Chapter 8

Michael

I loved getting to sleep in. Saturday mornings were the best. The first thing I did after waking up was pull open the top drawer of my dresser. Within it rested the blue stone, the meteorite that Angela and I had found last night. This was where I planned to keep it safe and hidden.

I got out my phone and started typing a message. Hey Angela. When can we talk? I have so many questions about last night.”

I jumped as my bedroom door flew open. I quickly pushed my drawer closed just as my little sister Sarah barged in. She glanced at the drawer I’d just closed but didn’t mention anything about it.

“Have you ever heard of knocking?” I asked.

“Oh good, you’re up” she said, ignoring my sarcasm. “It’s almost noon, sleepyhead! Zack and I are waiting for you to come down and play. C’mon Michael, we need a goalie!” She was wearing soccer shorts and shoes with her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She played on the freshman soccer team, and me on varsity. We practiced together often with our cousin, Zack.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Be right down.”

I got dressed quickly and ran downstairs. I stopped mid stride by the TV. The news was showing videos of small meteorite craters in some cities in the western states. Apparently, the meteor shower covered a large area, just like Angela’s dad predicted. I wondered if those meteorites had glowing stones that would zap people too. Should I warn people about that? Mr. Johnson told me not to.

“What time did you get home, Michael?” Startled, I turned to see my mom giving me a stern look from behind her glasses. She was dressed comfortably, with her blonde hair down and sweats on.

I frowned. “About two in the morning.” I probably could’ve lied, but I never was very good at it.

“You know the curfew is midnight, don’t you?”

I nodded. “I would’ve come home earlier, but…” Should I tell her about the meteor shower? I decided against it, considering Mr. Johnson’s warning. “But…” I continued. “We just got distracted and stayed out too late. My bad.”

“Distracted?” Mom said with a raised eyebrow. “Did you go and kiss her on your first date?”

I blushed, grateful my black eye was mostly healed. “No, mom! We were just talking and stargazing and lost track of time… that’s all.”

She pressed her lips together. “I’m sure that was fun, but you know the rules. Your consequence for staying out too late is to do a major chore. The backyard needs some work. It needs to be mowed, weeded, and watered. Oh, and don’t forget to weed the flowerbeds too.”

I heaved a sigh. “Okay.”

“I know Zack and Sarah are out there playing. You can go ahead and play with them first, but as soon as Zack leaves, start working on that backyard, okay?”

“Got it,” I said, already heading to the door that led to the backyard. Working on the backyard was going to be a pain, but I was excited to play some soccer with Zack and Sarah first. I really needed to do something to get my mind off of the meteor shower and the blue stone hidden up in my bedroom.

My phone buzzed. Angela had responded to my text. I’ve got tons of questions too, her message said. My dad flew out to New York, said he’d be gone for about a week, and wouldn’t tell me why. I’d love to get together with you, but with my dad gone, I’ve got a lot of extra unpacking projects to do. We’ll have to get together sometime next week.

Sounds good, I responded. Talk to you later. I stashed my phone in my pocket and sighed. That did not sound good. I wanted to know more about the stone, about what her dad was up to. He totally freaked me out last night! Apparently, though, she didn’t know any more about it than I did. Still, it would be nice to talk with her about it—figure out why it made me black out. Maybe she got sick of me after the first date?

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I walked outside and saw Zack and Sarah kicking a soccer ball back and forth. They’d set up a small goal but weren’t using it at the moment. My backyard was pretty big, which was great for playing soccer, but terrible for mowing the grass.

“There’s our goalie!” Zack said as he kicked the ball to me. I stopped it with my foot and passed it to Sarah. “You were up late with that new girl, weren’t you?” He asked with a smirk.

“Ooh! Did you kiss her?” Sarah asked, passing the ball to Zack.

My mom and sister were so nosy. “No,” I said. “Isn’t it an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t kiss girls on a first date?”

“Not in my rule book,” Zack said as he balanced the ball on his foot and then kicked it to me, his red curly hair bouncing as he moved. “I kiss girls all the time on the first date. They love it!”

