Snapped!

By Martin A. Follose

Chapter 1

It first happened while I was talking to my friend Peter before classes started.
“Did you finish your homework for biology?” Peter asked.
“Did we have homework in biology?” I replied. Obviously, there had been homework.
Not doing it wasn't anything new for me.
“I was reading How to Play Chess and Win all night,” I told Peter. “I'm going to beat
Tyrone if it's the last thing I do.”
“You will never beat Tyrone,” said Peter. “He's too good.”
Nice friend to have, I thought. He really has faith in me.
Tyrone was the president of the chess club, and no one had ever beaten him. But I was
going to change that. Since I was not a football star, I figured that becoming the school chess
champion at least once was going to be my only claim to fame. So, I’d spent all night reading my
chess book instead of doing my biology homework.
“Oww!” Someone flicked my ear. I didn't have to turn around to know it was Tom. He
and I were both freshmen, but since he was about twice my size, he picked on me all the time.
Nothing new there either—everyone picked on me. They told me anyone with ears that stuck out
like mine, had a skinny long neck, and never combed his hair deserved to be picked on. It was
super annoying. I couldn't help how I looked.
“Stop it,” I said.
“Stop it,” mimicked Tom as he walked by. He must have had better things to do than stay
around and continue to torment me.
I shook my head at his back and sighed. “Someday Tom is going to get what's coming to
him,” I told Peter.

1
 “Right,” replied Peter. “I won't hold my breath.” Peter was an average short kid. Maybe
that's why he didn't seem to get noticed by the other students. His hair was average length and
brown in color, his eyes were the usual blue, and he was an average weight for a short kid,
neither skinny nor fat. He was just average!
I showed Peter the check I’d gotten for mowing a lawn. I was saving up so I could go to
Spring Formal this year. “You need a date to go to the dance,” Peter reminded me with a pointed
look. He was always doing that: shooting me down. He called it “keeping my feet grounded.”
“Yeah, well I know ladies who will be dying to go out with me once they see me in a
tuxedo, “I replied.
Then he did it again: grounded my feet.
“Yeah, like who?” Peter goaded.
“Maybe Lisa.”
“Lisa? A senior?”
He was right. Lisa was a senior and she already had a boyfriend, Austin. And Austin
would punch my lights out if I asked her. In fact, Austin would punch my lights out even if he
caught me just looking at Lisa, but I looked anyway.
“Why don't you ask Nellie?” Peter suggested. He was always looking out for me, even
when it came to finding me a date.
“But Nellie's only a freshman,” I whined.
“Maybe so, but she’s also the only girl who ever talks to you. Who knows, maybe she
likes you?”
He did have a point. Personally, I preferred older women. But of course, there was a little
problem with my preferences: older women didn’t seem to like me.
“Hi, Lester.”
I whirled around. It was Nellie and her friend, Abbey. They were always creeping up on
me.
Nellie and Abbey had the same relationship that Peter and I had. They were best friends,
but they were very different. Abbey was semi-popular and on the JV Cheerleading squad. She
wasn't a straight-A student, but she was still high in her class.

2
 Nellie, on the other hand, thought of grades all the time. She was a straight-A student and
what most people would call, a nerd. Of course, that's what they said about me too, but I wasn't a
straight-A nerd. In fact, I wasn't even a straight-C nerd. My priorities lived elsewhere.
Nellie was also a fan of mysteries and detective novels.
“I hear there's going to be a big chess game coming up,” Nellie said.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“And the talk around school is that you plan on winning the match,” said Nellie.
Wow, students are talking about me! I wondered if Lisa knew that I was a great chess
player; after all, I’d spent all night reading How to Play Chess and Win. I thought maybe I should
tell her, but then that would be bragging, and I’d heard girls didn’t like it when guys bragged.
“We'd love to come and watch,” Nellie offered.
“We would?” questioned Abbey. It was obvious she didn't have the same excitement for
chess as Nellie. Nellie gave her an elbow. “I mean, why not? I haven't been getting enough sleep
lately,” Abbey said, rubbing her side.
I yawned. This talk about sleep reminded me that I didn't get much last night.
“When is the big match?” Nellie asked.
“Tomorrow at noon,” I replied. “I'll let you know where.”
“That would be wonderful!” she exclaimed.
“Come on, Nellie,” moaned Abbey. “I think I'm going to be sick.” Then, she pulled
Nellie into the girl's bathroom. Why do girls always go to the bathroom in groups?
“See what I mean?” Peter pointed out. “She likes you.”
“She does not. She just likes watching chess,” I argued back.
Peter snorted. “No one likes watching chess.”
Even though I agreed, I would never admit to that. The future Chess Champion couldn't
admit something like that.
“I don't think many people will come and watch the chess match,” remarked Peter.
“You heard what Nellie said. People are talking about it all over school.”
“I think she was making that up to impress you.”
“I think she just likes chess,” I repeated. “I wonder if Lisa will be there.”
“Are you kidding? Lisa won't be anywhere near the match.” Peter was doing it again:
grounding my feet.

3
 “Maybe if I tell her I'm in the match, she'll come,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. I
knew what Peter was going to say before he even opened his mouth.
“She doesn't even pay attention to you when she passes you in the hall,” he declared.
“Why would she come to watch you in a chess match?”
“I have an idea,” I said as I snapped my fingers. “I'll send her an invitation.”
That's when it happened.
Peter didn’t answer. I thought he was just zoning out on me again, but when I looked at
him, he was frozen solid. I snapped my fingers in front of his face and he came back to life.
“Peter? Peter?” I questioned. “Quit daydreaming.”
“Daydreaming?” Peter frowned. “I wasn't daydreaming.”
“You were just staring off into space while I was talking. That’s rude.”
“I wasn’t daydreaming” he repeated, shaking his head.
But I'd daydreamed enough to know daydreaming when I saw it.
“Don't look now,” whispered Peter, “but there's Lisa and Austin.”
Now, when someone says not to looks, a person just has to look. So, I looked. Lisa and
Austin were holding hands, and Austin was looking down the hall in my direction. He saw me
looking. I knew that looking at Lisa was a dangerous activity for me, but when you see a girl as
beautiful as Lisa, your self-preservation goes by the wayside. Lisa had long blonde hair that hung
straight down on each side of her slender face. Her lips were thin and her eyes a sky blue. She
was what most people call skinny, but I called it “just right.” She was my perfect woman!
“I said don't look,” repeated Peter. He grabbed my shirt and turned me around.
The thump of Austin's footsteps came closer. My heart began to pound in my chest.
Running was out of the question; Austin was on the football team. Chess didn't exactly get me in
shape to run from bullies.
“What were you looking at?”
I was afraid to turn and look Austin in the face, but he grabbed my shoulder, whipping
me around.
“I said, what were you looking at?”
I looked up at Austin. His shoulders were wide, and his muscles seemed to pop out as he
moved. Why are football players so big?
“Nothing, nothing at all,” mumbled Peter.

4
 Thanks, Peter, I thought, but he doesn't want to pick on the “average” kid, just the ones
who stared at his girl!
“I’m not talking to you,” Austin told Peter. Peter stepped back, a good move to save his
own life. But what about mine?
“What was I looking at?” I always repeated the question when I didn’t know an answer,
and in this case, I don't know the answer that would keep me alive.
“You were looking at my girl, weren't you?” asked Austin.
“What girl?” This was another one of my diversionary tactics: act dumb.
“Come on, Austin,” said Lisa. “Leave him alone.”
“Not until I teach him a lesson,” explained Austin.
“Lesson?” I whimpered. “But school hasn't started yet.” I thought maybe a little humor
would help. It didn't. Austin grabbed me by the collar and made me a few inches taller.
“If I catch you looking at my girl again, time will stop for you,” said Austin with a sneer.
“Do you understand?”
“I think I understand quite well.” There was pleading in my voice.
“I think you need some time to study my lesson,” said Austin. At first, I didn't know what
he was talking about, but then I noticed my open locker and, well, I think you can guess what
happened.
“What are you doing?” I asked, even though I knew. Where was a teacher when I needed
one?
“I'm giving you your very own private study hall,” explained Austin. Then he crammed
me into my locker. I made a mental note to myself never to leave my locker open when Austin
was nearby.
The door closed, shutting me in darkness.
“What are you looking at?” I heard Austin say.
“Nothing,” uttered Peter.
“Then split.” I could hear Peter scamper down the hall.
“You aren't going to leave him in there, are you?” came Lisa’s slightly muffled voice
from outside my cramped quarters.
“I sure am,” said Austin.

5
 And then I heard nothing. You have no idea how dark it got in that locker, even with
those air vents at the top. I really felt alone.
“Hello?” I called. “Is anyone out there?” No one replied. I panicked. Banging on the
door, I yelled again. “Help! Let me out of here!”
Calm down, I told myself. You’re not going to die… I hoped!
When you are in a place like a dark, confined locker, time goes by slowly. Very slowly. I
knew Peter would come for me, but Austin had to be clear of the area before he would. Peter
wasn't that brave. It seemed like hours later, but finally footsteps approached.
“Lester? Lester, are you in there?” It was Peter.
“Peter, what took you so long?”
“I came as soon as I could. What's your combination?”
“It's 10, 23, 4. Hurry up! Rigor mortis is setting in.” Of course, it took Peter three tries
before the door finally opened and I could breathe. “I’ve been in there for hours.”
“Try about three minutes,” Peter informed me.
“That Austin,” I growled, clenching my fists. “Someday, I'm really going to give it to
him. Someday, people are going to treat me with a little more respect.”
“Right,” Peter stated. “We better get to first period.”
“I mean it,” I said. “Someday, when I snap my fingers, people are going to pay attention
to me.” I snapped my fingers for emphasis. “They are going to know that Lester Lopkins is
someone you don't mess with. I think I will just go up to Austin and demand an apology. That's
what I'll do, and I'll take you as reinforcement.” I looked at Peter and there he was again, frozen,
daydreaming.
That was the second time it happened.
“Peter!” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. This time he jerked back. “Quit
daydreaming.”
“Daydreaming?” he asked, his brow furrowing again. “I was not daydreaming. And keep
your fingers out of my face.”
“Then let's go.”
“Go where?”
Now I knew Peter had been daydreaming instead of listening to me.

6
 “Didn't you hear a word that I said?” I asked. Peter looked dumbfounded. “I said, let's go
and demand an apology from Austin.”
“What?” From the look on Peter's face, this was the first time he’d actually heard my
plan. “I'm not going anywhere!” He fussed. “Especially anywhere near Austin. What do you
have, a death wish?”
Maybe it was a good thing Tyrone came down the hall right then. I think I had myself so
worked up that I might have gone to find Austin. Then who knows if I would have lived to see
another day?
“The chess match is on for tomorrow, lunch, right here,” explained Tyrone. I didn't get a
hello. The look on my face must’ve scared him.
“Where?” I asked.
“Right here in the hallway.”
“In the hallway?”
“Yes, I convinced Mrs. Benchley to allow us to have it in the hallway so we could get
more exposure and have a few more spectators this time,” explained Tyrone.
“One more spectator would be double what you had last time,” said Peter, trying to be
funny. No one laughed.
“Don't you think the hallway is a little too noisy at lunch for a game of chess?” I asked.
“Why? Are you scared I'm going to beat you? Again?” He had to rub it in. He was just
trying to make me mad. And it worked.
“No way,” I said through clenched teeth. “I've been studying, and I'm going to beat you
this time.”
“Would you like to bet on that?” taunted Tyrone.
Normally, I wasn’t a betting man, since most of the time I lost, but my anger got the best
of me.
“Sure! What are you willing to lose?” I snapped.
Tyrone crossed his arms. “How much are you willing to pay me?”
“Pay you? You'll be paying me!”
He rolled his eyes. “In your dreams.” This kind of talk could’ve gone on forever, so I
decided to make the first move.

7
 “How about ten dollars?” I thought ten would be a nice round figure. It was also all the
money I had.
“Ten dollars?” Tyrone barked. “Doesn't sound as if you have much confidence in
yourself.”
“Okay, fifty!” I upped the stakes.
Peter grabbed me and pulled me to the side. “You don't have fifty dollars.”
“So?”
“What if you lose again?” Peter asked.
“I'm not going to lose,” I said. “I’ve been studying.”
“What do you say, Lester?” asked Tyrone. “Is it a bet?”
He held out his hand, and I shook it. “It's a bet.”
“Bring your money tomorrow,” said Tyrone. “I want it in cash.” Then he sauntered down
the hall, no doubt on his way to the library to see if they had any books on how to play chess.
Too late, I thought with a smirk. I have the only one.
I later found out that Mrs. Benchley—she was our principal—wanted Tyrone to have the
chess game in the cafeteria, but Mr. Arbuckle was quite upset the last time we played chess in
the cafeteria. I’d eaten my hamburger while we played and ended up getting ketchup all over the
chess pieces. You always had to put a lot of ketchup on the cafeteria's hamburgers; it was the
only way to get them down. Tyrone didn't think that Mr. Arbuckle would let us use the
chessboard if we were in the cafeteria again. So, it was the hallway. Besides, maybe Lisa would
stop by.
“What did you do that for?” Peter asked after Tyrone left.
“What?”
“Make a bet that you can't keep.”
“I'm going to win, so I don't have to worry about paying off the bet,” I told him, trying to
muster up as much confidence as I could.
“You're not only going to have Austin after you, but Tyrone as well,” Peter said.
Although I wasn’t the type to take risks, this time I felt that I needed to go out on a limb.
Unfortunately, the limb was rather small. But hey, I told myself, you have to risk something to
gain something. I was risking my life.
***

8
The next day, Peter met me at my locker, as he always did. I hadn't slept much thinking about the
chess match and the fifty-dollar bet I made. Yesterday, it had seemed like the right thing to do.
Today, I wasn't so sure. I even tried to review my book on chess, but I just couldn't focus on the
words. I think it was the fear.
On my way to school, I also saw Austin and Lisa. Then Austin saw me looking. I ducked
behind some bushes and ran the long way to school.
“Hey, Peter.”
“Hey, Lester”
“You look tired,” Peter told me.
“I am,” I replied. “I didn't sleep last night.”
“That could be a problem,” Peter declared. “You have a big chess match today at lunch.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I said.
“And let me remind you that you have a fifty-dollar bet riding on this chess match and
you don't have fifty dollars.” What a friend Peter was, always keeping my feet grounded.
“Thanks for the sunny forecast,” I mumbled through a yawn.
“My pleasure.”
“I wish I could just snap my fingers and make this day go away.” I snapped my fingers.
That's when it happened again. This time I knew something strange had happened. I
looked at Peter and he was motionless. Not like in a daydream or in a daze, but frozen. Frozen as
solid as a rock!

