Balancer's Soul (35 page)

Moments later Kara yelled “Way to go,
Brother!” And then everyone wanted to congratulate Connor, but he
walked over to the gift rack with a smile on his face and picked a
present from the box. He smiled and quickly shoved it in the bag
before Sarah had a chance to see what he picked.

From then on, every guy had two tries
at Ring the Bell. They tried their best to copy what Connor did,
only for all of them to utterly fail in the attempt. Not one even
reached half the distance. From then on everyone got two tries; one
with their fist and the other with the mallet. One kid hurt his
hand attempting this stunt.

Connor came up to the three of them
with a grin. “Have I showed off enough for you three
yet?”

“Not in the least, next we need to
dunk the teacher.” Mark said and then turned to look at
Sarah.

“Oh No, No, No. Think again. I’m not
getting dunked.” Kara saved her from the dreaded dunk tank by
turning Mark’s playful glare away.

As all four of them got in line they
noticed that it wasn’t a teacher, but the principal himself who sat
behind the net and on a board designed to drop him in the water
beneath him. He was a tall and thin man but recently he’s grown a
beard. Sarah still needed to thank him for finding another place
for her to reach her mail. The principal seemed a stern man, but he
loves to make fun of himself so that’s why he was in
there.

Sarah went first up and she threw
three times and only managed to dunk him once. Kara was next and
she hit the plate dead center all three times. “Wow Kara. You have
really good aim.” Sarah said in astonishment, but she cut into the
congratulations. Her chocolate eyes were twinkling in
excitement.

“Wait till you see Brother…” She left
Sarah hanging.

Connor went next and took the three
baseballs from the operator and walked away. Everyone began yelling
for him to come back, they thought he was stealing the balls until
he pivoted and turned around. He now stood three times further back
than the yellow line. He took one ball and threw it. You could hear
the ball whistling through the air and all you could hear was the
loud clang of the ball hitting a bull’s eye on the plate. Everyone
went speechless again as he did it two more times, proving he knew
what he was doing. He walked up with a smile to the prizes again
and did the same thing with another prize hidden in his
bag.

Not to be outdone, Mark did the exact
same thing that Connor achieved. The ball whistled through the air
and hit the plate every time. It was remarkable how well Mark could
keep up with Connor. He gave Kara a purple rubber bracelet as his
prize because they didn’t have her favorite color. “It looks like
both of our men like to give us presents, right Kara?” Her face
turned beat red and she nodded as Sarah whispered this in her
ear.

“Well what’s next on your to do list?”
Connor looked directly at Sarah with a smile that said he was
actually beginning to have fun.

She looked around and saw the perfect
thing for him to do “That!” and then pointed. He looked where she
pointed and said “Really? Well if you say so… Hey Mark would you
like to pair up?”

Mark looked over to see
what they were discussing and his eyes glistened as he saw her
idea. “Oh
Buddy
,
they are all going to so hate us after this. Hey wait a minute,
come here for a second. I have an awesome plan.” Connor went over
and leaned down to let Mark whisper in his ear. Connor had a feral
smile growing. And they suddenly took off into the
crowd.

Kara stood next to Sarah and she too
had the same smile on that Connor just had. “Kara, did you hear
their plan?”

She turned that smile on Sarah and
grabbed her wrist. She dragged her through the crowd saying “Oh you
are going to love this, Sarah. No one will ever forget this! Not
after today.” Sarah had a deep and strange feeling that she
wouldn’t be proven wrong.

Finally reaching the destination Sarah
heard Mark issue a challenge to the crowd. “Everyone Listen Up! The
former Black Sheep, Connor and I issue a challenge to anyone who
thinks that they can beat us in a match of Tug of War!”

“I accept the challenge!” Sarah knew
that voice anywhere, Mathew.

Kara standing beside her
said “Yes… Their plan is working.” And it finally dawned. They
issued a challenge aimed at the people who picked on them for so
long and this would be their revenge
.
A feral grin too spread over her
face as Sarah thought about the humiliation their two men were
about to serve up.

