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Lance awoke the next day still tired. He had had a full day, and eight hours of sleep just wasn’t going to cut it at his age. That and it hadn’t exactly been an easy sleep. He was so conflicted by what had happened at Rain’s that he didn’t know if he’d ever get his head back on straight.
Still, there was a certain energy in the air, a mixture of nervousness, anxiety, and excitement. Today Lance was determined to get to the ‘Full Moon Restaurant’ and get some answers from “Big C.” It had been days since Lance had gotten the information out of those crooks in the jail cell and he still hadn’t made his move. What if he got to the restaurant and this guy wasn’t there? What if word had reached him and he knew Lance was coming?
Lance imagined that every career criminal just hung out at the same place all the time in case someone needed to get in contact in an emergency. Lance also decided that he would just have to scope out the place before going in.
What do I even look for? Guys with guns ready to shoot me if I even blink funny? Lance didn’t know exactly. He recalled his knowledge of the restaurant. The place was one of those seedy dives where they served breakfast all the time and no matter how much deodorant spray was used, it always still smelled like smoke.
He also decided that he should wait until it got dark out, as he figured it would look suspicious going in what could be construed as a costume and a Halloween mask during the day time.
So, he had some time to kill. Lance checked his voice mail and found he had none, which was unusual for him. He figured Keri would have called either last night or this morning just to make sure he was okay or that he hadn’t cheated on her with Rain. But there was nothing, no mock accusations or love messages, just nothing.
The teen decided to give his girlfriend a call and was disappointed when she didn’t answer the phone
“Hey, hun, uh, it’s just me calling. I hope you had fun last night…but not too much fun. Talk to you later, I guess. Love you, bye,” Lance said into Keri’s voicemail. He snapped the phone shut and tossed it on to his bed. The phone bounced a bit before coming to a stop next to Lance’s pillow.
He started to get worried, but he told himself that she was probably still asleep, as it was just past eight in the morning on a Sunday.
Well, Keri wasn’t home or not answering her phone or whatever, and Lance could only stand so much of Ryan’s company at the moment, so he was left with very few options. He could call up some of the other guys from the track team and go play some ball, but, again, it was early on a Sunday morning. And they weren’t supposed to be playing basketball during the season, anyway. It was too risky due to the high number of ankle injuries that occurred when highly competitive teenaged males played sports that required jumping.
Then it hit him. He could call Rain and they could go for breakfast at the restaurant. He would get to eat, hang out with Rain, and do some recon all at the same time. This seemed like the best course of action, so he gave Rain a call. Lance was half surprised when Rain actually answered, as he figured she would have also been asleep.
“Hello?” Rain asked. She sounded fully awake, yet still very cautious.
“Hey, it’s Lance,” he replied. That was stupid, of course, as she knew it was him by the listing on her caller ID.
“Hey!” Rain said, her voice brightening up immediately. “How are you?”
“Good, good. Hey, I was wondering if you would possibly, maybe want to go and get some breakfast?” he asked. He was too nervous about his plan to consider how Keri would react to this.
“Uh, sure, why not?” Rain replied, with a twinge of hesitation in her voice. “Give me a few to get ready, okay?”
He agreed, and said he would come get her shortly, then said goodbye and hung up the phone.
He had to get ready himself, and he started by taking a shower, letting the hot water bleed out the excitement that was swelling up inside of him. It was the next step in his greater scheme to clean up his city, to find the man who sent those punks who jumped him out on the streets.
He toweled off and put on clothes, a tight, bright blue t-shirt and blue jeans. From what Lance remembered, the restaurant they were going to didn’t exactly require or enforce a formal dress code.
He hopped down the stairs after deciding that Rain would have had enough time to get ready, and Lance was just about out the door when his mother, who he hadn’t seen sitting at the kitchen table, cleared her throat and spoke up.
“And where do you think you’re going?” she asked. Lance hadn’t thought anyone else in the house had been up and jumped in surprise when he heard her voice. He swirled around to see his mother sitting, glancing over the morning paper. She was wearing the usual morning wear, a robe and slippers, which Lance had always thought was an odd choice, but then again, he didn’t try to make any sense out of the customs of people.
“I’m going out to breakfast,” Lance stammered. Shit! I was hoping to get out of the house without many questions, or any, if possible. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem likely.
“With Keri?” his mom asked incredulously, “Seems kind of early for her.”
