Infinite Time: Time Travel Adventure Read Free Page B

do.
    The excitement drains out of me at the thought of Neil finding out. His beating would be lighter than Travis’s because mom would stop him, but the grief he would give my mom about me skipping class would last for weeks.
    “Damn, Douglas is right. Can we come after school?”
    Kimi looks more disappointed than me. “Sure,” she says, pushing her food around.
    “How do you get these before anyone else?” I ask.
    “Yeah… You know, my cousin,” she mutters.

Chapter 5
     
     
    A gym locker door slams nearby and I jump. Laughter bounces around me. This is just a repeat of my daily life. Every day is the same.
    Physical education class was purely created by a sadistic jerk who wanted to watch kids like me suffer the torture of having to undress in front of athletic gods. At least, the jocks like to think they are gods. Just ‘cause their steroids have kicked in and turned them into men, instead of the kids we are. That would explain why they are frigging crazy.
    Or maybe PE was designed by someone who wanted to see kids like me fail at the simplest athletic skills, like tossing a ball from point A to point B. For me, the ball always ends up at point W. It’s just a waste of time. How the hell is this going to help me get a job in the future? I suppose adults can put their throwing skills into getting the waste paper into a ball and throwing it in the trash.
    “We’re playing football again today,” Douglas says.
    Gee, my favorite thing in all the world.
    I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning in dismay.
    We have to play against the actual school team, the team that wins against every school they play against—not only wins, but crushes them.
    Coach says sports are a great way to build character. I call it torture and many other things. All it really does is pit Douglas and me against the jerks, most of them being sixteen- and seventeen-year-old boys who are built like Channing Tatum. I’m more of a John Heder type, or at least John Heder when he played Napoleon Dynamite.
    I quickly undress, trying not to let the predators see my super-pale body, which radiates with a pure-white glow. That’s the same color I have all year round, unless I forget my sunscreen.
    My body begins to tingle at the thought of not having sunscreen on in summertime. When I burn, I really burn, like a chicken just before it goes crispy. But trust me, the crispy comes later, as my body turns into a dry skin bag. I frigging hate sunburn.
    I stow my black-rimmed glasses inside one of my tennis shoes.
    I’ve got the cheapest cleats that my mom could find. I don’t think the expensive ones would help my performance much, but they would reduce the teasing.
    I sit on the bench and listen to the noises around me, grateful that no one joked about my body today. It’s kind of soothing that without my glasses everyone just turns into a group of hazy blurs, at least till my eyes adjust.
    “What are you looking at, nerd?”
    I don’t even realize the remark is directed at me until one of the blurs comes closer and a fist slams into my shoulder.
    “Hey!” Douglas cries as my focus comes clear. “Where did you get those socks? The Bozo Emporium?” he asks the jock currently torturing me, Paul.
    “Shut up, asshole,” Paul says as laughter rises all around us.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen socks quite that colorful before,” Douglas continues.
    “Are you colorblind? Only that could explain—”
    Douglas’s heavy, sweaty body slams unpleasantly against mine. I push against his fleshy body to get him off me.
    It’s like Douglas is immune to their attacks or insults. No matter how many times they knock him down, he bounces back with a smartass comment—which normally results in a second beating.
    “Stupid cock suckers,” Paul says as he joins other blurs and they walk out of the locker room.
    “Why’d you have to do that?” I whisper to Douglas.
    “Why do they have to bully us all the time? It’s stupid what we