Another Excerpt of my work in progress: Comments Appreciated!

by Max (The First) in where she feels like she belongs

this is kidPub's final look at this lol...only because i plan on getting it published...so you all will just have to wait...lol

As for now...here ya go!

I wanted to go home.

There weren’t any questions about it. I wasn’t meant to belong in this kind of setting with the florescent lighting and smell of artificial mashed potatoes thick in the air. Even the things that were teaching me were not very exciting. The only thing remotely exciting was the fact that there was usually a fight at least once a day...today was no different.
“Come on McKnight! Hit me!” The scrawny excuse for an opponent danced back and forth in front of me like a poorly trained boxer. All it was going to take was a swift strike to the face and he’d be out like a light. “You afraid to take a real hit?!” I watched him as he circled me, obviously working for some kind of intimidation factor.
“What are you trying accomplish by challenging me Dylan?” he shook his shaved head as if to loosen up a little more then his already lanky build allowed. I cracked the knuckles on my right hand...just for the enjoyment of the teenage crowd. “It’s not going to end the way you want it too.”
“If you’re so confident, you take the first swing!”

I muttered to myself, "Is this really worth my time?" while he shuffled around like an idiot in front of me. Dylan was one of those scrawny underfed kids who obviously had problems at home and in his desperate attempt to be known, he picks fights that he has no hope in winning.

Just typical day in the neighborhood..

“You really don’t want me to do that.” I growled.  I turned my back on him this time, trying to get a thrill out of messing with his underdeveloped brain. “It’s obviously going to hurt...and Mr. Michael’s just waxed the floors...you really don’t wanna piss off a janitor with a blood stain.” I spun to face him again. His brittle fist slamming into my shoulder. The crowd’s noise dulled down to a few voices. I glared into his nervous gaze.

“Come on!” He taunted. I swung.

C...R....A...C...K...!

“Aww Shit!” His hand clutched his nose and his blood seeped through his fingers. I wiped my knuckles on my hoodie and left with out a word. Dylan Sellers would not mess with me again if he was smart. That’s how you learn to survive in this screwed up world. When your wits can’t win the fight, your fist might be able to do the job. But it’s the ability to make the right decision that saves your life.

The air was cold as I walked home. I refused to ride the bus for the same reason I wanted out of the prison they called my local high school. I clearly didn’t belong in this town. People like me are captains of the football team, dating the prettiest girls in school, and working a tough job at the mall; not trying to escape the day to day threat of a beat-down every-time they leave campus. I made it work...just to make my mother happy. It was her sister who chose to live here and her house we were taking refuge in. It’d only be another year till I could enlist and live right outside the Academy; in  the brick built estate and the centuries old statues that really didn’t belong there. The place made you seem richer then you really were. Even if your paycheck was that of my father’s...who was the four star general who ran the CADET Academy.

Only one more year....

Mom sat at the kitchen table when I dropped my backpack at the door. Paper was scattered among pens and calculators. She adjusted her glasses and looked up. I smiled.
“Hey...”
“School called.”

...Great.

“Dylan’s nose is broken.”

…I figured.

“You have managed to skate out detention again because he provoked the fight.” She watched as I fist pumped in exaggerated excitement. “You have to stop getting yourself into this stuff, Cade. You’re eventually going to end up in the police station.”

“I take it you’d prefer that over a P.O.W. camp.” I glared back at her. Her eyes drifted back to the bank statement on the table. I didn’t move. “Why are you so against the Academy?”

“You KNOW why I’m so against it Caden. I do not want to talk about it.” She snapped, getting up from the table. “We are NOT having this conversation again.”

“I want a real reason Mom! I’m seventeen! The threat of death isn’t going to stop me!” Her hand slammed the table in frustration and angry tears began to flow from her eyes.

“IT SHOULD.” I kept my eyes focused on her as she spun on her heel, grabbed the car keys, and slammed the door. Guilt usually set in about an hour after she left. I loved the women to pieces, but the secrets she withheld from me were really starting to get on my nerves. My father was convinced that the Academy was a good idea. I was to go, climb the ranks, lead a unit, and come home in one piece. I’d left message after message on his cell begging him to tell her to try and understand but got no response. His lack of contact was starting to make me believe maybe I really was alone in this world. The garage door creaked as it opened, Aunt Carla was no sooner in front of me.

“Why do you pick fights with her?”

“Well, Hello to you too.”

“No attitude Cade, start explaining.” She set her purse down and pulled up a barstool to the island. “No excuses.” My Aunt Carla was a fiery redhead with a passion for her career as a VP at a local publishing company. The only thing was that local in her mind was the two hour train ride into New York City everyday. She had become somewhat of a second mother to me; and her husband, Uncle Jake, was pretty much my only father figure, considering my own father left when I was five.