“No,” Lance replied, not really want to extrapolate on his response, but knew he’d be forced to anyway, so he just to his mom the truth. “With Rain…”
“Oh? And what does Keri think about this?”
“She doesn’t know yet. I tried to call her, but she didn’t answer,” Lance explained. It was true, he had tried to call Keri, and she hadn’t answered the phone, but that was before he had the idea of going to breakfast to do some reconnaissance for the coming night.
Lance’s mom gave him a funny look, like she wanted to say something, but she just said, “All right, honey, just don’t go getting into any trouble.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes, “I won’t, mom.”
He quickly turned and walked out the door before his mother could say anything more, having heard enough about the subject the night before. That had made him angry, hearing about how he should dump Keri and go out with Rain, as his friends and family should just respect his wishes and not hassle him about who he wants to date. That and he had also heard quite enough of what he could have possibly been doing in the kitchen with Rain from Ryan.

Lance drove the short distance from his house to Rain’s apartment, parked out in front almost exactly where he had the night before, then plodded across the grassy yard out in front to her door. Rain startled him slightly as she pulled opened the door as he approached and smiled brightly.
“It’ll be just another minute, I just have to dry my hair,” Rain said as Lance got close enough to hear and she turned around and disappeared somewhere into the apartment. She had left the door open, so Lance figured it was all right that he entered the apartment and sat down on the couch.
Even though he had just been there a little over eight hours before, he hoped no one, including Rain, would get the wrong idea. He and Rain had talked it through, and had come to the conclusion that starting a more personal relationship would be impossible at that moment. Now all he needed was for Rain to remember that. She was a great person to be around, Lance felt, and he hoped they would be able to remain good friends.
“All right, I’m all set to go,” she said as she entered the living room wearing a pink baby doll t-shirt and tight, form-fitting low cut jeans. Lance’s eyes widened in appreciation and he thought he might have drooled a little bit as he wiped his hand past his mouth.
“What?” she asked smiling playfully. Like any girl, Rain was fishing for complements.
“Do you ever look bad?” Lance asked seriously. He didn’t think that it was possible, and as he thought back to it, Rain even looked great after track practice.
“Oh, cut it out,” she giggled. Her face was turning a slightly red color as she blushed. “Now, now, we talked about this. We can’t be friends if you keep staring at me like that.”
“Then quit looking like that,” Lance responded. He was serious. Rain’s blond hair rain over her shoulders and was tucked behind her ears and she looked just fantastic to him. Rain just rolled her eyes jokingly and held out her arm to help Lance up off of the couch.
“Come on, let’s go,” she encouraged as she pulled Lance up. She leaned in and whispered in his ear as he passed by her to leave. “By the way, you were drooling.”
Damn, Lance thought as he wiped at his mouth again, this time with his arm. I was drooling, and she noticed. Not the smoothest way to start out the day. Lance escorted Rain to his car and even opened the passenger side door for her.
“My, what the gentleman. Your mama raised you right.”
“She’d be relieved to hear that.”
Rain chuckled as Lance closed the door after her. He went around to the driver’s side and climbed into the vehicle.
They drove along for a few minutes, and Rain was quietly absorbing the scenery. Not that there was much to look at, just a few houses, gas stations and a lot of road, but Rain hadn’t yet taken the time to become familiar with her adopted city.
“So, where are we going?” Rain asked anxiously. Being in such new surroundings excited her, and it was beginning to show.
“Just a little place along the highway here. It’s one of those twenty-four hour diners. It’s not too far now,” he explained. He drove past the army surplus store that he had visited just twenty-four hours before and glanced over. He had pushed the thought from his mind, but now the idea that his dad had shopped at that store, which included purchasing a rifle for some unknown reason, came rushing back. Lance quickly shelved the thoughts of his father to the back of his mind and concentrated on driving.
“Ooh, sounds cozy,” she said.
“I hope so,” Lance said to himself and Rain shot him a quizzical look, not sure of how to take Lance’s comment. He looked at her quickly and saw that she had heard what he had said, so he quickly changed the subject by saying, “We’re here.”
Lance gazed upon the sign that said ‘Full Moon Family Restaurant,’ with a smaller sign below that that said, ‘Open twenty-four hours.’ He could see that there were already people in the place. It was hard to determine just how many people were in the restaurant due to all of the signs covering up the windows; signs that were advertising the month’s specials, but Lance was only there for one reason. He looked over at Rain, who was standing next to him, waiting to enter the diner and she smiled her beautiful smile at him.
