Connor woke up early the next morning. He looked at the clock. 8:00 am. He groaned and buried his head in his pillow. He hated waking up early because he could never get back to sleep. He rolled out of bed and went to his dresser and got some clean clothes then put them on. His room was messy, but organized. There was nothing lying on the carpet. A guitar sat in the corner. Pictures of him and his parents from when he was three sat on his drawers. He had legs back then, but lost them because of the accident. His bed was basically an air mattress. His grandparents insisted him to let them buy a real bed for him, but he refused. To him a bed was a bed. On top of his dresser was a glass cage with a paper shavings inside. That was where Connor kept his pet, Kermit, a white-bellied hedgehog. He got Kermit a year ago for his fifteenth birthday. Grandma Wilma hated the hedgehog the moment she laid eyes on him and always called him a "vermin." Connor took that name and turned it into "Kermit."
He waddled out of his room and made his way to the kitchen. Wilma was at the stove, while Gene sat at the table reading Empire City's newspaper, The Empire Sun.
"Morning, pal," Gene said without looking up from his paper.
"Morning, Grandpa," said Connor as he went over to the refrigerator and opened it.
"What are you doing?" asked Wilma.
"We got any chili dogs left?"
"Not for breakfast, young man. We have pancakes."
Connor closed the fridge and whined. "But I want a chili dog!"
Gene was trying to keep in his laughter. "There's a cheerleading competition today. You gonna go and watch Elise?" he asked as Wilma set the pancakes on the table.
Connor hoisted himself up into his chair and said, "I don't know. I bet she doesn't really care if I'm there or not."
"Oh, yes she does," said Wilma. "You two have been friends since I don't know when. That girl is something special."
Connor just shrugged.
"Come on," said Gene. "That's girl's beautiful. And her dad's the mayor."
Connor grinned. "It sounds like you want me to marry her so you get all their money."
Gene shrugged. "That may be true. We could use a couple extra bucks."
"So are you going?" asked Wilma.
Connor poked his breakfast with his fork. "What time's it start?"
"Around 10."
Connor dropped his fork. It hit the table with a clang. "Then I need to go!"
"I thought you said you didn't want to!" Wilma called as he waddled out the kitchen.
Screw that, Connor thought. He was going to show Elise that he was better than some football jock. He got to his room and pulled Kermit out of his cage.
"You're my good luck charm today, little guy," he said. He put the small hedgehog in pocket and went to the living room. He got his wheelchair and pulled it outside. It was a beautiful day. The sky was unusually blue, as it was usually white-hued thanks to the smog. Once Connor got to the sidewalk, he got in his wheelchair rolled as fast as he could to the high school. It would take him hours to waddle there.
Back in the kitchen, Gene and Wilma looked at one another.
"That boy's so full of energy," Wilma said.
"Well, he's young. Remember when we were young?"
"Yes, I do. Do you… Do you think he's old enough?"
Gene furrowed his brow. "Old enough? For what?"
"You know… Old enough to hear the truth?"
Gene understood. "About Jeff and Darla." He thought for a moment. "I don't know. He seems to be doing fine without knowing."
"I've seen him when he's alone, Gene. He looks so… sad."
"A lot of teenagers get sad, Wilma. The feelings he's going through are normal."
"What about Elise? What about his parents? He needs someone."
"Don't worry. He already has us."
Wilma continued cleaning the stove. She looked up, wide-eyed. "Did he leave already?"
Connor pushed his wheels as fast as they could go. If he got there early, maybe he could see Elise before she performed. She was one of the best cheerleaders the school had ever seen. As a sophomore, she was cheer captain. A cheerleader dating a football player… It of course wasn't unheard of, but Connor felt like there was something wrong about it. He wondered how Don treated her. Did he treat her badly? Did she like it? Connor wanted nothing more than to put her before himself, shower her with love, and treat her kindly, but in today's society it was "pathetic" to do that. Nice guys finish last.
He was sure that he looked like an oddball, having no legs and being in a wheelchair careening down the sidewalk, but he didn't care. He made it to the high school. There was a ramp to the front doors, which he went up. He pressed the handicap button next to the door, making it open automatically. He got to the cafeteria, the first room in the school. The hallways leading to the classrooms were to the right, while the gym was to the left. He headed for the halls and began looking or Elise. The locker rooms were at the end of the hall. Connor wondered if she was in the girls' one.
Would it be creepy if I hung around here? he asked himself. Probably. He did a quick 360 on his wheelchair and got out of the halls as fast as possible, not wanting one of the cheerleaders to spot him.
