Chapter 2: The New Kid
“Hey, Jack was it?” I looked behind me and saw that the person that called me was the kid that I ran into earlier this morning.
“Oh, hello.” I greeted standing up from putting away the last few soccer balls into the bag. “If you don’t mind me asking, who are you?”
“How about we play a game. If you can stop all of my shots then I’ll tell you my name.” The kid offered.
It looked like I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter if I wanted to learn his name. “Alright, you get three shots, then I have to get going.” I agreed taking the top ball out of the bag and pulling out one of the soccer balls that I just put away.
“Fair enough.” The teen agreed with a slight nod and putting his hands in his pockets. I tossed his the ball and then grabbed my gloves and started walking over to the net that was behind the teen.
Is starting at the eighteen yard box alright with you?” He asked as he walked with me to the net.
“That’s fine.” I answered putting my gloves on.
He stopped at the eighteen-yard line and I continued to the six-yard box. I turned around and faced him. “Whenever your ready.” I stated getting into position.
He took a couple of steps away from the ball then took those few steps forward again planted his left foot next to the ball and shot the ball to the lower left corner of the net. I dove and caught the shot. It was a hard shot considering that I almost lost my grip when the ball made contact with my hands. I pulled the ball into my chest and stood up off the ground with out using my hands then rolled the ball back to him.
“Good shot.” I told him as he stopped the ball and moved to a different location on the eighteen.
“You’re not too bad yourself, but I still have two more shots.” He commented and got ready to take another shot. This shot was a lot harder then the first one and I was only able to punch it away instead of actually catching it.
“I’m surprised that you were able to knock that one away.” I moved into position, but his final shot went up towards the upper 90 on the opposite side of the next and even with a high extension dive my fingers just grazed the ball as it got past me and hit the back of the net. The ball wasn’t my main problem at the moment, it was the fact that I was parallel to the ground and I was falling back down to earth. I adjusted my weight and got my hands going towards the ground first. I exhaled to relax my muscles before I hit the ground, but it felt like I was actually slowing down when I did that. I didn’t have time to think about it as I felt my hands hit the ground and I managed to land the dive the way I was taught.
“That was a good try. It’s always difficult to get an upper 90 shot.” The boy said walking over to me and holding out a hand to help me up.
I took his hand and stood up, “Who are you? Even Steven has difficulty placing that kind of shot.” I mentioned.
He just smiled at me, “You’ll figure it out soon. You might want to get going.” He motioned for my to look behind me so I did.
Steven was walking back to the field to get me, I turned around to say thanks to the kid, but he was gone. I grabbed the ball out of the net and went back over to the ball bag and stuck it in.
“Jack, what is taking so long?” Steven asked meeting me at the ball bag.
“Sorry, I spaced out and grabbed a soccer ball to practice a bit more.” I was sort of telling the truth.
Steven sighed and shook his head, “You and your day dreaming, I swear it’s gotten worse since we started this school year.” He motioned as I lifted the ball bag and carried it back to the locker room.
“I know. I hope that it’s not senioritis setting in already.” I stated.
“I hope not we’re practically just starting our senior year.” He commented as I dropped off the balls and shoved my school uniform back into my school bag before we wandered home.
“Did you want to come over tonight and play some video games?" Steven offered.
“I can’t, I have to meet up with Yuki and finish our lab that we need to get done.” I sadly declined.
“Man, ever since this school year started he’s been keeping you busy with homework. You need a break at some point.” Steven mentioned.
“He’s been trying to keep my grades up on Physics so I can keep playing and won’t be threatened with being kicked off the team from academic probation.” I answered.
“Then let’s hang out at some point this weekend. Maybe when we get back from our game we could all go out and go bowling or something.” Steven offered as we got to my driveway.
“Is Yuki allowed to come?” I asked, I wanted Yuki to be able to get out and have some fun too.
“Yuki can come, but he can’t be such a downer.” He sighed.
“You know, Yuki isn’t that bad once you get to know him.” I stated walking up my driveway.
“I’ll keep that in mind, night Jack.” Steven shouted after me.
“Night Steven.” I said and then wandered into the house as he continued to walk home.
