Wrangling teenage emotions is hard enough on good days, but what if on bad days they could manifest as giant flesh and blood monsters?
Pacific Rim meets Friday Night Lights as knee-jerk rebel Sage Sawyer is forced to join her high school "tourneytub...
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By the time Jupiter's Humor Pacification Brigade, the ambulance, and an irate principal arrive on the scene, Genesis is still at a total loss for words.
She's nowhere closer to processing the events of the last hour as she sits on the bleachers overlooking the chaotic scene. They've backed the ambulance from the parking lot onto the court and loaded Talia onto a stretcher.
Talia, thank God, is awake and conscious again, but it looks like she's in a lot of pain. The EMS people put some kind of protective boot around her ankle. Artie sits beside the stretcher and grips his sister's hand. They speak in hushed tones. Peter stands a little ways back from the Amphigore siblings, looking even more lost than usual.
Across the court, a few yards from the still smoldering Calypso, B.U.N. 1 rests lopsided on the concrete, seemingly no worse for wear. Sage Sawyer, who climbed out of the tub, now leans against its hull nonchalantly, blowing bubblegum bubbles. Gee can't possibly fathom how anyone could still be nonchalant following the harrowing events of this afternoon, but here Sage is, black hair flowing on the wind, arms folded, not a care in the world.
Gee knows Sage Sawyer well.
Or, at least, she knows of Sage Sawyer well.
They've been in the same grade practically their whole lives. In that entire time, though, they've barely even spoken to each other. Gee always wishes they could get to know each other more one day, but Sage...
Well, Sage is Sage.
Sage wears black all the time. For all Genesis knows, Sage Sawyer was born wearing black. Like she was molded by it or something. Or at least she wants everybody to think she's been molded by it. But when Gee thinks of Sage, black isn't the first color that comes to mind.
It's green.
Sage's eyes are an electric green. Electric green framed by dark blades of hair. Sage's electric green is loud and proud and everything Gee isn't. Every time Gee catches sight of Sage, something happens. Something happens to Gee's insides. Like what's happening right now. Sure, it's a slightly terrifying feeling, but Gee likes this feeling.
She wants to keep feeling it.
Genesis realizes she's been staring at Sage for far too long. She turns her attention over to Coach Keane and Principal Howder, standing nose to nose, not far from Sage.
They both seem to think nobody can hear their conversation, but they are very wrong.
Very, very wrong.
Everyone can hear their conversation. Sometimes whispers can carry further than shouts. It's less a conversation, really, and more a diatribe.
Gee didn't even know humans could turn the color of Howder's face in this moment. The girl absently hopes Jupiter High's Principal remembers to breathe. Everybody knows Coach Keane isn't worth the lung capacity.
