Elevated (Book 1): Elevated (9 page)

I’ve seen videos of gusting before. Groups of Fliers grab Basics or Lessers and take bets on how many flaps it will take to knock someone flat on their back using only the force of air.

The best do it in one.

Aaron scrambles to break free from the Fliers, but their grasp is too strong. Tessla barely has enough room to spread her wings out in the hallway. She takes a step back and I close my eyes.

 A gust of wind blasts down the hallway, whipping my hair into a frenzy. In a blur, the two Fliers surrounding Aaron are knocked to the ground. Something strong lifts me off my feet and Tessla shrinks in sight as I hurtle away from her. Another Flier has me clutched in their arms. We tear through the school corridors at top speed.

“You ok?” Zach asks

“I-I-yeah.” I catch my breath from the sudden tug.

We careen through the hallways in a flash. Racing past the school auditorium, rattling lockers as we speed around the corner, swerving through the doors towards the—

“Zach! That’s the pool!” I scream.

“Wha—?”

SPLASH!

Water shoots up my nose. I fumble around, muscles shocked from the frigid pool water. Our school desperately needs to invest in a heater. My arms find a rhythm and I surface to a violent surf. Zach swims next to me, flapping his wings, which send giant waves over my head.

“Slow down!” I fight to keep my head over the waves. “You’re splashing it all out!”

He stops flapping. “Sorry. And sorry to get you wet. Are you positive they haven’t moved the pool room recently?”

“No, Zach, they haven’t,” I say through chattering teeth.

I swim towards the edge and realize the water level is low enough that I need a ladder in order to climb over the side. We must have splashed a ton of water out. Halfway to the ladder, Tessla and her cronies show up. They stand at the edge and glare down at us, laughing.

“Figures,” she says. “The klutz master would end up with him. Not sure how a moron like him got to be a Flier. If you’re going to hang around loser Basics, Zach, then you really are totally washed up.”

They guffaw at her terrible joke as they leave the pool room. I pull myself up the ladder, swipe my drenched hair out of my face, and dread how it will look after it dries. Glancing back at the pool, I watch Zach. He has spread his large wings out and floats on his back.

“Fantastic. This makes swimming much more enjoyable,” he says.

I chuckle. “Hope I didn’t make you look bad.”

“No harm done,” Zach says. “They already hated me. They’re a nasty bunch.”

“Thanks for the help.”

“Anytime.”

Zach sings in an off-key voice as he drifts in the pool. His face is completely calm. It’s like, for a moment, he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.

I’ve flown.

I’ve flown with
Zach
.

And it felt glorious.

***

“I can’t believe you emptied out the entire pool,” Mr. Roberts says as he chomps into a huge head of broccoli.

“Not the entire pool, just about two feet worth,” I say.

“The principal wasn’t very happy. I had to persuade him out of slapping you with a suspension.”

“Why were you talking to the principal?” I turn towards my mom.

“I’m sorry, I was worn out from work,” she says. “He asked if he could take it and—”

Mr. Roberts places his hand on hers. “I am legally able to—”

“You may be legally able to do whatever you want, but you aren’t my dad.”

“Rose. I’m trying to help. Your dad would want you to be taken care of.”

“Not by you. If my dad could be here, he would. I know it. Just like I know there’s something going on.”

I’ve said too much.

Mr. Roberts gives me that look again. “What do you mean, something going on?”

“It doesn’t make sense. How come we never found out what happened to Dad?”

“He’s an Unsound, that’s all you need to know.”

“Usually the family finds out why. Mr. Roberts, you’re a lawyer, what does it take to get put on the ‘Unsound’ list?”

“I don’t wish to discuss it.”

“I want to know.”

“It’s complicated. A lot of legalese you wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand plenty.”

“Oh, right. I forgot. You are a teenager, so you think you know everything. You can challenge everyone. No authorities.”

“Tom!” says my mom.

“Sorry,” Mr. Roberts says.

“I want to know, how can they be sure?”

“It is their job and they take it quite seriously. They should be respected and commended. It’s not an easy task at all.”

“But have they ever been wrong?”

“I know you mean well, and I’m certain your dad would appreciate the effort. But there comes a time when you need to accept reality and not live in a fantasy.”

