The Fifth World 2

Bo: Johnson tells me how my mother had been kidnapped a month ago from here; the Average Human World. I ask him how the hell anyone managed to do that here... since using our powers is illegal, though I am certain many of us, such as myself, do it anyway but do risk being caught by the government or by Average Humans themselves, hence revealing our best kept secret. Johnson tells me that he has been wanting to meet me ever since he left me on Callhan's and Theresa's doorstep. Ever since he abandoned me.

"I did not abandon you," he says to me sharply, "you had no idea what your life could have been like if we kept you. I knew that leaving you with Callahan was the only decision - out of all of the Average Humans I had ever watched over... Callahan was the greatest one, he was the only person who was capable of being a father to you... he was the only person I ever trusted to keep you with."

I feel my face fall a little. Any talk involving my deceased father still pains me. I can understand why Johnson decided to leave me with Callahan... because he is- was one of the greatest people I had ever met.

"And you were not capable of being my parents?" I hiss at him.

It is a rhetorical question. I do not want an answer. I just want to show him how angry I am with him. I just want him to know the pain that I have felt all of these years... the pain I have kept hidden from my actual parents because my biological parents were too afraid or too busy running to even bother seeing me at least once in my life since they gave me up.

"Why in the world should I trust you?" I say to him, "Why should I even care about Evee? Neither of you have bothered seeing me until now. Do you really have no one else to go to for help that you come to me? What if I don't want to help you? What if I simply choose not to even bother to care about either of you-"

"Because the truth is that you do," he whispers as his hand slides across the table. A finger of his touches my little finger. I stare at our hands touching and I try to imagine, like I have many times before, what my life would have been like if he and Evee had not left me.

"Do not believe for a second that your mother and I did not love you. You were the world to us, Bo. You were our bundle of joy and having you in our lives made everything else seem so... insignificant, so little. We realised there was more to life than laws and parliament and power... but we also knew that sooner or later we had to face reality. Reality was that we had broken the law and your existence was the result of that. Giving you up was one of the hardest things we had to do."

I sit up straight and I stare at him as tears collect in my eyes, I scoff, "do you want to know what the only thing I got out of that little speech was?" I stand up and pick all of my things and before I walk away from him I say, "past tense."

Again, I wipe my tears just so nobody can see but then again, do I really care if anyone can see? There are better things to worry about than my own public humiliation. Better things such as the welfare of my brother and everyone else I have not heard from. Recess soon ends and my next two classes go by very quickly. When lunch comes I walk onto the football field, sit down on a bench by myself and watch Jonathan's football team practice. Mr Winslet, Jonathan's coach, has got the team doing drills. It is only the beginning of lunch, therefore the boys wouldn't be too exhausted... but as time progresses, and as my salad sandwich becomes smaller I know I will begin to notice the difference in energy from each of the young men. I spot Jonathan. His dark hair flows and bounces up and down as he does push-ups. His body is tense and working hard but I know that even over the pain that Mr Winslet brings upon his students, Jonathan loves each and every second of this. Football, or sport, actually, is his life. He tells me how he loves the feeling of exercise, the way the adrenalin rushes through his body and the sense of pride and achievement he feels after every win.

Mr Winslet excuses some of the players and tells them to get a drink. Jonathan is one of them. Once he gets up and moves over where the boys have left their drink bottles he spots me and a small smile appears on his face. He waves and I wave back to him until a person over his shoulder catches my eye.

Derek.

He stares at me, his expression is still just as strange as it was earlier today. He holds me there for a few moments, just staring, and he finally releases me from his intimidating gaze when Mr Winslet tells him to hurry up and grab a drink. I begin to wonder about him. Again. I just cannot understand what it is but something about him is different. I may not know Derek as well as Jonathan knows him but I do know that something has changed or is changing. I just can't put my finger on it just yet.

Practice resumes and I sit back after throwing my rubbish into the bin. I put my iPod on and listen to some tunes. As I listen and tap my foot to the beat I watch how Derek kicks the ball around and runs across the field. I can see that Mr Winslet has the team doing set plays. Jonathan receives the ball, dribbles it up for a while and scans the field to see who is the best option to pass to. Mr Winslet yells at Jonathan to pass to Derek who has in such a small amount of time sprinted from one spot to a complete other metres and metres away. My eyes begin to narrow. Derek calls loudly and Jonathan passes it, Derek receives it and he rushes up the field towards the goals ignoring Winslet's instructions of passing it to the next best option. Winslet doesn't think Derek would be able to do it, to get the ball from his current location to the goals without losing it but I suspect that maybe he can... Mr Winslet cannot see it, nobody here can. They can't see the truth... at least, what I think the truth is... only I can. Derek moves so quickly, so swiftly... in perfect motion he moves the football from one side of himself and an opponent and then around another. His feet move so quickly and so strangely. He performs tricks with the ball that not only confuse his opponents but me too. He quickly and immaculately dodges every opponent he is faced with before kicking the ball into the goal. The ball moves too fast for anyone to stop it. Goal.

Winslet begins to crack a fit and crosses the field whilst yelling at Derek to stop trying to be in the 'spotlight' and be 'part of the team'. Derek says nothing but simply looks over at the goals and the football that sits still on the green grass. He doesn't even look tired. Jonathan is scratching his head and some of the other boys are entirely stunned with Derek's play - they don't care about the 'team' part or the fact that Winslet's face is turning bright red, they are just shocked with Derek's improved performance in football.
I, on the other hand, am very intrigued.