Tang Ri Shan

Are You Game?

Chapter 9

"That session we had this morning was awesome!" Peter crowed as he and Judy walked to school.

Judy snorted and shook her head. "If you say so, Peabody" she commented.

"Oh come on, Jude!" Peter smiled at his big sister. "Even you have to admit you've gotten a lot better recently"

Judy snorted again, but allowed a small smile to play over her lips. It had been roughly two weeks since the siblings had made their deal with Jumanji, and the kids had been playing the game almost every day. Judy would not admit it, but Peter was right. The last time she had faced off against a Manji warrior, she had fought him to a standstill. She still hadn't officially won a match without Peter's help, Peter was already defeating every Manji that challenged him in single combat, but she was still feeling pretty good about her rate of improvement.

"We're both getting better." She reasoned, playfully hitting Peter on the shoulder. But then she frowned. "I'm just wondering what Jumanji is 'training' us for"

"I've been thinking the same thing" Peter admitted and they both looked solemn as they walked. So solemn in fact, that they missed the call from Rock over at the baseball field.

"Hey Shrimp! Think fast!" Peter turned just in time to see a water balloon fly at him. Without even thinking, he threw himself backwards in a back-flip, the water balloon passing inches over his chest, before flipping again and landing in a crouch.

"Woah" Peter glanced down at his hands, then noticed the marked one was glowing slightly.

"Wow! Nice moves Peabody!" Judy exclaimed, laughing. But Rock and his gang had shocked looks on their faces. Rock had actually dropped the armful of water balloons he had been carrying, which had exploded around his feet, soaking his shoes, but he didn't seem to notice.

"How'd you do that?" Rock demanded, his eyes bulging. The rest of his gang seemed too stunned to speak.

"Um...Well, you told me to think fast. So I did" Peter quickly replied, trying to mask his own surprise. "Oh, um-by the way, your shoes are wet." Rock followed Peter's gaze down and noticed his soaked shoes for the firs time. He cried out, then clenched his fists. When he glanced back up, his eyes were full of anger.

"Shepard! Look what you made me do!" He yelled.

"Uh oh, I think you'd better..." Judy turned to finish, but Peter was already running for the school doors. Judy jumped out of the way as Rock and his gang followed, yelling and cursing. Judy darted out of the way as they ran past her, watching as Peter flipped over a bench, and scooted up the railing like a monkey, drawing stares from the other kids as he darted inside the school building. He had moved so quickly that by the time he had reached the school door, Rock and his gang had not even made it to the street yet. Rock cursed and kicked the curb. He was a pretty tough guy, but even he knew better than to bully someone at school when there were teachers around.

Judy snorted with amusement, but frowned when she heard students whispering about Peter's exploit in the corridors. Her brother was such a showoff! She's have to warn him about that. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to them, or Jumanji. Judy still felt uncomfortable about her deal with the game, she had a pretty strong feeling that Jumanji would not hesitate to exploit any loophole it came across. Sighing, she hurried to the gymnasium for Physical Education when she heard the bell ring.

A half-hour later, Judy stood, wearing shorts and a t shirt, on the school volleyball court, in the middle of a match. She would never admit this, but she used to hate P.E, it was probably her least favorite subject. She wasn't bad, but she preferred classes that made her think, rather than move. But ever since Jumanji had marked her, she had begun to enjoy it more. Regular classes suddenly felt stressful to her, mainly due to the fact that she had to sit in the same place for long periods of time.

"Judy! Heads up!" Judy snapped out of her thought-trance as one of her teammates shouted. She saw the volleyball arcing through the air, coming towards her. As she glanced at it, a flash of light seemed to erupt behind her eyes and she felt a strange urge suddenly bloomed inside of her. Her vision suddenly began tinged green and she felt an overwhelming desire to jump up and hit the ball. As she bent her knees and sprang, the yowl of a wildcat seemed to echo in her brain and she felt like she was a cat, leaping up to catch a bird out of midair.

In almost no time at all, the ball was right in front of her and she lashed out at it as hard as she could. To her surprise, even though she saw the ball go flying, her hand did not seem to register contact. As Judy fell back down, she twirled and landed gracefully on her feet, feeling extremely giddy, until she noticed the coach and all the other students were staring at her, wide eyed. Some of the students jaws had dropped.

Judy suddenly felt self-conscious under everyone's gaze. "Uh-did I hit it?" She asked sheepishly, trying to change the topic of interest.

"Judy" One of the students spoke as if in awe, her eyes wide behind her wraparound glasses. "You just leapt eight feet into the air!"

