Gym class was the one class Tyler was most nervous of, the class that made it the most obvious he was you younger than everybody else. Not to mention, of course, it was the one class that his brain didn't help much with. Physically, he's just a normal barely-13-year-old. He's quick, but not particularly athletically talented in any other way. And ending up between two huge strangers didn't help.

Thankfully, the teacher's comment that trying was all that was important reassures him a bit, and he relaxes a tiny bit by the time the boy next to him speaks.

"Yeah, kinda been noticing that," he answers to the comment that he's tiny, half-joking to hide his nervousness. But, the next question is more normal, surprising him, and he says, "Reggie? Yeah, we're partners in physics. He's cool."

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 47):

They both glance in Reggie's direction.  The one named Branford looks back at you. "Sorry Dude.  Neither of us was trying to give you grief.  Be seein' you."

He reaches over your head and baps Bren on the shoulder.

"Yeah.  Yeah.  Sorry kid.  See ya around." Bren doesn't look down at you.  He keeps staring at Reggie until he turns away.

The two of them wander off.

Reggie walks over.  "Everything okay?  Those guys weren't givin' you trouble were they?"

Tyler stairs after the departing pair in total confusion for a moment, until Reggie comes over. "I… I don't think so. One of them called me tiny, but that's just stating the obvious. At first, I thought they were doing the whole 'pretend to be friendly' bullying routine, but I think they were more interested in you. Just wanted to know if we were friends. Then they just walked away."

He looks back to Reggie, and says, a little worried, "I don't know what's going on, but I don't think they like you."

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 49):

Reggie chuckles.  "I don't know 'em.  If they got a problem with me, they'll let me know.  But it's probably my...uh...reputation."  He looks at you.  "You'll hear about it sooner or later, but I went to juvie.  I hurt a guy.  Pretty bad."

He frowns.  "I was in a boxing club.  And during a fight, I hit a guy too hard.  Well.  I hit him a couple of times too hard.  He landed funny. He can't walk anymore."  He wipes his mouth.  "I was...uh...I was on 'roids at the time.  My coach was givin'em to me.  I went to juvie for that."

You vaguely recall hearing something about this.  A year or two ago.  But it's not like you remember all the Toronto news reports.

Reggie is watching you.  "Well?  Everyone always has something to say about this point."

Tyler's eyes widen a little during the story, but not in fear. In actual fact, he's imagining, at that moment, how guilty Reggie must have felt after it happened.

So, moments later when he's asked for comment, instead of judging, he says, "That must've been awful for you!"

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 51):

Reggie stares at you.  "Okay.  They don't usually say that."

He studies you a second and glances away, wiping his hand across his lips.  "Well.  It wasn't the high point of my life, that's for sure.  But Winston had a worse day than I did.  He still can't go to the bathroom by himself."

He takes a deep breath.  "Well.  Anyway.  Thanks."  He turns and points at the sign up sheets Coach had posted.  "What were you gonna sign up for first?"

PE is taught in blocks here it seems.  Mondays and Fridays are general work outs.  But Tuesdays to Thursdays you sign up for a sport of some kind and focus on that.  Every two months, you have to rotate out to a new sport.

Your choices this time are:

Basketball

Baseball

Hockey

Weight Training

Karate

Volley Ball

Tyler nods, and seems to consider saying more, but as Reggie changes the subject he keeps his mouth shut about that. All the things that popped into his mind seemed to be the wrong things to say, anyway.

So, instead, he looks to the list of sports. He had been thinking of karate, but after Reggie's story he is less sure about anything involving hitting or being hit. He doesn't say that, though. "Hadn't decided yet. Maybe baseball. I'm a good runner, and I like the Jays. I like watching hockey, too, but I'd just get squished. And I don't even know how to skate."

He looks up to Reggie, and says, "What are you picking?"

OOC: To keep things moving, if Reggie picks anything but hockey or weight training, Tyler will sign up for that same thing. Otherwise, he will pick karate after all, in the end for the same reason he picked drama. Because he's never tried it before. :-) Also, on an OOC level, it's very fitting for the future he doesn't know is coming yet. ;-)
This message was last edited by the player at 05:38, Wed 24 June 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 53):

Reggie considers.  "I get enough weight training in.  Don't need to double up here.  I skate like a moose too.  I think...for the first time...I'm gonna do volley ball."

The two of you sign on.  Reggie looks at you.  "You surprised me.  No one's ever wondered if I had it hard."

He looks back at the sign up sheet. "The reason I started in robotics was...well.  I wanna create exoskeletons for people that got paralyzed.  Like Winston.  Turns out I gotta knack for it.

