Chapter 5

David

It was just a simple brush-pass. Jade had brushed her hand against mine, leaving a small piece of paper crinkling in my palm. I turned around to watch two blond braids and a purple stocking cap walk about thirty feet and then turn to look at the view of Staten Island, and The Statue of Liberty. She even took out a blue camera and began flashing pictures. This girl is good. She looked like an ordinary tourist, enjoying a wonderful view, but I knew better. Wearing sunglasses, she appeared to be gazing at an attraction, but she could watch me.

I unwrinkled the paper, and stared, wide-eyed, at what was before me.

873 Florence Rd.

Seconds passed, I, staring at the paper, Jade, staring at me. It was an address. For what? The letters were sloppy and smeared, like the note was written in the dark…

…in secret.

I stuffed the address in my pocket, and looked up at Jade as if to ask, “What?” but, she was frozen in mid-picture-taking.

It was only then that I noticed the girl standing behind her.

Chapter 6

Josiphina

If not for my reflection in the girl’s sunglasses, I would have passed her by like any other tourist, on the way to my Dad’s office in Manhattan. But now, seeing the blond braids, and the mirrored sunglasses, I immediately recognized the 16-year-old standing directly in front of me. No one could French-braid like Jade. She wears French-braids almost every day, and spent most of the day bragging about them. I’m not fond of her, but sometimes I find myself getting jealous. She’s good. Really good. And, Gary loves her.

         I slinked up close to her, and put my mouth up to her ear. I could tell she was afraid. She was afraid of me. Ever since I was able to follow her all the way down, through the subways, into The Bronx ―Gary scolded her for not paying closer attention―, she has been. My lips touched her shaking ear, and my words were clear.

“Pay better attention, Ms. Morgan,” I said, coping Mr. Clark’s word’s exactly, “What if that would have happened in a real-life situation?”

         Jade stuttered away from me, and dropped her camera at the words she was so afraid of. That day I had caused her to drop one entire level down (!), and ever since, we were enemies. Correction, we were rivals. Gary said two girls together are never enemies. (If I had made up the rules, I would have said they were always enemies, fighting for the top spot; fighting for the crown.)

         I smiled to myself at all the points I had scored, and that she had never scored on me. I smiled wide and beautiful. That was before I looked in the reflection of Jade’s sunglasses once more and saw him…

Chapter 7

David

She just stood there, staring at me; and I, at her. No one moved. The world seemed to stop. Now, I knew. I knew the same things that she knew about me. She was a spy. She was like me. I was shocked at myself for not figuring out earlier. The way she snuck around the school, when she thought no one was looking. I was. The way she talked to herself when she thought no one could hear her. I could. The way she ran straight home without a word, because she thought no one loved her. I did.

         My instinct said, run. My heart said, stay. I think my gut is neutral. Disney says to follow your heart, but CJ says to follow your gut. Since my gut was currently being a pain in the neck and staying neutral, I held my ground.

         Josiphina marched right up to me and gave me a death eye. I instantly felt sorry for her twin brothers who constantly have to feel the way I do now. Melting under the pressure of her gaze, and falling to the ground and begging for forgiveness; giving her their deserts on the spot. But I was well trained, and, putting my back foot out for leverage, I waited out the storm.   

Chapter 8

Josiphina

I had no weapon. That’s why when I saw David standing there helplessly staring back, I knew my greatest weapon. Hopefully, if it works on “the little terrors” (as my mom called them), it would work on anybody. My dad said that my eyes could kill a man, I had always been afraid that they had killed him. When I cried next to his grave, my teared eyes killed his spirit inside of me. If I could have stayed strong for Mom and Gloria, he still would have lived; in our minds, in our hearts, in our smiles…

         Seeing David fall under the pressure of my gaze made me wonder if I was killing him too; if he was dying under me. I knew I couldn’t blink, let alone cry. He would escape. But soon, I felt him resisting, I felt him coming back to life. He was then gaining the advantage, and our noses were now touching; him staring just as hard at me as I was at him. I gave in and thrusted my head back, closed my eyes, waited…waited… I had expected him to hit me, something. Nothing, nothing at all. I kept waiting, but soon my eyes began to open, slowly at first, then faster, when I saw that David was no longer standing in front of me. No, he was halfway to Manhattan, the Heart of New York.