Chapter 3

Michael

My bedroom light flipped on, blinding my dreary eyes. “Up and at ‘em, Michael,” Mom said in her usual, perky voice at 7:13 a.m. “I heard your alarm go off the first time at seven. It’s not like you to sleep through your alarm.” She dropped off a basket of clean laundry and left the room.

I struggled to open my eyes. Did my mom really come in or was that a dream? Images of Ray tackling me and me sitting in detention flashed in my mind. Were those dreams too? I yawned and extended each of my limbs into a giant stretch. “Ouch!” I mumbled as a throbbing pain in my stomach zapped me to full consciousness.

I sat up and inspected my reflection in the mirror on the wall. My left eye was swollen half shut and the skin surrounding it took on a distinctive, purple hue. I instantly remembered my fight with Ray Simmons. I caressed my nose; it hurt to move, but at least it stopped bleeding.

As quickly and painlessly as I could, I showered, put on some clothes, and made my way to the kitchen for breakfast. Dad and Mom were sitting at the table talking about Newel’s Comet—their food still untouched. The rule was to eat meals only together as a family.

Dad wore his glasses, a red bow tie, and a plaid shirt with slacks—what he always wore for work. Mom wore a blue casual business dress. They were both college professors. Dad taught the general astronomy classes and Mom taught advanced astronomy classes. That should explain why we had half a dozen telescopes on the deck.

I eased into my chair and noticed Dad gawking at me. “What?” I asked.

He pointed at my face. “So, this is from the fight your Mom told me about last night, huh?” I frowned and nodded. “Did you start the fight?” I shook my head. “Did you finish the fight?” I shook my head again. “Did you fight back at all?”

“Yeah,” I said while looking at the table. “I hit him and kicked him a few times.”

“His name is Ray Simmons, the quarterback,” Mom said with a sneer. “The boy Michael has been fighting with since fifth grade.”

“That’s right. Were you fighting for a good cause?” Dad asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Ray was picking on Sarah, so I told him to back off. Then he blew up in my face and started punching me.”

“Then good job, son,” Dad said. “You did the right thing.”

Mom gasped, glared at Dad, and turned back at me. “You didn’t just tell him to back off, did you, Michael? You told me you shoved Ray away from Sarah.”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I guess I did.”

“Then technically you started the fight.” She turned back to Dad. “Don’t encourage our son to start more fights, John.”

“Bah! That’s exactly what I’ll do!” Dad said with a confident smile. He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “Michael, if there is a just and worthy cause, then fight! Start the fight and finish the fight. Don’t wait for them to hurt you or anyone else. Stop them before they can. Don’t let them walk all over you. This world needs more people who fight for what’s right before the wrong thing happens.”

A grin crept onto my face.

Mom rolled her eyes at Dad and looked at me. “He’s talking about fighting figuratively, son. You don’t need to actually push or punch anybody. Once you turn eighteen you can fight by voting.”

“No,” Dad corrected. “I meant fighting literally. Remember 9/11? Flight 93? If they didn’t fight to stop the hijackers, then they would’ve hit the Whitehouse.”

“That’s different than a school fight, John”

“Not so much. When I was a kid I wish I would’ve actually done something with all the bullies that—”

“Good morning,” Sarah mumbled. My little sister slid into her chair looking barely awake, her blonde hair going in every direction. Without saying anything, she grabbed a waffle and started eating. That was the cue for the rest of us to dig in.

Mom and Dad continued their debate while they ate. They debated about five or six topics a day. That included science, politics, religion, teaching, cooking, parenting, and whatever new topic came to mind. And they made sure to clarify that they were only debating, not arguing—but that was debatable too.

Sarah glanced up at me and nearly choked on her food. She pointed at my eye. “Good luck getting a girlfriend with that!”

I stabbed a slice of bacon off of her plate and promptly stuffed it into my mouth.

“Hey!” Sarah complained.

“Eat your own food!” Mom said, mid-debate.

Sarah huffed, glaring at me with her green eyes. I smiled, my mouth full. She looked away. “Mom, Dad, can either of you pick me up after school?” she asked.

“Why can’t Michael drive you home?” Dad said.

“He has to stay an hour later for detention.”

My stomach sunk. I’d forgotten about detention.

♦♦♦

I walked through the school plaza to get to my last class of the day, physical science. I could tell people were glancing, but never staring at my black eye. After they passed by me, I could hear them laughing and joking about how I got beat up yesterday. I took a deep breath and told myself that the day was almost over. One more class, then detention, and then I can go home and hide in my room.

Somebody bumped into me from behind. It was my cousin, Zack Larson. He was about a foot shorter than me with red curly hair and freckles all over. He laughed when he saw me cringe in pain. “How’re you holding up Cuz?” He slapped me on the shoulder and laughed when I cringed again.

“Just barely,” I said.