"What about you?  How'd you get here?  No one living in Scarbrough is gonna be here unless they're on scholarship."

Tyler smiles at the explanation about the robotics, and says, "That's really cool."

Then, he shrugs, and says, "All I know for sure is I applied, and they gave me a scholarship. It might have had something to do with my science fair project last year." He grins, and says, more excited as he describes his project, "I was reading my mom's engineering textbooks, and I came up with a way to generate power with just a planet's magnetic field. Well, and movement too. Doesn't generate much, here on earth, but I designed a microprobe that measures and broadcasts atmosphere conditions to show it off. Like those little things in Twister that they sent into the tornado. They won't last forever, but they last longer."

He turns a bit to Reggie as he adds, though, "But in Jupiter, they would never die! That's what I wanted, originally. My teacher asked us to ask a question and try to answer it for our projects, and I wanted to know why Jupiter's red spot is red. But I can't figure out how to make a strong enough to handle the temperature and pressure there. Yet!" He adds this last word with a grin.

"Anyway, that's when my science teacher suggested to my mom that I should apply here."

OOC: I hope this is okay! I was originally going to go with something tamer, more realistic, but I decided: this is a comic book style story, might as well go comic book style science project. :-)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:44, Fri 26 June 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 55):

Reggie blinks.  Then he blinks some more.

"Ohhhh-kay."  He blinks again.

"You definitely belong here then.  Did you-"

The buzzer goes off.  Coach is standing at the door.  "Remember to bring your money for your PE uniform tomorrow Gentlemen!  If I don't have your funds by Wednesday, you're starting off with an F!"

Reggie grabs his back pack.  "C'mon.  I'm guessin' we're both going to the tube."

The two of you merge with the mass of humanity surging out the doors and gates of the school.

There's a line of SUVs waiting to pick most of the kids up.  You and Reggie join a smaller throng that make their way towards the station.

"So.  Are you gonna enter the science fair this year?  You know it's supposed ta be pretty cut throat at this school."

There's a rumbling in the sky. Thunder.  But it's clear blue as far as you can see.

That's an awesome sounding experiment to me.

Tyler grabs his own bag and follows after Reggie.

When they are past the crowd and heading towards the station, he nods quickly to the question, "Yep! I don't have a project idea yet, but I'll probably think of something soon."

After hearing the thunder, he looks around, practically spinning in a circle and even leaning to look past Reggie as if to check if he was blocking the view of some cloud. "Where'd that thunder come from?"

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 57):

Reggie eyeballs you.  "What thunder?  You sure you're just not hearin' the trains?"

It is true you're near the station now.  And you can hear the roar and thrum of the cars arriving and departing.  But this sounded a little different...

Your phone buzzes.  Then buzzes again.

Mom's texted.  Have to do some overtime.  Make a pot pie in the microwave.  One pie. And only 5 cookies.  How was 1st day?

Levi was the second text.  Man.  Just. Got. Out.  Whadda bag a suck.  Got Caruso for math.  Again.  How'd it kick Day 1?  Meet me at Bucky's for a prtz

Bucky's is a little stand at the end of your block that sells snacky kinds of foods.  Pretzels and nachos and stuff.

Reggie scratches his chin.  "I think I'm gonna try to build a  robotic arm.  Or maybe an eye.  Dunno."

Your train pulls up.  The two of you get on with a bunch of others.  Reggie and you make small talk until his stop, which is two before yours.

"You take this line in the morning?  The 7:15?  If so, maybe I'll see ya."

Tyler spends a few moments looking around again, but then nods, "I guess so. Or maybe a truck."

To his mom, he texts:

Thanks! And it was great! Does scholarship cover gym clothes?

Then, to Levi:

Mostly just school, but physics and drama classes were awesome. Be there ASAP.

He looks back up to Reggie and grins, "You should do an eye. Robot arms are everywhere."

He happily chats away during the ride, and then after the last question, he says, "Yep, probably see you then!"

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 59):

Mom texts back

We aren't that poor Ty.  Just let me know what you need.

Reggie seems to consider the eye.  "Guess it's a little too soon to do a brain.  Eye, huh?"

He disembarks soon after.

You make it to Bucky's to find Levi standing outside, tapping on his phone.

Levi glances up.  " 's up?"

He taps on his phone some more.  "You suck, ya know that?"  He puts his phone into his pocket, giving you a grin.  "You suck onna duck. Ya dumb ol' fffffff...ingerlicker."  He seems over flowing with mirth.

"Go inside an' get me some nachos." He likes his nachos with extra jalapeno slices.  He can't go in himself because he got banned from Bucky's for that one time he did the thing inside.  The two of you usually get it to go and sit on the steps of the office building across the street.