“I got into another fight, she got angry, I pulled the Academy card, she got pissed and left.” She raised a thin eyebrow. I pushed my shaggy hair out of my eyes and glanced back at her, the expression her face completely unchanged. This wasn’t good.

“I should ground you into next week for that.”

“Since when did you get grounding power?”

“When I was added to the list of guardians on your emergency contact card.”

Shot Down. Right in the middle of my own kitchen.

“I want your car keys.”

“I don’t have a car, and right now, my mother has the car.” I saved my insult to her intelligence for the audience of my own mind. I didn’t need to dig my hole any deeper then it already was. “Remember? We share it?” And the guilt set in.

“You look like you wanna cry.”

“Cry? No. I don’t cry. Make up temporarily? Yes.” She smiled, though it was sutle, trying to make sure I didn’t catch the fact that she was now satisfied. I rolled my eyes and picked up my phone, making sure to hit my mom’s number as I pushed out the door.

“Hello?”

“I’m sorry.”

…...Awkward silence.....
“It’s alright, I guess. I really wish you wouldn’t do this.”
“What rebell? it’s my job...I’m a troubled teen without a dad.”
“I’ll be home in a few minutes...I’ll tell you why you haven’t had a dad and then you’ll really understand all of why I don’t want you to leave. But knowing you, you’ll just leave anyway.”
“Heh...I’ll see you soon then.”
“See you.”

I slipped my cell back into my pocket and turned for the door. Finally, an answer in life. Now if I could just figure the rest of my life out. Carla was still sitting at the island, hummus and cracker sticks out as she munched away watching the news when I stepped back inside. She crunched down on a cracker stick and spoke;
“All good?”
“Yea...I guess you could say that.” I said, sliding on to the stool next to her. My mother then stepped through the door, a grocery bag in her hand.
“Chinese?” She chirped. She slid me a container of Won-Ton soup and started talking.
“Alright, well...Carla, I promised I’d tell him about Andrew.” Everything stopped.
“You sure you want to talk about that?” Carla seemed to move a little bit away from me, kinda like if I was going to threaten her well being or something. “It’s not exactly a positive subject.”
Ok, so that ruled out divorce; which in my mind was Best Case Scenario.

“Is he dead?”
If the room would have gotten any stiller at that point, I think I might have been tempted to poke Carla to see if she’d fall over. My mom shifted her weight and pulled up a chair. This was gonna be awhile.
“Andrew, as you know Cade, is your father. He still is your father. We never got divorced and I’m pretty sure he’s not dead.”
“How can you be ‘pretty sure’ he’s not dead? That’s like saying road kill still has a heartbeat.” Her eyes suddenly showed pain, obviously my timing for that remark was bad.
“When I say that, I mean he went to war Cade.” She hesitated and took a deep breath. “We’ve been out of contact for 6 months.”
“Does that mean he’s dead?”
“No, --” She turned to to her sister, hesitating on the rest of the sentence like it was bad food or something. I watched as my mother broke down.
“I’ll have Jake tell you the rest later...” Carla snapped pulling Mom into her arms. I left the room before it got anymore emotional then it already was. The stairs creaked as I trudged up into my room. The off blue paint and the posters of bands and football heroes made it seem like I was a semi-normal seventeen year old kid. My laptop sat charging on a little desk in the corner and my bed against the far wall had the blankets strewn across the mattress top like I had got into a fight in my sleep. Sweatshirts and socks lay among books and endless balls of notebook paper containing homework gone wrong. The radio hummed a Top 40 song that was barely audible. I went to my bed and lied down, it was only seconds after, that I fell asleep.

Even though I lived in my aunt’s house on the nicer side of Wakefield, it seemed that I always managed to get myself into trouble with the people who lived on the other side of town. I guess that was because our high school sat right in the middle and I never looked like a Tommy Hilfiger model or the spokes-teen for Abercrombie and Fitch like everyone else in my neighborhood did. I didn’t see a problem with it, mainly because I wasn’t very materialistic…but Amy, my fashion forward cousin who current resided just a bedroom door down, did.

“Cade, you might want to get out of ratty American Eagle jeans and put on a pair of Diesels.” She snapped as I grabbed the keys to my mother’s car. “Speaking of which, whatever happened to the pair I gave you?”

I ignored her. She stepped lightly out of the powder room, her hair curled and streaked with tinsel which made her look like she was mauled by some angry elves. If Jake had been home, there would have been no way she would have been leaving the house in the leather mini skirt and stilettos she had on. I gave her the once over, grabbed my worn leather jacket, and sighed as I pushed out the door and got into the car.