Okay, maybe two reasons.
Rain seemed awfully perky for it being so early in the morning on the weekend, and Lance told her so.
“I’m just a morning person, I guess,” was her response. Lance got a terrible feeling as he opened the door for Rain, and he realized that the man that he was looking for could already be inside. That is, if it was a man.
Had those dealers specified that ‘Big C’ was a man? Lance couldn’t remember. Still, just thinking how close he might be to his enemy caused him to stumble. Rain shot out her hand and grasped him by the arm to keep him upright.
“Are you okay? You don’t look so good all of a sudden,” she said, looking greatly concerned for Lance’s safety.
“I’m fine, just a little more tired than I thought,” he replied. He added mentally, that, and the man I might have to beat for information could be right inside. Again, that was with the assumption that ‘Big C’ was a man. Lance figured that ‘Big C’ had to be, as he couldn’t picture any woman hanging out here and running drug deals.
“We don’t have to stay if you don’t feel up to it,” Rain offered. She didn’t want her new friend getting sick on her, especially since he was her ride.
“I’m fine, really. We came this far, let’s just go in,” Lance grabbed the handle to the door and swung it open hard, holding it open for Rain who gave him a look that indicated that she was getting worried by Lance’s sudden change in behavior. He hadn’t seemed like the druggy or violent type to her before, but, then again, she hadn’t known him all that well or for very long.
After getting a smile and a “you can seat yourself,” from one of the waitresses, a middle-aged, yet perky, woman with glasses and graying hair, Rain directed Lance to one of the booths in the corner of the restaurant. All the while, Lance was eying the place suspiciously as they walked to the table. Once the two were seated, Lance’s focus shifted back to Rain.
“What was up with that waitress? Can you say stereotype?” Lance joked. Rain laughed, so Lance ran with the joke. “Seriously, if she calls me “hun” I am totally out of here.”
Rain was laughing so hard she almost couldn’t stop before the waitress approached the booth. Rain’s sobering up so quickly caused Lance to stop his oh so witty rant, figuring that it meant the waitress in question was coming up behind him. They both looked up at the older woman and smiled.
“Now, what can I get you folks today?” she asked, pulling out a tiny notepad and a pen from a pouch on the front of her apron.
Yep, stereotype all the way, Lance thought as he panned over the menu quickly. Rain was the first to select something and she ordered.
“I’ll have the all-American breakfast with the scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and strawberry jelly for the toast.”
“And to drink?”
“I’ll go with chocolate milk.”
“And for you?” the waitress asked as she turned to Lance. She expected Lance to deliver an equally long order as Rain, so she had her pen cocked and ready to write.
“I’ll have the same,” Lance smiled pleasantly.
“Coming right up.”
After the waitress left, Lance turned to Rain, “That’s some order there.”
“Well, I work out a lot, so I have to keep my strength up,” Rain said. Lance nodded in agreement. Being an athlete himself, Lance knew exactly what Rain meant, and appreciated the importance of a good, hearty breakfast.
“So, ready to break that record this week?” Rain asked, continuing along that same train of thought, since they were already talking sports.
“I’d have to be dead to not break the record,” Lance replied ominously. They chatted about track for awhile, then Lance excused himself to the restroom.
After finishing his business, Lance bumped into a man as he moved to wash his hands.
“Oh, excuse me,” Lance apologized. “I’m sorry.” Lance noted that he had said those two words again, and he wondered how often he said them on any given day. Because of Rain, he began to think about things like that.
“I should bloody hope so,” the man replied in an English accent. The man left after drying his hands, and Lance glared at the man’s back as he left the restroom.
What was that all about? Lance thought before shaking it off. I thought English people were supposed to be more sophisticated, more suave, more civilized. He calmed down as he exited the restroom and looked around for a few moments, still trying to scope out the restaurant for when he would return later that day. Lance saw that the man he had bumped into was seated in a back booth in the opposite corner away from his, away from any of the other patrons. Lance shook his head and walked back towards his own table.
The food had been served while he had been away and Rain smiled up at him through a mouth full of eggs. Lance gazed at her longingly and sat down, bouncing a bit as he hit the cushion hard.
“Still pretty?” she laughed.
“Very,” Lance admitted. He really believed now that nothing could make the girl sitting across from him ugly.