As I took my shoes off my mind went back to that kid from earlier, ‘Who was that kid?’ I thought. ‘That was the second run in with him and I still didn’t find out his name.’
“I’m home.” I called.
“How was school?” My mom asked as she walked from the hall with a basket of laundry.
“It was alright. Yuki is coming over later so we can finish our work.” I answered as I was pretty much following her down the hall to my room to toss my bag on my bed and get some clothes together to take a shower.
“That’s good. I finished my clothing designs for next season. I’ll probably be gone in the morning when you wake up so make sure that you actually get up for school young man.” My mother warned.
“Don’t worry I’ll make sure to set my alarm this time around.” I laughed a little and wandered into my room.
Every time that she had finished her new designs for the clothing company that she worked for I hardly got to see her. I looked out my window and saw that Yuki was sitting at his desk in his room working on something.
“Yuki, what are you working on?” I asked him curiously. Walking over to the window after tossing my bag on my bed.
“You’re home later then usual.” He commented getting up from his desk and walking over to the window so we could talk.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked.
“Shoot.” He nodded leaning against his window ceil.
“Have you seen the new kid around today? He has messy black hair with red streaks in it and he’s about two or three inches taller then you.” I mentioned hoping that giving him a description would help.
“I haven’t seen a kid like that around school.” He shook his head.
“I swear I’m not making this kid up. I saw him twice today. The first time was when I accidentally ran into him before school started and the second time was on the soccer field when everyone else was heading back to the locker rooms.” I stated.
“Go take a shower, maybe that will clear you mind.” Yuki suggested.
I sighed and went over to my dresser, “Alright. I’ll see you later then.”
‘I know that I’m not seeing things. I ran into him earlier.’ I thought walking into the bathroom with a change of clothes.
After dinner Yuki and his mother and father came over. Our parents talked as Yuki and I went to my room to finish our lab and work on our lab write up. After we finished that we relaxed a bit in my room.
Sorry about my parents coming over. They saw me putting my shoes on and asked me where I was going, then decided to tag along.” He apologized.
“No it’s alright. Even though we live next to each other it seems that our parents really don’t have time to talk with each other that often.” I commented.
“They did save the digital world and the human world together. I think doing something like that twice then also having to deal with an elemental in them that was slowly taking over their bodies would probably bring you pretty close.” Yuki stated laying down on the floor from where he was sitting.
“That would just be so strange to be in someone else’s body.” I said thinking about it. “Hey Yuki…do you think elemental’s are real?” I asked thinking about what happened earlier when I came out of the high extension dive.
“I’m sure that they are real. You’ve heard the same stories that I have, so why wouldn’t they exist?” He asked confused sitting back up. “There’s something on your mind isn’t there.” He put a hand on my shoulder.
I could feel cold radiating off of his hand. “Today when I was coming out of a high extension dive I exhaled like a normally do so I could relax my muscles, but this time around it felt like I actually slowed myself down when I did that.” I answered “But to be honest, I’m not the only one with weird things happening to me am I Yuki?” My shoulder was numb.
Yuki let go of my shoulder and looked down at his lap, “Do you promise not to tell anyone?” He asked.
I nodded in agreement and waited for him to tell me.
“My body temperature has been dropping lately and I’m always cold to the touch. I’m sure that you noticed with me putting a hand on your shoulder.” He replied.
“Are you trying to say that we’re elemental's?” I asked him.
“I’m not ruling it out.” Yuki stated crossing his arms.
“Yuki, I’m going to head home to check on your sister.” Yuki’s mother said as she leaned against the door frame to my door.
“Alright mom, I’ll make sure that Dad and I come back soon.” Yuki answered.
“Thank you hun, you know how your father get’s when him and Takuya get to talking about old times.” She sighed, but still have a smile on her face.
“Of course.” Yuki nodded and laughed a little.
“Good night boys.” She waved and started down the hall.
“Night mom.” Yuki said.
“Night Mrs. Himi.” I called back. “How is your sister been, I haven’t seen her in school for the past couple of days.”
“She’s sick again.” He sighed looking a bit annoyed. “IF she wasn’t constantly going out with those friends of hers she probably wouldn’t be getting so sick all the time.”
