Here ya go trick, have some Tyler! *Hehe*
Legacy: chapter 7
The red display of the clock-radio beside Tyler Rivera's bed changed from '6:29' to '6:30', bringing forth a sudden burst of loud music from a local radio station. Startled, Tyler bolted upright, looked around in a daze until he settled on the clock. A quick, clumsy smack of the snooze button would quiet the noise for a few more minutes but Tyler was already wide-awake.
Another Monday… he groaned as he slipped from the bed. Out of habit, he took the clock and propped it up on his little brother Jamie's bed with the speaker facing toward him. The little twerp could sleep through a train wreck as it is, the radio prank was the best thing Tyler could think of, next to a bucket of ice water. He knew his mother wouldn't appreciate that much.
Tyler made it into the kitchen still rubbing the sleep from his eyes to find his mother all dressed up in her best business suit and rushing around like a mad woman.
"What's up mom?" he asked.
"Meeting," she said as she stuffed a small stack of papers in her case, "something's come up with the Peterson deal, it's an emergency, I have to run."
"But…"
"I'm sorry dear," she grabbed several long mailing tubes containing her designs for the Peterson building, "make sure Jamie eats and gets to the bus on time."
"Fine…" Tyler said, but it wasn't fine. He wondered if she had not started viewing the house as a motel. That was how she had been using it for the past few weeks. Coming in late, sleeping, then off again in the morning. Even though Tyler knew how important this contract was to his mother, he still hated it.
"I'm sorry," she said genuinely, "I promise, this is the last time."
"Okay, bye…" Tyler wondered why she bothered lying, she should know by now that he and Jamie know better. She was only lying to herself.
She managed a weak smile, then ducked out the door into the garage. Tyler stood beside the kitchen table for a while. He listened as her car started; the garage door opened, then closed again. And she was gone, leaving him in charge. Not that it was a new thing.
After getting out of the shower, Tyler made his way back to his room to see why Jamie had not gotten up yet. He found the radio on the floor under the bed and Jamie rolled over, still sleeping.
Is he totally deaf? Tyler wondered. It was time for plan B. Tyler moved silently around the bed and stood right over Jamie, leaned in close.
"WAKE UP!"
Jamie shot out of the bed screaming like a little girl.
"Don't do that! You, you big stupid!" he yelled back.
"Oh get over it," Tyler turned and walked back toward the kitchen, Jamie followed behind.
"I'm gonna tell mom! She told you not to do that again…"
"Go ahead," Tyler rounded the counter, reached up to get out a box of pop tarts, "if you can remember next time you see her."
"I'll remember! I have a good memory."
"Sure," Tyler tossed a foil packet toward Jamie, opened his own and started eating it cold.
"These are no good cold." Jamie crossed his arms and entered pout mode.
Tyler sighed, "when are you going to grow up?" he grabbed the pack, ripped it open and jammed the cheap breakfast substitutes in the toaster.
"I am grown up, I'm ten and three fourths." Jamie stated proudly. Tyler grinned…
"So your ten and six eighths?"
Jamie concentrated hard for a moment, "noo... three fourths!"
The toaster popped up. Tyler took the pop tarts out and handed them to Jamie without a plate.
"Eat, then go get ready for school." He said as he passed, on his way to the television in the living room.
"Where is mom?" Jamie asked.
"Meeting," Tyler told him, "she'll probably be home late too,"
Half an hour later Tyler and Jamie left the house. Jamie tore off toward his bus stop, Tyler called after him: "don't screw around! If you miss the bus again mom will take it out on me. You know what that means!"
"Yeah, yeah," Jamie turned, "you'll kill me, I know… Stupid!"
Little moron… Tyler watched him run down the street and wondered why in the world he was so anxious to get to school. It's unnatural…
Looking in the opposite direction, Tyler saw Jessica and Seth waiting by the corner for him as they always did, for their ritual four block walk to East Seattle High School. Seth had his newest obsession with him: his skateboard. He was trying to show off a new trick as Tyler approached, or at least it looked like a trick, maybe he was just losing his balance.
Jessica stopped laughing at Seth when she saw Tyler walking over, "hey Ty, what took so long?" she shouted.
"Mom left early again, had to take care of the little monster." He called back. Then broke into a jog to reach them.
