The Fire In My Eyes (22 page)

The ambush occurred about halfway through the two on two game. Max and I were down by three, but Andreas was getting tired and there was only so much Drew could do by himself. The first water balloon hit the center of the court, taking us by surprise, spraying me and Andreas with frigid water. The second one caught Max in the chest, soaking his shirt. He swore and his shot sailed past the backboard.

“Get them!” Lisa cheered, hefting a gigantic water gun that looked as long as she was tall. The back of Max’s car was open, revealing buckets full of water balloons and water guns. Jess and Kaitlyn were working together, one bringing buckets down from the car, the other flinging icy cold water balloons at us from a safe distance.

“What the hell?” Drew shouted. “Take cover!” We dropped back while Lisa continued to cheer. Kaitlyn took her turn flinging water balloons toward us. One burst only a few feet away, showering all four of us. “Damn, that girl's got good aim!”

She blew a kiss in our direction before following up with another barrage. Lisa sent a spray of water toward us, falling well short, but the intent was still clear. This was war, and they had declared it with a liquid Pearl Harbor.

“You let her borrow your car?” Andreas asked Max.

“I had no idea this was coming,” Max snapped. “She said she was picking up more snacks! Dammit, the seats better not be wet.”

“You seriously let Jess borrow your car?” Drew asked. Max muttered something inaudible as we dropped back again under fire. Jess replaced Kaitlyn, adding another bucket to their arsenal. “We'll talk about your priorities later, man, but right now, we've got to get this under control. Andreas, you're the master tactician. What's your take?”

Andreas was already breathing heavily from the game and took a moment to catch his breath. “They attacked at a point of weakness, when we were focused on the game. The car is parked somewhat uphill, a disadvantage if we choose to attack. We have no cover. Our only advantage is that of numbers, three of them and four of us. The only strategy with a chance of victory is to split up and attempt to steal their armament from the car. If one of us can reach it, we can face them on more equitable terms and launch a counter-attack.”

Drew chuckled. “They're all wearing white. It's like they're daring us to get them wet. Let's do this. I'll play bait since I'm the biggest target, and already have my shirt off. Andreas, you're with me, since you're too tired to run around, right?” Andreas nodded. Max and I exchanged glances. “You guys are going to go for the car from different directions. Kev, go right, Max, go left. If you get a bucket or two, we'll meet back at the court. Just converge on the guy with the bucket. Sound good?”

Drew's plan was solid. There were at least a half dozen buckets left in the back of Max's car. Kaitlyn was replacing Jess, but instead of a bucket, she had brought down two more enormous water guns like the one Lisa was swinging around. Our only chance of victory was to steal whatever they had left. If we couldn't, we'd have to retreat, and we'd never hear the end of that.

Max slapped my shoulder. “I'm ready. You ready?” I nodded. “Let's go!”

I jogged to the right, Max to the left. Drew broke into a sprint right for them, shouting and waving his arms. Lisa responded with a stream of water that he barely dodged. Kaitlyn launched a barrage in Max's direction, then in mine, then aimed another toward where Drew and Andreas were closing in. Drew sidestepped and the balloon caught Andreas right in the forehead, dropping him to the ground in surprise.

This was perfect timing. I sprinted in just as Jess launched a surprise barrage from the back of the car, aiming for Max. While no one's attention was on me, I decided to sneak in a little telekinesis. Her first balloon went a little wide, her second a little short. Of course, no amount of telekinesis could make up for being a klutz. Max slipped on a patch of wet grass and went tumbling. I let my power go and didn't bother deflecting her next shot. He deserved it. The balloon caught him in the stomach and he flopped over backwards, holding his hands up in surrender..

Drew was trying to defend Andreas from further barrages and was taking fire from both Kaitlyn and Lisa. I saw one balloon glance off his shoulder before I was too close to the car to waste any more time focusing on the others. Jess spun toward me and I dodged around to the far side of the car, trying to fake her out and keep her distracted until I was sure my eyeglow was gone. She flung a pair of balloons in a high arc over the car, then stepped sideways to fling one straight at me. It barely missed and she scrambled for another one just as I got to her.