"What?" Judy laughed, but inside she suddenly felt really nervous. Not me too! She groaned mentally. Sure enough, when she, subtly, glanced down at the mark on her hand, she saw that it was glowing faintly. She also noticed, to her horror, that her fingernails had extended into what looked like claws. "A-are you sure?" She asked, looking back up again.

"Oh, yeah, at least" The girl nodded slowly. The coach, meanwhile, had strode to the other side of the gymnasium and had bent over the pick up something. Straightening up, he turned to face them, holding out the shredded remains of the volleyball.

Judy laughed nervously, "Ummm..too much power?" She joked, but no one laughed.

"So, how's our new volleyball star doing?" Peter teased as he slid into a seat across from his sister at the cafeteria.

"Shut up, Peter" Judy growled, glancing around the cafeteria, nearly all the students were looking at them, either with awe or fear, or in some cases, both.

"Ha! And I thought I liked to show off!" Peter laughed, opening his lunch box and taking out a sandwich.

"I mean it, Peter" Judy clenched her fists, her tone firm. "This is serious! The last thing we need right now is to draw attention to ourselves."

"Why?" Peter asked through a mouth of egg salad. "It's not like they know anything about Jumanji."

"But word of what we've done has already begun to spread" Judy argued. "Imagine what would happen if one of these students told their parents, who then told Aunt Nora, who then told Alan? How long to you think it would take for that connection to be made?"

Peter frowned. "I think I see your point" He admitted, then he looked up and smiled. "Um Jude, bit of advice, do not look behind you"

"What are you talking ab...?"

"Excuse me" Judy froze as a cool, silky smooth voice spoke from just behind her, a voice she recognized. Turning, she saw Evan Mill standing behind her, smiling in a disarming way that would have made any other girl's heart melt. Once upon a time, Judy would have felt that way as well, but now, not so much.

"Yes?" Judy snapped as she rose to her feet, annoyed at being interrupted. Even raised an eyebrow up about half a centimeter.

"You're Judy, right?" He asked, still with that smooth tone. Judy nodded, surprised that Even actually knew her name and her heart gave the tiniest of leaps. "I heard about your game-winning spike at the volleyball court today." As he spoke, he looked directly into Judy's eyes and Judy found herself floating in twin pools of deep blue and she felt very, very, relaxed. "Where'd you learn how to do that?"

Judy opened her mouth to answer, when suddenly a hissss, like a snake, filled her ears, her tattoo pulsed, and Judy felt herself rudely thrust back into reality. "Do what?" She asked, blinking rapidly in the sudden brightness of the cafeteria lights.

Evan's eyebrow arched all the way up, but he kept his cool smile and looked into her eyes again. "Don't be so modest Judy, a girl with your talent doesn't need to be modest" He flashed pearly white teeth and Judy felt her heart beat faster as he took her hand and gently massaged it. It felt...good. "You can trust me. Tell me, where'd you learn how to do that?" He asked in a low, almost hypnotic voice. Judy glanced down at her tattoo as it pulsed again and noticed something clutched in Evan's left hand, a tape recorder, whose spools were silently turning, indicating it was recording.

He's playing me! Judy realized, and felt anger rear up inside of her like a snake as any admirable thoughts he had about Evan burst like a bubble. For a few seconds, she had actually thought that Even cared about her, but like all popular kids, he was simply taking advantage of her. Judy felt anger coarse through her arms and fought the overwhelming urge to lash out at Evan.

"Judy? Is there a problem?" Evan asked, his voice still low, and he looked into her eyes again. As Judy stared back into the pools of deep blue, and felt herself falling again, she sent a silent plea to Jumanji for help. She was answered by a tiger-like growl in her mind and she blinked, suddenly unaffected by Evan;s eyes. Smiling, she straightened up, looked Evan right in the eyes, and said.

"Evan, I have no idea what you are talking about, and I would appreciate it if you would stop looking at me like that. It's a little creepy" With that, Judy turned, sat back down, pulled a tomato and pepper sandwich from her lunchbox, and took a bite. As she glanced up, she saw Peter smiling and he winked. His eyes flashed green for a second and Judy heard a deep throaty purr echo in the back of her mind, like Jumanji was feeling content with what she had done. The purr was so calming that Judy almost made the noise aloud, but caught herself just in time and resumed eating.

So, what was that all about?" Peter asked as they left the cafeteria when the bell rang.

"I'm not sure" Judy admitted, glancing back to where Evan was speaking with a group of people, mostly girls, including Cecelia. Two girls noticed Judy looking at them and shot her fierce glares. Judy smiled and shook her head as she followed her brother. "But I think that was just round 1" She added, as she felt a flare of energy in her chest and felt her fingers curl int claw shapes, almost on reflex.

So, what do you think so far?