9
 Chapter 2

I walked around Peter and waved my hand in front of his face. No movement. Peter was frozen. I
looked down the hall and noticed that the few students in the hallway were also frozen mid-step!
It was freaky. Everything was at a standstill. The clocks didn't move. The leaves on the trees
outside didn't rustle in the breeze, and there was no sound, except for the thumping of my heart.
Time had stopped, and everything around me was motionless. At first, I thought I might have
died, but my heart was beating, and I was breathing, two things I knew dead people didn't do.
Then it occurred to me this had all happened when I snapped my fingers. But that was
nuts!
I snapped my fingers, and everything started moving. The students began walking down
the hall, the leaves resumed swaying in the wind, and Peter moved.
“What's the matter, Lester?” asked Peter. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
“Peter,” I said, looking around and making sure no one was listening. “Did anything just
happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, did something funny just happen?” Peter gave me a strange, concerned look. I
figured the lack of sleep was getting to me and I was imagining things. Time can't stop. It's a
constant. And people don't just freeze and unfreeze at the snap of someone's fingers. That was
the only explanation—sleep deprivation.
“Hi, Lester.” It was Nellie and Abbey. Sometimes people just come by at the worst times.
“Hi, Nellie,” I said.
“Well, today's the big day,” Nellie announced. “Are you ready?”
By now I was a bit calmer. I tried to bolster myself up for the match.
“Of course, I am,” I said with some confidence.
“Beating Tyrone will be as easy as…” I snapped my fingers, and silence fell over
everything. Everyone was frozen again. “…as that!” I finished my sentence. Why? I don't know.
I didn't feel like I was daydreaming or asleep. In fact, I didn't feel any different at all. But
everyone was still. This couldn't be me going nuts, could it?
I looked around and snapped my fingers again. Normal movement resumed.
“Yeah? Beating Tyrone will be as easy as what?” Nellie asked.

10
 “As easy as snapping my fingers.”
I snapped my fingers and watched everyone freeze. This was too weird. I snapped my
fingers again.
“Oh,” Nellie said, “Abbey and I can't wait to see the match.”
“Yeah,” mumbled Abbey. “I'm bringing my pillow.”
“See you then,” said Nellie, and they moved off down the hall.
“Peter,” I said. “There's something very strange going on here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“When I snap my fingers, everyone freezes,” I whispered to Peter.
“I think this chess match is getting to you.”
“No, I mean it. When I was talking, I snapped my fingers, and everyone froze.”
Peter raised an eyebrow at me. “Froze?”
“Yes, froze!” I exclaimed. “And then when I snapped my fingers again, everyone went
back to normal like nothing happened.”
“Right.” Peter clearly didn't believe me.
“Here, I'll show you. Stand right here and look at me.” Peter looked straight at me. I
snapped my fingers, and Peter turned to ice! I then moved behind him and snapped my fingers
again. Peter jerked and gasped for air.
“Behind you,” I said. Peter jumped and twirled around. Now he looked like he was the
one who’d seen a ghost. “See? I told you.”
Peter looked back to where I was and then back at me. “You… you disappeared,” he
stuttered.
“No, I froze you, then moved behind you, and then I unfroze you.” I was beginning to
feel comfortable with my new power.
“It's a trick,” said Peter.
“Here,” I said. “I'll do it again.”
Peter looked skeptical. I put my fingers in front of his face and snapped. I moved behind
him and snapped again. Peter jerked and slowly turned around.
“Hi,” I said, as we made eye contact.
“I think I'm losing it,” gasped Peter.

11
 “No, you're not.” I was really getting excited now. “Let's do it again.” I snapped before
Peter could say anything. “This is like being a genie or something,” I said aloud as I stepped
behind Peter and took his wallet out of his back pocket, then snapped again. Peter jerked back to
life.
“Behind you again, buddy,” I said. Peter turned around and I held up his wallet. His eyes
narrowed as he snatched it from hand.
“Don't do that,” Peter demanded.
“Why not?”
“I don't like it,” Peter said. “This is really spooky.”
“This isn't spooky,” I replied. “This is great!”
“From where I'm standing, it's spooky.”
“Think of what I could do with this power.”
“That's what spooks me the most,” Peter said.
My mind was going wild. “No more standing in the lunch line, just snap.” I snapped.
“Move to the front of the line and snap again.” I snapped.
“You did it again!” Peter gasped as he noticed that I suddenly moved again.
“Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to,” I told Peter. “I’ll have to be more careful.”
“You're right, you better be careful,” Peter snapped. “With this power to… to snap,
you're going to get into a lot of trouble.”
“How can I get into a lot of trouble?”
“Lester,” Peter said, “you always get into trouble.”
“But before, I didn't have the power to snap.” My heart was pounding again, not from
fear, but from excitement. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was someone special. I had
confidence.
“Promise me that you will keep this snapping thing under control.” Peter gave me a stern
look. “And don't use it on me.”
“Okay, Peter,” I told him. “I can control myself and I won't use it on you.”
Just then, Peggy and Crystal came walking toward us down the hall. They paused next to
us.
“Did you finish your biology homework?” Crystal asked Peggy.
“I have it right here,” Peggy said.

12
 Biology homework? I silently groaned. I’d forgotten to do it again. And this would be the
second day in a row.
But then, I got an idea.
I snapped. I tiptoed over to Peggy—why I tiptoed, I don't know, since everyone was
frozen—and pulled Peggy's homework out of her book. I knew I should have felt bad about
doing it, but I only felt excitement. I returned to my place and snapped again. Peggy and Crystal
continued down the hall, unaware that anything had happened.
Peter noticed Peggy's name on the homework I was holding.
“That's Peggy's homework,” said Peter, “isn't it?” I didn't answer. He gaped at me in
shock. “I can't believe it. You just stole her homework.”
“Peggy can do it again,” I explained.
Peter went into a tizzy. “You can’t keep this under control! And Peggy shouldn't have to
redo her homework. I told you, you’re going to get into trouble, Lester…” He went on and one—
well, like I said, he went into a tizzy!
“Relax!” I told him. “It's only some homework. It's not like it's going to jeopardize
national security or something.”
“Well, if it isn't the man who is going to lose fifty bucks to me.” It was Tyrone. It's
amazing how a little thing like snapping can increase your confidence level, but I was feeling so
sure of myself. I suddenly felt like I could beat everyone in chess. In fact, I felt like I could beat
anyone at anything. It was a great feeling.
“Don't count your money before the match is played,” I replied. “And did I say fifty
dollars?”
“Don't tell me you're going to back out on the bet,” said Tyrone.
“No, I just thought I'd bet you one hundred dollars.”
He laughed. “Oh, do you want to make it one hundred dollars?”
“You bet I do.”
“Then one hundred it is,” said Tyrone.
Peter grabbed me and pulled me a few feet away. “Lester, what do you think you are
doing?” he hissed, letting go of me.
I snapped.

13
 “Peter, I…” But Peter was frozen like everyone else in the hallway. I sighed, wishing I
could be more selective with my newfound power. I wanted to explain to Peter all about my new
confidence, but he wouldn't understand. After all, he couldn't snap.
I snapped and everyone unfroze. “Peter, let me take care of this.”
“I hope you memorized that chess book, but even if you did,” said Tyrone, “it isn't going
to help you when I trounce you.”
“We'll just see who trounces who.”
“Yes, we will. See you at lunch.” Tyrone walked away. I wondered if I could trip him
while he was frozen. Ah, but Peter would be mad if I tried.
“Lester, you don't plan on using your power to beat Tyrone, do you?” Peter asked,
crossing his arms.
“Of course not,” I explained. “I can beat him on my own.”
“Promise me you won't use your powers to beat him.”
“I said I wouldn't.”
“Promise me.”
“Okay, I promise.” Peter looked at me funny. Like me didn't trust me. “Look, I said I
promise. Don't you trust me?”
Peter didn't have time to answer, as Austin grabbed me and shoved me up against the
lockers.
“Well, Lester,” said Austin. “I saw you looking again this morning. You didn't learn your
lesson very well.”
“I wasn't looking,” I mumbled as the back of my head pressed up against the cold steel
lockers.
“I think you need another lesson.” Austin pressed me harder.
“Austin!” It was Mrs. Benchley. I was saved. Mrs. Benchley was a looming person who
leaned into whomever she was disciplining, in this case Austin. I think it was because she was
looking over the top of, what I presumed, were her reading glasses. She was larger both is height
and girth then most other teachers. And her and my grandmother dressed alike, dresses to the
ankle and a sweater.
“Austin, I have told you time and time again about your aggressive behavior,” Mrs.
Benchley barked.

14
 “Aggressive behavior?” Austin was using one of my tactics: act dumb. “Lester and I were
just talking about the big chess match today. Weren't we, Lester?” Austin put his arm around me,
as if we were buddies.
I wanted to tell Mrs. Benchley everything, about how Austin had been terrorizing me, but
that wasn't the way things were done. If I told on Austin, he would torment me even more.
“That's right, Mrs. Benchley,” I said. “We were just talking about the chess match.” I
could see she didn't believe me.
“Austin,” Mrs. Benchley said sternly, “if you send another student to the hospital, I am
going to suspend you.”
“Are you talking about Hank?” said Austin with an innocent face. “He told you he just
fell down.”
“Yes, that's what he said,” replied Mrs. Benchley. “But you and I both know that isn't
true. You have him so scared he won't talk. But someday, you won't be so lucky. Someday, I will
catch you.”
“Mrs. Benchley.” Austin was really putting it on thick. “I'm shocked you would think of
me as a person who goes around picking on people.”
“Nice touch, Austin,” said Mrs. Benchley. “Now remember what I said.” Then she
marched down the hall.
Austin pushed me aside. “That does it. You and me, at lunch.” He motioned his friends to
follow and he was gone. My heart was pounding.
“I don't understand,” said Peter. It was very clear to me—in about four hours my life
would be over. “I don't understand why you didn't snap,” he said.
Oh, right. I’d forgotten I could even snap in the first place. Why hadn’t I snapped? It
would have been so easy to snap and run away. That would have really surprised Austin, if I had
disappeared. But then I would have had to leave Peter behind. I didn’t think Austin would have
taken it out on him, though; he only hated me.
“I guess I forgot I could snap,” I told Peter. “But next time, I'll be ready for him.”
“This can't be good,” Peter muttered.
“Oh, it's going to be better than good,” I said, sticking out my chest. “It will be great.” I
snapped and moved behind Peter and snapped again. Peter jumped and swung around.
“Don't do that.”

15
“Sorry, but I needed to know I could still do it.” My confidence was back!

16
 Chapter 3
The rest of the morning went slowly. I snapped about every ten minutes just to make sure I still
had it. In Spanish I, I snapped and switched everyone's papers that Mr. Fisk had just returned to
us. Boy, did that cause confusion. Everyone thought Mr. Fisk was going crazy. I really had to try
hard not to laugh out loud.
I snapped in P.E., took the basketball, positioned myself for a good basket and snapped. I
missed. Snapping didn’t improve my basketball skills.
In history class, I waited until everyone was looking away from the map Mr. Kats had
just pulled down before I snapped and rolled it back up. When Mr. Kats turned to refer to the
map, a moment of silence fell over the classroom. He pulled it down like it he had the first time,
blinking in confusion. After the third time, everyone—and especially Mr. Kats—knew
something was wrong, but no one said anything.
Finally, the bell rang for lunchtime, but I wasn't hungry. All I wanted to do was play
Tyrone in our chess match. I met Peter on my way to the hallway where the chess game was to
be played, while we both looked out for Austin. I didn't want him to ruin my big win!
“Okay, you know the plan,” I told Peter. “You watch out for Austin, while I beat
Tyrone.”
“You want me to get Mrs. Benchley when Austin shows up?” asked Peter.
“Nope,” I replied. “Just let me know when he's coming. I have plans for him.”
Peter frowned. “You aren't going to snap, are you? You promised.”
“I only promised not to snap to beat Tyrone, not to get back at Austin.”
“That doesn't sound good… Do you really think you can beat Tyrone?”
“With my eyes closed,” I said.
“Without snapping?”
“Listen, I promised, didn't I?” Peter was really beginning to annoy me. “I can beat
Tyrone just like that.” I snapped without realizing it, and I suddenly found myself walking down
the hall by myself through a frozen forest of people. “I don't even know my own power,” I said
aloud.
I snapped again. Peter ran up to me.
“Don't do that!”
“I'm sorry,” I told Peter. “Sometimes I just forget.”