"Hey Tyler, check this out," Seth said as he stepped back on the board. A few twitchy movements later, Seth was on his back and the board was rolling down the street. Jessica stumbled toward it laughing so hard she could barely breathe, Tyler was laughing just as hard.
"Yeah man," Tyler said, composing himself, "looks like--like you got something there."
"Shut up." Seth hoisted himself off the ground and brushed off his shirt and pants, "look, not even one scratch…"
"You're getting better then." A huge smile formed across Tyler's face as he tried to hold in the laughter. Jessica walked back up holding the board and wearing the same huge, goofy smile across her face.
"Now we'll be late," she handed the board back to Seth, "lets go!'
"Late for what?" Tyler asked, "school don't start for thirty minutes."
"I know what she wants…" Seth teased, "Jes wants to get there to see Amber Spencer's older brother drop her off."
"Do not!" she shoved him.
"Do too, you told me."
"Did not, you big liar!"
Tyler stepped in, "okay, Jesse wants to see some guy and Seth is a big liar. Let's just go…"
"Hey!" Seth started to protest.
"Shut up boy," Jessica ribbed him again, "lets just go, like Ty said."
The trio of friends crossed the street onto the school grounds, to Jessica's dismay, just as Amber's brother was driving off. Disappointed, Jessica pointed the way toward an empty bench in front of the main entrance. There was still fifteen or so minutes until the first bell rang so they took a seat. All except for Seth, he was content to stand on the skateboard. Tyler glanced down at the hunk of plywood with wheels.
"How long are you going to play with that thing?"
Seth stepped off with one foot to steady himself, "what do you mean?"
"Well, three months ago you were gonna be a BMX freestyle champ, now you want to skate…"
"Hey man," Seth turned up his nose, something he thought looked cool for some reason, "I just do what feels right."
"Sure, you're a regular skater boy." Jessica said with a giggle.
Seth was about to respond but something else drew his attention away. Several seconds later, a female voice came from the direction Seth was staring.
"Hi…" it said shakily, Tyler and Jessica turned.
"Allie?" Tyler said, "what…" he was about to ask but noticed the backpack and the class schedule in her hand and drew his own conclusion. "Hi..."
"Who's this?" Jessica asked, "'Allie', how do you know her name Ty?"
"She moved in down the street from me, we met over the weekend… and," Tyler reached up and rubbed the smaller but still badly bruised knot on his head.
Jessica's eyes widened, "oh! This is 'the girl' from the zoo…" she winked at Tyler, "I get it…"
Tyler shook his head at his giggly friend then turned his attention back to Allie, "you're going here now?"
"Yeah, I came earlier to get this," she held out the class schedule and shrugged, "I don't know if I can find all these rooms."
"Can I see it?" he reached out, Allie placed the slip in his hand, their fingers brushing as she did so.
Jessica leaned forward and gestured to Seth, he nodded and grinned. Then Jessica stood up, "we'll see you in home room."
"Okay," Tyler said as they walked away, then he looked back toward the schedule. "It looks like you have the same home room as us, and lunch… and…" he scanned further down, "ah, same math class as me." He handed the paper back.
"Good, at least I can follow you to the first one."
"Sure," Tyler stood up, "if you want, we could go look for some of the others now."
"Really?" Allies eyes lit up for a moment, "I mean, that's okay, you should go with your friends."
Tyler turned in the direction Allie was looking, saw Seth and Jessica watching from around a corner, "I think they can manage on their own," he looked back to Allie, "really, I don't mind."
"Okay," Allie smiled, "thanks."
The rest of the morning went by uneventfully, as usual. Just boring class after boring class. All leading up to the first highlight of the day: lunch. But it seemed to his friends that Tyler was more interested in the door then what was on the tray before him.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Seth finally asked after watching him for a while, "you got practice today don't you?"
"Huh?" Tyler focused on him, "oh, yeah. I was just trying to catch Allie, see if she wanted to sit with us."
Jessica and Seth looked at each other, Jessica giggled a bit, said: "I think Ty has a girl friend."
"It's not like that… she's new here, I'm just trying to be nice."
"Sure…"
"In all fairness, she is kind of hot." Seth chimed in, drawing a swat on the arm from Jessica.