While they were eating the waitress came by to check up on the teens. She noticed that Lance’s drink was running low, and, always wanting to appear to be friendly, which would ensure a larger tip; she offered to freshen Lance’s chocolate milk.
“Can I get you a refill, hun?” she asked. Lance’s eyes bulged in response and he managed to say no, so the waitress left.
“Calm down there, I think it’s a rule that they have to talk like that anyway.”
At that point Rain started in on her childhood and how she had been to quite a few diners just like the one they were in now growing up. Meanwhile, Lance continued to run his eyes across every inch of the restaurant. Rain explained that she had practically grown up in places like this, with most of her foster parents having a penchant for bad fast food and greasy diners. So she had eaten out a lot, perhaps a little too much, and Lance was amazed at just how good she looked now.
“Uh huh,” Lance said at regular intervals where he was expected to respond in some way. His blue eyes darting back and for, committing to memory everything he could about the restaurant; the number and layout of the tables, the placement of the exits, everything.
Rain even caught Lance trying to peer into the modest kitchen area. She stopped talking, which Lance didn’t notice, put her cheek on her hand, and frowned as she stared out the window.
“Will you cut that out?” she said finally. She had had enough of whatever it was he was doing. “You’re freaking me out. It’s like you’re casing the joint to rob it or something.”
Lance’s focus sharpened in on Rain, and he smiled as he said. “And who says I’m not?”
“That’s not funny,” Rain said and motioned towards the staff, who were stealing glances in the pair’s direction. “And now they’re all watching us.”
Their waitress came by with the check, and Lance stopped Rain as she fished through her purse for money.
“I’ve got this. What good is a job if I can’t treat beautiful girls to breakfast,” Lance said, grabbing the check. He was putting on the biggest grin that he possibly could now.
“Knock it off, Lance,” Rain said seriously. That knocked the wind out of his sails and the smile off his face. “Just, stop flirting, okay? You have a girlfriend who probably finds that shit very macho and cute, but guess what? I’m not her.”
She had left off the now implied, “And never will be.”
Lance held his head down as he grabbed the slip of paper and walked over to the register at the front of the restaurant.
Well, that’s kind of depressing, he thought as he waited for whoever was supposed to be running the cash register. We were totally connecting last night. What happened? It didn’t occur to him that perhaps Rain had come to her senses overnight and definitely did not want to get involved with a boy who had a girlfriend, and the fact that she liked Lance just made it harder to be close to him. Especially in situations just like the one Lance had dragged her into and then rudely ignored her.
He was left pondering that question when an older gentleman stepped behind the register. Lance did his best to give the man a weak smile when he asked how everything was, but even that proved difficult.
Instead, Lance just handed the man his money and check. As he held out his hand for the change, he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket, indicating that he had an incoming call.
He fished out the phone with his free hand as he took the change and jammed it into his pocket with the other. The caller ID showed that it was Keri. With a sigh, he flipped open the phone and stepped away from the counter.
“Hello?” Lance asked, dreading the oncoming conversation. Keri was not going to be happy once she learned where Lance was, and with whom.
“Hey, hun,” Keri replied emphatically. Lance almost bumped into another customer and said, “Excuse me,” as he deftly avoided the person. Lance could practically hear the frown on the other side of the phone.
“Where are you?”
“At breakfast, at that little place just outside of town, along the highway,” Lance replied. Please leave it at that, Lance begged silently into the phone. Of course, Keri didn’t.
“With your parents?” she remembered Lance saying that his dad was coming back that day. She thought maybe he had gotten in early and the family had gone out for breakfast.
“No, I’m with Rain,” he said as he sat back down at the table. Rain stared at him disapprovingly with her arms folded across her chest. That was the universal symbol for extreme silent anger, and Lance knew that it was very bad to get a girl mad.
“You’re still with her?” Keri practically screamed, “What’d you do, sleep with her?”
Lance pleaded his case, including the half-truth that he had already told his mom, while Rain continued to stare. She was figuring now that he hadn’t paid attention to her because Lance would have rather gone to breakfast with Keri.
She obviously didn’t want to play second fiddle to Keri. Rain wasn’t even sure she wanted to play first, but she knew she wasn’t going to be second.
“Look, I’m still here, I can get you something.”
Rain focused in to hear what Lance was saying, thinking about how it was a fine mess she had gotten into, as across the table, Lance thought the same thing.