Bucky hands you some money. Enough you can get your stuff too.

"Okay, you go first." he says once the two of you are settled in.  "How'd it go?"

Tyler giggles at Levi's jokes, but then nods quickly, taking the money and heading inside. He comes back out with nachos and milkshakes for both of them, though his nachos are with mild salsa.

He then starts to explain his day, talking fast and excitedly. He mostly focuses on physics and drama, less on the boring parts of his day. He does say things like, "The halls were like when we got lost at Fan Expo, where we couldn't see around us because everybody was so tall." And, "When I knew the answer to the teacher's question, people actually wanted to group with me! They weren't annoyed like at school last year."

For reference on what Fan Expo is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Expo_Canada
This message was last edited by the player at 02:07, Sun 05 July 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 61):

Maybe that will give me the reason to finally visit Canada.  I've always wanted to take one of those window trains through the northwest.

The two of you sit on the stoop noshing nachos.  Levi sucks on his shake for a while.  "Too damn thick," he mutters.

He frowns at you.  "Well that's cos you're too damn smart.  People don't like show offs.  They probably won't at this new place either.  So watch your back."

His cell vibrates.  He looks at it, clicks his tongue, and puts it away.  It was probably his Dad.  His Dad's an asshole.

"Anyway.  You're gonna have to help me in algebra.  I looked through the book and all I see is a bunch of letters.  Why are there letters in math?  Whose dumb idea is that?"

There's a rumble of thunder again.  The sky to the west is starting to darken some.

Levi sighs and tosses is nachos into a nearby trash can.  "I gotta go home tonight.  My Dad says we gotta go visit grandma."

Levi's grandma is in the old age home.  She's an asshole too.

"You gonna be okay tonight all by your looooooooone-some?"

Tyler gives a little nod to the warning not to show off, though he can't really help it, most of the time. He gets frustrated by waiting for the rest of the class to get the right answer.

"Oh, yeah, algebra isn't too hard, it's like a puzzle. I'll help."

He grins when he hears the thunder and sees the cloud. "I knew I'd heard thunder." He looks back to Levi and sighs as well, but nods and says, "That sucks, but yeah, I'll be okay. Text later if you can, and I'll see you tomorrow!"

Now I can go change out of this itchy uniform, he thinks to himself as he quickly finishes his last few nachos and starts home.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 63):

Your apartment is probably older than Mom is.  It's an old house someone divided up into apartments.  You and Mom have the west side of the third floor.

It's pretty simple.  You walk in and you're in the living room/dining room/kitchen/almost everything else room.  Your Mom's room is off the kitchen.  Your room, which you think used to be a walk in closet, is on the other side of the front room.  You have your own half bath, but you have to use the shower in Mom's room to bathe.

Because it's old, it has massive windows.  There's a long one that runs along the southern wall of the front room, almost making up the entire wall.

There are two other apartments on the third floor. The Barkers are what your Mom calls a 'nice young couple' who live on the eastern side.  They're always friendly, but they don't seem to like to chat a lot.  They're always in a rush to go somewhere.

Between you and Barkers is another apartment which is empty.  It used to be Mrs. Nuson's place.  But she died about a year and a half ago.

Levi said it was lucky that she died on the first of the month.  That way, when she didn't come pay rent, the land lord went up to check on her.  "If they didn't find her...and it was June?  Ah man.  She woulda stunk up the place more than usual."

Mrs. Nuson did smell. It was her cats.  All eight of them.  None of them were the nice kind of cat either. They were all the hiss and scratch and piss-all-over-everything kind of cat.  One of them scratched you when you were six.  You ended up with a bad infection.  Mom and Mrs. Nuson had tied into it.  Mom told you to never talk to her again after that.

Mrs. Nuson was not a nice person.  Levi referred to her as Cat Piss and it wasn't really far from the truth.  She seemed to hate everybody and everything.

Since she died and they chased out her cats, the apartment had been rented twice.  Both times the tenants broke the lease early.

Levi told you it was because Nuson was still haunting it.  "And every night...at midnight...she rises up from the bathtub.  And she crawls across the floor...sayin'...here kitty kitty...heeeeeere kitty kitty...here kit...an'...if she can't find her kitty kitty kit...she slithers under her door...an' out into the hall...an' she comes down here...AND MAKES YOU SMELL LIKE CAT PEE!"  Levi had grabbed you and started shaking you.  "WHICH IS WHY YOU SMELL SO BAD!!"

You hear more thunder.  Sounds like the storm front is closing in.

Your phone buzzes.  Mom.  She's going to be later than she thought.  Do your homework and get to bed by 10.  Lights out mister.  Should be home before then. But just in case.Make sure you lock the door.