“I too accept!” Came a deep voice from
the crowd. It was her disrespectful colleague Mr. V. It was no real
surprise that these two idiots took the bait so easily.

A total of seven men
accepted the challenge, the others were also from the football
team. The tug of war challenge was a solid piece of rope and
between the long rope laid a large, hungry pit of black, muddy
water. The school’s faculty and students all surrounded the
arena.
Everyone
came to witness. This event would be told for years to come.
What came next stunned the entire audience and the challengers
except for Kara and herself.

As the seven men stood by the rope
Connor looked at Mark and yelled in his deep voice. “LET’S DO IT!”
Mark went first. He grabbed his silver shirt and pulled it off over
his head. His torso muscles were bulging on his smaller frame. next
to his friend, Mark’s chest was hairier, but no less
impressive.

Next came Connor’s shocking
performance. He pulled off his shirt to reveal the body of a Greek
God. His black
X
was perfectly centered on his chest and was announced to the
world. The result of seeing this silenced the crowd. Mark’s torso
looked like an exact replica of Connor’s, but only on a smaller
scale. It was truly a sight of two perfect male
specimens.

The men who accepted the challenge
looked at each other and looked like lambs being led to the
slaughter. If Mark’s and Connor’s grins said anything, they said
‘That’s exactly where you all are heading.’

Sarah immediately heard some people
gossiping. “Look at that big tattoo on his chest!” “Look at those
muscles that those two have!” “What are they made of?” and so
on…

Kara whispered in Sarah’s ear “Let’s
be the Ref’s.” She took her hand again and led to the edge of the
muddy water. Kara yelled “Are the challengers ready? Are the
Beefcake’s ready?” At that everyone laughed and Mark said “I’m
ready to show some losers what it’s like to be dumped on.” Connor
didn’t say anything, but his eyes were blazing with
payback.

Mathew yelled to his companions “They
are only two and we are seven. We can take out these freaks and put
them back in their rightful places.” And the other men agreed. They
quickly grasped their rope in hopes of feeling superior to the two
men standing across the black water.

Sarah felt slightly shocked by the
strength of her voice as were everyone else. “Quality always trumps
Quantity! And all of you are going to find that out the hard way!”
She looked at Mathew and Mr. V. pointedly. “Get ready…” The nine
men picked up the rope and took away the slack. “GO!!!” And the
challengers pulled with all of their strength.

As all of the men pulled,
Mark let go of the rope, stepped aside and allowed Connor to do
everything by himself.
“
Mark, what are you doing…? Oh now I see.”
Connor jaw was set as were his eyes. Everyone soon started to
laugh at Connor, thinking he couldn’t take on everyone by himself
until he proved the spectators wrong. Both of Connor’s feet were
firmly planted and the muscles on his arms were proving that Connor
clearly had the strength equal to the seven men. Thirty seconds
passed and Connor didn’t budge a single inch. The challengers were
still pulling with everything they had and they were dripping with
sweat. They even tried jerking the rope, but didn’t gain the effect
they were hoping for. Seven large men began growing more and more
tired while their lone opponent barely broke a sweat and looked to
still have a huge reservoir of strength.

Connor finally shouted “Mark!
Now!”

Mark grabbed the rope in front of his
best friend and dug his heels in. He pulled. As the two men pulled,
they gained four feet on the first tug. The duo didn’t yank the
leash this time, but they started running backwards at an
incredible speed. They pulled the seven men into the mud pit like
they were being pulled by a freight train. They had no chance of
avoiding the inevitable outcome.

The wet and dirty men looked like the
creatures from the black lagoon as they eventually pulled
themselves out. It was funny because Mr. V. was cursing as well as
Mathew did.

Everyone was still silent
until Sarah said “Told you
Quality trumps
Quantity
.” Then the crowd laughed and came
running to congratulate the victors.