Kermit stirred in his pocket. He pulled the hedgehog out and looked at him.
"What should I do, Kermit?" Connor asked him. "What should I say to her?"
Kermit wasn't paying any attention; he was busy scratching his face with a paw.
Connor shrugged and put the hedgehog pack in his pocket and made the opening wide enough for air to get through. People were already lining up to the gym. Connor got in line and used an activity pass to get in. He wheeled over to the side of the first row of the bleachers. A blue mat was already set up, and some of the cheerleading were already warming up. Connor looked around for Elise but couldn't find her.
I bet Don made her late, he thought smugly.
Connor waited and waited. More people filled the bleachers. More cheerleaders came out to stretch. Just when he thought she wasn't there, he saw Elise, but she came in from the other side of the gym. Not wanting to yell across the gymnasium, he looked at her, trying to catch her eye. He was a guy in a wheelchair! He wasn't that hard to ignore. She never looked back at him. She never even turned her body toward him.
Okay, I see how it is, he thought as he slouched in his wheelchair. Maybe she was playing a game with him. Maybe she was deliberately not looking at him. He started pretending to look around the gym. If Elise looked at him, he would be looking around instead of looking back.
The cheerleaders exited once the bleachers were jam-packed. Connor was surprised by how many people there were. Loud music suddenly blasted through the speakers, making him jump. The cheerleaders ran back out, and everyone started cheering and clapping their hands.
They began their routine. Connor couldn't count how many of them were being thrown into the air. All of them had on broad smiles, like they were so happy to be there. Connor knew. He always plastered on the same smile himself. He knew what it was like to pretend to be happy. He found himself looking at their legs enviously. He watched one cheerleader do the splits in midair. He felt phantom pains in his stumps as he grew more and more jealous.
Elise was the star of the show. Her kicks were the highest. Her moves were the most fluid. She looked the happiest. She was the prettiest. Connor felt a lump growing in his throat as he watched her. He looked away at his stumps, feeling like he was going to cry.
The routine lasted nearly 45 minutes. The music stopped, and everyone stood up, cheering and yelling and applauding. The cheerleaders shook their pom-poms as they waved to members of the crowd. Elise was looking at Connor waving at him. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. But then he heard someone whooping loudly behind him, screaming, "Yeah! You fine, babe! You fine!"
Connor looked back and felt his heart sink. Don Richards was two rows above him, cheering for Elise. He had his buddies around him, cheering on the girls they were dating. Connor looked back at Elise and followed her line of sight. She hadn't been looking at him at all. She'd been looking at her boyfriend. Connor couldn't take it. He wheeled to the nearest exit.
Trying not to cry, Connor headed for the doors. His wheel rolled over someone's foot on the way out.
Connor sat at the storm drain of a sewer, with Kermit on his shoulder. He was watching the water flow through the gated hole that was the exit to the sewer.
"I want her so much," Connor said to Kermit, but it was more like talking to himself. "
Kermit began nibbling on his ear lobe. Connor winced in pain and pulled the hedgehog off his shoulder and put him on one of his stumps.
I'm not good enough for her, thought Connor. I'm not good enough for anyone.
Just then, he saw something glowing go through the gated exit. It was hard to see in the water. It flowed to the edge of the storm drain where Connor sat. He looked at it curiosly.
"What is that?" he asked himself. He lay on his belly with his head over the edge. Kermit got on top of his back.
"If you bite my ear again I swear to God…" Connor said to the hedgehog, but didn't finish his sentence.
He was able to get a closer look at the object. It looked like it was a piece of something, but Connor couldn't tell what. He reached for it, wanting to grab it. He stretched his arm as far as it could go. He managed to brush his fingers on it. Suddenly, it flashed and dissolved into his hand. Connor brought his arm up quickly. His hand was glowing cyan now, and the glow was spreading up his arm…
Connor's eyes went wide. "What the hell is this?!"
He couldn't move his body. It felt like a weight was on his back, but the only that was on it was Kermit. The glowing overcame his both arms, then his head and face, then his back. Kermit started glowing too. Connor couldn't tell what was going on, but he started screaming. It was his only way of fighting back. Kermit lost all of his coloring feature and became a cyan-colored silhouette of light. A bright flash covered Connor eyes, and he lost consciousness.
Chaos was swimming through an ocean when a great pain surged through its body.
"The missing fragment of the Master Emerald has bonded," it said. "I will extract it from its host's body."