Balancer's Soul (2 page)

“Kara, rash? Who could ever put a
muzzle on that mouth of hers… one that would ever work?” Connor
said as a joke. He turned around and saw Jenny wasn’t even humored.
“Ok. Ok Mom. The reason why I always help her out is because I
can’t stand her
not
smiling.
Also Granddaddy has always called me a protector, but with Kara, I
try to make her smile so that she isn’t tormented… like me.” With
that said Jenny’s face softened and became both proud and sad at
the same time. Then he added “Kara is annoying, innocent and blunt.
She keeps me on my toes. Just worry for her future husband. He’s
screwed.” He finished with a wide grin which made Jenny smile
eventually.

“BRRROOOOTTTTHHHHEEEERRRR
!!! I’M WAITING!” Kara
yelled loudly from the garage.
“Yes she is
exactly like a Jack Russell… Oh well.”

“Get going you big ox, before I find a way to
get mad at you too!” Jenny said in a sigh, while throwing his heavy
backpack at him. And yes they always throw things in his
family.

He waved goodbye to his mom with a piece of
toast in his mouth.

Walking into the one car garage, Connor
spotted Kara already sitting in the wagon he built for her
thirteenth birthday, with the help of his grandfather. She was
waiting very impatiently in the wagon, it wasn’t out of the
ordinary. Connor tossed his backpack to her and she handed him his
chest harness. The harness was made in the shape of an X so that
when he pulls it, the weight will be evenly displaced over his
entire chest. On the back of the harness, a rope tethered to a
metal ring and is attached to another metal ring at the fore of the
wagon. For the past two years Connor’s grandfather has made him run
to school every day. Actually Connor hinted that it would be a good
idea, but made it seem as if it were his grandfathers. And their
school laid just over eight miles away from their house, luckily
only three houses are on the way to school. No one really see’s him
doing the difficult training. And he felt happy that his
grandfather will be here in the morning to take him camping this
weekend. And during this past summer the two of them stayed out
camping for a month together, for summer break.

It was fun just hanging out with him.

Kara just looked at Connor as if he had lost
his mind as he simply stood there daydreaming, but all she said was
“Well?”

“Are you ready?” He asked trying not to look
too pathetic.

“Well
DUH
!” She said in a mocking voice, dramatically
crossing her arms.

Slowly, Connor began walking out of the
garage, effortlessly pulling Kara in her wagon while trying not to
jar her. Springs underneath greatly absorbed the road. At the end
of their driveway he saw a moving van and a light blue car sitting
across the street. What seemed strange was that he didn’t know the
make or even the model of the blue vehicle. The house had been
vacated for over five years after the original family moved.
“Cool, it’s about time we get some new
neighbors.
He thought expectantly.

Then he stopped cold when a voice from across
the street yelled.

“SARAH! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!” Yelled a
tall man who Connor guessed to be middle aged, like his mother. He
had a slim yet muscular build as he stood in the front yard. He
wore blue jeans and a light blue t-shirt. Long silver hair cascaded
over broad shoulders and came to an end at the base of his shoulder
blades. He was clean shaved with very sharp masculine features. He
was very handsome, yet all the hairs on the back of Connor’s neck
stood on end, his instinct said that that man was extremely
dangerous.

Then came another voice in answer. One
completely opposite.

“Over here, Father!” The sound of the voice
was like the softest of velvets. If he did not have extremely sharp
hearing Connor wouldn’t have been capable of hearing her unique
melody. It was impossible to see just who the voice belonged to
though. And for some reason Connor felt very disappointed.

The silver haired man turned to her
voice and yelled again. “You are going to be late! Get a move on
it…
Girl
!” He said in a
condescending voice.

Several things happened in the next
frightening moment. The silver haired man turned and looked
directly at Connor. He sneered at him with cold malice in his eyes
and a chill shot down Connor’s spine.
“What
was that?”
Connor instinct was telling him to run
away, run away now, but couldn’t even draw breath under those
deadly azure eyes. Then Kara kicked her brother and at last broke
eye contact. He then turned to look at her.
“Thank you!”

