Protectors - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She closed her locker, casted a furtive look about her and joined her impatient friend, who immediately started an eager conversation, pulling her down the hall.
I sighed. Guess it was too much to hope to hear a "Hi," from Terry Rhotes, the blond, the beautiful, and the popular. She had entered to the school at the start of the term, like, me, and was an instant hit. I knew I was treading on thin ice, liking another girl, after all that breakup mess, but it was now over ten months, and if these stuff are controllable, the world would be much on order.
It was 3months after I moved to Florida. If I had expected everything to be calm, I was wrong. In Florida, your life was messy on daily basis. From the school time table, to the morning talk shows to the street pranks, everything was inside out. There was never a single day that went according to a plan.
"Sam."
I was busy since the day I got here, having developed a friendship with Alex Miller, and having joined the basketball team in Alex's request (which had practices even at the unlikely time of 7.00 PM) and slipping down to the beach on weekends, and parties popping up everywhere, because my popularity had zoomed heavenwards (partly because of Alex) and partly because of Nicole Frayde.
"Sam."
Nicole, my cousin, was the daughter of mum's sister, Aunt June.
"SAM!"
Speaking of Nicole, she was currently trying to draw my attention from Terry and into her instead. For her, it was hard to resist when somebody's (especially a guy's - even family) attention was not in her. It was an understatement to say she was popular. She ruled the place like her own personal toy castle and she was the queen. Not so hard, considering her looks. She was blond, like me, with huge blue eyes, like me, and had the best taste in clothes, also like me. We were a lot alike, and physically, we could be siblings. All that had for a difference is that she demanded fame while I only welcomed it.
"Sam, get down to earth."
I shifted my gaze to a fuming Nicole. "Sorry, I just-"
"Got lost in Terry-land, I understand. Why don't you just ask her out?"
Nicole was an expert on relationships (although she's single) and this is exactly the sort of thing i don't need. I had no reason to get into a relationship with her, only to be friends. I despised another bite of a breakup, and to stay away from such, I should stay away from getting into a relationship at all. Until I can happily (or at least, bearably) take that breakup-mouthful.
"I'll wait," I said simply.
"Fine." She shook her head. "Listen, there's this party Jacie's throwing in her backyard this Friday night. You coming?"
I immediately smelled something fishy here. Nicole hardly invited me to her parties, unless she wanted to show me off like a pet, or if she needed something done. But lately, she had even been dropping into our house, getting a lot friendlier and everything. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and racked my list of names Nicole had casually thrown in conversation that kept on my memory, and was unable to find any form of a "Jacie".
"Wait, which one's Jacie?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes. "You don't know her. She goes to Midways."
The Midways Academy was a private school designed for the spoiled kids of insanely rich families. The school was enormous, with great architecture and the school gate alone would've been a few thousand dollars. Whoever Jacie is, this parties is sure to be a sizable one.
"Are you sure it's safe?"
"No alcohol."
I thought of my messed up schedule for Friday and found that there was no practice that day, and (I was in luck) my parents will be out of the city, visiting a sick colleague of mum's. They would take at least a day to get back.
"Sure, I'll be there."
Nicole grinned. "I heard Terry was coming too."

* * *

I sat at the back of the class, swinging my leg, doing my best not to follow Mark, this guy next to me, and fall asleep right on the desk. It's not as if our geography teacher, Mrs. Banks would notice. She was so old; she should've retired a decade ago. I doubted heavily she would be able to see or hear anything from the back of the class (explains why she hadn't done anything to prevent Mark from snoring so loudly). I couldn't catch a glimpse of Terry, only the back of her head, so I looked at Alex, who was near the window. He was doodling in a piece of paper, oblivious to the rest of the world. Nicole, right behind Alex, was staring at Alex. Half the guys in the class were staring at Nicole and it seemed as if the only people listening to the droning of old Banks was the class nerd, Andy Stevenson at the front row and Lynne Crest, a girl who looks nice and everything, but is interested more on studies. You had to give them some respect, not all of us are capable of listening and memorizing that stuff.
The basketball practices were much more exciting by comparison. Kyle, the team leader (scared of heights), had somehow gotten a grip of the basketball hoop while scoring, and was unable to let go for a half an hour. Coach Lizen (nicknamed Lizard for his obvious appearance) had to finally threaten to take off his captaincy to get him jump down. Lizen was a short man and looked like a lizard on its hind legs. He was friendly enough, and welcomed me with over pouring glee when he heard that I was the team captain of the previous school. I was offered a place alongside the rest of the team. The team was great and easy to work with, and the only problem was the irregularity of the practice sessions. Lizard kept saying he was a busy man, but it was common knowledge that it took him more than three hours to get dressed so as to not much like a lizard.
Once in the locker rooms, after the practice, it was not the subject of Coach Lizard's odd behavior that came to discussion, but of that party Nicole had told me.
"Dude, it's gonna be a total riot," I heard Kyle saying to Alex while I tried to stuff my clothes and the rest into my already overflowing bag. "I'm going to be there, sure as hell. You coming?"
Alex shrugged, pulling on a clean shirt. "Dunno. What about you, Sam?"
"Have to. Nicole asked me."
"Man, if Nicole's going to be there, so would I, "piped in Mark.
"Also, its Jacie's party," said this guy, Brian, who already has a cheerleader girlfriend, Kayla.
"Who is Jacie, anyway?" I asked Brian, while the rest broke into conversation.
