Jake

We all kept our tabs on Antoine. We hung out with him, we ate with him, we called him, and we did everything we could to make sure he was okay. I knew he didn't really like being treated like a charity case, but we wanted to make sure we didn't have another David situation on our hands. How we treated David was one of my biggest regrets, right up there with the time chewed out Rachel for morphing to scare off a guy who wanted to rape her.

Younger Jake was quite the idiot at times.

But we didn't just check up on Antoine for the sake of avoiding a disaster – we all really felt for the man. Fortunately, he seemed to be okay with the company – welcoming of it, even. It was probably because we're the only ones he know that he's sure are not controllers.

So, on the last night until school started, the five of us – Cassie, Rachel, Marco, Antoine, and myself – were hanging out at the top of one of the parking garages on campus. We talked about how we thought our first day of school would go, with Antoine giving us all pointers about what to do. It was a good time, actually.

So, as we looked over the campus, I looked over at Cassie, about ready to ask her about class tomorrow when I saw her looking at Antoine. For a moment – just a moment – I felt a twinge of jealousy in my chest. But it faded when Cassie spoke.

"Hey… Antoine…" she began.

While he continued to look out towards the campus, Antoine grimaced a bit. "Right, I owe you a story, don't I?"

"Nothing personal, homie," Marco said. "But, we don't got a lot of people we trust, and we want to make sure you're on the up and up."

"I get it." Antoine took in a breath. "It's a long story. So um… yeah." He turned around and walked a few steps away. "So um… It all started when I got recruited. Actually, a little bit before that. I was at one of the high school combines. Before the workouts start, my pops told me to hold back when I do the 40 yard dash. He was afraid that if they see a six three, two hundred and thirty pound guy run a 4.4, they'd move me to a different position. I was adamant on playing QB – still am.

"So, I pulled up… and still ran a 4.6. And, of course, almost every recruiter asked me how I felt about playing a position other than QB – except for one."

"Your last coach?" I asked. Antoine turned towards us and nodded.

"Yeah." He scoffed as he shook his head. "He said all the right words, talking about how he knew that people wanted me to play tight end, wide receiver, and all these other positions I never played before. He told me I'd stay as a QB, but I'd have to fight for a spot. And that was cool with me. Of course, like I told y'all out west, that didn't turn out to be the case. A quarter into the season, I was being bounced around. I didn't like it, but I would have been a bit more accepting of it if they just stuck me to one. Needless to say, I started looking at my coach a bit differently.

"Then that fateful day happened. A good chunk of my teammates was throwing this party off campus. They invited me to come through while it was happening. I was headed back to campus while riding shotgun with my roommate. I was going to say no at first – I wanted to get some studying in before I hit the hay. But my roommate wanted to check it out. So we stopped by. And we were there for a good thirty… forty minutes…" Antoine paused as a thoughtful expression came across his face. He then tilted his head briefly. "I say an hour tops. Point being, we weren't there for very long until someone came through with some party supplies. I'm talking hard liquor and Chronic."

"Chronic?" I asked.

"Another kind of marijuana," Cassie explained, with Marco nodding in confirmation.

"How many different kinds of marijuana are there?"

"I don't know dude," Antoine replied with a shrug. "I'm not even a smoker let alone a weed connoisseur. The point is, as soon as they broke that stuff out, my roommate and I decided to bounce. On our way out, we passed this group of girls. And they were looking mad young. I'm talking high school young. I thought it was odd, but I figured maybe they just looked young. I came across people who look way younger than their age before. But, that wasn't the case, as I found out a few days later. Turns out them girls were from high school. And they were found when police responded to a call about loud music. Needless to say, a whole bunch of people there got arrested – and I'm talking stuff like drug possession, underage drinking, serving alcohol to a minor, and statutory rape. It became a big scandal in the news and the coach was upset. And I get that.

"But that thing is, every player at the party was named, and my name got brought up. Mind you, I left just as the girls arrived. So, the coach, in a press conference threw everyone underneath the bus, even when my name got cleared after the cops and the NCAA investigated me and quite a few witnesses went to bat for me." I could feel Antoine's anger bubble up – he still had disdain for what happened to him. "Coach still had me in the dog house for 'not doing the right thing by putting an end to the party'. Because, you know, a fucking freshman would have been able to do something right? Sports networks weighed in, with quite a few anchors lumping me in with the 'thugs that stained the reputation of a fine institution' and stuff like that. At that point, I was about ready to quit the team and transfer to another school.