“
Go, Brother or I’ll tell Mom not to
give you any supper tonight if we’re late to school.” She said
while trying to look serious, which never works out for her. All it
made him do was laugh. Kara hasn’t really had any dangerous issues
to deal with because she’s so cheerful,
or
Connor settled the problem without her being
aware. She wouldn’t be in any of those situations if he had any
say.

Without saying another word, Connor
took off running at his fullest, while pulling Kara. All she did
was giggle at the change of pace. What she didn’t know was that he
was
really
trying to get as
far away from that man as possible.

Connor blazed down the long dirt road, almost
out in the middle of nowhere, making nigh a sound or kicking up any
dirt. The wagon was the only thing that gave them away. Here in
this area all of the trees, plants and animals still thrive in
harmony, with very little human interference. Twenty to thirty
minutes away sat the local town, so it’s not too bad. Almost half
of the year the trees are healthy shades of green and the other
half is snow white, but it is so peaceful that no matter how bad a
person’s day has been, the scenery just washes all the problems
away.

Their high school is about eight miles away
from their house. Connor ran there in under an hour, barely
breaking a sweat in the crisp spring air. About a mile down the
road laid an old trail through the woods that he always used
instead of running all the way down the street to get to school.
Not only did it take unsuspecting eyes from them, it also felt
great to run along a path instead of a manmade road. Running like
this is a piece of cake thanks to daily training. It was the only
way to burn off much of his stress and pent up energy.

Luckily they arrived at school before any
faculty or students showed up for another long day of droning
boredom. Kara got out of the wagon carrying her school bag and also
Connor’s. He picked up the wagon and placed it behind a dense
thicket that grew off the side of the trail that led to the school.
He always hid it there because the other students would find
something new to use to torment him with. Afterwards he and Kara
walked beyond the confines of the trees and entered the school’s
campus.

Their moderately sized school is made up with
both middle and high school students put together and is three
stories tall. It’s old and built mostly from red brick, back in the
nineteen forties, and a few beige portables stood out in the
backside of the campus. The teachers are usually nice and
understanding to everyone, except towards Connor. The real problem
isn’t primarily with the teachers, but with all of his peers. He
had always worn long, solid black sleeved shirts and black pants or
jeans. At all times, he’d wear hiking boots instead of sneakers.
Shaggy, sandy blond hair was disheveled to hide his eyes, so the
nickname he was grew up with was Black Sheep.

People usually get startled when he looks at
them directly for some reason so he keeps his hair over his eyes,
to not make matters worse.

Kara waited with him for a short time and
then went straight to her cheerleading friends, when they arrived.
She said “Later, Brother!” and then disappeared. When she left he
looked into the sky and calculated it to be about thirty more
minutes until the first class begins.

Connor casually walked up to his favorite oak
tree that grew at the tree line of the school. Effortlessly he
climbed the tree, sat on a thick limb and closed his eyes. Being in
a tree or out in nature calms him for some reason, but he simply
figured that since he was an avid outdoorsman it was a love for
nature and its beauty that eased his stress.

About ten minutes later a familiar voice
shouted “Hey, Buddy!” and Connor knew exactly who that voice
belonged to, without even opening his eyes.

“Hey, Mark. Are you ready for another fun and
disastrous day?” he asked with his eyes still closed. Connor could
easily smell Mark’s aftershave rising from below because there
wasn’t even a gentle breeze to carry it away.

When Mark eventually reached the Oak
tree Connor was perched in, he sat down below in the solid roots.
With a sigh Mark said “Yep and nope!” and then blurted out “We have
a new teacher for our history class. Just found out a minute
ago.
She
supposedly just moved
over here from Washington State.” He ended his statement with a
short laugh.

