What Antoine Said

What Antoine Said

By

Daphne Q

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 byDaphne Q

All Rights Reserved

No part of this work may be reproduced in any fashion without the express, written consent of the copyright holder.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed herein are fictitious and are not based on any real persons living or dead.

Chapter 1

I blame the whole thing on Max getting a girlfriend.

My brother is only 15; what does he need with a girlfriend? He’s got plenty of other stuff to deal with, not the least of which is that he is so talented, both in science and in music, that people from the Alterniverse want to eliminate him before he can grow up and accomplish the good for humanity he is destined for.

I’m Maddy and I ought to know. For the past year I have been his Protector, and together we have kept a step ahead of the bad guys.

But now, since he met Chloe, he’s turned into a noodle.

I admit—grudgingly—that things have been quiet in the evil plot department for several months. We’d had a safe summer and started the new school year without incident.

Except I thought Chloe was trouble.

She didn’t look particularly scary; she’s small and slight, with straight light brown hair and glasses with bright red frames.

But, at the very least, she’s a distraction from all the more important stuff Max ought to be doing. It didn’t help that I noticed his eyes crinkling with delight when he saw her. And the feeling appeared to be mutual.

Grumpy, I turned to Kevin, my own boyfriend, who murmured, Max picked a little cutie for himself.

Kevin so did not understand. I was about to tell him so when the doors opened and we all trooped out to find seats in the bleachers.

We were here at Broadway High for the regional finals of the Zoom-a-Thon Science Expo. Usually we went to meets to watch Max compete, in track as well as science. But the focus of the Zoom-a-Thon was vehicles powered by clean energy, and that wasn’t Max’s thing.

During the summer he’d spent two weeks at a science camp on the Stanford University campus. It was designed for science geniuses… I didn’t understand half of what they did there.

Max had spent most of his time doing his own thing, a research project that measured the effects of Beethoven’s music on the brain. But he had found time to make some friends, which had pleased Mother no end. It’s also where he met Chloe as well as Phil Almagordo, his new best friend.

Max had come back from the camp two inches taller and remarkably chatty about Phil and how smart he was. Chloe was barely mentioned, although, when pushed a bit by Mother, he mentioned that she’d done an astrophysics project that could advance understanding of star formation by determining whether distant stars formed in clusters or in isolation.

Like I said, they were all brainiacs.

Actually, it was nice to see Max develop a friendship with Phil. Max wasn’t anti-social, but he wasn’t the chatty type either. He got along with everyone on the track team and seemed to enjoy it. But he spent a lot of time on his own interests; he didn’t seem to need a bunch of pals around.

I’d met Phil a couple of times. He wasn’t anybody you’d notice very much. His dark hair always looked like he needed a haircut and his clothes hadn’t come from any of the boutiques my friends went to.

But Max didn’t care about any of that. When they were together, Phil got more animated. Of course I understood only about a third of their conversation, but I knew this wasn’t about me.

Unfortunately my own summer had been a lot less fun, as I spent several weeks with mononucleosis. I felt like crap, had no energy and pretty much resented everyone who had a normal life. I drank gallons of juice, water and energy drinks, watched a zillion hours of old TV reruns (the kind where I would have fallen over laughing at the haircuts and fashions if I hadn’t already been lying down) and slept a lot.

Not a great summer. But it was all behind me now, and I felt fine.

Max had told us that Phil’s team was entered in the Zoom-a-Thon with a solar-powered vehicle that looked at how panels can power loads with different voltage and current requirements.

Of course, a team from our school was entered as well, but I don’t know if we’d have gone to watch if Max hadn’t wanted to support his friend.

And, I thought, have a chance to see Chloe.

The only person on our team that I knew at all was Tom Makenono. We’d sort of gotten to know each other last year, after a lot of tension and misunderstandings.

But we weren’t best buds or anything, and I could have found a more interesting way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I was surprised Kevin wanted to go. Maybe the whole experimental vehicle show was a guy thing.

Plenty of people from our school were there. I saw Ms. Bridges, the new assistant principal, and Mr. Hammond, who was a history teacher. He’d waved hello at Kevin, who’d been in his class last year.

Too bad he’s not catering this contest, Kevin said, sliding his arm around my shoulders.

I looked at him, frowning.

Remember I told you he had a barbecue for his American history class?

Oh, yeah, I nodded. You said he had a nice house.

You could say that, he said. He lives on Magnolia Hill.

Wow. Magnolia Hill didn’t have houses, it had estates.

Kevin chuckled. I guess it helps that his wife is an attorney and works in international banking.

I turned to include Max in the conversation, only to realize that while he’d followed us up the stairs, he had then turned and run down to the front row.

I was not surprised to see Chloe there with some kids I didn’t recognize.

I don’t like Max to go off on his own; I’m afraid it makes him more vulnerable to attack.

But I said nothing. He was only a few rows ahead, and clearly in view. I can’t wrap him in bubble wrap to keep him safe. And it makes him mad when I try.