“And how many of those girls end up going on a second date with you?” Sarah asked.

“All of them! Girls just can’t get enough of these lips, baby!”

I snickered. Sarah gagged. I knew he was lying. I doubted Zack had even gone on a date before. He always bragged about how popular he was to Sarah and me, but I knew that we were his only friends at school. And we weren’t even close friends, but we were cousins, so we still hung out with him. He had some other friends that I saw every now and then, but I don’t think they were students.

“Alright Michael,” Sarah said. “I’m ready to shoot some goals. I don’t think you’re going to block a single one!”

“Bring it on, sis!” I jogged over to the less-than-officially sized goal. “Nothing gets by me.”

“If she won’t make anything, then I will!” Zack said confidently.

I stood in front of the goal and crouched into position. I felt a twinge of sadness. It’d been a while since I’d played soccer. I still had three more weeks before the suspension was up, and I could play on the team again. My team had lost the game a couple days ago, and I wondered if we would’ve won had I been there.

Sarah stepped away from the ball, ready to shoot. I shook off those thoughts and focused on defending the goal. I clapped my hands and bounced on my toes, smirking at Sarah, showing her my confidence.

She ran toward the ball and kicked it hard to my right. I was about to lunge to block it, when the ball suddenly slowed down, as if someone had turned on a slow-motion button. I was so stunned, I let the ball fly right by me, right into the goal’s net.

“Oh yeah!” Sarah shouted, her hands above her head. “She shoots, she scores! Too fast for you to even react, Michael.”

I stood there, frozen. What was that? I looked at my hands. They were… tingling…. My whole body was tingling, as if there were a thousand tiny needles poking my skin! The feeling slowly died down into nothing. That was weird, I thought.

“My turn,” Zack said, placing the ball and stepping away from it.

I bounced on the balls of my feet and clapped my hands, shaking off whatever was wrong with me. “Alright,” I said. “Lucky shot, Sarah. I’ll stop this one, Zack.”

Zack ran to the ball and kicked it low and to my left. I reached for it, and then it happened again. The ball slowed down dramatically. Everything seemed to slow down. That tingling feeling returned. It wasn’t a painful feeling, it was… energizing. I moved toward the ball. I seemed to move fast while everything else remained slow. I blocked the ball with ease, sending it bouncing away. Suddenly everything returned to normal speed; the tingling dying down.

“Blocked!” Sarah shouted. “Too bad, Zack. I’ll show you how it’s done.” She set up to shoot again.

“Whoa, guys,” I said. “Did you see that?”

“See what?” Zack asked.

“Everything slowed down, like slow-motion.”

Sarah laughed. “Nice one! Zack’s shots are like slow-motion when you compare them to mine, huh?”

“Psh!” Zack said. “I’ll make my next one for sure! That was just a lucky block! He guessed right!”

“No, guys,” I said, feeling a little frantic. “It was like I could move at super speed or something.”

Sarah and Zack looked at each other. “Okay…” Sarah said, rolling her eyes. “I’m up!”

She ran to the ball and kicked it just above my head. Again, the ball slowed down and the tingling feeling returned. This can’t be happening! I casually reached up to the ball and caught it. It didn’t even sting my hands. All I could feel was power… sheer power!

Sarah huffed. “Nice catch.”

“Whoa,” I muttered, looking up at the ball. The tingling feeling died down again. What was going on?

I tossed the ball to Zack and he set up to kick. I took a deep breath, trying to compute what had just happened. Before I had the chance, Zack kicked the ball. It went way too high, far above the goal. The power surge returned. The ball flew slowly, high above my head. Out of reflex, I jumped to catch the ball even though I knew it was far out of reach, but when I jumped, I jumped!

I caught the ball quickly, but then I kept going up! I looked down at the ground as I started to fall and gasped. I was about thirty feet in the air! Higher than my house! I plummeted to the ground, screaming, but I landed comfortably on my feet. No pain at all. Just that tingling feeling that started to die down again. I looked up at Zack and Sarah. Their jaws hit the ground, looking absolutely stunned. And I felt as surprised as they looked.