When Mark said
she
Connor cracked an eye to look down at Mark’s
expression, just to see him grinning up, waiting to see a reaction
of his own. Mark is like your average size best friend and is also
quite popular among the ladies, but he’s never dated anyone
seriously for some reason. He’s always getting good grades in every
subject and in every class, like he has done this before. He could
charm any lady, young or old. Jet black spiky hair stood in every
direction and practically liquid silver eyes made women sigh in
wonder. He lives by himself in an apartment, so he works at the
local diner on the weekends to earn enough income to live.
Apparently his parents died a long time ago and he really doesn’t
like talking about it so Connor leaves that particular subject
alone. Mark’s said he’s been an emancipated teen since he was
thirteen which is hard to believe, but he has all the legal
documents to prove his case.

Also Mark is Connor’s one, and
only,
best friend. Growing up
together for the past seven years, Mark is the only person outside
Connor’s family who knows his painful secret.

When it came time to enter class, Connor
jumped out of the tree, landing silently next to Mark. Agility like
a cat he’d sometimes been compared. Mark always jokes about
Connor’s nimbleness compared to his large size being impossible,
like a cruel joke against nature. They both entered the school
shoulder to shoulder, only to be greeted by most of the senior
varsity football team. There was only one choice to choose from,
either go around and be late or try passing through. He’s been late
enough already.

Connor accidently bumped into the
quarterback Mathew “Sorry, Mathew.” he said meekly. Mathew turned
and saw who barely brushed his shoulder, then he laughed in
Connor’s face.
“Here comes yet another
round of ignorant banter.”

“Well! Well! Well! What looks like a cow,
thinks like a cow and is built like a cow?” Some popular girls
laughed along with the other players and a boy behind Mathew
answered “Connor!” in an obvious reply. Connor put his head down
out of both habit and necessity and started to walk away.

Seconds later Mathew dashed at Connor
while his back was turned.
“Here he comes,
should I side step or take the hit… I’ll take it so he can feel
better about himself.”
When Connor was successfully
tackled to the ground Mathew yelled “And
that
is how you tip a cow!”

Everyone in the locker lined hall laughed,
except Mark. He knelt down by his head and asked “You alright,
Buddy?”

“Yeah, Bud. It will take a lot more than that
to really hurt me, but you know that already.” Connor pushed
himself up to his knees, slowly, and pretended to actually be hurt
from that weak assault.

And surprisingly Mark smiled and gave a
knowing wink while whispering “Yep. It would take a tank to even
scratch your thick hide.” With that he offered his hand to lift
Connor up.

Now a teacher came out into the hallway
to see what all of the commotion was about. He was a short, balding
man with a mean streak that knew few bounds and his name was Mr. V.
Also Mr. V. is a science teacher that last year Connor singed the
man’s eyebrows
accidently
.
Ever since then he’s been returning guilt with interest. It was his
fault for getting too close to the Bunsen burner when Connor was
using a hydrogen filled bladder and an open flame. Also Connor’s
well versed in many subjects, especially in sciences and knows more
in that subject than Mr. V. does, but Connor pretends to be
ignorant to keep trouble away. He doesn’t need a teacher who is
overly prideful, but Mr. V. is all they have at the school for
seniors and the credits to graduate were needed. Mr. V. looked
solely and distastefully at Connor, but to the rest of the students
he yelled “Get to class! All of you!”

Everyone went away as ordered, but they
were still laughing mostly because Mr. V singled him out yet
again.
“Ah, another day, another
disaster.”

The rest of the day went about the
same. During lunch, Connor surprisingly received only had one
carton of milk spilled
accidentally
over his shoulder and down his back. Usually he ended up
worse on the average day. Meatloaf day always caused dread,
especially trying to remove barbeque sauce from his clothes.
Together he and Mark walked into the empty Home Ec. room and washed
the milk out of his shirt before anyone could come back in and see
the secret he hid from prying eyes. Mark was always there to keep a
lookout. After lunch it was Science class with Mr. V.