17
 “Well, try to remember,” Peter pleaded. We hurried to the chess match.
***
“There you are,” said Tyrone as we approached the table. “I thought you might have chickened
out.”
“Not on your life,” I said. I sat down and started to set up my pieces. Nellie and Abbey
came up from behind me.
“Did we miss anything?” asked Nellie.
“Yeah, like the end?” added Abbey. Only Peter laughed.
“We're just about to start,” I said. No one spoke as we made our first moves. Tyrone
moved his e2 pawn forward two. I had read that the player who controls the center with pawns
controls the game. I moved my e7 pawn forward two, blocking his pawn. It wasn’t endanger
since pawns can only capture diagonally.
Then Tyrone moved his queen side knight to the f3 position so fast it took me by surprise.
A bit of panic rushed inside me. My pawn was in danger. I moved my f7 pawn one step forward.
If his knight took my pawn, my pawn would take his knight.
Tyrone made his move taking my pawn and I took his knight. I knew he was up to
something, but I didn't know what. Tyrone moved his queen to the h5 position.
“Check,” Tyrone says with a smile. Just what was he up to?
I move my g7 pawn to the g6 position, blocking his queen from taking my king.
“Just what I wanted you to do,” said Tyrone with a smirk, moving his queen to take my
pawn in the e5 position. We both made several more moved. My king was on the run.
I panicked. I studied the board. I had to admit that maybe I should have read more than
the first chapter of the book, but then I saw it—he was going to take my king in just a few more
moves.
I knocked Tyrone's pawn I captured onto the floor, and everyone looked down. I snapped.
I knew I’d promised Peter, but I couldn't lose this match. I had to win. I moved Tyrone's bishop
from c4 to b5 and then snapped again. I made my move. Tyrone grinned, but it faded as he
noticed the piece wasn't where he thought it would be.
“Wait a minute,” said Tyrone, puzzled. “How did my bishop get there?”
“You moved it there.” I could feel Peter staring at me, but I didn't look up.
Tyrone shook his head, his brows furrowing. “I never would have made that move.”

18
 “You aren't saying you think I moved it there, are you?” I accused. I still didn't make eye
contact with Peter.
“No,” replied Tyrone, reluctantly.
“Then let's just get back to the match,” I suggested.
“He's here, Lester,” said Peter.
“Who's here?” asked Tyrone.
“Just a friend,” I said. “Here Peter, take my place. I have to go to the bathroom.” I got up,
ready to make my move against Austin.
“This is against the rules,” complained Tyrone.
“Are you afraid you're going to lose?” I asked quickly. Austin was getting close.
“Fine, but I'm only giving you one minute,” Tyrone told me. “Then you forfeit the
match.”
I figured a minute was about all the time I needed to take care of Austin. I walked out to
the middle of the hallway in full view.
“There he is!” Austin shouted.
The chase was on! I ran out the door and around the corner. As soon as I saw Austin and
his friends, I snapped. Then I got behind them and snapped again. They ran for a few feet before
they stopped, wondering where I’d gone. I whistled. If only they could have only seen their faces
when they turned and saw me; they were shocked! I grinned at them.
They took off after me again. I ran back past Peter and Tyrone. They turned to look at
Austin and his friends as they entered the hallway. I snapped again, and then took a moment to
pause. I had to figure something out. I looked around. Rick stood there, frozen, halfway through
the bathroom door. He was about my size and shape; it would be a perfect match.
I took off my coat and put it on Rick. It wasn't easy putting it on him. He was as stiff as a
board. “Sorry, my friend,” I told Rick. “But you have to be me for just a few minutes. And if I
was me, which you are now, I'd run like the wind.”
I stepped behind the bathroom door and snapped.
“There he is!” Austin cried. Rick’s eyes widened, and he took off running with Austin
and his friends racing after him.
Everyone was so surprised when I came out of the bathroom. I tried to act natural.
“Sorry it took me so long,” I said. Their eyes were locked on me.

19
 “But Austin just chased you down the hall.” Tyrone looked more confused than I’d ever
seen him.
“How could he be chasing me?” I asked. “I'm right here.” Peter shot me a look. He had to
suspect I ‘d done something, but he didn't know for sure. I wasn't about to tell him. “Is it my
turn?”
We each made several more moves before I realized there was no way I was going to win
this match. I snapped and moved my bishop to help trap his king. I had to win.
“Checkmate!” I proclaimed, as I moved my rook in line to his king.
“What?” Tyrone yelled. He quickly studied the board. “You didn’t move your bishop
there.”
“Yes, I did,” I said.
Tyrone looked up at me, his eyes narrowing. He was really mad!
“You cheated!” Tyrone shouted.
“I did not!” I argued. “You're just mad because I finally beat you. Now, pay up.” Peter
just stared at me. He knew.
“Where is he?” Austin was back and, judging by the fire in his eyes, he had caught up
with Rick and found out that he wasn't me.
“Whoops,” I said. “Time for me to go. You can pay me tomorrow, Tyrone.”
I stepped out in the hall and Austin saw me.
“There he is!” Austin yelled. “Get him!”
I stood with confidence. They stopped about ten feet away from me. I snapped. Thank
goodness, it worked; otherwise, I would’ve been dead. I surveyed the situation and came up with
the ultimate solution. I very carefully untied Austin and his friends' shoes and tied their laces
together. This was going to be fun.
Walking back over near Peter, I snapped again. It was instantaneous. Austin and all his
friends fell to the ground with a thud. Their mouths gaped open in shock.
I grabbed Peter. “Come one,” I said quickly. “We have to go!”
And we ran.
I avoided any place I thought Austin might be for the rest of the day. Too much snapping
seemed like it might be a bad thing. I had this feeling my power would vanish as quickly as it

20
had come. I didn't want it to happen at a time when I needed it most, like when Austin had his
hands around my neck.
***
I snapped a few times as I was walking home after school. I wanted to make sure my
fingers were still functioning. Yep, I was in good working order.
People look so odd when they are frozen. An old lady who was chasing a peeing dog off
her lawn, a skateboarder who missed a jump up on the curb, and a man who hit his thumb with a
hammer. All had faces that were worthy of study and a few laughs.
I most certainly decided not to tell my mom about snapping. How would a parent respond
to something like that? Lock me in my room to protect me from…myself? Go on talk shows with
me as the freak kid from the freshman class? Tour as the greatest magician of all time, since I
could seem to disappear and appear? No, I like floating under most people’s radar and until I
could figure out what this thing was, I’ll keep it to myself and my best friend, Peter, of course.
“Hi, honey,” my mom said as I entered the door.
“Hi,” I said. “What smells so good?”
“I am taking a casserole to your Aunt Nicole,” she explained. “As you know, you have a
new cousin and I told her we would bring over dinner tonight and see the little one. You can play
with Tammy.”
“Mom,” I said. “She’s three.”
“I know, but she likes playing with you.”
“She always gets me sticky,” I said with a frown. “Do I have to go?”
“You don’t have to, but it would be nice if you did,” she said.
“I have a lot of homework, so I think I need to stay home.” Of course, I had a lot of
homework, but I didn’t say I would do it.
“But what about dinner?” she asked.
“We have pop tarts, don’t we?”
“What kind of dinner is that?
“The best kind.” Pop tarts were my go-to food.
“Okay, if you have homework to do.”
I stuck out my chest. “Guess what happened today?”
“What?” my mom said as she gathered up things to take to my aunt’s house.

21
 “I beat Tyrone in chess today.” I didn’t mention how I beat him.
“Who’s Tyrone?” she said as she donned oven mittens to put the hot casserole into a
carrier.
“The chess champion.”
“That’s nice.” Didn’t she realized this made me the chess champion of the school? “I
shouldn’t be home too late. Call me if you need me,” she said as she went out the door.
My parents divorced when I was four and my father moved away. I don’t get to see him
much. Sometimes I felt my father was disappointed in me. He was really into sports and I wasn’t.
That was even evident at age four. I am an only child, so I didn’t have to worry about brothers
and sisters.
After my mom left, I went to my room and thought about how crazy the day had been
and all the things I’d done. I remembered what one of my history teachers once told me about
power: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Was I becoming corrupt? I
knew I shouldn’t have snapped to win the chess match, but I just had to win. I tried to imagine
what would have happened if I hadn’t snapped and I had lost again. First, my ego—what little
I’d had before I could snap—would have been crushed. Again! A guy can only take so many put
downs and losses in his life. I felt I’d had my fair share, and it was time for someone else to lose.
But I knew, deep down, I wasn’t supposed to use the snap to cheat Tyrone in chess. I felt
bad for him. Tyrone had never done anything bad to me, except beat me at chess. “I won’t use it
against anyone else,” I told myself firmly. But then I thought of Austin. My eyes narrowed.
Austin deserved everything that happened to him. There wasn’t a person anywhere, who
had been picked on as much as I have, who wouldn’t use any power given to them against
bullies. Nope, I felt downright good about what I’d done to Austin.
Today wasn’t the end of it. I might have started a war that would last for a very long
time. What if I lost my power in the middle of that war? Sure, Austin was mad now, but the more
I snapped, the madder he would get. I could imagine myself snapping my fingers over and over,
trying to stop Austin, and then realizing I was powerless. It was a chilling thought. Maybe I
should listen to Peter and keep my snapping under control. Yep, that’s what I was going to do:
control myself.
I then rode my bike to the bank to cash the check I had gotten for mowing Mrs.
Matthews’s lawn. That’s when I lost control!

22
 ***
Banks have always made me feel anxious. It’s a formal place where it’s always quiet, the
employees are always dressed in suits or dresses, and not one thing is out of place. Not exactly
an inviting place for a freshman from high school.
I had only gone to a bank with my mom a few times, so I was unfamiliar with the
procedures. I knew they sometimes ask for identification, and all I had was my student body
card. I wondered if that would be enough.
“Good afternoon, young man,” the guard said to me as I entered.
“Hi,” I replied, stepping away from him.
I got in line, which was very long, as there was only one teller window open. I carefully
watched as one by one went up to the teller. The line was moving very slowly, and I wondered
why the other tellers who were walking around in the back couldn’t help.
The lady behind me was standing way too close for my comfort. She kept leaning to one
side to see how many more people were in front of her, sighing loudly each time. Finally, I was
the next in line.
I was standing there patiently, when another teller opened her window and said, “Mrs.
Barns, I can help you here.” And then the lady behind me quickly rushed over when I was next! I
stood there for a few seconds and then I snapped. This wasn’t fair! And since I now had a
superpower, I thought I would right this wrong. In my mind I thought this was the right thing to
do.
I placed myself next to Mrs. Barns and snapped again. She jumped a little when she
noticed me nearby.
“I’m sorry, I was next in line,” I said. My voice shook as I tried to sound insistent.
“Young man, I am helping Mr. Barns,” the teller said sternly. “You will have to go to the
end of the line.” I looked at the line, it was longer then when I came in.
“But I was next…”
“Young man!” She interrupted me.
I snapped.
I crossed to the other side of Mrs. Barns and snapped again. This time, Mrs. Barns and
the teller made a loud gasp.
“But I was the next in line!” I stated, my heart was pounding.

23
 There was a moment of silence as they tried to process how I got to the other side and
then the teller said, “Young man, go to the end of the line.”
“No,” I replied. My voice cracked. Righting wrongs required bravery that wasn’t
common for me.
I snapped and went behind the counter and stood about six feet from the teller and
snapped again. She jumped back as I seemed to disappear and then jumped again as she noticed
me behind the counter.
“Sir!” A voice came from behind me as another teller started my way. “What are you
doing back here?” As she got closer, I snapped. I was somewhere between feeling I was losing
control and getting mad. I stepped behind this new teller and snapped again.
“I’m back here,” I called out. By then I had gained the attention of all the other tellers and
most of the people in line. The guard had stepped outside. Again, there was a moment of silence
as everyone looked my way.
“I don’t know what kind of game you are playing, young man, but I think you need to
leave,” She said as she began to again swiftly walk my way. I snapped.
I figured it was probably best I leave but not before I eyed a tall potted plant against the
wall. I pulled it right in front of the pursuing teller so she would walk right into it. But I was not
leaving until I got what I came to get. I went to the teller and took ten dollars from her till. I
thought about leaving the check, but that would give them my name. Not a good idea. Then I
saw bills lying on the counter in front of Mrs. Barns. I didn’t think about anything, except that
she deserved it, as I collected the bills and stuffed them in my pocket. I just wasn’t thinking.
I went outside and walked a safe distance away. I snapped and watched through the
window. Within seconds the teller wrestled with the plant and both went down. The other tellers
rushed to help her up. The guard, realizing something was happening and ran over. Then the
tellers and the guard started looking around, searching for me. Time for me to go.
I laughed, as I replayed the vision of the teller as she encountered with the plant. And
then, as I was walking away, I realized that I might have just robbed a bank.

