CHAPTER 21 – Run, run, as slow as you can...
I stood nervously on the sports field in my shorts and singlet watching Scott and half the football team approaching. That little voice inside me still couldn’t quite reconcile myself to this new situation. But Scott’s eyes were on me and I was like a deer in the headlights. His smile was infectious and too soon I was giddy, overcome with the new and foreign emotions.
Scott held me as I nodded to his friends and they suspiciously acknowledged me. Then he was gone, busy ensuring that his team were all where they should be when they should be. I was pretty much left in on the grass with Carter, Dean, Alistair and some other girls.
I doubted that I could feel any more uncomfortable or out of place than I did right now. But at the same time every so often I would feel a wave of Scott’s emotions settle onto me as he glanced in my direction. This made him happy.
I sighed, since when did making him happy or anyone happy influence my actions? What was happening to me? Nobody? Are you in there Nobody? I wasn’t sure I knew this Natalie. Nobody was an easier person to be.
I felt a prickling sensation and turned to see Kirsty, Laura and Ashley glaring at me. If looks could kill I would have an assortment of knives firmly wedged in my flesh and I would be drenched in gasoline with a lit match in my hand. It certainly seemed like I was off the cheer teams Christmas card list. Yaaaay, Team!
I tried to hide my laugh as I brought my attention back to the group I sat with. For some reason I still felt the urge to make an effort to get to know his friends. Damn, this whole Qaddis thing was obviously messing with my head. Was this part of the process of waking up? Was this part of forming the bond with Scott? So many questions and, I looked over to where Jari was, only one egotistical, arrogant, and secretive guide. Whoever gave Jari this job was seriously overrating his ability.
I opened my mouth then closed it. As much as I tried I just couldn’t think of anything to say to the plastic people who sat around me looking equally uncomfortable at me. So instead I returned to combing the grass while they subversively, if that was possible, attempted to chat up the other girls in the group.
Scott came to squat down to me on the grass and whispered into my hair, “I am running next, just so you know. Wish me luck.”
Then he kissed me on the lips right there in front of everyone. He smiled at me skimming his hand over my blushing cheek. His love warmed me and fell on me like an enveloping blanket, I smiled back at him. Without looking I knew all eyes were on me. Again I questioned where Nobody had gone. This Natalie person was someone I was so unfamiliar with. Even so as he held out his hand I automatically accepted it and we walked to the track together.
As our fingers parted he left me with a worried grin. This was important to him and he was anxious. If this didn’t work would he give up his dreams for me? If he did would it make him bitter with regret?
You can do it Scott, I pushed the encouragement to him and saw his head turn to me as he waited near the starting line. He had heard.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jari untangled himself from his group of females and came to stand with me. He slung his arm around my shoulders and with his face close to mine he spoke softly.
“This will not end well Natalie. Better to stop it now than later.”
I closed my eyes and felt my shoulders tensing. “Then what Jari, am I supposed to tell him that he can’t play football? Hell, they have already started training for next year’s team. He’s a senior next year and you know what it means to him.” I watched Scott take his position on the starting line.
“I won’t do that to him.” I said as Scott’s eyes found me again amongst the sea of faces lining the track and narrowed as the noticed my companion proximity.
“He didn’t sign up for this and neither did I.” I shrugged Jari’s arm off and smiled at Scott.
The gun went off and he was running. I felt his concentration, his determination and his control. I heard the whisper of a prayer as he channelled everything into running slowly. I watched his style and smiled with relief, it showed no evidence of his Watcher abilities. He was doing it. He was controlling it. He looked exuberant when he crossed the finish line winning by a small margin.
“Mark my words this will not end well,” Jari voice was quiet but was dark with warning. Then he turned and walked away as Scott found me and pulled me into his arms.
“I did it!” Scott kissed my forehead.
I just closed my eyes and hoped against all hope that Jari was wrong.
Scott ran in several other races and managed to maintain his control, even coming second in one event.
I chose to walk to other side of the track to watching him as he ran the 800meters. The crowd was around the start – finish line and I needed some space. Scott had just passed my position for the first lap when I heard the gruff voice behind me.
“Nobody, I don’t know what your game is,” I turned to look up at Coach Hanson who sneered at me, “If you are sabotaging the sporting hopes of this school I will personally make your life not worth living. And that’s a promise. Feck, I hope he wakes up to himself before you do any real damage.” His eyes scanned over my ill-fitting sports uniform. He thrust his eyes and the palms of his hands skywards and walked off.
Great, here we were risking everything so that Scott could compete and the coach had the nerve to threaten me! Nobody smiled in anticipation. Yes, maybe she wasn’t completely dead and buried.