Speaking of door, you hear something rattle.  You glance towards the front door and...is the knob moving back and forth a little bit?  Like someone's testing it?

Outside, a loud peal of thunder echoes, shaking the glass in the window frame all along the southern wall of the apartment.

Being home alone was scary enough for Tyler, so *of course* his mind went to that story Levi told him. Sure, it was all a joke, but part of him did believe that that mean old lady would turn into an equally mean ghost.

He's unpacking his schoolbooks as he gets the message from his mother, and he starts to type a reply to it when he hears the click.

He stares at the door in terror for a second, even his breath frozen, but then he dashes over to the door as fast as he can to lock it.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 65):

The door stops turning before you arrive.  You slide the chain on and make sure the button is pressed.  It's as locked as that door ever gets.

The storm seems to be closer.  Two loud BOOOOOOOMMMs of thunder roll out, making the glass in the windows not only shake, but rattle and roll.

As the last peal slowly fades, you hear something.  On the other side of the door.  Pitter pat pitter pat.  Soft little steps on the hallway floor outside.  Slowly fading away, just like the rumbles of thunder.

After flinching at the sound of the thunder, Tyler stands there for a moment at the door, trembling, his mind racing. For the first second or two, ideas of cats and ghosts raced through his head, but he pushes those aside as he tries to make sense of it.

A cat couldn't have turned the door handle, and a ghost wouldn't need the door. That sounded really small. A little kid? Why would a kid be up here? But what else could it be?

That's when the idea hits. A theory that might just explain both this and his summer experience.

Just about as fast as he ran to the door in the first place, he runs over to the window that was rattling a moment ago, glancing down for a split second — just in case — before looking back up to the stormy sky above the apartment, searchingly. Looking for a UFO.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 67):

A giant glowing saucer is parked by the curb.

Not.

The streets are filled with people who are hurrying to get inside.  The storm is really bearing down.  You can see a solid line of black coming down the lane.  Seems to be a pretty bad blow coming through.

Your cell rings.  Only twice.  Your spam blocker pops up a message

Call Blocked.  Suspected Spam

Then your cell vibrates.  Levi texts you.

Hey Fart Knock.  It's like a friggin' tornado here.  Watch outside.  It's awesome.

You soon see what he means.  The wind picks up, driving old Subway wrappers and someone's Maples Leaf hat right by your window.  Then the rain starts.  Big fat plops that look like gobs of spit.  They fall making large splash craters.  Then the wind starts blowing sideways.

The blobs of rain spatter against your window, making it sound like a herd of marathon runners are sprinting across it.  You can't see anything.  Visibility goes from clear to shady to opaque in less time than it takes you to inhale and exhale.

Then there's a bright flash of lightning.  Almost like it's from right outside!  You hear a CHHHRCK! from somewhere outside, but can't see where the bolt struck.  But it must have been right close.  Because just as your eyes adjust to the flash, the boom starts.

In the dying light of the flash, your reflection shows up on the window and that of the room behind you.

There's someone standing there.  They're indistinct.  But you think it's a woman with a hunchback.  That's kind of how it looks.  Like Mrs. Nuson used to look.

But when you turn around, there's no one there.  Your ears still ringing from the lightning blast, you glance back out the window.

It's just a normal heavy rain now.

Your cell vibrates.

Hey Fart Knock!  Lightning just hit the street outside!  It was frickin' awesome!

Feeling silly for a moment, Tyler looks down to read the message and then back up to watch the storm.

The thunder and lightning make him jump, but it's the ghostly reflection that makes him yell in fright and spin around.

Back to the window and breathing very fast, he says in a trembling voice, "Mrs Nuson?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:56, Sat 11 July 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 69):

There's no body there.

The lights go out.

Of course they do.  Why wouldn't they?

A glance out the window shows that it's not just you.  Everything on the block is dark.  Just the storm.  Right?

The rain continues to fall in a hard sheet.

There's a knock on the front door.

After a minute you hear someone outside say, "Hey!  Anyone home?"

It sounds like Mr. Barker.

Tyler jumps again as everything goes black. His imagination going wild about what might be in that darkness, he sits frozen for a few seconds until he calms enough to start thinking rationally again.

He's just starting to turn on his phone light when there's the knock at the door. Again, he freezes.

He laughs as he hears the voice, mostly at himself. The fears of seconds earlier suddenly seemed more childish with that dose of reality.

"Just a second!"

He runs over to the door to unlock and open it. His relief and the fact that he had been scared - and still was, if not as badly - is probably very obvious in his body language.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:31, Tue 14 July 2020.