Lance found it hard to judge which was worse, being caught between two teenaged girls, or being one of the girls, especially the one that was, in his mind, losing out.
Rain stood up to leave as Lance flipped the phone shut. She decided to keep playing the angry dejected girl as she stormed out of the diner and stood impatiently at the passenger door of Lance’s car.
She left Lance standing by the table, watching her display of anger, not sure of what to do next. He took one last look at the rest of the restaurant and saw that everyone was looking at him now, including the English man he had bumped into in the bathroom.
Embarrassed, Lance quietly slinked out the door into the parking lot. He considered opening Rain’s door and holding it open for her, but the look on her face advised him against it. Instead, Lance just used the power lock feature to unlock Rain’s door from the inside. She looked angry that he hadn’t gotten the door for her, and he knew she still would’ve been angry if he had. It was a no win situation for Lance, one that he didn’t see improving as time went on.
As Rain got into the car, Lance attempted to apologize. All he got in return was a look of disgust and a, “Just drive me home.” He hadn’t gotten one of those since he first tried to get to second base with a girl. At least this time he hadn’t been slapped, though for some reason he felt that maybe he should have been.
He was frustrated and a bit angry, but he knew he only had himself to blame. It was his fault that Rain was mad, and that Keri was also somewhere being angry at him, but he just didn’t know what he could do to rectify the situation, so he decided to just honor Rain’s wishes and drove her straight home.
She practically jumped from the car as Lance pulled up to her apartment, and as soon as she walked away, Lance slumped over in his seat and banged his head hard on the steering wheel. The resulting blare of the horn caused Rain to jump, which made her even angrier.
What’d I even do wrong? Lance asked himself. The answer was immediate. Rain was trying to share details of her life with Lance, and he had ignored her, instead, focusing on his own recon “mission.” No girl likes to be ignored when she is talking, especially if she feels that what she is saying is important, and to Rain, every detail of her childhood was important.
Rain had thought Lance had been the greatest guy she had ever met, and then he went and blew it by being more absorbed by his new second life than his first. That’s how Lance thought of his powers and his escapades at night, though he had only ever really had two, and he wasn’t sure the first counted as part of his life as a super hero.
He had started to develop his alter ego, the costumed crime fighter, a secret costumed persona that he could slip into whenever the need arose. And that was how Lance had to keep it, as an activity, a life that was second to his own. He couldn’t let the power take over his life, which is something that he had been worried about since the night he discovered that he had this fantastic ability.
Since the discovery of his powers, Lance was becoming more and more absorbed into the lifestyle that it led to. The danger, the excitement, it was intoxicating, like the drugs on the streets that he had vowed to clean up. It was the thrill of control that he was getting when he beat up the bad guy. Granted, that had only been three times, but it was enough of a taste to make him want more. He wanted to keep playing the game, but maybe, he thought, he could change the rules slightly. Do more good as plain, old Lance, and less as the costumed vigilante righting wrongs in the night.
This was what he considered as he drove home with the windows down, letting the warm spring air hit his face. He cruised through the town slowly and let his thoughts drift over his future.

Arriving home, Lance gathered that his father had gotten back from his business trip, as his dad’s black sedan was now parked in the driveway. Lance’s thoughts immediately jumped to Bob and Jay and what they had said at the surplus store. His dad had bought a gun from them. One he may have modified to shoot tranquilizer darts.
Why would he need a gun to shoot tranquilizer? Lance wondered as he pulled into the driveway behind his dad’s car. It was about ten in the morning now, and, after his disastrous breakfast with Rain, Lance didn’t know how he would make it through the rest of the day. Also, he had no idea where he stood with Keri, but it probably wasn’t on the side of good.
After he had explained everything to her, while Rain had waited impatiently at their table, Keri hadn’t sounded terribly upset, but he never knew with her. She might stew over it for hours, then explode all over again the next time Lance talked to her. It was only made worse by Keri’s friends, especially her guy friends. They always made everything Lance said sound like an admission of guilt.
An “I have to go to the restroom,” when Lance managed to build up the courage and tolerance enough to hang out with Keri’s male friends, turned into an “I have to go to the restroom…to make out with every girl in here, and they’re all prettier than you,” with the way her friends spun it.
Especially Derrick, as he was the worst, and if Lance could bring himself to hate anyone, it might very well be Derrick. At school, he followed her around like a puppy sucking love from its owner, only the love Derrick was looking for was underneath Keri’s clothes.
