Trust: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 2) Read online

I drove over to pick up Genevieve before I went to get Elle. I wanted to lay down some ground rules before I took her anywhere. Following me to Elle’s when I didn’t know she was there was one thing, but being around us in person was another. She came walking out in another form-fitting outfit. She was wearing a ribbed white tank top with another black one underneath and a pair of ripped jean shorts. She had a long silver rope necklace that had a loose knot in it and matching silver bracelets. Her hair was pulled back in a black baseball cap with a large “NYPD” on it. She was not dressed to blend in. Instead, the complete opposite: to stand out. Every guy at the party would be staring at us—well, just her.

  She got into the truck.

  “What are you wearing?”

  “What do you mean? I look nice,” she said, running her hands down her sides onto her jean shorts like she was pressing out imaginary wrinkles.

  “Nice, are you kidding? Everyone is going to be staring at you.”

  “Does everyone include you?” she asked with a mischievous grin.

  “Very funny, Genevieve. You aren’t going to make this easy, are you?”

  “I will be on my best behavior, I promise, cross my heart. I bet no one will even notice little old me.”

  I was too flustered to lay down any ground rules. I just wanted to hurry up and get this night over with. I rolled down my window to get some fresh air. This was going to be a long night.

  When we got to Elle’s, I told Genevieve to get in the back so Elle could sit up front. I rang the doorbell and Elle answered. I don’t even remember walking to the truck with her. I was too concerned about what she would think when she saw how Genevieve was dressed. But when I opened the truck door expecting to find an empty passenger seat, Genevieve was still in the front putting on bright red lipstick in the truck’s visor mirror.

  “Give me one sec.” She finished by blowing a kiss to the mirror and then she turned and said to Elle, “Don’t you look cute? Let me climb in the back so you can sit next to Nicholas.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Mrs. Moore, you can sit in the front.” I was burning holes into Genevieve with my eyes, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She got out and waited for Elle to get into the back. I slammed the door out of frustration. She knew that Elle was too polite to make her get in the back seat. I took a deep breath and got back in.

  “Elle, you’ve lived in Winsor for a long time, right?”

  “Yes,” Elle said cheerfully.

  “So what’s this quarry party all about?”

  Elle explained the history of the quarry party and some other school traditions. I wasn’t really listening to them. I was concentrating on finding the party. We were getting close to the quarry entrance because we had just passed Maple Dale, one of the Winsor elementary schools, when Genevieve said something that snapped me back into focus.

  “Did you hear the Oliver Rails verdict was handed down from the judge today?”

  Elle didn’t say anything. She had been leaning forward when she was talking, but now she was back against her seat, disappearing into the darkness.

  “Genevieve, Elle and I don’t care about any of that.” I gave her a dirty look.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. It must be difficult for you two, especially after all he put you through.” What was she doing? She was supposed to be on her best behavior.

  “No, it’s okay, Mrs. Moore. I’m fine,” Elle said from the back, still lost in the shadows.

  “Okay then, Oliver got 120 hours of community service and is on house arrest for three months. You know, when they make you wear that ankle tracker thingy. D.A. Caldwell’s kidnapping charge was thrown out and he got some lesser charge. Not sure what it was, though.”

  We sat in silence the rest of the way there. I was now navigating the quarry roads from the map. Luckily, I caught up with two cars and followed them. With Genevieve talking about Oliver, I was concerned about Elle’s well-being and not how to get to some party.

  When we pulled into the area where the party was, it looked completely level, like a bulldozer had smoothed it out just for this. There were several large gravel and sand mounds around the outside, but that was it. Right in the middle was a huge stage. The stage had everything: lights, large speakers and it even had two jumbo video screens that flanked the stage high up over the speakers. I was shocked. I guess I shouldn’t have been stunned. Winsor did everything bigger and better than anyone else. Why should this be any different?

  I parked and we walked over to the stage. Elle took my hand as soon as she got out. Her hands were cold and clammy. She was clearly shaken up about what Genevieve had said in the truck. It had brought to the surface some feelings and memories that we had tried to get past.

  “Do you want to go?” I asked quietly.

  “No, I’ll be fine.” She laid her head on my shoulder. Genevieve followed behind us. I didn’t look back. I was glad I didn’t have to see her face, because I would probably have said something that I shouldn’t have. Off to the side of the main crowd of people were Eric, Livi, Chad, and Amber.

  “Hey, guys,” Amber said. She gave each of us a hug. When she saw Genevieve she paused, confused. Her mouth fell open, looking her up and down.