“Oh no you don't!” she declared, throwing her arms out in front of the array of buckets. Some of them were empty, but there were two that were full. I stepped in and she stepped right in my way. “You can't touch them without touching me.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing,” I said. She reached back and grabbed a balloon, holding it in front of her and twisting it slightly. “Oh, you're willing to soak yourself in order to get me?”

“Mutually assured drenching,” she told me. “I'm not afraid!”

“You know, all I need to do is this,” I said, then held my hands out right in front of the balloon. She brought it up, then down, but I kept both hands as a shield between us. She growled and pushed the balloon right into my hands. It burst between us, splattering my hands, but most of the water reflected back at her. She yelped at the cold splash and I snagged the two full buckets while she was distracted. “Now we're going to get our revenge,” I informed her.

She grabbed another balloon from one of the remaining buckets as I jogged away with the two heavy buckets. The first one barely missed me, but her next shot took me right between the shoulder blades. The cold splash was a shock, but a sacrifice I was willing to make.

The others had already withdrawn to our meeting point. Jess pulled the last buckets out of Max's car, then slammed it shut and ran downhill to join the other two girls. “We can't stick with a long range plan,” Drew said. “They've got more balloons. We need a sure thing. Andreas?”

Andreas nodded, panting for breath. “The only way to make sure, attack point blank. Launch at range. Hope for lucky hits, then charge. Just like what Jess tried with Kev. Our last, best hope.”

“Let's do it!” Drew whooped, then flung a pair of balloons toward the girls. I followed suit, but my throws were nowhere near as accurate as his. Kaitlyn squealed as a balloon burst close enough to spray her, but none of us took any more direct hits. When we were down to two balloons each, Drew sounded the charge. “For wet white shirts!” he bellowed, and tore off toward the girls.

Max and I exchanged glances. “I'm sure as hell not repeating that war cry,” he said.

“Neither am I,” I said.

“Wet shirts!” Andreas shouted.

Our charge was met by a hail of balloons and streams of water. We took our hits and charged directly in. The girls scattered as we got close, but we caught up to them. Drew broke both of his last balloons right over Lisa's head, soaking her from top down. Max tossed a balloon at Jess's back as she ran, and when she turned around to yell, we both broke balloons right at her, drenching her. Kaitlyn taunted Andreas, daring him to get her soaking wet. He did.

All three of them were wearing swimsuits underneath.

The girls, though just as drenched as we were, grinned proudly. Drew grumbled. We all congregated at the picnic table where our cooler and supplies were, but before formal negotiations could begin, there was a rumble from high above. Dark clouds were sweeping in, unnoticed during the great water war. “Shit, I didn't think it was supposed to rain today!” Max said. “This was supposed to be a great day for a picnic!”

“It's getting cold too,” Lisa said, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Let's get back to the dorm,” Drew said. “We can always come back, right?”

We gathered the buckets and water guns and all the food and loaded Max's car back up. Rain was already starting to shower down on us, huge warm drops soaking our already-wet clothes. Max let the girls into his car after insisting they take their wet shirts off, then took off, leaving Drew, Andreas, and me to walk back to the dorm. We jogged most of the way, cursing Max with every breath.

By the time we got back to the dorm, the rain had started in earnest. Thunder boomed overhead. Drew and Andreas wasted no time rushing inside, but I hung back. This was the perfect time to try to find Nikki. If she hadn't come to the picnic with Kaitlyn, she'd be either in her room, or nearby. I'd take advantage of Kaitlyn's absence.

I ducked around the corner, out of the line of sight of the road passing by the dorm, then called up my psionic Sight. All around me, the threads started to appear, shimmering and echoing with the rain. Each raindrop seemed to freeze in midair, a jewel of light tethered to an infinite number of similar jewels. I focused quickly, concentrating on Nikki. The number of threads swiftly dwindled, finally resolving to a single thread that snaked around toward the back of the building. What was she doing back there?

I peeked around the corner. She stood in the courtyard where we had both stood on Valentine's Day, alone in the rain. I ducked back and cut my power off, then waited a moment for my eyes to fade. Once I was sure that no trace remained, I turned the corner and walked toward her. She didn't seem to notice my approach. I was certain that she wasn't able to hear me, not through the downpour.