“Like Mom did? When she decided to forget about Dad and replace him with you? I’m not going to do that.”

“That’s not true!” Mom yells with a teary face.

DING DONG!

“That’s Aaron. We’re going to Fowler’s Grove.”

“You are not,” Mr. Roberts says.

“What are you going to do, ground me? Only Mom can do that.”

I turn towards Mom.

“You can go,” she says.

I run out the front door, wondering how Mom can stomach him living in our house. My hand grips the doorknob and slams the door behind me.

Aaron grimaces. “Mr. Roberts?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t let him get to you. He’s a jerk.”

Aaron makes it sound so easy, but he didn’t have to live there and deal with Mr. Roberts. The days of endless nitpicking and harassment have reached a fever pitch. I can’t last much longer. But where would I go? Aaron’s offered to let me stay at his place for a while, but it’s too awkward to agree to that arrangement. Besides, once he finds about my power I’m not even sure we’ll be friends anymore.

I guess I’ll find out since I’ve decided to tell him tonight. Not sure how I can. This will be the hardest conversation I’ve ever had with him.

***

 “You haven’t said much,” Aaron says as we drive towards the park.

 “Guess not.”

I know I haven’t spoken for the last 15 minutes, but I can’t figure out how to start. It also doesn’t seem like a good idea to tell him while he’s driving. With the way he’s bound to flip out, we’d end up dead before we even made it to the park.

We reach a red light and the car stops. When the light turns green, Aaron tries to move forward, but the car won’t cooperate.

“Come on, Julie,” Aaron says as he cranks the car.

I snicker inside. I’ve long learned not to mock his car-naming. After some cranking and grumbling from Aaron, Julie decides to cooperate and a few turns later, we arrive at Fowler’s Grove. The park sparkles with the light of the glowdaises, now in full bloom. The grass looks so inviting that I wish I wasn’t here just to have this uncomfortable conversation. I still haven’t figured out a way to start it. I search for something pleasant to say.

“Nice evening,” says Aaron. He’s not one to talk about the weather, so he must be struggling with something to say too.

“Thanks for coming with me. I know strolling in the park isn’t your first choice.”

Aaron doesn’t appear to be listening, but instead focuses his attention on the glowdaises. “Sometimes I wonder what you see in these plants. They’re only mutants aren’t they? Manipulated by the government.”

“But they’re beautiful.”

“That’s what people say about Fliers.”

“And, well, aren’t they beautiful?”

“If you think gluing some bird wings to your back like an old-time circus freak is beautiful, yeah, I suppose.”

I swallow my words. This is going to be harder than I thought. Taking a deep breath, I let my eyes wander to the glowdaisies at my feet. Their haunting blue glow is both soothing and arresting. GEMO technology can be beautiful. Maybe it’s more beautiful than I let myself realize until now.

“But what if we’re meant to,” I say.

“Meant to what?”

“Meant to do this. Meant to use our brains to enhance the world.”

“Enhance the world? You’ve been hearing too much of that government prop—”

“Enough Aaron! I’m sick of you always bashing Elevateds.”

Aaron’s face goes blank. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I…”

I bury my face in my hands. I can’t tell him. He’ll hate me.

“Tell me, please.”

“I can’t.”

I stare at the glowdaises and their stunning light. If Aaron can’t see the beauty in them, he’ll think of me as a monster.

His voice gets dark. “You got zapped. Didn’t you?”

“No! I mean, not exactly.”

“Not exactly?”

“Elliott, the boy who I wanted to know about. It seems his ability is, well, unlocking others and—”

Aaron clenches his fists. “He zapped you? I’ll find him. I’ll find him and make sure he pays.”

“No, Aaron. It’s too late. It’s not his fault.”

Aaron’s expression is eerily reminiscent of the look Mr. Roberts gives me. Aaron is judging me. “Not his fault? He got zapped on purpose. He wanted to be a freak. And he wanted you to be one too.”

“I’m not a freak!” Turning quickly, I dash away from him. My feet kick up glowdaises around me, sending sparks of light in the sky. In my haste to get away from Aaron, I hit a rock and tumble towards the ground. A bed of glowdaises catches my fall and more petals drift into the air like giant lightning bugs. I’m lying on my back when Aaron runs up beside me. I turn away. I can’t bear to see his judgmental face again.

