The Pyle Inside

RING! RING! Went the last bell of the day. “Finally!” I whispered to myself as I headed out the door of my 6th period health class. Health class was my least favorite of all my classes, and I think EVERYONE agreed. At least I didn’t get stuck with clean up job this time. I left class in a hurry, and by the time I got to my locker on the 3rd floor I realized that I left my library book on my desk in health class on the 1st floor. I groaned and headed back to health class with my backpack that said, “Girls rule! Property of Sid,” resting on one shoulder.

By the time I got to the 1st floor I noticed that everyone had already left for home. “Great!” I thought to myself, “Nothing like being the creepy kid who stays after school just creepin’ around.” When I got to the door of my health class I heard a voice coming from inside. I stopped and stood under the door frame.

“Ugh! Why can’t the janitor just do her own job and clean up the classroom, and why did the teacher have to assign me clean up job on a Friday afternoon when he could have done it perfectly fine by himself?!” Oh yeah, the teacher had given the new girl the clean-up job.

I felt kind of bad for her, so I decided to ask her if she wanted some help. I mean she was the new girl after all and that’s hard enough itself. I was about to walk in when I saw the weirdest thing in the entire world . . .

I SAW A BOOK FLOAT ACROSS THE ROOM BY ITSELF!!!

I was so shocked when I saw this that it took me a second to realize that it was my library book (I could tell because it had a green flower on it). I leaned against the cold wall just outside of the doorframe. I was terrified, stupefied; I didn’t know how to react. Then I remembered, the new girl was in there. I wanted to run but I knew there was no way that I could let her get attacked by some floating book! So as quietly as I could, I leaned my head into the classroom. I saw her in the corner facing away from me organizing some books, oblivious that I was even there. The floating book was traveling toward her now only arm’s length away. I was about to warn her, but then the second weirdest thing I’ve seen today happened, she held out her hand and the book landed on it! A few seconds later the new girl started singing quietly, “It may be hard keepin’ my secret but when you got powers it be a treat oh yeah!” Suddenly, I blurted out a very loud, “WHAT?!”

The new girl whipped around, the terror on her face that matching mine. “How much did you see?” she asked me trembling.

“I didn’t see anything,” I lied, wanting nothing more than to be far away from here. “How much did you see?” she asked, this time with more force. I didn’t answer her. I just ran.

*****

PART 2

I breathed hard. I sweated like I never had before in my life. I was also pretty sure I was going to throw up. I was running down the halls lost trying to find an exit. I rounded a corner and nearly screamed. It was the new girl. I quickly turned around and saw an exit at the end of the hall. I bolted toward it.

“Wait! Please!” the new girl cried. I turned around briefly and yelled, “NEVER!”

While I was turned around I saw her stick out her hand and suddenly my left foot wouldn’t leave the ground.

“AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!” I screamed as I hit the ground with a hard thud.

“Oh my gosh!” cried the new girl as she came closer to me. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” I yelled at her. The new girl took a step back with shock. I realized that I probably sounded really rude.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her.

“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m used to it. Are you okay?”

I just realized that I couldn’t feel or move my left foot from my ankle down. It didn’t hurt. I don’t feel like I went into shock like when you break a bone. It was just stiff, really stiff.

“What did you do to my foot?” I asked her while trying to move it side to side. “I’m not really sure,” she replied, “but whatever I did I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay; it doesn’t hurt. I’m Sid by the way,” I said holding out my hand.

“Jaylin,” she replied and helped me up.

“Can you walk?” Jaylin asked me as I tried to get my balance back.

“Not really,” I answered her as I swayed back and forth. Jaylin held onto my arm so I wouldn’t fall over.

“When do you think the shock will wear off?” I asked.

“When do you think the shock will wear off?” I asked.

“I don’t know; I’ve never done this before,” she answered.

“What have you done?”

“Well so far I have been able to move small objects with my mind,” Jaylin answered me as she picked up my backpack that fell on the ground when I “tripped,” and started walking to the door, her arm around my shoulder so that I could stand.

“Wow, that is so cool!” I exclaimed.

“It’s okay,” said Jaylin, “So when is your mom or dad coming?”

“I walk home. Both my parents work,” I said. “Although I do have a fifteen-year-old sister who is probably celebrating me not coming home.”

“Hey, at least you have someone to hang with, my parents also work and I’m an only child.”

“Do they know about your powers?” I asked.

“Yes, but they don’t act all weird about it. They actually ask me to use my powers once in a while which really helps me gain control.”

“Hey do you think your parents will let you come over to my house?” I asked. “My parents said it was okay for me to have up to three guests at my house and go to friends’ houses once a week as long as none of them were boys,” I said. We stood by the car pick up lane.