Sarah overheard some of the
later comments. “How was he strong enough to do any of that, let
alone Mark?” “Did you see that tattoo? It was awesome!” “I wish I
was that strong!” Her favorite comment came from a little girl she
didn’t recognize. “I wish that I could be his girlfriend instead of
this mystery woman he’s dating. Lucky girl!” and she sighed.
“
Your right child I am
lucky and so very proud.”

Connor and Mark walked past everyone,
putting on their shirts again and walked up to Kara and herself.
Everyone walked away and left them to speak in private. Mark spoke
first and he radiated pride. “So ladies what do you think of our
spectacular performance?”

Kara said awkwardly “I’m just glad
that you two waited until today to show off. If you would have
showed everyone who you really were, we would have never gotten a
chance. Sarah with Connor and me with you. I’m lucky we knew who
you really were before all this.” She looked down at the grass.
None of them had ever seen her look shy before. It was
frightening.

“I agree with Kara.” She looked up at
Sarah with a faint smile. “If you two didn’t hide yourselves we
would never have gotten so close.”

Mark walked up to Kara and
gave her a hug. Connor said for all of them to hear “Listen you
two. We would never date shallow girls, we chose
quality
women instead.”
And Mark agreed with every word.

Twenty minutes later the final bell
rang, signaling the end of the last day of school. As the students
and faculty left, Connor looked at Mark. “Looks like we don’t need
to hide anymore.” The four of them sat on an outside bench in the
courtyard together.

“Your right, Buddy! The three of us
are now graduated seniors.” Mark took Kara in his arms and firmly
planted a kiss on her lips. Her eyes went wide, but soon she got
the idea and wrapped her arms around his head and returned the
gesture. As they separated, she asked breathlessly “Wow. What was
that for?” He answered with only a coy smile. He looked at Connor
and Connor nodded. Mark walked away from the two of them holding
hands with Kara.

“What was that all about?” Sarah
turned to look at Connor.

He wasn’t paying attention to her
because he began digging in the bag he has been hiding from her all
day. He quickly put something in her hands that felt very soft yet
hard. Looking down, Sarah saw a doll. It wasn’t just any old doll,
it was a porcelain doll that truly is a real antique. It was
wearing a black and green dress and it wore a tiara. “Is this doll
a princess?”

“Yes it is. And it is a matching pair
with this.” He sat down another doll in her hand, only this one was
wearing a black suit of armor. “I thought it was a good reference
to us since you are my princess.” He spoke softly.

Tears started filling in her eyes.
“And you are my knight.” He bent closer and she met him halfway
with a kiss of her own. As they separated she asked “Would you like
to go home? I need some peace and quiet from all of today’s
events.” He nodded and for the first time he rode inside her
car.

As Sarah parked the car in the garage
she saw her mother’s face framed in the window, looking at them
closely. Jillian shook her head and then nodded, her expression was
easy to read. She was asking if Sarah made her choice. Even if she
didn’t contact her with her telepathy, Sarah knew exactly what she
was asking without being wry.

Sarah nodded.

Jillian’s face started radiating pure
joy. Sarah saw her disappear from the window before Connor had a
chance of spotting her.

As they left her parents garage,
Connor entwined their fingers and walked in silence through the
forest. It felt as if they made it to the cottage in seconds
because Sarah’s thoughts were going in every direction. Connor was
being a gentleman, allowing her to enter first. He didn’t say
anything about her silence or perpetual blushing.

They ate an average dinner that she
made to keep her hands from being idle. As they ate her heart
continued thrumming like a humming bird’s. As he finished his meal
first he finally asked “You have been awfully quiet lately. What’s
the problem? Maybe I can help.” Her face went deep red at his
innocent statement. She started eating faster to keep her mind
occupied. As she finished and looked up, he moved his chair back
and took the plates off the table to put them in the sink. He sat
back down and just waited patiently for an answer.