“If you wore something a little higher end, you might actually have a girlfriend in this town.” She said, her leather skirt squeaking as she shifted in the front seat.

“I don’t need a girlfriend, Amy.”

“If I looked like you,” She grabbed my chin, turning my head toward her. “With your green eyes, deep brown hair, and tanned complexion; I’d make sure I was top of the market.” I turned my head sharply, releasing her grip on me.

“Whatever you say…” We pulled out of the drive way and headed toward the even larger houses in our suburb. Snow dusted the windshield as Amy ran her mouth about something I didn’t care enough to pay attention to. I pulled into the MacArthur’s driveway and around the fountain to where the rest of Jenny’s expensive friends where entering her mansion. I pulled into park and Amy got out, officially deciding that ignoring my existence was the solution to my lack of brand names.

“Cade! I’m so glad you came! Amy said you weren’t coming!” My cousin’s face wrinkled in disgust as Jenny wrapped her tiny little arms around my neck. She stepped back, running her hand across my chest before dropping it back to her side. “I’ll give you a tour a minute; I just have to tell my mother to make sure everyone makes it into the family room.” Jenny’s heel clicked across her marble floor and she disappeared behind a large pillar. I turned to Amy,

“This place is huge.”

“Way to go Captain obvious.” She turned on her heel and headed in the same direction Jenny just left in. Music began to thump in the other room as a steady stream of my higher end classmates filed through the front door. I suddenly felt very alone.

“Cade.” Jenny called from the top of a marble set of stairs that rivaled those in a palace. I made my way to her, knowing that she was going to probably start her tour with her ridiculously large bedroom.

“Your house is beautiful.” And huge!

“Thank you, lemme show you my bedroom.” She lead me to a large room with high ceilings and more marble pillars. The drywall was painted a deep pink with gold embellishments. Her bed sat right in the middle with her computer desk, workout equipment, and small kitchenette surrounding it. It made me sick to my stomach to even think about living in a place like this. She didn’t seem phased one bit. “A lot of the pictures are ones I took myself while traveling last summer.”

“They’re really good.” I said, still astonished at the size of the room.

“You don’t really say much, Cade, I like that about you.” She clicked her way over to me, running her gold painted nails along my jaw line. I wasn’t in the least bit attracted to Jenny, but apparently she didn’t see that. She leaned a little closer to me, and I stepped back. I glared at her.

“What do you think you’re doing.”

“Just one…it won’t hurt anything.” She approached me again and I stepped back. Weirdly enough, I could hear my father’s voice in my head. He was reciting a conversation we had one Christmas about how one day a girl might come on to you and what to do. Problem was, I couldn’t remember what to do.

“No Jen.”

“Come on Cade…just one little kiss.” Before I knew it, she had me pinned against a wall. Even if I decided to yell or struggle, the music would cover the noise. I reached for my cell. Amy would be my only way out. Jenny’s had caught my hand right before I could get to my phone. Her eyes blazing with anger, she tugged it out of my pocket and tossed it across her room. Slowly, I began to panic.

“Jenny.” That was all I could get out before she muffled my plea with her lips. I really didn’t want to hurt her. She was thin as a rail and wearing heels that would break her ankles if she fell. I just couldn’t do this. I shoved her to the floor in front of me. Lucky for me, she landed on her backside.

“What the hell Cade?!” Amy stood in the doorway. She had witnessed my shove.

“It really isn’t what you think.”

“Sure it isn’t.” I pushed past Amy and down the stairs. I wasn’t ashamed or upset. I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore. I started and car and drove back to the house to find Jake, Carla, and my Mom happily chattering in the kitchen. I almost ripped to door off it hinges as I went inside.

“Tell me the rest of the story!” I demanded. “Tell me where my dad is! I can’t take it here without knowing! I can’t deal with Amy’s friends hitting on me and his voice in my head telling me not screw up! Just please..!”

“Caden...” Carla reached to try and comfort me. I shoved her hand away.

“No!” All of a sudden, I was filled with rage. Tears ran down my cheeks and I wanted to hit something. “Just tell me!”

“He went missing 6 months ago on a mission to infiltrate an espionage hideaway. They haven’t seen or heard from him since he radioed in saying he was leaving with the required data.” Jake watched as I slowly began to understand.

“So, he’s been…”

“Captured by operatives that work for many terrorist groups in the world? Yes.” My mother stayed perfectly still, watching me take in every word. I looked at each of them and went upstairs into my room….

“What are you doing?! Caden!” My mother’s voice called from the kitchen. I returned with a duffle bag and my leather jacket. I looked at each and every one of them.

“I’m leaving for the Academy…tonight.”

And with that said, I opened the door and left without a word.