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  Without a word to me, Jim shifted into bear form and ambled over to a few of his men, and I took a seat on the south side of the field, next to a large water cooler, several empty gallons, and a few packages of paper cups. Feeling kind of conspicuous to be the only person sitting, and to be sitting right on the grass, cross-legged, like I was a kid at an elementary school soccer game or something, I was relieved when Annie, Aaron, and Jen soon showed up, and Jen bounced over and took a seat beside me.

  “Are you taking a rest already or something?”

  I said no, that I was just going to watch during this training session.

  Jen frowned. “Don’t you want to practice?”

  “Not really.”

  “Well, why not? Are you feeling shy about your power or something? And what’s your power, by the way? I’m a zapper. That’s what we call everyone who can shoot electricity beams from their hands, and that’s how the Angels mostly fight, too. I’m only allowed to do it on the practice field, and only very carefully, and away from everyone else, because Annie always keeps thinking I’m gonna accidentally hurt people. But, anyway... What’s your power?”

  I explained to Jen that my power was levitating, but that I wasn’t very experienced at doing it, and I didn’t want to try to get better. “I think I’ll probably be better at just keeping you company here on the sidelines.”

  “Well, okay. It will be cool to have you as a buddy here. Sometimes Jim makes me join in with practice, but most of the time I just do whatever I want, and I keep everyone hydrated by giving them drinks whenever they get thirsty. See, Jim really hasn’t even asked me to join in with practice in a few months, because one day, I got a little too wild with my zapping, and I accidentally zapped Aaron, and I said I was sorry so many different times, over and over, but Annie was so mad that she kept on complaining to Jim for a million days, and she kept on saying all this different junk about me, like that I was gonna hurt somebody really bad someday, and then Jim pretty much stopped having me join in training since then. He says me keeping everyone hydrated is just a different way I can help be a part of stuff, though. Which...” Jen paused, removed a small bright pink backpack she was wearing, and unzipped it. “I almost forgot to do the first part of my hydrating job.”

  She pulled a large plastic bag out, lifted the lid of the water cooler, and began dumping the powdery contents of the bag in it. Pale green in color, the powder looked like it was some kind of a drink mix.

  Once she’d emptied out the bag, Jen put the lid back on the cooler, tipped it from side to side a few dozen times to swish the liquid around, and then sat back down beside me. “Hey, Avery, I just put drugs in the water tank thing. Do you think that was good or bad that I did that?”

  I smiled. “Well, I don’t think real drugs would be good, but—”

  “Gotcha. April Fool’s. It was really just powdered sport drink mix that I put in the water, because people like it better than just plain water sometimes. But since it’s April Fool’s, after people have taken a drink, let’s try to convince people that they’ve just done drugs.”

  I agreed to go along with the prank, although I was going to be sure to give people a few clear winks while Jen was executing it.

  She took a small blanket out of her backpack for us to sit on, and soon the training session really got underway. Apparently, several Gifteds were designated to be the “Angels,” and they proceeded to “zap” at the bears and other Gifteds, although “zapping” them by shooting their silvery streams of electricity way above their targets’ heads. Their targets, bears and Gifteds alike, then reacted how I guessed they probably would during a fight. The bears charged the “Angels,” growling, though running right by them when they got close, instead of ripping them limb-from-limb like I imagined they probably did to the real Angels. Meanwhile, during these charges, the “Angels” continued to shoot their silvery beams of light, and other Gifteds shot streams of their own light, trying to deflect the “enemy” streams in mid-air. A few Gifteds levitated some of the “Angels,” then set them down right in the path of the bears.

  The whole thing was like a well-choreographed football play. As the training session continued, I saw that there was more than one play, and more strategy involved than I’d even first thought. Periodically, Jim would issue a short roar, some seeming signal for everyone to break, and then he’d roar again, in either short bursts or long ones, seeming to be communicating different signals for different “plays.” Then, the “team” would execute these “plays,” quickly moving into their various positions.