“I’ll have to ask first, but I think they’ll be okay with it,” said Jaylin as she took out her phone and called her dad. I heard the phone ring and then heard the bits of the conversation that Jaylin was saying, “Hi dad, I was wondering if I could go over to a new friend’s house… she lives, um one second. Where do you live?” she asked me. I told her my address and she repeated it to her dad.

“Okay, Dad, I’ll be careful… she, uh already knows… okay talk to you later. Love you. Bye.”

“Can you come?” I asked hopefully.

Jaylin smiled. “Yes!” she said excitedly.

“Great! Wait a minute, do you have my library book?”

“The one with the green flower on it?”

I nodded my head.

“I, uh, I left it in the classroom,”

I stood silently for a few seconds then said, “Okay come on let’s go get my book, but seriously if I see Wonder Women I’m going to lose it!”

“More than when you saw me?” said Jaylin with a grin from ear to ear.

“Maybe,” I replied as we both headed for the school Jaylin still supporting me.

*****

PART 3

“Are you hungry?” I asked Jaylin as I went through the refrigerator drawers, in the kitchen at my house, still balancing on one foot from when Jaylin stunted it.

“I’m good thanks,” replied Jaylin, “Hey, do you think that I could try to un-stun your foot?”

“I don’t see why not,” I said hopping over to where Jaylin was with a water bottle in my hand.

I sat down facing across from Jaylin at my family breakfast bar with my stunned foot resting on the seat between us. Jaylin extended her hand a little bit in front of her concentrating on my foot. Suddenly Jaylin got a weird look on her face and started going, “Ah . . .  ah . . .”

I was about to reach for a tissue at the end of the counter but it was too late.

Jaylin let out a loud sneeze. Then out of the blue, the top of my water bottle shot off and water started squirting everywhere!

“I’m so sorry!” said Jaylin reaching for a paper towel, “That happens sometimes with my powers.”

“WHAT THE HECK SID!?!” screamed my older sister Martha as she came downstairs looking for the source of the loud sneeze that came from Jaylin a second ago.

“What happened? Where did all this water come from? What powers? Sid you are in SO much trouble if you don’t answer me!”

“How can I when I don’t know what you want the answer to?” I said hoping she forgot about the super power question.

“Fine then! First I want to know were all this water came from,” demanded Martha.

“I spilled it, sorry, I’ll clean it up,” Jaylin answered.

“I also want to know who the heck this stranger is!” yelled Martha

“I’m Jaylin, Sid’s friend,” said Jaylin then looked over at me with a ‘was it okay that I said that?’ look on her face. I smiled in return.

“Really? I didn’t think that Sid would ever have any friends,” said Martha, “Especially if you knew that her real name is-”

“DON’T YOU DARE MARTHA!” I yelled.

“Sid’s not your real name?” asked Jaylin.

“Sid is my nickname,” I said.

“SECOND OF ALL!” Martha started again, “What was that obnoxiously loud sound?”

“That was also me, sorry again,” said Jaylin.

“Also what powers? What are you talking about?” asked Martha.

“What are you talking about? Powers! That’s ridiculous!” said Jaylin convincingly. Wow Jaylin is a great actor. She would have totally convinced me that I was hearing things if I hadn’t seen her powers with my own eyes!

“Fine then! I guess I’ll just check the Cat Cam!” said Martha.

I gasped. Jaylin looked confused. Martha saw the confusion on Jaylin’s face and explained, “The Cat Cam is a hidden camera in the kitchen that used to be for Captain Fluffy, the cat we had a few years ago, and we never took it down after Captain Fluffy went to live with our Grandma Sally.”

Now it was Jaylin’s turn to gasp. Martha turned to leave the kitchen when she stopped dead in her tracks nearly falling over, “What the heck!” yelled Martha, “I can’t move!”

I looked over at Jaylin who had an extended arm and a smile on her face.

“Please lets me go! I won’t tell anyone about your powers! I promise!” Martha begged. I looked over at Jaylin. Jaylin said, “Okay fine, but seriously you need to be way nicer to Sid! She’s super nice to you-”

“Trust me I’m not,” I said to Jaylin.

“Okay, I’ll be nicer to Sid,” said Martha giving us a half smile, “and your secret is safe with me.” Then Martha left and me and Jaylin let out a sigh of relief as we started to clean up the spilled water.

“Hey, I can feel my foot again!” I pointed out happily to Jaylin.

“That’s great!” said Jaylin. Suddenly I heard a buzzing sound come from Jaylin’s pocket. Jaylin pulled out her phone and told me her parents wanted her home now, “Bye!” I said.

“Bye,” Jaylin echoed and left.

Well, I thought, all’s well that ends well. That is unless you now have to delete all of what just happened off of the Cat Cam and do all of your homework before Mom and Dad come home. I’m going to have a busy night ahead of me.