Chap. 2

Gathering

Katie and Bart covered the five blocks that separated the school from their house and arrived at eight. Inside, they shoved their stuff into their lockers and made their way to their first class, English. Even though Bart was a few grades behind his older sister, he had shown a true talent for English and therefore he had been pushed up a few levels. Of course, he showed no real talent in anything else. But it annoyed the living hell out of Katie having to spend her first class with her little brother. Worse still, she was not very skilled in English and constantly had to defer to Bart. It was bad enough at home, but in front of her friends at school it was excruciating.

"All right, looks like everyone's here." Mr. Gover said, as he finished taking attendance for the day. Gover was an older man, with thinning gray hair and a beard. He was a decent teacher, so long as you paid attention to the material.

Turning to face the class, he said, "All right, who here was able to read the chapters over the weekend?" At that, about six hands out of twenty-five shot up, Bart's included. Gover shook his head and said, "Guys come on. I know that everyone's busy, but it can't be that hard to read two chapters of Huck Finn."

"Why don't you try it then?" Katie muttered under her breath. However Katie didn't mumble quietly enough.

"I'm sorry Ms. Logan, what was that?" asked Gover, focusing all his attention onto his young student.

"N-Nothing." She stammered.

"Well, maybe you can tell me and everyone else why you weren't able to read the chapters."

"I-I forgot." Katie answered.

"A pity Catherine, that you can't seem to be as consistent with your work as your brother." Gover said, as he turned to Bart. "Now Bartholomew, what happened in these chapters?"

"Well, Huck and Jim ran into these guys on the riverbed who claimed to be a duke and an earl from England. They're lying, but I guess they figured that a kid and a runaway slave wouldn't be smart enough to think otherwise."

"Very good Bart." Gover said.

"Well I really like the book. Plus I didn't spend the whole weekend like my sister, shopping for a training b…." Bart slapped his hands over his mouth, knowing that he had just gone too far, but it was too late. The entire class had erupted into laughter, and Katie put her head down on the desk, and covered her ears trying to hide her blush at the same time.

"People please!" Gover yelled, slamming his fist on his desk for emphasis. "I wouldn't laugh, unless you want detention today." That shut everybody up quickly. "Now, can we please get back to the lesson with some dignity? I've got an announcement to make, and frankly, I think you earned it after that outburst."

Moving to the front of his desk, Gover said, "I've decided to assign a group project for the next three weeks." This was followed by groaning from the entire class and even Katie brought her head up. Unnerved, Gover continued. "Now, the assignment will be to construct a diorama of Huck and Jim's journey up the Mississippi. I want every major occurrence on the river labeled, as well as all the real landmarks and your personal opinions on how it enhanced the book. Every group will present their diorama in class in three weeks."

As Gover talked, his body blocked the view of his desk. Which turned out to be a good thing as it saved both teacher and student from a disturbing sight. As Gover's shadow fell over the table, it seemed to stretch forward, reaching for a stack of papers inside his briefcase. Grabbing the top sheet, it reached inside itself and pulled out another sheet. Placing it down, it absorbed the previous sheet and returned to normal.

"Now then, I've worked out the groups and will assign them now." Reaching into his briefcase, Gover took out a stack of papers and held them up. He began to read them over, then halted. "I could've sworn.. ah well, it's only one group's difference." He muttered.

Clearing his throat, he began to read aloud. "Group 1-Harold Zinnerman, Toby Chan, Julie Hart, KiKi Roberts, and Robert Brightman. Group 2- Lisa and Rivers Grayson, Martin Stone, and Katie and Bart Logan."

The list continued on for a few moments more, then Gover said, "OK, you have twenty minutes to meet with your group and begin talking about your project, then we have more reading to do."

The class quickly got up and began to find their groups. Katie however, stayed at her desk, still too embarrassed to even make eye contact with anyone. A few of the kids who walked by made some comments; "I thought elves didn't grow up." "Getting your pots of gold, eh?" Katie shrank into her chair, and probably would've stayed there if she hadn't felt a hand on her shoulder.

Looking up, she saw into a face that made her heart stop. The boy looking at her had a face framed by gorgeous red hair and a pair of large green eyes that Katie could feel herself sinking into. His skin was well tanned, almost orange in its complexion. He wore a pair of beige pants and a purple T-shirt. Smiling, he said, "I think we should meet the others if we want a good grade, right?"

"Huh?" Katie asked, unable to make her tongue work properly with her mouth. "The others in our group. Come on." The boy said gently, as he pulled her up and over to where Bart and two other kids were sitting.

One of the kids was a girl who bore a striking resemblance to the boy, even though her skin was less tan. She had the same basic facial shape and eyes, but her hair was long and black, drawn into a ponytail. She wore jeans and a Misfits T-shirt. The other was an athletic looking black boy, with a square face and long dreads. The strange thing was, the dreads were colored pink in certain areas, giving him several streaks. He was also dressed in jeans, with a jacket over his shirt. Looking up at Katie, he turned to Bart and asked, "This your sister, right?" Bart nodded. Turning back to Katie, he asked "Do you want me to hold him down while you kill him, or can you do it by yourself?"

"Uh, no, I think I'll wait till I get home, and there are less witnesses." At that, Bart said,

"Come on, it was an accident! I didn't mean to Katie, honest."

"Right." The black-haired girl said, looking Bart right in the eye. "From what I've heard, you're the biggest prankster in school. You expect us to think you didn't do this on purpose?"

At that, the boy said, "Hey come on, give him a break. He certainly looked like he was sorry before, didn't he?" "Why can't you be like other older brothers, and just beat people up?" the girl asked.

Turning to face Katie, she said, "My name's Lisa. This is my brother Rivers. Nice to meet you." "You too." Katie replied. "I'm Martin. Pleased as well." The other boy responded.

Leaning back in his chair, he said, "Jesus, I can't believe we gotta do this." "Hey it could be worse." Bart argued. "It could just you doing it." "Maybe we should get to work, so it won't seem bad to any of us." Rivers suggested.

Outside the class, hidden in the bushes, the two figures continued to watch. "They seem to be hitting it off well." Golden commented.

"Yeah, but I think Catherine might like Rob and Star's boy a bit." Black replied. "You think? That'd be weird, seeing their kids starting to see each other."

"Doesn't much matter anyway, if we can't get them to trigger." Black said. "You said it yourself, they have the genes. We just need to wait for the right moment." Golden reassured him.

"That, and that he can bring her out of it." Black said. "He will. You know how long he searched for her." Golden said. "True. I just hope he forgives me for not telling him." Black replied, as he turned back to the window.