As I got closer, I saw that she was completely drenched. Her tank top clung to her and her jeans were a dark, wet blue. Her brown hair was a little shorter than I remembered, hanging in lank wet tendrils at the back of her neck. She was facing away from me, looking up at the sky. I cleared my throat, but she didn't seem to hear me. “Nikki?”

She flinched, but didn't turn around. “Kevin?”

“What are you doing out here?” I asked.

“How did you know I was here?”

“I took the long way around the building. Our picnic got rained out.”

“I see.” She lowered her head, but still didn't turn to look at me. “It's cold. Like me.”

“I don't think you're cold,” I said. “I've been looking for you. I wanted to talk.”

“I know,” she said, barely audible over the rain. Anything else she said was lost in a distant roll of thunder. If she knew I had been looking for her, then Kaitlyn actually had been passing the messages along. I had pegged her as more spiteful than that.

“Why have you been avoiding me, then?” I asked. “Was it something I did?” The sheer hypocrisy of that question made it painful to ask.

“You didn't do anything,” she said.

“Then what happened?” I asked. She didn't reply, simply seemed to sag forward, hunching over like she was in pain. I took a step toward her. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know what I could do. She turned, finally, and looked at me over her shoulder. Brown eyes, large and sad, glanced over my face, then down at my feet.

“We broke up.”

Those words made me want to cheer, made me want to sweep her off her feet, made me want to immediately make a move. I held back. “With your boyfriend?”

She smiled slightly, the barest shadow of her dimples appearing. “No, with my brother. Yes, my boyfriend. It wasn't working out. Some things just don't work.”

“I don't know if I could handle it either,” I said.

She laughed. “It's almost funny. He found someone else. Someone there.”

“What about you?” I asked, when it was clear she wasn't going to add anything more.

“Me?” She glanced back up at me, then back down. “I was lonely here. I am lonely here. My old friends are all far away and I have a hard time making new friends. When I did finally make a new friend, a good friend, something happened. He started avoiding me.”

I winced. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. I put you in a weird situation.” She laughed again. “Of course it was weird. You were here. He wasn't. What was I supposed to feel?”

“I don't think it's a question of how you're supposed to feel,” I said. “I think it's just a question of how you do feel.”

She turned away so quickly I thought I had offended her. Instead of replying, she walked over toward a bench and sat down, then drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. I followed her to the bench and sat next to her. “I do like you,” she said to her knees. I had to strain to hear her. “I really do. But you have to understand how I feel about this. I feel like I betrayed him. Neither of us were happy. We had to move on. But I don't know if it was the right thing to do.”

“I don't think it was wrong,” I said.

“Of course you wouldn't,” she said. “I don't think it is either, but I still feel guilty. Am I making any sense?”

“I think so,” I said.

“Do you?” She turned her head and looked sideways at me. “Let's be open with each other, Kev. Let's stop hiding things. How did you know I was back here?”

Her question hung between the raindrops. How specific a question was this? “I thought I'd walk around the building and saw you back here,” I lied.

“You weren't surprised to find me. You came right here,” she said. “Right to me.”

How could she know that? Was she making sure she knew where I was just so she could continue to avoid me? And Shade called me obsessive. “I wouldn't put that way. You know I've been looking for you.”

She shook her head and her eyes narrowed. “Kevin. Answer me honestly. I didn't tell anyone where I was going. Kaitlyn was with you. She couldn't know where I was. No one knew, but you found me in a place where there was no reason for me to be. So how did you find me?”

The line was clearly drawn. If I didn't tell her the truth, I'd lose her as a friend, not to mention any relationship potential. If I did tell her the truth, I'd be breaking the rules that Shade had laid out for me early in training. Don't tell anyone. Don't let anyone see you. Notify him immediately if anything happens. He said power was a terrifying thing, especially to those without it. I didn't want to terrify her.

I also didn't want to tell her because of how she'd react. I knew that inequality of this sort would make things hard for both of us. How could I have a normal relationship with her? Just like legions of fictional superheroes, I wanted to hide my abilities from her so that we could have some semblance of normality together.