  I recognized Jim not only because he was the biggest bear, but also because he was the clear leader of the group. It wasn’t clear just because of his signal-roaring, though. Fast, deliberate, and powerful, he moved in a way that just exuded authority and confidence, just like he did while in human form. There was a certain glint of intensity in his dark eyes, too, a glint that would have told even a stranger that these were his people out on the field, he was their leader, and he’d do anything to protect them.

  After a while of us watching, Jen yawned in an exaggerated way, as if wanting to make it known that she’d seen it all before.

  Then, after pushing a few packages of paper cups out of the way, she stretched out on her back beside me, hands behind her head. “It’s cloud-watching time. I like to see if I can spot some interesting ones.”

  Being that there were only a few thin, white wisps in the clear blue sky, I wasn’t sure if she would be able to spot any interesting ones, but I didn’t say anything. I went back to watching the mock-battle, and she gazed up at the sky. A few minutes went by before she craned her neck to look at me.

  “Hey, Avery? Do you know the only way Angels can be killed? They can only be killed by shifters, and they can only be killed by the shifters taking their heads off by biting their necks. I’ve seen it before, and it’s... well, it’s a little bit gross.”

  She went on to tell me about different things she’d seen while spying from the trees during different fights, and then she completely shifted gears, telling me a few jokes and thoroughly cracking herself up.

  But then, after a minute or so of further cloud-watching, still kind of giggling a little, she craned her neck to look at me again with her expression completely sober. “Avery, do you want to see what’s my favorite thing to practice during practice?”

  “Sure.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting, but what she soon showed me wasn’t it. It was just heartbreaking.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  After lifting a palm to the sky, Jen began shooting a thin stream of silvery light from it, and then she began moving her hand to make some sort of shape or design with the stream of light, kind of like a person might do with a sparkler.

  “Can you see what I’m doing? I’m making the shape of a mom in the sky. This is one of my favorite things to do, because I like to create my own nice mom, and then I like to pretend that I have a nice, sweet, loving mom watching over me from the sky. And then sometimes when I’m sad or lonely, I just think, ‘It’s okay, Jen. Your nice, loving mom in the sky really loves you and cares about you so much, and she’s trying to stretch her arms down from the sky to give you a big hug right this second. And she doesn’t even care if you can barely read, and she doesn’t even care if everyone thinks you’re a spaz and a baby. She just loves you, Jen, and she’s just trying to beam you down some of that love right now.’ And that always makes me feel better. Just to imagine that I have a sky mom who loves me.”

  Jen continued on with her light-beam design, and I tried to respond but couldn’t at first. I had to swallow a few times to get rid of a lump that was constricting my throat.

  “I think that’s very sweet, Jen. I’m glad that gives you comfort.”

  “Thanks. Me, too.” Moving her hand in tight, fast circles, she paused. “I’m giving my sky mom silvery, curly hair now. I like to imagine her with curly hair.”

  Jen fell silent for several seconds while s
he finished up her task, but then she let her hand fall to her side and spoke in a quiet voice, staring up at the fading traces of silvery light above her.

  “My mom died a couple years ago. She took a gun and shot herself in the head, and I got home from school, and I found her laying down with her brains all around her in the living room.” Still gazing up at the sky, Jen paused to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “At first, I just kind of wandered around the house a little, because I just really didn’t know what to do, but then I started crying so hard I could hardly even breathe, and then Annie came home, and she shook me so hard my teeth crunched together, and she said, ‘Just be quiet! Just be quiet so I can figure out what to do!’ But then once I was quiet, Annie figured out that there really wasn’t anything we could do. We just had to call the police and tell them that our mom was dead with all her brains all around the living room.”

  Jen fell silent, and I just looked at her, heart aching.

  “I’m so sorry, Jen. I’m so sorry that you lost your mom, and I’m sorry that you had to see what you did.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I bet you must miss your mom a lot.”