24
 Chapter 4

The minute I walked into the hall, I felt different. Everyone glanced my way and stared. It was
the new me. I was dressed in nice clothes. Clothes like you would wear to a wedding or funeral,
not every day nice clothes. I’d also managed to pick up a nice watch. I felt good.
Peter was talking to Rhonda, our student body president. She had been planning Spring
Formal. It was only a few days away. Planning for such an event was stressful, but, then again,
Rhonda was always stressed out.
“Peter, my boy. How are you?” I said in a drawling voice.
Peter whirled around. His mouth dropped open. For a moment, I thought he was
speechless, but Peter always had something to say.
“Wow!” Peter finally said. “Where did you get the nice clothes?”
“Yeah,” Rhonda added. “Are these the clothes you're going to wear to the dance?”
“Oh these?” I responded. “These aren't my dance clothes. They're just something I threw
on this morning.” For some reason, I said that with a slight British accent. I felt as if it made me
more affluent. In other words, important!
“Why haven't you been at school the last few days?” Peter asked.
I had missed two days while I went shopping. Shopping for nice clothes took time. I
couldn't buy these things at the local department store; I had to go uptown. I told my mom that I
wasn’t feeling well, which was true. I was feeling bad for what I did at the bank, but not bad
enough to forego spending the money.
“I had a few things to take care of, and I thought Austin needed time to cool off,” I said in
a casual tone.
“I think it's only made him madder,” said Rhonda.
“Oh,” I stated. “Austin doesn't worry me. I worry me.” They were a bit confused.
“What?” asked Rhonda.
“I'm more worried of what I will do to him than what he will do to me,” I declared.
Rhonda rolled her eyes. If she only knew I could snap.
“Well, I have to go,” Rhonda said, and she was off. I started putting my books away in
my locker. I could feel Peter staring at me.
“Can you still snap?” whispered Peter.

25
 “Things are working better than ever,” I replied.
“I thought maybe I dreamt it,” Peter uttered, rubbing the spot between his eyes.
“It's no dream,” I said. “It's the best thing that's happened to me. Now I can have anything
I want. And best of all, I can show people around here that Lester Lopkins is somebody.”
Peter stepped back. I guess he could sense you should confident people a little more
space.
“Where did you get the nice clothes?” Peter asked hesitantly. I didn't answer and
continued to rearrange my books in my locker. “Lester? Where did you get the nice clothes?”
I sighed. I couldn’t remember a single time I’d lied to Peter. He was my friend, my only
friend. I couldn't start lying to him now.
“Remember that check I had for mowing my neighbor's lawn?”
“Yeah,” Peter said very slowly.
“Well, I went to the bank to cash it and…” I couldn't bring myself to say it. Peter's eyes
widened. He took a big step back.
“You robbed the bank.” Peter gasped.
“Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly did you do.” Peter stared at me.
“I only took some money,” I said, trying to justify my actions. “From a rude teller at the
bank.”
“You robbed the bank?” Peter repeated, a bit louder.
“It wasn’t that much.”
“Twenty or a thousand, you still took the money from the bank,” Peter said even louder.
“Shh. All right,” I whispered. “So, I robbed the bank. I couldn't help it.”
“You couldn't help it?”
“No, I couldn't,” I explained. “I was just standing in line and there was this rude teller
and another lady and…I thought I came to get ten dollars and then I just wasn’t thinking. I
snapped and was out of there…after I messed with a teller. But she deserved it.”
“What did you do?”
“I made it so the teller wrestled a plant,” I said and then added, “she lost.”
“Really? Why did you have to do that?” asked Peter.
“Because I was the next in line.”

26
 Peter stared at me. “I can't believe it,” Peter said shaking head in horror. “You robbed the
bank.”
“It happened so fast I really didn't know what I was doing.” I didn't know why I was
telling all this to Peter. Any explanation wasn't going to change his mind. “I just snapped,” I
snapped my fingers as I continued with my explanation, “took the money and then snapped on
my way…” I looked at Peter. He was ice! “Oh, sorry,” I said to Peter as I snapped again.
Peter jerked to life. “You snapped me!” Peter said.
“I didn't mean to.” I gave him a guilty grin. “Sometimes I don't know my own power.
Anyway, like I said: I waltzed in, snapped, and walked out before I even knew what I was
doing.”
“You robbed a bank.” Peter could be so annoying sometimes.
“All right,” I said. “You can quit with the ‘you robbed a bank’ stuff.”
“But robbing a bank is against the law.” He could also be so informative.
“I know that,” I remarked. “But I can only snap to freeze time, not go back in time and
change things.”
“You can always give it back.”
“Can't do that. Most of it is gone.”
“Gone?”
“Well, nice things cost money,” I explained.
“Your snapping is going to get you in big trouble,” Peter said. “And when you get into
trouble, I seem to get in trouble, even when I didn't do anything.”
“Oh, come on, I’ve only snapped a couple of times.” Yes, I knew that wasn't true, but if
Peter could exaggerate, then so could I.
“Tell me the truth,” Peter said. “Did you snap to win the match with Tyrone?” Now, why
would Peter ask me something he already knew?
“What match?” I decided to use one of my diversionary tactics.
“You know what match, the chess match,” Peter said with frustration. “Did you snap so
you could beat Tyrone?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe once or twice.”
“You promised me you wouldn't snap to beat him.”
I was getting a little angry now. “I couldn't help it. I had to snap. He was winning.”

27
 “And did you know that Austin beat up Rick because he was wearing your coat?”
That made me pause. “Rick got beat up?”
“Yes! All because of you.”
I grimaced. I knew how Rick must be feeling. I'd been beaten up enough times myself.
“I'll make it up to him,” I said. “I'll buy him something.”
“With what?” yelled Peter. “Stolen money?”
“Keep your voice down,” I whispered. “You make it seem as if I'm as bad as Austin.”
“Maybe you are!”
Now, that hurt! I know that most of what Peter was saying was true, but Austin meant to
hurt people. I didn't mean to for Rick to get hurt.
“Some friend you are. I told you those things just happened. It's hard not to snap when
you can,” I said. Peter looked away. “What did you want me to do, lose the match to Tyrone and
let Austin beat me up?” This was turning out to be the biggest argument I had ever had with
Peter. He just didn't seem to understand what it was like to have a power like snapping. It was
like an itch you have to scratch. It was like passing up on a donut when you're hungry; you have
to have it. It was like seeing a dollar bill on the ground; you have to pick it up. Why didn't Peter
understand that?
“The police and the FBI are going to be after you,” continued Peter, folding his arms
across his chest. “Do you think you can stop them all the time by snapping? Can you snap and
stop a bullet? What about the bank's video camera? Did your snapping stop it from recording?”
I had already tested it out. My snapping stopped everything. The radio, the TV, and video
cameras all stopped when I snapped.
“My snapping even stops machines,” I replied. “I tested it out.”
“But what about before you snapped?” Peter was really getting agitated. “Did the
cameras record you as you were in line? Won't the FBI notice that one person, just one person,
disappeared from the camera right after the bank was robbed? Don't you think you would be the
first person they’ll go looking for?”
My heart sank. “I didn't think about that.” Peter really grounded my feet this time! I
suddenly had the feeling the FBI could burst into the school at any minute, handcuff me, and
take me away.

28
 Just then, someone opened the door to the hallway, and I flinched. It was only a group of
students. Peter had me on edge. “Well, even if they come looking for me, I can snap and get
away,” I reminded him.
“Maybe,” said Peter. “But sooner or later, you're going to have to answer for the things
you’ve done.”
“Don't worry about me,” I said, looking down the hall in case the FBI was closing in. “I
can take care of myself.”
“I'm more worried about me,” Peter said more calmly. “You can snap and be gone. I
can't.”
“Morning, gentlemen.” Mrs. Benchley came by on her morning rounds. “My, Lester, you
look nice today.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Benchley,” I replied.
“Those clothes and your watch? They look quite expensive. What did you do? Rob a
bank?” She laughed. I didn't answer. “Well, I must be going. Don't be late for class.”
“Mrs. Benchley?” said Peter. “What is the penalty for harboring a criminal?”
I stepped back.
Mrs. Benchley suddenly had a very concerned look on her face. “Peter is there something
you would like to tell me?”
Peter looked in my direction. Mrs. Benchley's eyes followed. Having both of them
looking at me made me feel very uneasy. I swallowed.
“No,” said Peter. “I was just doing a report on it in Government class.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Benchley, with some relief. “I don't know. But I'm sure if you ask Mr.
Lewis, he will be able to tell you.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Benchley,” said Peter. “I'll ask him.”
Mrs. Benchley continued on her rounds.
I suddenly got a vision in my head of Peter sitting in a darkened room with a single,
bright light shining from above. Two shadowy figures lurked in the darkness, just out of the
light. A musty smell hung heavy in the room. It was a room with no windows or doors. No
escape.
“Tell us what you know!” demanded one of the men. A tense silence filled the room.

29
 The other man stepped closer and grabbed Peter's hair, jerking his face up to the light.
“We don't have all day,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Tell us what you know, and we will let you go,” the first man repeated. The other let go
of his hair, and Peter looked up at the silhouettes. His mouth opened to say something.
I stopped the vision in my head, afraid of what Peter was going to say. Peter was my best
friend. Would he tell on me? I suddenly wasn't sure.
“You aren’t going to tell on me, are you?” I asked Peter.
A long silence stretched between us. Peter looked me in the eye. His mouth opened.
“No,” he finally said. I let out my breath.
Normally, Abbey would just pass us in the hall without saying anything to us. This time
was different. This time, she was upset.
“Have you seen Nellie?” Abbey asked.
“No, not this morning,” Peter replied.
“I really need to talk to her.” She looked very upset about something.
“What's the matter?” I asked.
Abbey then told us about how money disappeared from the bank where her mom worked
as a teller. “The FBI came to search our house. They searched my room, our car, and they even
want my mom to take a lie detector test,” explained Abbey, her voice shaky like she was close to
tears.
Peter shot me a look.
She continued to tell us about how they thought it was an inside job, and they thought
they had a person identified as the actual robber. My heart raced. Peter went white.
“Who?” I asked.
“They aren't saying,” said Abbey. “There are FBI agents everywhere.”
I looked behind me, keeping my fingers ready. Abbey scurried down the hall without
saying anything more. Peter looked at me. I knew what he was going to say.
“Okay,” I said. “If anyone gets in trouble, I'll turn myself in.” His expression said he
doubted me. I think I even doubted myself.
“Well, well, well,” Austin said as he approached me, flanked by several of his friends.
“I've been looking for you. You left before we could finish our discussion.”

30
 “Austin, I don't have time for you right now.” Austin was the least of my worries at the
moment.
“What? These fancy clothes make you have a smart mouth or something?” Austin said.
“I'm just sorry you’ll be getting them dirty. When you fall down.” His friends laughed.
“I’m not going to fall down. This time, Austin, you have met your match.”
“Oh, have I?” Austin snickered. “You know, I don't know how you did the things you
did, but this time you're not going to get away.”
“Austin,” I said, “I'm warning you.”
“Leave him alone, Austin,” Peter added.
“You stay out of this, or you will be next.” Austin pointed at Peter but kept his eyes
locked on me. “Did you hear that, guys? Lester's warning me. If I were you, Lester, I would be
very careful what I said, or I could go even harder on you.”
“I could say the same thing,” I said.
“I guess we'll just have to give you a little example,” Austin said as he moved closer to
me.
“Me too,” I said. I snapped. I moved behind the group and snapped again. Everyone
jerked when they realized I was gone.
“Hey,” uttered Austin. “Where did he go?”
“Behind you.”
They turned. I loved the look people had when they thought I’d disappeared and then
reappeared somewhere else. Even though I could see fear in Austin's eyes, he had to remain
tough for his friends.
“If you think that a simple magician's trick is going to save you,” Austin said with a snarl,
“think again.”
“I guess I will just have to be more convincing,” I said. Then I snapped.

31
 Chapter 5

I relaxed. Seeing Austin and all his friends frozen made me feel at ease. I walked around them
and tried to think of something really good to do to them. It had to be unique, something Austin
and his friends would remember for a long time. I felt tremendously powerful.
Then I thought of something that made me chuckle. I took a black marker from my
backpack and started drawing mustaches on the faces of Austin's friends. It was a permanent
marker, of course. I gave the first one a normal mustache, one you see on most men. I gave
another a small mustache, the kind like Hitler had. And another, I gave a mustache and a goatee.
Now for Austin. It had to be the best of all. I drew a mustache that was long and curled at
the ends, all around his cheeks. It was artistic!
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun as I stood back to admire my
work. I laughed. I could just imagine what they’d look like when I unfroze them and they saw
each other. They’d laugh at each other, not realizing, at first, they each displayed my artwork.
Just then, my watch alarm went off. It was time for my tuxedo fitting. I was sorry I
couldn't stay around and watch as they discovered what I had done. It would have been fun. I
rushed out the door and just before it closed, I snapped.
***
I chuckled all through my fitting, thinking of Austin and his friends. I wished I could have been
there, but looking good for Spring Formal was important to me. I had to show everyone who
Lester Lopkins really was. Boy, did I look good in my tuxedo.
As I paid for my tuxedo, the lady thanked me for coming in early. “Early?” I thought. I
was a few minutes late. I looked at my watch.
Then it hit me. Like a brick!
My watch alarm had gone off while time was stopped. Fear raced through me. Was I
losing my power?
I snapped. Everything frozen, but my watch kept on ticking. How could that be? I
glanced at the clock on the wall in the tuxedo shop. It had stopped. I looked at the wristwatch the
cashier had on. It had stopped. I was puzzled. Everything seemed frozen except my own watch. I
snapped, finished paying my bill, and rushed home.

