Chapter 153
My pity party was interrupted by Brandon’s exclamation of, “Now that’s a climbing wall!” We were in the main part of the gym now, and I had to agree with him. We were looking at a monster.
“It’s a pretty difficult climb,” Aaron was saying. Gesturing at the other side of the gym, he said, “And that is called The Hill.” It was an incredibly steep incline that reached almost to the ceiling, which looked to be at least three or four stories above us.
“Whoa! I wish we’d had that at football practice. That thing is steep,” Brandon marveled as we approached it. “You just run up it?”
With a bit of a smirk on his face, Aaron asked, “Care to demonstrate, Cadence?”
My sister was standing next to me. She had one hand on her stomach, and for the first time I realized she had a pained look on her face, like something was bothering her. “Uh, sure. Give me a second,” she said, but her voice sounded different.
Aaron stepped over to her, his face mirroring my own concern. “Everything okay?”
Taking a few deep breaths, Cadence said, “Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t know. My stomach just feels funny. Kind of like I feel whenever there’s a Vampire around.”
“That’s strange,” Aaron said, looking around the gym like he thought we might have company. I couldn’t help but follow his eyes, though he didn’t seem to be alarmed. “I wonder what would be causing that.”
I remembered what I’d learned earlier about Vampires being required to turn themselves in. “Don’t you have Vampires here?” I questioned. “The ones that need tagged?”
“We do,” Cadence nodded, still rubbing her stomach, though she didn’t look as worried as she had a moment ago. “But those don’t usually bother me. Their facility is on the other side of campus.”
Brandon had another explanation that my sister didn’t think was funny at all, and I kinda didn’t blame her, and after the two of them went back and forth a few times like siblings, my sister finally seemed like she was feeling better as she said to him, “Now, why don’t you race me up this hill and show Cass what a loser you are?”
“No way,” Brandon shot back, shaking his head empathically. “I saw you throw yourself through a glass window and rip the head off of a monster. I ain’t racing you up no hill. I’ve got a reputation to protect.”
Despite having listened quietly while they argued, I had to get in on this. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about your reputation with me,” I said, smiling at him sweetly. “I already think you’re a loser.” I batted my eyelashes at him and patted him on the arm.
Brandon looked a bit taken aback for a moment before he realized I was teasing him because I don’t think he’s such a bad guy, and he said, “Hardy har har,” giving me a playful shove.
I didn’t get a chance to push him back before my sister’s shocked voice cut through the gym. “What did you say?”
Shrugging, Brandon replied, “Oh, it’s just an old saying I picked up off of The Three Stooges or something,”
“Your dad used to say that,” Cadence explained. “How bizarre.”
“Are you feeling better?” Aaron asked, quickly changing the subject. I wondered if he didn’t want to talk about Elliott at all or just didn’t want to compare Brandon to the dad he never met. This boy was growing on me, I had to admit it, but the fact that he didn’t have a relationship at all with his dad, a man I had loved dearly, wouldn’t leave my mind. Neither would the fact that he was just introduced to this world recently, had no idea what he was stepping into, but would be Transforming a full year ahead of me.
I realized my sister was replying to Aaron’s question and tried to hone in on her answer. “Good enough to beat you up The Hill.” She was feeling well enough to be ornery.
“You may have broken my record once,” he replied, “but that was…” Aaron hesitated and looked at Brandon and me and then back to Cadence, “before. I’m pretty sure I can beat you now.”
Before what? I wondered but miraculously kept my mouth shut.
Cadence scooted up to a line marked on the ground in front of The Hill, and we all followed. She got into a runner’s stance and said, “Well, I won’t go down easily.”
Brandon made another smart remark I didn’t quite catch and she glared at him for a moment before Aaron got into position next to her. I noted neither of them were wearing workout clothes or running shoes and wondered how this might go down, but I was interested in seeing exactly how fast they might be.
Aaron slowly counted to three and they took off. My eyes couldn’t even process what I was seeing. My sister is super fast, but Aaron was standing at the bottom with his arms folded waiting for her when she got back, and it couldn’t have taken her more than five seconds to run all the way up there and back down. My mouth was hanging open. He wasn’t even sweating and my sister hardly had a stitch in her breath.
“How did you do that?” I exclaimed.
“That was insane!” Brandon shouted at the same time. The two of us just stared at each other for a moment, as if checking our own sanity.
Aaron didn’t seem to think it was such a big deal. Looking at Cadence, he said, “I told you I was faster now.”
“That’s crazy. I think you did that in four seconds without jumping. You’re just a blur now.” She inhaled deeply a few times to get her breathing back to normal.
“Am I going to be that fast after I Transform?” Brandon asked, still in awe.
“No!” Cadence and Aaron answered simultaneously, and both of our eyes widened at their forceful answers. Once again, Brandon and I were exchanging glances.
Clearing his throat, Aaron said, “There’s a reason I’m so much faster than everyone else, but we’re not going to go into that right now. I’ll explain it to you in due time.” We both nodded; it wasn’t like we could argue with him.
