The Emerald Star
an excerpt

As many stories of this type do, we start off with the bully and the unlikely of all heroes, getting his head dunked into a toilet. No, bullies rarely ever changed their style and flushing was still the appropriate way to take care of the band geeks who refused to give up their lunch money. You would think once they made it to high school and were about to graduate, they would grow out of that stage and maybe, just possibly grow up. But no, not Reggie the Rocker, called so not because he liked rock music, but because he used to keep a pocket full of pebbles to throw at the teachers when they were not looking. He no longer carried the small rocks with him, that he had grown out of, but the name was stuck with him. As was his reputation, which he seemed to have no intention of letting go of any time soon.

But this story was not about Reggie the Rocker or his little puppets that he liked to call friends who flanked around him like a shield. No, this story was about the unlikely hero, the one who was getting his head dunked and flushed in the toilet. The one who played the flute in the band. This story was about Eliot Rockridge, and this was not the first time he had been dunked into the toilet.

Emerging from the disgusting waters of the rarely cleaned toilets in the mens room, knowing that his nemesis, Reggie and his puppets, were already gone. They never stuck around long after they were done with their torture. They did not want to be caught at the scene of the crime, and for that, Eliot was thankful. There was always a threat though before Reggie left and before he let go of his captured prize from the depths of the toilets.

"Tomorrow, I want my money. With interest." And then there would be laughter that would follow them out of the bathroom until they were no longer in hearing range.

Eliot sat back on his haunches for a moment to catch his breath before reaching into the toilet for his black rimmed glasses and then standing up and going to the hand dryer and kneeling beneath it to dry his now soaked hair. There was no chance in hell that Reggie would be getting money from him. Tomorrow, or any day of the week. And that was possibly why Eliot was one of Reggie's favorite play toys. It did not help that Eliot was in the band, one of the ultimate forms of social suicide at a school like Fifth High. It was a good band though, likely to go onto regionals and then possibly even nationals, though that made it worse for Reggie and his other band mates. The band did better in competitions then most of the sports teams at Fifth High and no one seemed to like that very much.

It did not take long for his once perfectly gelled hair to dry into a messy mop on top of his head and make it possible to leave the bathroom in less shame then if he had gone out dripping in toilet water. His shirt was still wet through though, which was why Eliot's first stop would be the office by the doors to the school. There was a small lost and found box in the office that was always stocked with things that seemed they were left behind for a reason. Eliot picked out the best thing he could find today. A striped shirt that obviously once belonged to a girl. Every other stripe was a horrendous fuschia color and it was a few sizes to small, only barely just covering his middrift.

With a new, clean shirt and a round of laughter following him through every door, Eliot finished out his day. Band practice had been cancelled that afternoon because the director called in sick. The announcement had been made over the loud speaker and announced to the whole school. Eliot sighed. He hated when that was announced publically. That meant that Reggie and his friends knew that he would be going home right after school and it was like they hunted him down to make his days even worse. Today was no exception.

"Have enough yet today, Eliot? I don't think so. I'll see ya after classes let out." The taunt from one of Reggie's friends and puppets, Johnny, followed Eliot through the rest of his classes. It sucked knowing that there was only one way the day was going to end. And that was badly. There was nothing worse then being picked on twice in the same day. Especially while wearing the most ridiculous shirt in the history of all girly shirts.

So, at the end of the day, Eliot took his time at his locker, packing all of his books that he would need to do his homework that night. He was what your typical highschool freshman would look like, with the huge school bag that took up more room then Eliot himself did. And his best friend, Marcus, was no better, except he was still wearing the clothes that he had originally come to school in. For some reason, Reggie and his friends did not like to pick on Marcus. Possibly because he was an overweight black boy with a mean glare that he had apparently learned from his grandmother. At least, that's what he claimed. In all reality, Marcus was one of the nicest boys that you could possibly find.

They left the school that day, Eliot trying to cover himself up with a jacket that it was far to warm for, followed by the sounds of barking laughter and racious comments from Reggie and his friends. It barely fased the boys though as they talked over the others. This was a routine that they had no problem performing because Reggie was all talk when there were people around who could really get him into trouble. He would not make a move in front of a teacher or outside of someone's home.

"How long do you think he'll follow us today, Eliot?"

"Probably until we get home."

It sucked that Marcus always turned off of the main road before Eliot did. That meant that there was more of a chance for Eliot to get jumped down a side street as he continued on, which he was always scared would happen. There were plenty of alleys and driveways with little visibility because of the high walls surrounding them on the way home. Often enough, Reggie or one of his puppets would jump on the chance to scare Eliot down one of these side ways and off track from his home and beat him up a little. Today was no exception to that.