"God, you don't know her?" asked Brian. "So rich, pretty and totally playing hard-to-get..." I sighed as he wondered off his thoughts.
It seemed as if the whole team was thrilled about going to the party (except the coach). I have to add that I was not so excited by the party as much as the others are. Honestly, I was more worked up on visiting my grandparents tonight. They were a pair of oddballs, and had me wondering from where mum's level headedness came from. Dad, however, was more than a match for the old pair.
We already knew Nicole, Aunt June and Uncle Silas would be there, so the other car parked outside was no surprise.
Grandpa opened the door when the bell was rung. "You can now stop looking for my old socks, dear," He called over his shoulder. "I found the source of the smell."
"Nice to meet you too, old man," dad told him with a sigh.
"That being said, come in, come in."
We visited my grandparents almost 2 or 3 times a month, but this particular visit was after a three week gap because of my uneven schedule. Nicole's family was constantly over there, given that grandpa and grandma went quite gracefully with uncle Silas.
After 30 minutes or so later, I found myself examining some of grandpa's athletic medals. Nicole was trying to learn grandma's secret recipe of some nameless food item that tasted wonderful, and surprisingly did not make you fat, but also made you slimmer. Or something like that.
The rest was in also in the kitchen, doing the cooking, and talking at the same time, and I had no heart to join in. Grandpa must have noticed this because he slipped from the kitchen and joined me.
"That was when I was playing basketball." He pointed at an old faded black and white photograph. The younger version of grandpa sat at the center of a pack of sweat stained guys hoisting a large cup shaped resembling a dude scoring, but actually looked like he was hanging on to the rim of the hoop. I remembered Kyle.
"I was 18. We won the championship." Grandpa straightened up. "Those were the fun times. Come on, I have something I've been meaning to show you."
He made his way up to the 2nd floor and I followed.
"What sort of a something?"
"Something you'll love, no doubt."
He clambered up the stairs to the attic. Having seen my grandparents' attic when I was about 12, I remembered it to be a very dusty, cramped and a stuffy place. It was the same after 6 years give or take a few layers of dust. I vaguely saw the sea from a particularly dusty small window. The place was full of every type of furniture on various stages of decay. It took me a few seconds of staring to detect a moth eaten sofa from the wall. An old gramophone lay broken on the floor along with a dozen or so tape recorders. Boxes were piled high, occupying one complete corner.
Grandpa stood at one wall that wasn't covered with any objects.
"Here," he gestured me to come closer, while he bent down and started rubbing about a meter high spot on the wall.
"What are you doing?" I asked, unable to contain my curiosity.
"Quick. Look through here." Grandpa pointed at the wall. I knelt in front of the wall, feeling foolish.
"C'mon. Keep an eye on it and look." There was a small hole in the wall, not unlike those that you see when the nails driven to the wall got unhinged. I did as told. Much closer, I realized that I could actually see a rocky spot on the beach.
"What can you see?" I heard grandpa ask eagerly.
"Um...rocks?"
"Exactly! Now back off, back off. Can you see the 'X'?"
I took a step backwards and squinted at the wall. Sure enough, right over the hole was a faint 'X' marked with red paint so faint that it practically merged with the wall.
"What-?"
"There's treasure under that rock!" Grandpa's voice was hardly a whisper. I actually got why my parents (mum, mostly) was so anxious to care for grandpa and grandma. "I wanted to check it out for ages. My father himself knew of this when he was a child. You won't believe it, that place, the rocks, might look close when seen like that, but it's almost half a mile up the beach from here. I used to go there at the night, try to hoist those rocks or something-"
"You didn't."
"Yes, I did, Sam, and old Martin found out, he did. Threatened to call the police if I ever tried to step into his yard. It's not my fault I wasn't aware that the old man owned that part of the beach as his yard..."
His voice trailed off. I thought he was totally lost on some past experience, the way he stared blankly for a few seconds.
"Sam," he spoke abruptly. "You know what I found one time I tried to dig that rock? A humongous cave. Never found it again." He shrugged. "Well, there're mysteries I'd like to see solved. Some I'd like to leave alone, and this one belongs to the latter, I'm telling you."
He suddenly turned and walked over to a rickety old table that was halfway upturned. He started pulling out its drawers, clearly looking for something, while I wiped the glass of the window the best I could and peered out into the dark. Only a part of the beach could be seen from this vantage point. And I saw no rocks.
"This," I heard grandpa say, "was what I really wanted to show you."
When I turned, he had a small object hanging from his hand. He came closer to me, opened my hand, and placed it on my palm. It was a chain, and hanging from it was a small ornament, much like a pendant, flat and square shaped with a circle engraved in the middle. In the center of the circle sat a very small red stone, almost like a drop of blood. I took a guess that both the chain and the pendant were silver in color, but it was hard to be sure. The dirt upon it was practically flaking off.
"It is pure silver, all of it," said grandpa. "And the stone is a ruby."
I opened my mouth to ask what something this valuable was doing in a drawer in a dusty attic, but he interrupted, as if he knew my question.
"It was passed down from my father. I hid it here for safe keeping, until I can give it to you." Well, it's one place no thief would look for.
Grandpa peered into my eyes. "I've been meaning to give it to you for some time." He put a hand on mine and curled my fingers around the pendant. "Keep it with you. It will ward off evil."
I glanced up at his face. It was dirty, as the rest of the items thrown in here. He was old, like all the other things casted out. There was a few seconds of silence that made me uneasy.
"Sam! Where are you?" I think it's agreeable that mum's voice made us both jump.