Keri could be so great when she wasn’t surrounded by her guy friends, which made Lance all the angrier to see just how much they truly influenced his girlfriend.
“Hey there, son,” his dad said, interrupting Lance’s thinking. Lance had been so lost in thought, that he hadn’t even seen his dad approaching his car. “You going to sit in there forever?”
Lance really had spaced out, and he was visibly startled by his dad’s approach. Lance looked up at his dad, who was laughing to himself at the effect he had had on his son.
Mr. Steven Maxwell was tall, like Lance, though heavier with the onset of middle age. In his mid-forties, he was still in fantastic shape, with a full head of dark brown hair that was slowly turning a distinguished shade of steel gray. He stood outside of his son’s car wearing a gray business suit, as though he hadn’t had time to change after arriving home from his trip.
“I…no,” Lance stuttered as he finally managed to get himself out of the car. “I was just thinking about something.”
“Oh, you looked pretty deep in thought there. It must have been important,” his dad said, walking next to Lance as they made their way to the house.
“Not really,” Lance replied. He wasn’t sure if any of it was important in the long run, thoughts of his girlfriend, and why his dad may or may not have bought a rifle. That led him to his next comment. “Oh, Bob and Jay from the army store said to say ‘hi’ for them.”
“Oh? Did they say anything else?” his dad questioned, pretending not to be suddenly intrigued by Lance’s revelation.
“Nope,” Lance lied. He seemed to be doing that left and right these days. Though, he tended to think of it as more of a manipulating the truth and not out and out lying.
“How was breakfast? Your mother tells me it was with some new girl,” Mr. Maxwell interrogated, the way any parent does when their child goes anywhere with someone new. Lance half expected the “what is she like?” and “what does she look like?” questions.
“Yeah…” Lance acknowledged. He was going to make his dad work hard for the details.
“Tell me about her. What’s her name?” he asked. Lance wanted to say that it didn’t matter what the girl’s name was, that he was still seeing Keri and that it didn’t matter if he wasn’t, because he had already blown it with Rain anyway. Instead, Lance just played the good son and responded kindly.
“Well, she’s new to the school, hence being the new girl,” Lance explained. He was playing nice, but that didn’t mean he had to do it without being a smart-aleck. “Her name is Rain.”
The reaction from Mr. Maxwell was immediate, but brief. He stopped walking and gave Lance a glance that could only be described as anger mixed with fear. Lance hadn’t known what he did to make his father look at him that way, but it would come to him later.
The look only was there for a moment, then disappeared just as quickly as Mr. Maxwell managed a weak smile.
“Hmm,” he said, trying to hide and contain whatever had caused that look of angry fear, whatever was really going in his mind. “That’s an, ah, interesting name.”
What is he hiding? Lance wondered. It seemed to him that his dad had so many secrets these days.
“Yeah, I thought so too,” Lance said cautiously, “but it kind of grows on you.”
“I guess it would.”
The morning sun was causing the heat to rise quickly, and Lance had to shield its rays from his eyes as they lazily walked towards the house.
Okay, enough with the strange comments already, Lance screamed, albeit in his head. Just tell me what’s going on.
Lance had finished explaining the travesty that had been his morning meal when his father got an idea.
“What do you say we all go out for dinner, as a family? You can bring Keri if you want.”
“Great,” Lance said, then hesitated with his next comment. “Though, I’m not so sure about Keri. She’s kinda mad at me right now…maybe.”
“What did you do now?” his dad asked, opening the door for his son.
Lance laughed. He couldn’t help it. The way his dad had said that just evoked that reaction. That and the answer was what they had just discussed.
“I went to breakfast with another girl,” he admitted. His dad laughed too. It would’ve been a good father-son moment if Lance hadn’t kept the fact that his father was keeping secrets from him in the back of his mind.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine. Invite her to dinner, it’ll be all right,” Mr. Maxwell assured his son.
So as soon as he was in his room, Lance called up Keri and relayed the invitation for dinner, which she readily accepted. She also asked what time she would need to be ready to go.
“That’s a good question,” Lance replied, walking out of his room. He cupped his hand over the mouth piece and yelled down the stairs at his father. “Hey! What time are we going to dinner?”
Somewhere in the house, Lance could hear Eva squeal with delight.
Well, I just ruined that surprise, Lance surmised.
“I don’t know,” his dad called back after a moment. “How does seven sound?”