He crouches down. “Rose, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to react.”

My eyes focus on the glowdaisy petals still floating in the air. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Aaron. But it’s happened. And the best I can do is cope. What other choice do I have?”

Aaron sits down next to me. He takes a moment before speaking again. “So what are you going to do?”

“Jex agreed to train me.”

“Jex?”

“He says that I can use my power to help my dad.”

“And are you going to?”

“Yes.”

“Ok.”

An unfamiliar quiet comes between us.

“You want to head back home?” Aaron asks.

I nod and, finally brave, turn back to face him again. His expression has changed from judgmental to one of complete shock.

The drive home is silent. Aaron occasionally peeks over at me before shaking his head. I’m a freak to him now. There’s nothing I can do about it.

We get home and I run upstairs to my bedroom, throwing myself onto my bed. Rolling myself on my back, I gaze back up at the star-filled ceiling. It will be another week before I speak with my father. I need him now more than ever.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I try to keep myself busy waiting for my dad. The sessions with Jex provide a good distraction, and I’m happy to make progress. My ability grows to where I can sense simple textures and more clearly detect objects within other objects. Thanks to my improved density filter, I can identify many more materials than before. Riding with Aaron beats taking the rusty buses, but he refuses to join us in the sessions. He can’t accept my power. He tries not to make it obvious, but I can tell he’s ignoring me at school. He always leaves right after class with some excuse.

“My mom needs me to rake the leaves in the front lawn,” he says as he dashes out.

Ridiculous. His front lawn has a single puny tree. I realize he must be upset to be coming up with such a dumb excuse. Especially thinking it will fool me, the wannabe botanist.

It’s a lonely hike out of class. I check the time and groan. It’s about an hour before Mom can pick me up. Normally I would hang out with Aaron.

Searching for something to do, I wander over to Flier’s Field and am excited to see Zach preparing for a practice run. For Fliers to get their licenses, they have to prove total control over their wings. After all, nobody wants a random Flier crashing through their house because a gust of wind blew them astray. Well, most people don’t. I wouldn’t necessarily mind if Zach decided to crash through my bedroom window.

A series of hoops and plywood cutouts of people form an obstacle course along the field. Missing a hoop or knocking into something is an automatic fail. To create even more of a challenge, huge fans sit poised to simulate wild winds. At the end of the course sits a tall pole extending a thousand feet high. For the final challenge, Fliers must ascend it and grab a flag. I don’t envy Zach at all.

He stands on a tall platform, waiting for his cue. A large clock on a screen resets to zero and a loud beep signals the start of his run. Zach jumps off the platform and extends his wings. He swoops around and through the hoops effortlessly and down through the obstacles. So far, so good. A bell sounds, signaling the start of the fans. They blast at Zach and for a moment, he careens out of control and towards a plywood obstacle. Somehow, he rights himself and uses the wind to float upwards, missing the cutout by inches.

He reaches the final pole and circles it a few times. Then, he grabs onto it and stops. What is he doing? He stares up the pole, takes a deep breath, and then shoots up at full speed. Even though it’s a thousand feet high, it’s not a difficult height for a Flier to reach. Most Fliers find themselves limited more by the atmospheric conditions at high altitudes than from the physical exhaustion.

Zach continues to climb until he’s a tiny spec in the sky. He’s almost halfway there now. All of a sudden, he starts falling. His body thrashes in the wind, but he can’t right himself. He spirals downwards, completely out of control.

“Zach!” I scream as he drops out of the sky. He lands on the giant net under the pole, which catches him like a glove.

I run towards him. Even with the cushion, that must have hurt. Girls from everywhere emerge and soon are running beside me. Dashing to move ahead, a girl trips me and I have to curl into a ball to avoid getting trampled.

“GIRLS! HALT!” Mr. James yells. His voice reminds me of old dodgeball wounds from his PE class.

Picking myself off the ground, I try to find my way through the mob of adoring fans. I step on my tiptoes to peek over their heads. Zach covers his face as he climbs out the net before Mr. James takes him by the shoulder and leads him to the locker rooms.