Resilient (25 page)

When I reach them, Brianna and some of her friends are focused on the cafeteria line and whispering. I follow their eyes and I see Daniel paying for a bottle of Coke. The girls start giggling as he looks our way. I freeze as he stares at me, but I don’t avoid his gaze—I stare back and I try to peer inside of his emotions; his eyes are tender and his feelings are of a mixture of hope and expectation, but I can’t get a good insight. He’s too far away for me to be able to look deeper. There are too many distractions around me. Still, hope wasn’t what I was expecting. 

Loud banging noises at the cafeteria doors startle me; the girls are all suddenly smiling and clapping their hands. 

“It’s the football team announcing their entrance. They do it on home game days,” Brianna explains.

I watch as the doors open and the football team, led by Adam, walks in wearing their blue and white team jackets and black-painted faces. Everyone is applauding, cheering, and shouting, “Go Falcons!” 

Adam stands on a small permanent stage at the head of the cafeteria, and everyone goes silent.

“As you all know,” he announces, “tonight is our homecoming game of this season and we’re counting on you to be there for us. Your support is what gets us through.” Everyone applauds, and Adam has a smile that stretches from ear to ear. He looks at me and winks. “I promise one thing, we will not disappoint you. We bleed blue!” 

I hear people whistling and girls cheering. The commotion is enveloping and I can’t help but feel as excited as everyone else.

When the students calm down, Adam walks toward me with a grin on his face. “It must be nice being you,” I say as he gets closer.

“Yeah, it is, because I can do this.” He traces his hand through my hair and kisses me, catching me by surprise. When he pulls away from me, he laughs.

“What?”

“I got black grease on your face,” he says, wiping my cheek with his finger.

We sit down to eat lunch with everyone else. But I don’t want to concentrate on everyone else; I wish time would freeze and this smile on Adam’s face would never leave. However, my wish doesn’t come true as he’s soon looking worried. 

“Did you notice anyone following you this morning?” he asks.

“No, nobody, but I think there’s someone watching us now,” I say as I see Ms. Johnson leaning against the wall and searching the cafeteria. “Her.” Adam follows my eyes just as Ms. Johnson looks our way.

“Livia…”

Her voice calls my name and I shiver. It’s quiet, though—not a shout.

“Did you hear that?” I ask in a panic.

“No, what?”

“It’s about time we have a talk,” she says again.

“Adam, she’s talking to me inside of my head!” I hiss.

Adam gets up and faces Ms. Johnson. 

“The time is approaching, and you’ll finally come home to where you belong.” And with that, she disappears back into the hallway.

“She said the time is approaching,” I tell him, tightening my grip on his hand.

“I won’t let her get close to you,” he says. “Let’s get out of here.” 

After PE, Adam walks me to my car. “Are you sure your mom is home?” he asks for the tenth time.

“Yeah, she is.” 

“I know Daniel is with Coach right now, but I couldn’t find Ms. Johnson anywhere. How the hell can she speak to you telepathically?”

I shrug. “First time I heard it was that day in detention. I heard her, and when I answered, she acted like she hadn’t said anything.”

“I remember that. She must have been testing you.”

“If whoever’s after us wants to take us, why haven’t they? Why would they test us? What are they waiting for?”

“I have no idea, but one thing is for sure: we can’t sit around and wait to see what happens.”

After a moment of contemplative silence, I draw a breath. “I don’t think Daniel is involved in this. I don’t feel like he’s hunting me, not like Ms. Johnson.”

“You can’t trust him,” Adam insists. “The least suspicious person might be the one you have to fear most.” 

We reach my car and I unlock the door. “I’ll talk to my uncle as soon as I see him tomorrow.”

“Let me take you home, I still have time ’til I have to be back.”

“No you don’t. Everyone is already in the locker room.” I try my best to smile. “I’ll be okay.”

I give him one last kiss and he holds me close in his arms.

I get home and no one is there. Mom must have gone to get the boys from school. I take a long, hot shower in hopes of washing these worries away. It’s too much to process, what with everything continuing to blow up in my face. 