There was something funny about chasing down a boy in a bright pink shirt and beating the crap out of him once he tripped and fell in the alley. Eliot was not the best on his feet and he would often trip over nothing at all. Today was such a time. As Reggie approached him, Eliot jumped up and took off, ducking under the bullies arms and ran out of the alley. Reggie was not all that far behind him as he chased him through the town. The chase ended at the gate to the power plant which Eliot couldn't climb fast enough before Reggie was tugging him down and kicking him to the ground.

Eliot curled up into a ball at the base of the fence, trying to protect himself and to cover his face. After a blow to the head by what felt like a very heavy shoe, Eliot's vision swam in front of him and a dark, fuzzy haze swept over his eyes, it was like watching a TV with bad reception. There was a shout from behind them and Reggie was taking off. Eliot looked up to see Marcus bending over him before he let the blackness come and take him.

What could not have been to much later, because they were still outside of the power plant, Eliot came to. Marcus had propped him up against the fence and was patting his face, trying to wake him up. "Oh, I just knew that I shouldn't have left you back there! And see what he did." He sounded flustered, like he didn't know what to do. He also sounded a little concerned, probably because Eliot wasn't waking up, at least, not that he could see.

"Marcus, calm down. You're making my head hurt." Marcus sounded far away, but obviously, he wasn't that far if Eliot's voice carried over to him through the fog and the haze and the little bit of black that still blurred around the edge of his vision as he opened his eyes. "Oh, do me a favor and turn off the sun.." Eliot closed his eyes as the relived laughter of Marcus made it's way to his ears.

"You scared me there, little buddy. Come on. Lets get you home."

"No. No, let me sit here for a minute and get myself together." After a while, he was able to open his eyes, which were already starting to turn a nasty shade of purple, without the sun hurting them to terribly. "Alright, come on." With a little help from Marcus, Eliot was up on his feet and moving, his friend's arm supporting most of his weight. He was in pain from the beating, but the amount of help he was getting from Marcus was not wholly necessary.

Once they had walked a little bit down the road towards Marcus' house, which was closer, there was a loud crashing sound from behind the boys. It sounded like one of the buildings in the power plant had collapsed and when they turned to look, ducking down out of fear from the loud sound, they saw a pillar of smoke rise up into the air. "What - What was that?" Marcus' voice shook uncertainly.

"I don't know, but I wanna go and see."

"I don't think that's a good idea... Let's just go home and get my mom to call the police out here."

"But what if... What if someone was in there and they got hurt?"

Marcus still looked a little unsure of the idea as Eliot ducked from under his arm and stumbled towards the power plant, but he had to follow his friend. What if he got hurt and needed more help? Marcus could not just leave Eliot on his own, already beaten like he was.

"Fine! But I don't want to be here all day. I have stuff to do tonight and my mom is gonna be pissed if I'm out late again." Marcus was making up excusess and Eliot knew it, so he just rolled his eyes at his friend before ditching his heavy school bag and his case that held his flute, which was possibly what had slowed him down in the first place, and climbing through a hole in the fence.

The dust cleared after a few moments, leaving Eliot and Marcus both coughing and bent over, but when it did, it was like nothing had happened. Nothing had fallen over, nothing had collapsed and everything was still running in perfect condition.

"That's strange."

"Come on, I want to go in farther." Eliot had lived here his entire life and had not even once been on the power plant property. This was a new adventure just calling out to him and even though he was not crazy about taking on new adventures when they came his way, he felt the urge to go deeper into the plant. There was something in there that was calling to him and he felt the need to follow it and find out where all that smoke had come from. He knew they were not supposed to go beyond the fence though, that is where the danger came in.

Marcus stayed back a couple of feet, inwardly fighting with himself about if he should follow his friend or not. In the end, Eliot won out and Marcus followed grudgingly. If anything happened, he would never let Eliot forget it, or live it down.

"There is nothing in here, man. Can't we go home?"

"No! Don't you feel it? Isn't there something just calling you to go in farther?" Eliot was around on the other side of a wall now as he had managed to walk that much ahead of Marcus, even through the haze of pain he was already feeling.

"Wait for me!" Marcus turned the corner and spotted his friend waiting there for him. Yet again, there was nothing there. It was just a dead end and there was nothing special about that.

But then... In a blink, Eliot was gone.

There was no where he could have went. The wall in front of where they stood was to tall and any other direction, Marcus would have seen him take off. He was just gone. It was like he dissapeared in mid air. And then Marcus was gone too.