idea of human emotions is . . . well, not exactly up to date. I couldn't care less what James thinks, and if he disapproves, then I definitely approve."

         "What do you mean?" I asked.

         "Will you take me to the island or not?"

         "Yeah, of course, but before I do, I want one truthful answer from you."

         "Okay, what?"

         "Is this what you would call 'going out'?"

         "Yeah, why?"

         "Just wanted to be clear on that."

         "Shall we go to the island then?"

         I agreed and dropped into the water. I held out an arm, and she lowered herself into the water. She held her arms around my neck, and I swam off. It was farther than I usually swim, and by the time we got to the island beach, I felt pretty out of it. Water does that to me especially when I'm in it for a while. I sat in the sun on the beach as Jessica explored. When I was sure she was out of sight, I snapped my fingers and a small flame appeared about the size of a candle flame. I shook my two fingers and it went out. Jessica reappeared at my side and sat next to me. I built a sort of backrest out of sand and we leaned against it staring out into the waves and the main beach back where everyone else was. For about ten minutes, we sat in silence as the waves came up to our toes and occasionally our knees.

         Jessica finally broke the silence by asking me, "Would you like to play Questions over Questions?"

         "What's that?" I asked.

         "It's a game I invented. You ask questions back and forth and you have to either tell the truth or say you can't answer that question, but you can only say you won't answer a question ten times or the other person wins."

         "If you'd like, but you'll most likely win."

         "Why, what are you hiding?"

         "I'm not hiding it from you as a . . . " I struggled to find the right words, "punishment or because I think you're not worthy enough to hear it or anything like that. It's just, if I told you, we would both be in huge trouble. But sure, I'll play."

         "Um . . . okay, do you want to start or shall I?"

         "You can if you'd like."

         "All right then, I'll start simple. What did you get on your tests?"

         "All hundreds, yourself?"

         "Anywhere from ninety-two to ninety-eight. Are you going to copy all of my questions?"

         "No. How long have you and James been together?"

         "We've known each other since seventh grade but didn't start going out until the summer before ninth. Have you ever gone out with another girl?"

         "No. Why does James have such an attitude?"

         "I don't know. Maybe it's because his father was cruel and his mother died when he was ten. Is Aden Jenkins the name your parents gave you?"

         "No. Why did you never learn to swim?"

         "I just never got interested in it. I started when I was young and then dropped it when I was about seven or eight. What's your full, real birth name?"

         "Aden. Do you have any siblings?"

         "Yes, just one twelve-year-old brother. Don't you have a last name?"

         "No. Would you like to head back for lunch?"

         "Okay, but we're continuing this later."

         "All right," I agreed.

         "Hang on, one last question, we're in private now, what is it that I wouldn't feel because we were in the water?"

         "I don't want to make you feel it because if you're very sensitive, it'll hurt pretty badly for the rest of the day."

         "But I want to know, no matter how it makes me feel."

         "Okay, if you really feel that way, touch my bare skin."

         She put her hand on my back and let it sit there for a couple seconds. Then she jerked her hand away and put it to my forehead.

         "You're running a high fever; we need to get back."

         "Don't worry, I'm always this warm."

         "What? Why?"

         "I know it may sound mean, but I'm not telling you."

         Without further word I waved her toward the ocean and we headed back to the main shore. At the pier, we separated for lunch to get our towels and money to buy lunch. I picked up my towel and T-shirt from the pier and headed for the locker room while drying myself off. I grabbed my money and found Hearst and Irvin playing the race car video games that were in the food court while Demetrio and Timur watched.

         "Hey guys," I said just as Irvin and Hearst pulled into the finish.

         We grabbed lunch and ate together. I saw James with Jessica for lunch. No doubt he was asking her about everything we had done and said.

         To my surprise I learned that four other girls claimed to be going out with my brothers; though they didn't eat with us. We didn't talk much, but in my distraction, I somehow managed to burn the tortilla of my burrito. We finished eating and left the table to go down to the beach. Nobody noticed our absence and we didn't mind being alone. We sat watching the waves in silence until others finished lunch and the beach started getting crowded again.

         The girls came and found us, and we sat together on the smooth rocks that were at the back of the beach. The girls challenged us to a game of beach volleyball. They were actually pretty good, and scored on us in the first serve. We attacked after that and scored several times, though not in a row, until we won the game. It wasn't exactly the most fun game I'd ever played, but at least I could play it. After we played, we split up and walked along the beach

         "Aden, do you know anyplace that'd be private, I mean, from your brothers and their girls?" Jessica asked me.

         "Yeah, would you care to go there?"

         "Yes, please."

         I led her away down the beach to some rocky parts. In there were crevices with small pools of water inside that had been heated by the sun. I looked at Jessica and she nodded. We climbed down into the little pool and she was the first to speak.

         "Let's continue Questions over Questions. I want to know more about you."

         "Okay," I said, "Was it my turn, because you asked about my heat?"

         "I believe so."

         "What did you and James talk about at lunch?"

         "He mostly wanted to know everything you and I did together and what you said. I only told him that we went to the island and played Questions over Questions. Why did you hide your skin heat?"

         "I thought if you realized how warm I could get, even in the summer, you wouldn't want to see me ever again. Did James seem sulky?"

         "Very, I think he's mad that you and I are going out. Do you play any instruments?"

         "Yes, I play many and my brothers and I have a band. What do you mean, 'We're going out'?"

         "Well, we're together, alone, without anyone else, aren't we? That's what I mean by going out. I didn't mean dinner or anything. Not yet at least. What do you called your band?"

         "We don't have a name for it. Do you play any instruments?"

         "Just a bit of piano. For me it was the usual parents make you practice until you argue so much they let you quit, but I did still practice my favorite pieces. Do you write your own songs in your band?"

         "Yes. What are your favorite pieces?"

         "I like Pachelbel's Cannon in D. Would you care to hang out over the summer?"

         "Yes, I think that would be pleasant. Would you like to pause the game?"

         "Sure. Shall we go find the others?"

         "Let's."

         We climbed out of the crevice and went around the island and found my brothers and their girlfriends. I knew all of their names, but I didn't know much about them. Demetrio's friend, Terra Watson was a ground type of person. She hated heights and airplanes, and couldn't parachute off a cliff to a plain below if her life depended on it. Cari Gray was hanging out with Timur. She had pale skin and golden colored hair. Rhonda Howard was the one whom I sort of knew. She was on the swim team and had water blue eyes like Irvin and wavy blonde hair that was almost white. Hearst had a different preference. Portia Cooper had brown eyes and dark brown hair.

         It was almost time to join our classmates, but not before we played another game of volleyball. This time the girl's just barely won by two points. We headed back to the locker rooms to change. I learned that Jessica, Terra, Cari, Rhonda, and Portia were all good friends.

         We rode back on the bus in silence and left school once the bell had rung. James was nowhere to be seen, and I decided that that day had to be one of the best in my life.