“Fine,” Lance replied, then uncovered the mouth piece and spoke calmly to Keri. “How does seven sound?”
“That sounds good,” Keri replied. After a moment of silence, Lance felt he couldn’t help himself.
“So…what are you wearing?” he asked, breaking the silence.
Keri laughed so hard she almost snorted. “Goodbye, hun. I’ll see you at seven.”
“’Bye, I love you.”
Keri was still laughing.
“I love you, too.” Keri hung up first, and Lance plugged the phone into the charging cable and tossed the sleek cell phone onto his bed.
He went downstairs and visited with his family for awhile, since he didn’t seem to have anything better to do. Eva had been working her way up to something, but Lance hadn’t found out what it was yet, though he figured he could have probably guessed.
“Daddy,” she said sweetly.
Here it comes, Lance said, staring intently at the train wreck unfolding in front of him, his eyes widened in anticipation.
“Could we bring my new boyfriend?”
“You have a boyfriend now?” their dad asked. “My, you kids grow up so fast. You have a boyfriend; your brother manages to make two girls angry at the same time, what’s next?”
Eva shot Lance a questioning glance. Apparently she hadn’t heard about who Lance went to breakfast with. Which wasn’t surprising to Lance, as it appeared Eva had just woken up, being still in her pajamas. She wore what Lance would have said were faded pink sweat pants, but he knew that she had purchased them that way, and a pink tank top.
“Anyway, so can Ryan come?” Eva pleaded. To say Mr. Maxwell had been stunned would have been an understatement.
“Wait, Ryan? Lance’s Ryan?” their dad turned to Lance. “Did you know your halfwit of a friend is dating my little girl?”
Lance sighed and rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“Captain of the softball team and you’re dating that track reject?” he looked back at Lance. “No offense.”
Lance wasn’t offended at all, since he considered himself a track star, what with being on pace to break records and all, and besides, his dad’s comments hadn’t strayed too far from his own thoughts. But Lance kept telling himself that it was up to Eva, and that if she was happy, that is all that mattered.
Eva gave their father the sad puppy dog face with eyelash batting and everything.
“Fine,” Mr. Maxwell relented. “The halfwit can come. But no googly eyes, or kissy lips, or flirting of any kind.”
“What about Lance? He does that stuff with Keri all the time,” Eva argued. “And are you going to be calling him halfwit all night?”
“Probably, yes.” The dad said. As for Eva’s accusations, he looked at Lance sternly and Lance shrugged and nodded in admission. Of course it was true. Everyone had seen it, so there would be no point in attempting to deny it.
“One, Lance is older than you are. Two, he’s a man. And three, you’re my daughter, and I worry just like I’m sure Keri’s dad worries about her,” Mr. Maxwell explained. It was sexist, but true. “Now go call Ryan to make sure all this fuss is for something.”
Eva threw her arms around her father, squealed again, and then ran upstairs to call Ryan, who, unfortunately for Lance and his dad, was more than eager to join them for dinner. Perhaps Ryan thought that if he showed up on his best behavior that he might win Mr. Maxwell over, which, if that were his plan, he would fail horribly before the night even started. One look at the elder Maxwell’s face would be more than enough to assure anyone that there would be no “winning over” or “buddy-buddy times” where any man dating his daughter would be concerned.
It was still early in the day, so Lance’s dad killed some time with pestering his son with questions.
“How is school going?”
Lance answered with a grumbled, “Fine.”
“Going to break that record in the hurdles soon?”
“Hopefully.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” Lance responded, looking up from the paper. He hadn’t been able to think of anything else to do, so he read the comics page.
“You seem upset about something.”
“Nope, I’m fine. Just a rough morning.”
“It was really that bad with this ‘Rain’ girl?”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m not sure why I’m that upset about it.”
He knew why he was upset. It was because he took Rain to a restaurant for breakfast and he ended up acting like a jerk the entire meal. He hadn’t even paid attention to her when she was telling her stories about herself. Lance figured Rain thought he had to be the biggest jerk on the planet right about then.
“You care because that’s who you are,” his dad said, trying to reassure his son.
How would you know? Lance thought to himself, you’re never home enough to notice anyway.
“You try to please everyone, which is probably why your sister is now dating your best friend, even though it’s obvious that you’re not really okay with it.”
