Earth Read Free

And with the extra heat Steven let
off, we didn’t have anything to complain about. I let my bag fall
to the ground with relief. Jodi sat to lean against the tree; her
legs stretched out in front of her and crossed at the ankles as she
pulled out an apple from her bag. I sat Indian style forming a
triangle out of the three of us. I closed my eyes and set my hands
on the ground on either side of me with my fingers splayed. I took
a deep, satisfying breath of autumn air that tasted more of winter
even though it was so early in the season. I ground and centered
myself, pulling energy up into me to help get through the last few
hours. I knew I was going to need a nap tonight before we went out
if I was going to be any kind of company.
    I could see Jodi's yellow energy to my left
and Steven's fading red to orange to my right, but I was only
vaguely aware of them in my blissful oblivion. My fingers melted
into the soft earth, my hands disappeared into the grass up to my
wrists. I could feel the water that nourished the earth snake up my
arms and swirl through my veins as my small pulse found the deep
rhythm of the Earth’s. All too soon, a breeze stirred in the air
that shouldn’t be there and it lifted the ends of my auburn hair
and tickled my face. Jodi was trying to get my attention.
    "What?" I asked quietly as I slowly,
reluctantly came back to myself, blinking as I opened my eyes.
    "Ten minutes."
    "Huh?" I began extracting my hands from the
ground, the grass tickling my wrists as it retreated down my
skin.
    "You've been out for ten minutes.
That’s the limit at school, remember?" Jodi had already
finished her apple and was half way through a turkey sandwich.
    "Damn... it goes by so fast here." I pulled
my bag over to me and retrieved a soda that was still cold and
savored the sparkly sugar as it coursed quickly through my
system.
    "Hey, what did Mike want?" Steven propped
himself up on his elbows to look at us.
    "Oh, to ask if I'd wear his jersey to the
game tonight."
    "When is that boy gonna give up?" Steven
snickered as he stole my soda and took a long drink.
    "Maybe when Shay actually turns him down for
late night coffee," Jodi said with a sly smile. That caused the
rest of lunch to be spent dragging me through a boring
interrogation and the two of them discussing Mike in full detail,
from freckles to football.
    The warning bell came all too early and the
three of us gathered our things to trek across campus for
fifth hour electives and then found each other again
in English class which went by in a blur. The first twenty
minutes were devoted to elective reading and the rest we broke up
into groups to finish our work on next week’s presentations. I
pulled my desk away, making Jodi and Steven follow me. I had to put
some distance been me and Tracy; her stomach hurt, which meant so
did mine. It wasn’t a big difference but it helped me get through
class.
    "So are you going to the game tonight?" Jodi
asked as we walked out to my mom's minivan two hours later when
history was finally over. I was more than a little drained due to
my close proximity to Tracy during History. If she wasn’t wincing
from the pain when she reached for something, then her depression
and stress were biting at my skin.
    "Of course,” I said.
    “I wasn’t sure after your conversation with
Mike.”
    “That was just to get away from him,” I said,
waving a hand in the air. “We wouldn’t make you endure it alone.
Just make sure you’re at the top of the cheer section this time."
Jodi had no choice about going to the games since she was
unforgivably in the band and was forced to play at all the
games.
    I dropped them both off at Jodi's house.
Steven only lived one block over but he always helped Jodi with her
parade make-up before a game.
    "Hey, call me at six and make sure I'm awake
ok, Flamer?" I called to Steven through the passenger door
window.
    "Bitch!" He called back over his
shoulder but I could hear the smile in the word as they