32
 When I got home, I snapped. My watch was still working. I snapped again. I put in a CD
in my portable CD player, and after the music started, I snapped. The music stopped. Hmm. I
snapped again, and the music began where it had left off. This time I held the CD player in my
hand and snapped.
The music continued!
I snapped and things around me began working again. “Why?” I said aloud. I put the CD
player down and snapped again. The music stopped. I snapped again; the music started. I turned
on my radio and snapped. The radio stopped. I snapped again, and it started. I then touched the
radio with my hand and snapped. The music stopped, replaced with static, but the radio definitely
continued working. I figured the equipment that broadcast the radio signal stopped working, but
the radio I was touching continued to work.
I had discovered something very important: whatever I was touching when I snapped,
didn't freeze.
I had to tell Peter right away!
I rushed to his house and knocked on his front door. When Peter opened it, my eyes
widened in shock. He had a very big, black eye. I didn't have to ask him what happened I knew.
Austin and his friends had beaten him up.
“Where did you go?” Peter asked angrily.
“I had a fitting for my tuxedo, and I was going to be late so I just left. I…I didn't think
about what would happen to you when Austin and his friends unfroze.”
“You left me,” Peter uttered, almost through tears.
“I'm really sorry, but I have to tell you something.” I was really sorry, but I was so
excited to test my theory out on Peter.
“I don't want to hear it,” cracked Peter. “I don't want to be anywhere around you when
you snap.”
“Peter,” I pleaded. “Just hear me out. Anything I am touching when I snap doesn't
freeze.”
Peter gave me puzzled look. What?”
“Look,” I said, pointing to my watch. “When I snap, my watch still works. When I was
holding my CD player and snapped, the music still played. And when I touched the radio and

33
snapped, it still worked. Of course, there was only static, but the radio still worked. I want to try
it out on you.”
That was too sudden. Peter jumped back. I should have eased into trying it out on him a
little slower.
“What?!” Peter belted out. “I don't want you snapping me!”
“But that's just it,” I explained. “If I am touching you when I snap, you won't be
affected.” Peter still looked scared. “Just let me try it.”
“I don't know,” said Peter. I slowly put my hand on his shoulder and snapped. He didn't
freeze. Of course, without other people around, it didn't feel like time had stopped. Peter looked
over his shoulder at a clock on the living room wall; it had stopped. He looked at his wristwatch
and it was working. Interesting. I snapped and everything started up again.
“It's much more impressive if there are other people around,” I told him. “Let's run down
to the store.”
“I don't want people seeing me like this,” Peter said.
“Your black eye is hardly noticeable,” I lied.
The store was two blocks away, so it only took a few minutes to get there. Only a few
people were walking around, but I found the busiest area to make the biggest impact. I placed my
hand on Pete's shoulder and snapped. Peter's eyes widened. I took my hand off Peter and hoped
that he would remain unfrozen. He did. He kept looking at the frozen people and back at me. He
smiled.
“This is way cool,” said Peter, amazed. He walked around the people and waved his hand
in front of their faces. “They're like zombies.”
“Yep!” I said with pride. “Now do you understand why I snap so much?”
Peter didn't answer. He was busy examining everyone in the store. Peter’s excited
expression suddenly turned to worry.
“What's the matter?” I asked.
“What happens if you snap now and you are not touching me?” asked Peter. “Do they
unfreeze, and do I freeze instead?”
“I don't know,” I answered. “But let's not try it here.”
“What happens if you freeze someone and then touch them when you snap again? Do
they stay frozen?” Peter was full of questions I’d never even considered.

34
 “I don't know,” I repeated. “I think we have to do some experimenting. But not here.” I
put my hand on Pete's shoulder and snapped. The people around us came back to life. Peter
watched as everyone went on about their way as if nothing had happened.
“Snap again!” Peter demanded.
“Weren't you the one telling me I snap too much?”
“Yeah, but that was when you were snapping me.”
“Come on,” I said. “Let's go back to my house and figure this out. We need to know
exactly how this thing works.”
We left the store and walked in silence. I knew Peter's brain was working overtime.
“You know,” he finally said, stopping. “If you’d known this before, I wouldn't have this.”
He pointed to his black eye.
“I know,” I said. “From now on, I will not snap unless I am touching you.”
Peter chuckled as we walked on. “Austin was pretty mad.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Everybody was laughing so hard, he threatened to beat everyone up, but he chose me.”
“I'm sorry.” I grimaced. “I will never let that happen to you again.”
“I didn't know you could draw so well.”
“Neither did I. It was so much fun.” We both laughed.
When we got to my house, we tried every possible combination to see when my power
worked and when it didn't. It was simple: if I touched anything while I snapped, it didn't freeze,
and when I snapped again, everything became unfrozen.
We also discovered something else during one of the frozen times. We were at the park
where two young boys were playing with a Frisbee. After I froze everything, Peter went over to a
Frisbee that was frozen in mid-air. It looked freaky. He grabbed it but it wouldn't move. Peter
even hung his weight from the airborne Frisbee, yet it didn't budge. An old tennis ball lay on the
ground, and I picked it up. It wasn't frozen. I even threw it to Peter, and he caught it. We came to
the conclusion that things that had momentum when snapped could not be moved while frozen.
Things that were motionless when I snapped could be moved. I didn't see this as any problem at
all.
We spent the rest of the afternoon snapping. Peter couldn't get his fill of my eerie frozen
world.

35
 We talked about how I could use my power. Peter thought I should use it to return the
money I stole from the bank. Fat chance, I thought. I'd already spent it.
“You should become some kind of Superman, fixing all the wrongs in the world.”
That was Peter for you: he thought of how to use the power in good ways. I, on the other
hand, thought of ways to use it for me!

36
 Chapter 6

I was on my way to lunch when I saw her. She was sitting on the bench just outside Mr. Lewis'
room. I hadn't talked to Nellie since the chess match. I avoided her, not knowing what to say. I
knew she was going to question the things I did at the match. How could I explain it? Snapping
wasn't something a person could understand with just an explanation; you had to experience it,
and I didn’t want anyone else to know.
Seeing her there made my palms sweat. I wanted to talk to her, but I was afraid. Afraid of
saying something wrong, afraid of not knowing what to say, afraid that the only girl who really
liked me would tell me to get lost.
"Hi."
There, I said it and now it was up to Nellie. I expected her to tell me to leave or get up
and walk away. She had the right to.
"Hi."
She looked up at me. I couldn't read her face, maybe because I was inexperienced in these
things or maybe she didn't have any feelings for me at all. There was an uneasy silence, the kind
you can feel heavy on your shoulders.
"What are you doing?" It was the only thing I could think of saying.
"I'm waiting for the lunch line to get a little shorter. I hate waiting in line." She
rearranged the books she had on her lap. I could snap and put us in the front of the line. But I
didn't think she was the type to jump ahead of other people. She was nicer than me.
"I hate waiting in line, too." I sat on the bench, but not too close to her. I didn't want to
scare her away. Then there was that nasty silence again. Why is talking so difficult sometimes?
"Is that a good book?" I asked, seeing a detective novel on top of her pile of books.
"Yes."
Small talk, and it was getting me nowhere. I knew she liked detective novels, she talked
about them all the time in Mrs. Dorn's Freshman English class.
Nellie was so good at putting the evidence together, she was able to figure out who did it
long before the book told the reader. I was lucky to get past the first chapter.
I took a big breath and told myself to do it: say what was on my mind.

37
 "I didn't get to congratulate you after the chess match," she said, continuing to look down
at her books.
"I'm sorry. Austin was causing some problems and I had to take care of him." Silence. "I
really wanted to stay and talk to you, but..."
"You did?" She looked up at me, with a hint of a smile.
"Yeah, but I had to leave early."
"Oh. How did you do the things you did?"
Problem! Now what do I say? I couldn't—or at least shouldn't—tell her a lie. What do I
say? My mind kept telling me to explain to her how I can snap, but wouldn't she think I was
some kind of freak?
Tell her! My mind told me.
What if she thinks I am just trying to trick her?
Tell her!
I wondered if other people had debates in their heads like me.
"I can't tell you." Well, it wasn't a lie! Nellie looked up at me, and her eyes were now sad.
She got up and started walking away.
Go after her, you dork!
I wondered if people call themselves names.
"Wait!" I caught up with her. She waited, but now what do I say? "You're not going to
believe the truth."
"Try me." There was still a hint of anger in her voice.
Awkward silence. How do I start without sounding like an idiot?
Just tell her!
Okay!
"I have an ability that most people don't." I knew this wasn't going to be enough. She was
waiting for more of an explanation.
"I can stop time." I finally said, quickly. If a face could laugh silently, that is what hers
was doing. She thought I was crazy. And why wouldn't she?
"Really?" She pulled her books in tighter to her chest.
"Do you want me to show you?"
"You're some kind of nut." She turned and began to walk away.

38
 I snapped. I needed more time to think. More time to plan my next move. It would scare
her if I got in front of her and snapped, suddenly appearing. I didn't want to do that. I could just
let her walk away, having her think I was some crazy nerd from the freshmen class, but I didn't
want to do that either. I had to make her believe me. I snapped again.
"Wait, Nellie!" I caught up with her. "I know it sounds crazy. I didn't even believe it
myself, but it's true." I softened my voice. "Let me show you."
She pulled her books in even closer to herself and stared for a few seconds. I could see
that she was thinking of calling my bluff, but it wasn't a bluff. "Okay." The doubt in her voice
would soon be gone.
"I need to touch you," I told her. She pulled back. "Otherwise, you'll stop like everything
else." I slowly extended my arm. Her eyes followed my hand as I gently grabbed her arm.
"Are you ready?" I asked her.
She didn't answer. I snapped.
Nellie gasped. There were several students who were on their way to the lunch line,
frozen in time. I let her go as she studied the other students in mid-step.
"Don't be afraid, everyone's okay. All I have to do is snap my fingers and time will start
again."
Even though she was experiencing my timeless world, she still didn't believe it. "You can
really stop time?"
"Yep."
"Make them move."
I snapped. She tried to take it all in, looking in every direction.
"You really can stop time." It wasn't a question this time. She believed!
We were both too excited to eat. Nellie excited from her timeless experience and I
because Nellie was. It made me feel good to be talking with her.
I made her promise she wouldn't tell anyone else, not even Abbey.
"Who would believe me anyway?" she asked.
I knew what she meant.
We talked until the end of lunch, even past the first bell, when she realized she was going
to be tardy.

39
 “No problem,” I said, and I held her hand and snapped. Her hand was soft. “You now
have lots of time to get to class. You won’t be late.”
She smiled.
We walked to her locker so she could get her books and then to her classroom. The halls
were filled with frozen mannequins making it hard to maneuver. We weaved between the
students, both of us laughing at the funny expressions on everyone’s faces. I really had the urge
to draw mustaches on a few of the students but restrained myself.
“Here’s my class.” Nellie stopped in front of Mrs. Peterson’s classroom. The door was
open, and several students were already in their seats. I told her she should stand where no one
would notice her when I snapped. It’s hard to explain when you seem to suddenly appear out of
nowhere. She smiled again and entered her classroom. I watched as she went to the far side of
the room and nodded at me. I stepped behind the door and snapped. When I peeked around the
door, she was already sitting at her desk, getting her books out. I watched until someone pushed
me out of the way, then I floated to my class.
Science class went by slowly. Mr. Henry was lecturing about the five layers of the
atmosphere: the troposphere, the stratosphere, and I didn’t catch the others. I was in my own
atmosphere, focusing not on his words, but on my mental picture of Nellie’s smile!
***
“Who is that?” I asked myself when I looked in the mirror the next morning. I was taller. I had
wider shoulders. I looked more mature. Well, at least that’s the way I felt.
It’s funny how a girl can change a guy’s life. Talking to Nellie changed how I walked,
how I stood, how I looked at myself in the mirror. There was a warm feeling inside of me I had
never felt before. I thought for a minute it was a manly feeling, but that sounded stupid to me. I
wondered if it was love. I wondered if Nellie had the same feelings.

“You what?” Peter barked, as we were walking to school.

“I told Nellie about snapping.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know,” I told Peter. “It was the only way to explain to her what happened at the
match and why I had to leave so early.”
“Does she know about your limitation?” He said it like I was deficient in some way.

40
 “You mean that things don’t freeze when I’m touching them?”
“Yes!”
“It’s not a limitation. It’s just how it works,” I explained to Peter.
“Don’t worry, Nellie won’t tell anybody,” I stated.
We walked in silence for about a block.
As we arrived at our lockers, Nellie came by with Abbey. She has the largest smile on her
face that I have ever seen.
“Hi, Lester,” Nellie said.
“Hi, Nellie,” I replied.
Abbey looked at each of us. She knew that something was up.
“What’s wrong with you two?” Abbey asked.
Nellie and I smiled at each other. “Nothing,” we both said at the same time.
“Well, I have to see Mr. Chambers about yesterday’s homework,” Abbey said, with a hint
of disgust in her voice. “I’ll see you at lunch.”
“Okay,” Nellie said. We watched as Abbey walked down the hall. I noticed that Austin
was at the other end of the hall with a group of students.
“Hey,” I said. “Look at that.” Nellie and Peter both watched Austin for a moment. It
seemed like he was making a deal. Money was exchanged for paper. I was curious.
“Let’s find out what’s going on.” I grabbed both Nellie and Peter and snapped. Nellie
was still in awe of the frozen world as Peter and I just maneuvered through the students in the
hall like we did it every day.
As we approached, Nellie noticed that Austin had a test.
“This is a test from Mr. Kats’s History class,” Nellie said.
“It’s for Unit,” Peter twisted his head around to read the partially curled up paper that
Austin was handing over to another students. “Six.”
“Unit six?” Nellie questioned.
Peter took another look. “Yep, unit six.”
“That’s the test that we are supposed to take on Monday,” Nellie explained.
“Austin has a copy of the test and he’s selling it,” I concluded.
“How did he get the test?” Peter asked.
“Good question,” said Nellie.