Okay, so maybe dad knows me…just a little bit. Come to think of it, he was right about Keri, too. Lance supposed his only real “problem” with his dad really was that he was gone too much. That, and now Lance suspected his dad of hiding something from him, perhaps even from his mom, too.
“What is it you do, exactly?” Lance asked. The question threw Mr. Maxwell off guard for a moment, trying to discern exactly what Lance had meant.
“As my job?” his dad asked to clarify Lance’s question.
“Yeah. What do you do for your job?”
“Well, I’m vice president of marketing for a major American pharmaceutical company, a drug company, if you will. And my job is to find investors, get their money, and to also help pitch new products to the FDA.”
Something seemed off to Lance, like something didn’t quite add up right. “To be honest, I’m not sure why they call my department ‘Marketing,’ since we have nothing to do with advertising products.”
Aha! That was what it was, and now his dad had explained away any discrepancies in his story. So why did Lance still feel like something was off?
“Look, I know I am away a lot. But I’m going to be in town for awhile. It is probably going to take some time for the labs to cook up their next wonder-drug.”
He looked at Lance very seriously as he spoke. “I’d rather spend much more time with you, and your sister, but I promise I’ll be at your meet this week. Speaking of which, when is it?”
Lance thought hard about that. He was pretty sure that it was Tuesday, so he said that. “The meet starts at four, but the hurdles aren’t right away, so don’t worry about getting there on time too much.”
Lance wasn’t going to be doing any high-jumping at the meet, as a favor from the coaches to help get him the record.
After a few more minutes of chit-chat andcatching up, his dad excused himself and went upstairs to visit with Lance’s mom. She never admitted it, but Lance felt that his dad’s absence affected her as much as it did him. Maybe she was used to it by now, but Lance couldn’t figure out how anyone could cope with a spouse being away so often.
He sat at the table for a few minutes longer, then remembered he had some homework that had to get done, so he figured he might as well do that to kill time. After he was done with his school work, he decided he might as well put his excruciatingly bad morning to some use, so he went through the restaurant step by step in his head.
He also thought up some cool things that he could say to ‘Big C’ while he was at it, then decided that everything he came up with actually sounded pretty terrible. Preplanned humor was not one of Lance’s strong points as he thought of himself as more of an improv guy, saying whatever he was thinking and hoping it was funny.
He tossed around the idea of calling Ryan, but realized that his sister was still on the phone with him. He had thought about that when Eva and Ryan first wanted to go out, that their “romantic trysts” might cut into the whole “Ryan is Lance’s best friend” thing. Still, Lance knew that that would have happened no matter who Ryan dated. And it was bound to happen too, since Ryan wasn’t ugly, and he could be a great guy when he wasn’t saying something stupid; which, unfortunately for Ryan, seemed to be quite often.
Ditching the idea to call his best friend, Lance booted up his computer. The hard drive contained the normal things that most teenaged boys have on their home PC. Some games, chat software, that sort of thing.
Though today, something of an idea came to Lance’s mind. He had thought of it while he was debating whether he wanted to call Ryan.
Lance decided to search for superpowers or people who allegedly had powers, or videos put forth as evidence of superpowers.
What he found was that there was so much stuff out there on the web that Lance just didn’t know where to begin. He finally settled on watching a few of the videos that had circulated to those viral video websites, but those turned out to be a crock anyway. Most of the videos he had found were discredited as fake before they were ever even released to the public. Just people with way too much time and money having fun with their computers.
Next, he decided to look through the “How do I know if I have/How do I get super powers” web pages. Those turned out to be not much help either. These sites contained such useful tidbits as “you can get super powers in the following ways: Being exposed to radiation, being bitten by a radioactive insect or animal, or being the offspring of parents with superpowers (gained, most likely, through the aforementioned means).”
There was one useful idea in that that Lance hadn’t yet considered. What if Lance’s dad had superpowers, and that’s where Lance had gotten them from. That would explain why his dad was gone all the time, though he didn’t see his dad as the super hero type, the father figure who offers a steady hand and strong advice to the hero, perhaps, but not the hero himself.
Then Lance had an even crazier idea. What if his powers had come from his mom?
Nah, that’s not too likely. She wouldn’t have the time to be a super hero, Lance decided. Between working and taking care of her kids full time, his mom just didn’t have the time to don tights and run around fighting crime. Not that Lance could or wanted to picture his mom wearing tights.
Enough with the internet, Lance decided, and went to lie down. He had had a very long week and it was all rushing to catch up with him now.