“That sucks.” I said.
“The thing that annoys me is when she needs help with homework and I’m trying to help her and all she doe is sit on her cell phone and text her friends and not even pay attention to me.” He was so frustrated that it felt like he was making the temperature in the room drop.
“If you keep getting so stressed over this your hair is going to turn white.” I laughed lightly trying to lighten the mood.
“I know. It helps though that you let me vent about it.” I smiled when he said that. I was happy that he trusts me enough to be able to open up to me.
“You know I’m always here if you want to talk.” I told him.
He nodded and stood up,, “I’m going to get a drink, did you want anything?” He asked me.
I laughed, I was also glad that he was comfortable enough in the house to be asking me if I wanted a drink. “I am thirsty, but I don’t know what I want, so I’ll come with you.” I replied and stood up as well and we wandered to the kitchen.
We wandered down the hall when I heard my dad and Yuki’s father Tommy talking to each other about old times. “They talk pretty loud don’t they.” I stated as we walked into the kitchen.
“What do you mean? I can barely hear them in here.” Yuki stated as he opened the fridge.
“But, I can hear them as clear as day.” I looked at him confused.
“They aren’t talking that loud Jack.” Yuki told me again.
“You sure?” I asked.
“What are you two doing?” My mom asked.
“What are dad and Mr. Himi talking about?” I questioned.
“Their talking about old times and about how they haven’t seen Sasuke and Toshiro at all since we were younger.” My mom answered.
“Oh, okay, I was just curious. I’ve always liked the stories that dad would tell me about the elemental's.” I smiled at her before I switched places with Yuki at the fridge to get a drink.
“Yea, back then everything was so strange and confusing.” Mom was starting to remember the old times.
“Mom did you ever put the clothes in the dryer?” I asked.
“No, I didn’t darn it.” She ran out of the kitchen to the laundry room.
“Yuki has been a lot more distant lately and he’s been cold constantly.” I heard Yuki’s father say and I looked over at the door that lead to the living room.
Yuki was about to say something, but I put my hand up to stop him as I listened.
“Jack’s been more spacey then usual lately as well. Tommy have you been able to get in touch with Toshiro at all?” My father asked.
“What’s going on?” Yuki asked me.
“Their talking about us, just how you’ve been physically cold lately and how I’ve been a lot more spacey.” I answered opening my water bottle.
“I figured that he noticed.” Yuki sighed, “I should probably head home though and get my father to come with me.”
“Alright then, I’ll see you tomorrow in school.” I said.
“Yep, I want to be able to figure out what’s wrong with us and if our father’s as noticing the changes that are going on with us it must have something related to elemental's.” Yuki stated before walking into the living room and telling his father that they should probably head home before his mother yelled at them.
~*2nd Period the next day*~
“Jack.” I looked over to see Steven run over to me and Yuki. He glared at Yuki who gave him a glare in return.
“What’s up?” I asked as the three of us walked to our class that we had together.
Sebastian was already in the room by the time that we got there. We sat down in our usual spots. Steven sitting in front of me and Sebastian sitting behind me, then Yuki sitting to my right by the window.
“What were you two talking about?” Steven asked.
“That is none of your business.” Yuki commented.
“I didn’t ask you Yuki. I swear if you don’t cut it with the attitude…” Yuki cut him off.
“You’ll what, blind me with that dazzling smile you give to all the girls?” Yuki smirked.
That remark made both Sebastian and myself chuckle a bit. Especially Steven reaction to the comment. He was so flustered he didn’t know what to say in return.
“Alright settle down.” Our teacher said walking into class. “We have a new student joining us. I’ll let him introduce himself.” He said opening up a couple of his books to find his attendance booklet.
“Hey, my name’s Sasuke Kaisai, it’s nice to meet you all.” He greeted.
I was shocked; it was the same kid that I had ran into yesterday. I looked over at Yuki and he had the same expression on his face that I did. The girls were whispering to each other about how good looking Sasuke was, which made me smirk and lean over my desk to whisper in Steven’s ear.
“Steven, I think that you might have some competition.” I whispered.
Sasuke took the empty seat to my left and class started so I couldn’t ask him any questions.