  “This is Genevieve, I mean, Mrs. Moore, you know, Coach Moore’s wife. Riley and Cora went out of town for some college alumni thing, so I invited her to come along,” I said. The group just stared at her.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Livi said, breaking the awkward silence. “I’m Livi.” Then she introduced everyone else in the group.

  “Does anyone else want to go look around?” Amber asked. Like they had just received some girl code, they all headed off, including Genevieve.

  When the girls were far enough away, Eric started in on me. “You have to be kidding me. She is ridiculously hot. You dog.” He hit me on the arm.

  “What do you mean?”

  Chad, normally the silent one, spoke up. “What he means is that you have two of the hottest girls we’ve ever seen with you, besides our girlfriends, of course,” he added, and Eric nodded half-heartedly.

  “She’s a friend of the family.”

  “Dude, it wouldn’t matter if she were your sister. She’s still hot,” Eric said.

  “That’s sick,” I responded.

  “You know what I mean. You are what legends are made of.” He slapped me on the back.

  When the girls got back, the band had already started playing. Genevieve had disappeared, which was a relief. The group of us sat in the back of the large crowd on a blanket that Livi had brought. I had never heard of the band, but it seemed that a majority of the crowd had. Elle was pretending that everything was fine.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess.” Her fake smile faded. “The whole trial thing just makes me upset. I thought I was over it, but Mrs. Moore talking about Oliver being sentenced brought back some memories. Also, I kind of feel bad for Oliver.” What? She had to be kidding. With everything he put her through? He was the reason she was on that dock in the first place.

  “You shouldn’t feel bad for him. He brought it on himself.”

  She looked away, apparently upset with what I said. How couldn’t I be upset with Oliver? He put my angel, the love of my life, in danger. Then Xavier’s voice from that night flooded my thoughts. Oliver and Elle are on their way to the rock quarry, and there is no way you will be able to get to them in time before they die.

  If Oliver hadn’t taken Elle, she would have died for sure, because Riley and Genevieve wouldn’t have been watching over her. She would have been left defenseless against Xavier and the Seekers at her house. I guess I should have been thanking Oliver, not hating him.

  “Elle, you’re right to feel bad for Oliver. I do too. He didn’t know the dock would collapse.”

  She turned back to me. “Thank you, Nicholas, for understanding. I love you.”

  Our moment didn’t last long. Genevieve was back.

  “Nicholas, ma
y I speak with you for just a moment?” she asked, looking very serious. I looked at Elle, hoping she would be okay with it.

  “Go ahead, I’ll be here.” She smiled and kissed me on the cheek. The smile and kiss made me feel like I could go.

  “Nicholas,” Genevieve grabbed my arm and pulled me away, “could you hurry? I don’t want to keep you too long. It might raise suspicion.”

  Genevieve guided me away. I looked back and the only one who was still staring at me from the group was Eric. He was holding his thumb up in the air and mouthing the words, “That-a-boy, you stud.”

  “Genevieve, what do you want? Did you find something, or are you just trying to cause more problems for me?”

  “Listen, I know you would rather spend time playing kissy face with your little girlfriend, but we have a job to do.”

  “So did you find something, or not?”

  “Yes, Xavier and his Seekers are here or were here.” Genevieve pointed to the two large screens up over the stage, which were broadcasting a close-up of the lead singer to the crowd. “The brackets have been loosened. You can see them swaying back and forth.”

  I squinted up at them, but I couldn’t tell anything was wrong.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Nicholas, use your talent to slow things down to take a closer look. Think about all of those kids getting crushed, or worse, your friends or Elle getting killed by the screens. That will trigger your talents.”

  My heart started to pound when she said that; the fire inside me started to burn. I concentrated on the screen closest to where we were standing. Everything around me slowed down and the bottom corner of the screen became magnified. I could see the screen bouncing to the beat of the music slowly, not attached to the support, each time distancing itself a little more from the back.

  “Do you see how it keeps moving away? If the concert continues, it will fall in the next fifteen minutes or so, killing and hurting a lot of people.”

  “Let’s just unplug the electric. That should stop the vibrations from the speaker,” I said.

  “I thought of that, too, but if we cut the electric, the crowd closest to the stage will push up against it to see what happened, causing the screens to fall for sure, killing even more.” Genevieve’s voice was filled with panic. The stress was showing on her face. I didn’t feel panicked at all. Then an idea came to me. I knew what we had to do.

  “I’ll create some sort of distraction behind them, to draw them away from the stage. Then you can cut the power, Genevieve.”

  “We can’t divide up, just in case that’s what Xavier wants us to do.”