“No worries,” he said with a smile. “Sure, you’ll miss a day or two of practice, but you should be fit to play at our game on Thursday.”

I shook my head. “No, man. I got suspended from soccer for a month.”

Zack stopped walking. “What? You’ve got to be joking. You’re our best goalie! What’re we gonna do without you?”

“You can try for goalie…”

“No way, man. I’m not tall enough. Plus, it’s gonna suck without you there. You’re my only friend on the team. The rest of the guys hate me.”

“Sorry Cuz.” I started walking to class again.

Zack caught up. “Did Ray get suspended too?”

“Nope.”

“That’s retarded!” He pulled on his backpack. “We should get back at Ray!”

I nodded absently. “The principal is on his side. Coach Jones defended Ray to keep his star quarterback on the field. There’s nothing we can do.”

“Oh, there is definitely something we can do!” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a large pocket knife. “Let’s find his car and slash his tires!”

I laughed.

He didn’t.

I stopped walking. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Yeah!” Zack said, looking surprised that I wasn’t. “He’s picked on enough people and gotten away with it! It’s about time he gets what he deserves!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Dude, that’s dropping to his level; besides, it’s illegal. What if we got caught?”

“We won’t. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it.”

Sometimes I wondered if I really knew my cousin at all. We grew up together and hung out a lot, but we were never what I would call best friends. “Forget it, Zack. We’re not slashing Ray’s tires. You shouldn’t have a knife at school anyways, it’s against the rules.”

Zack rolled his eyes. “C’mon Michael. You care too much about rules.”

“And you care too little.”

Zack and I split up. He went to Spanish while I went to physical science. Fortunately, there were a couple of empty desks at the back of the classroom. As I walked in, it felt like everyone was staring at my bruised face. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alex Reyes using his hands to reenact Ray tackling me. Several girls whispered to each other, staring at me and giggling. I got to my desk and slunk into my seat.

The guy in the desk in front of me turned around. It was Chase Whipple, a friend of mine from the soccer team. “Hey, Michael. I heard about the fight,” he said sympathetically. “Heard you got suspended too.”

I nodded. Chase was pretty cool.

“That’s rough,” he said. “Just so you know… Coach made me team captain while you’re gone.”

A pit formed in my stomach. I worked up a fake smile. “Great, you deserve it.”

“We’ll still need you for next month’s games,” Chase said. “Keep on coming to practices after detention.”

“Okay,” I said without feeling very committed. I pulled out my phone just to look at it.

He could tell I wasn’t in the mood to talk about soccer, so he changed the subject. “So, have you seen the new girl yet?”

“No.”

“Well, I saw her in my first class today, and whew—she could model for a living!”

I chuckled. “So, did you ask for her number?”

“No man, I chickened out! I’m planning on it though. I just—oh dude, that’s her!”

The bell rang as I turned my attention to the doorway and saw the girl Chase was talking about. He was right, she was definitely beautiful—long light brown hair, flawless pale skin, chocolatey brown eyes, and a confident smile that seemed to warm up the room. She wore blue jeans and a light white jacket over a striped shirt.

Chase glanced back at me with a big smile. “So hot…” he whispered.

“Cool,” I said, uninterested. Well, mostly uninterested. It was hard not to look at her.

“Attention class,” Mr. Gerald said from the front of the classroom. “If you haven’t met our new student at school yet, this is Angela Johnson.”

“Hello,” she said to the class with a perky wave and smile. A few students waved in return.

“Tell us a bit about yourself, Angela. Where did you move from?”

“New York City.” Her voice was crisp and smooth at the same time.

“Wow. And what brings a New Yorker to the hot state of Arizona?”

“All the pools.” A few students laughed. “No—my dad’s work.”

“Great. Nice to meet you, Angela. Please take a seat.” Mr. Gerald gestured to the open desk at the back of the class—the desk beside mine….

Mr. Gerald began his lesson as Angela slid into her seat. I kept my head down, trying to hide my black eye. She smelled good. Piña colada I think. She unzipped her backpack to get out her notebook.

Chase glanced back at me while she wasn’t looking. He pointed at my phone and mouthed, “Dude, you should get her number!”

I shook my head and pointed to my black eye, as if that was all I needed to say, No way, man! I look like Rocky Balboa after he fought Apollo Creed! There’s no way I could flirt with a girl while looking like this! I think he got the message, but he kept grinning at me.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to your face?”

I jumped in my seat. Angela was looking right at my eye. I couldn’t tell if she were about to laugh or about to cry. Chase looked away and snorted while trying to suppress laughter.

I blushed. “Uh… I… uh—”

“Does it hurt?” she asked quietly.

I finally got around to answering her first question. “I got in a fight yesterday.”

“Really?” she whispered, looking curious. “That must’ve been an ugly fight.” I nodded, unsure of what else to say. I was being a complete dufus, and I thought she would’ve lost interest in me by now, but she kept asking questions. “So, who won?”