41
 “This sucks!” I said. “I’ll be lucky to pass the test, and that is if I study all weekend.
Unless we have the test.”
“What?” Peter asked.
“We are not going to cheat,” Nellie declared.
“We aren’t?” I asked.
“No! We aren’t,” Nellie said with absolute conviction. “The grade you get will be your
own.”
“Maybe I should use my power to expose Austin,” I suggested.
I would tell that Peter didn’t like my idea.
“I don’t think you should mess with Austin.” Peter said. “Sooner or later, he’s going to
beg his hands on you and snapping won’t help.”
“But we can’t just let him get away with this,” Nellie said. I could see that she was
formulating a plan. “We have to have a teacher see this.”
“How are we going to do that?” Peter asked.
Mr. Carter was in her room and the closest teacher to Austin and the group of students.
We figured that I could go in and snap and start time, touch Mr. Carter, quickly snap again and
the bring him out to catch Austin. It seemed like a good plan. I know it would take Mr. Carter a
few minutes to come to grips on having everything frozen, but it was worth it to have Austin
caught.
We entered Mr. Carter’s room. There were a few students in the room. We couldn’t have
them see what would happen so, the plan was to have Peter go to the back of the room, I would
snap, Peter would say something so that everyone would look away from Mr. Carter and at him.
I would then snap again quickly and then Nellie and I would move to Mr. Carter, have me snap
to start time again, quickly touch Mr. Carter, while Nellie had her hand on me, and snap again.
All before the other students could look back at Mr. Carter. Of course, Peter would freeze with
all the other students.
“Oh, thanks,” Peter complained. “Make me your sacrificial lamb.”
“It’s for the good of the cause,” Nellie.
Peter just shook his head as the moved to the back of the room. “What should I say?”
Peter asked.
“Anything,” I replied.

42
 “I think we are making a big mistake,” Peter mumbled as he went to the back of the
classroom. Nellie and I stood just outside the door. I snapped!
“Free pizza!” Peter shouted. I immediately snapped again.
“Free pizza?” Nellie said.
“Everyone likes pizza,” I said, with a shrug of my shoulders.
Nellie and I walked up to Mr. Carter and I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Ready?” I
asked Nellie. She nodded her head. I snapped. I made eye contact with Peter for just a moment
and then snapped again. Mr. Carter was startled when he saw me next to him.
“Hey,” Mr. Carter said. “What happened?”
“Mr. Carter, I need to show you something out in the hall,” I explained.
Mr. Carter whimpered as he looked out over the students in his classroom. He took off
his glass and squinted for a better look. Then his eye widened.
“Austin is selling unit tests,” I said. “I need you to bust him.” Mr. Carter continued to
stare at the other students.
“Maybe Peter was right,” Nellie admitted. Mr. Carter turned white and started to melt to
the floor. Nellie and I both grabbed him to break his fall. We both stood there looking down at
Mr. Carter.
“Yep, Peter was right,” I agreed. Nellie and I went back to hallway. “He’s going to rub
this in, you know.”
“I guess we should have listened to him,” Nellie said.
“Don’t worry, he’ll let us know,” I said. I snapped.
“Just kidding.” We heard Peter say and then there was a commotion as the students found
Mr. Carter on the floor. Peter rushed out of the room and came up to us.
“What happened?” Peter asked.
“Do you really need to ask?” Nellie asked.
“He couldn’t take it,” I added.
“I told you this was a bad idea,” Peter declared. “You never listen to me.”
“You were right,” Nellie admitted.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said. We started walking, I paused and grabbed both Nellie and
Peter. I snapped. “But first I have to show my artistic ability.”

43
 Chapter 7

I heard that Austin was furious about suddenly having a mustache and that he knew that I was
involved. I figured it was best not to hang around after school, so Peter and I went straight to my
house.
“We have to find a way for a teacher or Mrs. Benchley to catch Austin with a test,” I said,
as I paced in my room.
“Fat chance of that!” said Peter. “Look what happened to Mr. Carter.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Out cold!” I laughed. I know that I shouldn’t, but it was kind of funny
and Mr. Carter wasn’t hurt. At least not physically.
“I not only want to stop Austin from selling tests but stop him from bullying people,
especially me,” I continued.
“One thing at a time,” Peter recommended. “I think if he gets caught, he’s going to be
after you even more.”

ADD MOM HERE

There was a knock at the door. My mom was still at work, so I had to answer it. I opened
the door.
“Good! I’m glad you are here,” said Nellie, as she walked right past me and into the
house.
“Nellie?” I said as I stepped aside. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to help,” She explained very quickly. “I figure we have to go after the top
man.” Peter joined us in the living room.
“Top man?” I asked.
“No sense in wasting our time busting the dealer, we need to catch the supplier,” Nellie
continued.
“The supplier?” Peter injected, as he and I looked at each other confused.
“Do I have to spell it out? Nellie asked.
“I guess so,” I replied.

44
 Nellie took a deep breath, probably because she hadn’t taken one since she stepped in the
door. She was really worked up!
“There has to be a supplier, someone who is stealing the tests and giving them to Austin
to sell,” Nellie explained.
“How do you know that Austin isn’t the only one involved?” Peter asked. I could see that
Nellie couldn’t believe that she had to explain it to us.
“Think about it,” Nellie started. “Austin is a football player. He doesn’t have the brains to
oversee a sophisticated operation like this. I have been doing some investigating. Austin had
been selling tests in Freshman History, Personal Finance, Biology, and Spanish II.” She paused
and looked at us for some sort of recognition of understanding. Nope!
“So?” Peter finally broke the silence.
“Austin doesn’t even had Biology, Spanish II, or Freshman History so how would he
have access to these tests? Why would he steal these tests?” Nellie was pacing as fast as she was
talking. “This is purely a financial operation for him and since he is selling tests for classes he
doesn’t even have; he has to have a supplier. And that’s who we have to go after, all the way to
the top!”
“Sounds good, but how do we do it?” I asked.
Nellie laid it out for us. “First, we need to get a hold of one of the stolen tests that Austin
has, before he has time to copy and sell it. We make a fake test and switch it with the real one.
Of course, Austin’s buyers will be upset, because they will have bought a fake test and failed the
real test. Which will serve them right. Are you catching all this?
I was going to say, no, but I didn’t want to sound stupid, so I said, “Yeah.” It sounded
rather unconvincing.
“But how will that expose the top man?” Peter asked.
“Here me out,” Nellie said. “This will cause Austin to go to his suppler and ask why he
was supplied with the wrong test. We keep Austin under surveillance to see who he approaches.
Then we wait for another delivery of a test, call in the feds to bust them and…”
“The feds?” I interrupted.
“I mean the principal,” Nellie said. “And bam!” Nellie hit her fist into her other hand.
“Austin is sent up the river.”
“Sent up the river?” I was confused.

45
 “Well, at least several detentions,” Nellie clarified. “And the top man gets five to ten.”
“Years?” Peter injected.
“Days of suspension,” Nellie said. She paused. We let it all sink in. “So, what do you
think?”
“Sounds like the plan I was thinking of,” Lester said.
“Yeah,” Peter added. “Me too.”
Nellie rolled her eyes. “Guys,” she told us. “They always want to take the credit.”
All those detective novels that Nellie has read is really paying off. She could see the
direction that we needed to take and, although I wouldn’t admit it out loud, I had no idea what to
do next.
“How do you suppose we get our hands on a test that Austin has?” I asked.
“Well,” Nellie said, “with your power to stop time, it will be easy.”
“Of course, it will,” I admitted. “It will?” I still didn’t see how I could get a test from
Austin before he started selling it.
Nellie explained, “Austin has to keep the tests in his locker, so we just get his
combination, you stop time, you get the copy of the test, I type a new one—with wrong
questions, of course—replace the fake one in Austin’s locker and Austin will have no idea what
happened.”
“How are we going to get Austin’s locker combination?” Peter asked.
“That will be easy,” Nellie said. Once again, Peter and I couldn’t see what Nellie was
seeing.
“First,” Nellie exclaimed, “I don’t think Lester should go anywhere near Austin. So, I
will stand near Austin’s locker and when he dials his combination, I will nod my head to Lester,
who will be hiding so that Austin can’t see him, Lester stops time, goes and looks to see what the
number is, hides again, and then starts time again. When Austin is at the next number, I nod
again, Lester stops time, looks to see what the number is, starts…”
“I get the idea,” I interjected. I looked at Peter. “Do you think it will work?”
“Of course, it will work,” Nellie jumped in before Peter could speak.
“Of course, it will work,” Peter repeated to me. “It’s her idea.”

46
 The next morning Nellie and I stalked Austin as he entered the school. We were very
careful not to allow Austin to see me. Austin had no idea that Nellie was now on my team.
As Austin was nearing his locker, Nellie waved me to hide. Nellie watched very carefully
to see when Austin paused the dial of his locker. Nellie quickly nodded. Austin then turned the
dial in the opposite direction and paused. Nellie quickly nodded again. Austin then dialed to his
final number and just before he opened his locker, Nellie nodded again. Austin pulled on the
handle and it opened.
Nellie rushed to Lester, a little upset.
“Why didn’t you stop time and get his combination?” Nellie growled.
I gave her my ‘who me?’ look as I handed her a piece of paper. She looked at it.
“15, 25, 6.” She read aloud. “You got it?”
“Of course,” I replied.
“I didn’t even know you stopped time.” Nellie was impressed.
“It’s a gift,” I said sticking out my chest.
“Don’t get cocky,” Nellie advised. “Come on, let’s go find Peter.
Peter was waiting for us at his locker.
“Did you get it?” Peter asked.
“We got it,” I replied.
“So, now what do we do?” Peter inquired. I knew that Nellie would have a long, detailed
plan of action for us to follow. The question was, were Peter and I going to understand.
“We touch Lester, he stops time, and we check out Austin’s locker,” she explained. I
expected much more.
“Hold on,” I said. I snapped.
We weaved around all the students frozen in the hallway. It’s interested to see the
expressions on everyone faces, trying to figure out what they were saying before they become
ice.
“Hey, look at her,” I said pointing to one student whose face looked like she just ate an
entire lemon.
“Good thing her face doesn’t get stuck like that,” Peter laughed.

47
 “Here let me help you,” I said to one student who had a pile of books on the floor and it
looked like she was putting them in her locker. I put all her books in her locker. What a nice guy
I am. Peter and I both laughed while I was doing it.
“Do you really think that is funny?” Nellie asked.
“Yeah!” Both Peter and I chuckled at the same time.
“Come on, we are wasting time,” Nellie said.
“What time?” Peter asked. He and I laughed again. Nellie just shook her head and
continued down the hall. We rushed to catch up.
As we approached Austin’s locker, I looked up and down the hall. Nellie looked at me
and I could tell she was thinking, ‘What are you doing?’
“Years of being picked on, causes you to keep an eye out,” I explained. “It’s hard to
break habits.”
“This gives me the creeps,” Peter said, as Nellie was dialing the combination. “Isn’t it
wrong to break into someone’s locker?”
“Sometimes, when in the middle of an investigation, you have to break a few rules to get
the case solved,” Nellie explained. She opened the locker and started going through Austin’s
papers. I looked up and down the hall again. Nellie paused and looked at me.
“Habit,” I said.
“His locker is a mess,” stated Nellie.
“Did you expect anything else from Austin?” Peter asked.
“Not really,” Nellie said. “Wait, I think I found something.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“A biology test for chapter six,” she said as I took the test.
“This is the test we are supposed to have next week,” I explained.
“Bingo!” Nellie said with a huge smile. “Now, all we have to do is go to the computer lab
so that I can a create a fake test.”
“Problem,” I said. “Computers don’t work when time is frozen.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Nellie said, as she paused, thinking. “No problem. You guys go
to class. I have study hall so I will go to the computer lab, type out a fake test and we’ll meet just
after first period. Then Lester can stop time and we can place the fake test in Austin’s locker.
Okay, you have your assignments. Start time.”

48
 I snapped.
“Be careful,” I told Nellie.
“Me?” she said, “I was born for this kind of stuff.”
***
Boy, talk about time standing still, it sure seemed to, listening to Mr. Fisks’ lecture. I was
so anxious thinking about Nellie and wishing I was with her. I wondered how she was doing and
hoping that she could finish creating a fake test in just one period. But then I remembered that
this was Nellie I was worried about. Of course, she could finish creating the test in one period.
She could probably make two fakes tests in one period. I had a lot of confidence in her.
After the lecture Mr. Fisk passed out a worksheet to complete about his lecture. Great! I
wasn’t listening.
“Can I get a drink of water, Mr. Fisk,” I asked.
“Lester,” Mr. Fisk said in his condescending voice, “I’m afraid that you will have to get a
drink on your own time, not during class.”
I snapped. “How about on no time,” I said aloud. I sauntered down the hall to the
drinking fountain. When I turned the knob, nothing happened. No water. “Hmm,” I said to
myself, “The drinking fountain doesn’t work when time is frozen? Must be because the water is
under pressure. Interesting.”
I decided to walk to the end of the hall, just to stretch my legs when I saw Rhonda
standing at her open locker. On the top shelf was an unopened Pepsi. I knew I shouldn’t, but I
was thirsty, so I helped myself to Rhonda’s drink. I took the time to finish it off and placed it
back on the top shelf. Won’t she be surprised!
“Thanks, Rhonda,” I said to her. I returned to the classroom and sat at my desk for a few
moments. I knew that this period would never end if I didn’t snap. I snapped. I chucked when I
thought about Rhonda as she found her Pepsi empty. She would never know who it was.
The class lingered on as I looked over my worksheet and wondered if Mr. Fisk really
went over all this stuff. But at last, the bell rang and I rushed out the door. I found Peter at our
lockers.
“Have you seen Nellie?” I asked him.
“Not yet,” Peter replied.