  With her focus seeming to be on a small but puffy white cloud above us, Jen didn’t answer right away. “I don’t mean to sound mean, but I think I miss my sky mom more than I miss my actual mom. My actual mom wasn’t a very nice mom, but...I still miss that nice, loving mom that I always wanted. Does that seem crazy?”

  “No, it doesn’t at all.”

  Jen craned her neck to look at me. “Thanks. Now tell me about your mom. Is she still alive?”

  I shook my head, willing my voice to remain steady. “No. She died when I was really young.”

  “I’m sorry, Avery.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Well, was she a nice mom?”

  “Yes. She was very nice... very loving.”

  “What kinds of things did she do?”

  Again, I willed my voice to remain steady. “Well, she taught preschool, and she liked to bake a lot, and she liked to knit. She used to knit me these really warm, cozy sweaters with little plastic buttons in different animal shapes. Little bunnies, and kittens, and things like that.”

  “That sounds really nice. You got lucky.”

  Knowing that this conversation must be ended soon if I wanted to avoid crying in full view of everyone in Timberline, including Jim, I tried my best to lift the corners of my mouth in a smile. “I did. I got very lucky.”

  Jen returned my little smile and returned her gaze to the sky. Relieved, I turned my focus back to the field, where Jim was roaring, leading several of his bears in a charge against several others. A few Gifteds were shooting beams of light between the two groups, creating an obstacle course of sorts that the bears had to work around.

  After maybe a minute or so of further cloud-gazing on her back, Jen pulled herself up to sit beside me again. “Do you know that me and Annie aren’t even full sisters? We’re just half-sisters. Our mom got pregnant with each of us by getting some sperm from different men at a sperm bank. Well, by the way, do you know what sperm even is?”

  Slightly embarrassed, but amused at the same time, I nodded. “Yes, I know.”

  “Okay. Me, too. It’s what men shoot out of their penises to have kids. Or even, they do it just to have fun sometimes.”

  Now I was thoroughly embarrassed, and hot-faced as well. Flushing beet red, I was sure, I had no idea what to say. “Well... yes.”

  “Do you know that one time, I heard my mom telling one of her friends that she got ‘gypped’ with me? She said that for how much she paid to get my dad’s sperm, I sure was a dud. And she even said, ‘Really, Alice, she’s beyond a dud. Now I have a kid with behavioral problems.’ Can you believe that? She actually thought I have behavioral problems. When the truth is, I don’t have any problems with my behavior. I just behave like me. Just like the person that I know in my heart I am. Marbles doesn’t have a problem with my behavior, you don’t have a problem with my behavior, even Jim doesn’t have a problem with my behavior. It’s just other people that do. It’s just every person everywhere I’ve ever lived, even people my own age, and even a ton of people here in Timberline, and it’s even my own sister that has a problem with my behavior. Oh, and also, a ton of people in Ridgewood think I’m weird, because sometimes when I come into town to get ice cream, I let Marbles take some licks of the ice cream, and then I take a few bites or licks of it myself. I mean, is sharing ‘weird?’ Like, Marbles is my best dog friend. Wouldn’t it be weird if I didn’t share my ice cream cone with him?”

  Appreciating her logic, I smiled. “I think you’re a wonderful best friend to Marbles.”

  “And to you, too, right?”

  “And to me, too.”

  Soon all shifters in the clearing shifted back into human form, and it became apparent that it was break time. Several of them, along with several Gifteds, began strolling toward Jen and me and the cooler of sports drink, and Jen put her mouth near my ear and whispered.

  “Remember our plan. We’ve gotta make ‘em think they’ve swallowed drugs for an April Fool's prank.”

  Once everyone in the group, which included Jim, all had paper cups full of sports drink, Jen encouraged them to drink up, and they did. Twining and un-twining her fingers in an anticipatory sort of way while practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, Jen just watched until everyone had taken at least a few drinks. Then, she burst into laughter.

  “All you guys don’t even know what you just did! You all just took drugs! I put some drug powder in the cooler earlier. It was pure cocaine, I think. About ten pounds of it.”