I walked over to the finish line to find Scott cornered by the Coach. I was pretty sure that mind reading wasn’t part of the Qaddis skills but I still had no doubt as to what was being said.
She’s sabotaging my chances of being voted coach of the year. I tried to imitate the coach’s voice as I pushed my inner voice to Scott. I watched his lips curl into a smile.
You have me by me by my not-so-little guy apparently. He sent back and his eyes flicked in my direction with an even cheekier grin, I wish!
At this stage Coach stopped because he noticed Scott’s attention wasn’t on him. He turned and glared back and forth between us before he said something, which had Scott’s forehead crease and his eyes turn to him quickly. Whatever was said Scott didn’t like it. But Coach Hansen just turned and strode away.
Nobody’s teeth clenched and more possibilities flooded into my head. Yes, the coach might threaten me but not Scott. He would regret that.
Dean and Carter came over to congratulate him and that took the form of a clip to the back of the head and a bit of shadow boxing. Well one thing was for sure, I was wrong when I said that Scott’s friends would be more judgemental. They seemed to treat him no differently than before. They laughed and joked with him.
It was me the entire school ostracised. I did not expect to be welcomed into the folds of the perfect people but I was surprised that my former friends now treated me like some sort of traitor. It seemed that I had breached some sort of unspoken code of conduct. I had betrayed my own type. So I sat on my own for the rest of the afternoon and wondered quietly if I really deserve this fate or not.
With sports week now officially over and the team chosen for the Regionals, school returned to normal. At least for the majority of students, for me I just struggled to find any sort of normality. Everyone treated me differently - students and teachers. And I just struggled to find myself. So much change weighed heavily on me.
The only light spot came on Wednesday when someone managed to wrap the coach’s car so tightly in cling wrap that it proved to be water tight. Scott raised an eyebrow at me as the rest of the student population laughed at the car filled with purple water. Well, purple is my favourite colour!
Our nights were now all about training for our Watcher roles. These training sessions consisted of various martial arts, kick boxing and other types of street fighting with the boxing bags and in the rink with Jari. He was more than good and even two against one we lost. This was a constant source of annoyance to Scott whose relationship with Jari worsened as Jari’s jibes about our non-existent sex life increased.
Scott also spent some of the night practicing not running, what we called ‘the art of slow running’. The theory was that if he could train his body to run like this he would be able to compete. This involved deciding what time was acceptable for each race and each of the various lengths then I trained him to run those times. Laborious as it was he was determined and therefore so was I.
We had very little to do with the party organisation. That was Jari’s baby and the less we knew about it the better, as far as I was concerned. One thing was for sure, Jari was melting the plastic on his credit card. I hoped that this did not mean we would have to move state and assume aliases.
And Jari, well Jari was just Jari, even though there was no reason now to ‘create confusion’ he was still working his way through the general female population, but now not restricting himself to blonde cheerleaders. When he was kicked out of wherever he was before he fell, Jari sure didn’t pack any morals or ethics. He was never with the same girl twice and had the nerve to invite them all to the party. It was probably just as well they were all just a little ditzy or we would have female wrestling as a spectator sport on the boxing rink. Actually knowing Jari he would already have the mud on standby!
Scott and I were good. Although school didn’t get any easier for me but he was there and that made it tolerable. Actually he was always there. Other than enforced separations, like classes, we were together. We began to relax in each other’s company.
Finally it was the morning of the regional athletics and I couldn’t go. Only competitors and the cheer squad could attend. Jari had purposely qualified for, of all things, the high jump just so that he could be on hand just in case anything went wrong. What this meant Jari would not specify.
So I had the whole day at school without either of them. This I was not looking forward to. As we stood next to the buses that would take the team to the event, my heart ached. I missed him already and I worried about him.
We had not discussed what would happen if the Fremd decided that this was not acceptable. We weren’t going there, neither of us. Instead I kissed him and wished him luck silently with my thoughts. He held me tightly and promised me that he wouldn’t abuse my trust and that it would be all right. I just clung onto him missing him before he was even gone and hoping that I could hold onto him forever.
So I spent the day on my own at school. Geoff was there but I wasn’t his responsibility anymore now that I was taking up the Qaddis role. I didn’t need the bodyguard services he provided and Jari had him busy information gathering. He spent what little time we had together filling me in with Fremd social and political networking, important but tiring and a little tedious.