49
 At last, we say Nellie walking down the hall with Abbey. I had to get her away from
Abbey so that we could complete the mission.
“Hi, Nellie,” I said. “Can I talk to you?”
“Yeah, sure,” Nellie replied. She then turned to Abbey.” Sorry Abbey, but could you
excuse us?”
“What?” Abbey said.
“Just for a few minutes,” Nellie said.
“But you and I always walk to choir together,” Abbey stated.
“You’re right,” Nellie replied. “What was I thinking.” Then she pointed down the hall.
“What is that over there?” Of course, we all looked down the hall in the direction she was
pointing. Nellie grabbed me and whispered, “Snap, Lester. Snap!” I snapped.
“Notice where you are, so that we can get back in the same place when we come back,”
Nellie explained, as she pulled out a paper from her notebook. “Now, let’s place this fake test in
Austin’s locker, come back, you snap, and no one will be the wiser.”
***
“What?” Abbey said, immediately after I snapped.
“Oh, I thought I saw a fight or something,” Nellie explained with a smile on her face. “It
must have been nothing. Come on Abbey, let’s get to choir before the tardy bell rings.
“But I thought you needed to talk to Lester,” Abbey said.
“I already did,” Nellie said, catching herself. “I mean, I will later. I’d rather walk to chior
with you.
“Bye, Lester and Peter,” Nellie said.
“Bye, Nellie,” I said. Abbey gave me a strange look as she turned to join Nellie walking
down the hall.
“Aren’t we going to plant the fake test?” Peter asked.
“Already did,” I answered.
“When?”
“When Nellie pointed down the hall and everyone looked.” I explained. “I snapped and
Nellie and I planted the test in Austin’s locker, came back, and I snapped again. No one even
knew we left.”
“Boy, I will never get use to this,” Peter proclaimed. “So, what do we do now?”

50
 “We wait,” I said, “and see what Austin’s friends do when they take their biology test and
find out that Austin sold them a fake test.”
“I can’t wait,” Peter confessed.
“Neither can I,” I said.

51
 Chapter 8

The evening was normal. I only snapped once and then I realized that the more I snapped, the
more time I have to spend waiting for tomorrow. I anticipated and also felt anxious about it.
What would I do if Austin came at me again? His friends might have told him what they
experienced and maybe, just maybe, they would figure out anyone touching me doesn’t freeze
when I snapped. I couldn’t imagine Austin believing them if they told him, but I couldn’t shake
the feeling that he might figure it all out. Then I would be in trouble. I couldn’t allow him to get
his hands on me.
***
As Peter and I entered school, Abbey rushed up to us.
“Lester!” Abbey had real concern in her voice. “Have you heard about Nellie?”
“No, what?” I asked.
“She was caught by Mr. Benchley with a stolen test,” Abbey explained with alarm. “I
can’t believe it. She always gets As. Why would she steal a test?”
“She didn’t steal the test!” I stated emphatically. I turned to Peter. “I have to save her.”
“Save her?” Abbey responded. “Who are you, Superman?”
“Kind of,” I said. “Where is she now?”
“In Mrs. Benchley’s office,” Abbey told me. “What are you going to do? Waltz in there
and tell Mrs. Benchley it was all just a mistake?”
“I can’t waltz,” I injected. “So, I think I will just tip toe in. Peter cover for me, will you?”
“No problem,” Peter said.
“What is going on?” Abbey asked.
“Sorry, you have to see this, Abbey,” I said
“See what?” Abbey asked. I snapped.
I raced down the hall to Mrs. Benchley’s office. I knew that I didn’t have to run but it just
seemed right. When I got to the office, I snapped.
“Mrs. Harter, I need to see Mrs. Benchley,” I informed the secretary.
“I’m sorry, Lester, but she is busy with another student who has broken a very serious
rule,” she explained.
“But I have to see her!” I pleaded.

52
 “I am not going to disturb her,” Mrs. Harter said. “You will just have to wait.”
“Sorry, but I can’t.” I snapped.
I made my way into Mrs. Benchley’s office and examined the situation. Nellie was sitting
in a chair facing Mrs. Benchley’s desk. Her face was filled with concern. Mrs. Benchley was
standing behind her desk with the fake test right in front of her. She didn’t look happy. How
could she? Nellie was one of the top students in school and she was just caught with a stolen test.
I looked at the test. The only evidence in this case.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Benchley,” I said aloud, “but I can’t allow you to keep the evidence you
have against Nellie. We are only trying to catch the real thief.”
I took the test from Mrs. Benchley’s desk. I took out my marker and was going to…
when I thought better of it. No, I thought, I may need you on my side. I put my pen away.
Now, how do I get a message to Nellie? I needed her to know that I had the test and that
she needed to try and argue her way out of this. After looking round, I decided I would stand
next to a bookshelf behind Mrs. Benchley’s desk. I would have to watch Mrs. Benchley very
carefully and snap again if she started to turn around. I just hoped that Nellie wouldn’t react to
seeing me and let Mrs. Benchley know something happened. I snapped.
Nellie jerked a little, but not enough for Mrs. Benchley to notice. Nellie smiled as I held
up the test I was holding. She slowly nodded her head to let me know she understood. I snapped
again.
I worked my way back to Peter and Abbey. I could see on Abbey’s face that she was
confused. Abbey saw me disappear and I wondered what Peter had told her. I decided that it
would be better for Abbey to see me walk up to her, rather than for me just to appear again. I
snapped.
As I walked up to them, Peter saw me first. He smiled.
“Here’s Lester now,” Peter said, looking in my direction.
“Lester!” Abbey said. “You were right there and then you disappeared and now you’re
walking up the hall. How did you do that?”
“I didn’t disappear,” I explained. “I just walked down to the garbage can. You were so
worried about Nellie that you must have not noticed me walk away.”
“But Peter said that you were never here!” she said.

53
 Peter looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. I guess we should have planned how to
explain my sudden disappearance.
“I guess I didn’t notice him either,” Peter said.
“But when you were here, I mean there,” she said, pointing to where I had disappeared,
“you said you were going to save Nellie.”
“Oh, I am sure that Nellie can take care of herself,” I explained. Abbey was really
muddled. With Nellie in trouble and having me disappear in front of her, maybe was too much
for her.
“I think I need to go home,” Abbey said as she wondered down the hall.
“Maybe I should tell her?” I asked.
“No,” Peter said. “I think I like her better this way. Confused!”
“Thanks, Lester!” Nellie said as she joined Peter and me.
“Did you clear yourself?” I asked.
“I told Mrs. Benchley that without the evidence, she had no case,” Nellie explained.
“Now that was thinking, to take the test right from under her nose.”
“Why, thank you Nellie,” I said with pride.
“I can’t believe I didn’t get rid of it,” Nellie explained. “I forgot all about having it in my
folder and then to have it fall out, right in front of Mr. Henry. I can’t believe I could be so
stupid.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said.
As we started down the hall, Nellie stopped us.
“Look!” she said, point out the window. In the distance we could see Austin with a group
of other boys. They were arguing. “I think our plan is working.”
“They sure look like they are mad at Austin,” Peter concluded.
“Most likely about the fake test they bought from him,” Nellie said.
“How can you be sure?” I asked.
“Deductive reasoning,” she said.
“Oh,” I said, not really knowing what that meant.
“I think it’s time for Operation Double Trouble,” declared Nellie.
“Operation Double Trouble?” said Lester.

54
 “We make Austin’s life so miserable that he can’t stand it,” Nellie explained. “You use
the full force of you power to show Austin what it’s like to be bullied. We hit him often and we
hit him hard. He will be spilling his guts to Mrs. Benchley, ratting on his supplier and he will
never bully anyone again.”
“Yeah!” I shouted. We looked at each other with excitement. The others in the hall
looked at me like I was a freak. I didn’t care.
“This could be scary,” said Peter.
“For Austin, it will be,” said Nellie.
“What do you have in mind?” I asked.
“This is going to be like a game of chess,” Nellie explained. “We plan every move, take a
pawn here, then a rook, and finally check-mate: the king.”
I knew she liked chess, I thought to myself.
***
The next day Nellie stationed herself near the main entrance of the school. She scanned the
entering students with a watchful eye, looking for the suspect.
“There he is,” she whispered to herself. She pulled out a walkie talkie and pressed the
button. “The suspect has entered the building. I repeat, the suspect has entered the building.”
“Ten-four, we copy,” I said into my walkie talkie.
Peter and I were stationed in the senior hall next to the library, the location for the first
strike. The Library door was inset, making it a great place to hide from the others in the hall. We
felt a little out of place, but no one seemed notice them. Peter was quickly eating a banana.
“Hurry up,” I said, as I peeked down the hall. “He’ll be here any minute.”
“I am,” Peter mumble as he bit off a large chunk of banana. I watched Peter as he nearly
swallowed the last piece of banana whole and then peeked again down the hall.
“He’s coming,” I said my heart pounding. “You know the plan?”
“Of course,” Peter said. “Make sure you snap when he’s mid-step.”
I looked at Peter with a smirk on my face. “I know. Put your hand on me.”
Peter grabbed my arm as I peeked around the corner, making sure Austin didn’t see me. I
didn’t want him to know I had anything to do with what was about to happen. I studied his step
and prepared my fingers. “Wait, wait,” I slowly whispered to myself. I snapped.
I looked at Peter and nodded. He worked his way to Austin.

55
 Austin had his left foot about five inches off the ground, ready to make his next step. He
had a smile on his face, and I wondered why. Then I looked down the hall in the other direction
and I saw Lisa. That’s why.
Perfect, I thought. Lisa will be witness to this too.
“The BP is in position,” Peter told me as he returned to my side.
“The BP?” I asked.
“Banana peel,” Peter said with a smile on his face. “Nellie’s also at the other end of the
hall, just as planned.
“Let’s get out of here before I snap,” I said. We maneuvered our way out of the senior
hall and around the corner.
“I wish I could see this,” I told Peter.
“It’s best you are as far from him as you can get,” Peter explained.
I snapped.
We heard a thud and then there was a commotion, first with laughter and then silence.
The few students coming out of the senior hall were looking back and trying not to laugh.
I looked at Peter. “Two for two?” He gave me a puzzled look and then a large smiled
grew on his face. I put my hand on his shoulder and snapped.
Peter raced back into the hallway while I waited. My walkie talkie was working but I
knew that Nellie’s wouldn’t so there was no way to inform her. I hoped she wouldn’t be upset
we were deviating from the plan. Peter raced back to my side. We rushed to our lockers,
laughing all the way. After leaning on our lockers for a moment, I snapped. We rested our ears
near the walkie talkie, listening intently.
The next few seconds seemed like hours. I checked up and down the hall to make sure
that time was going again. It was.
“Mission accomplished,” we finally hear Nellie say. “The suspect is down. Twice. Two
pawns have been taken.”
Peter and I had a hard time stifling our laughter and within a minute Nellie joined us.
“Good job, guys,” she said though her laughter. “Twice was nice.”
“I couldn’t help myself,” I said, arrogantly.
“You should have seen him. He was so mad.”

56
 Nellie laughed as she described what she saw. “He went down so hard the first time and
everyone around him started laughing. When he jumped up, everyone went silent. He then
picked up the banana peel and threw it against the wall. He was looking away from me so I
couldn’t see his face, but I could tell he was mad. I was about to radio you when he went down
again. Using the same banana peel was genius.”
“Thanks,” I said, with a smirk.
“I placed it,” Peter said, wanting some credit.
“Yeah, he did,” I confirmed.
“The second time he jumped up and looked around. He was so baffled on how the banana
peel he just threw against the wall was again under his foot. I must admit I was surprised by it,
but it was a good addition to the plan, keep him off balance.
“Time for strike number two,” Nellie said. She and Peter placed their hands on me and I
snapped.
“I don’t have to touch it,” Peter asked. “Do I?”
“It won’t hurt you,” Nellie reassured him.
“I don’t care,” said Peter. “I’m not touching it.
“Okay,” Nellie said.
We entered Mr.Henry’s classroom and went over to the tank where a bright yellow snake
was kept. There were always a lot of students in his room, so he didn’t even notice us. As soon
as Mr. Henry was looking away, Nellie and Peter grabbed me and I snapped. The snake wasn’t in
motion so Nellie was able to pick it up, but it was as stiff as a board.
“I hate snakes,” Peter mumbled, stepping away from me.
It was only a few steps to Austin’s locker and after rearranging some of his books, we
had a good place to put the snake.
“I hope Austin has a fear of snakes,” I said.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Peter asked.
“I don’t,” Nellie said.” At least not the nice ones.
“You don’t think Austin will hurt it, do you?” I asked.
“I will be watching and if he starts to hurt the snake,” Nellie explained, “I’ll radio you
and you snap.”
“But then you will be frozen,” Peter said. “Who will take care of the snake?”