"Your such a guy!"
"Uh, yeah," Seth laughed, "what did you expect?"
Tyler zoned their conversation out as he spotted Allie entering the cafeteria. She scanned around the room, her eyes falling directly on him as if she already knew where he was sitting. Tyler lifted his hand and waved just to make sure.
Instead of getting in line, she walked straight over to the table.
"Hi, again." She said.
"You want to sit with us?" Tyler offered the empty spot on the opposite side of the table from him, beside Jessica.
"If you don't mind…" Allie said timidly.
"I don't care," Jessica said, but her tone spoke otherwise. Seth just shrugged indifferently.
Allie slid into the seat, which happened to be the last one on the end of the table.
"Um, aren't you going to get something to eat?" Jessica asked.
"I'm not really hungry." Allie said, "I don't eat that often anyway."
"Oh, you have an eating disorder then…"
"Jes!" Tyler cut her off.
"No," Allie said seriously, "just a slow metabolic rate."
"Oh… okay." Jessica turned her attention back to her own tray.
"I didn't introduce these two," Tyler said, "this is Seth and Jessica."
"Hey." Seth said, putting up a fake shield of apathy like he did every time he met someone new.
"Yeah, Jesse for short," Jessica told her.
"Hi… my name is Allison, Allie…"
"Yeah, we know," Jessica rolled her eyes.
"Sorry for my friends rudeness. She really is quite nice once you get to know her." Tyler said.
"She feels threatened by you… ouch!" Seth was cut off by a swift kick to the shin and an evil glare from Jessica.
"Shut up!"
"Why'd you have to kick so hard?" Seth reached down a rubbed his leg under the table.
Allie watched this childish display wondering why in the world she had wanted to put herself in this environment. Friends? She could find a more intelligent friend in a dog pound.
"How were your first four classes here at East Seattle robot factory?" Tyler asked, catching Allie off guard with his humorous and frighteningly accurate assessment of the school.
"Slow and completely un-challenging." She said, causing Tyler to smile.
"Yeah, it is a joke most of the time… but I thought you had Mr. Pfitzer for science..."
"What ever his name is, I don't think he's qualified. He confused a molecular diagram of Helium for Hydrogen." Allie shrugged, "honest mistake I guess…"
Tyler stared at her, "you into science?"
Allie smiled, "I've been… exposed to a lot of it over the years."
"Hey," Jessica interrupted, addressing Allie, "I was wondering… if you just moved in why did you start school this year? Its like six weeks till summer vacation."
Allie searched for a way to state the obvious without making the girl look stupid. Not finding one, she just said: "because there's six weeks left…"
"Oh, and you would have to repeat the ninth grade next year if you didn't," Jessica said, Allie nodded, "I get it."
"Well," Seth pushed his chair back, "lunch is almost over, I think I'm gonna head to Ms. Franks class early."
Tyler grinned at him, "whatever you say man."
"What? If I'm late again I get a D-hall…"
"Just go you big pervert," Jessica said, smiling coyly.
Tyler turned back toward Allie, "lunch is almost over… what are you doing this afternoon?"
Allie was stunned by the outright-ness of the question, and its possible implications, "uh, nothing. Why?"
Jessica seemed to have heard a hidden meaning in his words too. She leaned in, looking at him expectantly.
"Well… I was wondering if you wanted to come out to the field before practice. You seemed like you knew what you were doing the other day. The girls team could use some good players."
"Oh…" Allie said, and for some inexplicable reason, felt disappointed.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Jessica asked, "the girls team is no good?"
"No… I just…"
"What, just because they're 'girls' they automatically can't play as good as the guys?"
"I didn't say that…"
Jessica stood up with an annoyed grunt, "I don't know why I hang out with you two, you're turning into such jerks!" she started to walk away.
"Well we still love ya!" Tyler laughed, "after practice?"
Jessica turned, "yeah, I'll be there." Then she turned the corner and disappeared into the hall. Leaving Tyler and Allie alone at the end of the table.
"I hope I didn't do something…" Allie started, Tyler waived her off.
"Nah, that's just who she is, always has been. Likes to pick fights and make us make up for them later."
"Oh…"
"I guess I should go too, my next class is all the way across the building and up stairs."
"Okay, see you in… algebra, right?" Allie said as he stood.