I was also just a little more than depressed that my only friend in this world turned out to be employed to accompany me. That didn’t do much for the ego. Actually my ego didn’t hold much stock at the moment - I had no friends; Scott’s love seemed contingent on his sporting needs; Jari’s continued and constant quips about my failure in the bedroom department; the reality of living in this bizarre and surreal world; and now the responsibilities of being something that I felt so inadequately prepared to be. Then there was also the question of whether Scott and my relationship was real or was it just some sort of compulsion pushing him to me. Everything seemed questionable right now.
I sat at my own at Lunch and wondered what I was going to do when it all went to hell in a handbag? With all these new pressures and influences in my life my school work was falling behind and I had no time now for the ezine. So if the inevitable happened and everything did fall to pieces, which at this moment in time looked unavoidable, I would be left holding the proverbial ‘baby’ as Scott still had his sporting ability to ensure a college offer. Oh well there was always community college and a job on the local paper? Fab, that was inspirational. I was depressed.
“Can I sit with you?” I looked up to see Alistair standing before me. I smiled and nodded.
“Sorry, not sure I will be the best company though. You might be better off with... what’s her name?” I nodded in the direction of the scantily clad girls from the sport’s field.
“Not my type,” he laughed. “Not blue enough.”
I looked at him in surprise. “What? You are looking for Smurfette?”
He laughed a genuine almost melodically laugh. “No Qaddis, no, a Water Elf would be good though.”
“You know? Did Scott tell you?”
“No, actually I didn’t know, I suspected. It was something Sid said, and the sudden change in behaviour from you both, well it seemed obvious.”
“Ohh,” was all I could think to say. Not very imaginative but what do you say to a Water Elf?
“It will be fine you know. There has been a lot of uncertainty about the new Watchers and everyone’s nerves have been fairly highly strung as no one knows what to expect. Then the upheaval that you and Scott created through your relationship was a little hard for some of us to take given our current predicament.”
“You might find this hard to believe but Jari hasn’t been very helpful with much and I really have no idea what you are talking about.”
“So Jared is your guide? Well that makes sense and explains a lot. Hell that must be hard on Scott, not that it wasn’t a good thing that he finally split with Kirsty,” Alistair added quickly, “but it wasn’t the best way for it to happen.”
He watched me squirm ever so slightly at the mention of the breakup of Scott and Kirsty.
“He feels so much more for you than he ever did for the others. It is written all over his face. We Elves are sensitive to these things too. Do you doubt him?”
“No. No, of course not. I think I doubt me not him.”
“Really? Then you are underestimating yourself. We are all a little scared of you because you also have something that the others can’t compete with, strength of personality. Nobody... sorry I mean Qaddis, you have shown yourself to be a strong and independent and not needing to define yourself by what others accept. It is an omen that you will be a great Qaddis as not many females have the gumption to do that. That’s why Kirsty singled you out so much, because she envied you. And that is why Scott has admired you from afar for so long without the courage to confess to you. He was afraid you would shoot him down and he didn’t feel he had anything to offer you. But now you are a strong couple and the Fremd with accept you both with much celebration as the Watchers of the Third Tower. And as for the others, well they will just have to get used to it won’t they!”
“Thanks Alistair, I needed to hear that.”
“I have known Scott since he was a small child and I have never seen him so happy. Now I have a question for you, something I need to ask you,” He pursed his lips and looked momentarily apprehensive, “Can you explain the motivations behind the French Revolution?”
Taken off guard I laughed, Alistair was in my Ancient History Class. We spent the rest of lunch discussing human motivations for various historical events. He made me laugh and it was easy to talk with him. Dean joined us after the girls went off to some sort of dance practice. He still looked uncomfortable but joined in the conversation with his own quirks of humour.
The rest of the afternoon wasn’t as bad. Dean even sat next to me in Biology and looked at me surprised when we completed the practical together. I looked over to where he normally sat and the blonde girl was still playing with her hair but managed to glare at me.
“Watch out,” Dean laughed with his deep chuckle, “You are becoming the female Jared. They seem to think he has infected you with some sort of pheromones that make you irresistible to men.” He smiled at my dismay, “Don’t worry Scott is my friend, I will attempt to contain myself!”
“Yes I can see that it is a strain for you,” he laughed deeper at my sarcasm.
"You are OK, Nobody, sorry, Natalie.”
“Please Dean, don’t call me that. I’m still Nobody.”
He smiled and nodded and said quickly he turned to leave. “You guys should come to the lake this evening. There is a group of us going.”
I smiled flattered by the invitation but also confused by it. Part of me wanted to be involved with all of Scott’s life and his friends were important to him, but my friends were important to me. It seemed that I couldn’t have both.