Champions of Serenity :Gathering the Circle

Chapter Six

The stringent odor of the hospital emergency room stung in Jared’s nose. His leg was still numb from the local anesthesia used by the doctor to set the bone and wrap it in fiberglass. The rest of his body, on the other hand, hurt. He had been rushed from the school baseball diamond to the emergency room after he slid into third base and felt the sickening snap in his leg. The bad part was…his team was winning and it was against their biggest rivals…and without him…. He sighed, hoping for the best but not very optimistic.

“Oh, c’mon, it won’t be that bad. Besides, you know what they say.”

“No, Grant, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?” The worry and pain made Jared’s voice sharper than necessary. He tried to smile to take the sting out of the words but it was more of a grimace. Grant was still Jared’s best friend and live-in brother.

Grant looked over at Jared and shook his head. The emergency room nurse was still fussing over the cast on Jared’s leg. She kept looking at the two young men, smiling at them. Grant could tell that his buddy wasn’t in the mood for this, and considering that this busted leg and torn knee-cartilage meant the end of his baseball for the season, Grant could understand.

“Never mind, Jer, it isn’t important. Look, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll cook tonight. Okay?”

“Are you two roommates?” The nurse asked, looking from one to the other. She was young and pretty and obviously trying to flirt with either one of them.

“Not really.” Jared hissed and biting his lip as Grant slapped his back, moving his leg. “He’s sort of my . . . brother.”

The nurse looked from the dark and brooding Jared to the golden beauty Grant and her eyes widened. In the past year and a half they had been friends and live-in brothers, Grant had spent most of his time with Jared and his mom, Jackie. Grant had spent six weeks with his parents, traveling with them during the summer. And during the rest of the year, when the Thomas’s had time off of their jobs, they would come and stay with the Morgan’s. Grant’s parents saw how much their son thrived with Jared and Jackie and were happy to let him stay, even though they missed him when he wasn’t with them.

“Don’t confuse her, Jer.” Grant smiled at the nurse in that million-dollar way he had. “My parents travel in Europe, so I live with my best friend, Jared, and his mom. That way I get to go to normal high school and have a real life.”

“Ah.” The nurse nodded and gave Jared a look of sympathy when Grant again jarred his leg. Then another nurse wheeled a wheelchair into the room. “Okay, Mr. Morgan, your mother is waiting for you at the entrance. And next time, try to keep your leg straight when you slide into third base.”

Grant laughed while Jared only nodded. Then Jared got into the wheelchair and Grant took it from the nurse and the two left the hospital. In the car, Jared closed his eyes and tried to let the painkillers ease the whole afternoon.

The next morning, before school, Jared found a place to perch on the edge of a raised flower bed. He set the crutches to the side and took his backpack off. Thumping the cast with the back of his hand, Jared grimaced at the reader board showing their school had lost 5 runs to 7. It made him sick to his stomach to think that if he had been there they could have won.

“Oh, C’mon, Jer, it won’t be that bad.”

Jared glared at his best friend. “That is what you said at the hospital, Grant. And the only thing that has changed is now I itch as well as hurt. Oh, and I know that we lost the game yesterday.”

“But now you will have the sympathy of all the girls in school . . .” Grant tried to console his friend, saw it wasn’t working and sighed. He wondered when this streak of brooding had grown in Jared. Maybe it was the visit this summer from his half-brothers, Brian and Josh.

“Great, that is all I need, more girls falling at my feet.” Jared had finally won the heart of Emily Hollingsworth and he didn’t want or need any more female attention. It wasn’t that Emily was jealous; it was all the problems he had with Darin, Emily’s brother, which made it hard. Darin was jealous for his sister, which was totally weird to Jared.

“Who’s falling at your feet this time, Jer?” Mike came up behind Grant and slapped him on his shoulder. Then he noticed Jared sitting and the crutches next to him. “Damn, Jer, what happened to you?”

“Har, har, Mike.” That was another of the problems in dating Emily, her cousin, Mike Jacobson. Mike was hyper and super intelligent when it came to computers and such, but a total geek when it came to dealing with people. And just like Darin, Mike was overly protective of his cousin.

Mike took a step back and looked at Grant. Grant just shrugged as if to say, “He’s been like this since the accident.” Jared rolled his eyes and turned to ease the pain in his leg and wait for the rest of the gang to arrive.

“So, what’s the new game this year, Mike?” Grant asked, trying to change the subject. Mike and Darin were partners in a small business that designed computer games and sold them to the bigger companies. They had been doing this since they were kids as a hobby and made it into the business just last year with the help of Darin’s dad.

“It’s called; ‘Road Runner’ and I designed it this year.” Darin called out, walking up between his sister and Karen. Karen left Darin’s side and walked over to Grant, wrapping her arm around his waist. “So, Jer, what happened to you?”

Darin and Grant had met Grant’s first year at this school in biology. They had become good friends throughout that first year working as lab partners. It was through Grant that Darin met Jared and through Darin that Grant and Jared met Mike, Emily and Karen. The six of them made one of popular groups in school and many people watched them and dreamed. For their parts, only Karen played the role of teen queen to the hilt, the others were just normal kids wanting to fit in and do well in school and not get into too much trouble to have fun.

“I broke my leg and messed up my knee again, and this time the doc said no more baseball. I’ve done too much damage to the cartilage. At least this time, I took out Roger Dent as well. That smart ass has been looking for it ever since last season when he . . .” Jared said to Darin, smiling as Emily moved to sit next to him.