Not to mention Ms. Johnson’s voice in my head. It is weird, but at the same time, it’s amazing. I didn’t know something like that was possible. I wonder if she also has some type of ability like mine and if she can actually read my mind or just speak to it. It makes me mad that I didn’t realize she was up to something earlier, but I wouldn’t have been able to sense anything, anyway—she was always covering up her emotions. She knew about me all along.

After the shower—and my unsuccessful attempt to calm myself down—I get ready for the football game, which starts in less than an hour. I put on jeans and a long-sleeved blue top to match the team colors. I walk downstairs at the same time my mom shuts the front door.

“I just dropped off your dad and the boys at your school,” she says. “They’re going to watch the game with you.”

The relief of having someone in the house with me is overwhelming. “Oh, that’s great! Are you coming?”

“No, I need a break and a hot bath!” 

I give her a kiss goodbye and walk out of the door. I stop as soon as I feel someone’s presence. I turn to look at the door, thinking that it might just be my mother. But no, it doesn’t feel like Mom. It’s someone else, and yet there’s no one here. 

I hurry to my car and lock the doors as I get in, my hands shaking a little bit. This is getting dangerous. My house, these close spaces of our property, are where I feel safe—if someone is lurking around here, things are about to get really bad. 

I need to see Uncle Henry as soon as possible. He’s on the plane right now, but I decide to call him when he lands. I turn the car on, take one more glance at my house, and drive away, hoping to get whoever is after me away from my house and my mother.

I arrive at the school and I see Dad and the boys in the parking lot. “Dad!” I call as I get out of the car, and they walk towards me.

“Hey, Livia!” Ian says, “We’re here to watch Adam play!”

“He’s gonna be happy to see you here, Ian.”

Dad gives me a hug and says something that I can’t really hear, because at this moment I’m pulled into a dream—I see him holding a baby in his arms and smiling. He’s so happy; I see the tears in his eyes. He looks at Mom, who looks at the baby, her expression filled with unconditional love. At that moment, I know that the baby is me.

I pull away from Dad and he frowns. “Is everything okay? You look nervous.”

I’m careful as I detach myself from his embrace. “I’m just nervous for Adam.”

“Oh, they’ll do fine! I heard they have a pretty strong team.”

We walk to the bleachers and Dad leads us to seats near Adam’s family. Adam’s dad is quick to get passionate and he keeps on telling us stories of when he used to play for the Falcons. But I’m not a part of the conversation—I can’t get the image of Dad gazing at me out of my head. I was just a baby and I could feel what he was feeling, seventeen years ago. 

This is the most vivid vision so far, and I don’t understand what it means. Is this the evolution of my empathic ability, or is it a whole new ability? Whatever it is, I don’t like it. 

We get ready to walk onto the field and the coach gathers us for a prayer. All of the noise and commotion coming from the outside is fuel for my heart, which is pumping hard in my chest. I love this adrenaline, and at this moment, nothing should matter more to me than my team and our game—except that I can’t stop worrying about Livia.

Coach shouts over the opening notes of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”. “Any BS going in your lives stays off the field, all right? As you walk into this game, nothing should be in your mind other than your team. I don’t want you to be the best—I want you to be extraordinary! You hear that? Now let’s make this school proud!”

All around me, players are bouncing up and down, and outside, everyone screams as I lead my team onto the field. Their energy fills me with desire—desire to win. I spot Livia on the bleachers, together with my family. She’s here, she’s safe; now I can shut the whole world out and focus on the game.

We make the first touchdown and the crowd goes wild. But as the game progresses, our defense gets sloppy. As the game approaches the end, we are far from winning. I look at the score: 14 us, 20 them. Dammit. We’ve only got three seconds left on the clock and it’s fourth down, last play of the game. I’m on the eight-yard line with ninety-two more to go. I close my eyes and I can hear Coach’s voice in the back of my head.

Be extraordinary.

I open my eyes just in time. We hike the ball and I scramble into the end zone, eluding a blitz. I could run and get touchdown myself, but it would call way too much attention to me. I look down the field and Kyle is all the way near the end. He’s the only receiver who could possibly get this done. I use all my strength and I throw a ninety-two-yard pass to him. At this moment, everyone’s eyes are on the ball.

Kyle’s hands close on it and he steps back into the end zone, tying the game.

I grab my helmet, pulling it off of my head. Kyle does his funny touchdown dance, and the crowd is going insane. 