I frowned. “Well… that’s hard to say. How would you define winning a fight?”

“Hmm…” She bit her lip in a playful way. “Whoever has the biggest black eye afterward.”

“I guess you’re looking at the winner then.”

She smiled. Wow, she had quite the smile…. She extended a hand to me. “And what’s the victor’s name?”

I blinked with my one good eye, realizing she’d asked me a question. “Uh, Michael.” I shook her hand. “And you’re Angela, right?”

She nodded and shook my hand. “Nice to meet you, Michael.”

I grinned back, suddenly not feeling depressed anymore. We turned our attention to Mr. Gerald. I noticed Chase peeking back at me, pointing at my phone and mouthing, “Get her number!”

This time I strongly considered Chase’s advice. My hands began to sweat, and my stomach tied itself in knots.

“Hey, Angela,” I said. She turned to me and smiled. “So, I was wondering—”

“Mr. Stone!” Mr. Gerald snapped at me. “Since you apparently already know this material, could you please explain it to the class?”

My mind went blank. “Umm…” I tried to orient my thoughts back to the lesson. “Explain what exactly?”

Several students snickered.

He rolled his eyes and pointed to the white board that had Nuclear Fusion written on it.

“Right… nuclear fusion.” Everyone looked at me. “So… that basically refers to two atoms that collide with each other, joining to form the next element up the periodic table, right? Like how two hydrogen atoms can combine to form helium and release a huge amount of energy—the same energy used by our sun and all the stars in the universe. Something like that, right?”

I heard a few more snickers in front of me. Chase turned and gave me a suspicious look. I blushed. Did that sound too nerdy?

Mr. Gerald narrowed his eyes. “You’re lucky to have professional astronomers as parents, Michael. Next class we’ll be talking about organic chemistry. You’re going to have to pay closer attention to explain that one correctly.”

I nodded sheepishly, doubting that were true, and he resumed teaching. Angela shot me another smile, and then turned her attention to the front of the classroom.

We remained silent throughout the remainder of class. The bell rang, and the classroom went into an uproar as the students rose from their desks, excited to leave their last class of the day. Mr. Gerald reminded us about a homework assignment as we exited the room, but I was sure nobody was listening. Angela was at my side as we walked through the bustling hallway. Chase winked at me as he left. I blushed again, my swollen eye throbbing.

“So, your parents are astronomers?” Angela asked.

“Yeah,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “They both teach astronomy at the University of Arizona. Pretty geeky, huh?”

“No way! I love astronomy! I have my own telescope and everything! My dad is an astronomer too!”

“Really?” I didn’t see that coming. She suddenly became ten times cooler. I’d never met anyone in my high school who liked astronomy. “Well, it makes sense you and your dad moved here,” I said. “Tucson is one of the best stargazing sites in the world. And I bet it’s impossible to see the stars in New York.”

“That’s true in the city, but the stars are plenty visible throughout the rest of the state.”

“Oh yeah.” I’d obviously never been to New York. “Then why did your dad move here?

“My dad is what’s called an archeoastronomer; that means—”

“He studies the history of astronomical events.” I blushed after I said it. Too smart. Tone it down.

Angela’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! Wow, most people have no clue what that means. So, all of his research has to do with meteorites. Ancient ones, new ones, and even predicted ones. My dad predicts that when Newel’s Comet gets closer to earth this weekend, there will be a huge meteor shower, and most of it will land in the southwestern states and Mexico. Arizona seemed to be the best place for him to be in the middle of it all.”

“Cool. And you’re fine with moving all the way out here just for a meteor shower?”

“Yeah, well…” She thought for a moment. “It’s nothing new. I’ve moved all over the nation with my dad, never living at a place for more than a few years.”

“Sounds rough.”

“Yeah, I’m used to it though.”

I kicked a rock off the sidewalk. “Well, I hope you get to stay here in Arizona for a long while.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

“I… uh…” All this blushing was giving me a headache. “So, I’ve uh… I’ve got to go to detention now.”

“Detention? Oh, right. Because of the fight you got in yesterday?”

“Yep. So, it was nice to meet you, Angela. I hope to see you tomorrow—I mean, I look forward to seeing you next time in class.” I spun on my heels and strode in the opposite direction.

“Okay,” she said. “See you later, Michael.”

After several steps, I stopped and looked back at Angela. She was already walking to the school parking lot. I stood there debating with myself if I were going to do what I was thinking about doing.

My heart thumped as I finally made up my mind, and jogged towards her, my legs feeling wobbly. “Hey, Angela!”

“Yes?” she said, turning her head, her light brown hair dancing around her shoulders.

“I was wondering…” I took a moment to breathe so I didn’t pass out. “So, this Friday is when that meteor shower is happening, right? Well, would you like to maybe go stargazing with me?”