“Please, Jer, I don’t want to know.” Karen’s snide tone brought a grunt of disapproval from everyone. Jared didn’t even bother responding to Karen…problem number three in dating Emily. Karen was extremely jealous of anyone taking Emily’s time away from her and she wasn’t shy about letting that be known. At first Jared didn’t understand why Emily put up with it until he got to know both of the much better. Now he understood the dynamic between the girls and was amazed at the strength of it. Maybe someday he would like Karen more, but for now, he was more than happy to have secured Emily as his own.

“Well, it isn’t like we haven’t heard all about Dent and his antics time and again.” The tension lasted a moment, and although Karen felt bad for cutting off Jared, she was too proud to take back her words. Karen was glad when Grant and Jared had joined their little group. Jared was so good looking it was sometimes hard to breathe around him, but Karen always hid that from him because he seemed to like Emily more. Then there was Grant, her current boyfriend. He was just as dreamy, but he was blond and funny and didn’t make it hard for her to breathe and think straight. Karen didn’t like the out of control feeling that Jared gave her, so was glad to partner with Grant.

For his part, Grant had wanted to date Emily, but thought it was weird asking out Darin’s sister. Besides, he saw how much trouble Jared went through to get Darin to back off and let him date Emily. He just wasn’t sure he was ready to face that kind of headache just yet. So in order to stay close to Emily, he started going out with Karen. Yeah, she could be a headache, but she also had her moments when they were alone when she wasn’t always ragging on someone. He just wished she would calm down a little more, especially around Emily.

Emily quietly sat next to Jared. She dug through her book bag until she came up with a silver marker. Grinning, she leaned down and began to draw on the fiberglass mesh. She had spoken with Jared the night before and heard it all, being the good girlfriend and caring for Jared; she agreed it was time someone did something about Dent.

“I get to be first, Jer.” She smiled up at him, and then went back to her design on his cast. Jared reached up and softly brushed her hair back over her shoulder, getting it out of her way. He was always amazed at the tenderness Emily could show especially knowing her the way he did. She could hold her own against Darin and Mike and was extremely gifted herself when it came to words, being captain of Debate, and having plans to go into law when she graduated.

Then Jared looked up at Darin, caught the warning and grinned. Mike began offering help to Emily, which she ignored. And Karen relaxed against Grant. Nothing had been said, they all understood each other.

“So, how was your two week vacation to the wilds of Washington?” Grant asked, after softly kissing the top of Karen’s hair. He grinned at Jared, both sharing the same memories. “You know, I used to know part of Washington pretty well.”

Emily looked up and grinned, telling them all about Debra and Jamie and everything. Darin turned and looked off into the distance, not saying anything. His own thoughts were on Debra, the shy newly graduated senior. In another two weeks, his school would be out for the summer, and he wished he could spend more time getting to know his little sister’s pen pal.

Debra had ended the two week visit with a promise to start writing Darin as often as she wrote Emily. Darin had also managed to coax a kiss out of her before he left for home. He hadn’t ever known anyone as shy as Debra and it turned him on to know he was her first kiss. He was hoping to be more than just that though, he only had to work out how to make it happen.

“Hey!”

Darin jumped and turned around, glaring at Mike and his laughter. He noticed everyone was staring at him. He checked his fly, and then left the group, going to his first class, followed by the laughter of his cousin and friends. So he was lost in thought, wasn’t he allowed to be? It wasn’t like he teased them so much when they were falling in love. Emily didn’t laugh.

“What was that about, Em?” Grant asked, looking after his science study partner. Darin had been staring into space for a few minutes, ignoring everyone as something was totally consuming his thoughts.

“I don’t know. I think he was sad to leave Spokane. It is so pretty up there, all green and stuff.” Emily said. She had her own theories about Darin and Debra. She wasn’t against the two of them getting together, she just wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. She knew about Debra’s shyness and her fear of getting in too deep with any male. She also knew about Darin’s reputation as a ladies man and was worried what that would do to Debra.

Jared looked at Emily a moment, sensing her worry, then after her brother. Then he looked down at the silver heart Emily had drawn on his cast with the simple words within it. He touched her arm and smiled. She hugged him and then helped him with his books and the others headed to their classes.

Shægnek watched as her hands gently guided the wet clay into form. When the form was done, she would put the right designs on the soft clay before baking it. This would be one vase that was made to last, although the handles would twist and surprise those who would view the finished piece.

“What a hideous, misshapen lump!”

Shægnek turned at the voice of Chaos. She lifted an eyebrow at his latest creation of cherry and grape and repressed a sigh. And people thought she was chaotic.

“Art is a matter of taste, Chaos, which, from your comment of an unfinished piece, you don’t have. What are you doing here? You know my work shop is off-limits when I am working.”

“I came to check on your pet project; The Father’s latest prophecy. How is it going?”

Shægnek continued working on the vase a moment before looking up at him. She measured him and saw his impatience.

“Prophecy, Chaos, is like any work of art. If you rush it, it never turns out. But if you give it time, to grow and mature, it is priceless.”

“But Serenity already has it!”

“It’s her prophecy, Chaos. She doesn’t know about yours. Give it time, and all will be revealed, if you know how to find it. And now, I must finish this piece, before it grows dry.”

Chaos watched a moment, and then stormed off. His plans for disrupting the prophecy were falling apart. His own sister and follower was withholding information from him.

Shægnek watched him from her mind’s eye as she continued her vase. She saw him slip into her library. She laughed as he found the scroll, but ignored the tapestry and sculpture. He never could see his own nose, even with a mirror.