  “We have to protect them, right? Just be careful. You will know when it’s time to cut it. Then I will meet you at the truck. Stay with the crowd to hide. The Seekers will be distracted by me and won’t give you a thought.”

  She didn’t question me further and disappeared into the crowd. Now what was I going to do? I had to come up with something fast that would get everyone away from the stage.

  I saw the band’s large box truck. I ran over to it, still not sure what I was looking for. I saw several metal lids with metal handles on the side; they looked like big sleds. Then I had an idea. I grabbed two of them from the back and ran over to where I had been sitting.

  Amber was the first one to see me.

  “What are those for, Nicholas?”

  Everyone looked at me, including Bryce who had joined the group now.

  “I’m here to challenge Chad to the rite of passage.”

  Elle jumped up and said, “No you’re not. Are you out of your mind?”

  I ignored her and looked right at Chad.

  “Oliver chose me to challenge at the last quarry party, so that makes me responsible to challenge the next captain, and that’s you. So I challenge you to sand boarding. I saw it online being done in Nicaragua on some active volcano. The one who makes it to the bottom of that hill still standing or in one piece wins.” I was pointing to the large pile of sand and gravel behind them.

  All three of the girls were telling us to stop, to not be stupid. I wished they knew that I was trying to save people’s lives.

  “So, Chad, what do you think?” I asked. Amber was trying to pull him away, pleading with him not to listen.

  Chad smiled. “Keller, you’re on.”

  Eric was pumping his fist in the air like he just won something. Chad grabbed one of the metal tops and followed me to the pile. As we got closer, it got taller, a lot taller. It had to be over five stories high and 100 yards long. From where we were sitting it didn’t look so big. What was I thinking? I didn’t turn back to see if Elle was following me. I couldn’t bear to see her face right now. We started up the hill. The pile had become solid from sitting over the years. Only a thin sheet of loose sand and gravel covered it. I heard the buzz behind us getting louder and louder as we climbed higher. Eric was in his element, promoting the challenge. He must have run around to everyone telling them about the challenge, which is what I was counting on. By the time we got to the top, the entire party was around the pile, cheering loudly. There were just a couple of people next to the stage now. Then the stage went dark. Genevieve had done it. We had done it! But now I had to go through with this crazy, stupid stunt.

  “Keller, I knew you were brave, but this is insane.”

  I smiled. Just last year, I was upset that Oliver was doing something so dangerous and here I was about to do something as dangerous, if not more so.

  “So what are the rules to your rite of passage?”

  “The first person who makes it to the bottom on two feet either standing or crouching wins.”

  I looked down the large sloping hill. I stepped into the metal box top. Chad did the same thing. We were so high up that I couldn’t make out anyone’s face. But it didn’t matter; I knew Elle was down there, ready to kill me. I might save her the trouble by killing myself right now.

  “Ready, set, go!” I yelled.

  The fire inside me filled my body. My muscles pulled and strained. I could feel the blood pumping through them. We were only ten feet into our descent when everything slowed down. The rough ride now felt like I was on a smooth sheet of ice. Chad, on the other hand, was jerking back and forth violently, trying to maintain his balance. He was a blur. We were only about a third of the way down when he slowly started to lean my way. His blurred body indicated how he was trying not to fall, but it was no use—he was about to. I hit his shoulder like I was falling toward him. It did the trick. He slowly centered himself on the metal lid and grabbed both sides of it, crouching down and stabilizing himself. I was lucky that he fell toward me. If he started to fall away from me or forward, I might have had to do something drastic that would draw a lot of attention. But I would have had to chance it since I put Chad into this dangerous situation.

  The farther he went down the hill, his motion became more erratic. He became blurrier because of all of the back and forth movement. Still in slow motion, he was moving fast enough to create large blurs of movement around him. I could barely make out the shape of his body. He was getting tired from the jarring, but we were close. He just had to make it to the end.

  We only had about 20 yards left before it would slope gradually to the end. Just then I saw Chad start to move quickly forward. He was getting ready to wipe out hard, face first. In my mind, I could see all the different possibilities of what was about to happen, and there was only one scenario where Chad wouldn’t get hurt.

  I leaned hard on my box and swerved in right behind him. I kicked my lid toward him. It hit his and sent his sled back underneath his feet, making him regain his balance. I hit the surface of the hill hard. The initial impact didn’t hurt at all, but then time went back to normal. The other hits after the first hurt. Chad stood up to the roar of the crowd. I slowly stood up at the bottom of the hill. I could feel the stings and burns on my back from hitting the gravel pile. I held my hand up to show everyone I was okay. The crowd cheered.