"Then, all of a sudden, he got nicer. He started apologizing to the players who were at the party and didn't even do anything. I got moved back to quarterback and was told it would be permanent. And then he decided to talk me up during a press conference. I knew something was up. And a few days later, investigators from NCAA paid me another visit and asked me questions about the coach. Want to know why? Not only was mo'erfucker was doing some shady stuff. He was coordinating with boosters to get certain recruits to the team, basically bribing potential recruits with financial support or a car, or all different kinds of thing. And honestly, I wouldn't even care about that if he didn't speak out against such things when a coach another team got caught doing the same thing. But, to make things even worse? He was cheating on his wife with the mother of another recruit. So, the football program got hit with heavy sanctions. No bowl games, previous

"Needless to say, when that bomb dropped, I was livid. When reporters came to see me, I went off on him and every single sports anchor that dragged my name in the mud. I quit the team and shut everyone out. All I did for the rest of the semester was just wake up, study, go to class, eat, sleep, and repeat. Honestly, I almost retired from football altogether. The only thing that kept me from that was when the NCAA decided to have some mercy and give players not really involved in that whole a mess an amnesty of sorts. If we decided to transfer, our year of eligibility was preserved – but only if we transferred by the following fall. So, I went looking for colleges. I had some phone calls. And then the coach here had a long talk with me. I told him I wanted to play quarterback. He told me it'd be an uphill battle even if he decided to redshirt. I said it was fine. We came to an understanding, and here I am."

"Here you are indeed," I said with a nod. "…Alright. I'm sorry you went through all of that. Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't tried to fight your old coach."

He tilted his head. "Y'all believe me just like that?"

"Your story matches up with what we heard," Rachel explained. "Besides, you were chosen by the Ellimist. Even if we didn't explain everything to you, you'd probably be pulled into this situation one way or another. Whether we like it or not, we're in this together. All ten of us."

Antoine raised his eybrows. "Ten? Is there someone else I haven't met yet?"

"As a matter of fact, there is," I replied. "But that's because we haven't met them yet. Like we said about The Ellimist, he's in a constant game against The Crayak, and one of the main rules of that game is that the playing field has to be even. Since there was a shift, and that shift somehow unbalanced things, we got… 'gifted'… two new allies. You were practically a gimme, but the next person? We don't even know where to begin to find them."

"Maybe its Jada," Rachel said offhandedly. We all looked at her.

"What makes you say that?" Cassie asked.

"Any girl that would find Marco attractive is obviously under the influence from a divine power."

Marco didn't even respond verbally, merely giving Rachel the finger, prompting her to laugh in response. I held back my laughter as Antoine snickered and Cassie gave Rachel a look.

"Be nice," Cassie admonished. She then looked at Marco. "How are things between you two?"

"We're good," Marco said. "We talk almost every day. Honestly, I haven't felt at ease with someone outside of our group since…" He trailed off for a moment as his eyes shifted in thought. "…Since ever, really."

I wanted to be happy for Marco. I really did. But the best I could do was give him a look of caution, which he responded to with a nod.

I didn't envy Marco's position. Ever since our little war with the Yeerks started, the only people we could really trust were ourselves and some allies. And because of that, dating was next to impossible for him. I had Cassie, and Rachel had Tobias. The only other people that were single was Erek and Ax, and Marco didn't seem the least bit interested in him.

Then again, outside of jokes, I never seen Marco show any type of romantic or sexual interest in dudes.

Either way, Marco was pretty much the odd man out. And Jada seemed cool. But if she was a controller and she caught Marco slipping, we would all be screwed.

"Well, maybe she can be your Gwen Stacy?" Rachel offered.

We all went silent as Marco gave her a look. "You mean the girl that died horribly?"

"…Aside from that." Rachel laughed nervously before she took a swig of her water.

We spent the rest of the night just chatting away before we all called it quits.

As I walked back to my dorm with Antoine, it was quiet at first. However, when we were halfway there, Antoine looked left and right before he spoke. "So, who do you think will be the next ally?"

"Heck if I know," I said with a shrug. "I know Rachel was joking, but Jada has as much chance as being that person as anyone."

"I see." He went quiet again. "...Are you guys going to give me the ability to… you know…?"

"I don't know yet." I sighed before I looked at him. "We're still a bit gun shy."

"David?"

"David." I looked ahead. "Besides… I don't know if you want to be fully apart of this. We've killed people – humans and aliens alike. We almost died on several occasions. And we're not even sure our efforts or worth it." I looked at him. "Let's just cross the bridge when we get there."

"Fair enough."

That was the end of that talk. And I was happy for it. There was still so much on my mind, but I put it on the backburner. Tomorrow was going to be another challenge.

School was finally starting.