I would try to chill. Let him have some fun. For now, anyway.

Kevin made it pretty easy. Although he had quite a bit to say about the different teams and their projects, he also spent some time murmuring in my ear.

The summer had not been good to our relationship. During the first part, when I was well, he was in Florida with his parents. When they came back, he had a job at a big box hardware store—and I was sick.

Even though mono is called the kissing disease, I didn’t seem to have caught it, or passed it, to Kevin, as he didn’t have a sick minute all summer.

Not that I wished he was sick. But it was hard not feeling pretty annoyed during those long days of trying to get comfortable on the couch.

Now Kevin was talking about our spending some time together—alone. Some of the things he said gave me chills. I was happy to lean against him and listen. I was excited about the idea of having some private time … and maybe a little bit scared as well. But I didn’t need to think about that now.

As other kids began filling up the seats, he slid back, still keeping his arm around me.

Despite my initial hesitation, surprisingly enough, I got caught up in the tests on the field. The vehicles were pretty creative, and who didn’t support finding new forms of energy?

In fact, I had briefly turned my back to the field and was talking to Jenny Moroney when we all heard a thunderous boom and screaming. Jenny’s face turned gray and I spun back around.

There was a cloud of smoke on the track, and pieces of what looked a vehicle heaped around it. I was stunned and suddenly terrified. I looked down the tiers … where was Max? Neither he nor Chloe was sitting down. I jumped down to the step below and peered onto the field.

It was a madhouse, with a few kids screaming and a couple of adults with fire extinguishers, although I saw no flames. In the distance I heard sirens, which probably meant help was on the way.

But where was Max?

Someone grabbed my arm. I turned and saw it was Kevin. Before I could pull free, he said, That’s Phil’s car!

OMG … I hadn’t realized. And then I saw Max. He and Chloe were on the field, running toward the crushed car. Someone, a teacher I didn’t recognize, was trying to cut them off and send them back to the seats, but she wasn’t having any luck. Had she caught his shoulder?

From this distance, that’s what it looked like. I saw Max twist, almost slither, out of her reach and take off running. Chloe was a couple of steps behind. Max is a track star; there was no way that teacher, if that’s who it was, could catch him.

I ran down to the field level, climbed the gate that someone had shut to keep the students off the field, and took off.

The sirens were louder and overwhelmed the screams. When I looked up to see how far behind I was, suddenly I couldn’t see Max. My breath caught in my throat and I couldn’t have shrieked if my life depended on it.

Wait! I saw him! Max was almost at the far side, but he was on the ground, and not moving. Had someone pushed him down? Had he fallen? Had whatever happened to Phil’s car reached Max?

Elbowing a couple of people who were in my way, I sprinted across the field. I couldn’t let anything happen to Max!

Chapter 2

It seemed like I was moving in slow motion, but in fact it took me less than a minute to reach Max. He was on the ground, but he was moving and trying to sit up.

Chloe had gone on ahead; I might have seen the flash of her red frames amid the smoke at the edge of the field.

Why hadn’t she stayed with Max, I wondered fiercely. Some girlfriend she turned out to be!

I dropped to my knees by Max’s side and immediately jerked as my knee came in contact with a twisted piece of metal. I pushed it aside as Max grunted and pushed himself into a sitting position.

What happened? I gasped. He looked at me with large sorrowful eyes. That’s Phil’s car, he said.

For a moment the ground shifted and I was catapulted back in time. Since I was 4 and he was 3, whenever my little brother was hurt, I was going to make it all right again.

But, we weren’t toddlers any more.

I didn’t say anything about the car. What could I say? I focused on the immediate situation. Can you stand? I asked.

I offered him a hand up, but his right leg buckled. Another metal piece, bigger than the one I had touched, was by his ankle. Had he tripped over that? Had someone pushed him?

This time I said aloud what I was thinking. Where’s Chloe?

The fear that anyone close to Max is a potential enemy is never far from my thoughts. Of course, he wasn’t thinking that way, for all he said was, She went on ahead. To see how Phil is …

His voice dropped. Even from this distance it was easy to tell that however Phil was, it wasn’t good.

They’ve been friends for years, he added.

By now many others were on the field, including what appeared to be paramedics and some police officers.

But it was Rev-Dev who reached us first.

Hugo Devander worked for the city rec department and was always around for sporting events. I’d heard he had gone to divinity school, but never been ordained. Someone said he ministered to young people through sports. Everyone called him Rev-Dev.

Let’s get you out of here, he said.

Max can’t stand! I said.

He moved to Max’s side and gestured me to the other. We got Max up, but he could put no weight on his right leg. I turned to head back to where we had been sitting across the field, but Rev-Dev had other ideas.

We’re much closer to that end, he said, pointing to the crash site. And there’s medical help.

I don’t think Max wanted to be involved in anything so official—nor did I for that matter—but Rev-Dev took matters out of our hands. Together, we helped Max half hop toward the edge of the temporary track.

As we approached, a paramedic saw us. In a moment a wheelchair appeared, and he whisked Max to