"Yeah, and don't forget after school." Tyler backed away, "bye."
"Bye…" Allie watched him walk off. He certainly was intriguing; A lone pillar of intelligence and civility in this otherwise unruly menagerie known as a public school. A revelation that only served to strengthen the primitive feelings Allie was struggling to suppress.
"Your pretty good," Tyler rolled a soccer ball back out toward Allie and got back into position to block her next kick. "What position did you play?"
Allie grinned, "goalie," then kicked the ball high up into the top right corner of the goal. It missed the tips of Tyler's fingers by inches.
"Wow, got that one past me."
"You're not focusing enough."
Tyler picked up the ball, rolled it back out to her again, "how do you mean?"
"Try to imagine the ball on a string, like a yo-yo. It's not flying at you, it's coming back to you."
"Uh, I don't follow…"
"A yo-yo always returns to your hand because the string is tied there. If the ball is a yo-yo and the string is tied to your hand, the ball will always come to your hand."
Tyler scratched his head, "I think I'll call you 'Zen'."
Allie smiled, "that was hardly a Zen proverb," she rolled the ball back to him, "I'll show you what I mean."
"Okay, but I can kick pretty hard."
"Don't worry about me," Allie took up position in front of the goal, Tyler took her spot on the field.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," Allie moved toward the left side of the goal, pointed to the right, "don't kick it right to me."
"All right…" Tyler shrugged, kicked as hard as he could. The ball sailed up, toward the same area Allies last kick had sent it, but this time the ball met her hands instead of the net. It bounced back out toward Tyler.
He stood speechless for a while, then: "how…?"
Allie held up her right hand, pointed to it with her other, "its tied on right here." She grinned.
"I have to see that again."
Allie glanced behind him at several of the other players arriving for practice. An audience… great, she thought. "Okay, but just one more…"
Fifteen minutes and at least fifty blocks later, the whole team stood around watching. Most of them had tried to get a shot past her, all failed though.
"Any—one else?" Allie panted, no one stepped up.
"Are you okay?" Tyler called from behind the net. He stood with several of the coaches, boy's and girl's soccer, even a couple of the football and basketball coaches had wondered over to witness this display.
"Yeah guys," the guys coach clapped several times to get the teams attention, "that's enough. Go, five laps!"
The group gave up a collective groan and slowly headed out toward the track that bordered the field. Allie headed back toward Tyler and the others where the girl's coach held a bottle of water through the net.
"Thank you…" she took it gratefully, sucked half of it down before thinking.
"Young lady," the woman who had given her the water said, "that was incredible, I've never seen anyone move like that!"
"Yeah…" Tyler said, drawing the attention of his coach.
"You too Rivera, get out there." He said, pointed to the track.
Tyler looked at Allie once more then jogged out to the track, the girls coach started talking again: "what I'm trying to say, miss…"
"Keys, Allie Keys."
"…Miss Keys, is, have you ever considered playing on the team?"
Allie paused; she had been waiting for that question ever since the coaches got there, "um, this is my first day…"
"That explains why I didn't hear about you sooner…" the coach said, "it doesn't matter. What do you think Miss Keys?"
"I think I'll have to think about it…"
"My name is Ms. Parker. After you think about it, will you please contact me in the athletics department… we could really use skill like yours on our team."
Allie was about to speak when she felt the faint signature of a very familiar energy pattern enter her range of sensitivity. Ka'len…Allie thought, she must have come to see what was taking so long.
"Okay, I will." Allie started to move away, "I have to go now."
It was only a short walk from the soccer field to the main road running in front of the school. Allie continued to home in on Ka'len's signal as she crossed the street, then she saw her. Standing at the corner a block down from the school.
"Are we ready?" Allie asked as she came closer.
"Yes, your mother is at home where you advised her to remain."
"Good, did you do what I asked?"
"Yes," Ka'len reached out and grabbed Allies hand, transferring a flash memory of the inside of the building at 667 Skyview lane.
"Good job, let's get this over with." Allie continued down the street with Ka'len falling into step behind her. So far so good, where Ka'len was concerned. Allie was still suspicious of Ka'len but decided to drop it; she had not given her any further reason to distrust her, so she decided it must have all been in her head in the first place.