Coach calls for our kicker, who comes in and scores the last point to win the game. 

Matt is standing next to me and he claps me on the back. “Man, how did you do that? That pass was epic!”

I can’t really tell him how I did it; I’m still amazed myself. 

After congratulating everyone on the team for their good work, Coach releases us for the day and I search for Livia, finding her among the throng with my parents and most of her family. My mom is the first to congratulate and hug me, followed by Dad’s handshake and Livia’s warm embrace.

“Wow, how did you manage to do that?” she says into my ear and then pulls back to wink at me. “It was amazing.”

“Yeah, I don’t know,” I laugh.

Livia and I say goodbye to our parents when they decide to go home early. “Don’t be home too late, Livia,” her dad says, and I don’t miss the hint of urgency in his tone.

Dad takes my Jeep home as Livia insists on driving me. There’s going to be a bonfire party to celebrate our victory. “Let me get in the locker room and rinse off,” I say.

She nods. “I’ll wait for you in the car.”

After I dry off and change I walk back outside, but I don’t see Livia. I walk to her car but she isn’t there. The parking lot is empty now, and she’s walking towards me from the far side. I jog to her, my heartbeat much faster than it should be.

“Where did you go?” I’m a bit angry at her for scaring me. 

“I felt someone here, and I just wanted to check—” She trails off, her eyes going wide as she stares behind me. 

I turn around and lock eyes with Stevens.

“We need to talk now. Follow me,” he says, walking past us and toward the community park behind the school. Livia follows him without hesitation. I do hesitate though, like she should. This shouldn’t be so easy. But when the distance between us grows, I hurry after them. I’m not leaving Livia alone with him.

We follow Stevens all the way to the park and he doesn’t stop until we reach the entrance of a trail route. I give Livia a questioning look; it’s dark out here, and I don’t feel safe around this man. She looks back at me and nods slightly. She must feel that it’s safe to follow him.

“You shouldn’t expose yourself the way you just did at that game,” he says suddenly. “I told you to lay low. Now you just confirmed all their suspicions about you.”

“You need to tell me what’s going on and who’s after us,” I warn him, because if he doesn’t get the words out, I’ll make him.

He stares at me, concern behind his eyes. He takes several steps closer. “I rescued you when you were born, Adam, but the agency came after me and I got injured. I managed to get them out of our way. But after one day of driving, I had lost too much blood and I needed to check in to a hospital. I came to the island and brought you with me—”

What are you talking about?” I demand, confused. Livia takes my hand.

“Just listen!” he urges. “When I was released, I learned that your father, Dr. Cooper, had traded his dead son for you. I didn’t complain because that’s what I wanted, a family to love you and care for you. But that was my first mistake. I shouldn’t have let you grow up having to guess about what you are, not knowing that your freedom would always be in danger.”

“Are you saying that you are his father?” Livia asks.

“No, I’m not his father.” He rubs his face and sighs. “There is too much you don’t know, and we don’t have time right now. You’re surrounded. They already know about you. We need to leave town tonight.”

“Hey, hey, hold on a sec!” Livia objects. “We’re not going anywhere with you!”

“They were here for you.” Steven stares at Livia. “The agency has been watching you since New York. They had no clue about Adam, and you led them straight to him.”

Livia’s anger is strengthening. “I didn’t do anything. Until last week, I thought I was alone. And what agency are you talking about?”

“Henry should have taken you away, but he let you stay, and inadvertently led the agency to Adam.”

“So you know her uncle?” I cut in.

“We worked together a long time ago.” Stevens takes a step closer. “Adam, listen to me: this is much bigger than you think. If you stay here, the agency will take you and you will never be yourself again.” He puts a hand on my shoulder, and for a minute, I consider what he’s saying. Even though it makes no sense to me, I feel that he is telling me the truth. “Come on. I’ll explain everything on the way.”

“There’s someone here,” Livia blurts and squeezes my hand. “They’re getting closer.”

Stevens steps away from us. “Let’s go!” He turns, only to stumble forward and crash to the ground. He makes a whistling, gasping noise, and doesn’t move. I hurry to his side and turn him over. There’s blood spreading from a hole in his chest, and it’s all over his shirt. I didn’t even hear the shot.