  Because of the pretty obvious transparency of Jen’s delivery of the joke, I didn’t really even feel the need to wink at anyone to let them know that it was just a joke.

  A few Gifteds laughed feebly, and one of the shifters said, “Uh-oh.” Annie rolled her eyes, finished the rest of her drink, and put her cup in the recycling bag. Jim’s reaction, however, wasn’t quite as cynical.

  In a display of genuinely good acting, he suddenly dropped his cup, looking over Jen’s shoulder with an expression of shock and horror. “I think it’s having an effect on me already. I see unicorns. Dozens of them.”

  Jen shrieked with delight, hands flying up to cover her mouth.

  Jim continued to peer over her shoulder, frowning. “But these aren’t regular unicorns. These unicorns have fangs. There must be at least a hundred of them in the trees. They’re absolutely terrifying.” Wearing a near-comical mask of anguish, he turned his focus back to Jen. “Why did you have to give me drugs?”

  She’d been giggling so hard her face was nearly as red as her hair, and now she giggled even harder before taking a great gulp of air. “I didn’t! I didn’t give you drugs! It’s was just an April Fool's prank! But you fell for it so hard!”

  Jim exhaled, clutching his chest. “Oh. Oh, thank God. Just an April Fool’s prank. That doesn’t explain all the vampire unicorns in the woods, though.”

  Jen now howled with laughter, and several shifters and Gifteds laughed as well. I joined in myself, unable to help thinking that Jim would likely make a wonderful father someday. And because I’d always wanted a child, maybe even two or three, this was something that was kind of important to me in a man.

  But then Jim had to go and ruin my sudden warmish thoughts about him.

  *

  While a couple of the shifters told Jen about their own “drug hallucinations,” making her continue to laugh, Jim steered me away from the group by the elbow. “Let’s just walk and talk for a second while I have a little break.”

  I said that was fine, and we began strolling along the edge of the forestland, away from the group. Once we were out of hearing distance, Jim asked what I thought about what I’d seen so far.

  I shrugged, gaze on the stretch of grass in front of us. “I guess I think it’s fine... for those who actually enjoy training and fighting and want to do it.”


  “Did you see how we always have each other’s backs? Did you see how we look out for one another so that no one gets hurt in a fight, and so that no one’s single-handedly responsible for the safety of everyone else?”

  “Yes, I saw all that, but it doesn’t apply to me, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “Avery, I’d like you to practice with us next time. I’d like you to participate and use your gift.”

  Angry that he was bringing up the subject of me participating yet again, I came to a sudden dead stop, glaring at him. “The gym teacher from hell.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “That’s what you’re like, with all your insistence on participation. You’re like the gym teacher from hell.”

  Jim actually had the nerve to allow a little twinkle of amusement to dance across his eyes. “And here I thought I had a real shot at being your PB, your Pudding Bear. But now I’m just the gym teacher from hell.”

  “Please just leave me alone. Go launder some jockstraps or something.”

  With that, I turned on my heel and stalked back over to Jen, and the training session soon resumed. When it was over, I walked back home with her, Annie, and Aaron.

  That evening, there was a “minor Angel problem,” as Annie said, and Jim and a few other shifters left the village to deal with it. They didn’t return until the next morning, and Jen reported that they’d all gone home to get some sleep, Jim included.

  “His eyes were so bloodshot and sleepy, they looked like red, red rubies. I said, ‘Welcome back to Timberline, Sheriff Eyeball Rubies!’ I don’t think he fully got it, but he laughed anyway.”

  Just like a good dad, I thought. Just like a man who would likely make a wonderful partner and husband.

  I painted while Jen and Marbles went on their daily, hours-long walk in the forest, and when they returned, Jen and I had lunch and then a reading and spelling work session. Around three in the afternoon, she asked if we could go into Ridgewood for ice cream, since she’d really been working hard and trying to focus, which she really had been.