57
 “One of you will have to do it,” Nellie said.
“Not me,” Peter insisted.
“We’ll deal with that if we have to,” Lester said. Peter shook his head.
“Take your place,” Nellie told Peter and me. “He always comes to his locker about ten
minutes before first period.
“Are you sure?” Peter asked. Nellie cocked her head and frowned.
“Of course, she sure,” I replied. “Come on.”
Peter and I hid in the freshman hall, far from Austin’s locker. We waited, listening to our
walkie talkie.
“Do you think this might backfire on us?” Peter asked.
“I hope not,” I answered. “Nellie has it all planned out and I am nowhere near him we
attack, so I think we are safe.”
“I wish I could feel so sure.” Peter had the right to be a little nervous, after all, he was the
one who Austin went after, when I left.
“He is at his locker,” we heard Nellie from the radio. Peter and I held our breath. Then,
first we heard muffled laughter and then, “Strike two, mission accomplished. Snap and join me.”
We rushed to the senior hall. Nellie was frozen in mid-laugh. I snapped. She finished her
laugh, “Quick, snap again.” They grabbed me and I snapped.
“You should have seen him,” Nellie chuckled. “He must have jumped back six feet and
then he slammed the door and took off. Let’s put the snake back.”
As we were putting the snake back in Mr. Henry’s room, Nellie concluded that we only
had time for one more strike before first period.
“Okay, let’s do the push attack,” Nellie said. “But you have to be careful, he can’t see
you.”
“I can do it,” I said with confidence.
“Okay, I’ll stay here in the senior hall and you guys go back to the freshman hall and wait
for my call,” Nellie instructed.
Peter and I slowly walked to our lockers and I snapped. It was only a few moments that
Nellie radioed, “He’s coming, with Mrs. Benchley. He’s opening his locker.” Peter and I listened
intently. “No snake. Mrs. Benchley doesn’t look happy. She’s shaking her head and walking
away. Hold. Okay snap.” I snapped.

58
 We traveled to Nellie and found Austin still in the hallway. Peter hid. I got behind Austin
and prepared to snap, push him, and then quickly snap again. This seemed like a good idea when
we were planning it but being this close to Austin made me feel uncomfortable. I couldn’t allow
him to see me, so the time was very important.
I snapped, pushed Austin from behind and rushed another snapped. I let out the breath I
was holding, it worked. I joined Peter and I snapped. Peter jumped, I guess you never get used to
seeing someone suddenly appear.
“He was looking all around,” Nellie told us. “I had to leave so that he wouldn’t hear me
laugh.” Boy, was I feeling left out since I never got to see Austin’s frustration. “It’s almost class
time, so we will have to postpone any further strikes for now.”
“Okay, I’ll see you at lunch,” I said.
***
Nellie prepared to take a bit of her cafeteria hamburger.
“More katsup?” I asked Nellie, holding the bottle.
“I already have a gallon on here.” She took a bite and katsup oozed out the sides. Peter
had the pizza, which is like cardboard, a drop of sauce and only about half the greasy cheese that
it should have. I had the chicken nuggets, which smells like hot dogs but tastes like, well not like
chicken or hot dogs. I don’t know what they taste like, but it’s not good.
“The fries are cold and soggy,” Nellie complained.
“Have they been any other way?” I asked.
“No,” Nelle replied.
“My pizza is colder than my drink,” Peter added. It was always the topic of conversation
at a school cafeteria, the quality of the food.
“Austin has practice right after school,” Nellie told us, wiping katsup off her chin. “I
don’t think it would be good to strike him there.”
“I think it’s time I show myself,” I said. Nellie and Peter stopped eating and stared at me.
“Are you sure?” Nellie asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’ll have to be very careful he doesn’t get ahold of you,” Nellie warned.
“I know, but he has to know it’s me. I think it will have more impact,” I said.
“It might make him go after you even more,” Peter advised.

59
 “That’s want I’m hoping for,” I said, with an increase of my heartbeat. “Can I trust that
you two will have my back.”
“Of course,” Nellie quickly responded.
“Sure,” Peter said. “As long as you don’t leave me again.” I’m sure he was remembering
his black eye.
“I will never leave you again,” I told Peter. “That I can promise you. I think I will hit
Austin at the dance. But it has to look like I’m alone. I don’t want him thinking either of you two
are involved.”
“Involved with what?” Abbey crept up on us. We went silent.
“Nothing,” I quickly said.
“What’s going on?” Abbey demanded. She looked at Nellie. “I couldn’t find you before
school and now I have you eating lunch with these guys. Something’s up.”
“Nothing’s up,” Nellie said with a little hesitation. “I was in Mr. Henry’s room this
morning and the lunch line was short, so I jumped in and then I found these guys sitting here, so
I sat with them.” Abbey looked at each of us and frowned. She wasn’t buying Nellie’s
explanation.
“Since when do you have lunch with these guys?” Abbey asked.
“I thought I would sit with a chess champion.” Nellie said, with a smile. I sat up a little
taller. Abbey sat next to Nellie, putting her tray on the table.
“I see that you went with the chicken nuggets,” I said to Abbey.
“Yeah, well, they were out of hamburgers and the pizza looked like it was from World
War II,” Abbey explained.
“Maybe World War I,” Peter said, as she chewed off a piece of pizza.
“Are we still going to the dance tomorrow?” Abbey asked Nellie. “Or are you going with
these guys?”
Nellie looked at me. I suddenly got a knot in my stomach, and it wasn’t from the food. I
know I have been spending a lot of time with Nellie, but does that mean we are boyfriend and
girlfriend? What does boyfriend and girlfriend really even mean? It’s not like I have a lot of
experience with this sort of thing. Should I be the one who speaks up first? And if so, what
should I say? I was almost in a panic when Nellie spoke up.

60
 “No, we can go together,” Nellie told Abbey. “I’m not even sure these guys are going to
the dance.” She looked at me.
“Uh, I don’t know,” I stuttered my answer. “I might.” The atmosphere at the table
suddenly was uncomfortable, but then most relationship were.
“Well, I have to go,” Nellie said, picking up her tray.
“I just got here,” Abbey said.
“You really don’t want to jeopardize your health by eating that stuff,” Nellie said. “Do
you?”
Abbey looked up at Nellie. “It’s better than nothing.”
“Not by much,” Peter said.
Nellie sat back down as Abbey took a bit of one of her chicken nuggets. There was an
uneasy silence as Abbey chewed her nuggets. She looked at each of us.
“Fine,” Abbey said. “Let’s go.” Nellie and Abbey gathered up their trays.
“Bye, Lester and Peter,” Nellie said.
“Bye.” And they left.
“Boy,” said Peter. “That got uncomfortable fast.”
“Girls,” is all I said. Peter shrugged his shoulders and forced down the last of his pizza.

61
 Chapter 9

When I stepped out of the limousine, the few students outside stared. I don't think they
recognized me. I tipped the driver and told him I'd call when I was ready to leave. As soon as I
entered the dance, everyone looked my way. For a minute I thought maybe I had snapped and
didn't know it. They were motionless, their eyes locked on me. But the music played and so I
knew time was moving forward. Austin was nearby with Lisa.
I walked in and right up to Austin.
“Austin,” I said. “Nice to see you. And Lisa, you are looking fine. I'll save you a dance
for later.”
“What?” Austin jabbed.
“You don't mind, do you Austin?” I said, then walked away.
“Are you going to let him get away with that?” said one of Austin's friends say.
“Absolutely not!” Austin's footsteps grew louder, and I snapped.
As I turned Austin's way, I caught sight of Lisa. She was looking pretty. I went over and
put my arm around her. I knew that this would really get to Austin. I snapped. I could tell there
was confusion behind me, and Lisa was wondering who this was next to her.
“Hey, Austin,” I heard someone say. “He's next to your girl.” At that moment Lisa saw
that I had my arm around her and reacted.
“Get away from me!” Lisa shouted, pushing me away.
“Now you've really done it!” Austin rushed me. I snapped. I stepped behind him and
walked over to where Abbey and Peter were. I noticed Nellie on the way to the girl's restroom. I
couldn't understand why she would want to leave when it was just getting good. I snapped. Peter
smiled, but Abbey’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“How did you do that?” Abbey asked.
“An old family secret,” I told her.
It didn't take Austin long to notice where I was.
“All right, Lester,” Austin said. “Enough is enough. Surround him, guys.”
Austin's friends seemed a little hesitant, but they started to surround me anyway. Peter
and Abbey moved back.
“With us all around you,” Austin said, “you won't be able to get away.”

62
 “Is that so?” I was feeling confident. I had my fingers at the ready.
“Now!” Austin shouted.
I snapped. I worked my way between them and out of the circle. Moving behind Peter
and Abbey, I snapped again. The momentum of Austin and his friends caused them to crash into
each other. I could tell Abbey thought I was a goner, but Peter was looking around. I moved next
to him as Austin and his gang were picking themselves off the floor. Abbey was shocked to see
me. Peter just smiled.
“What is going on here?” said Mrs. Benchley, as she entered the gym.
“Nothing, Mrs. Benchley,” I said. “Austin and his friends just fell down.”
“Oh, that is too bad,” said Mrs. Benchley, sarcastically. “Are you all right? Or do I need
to take you to the hospital?”
I do believe Mrs. Benchley was enjoying herself.
“I’m fine,” Austin said gruffly. I guess he couldn't tell her that I’d just disappeared. I
didn't think Austin and his friends would be any more trouble for me the rest of the night, but I
knew this would not be over.
“Where's Nellie?” I asked Abbey.
“She got upset when she saw you with your arm around Lisa and ran into the restroom,”
Abbey replied. “She likes you, you know.”
“I didn't mean to upset her,” I said. “I just put my arm around Lisa to make Austin mad.
It didn't mean anything.”
I listened to myself and couldn't believe what I was saying. Before, I’d wanted nothing
but to have a girlfriend like Lisa, and I really didn't care about Nellie. Now I didn't care about
Lisa and was feeling bad that I’d upset Nellie. Funny how people want things they can't have,
and then when they can have them, it doesn't seem important anymore.
“Go tell her it didn't mean anything,” I told Abbey.
“I'll tell her,” said Abbey, leaving Peter and me.
“Careful provoking Austin in front of his friends,” Peter said. “You don’t want everyone
knowing you can snap.”
“Why not?” I replied. “I like embarrassing Austin in front of his friends.”
“Just be careful they don’t get their hands on you.”
“Don’t worry.”

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 “I’m always worried.”
“I think I will let some of Austin’s friends know I’m in charge,” I told Peter. “I'm going
to dance.” I walked over to a couple on the dance floor. “Mind if I cut in.” Austin’s friend
stepped aside.
“That's my girl,” he said, moving toward me. I held up my hand.
“Don't even think about it,” I threatened. He backed off, and I started dancing. The girl
just stood still. I thought with me in my tuxedo and after making a fool of Austin, girls would be
all over me. I guess I was wrong.
“If you don’t want to dance with me, then leave,” I told the girl.
She did. I knew Nellie would dance with me.
“Where's Nellie?” I asked Peter and Abbey.
“She saw you dancing with someone else and went back to the restroom,” Abbey
explained, with a dash of anger.
“Didn't you tell her the arm thing with Lisa didn't mean anything?”
“Yeah, and she was okay with that,” Abbey continued. “But then she saw you dancing
with someone else.”
“Well, tell her dancing with that girl didn't mean anything either.”
“Why should I be a pawn in your game?” Abbey snapped.
“Just tell her, please.”
“You aren't going to do something stupid that doesn't mean anything while I'm gone, are
you?”
“No, just go tell her.”
Abbey rolled her eyes and headed for the restroom. I hoped Nellie would understand.
Then I tried to think of what I should say to her when she came out. What was the right thing to
say? I wasn't exactly experienced with women.
As I waited, I noticed two men dressed in suits entering the dance. I could see they were
scanning the crowd, looking for someone. They went and talked to Mrs. Benchley, and then she
too began scanning the crowd. Her eyes landed on me. She pointed at me, and I got this sudden
sinking feeling that the men were looking for me.
“Peter,” I said. “Do those two men look like the FBI to you?”
Peter's look told me his answer.

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 I put my hand on Peter and snapped. We went outside and tried to figure out what to do.
“They can't prove anything,” I said, pacing. “Can they?”
“They might not be able to prove you stole the money,” Peter said. “But how are you
going to explain how you appeared and disappeared on the bank’s video?”
I didn't know what to do. Peter had warned me my snapping was going to get me in
trouble, but I didn't listen to him. I couldn't think of a way my snapping was going to help me get
out of this and I couldn't just keep snapping every time the FBI came near.
“Why don't you go back inside before I snap again,” I suggested. “You had nothing to do
with me robbing the bank.”
“No, I'm your friend,” Peter said, determined. “I'm going to help you get out of this.”
I couldn't believe after getting a black eye because of me, and after getting angry with me
about snapping so often, he was going to stand by me. What a friend! I was about to snap and
call for the limousine when a group of people caught my eye at the far end of the parking lot.
“Isn't that Austin and some of his friends?” I asked. Peter strained to look.
“I think so,” Peter replied.
“What do you think they’re doing?”
“I don't know. Selling more tests?”
We walked closer. It was sometimes hard to figure out what people were doing before
they froze, but when we saw what was in their hands, we knew. They were exchanging money
and drugs! Austin was dealing in drugs! We backed away. We’d known that Austin was selling
tests, but we hadn’t thought he was selling drugs.
“Let's get out of here,” Peter gasped.
“Wait,” I said. “We can't just leave and do nothing about this.”
“This is drugs,” Peter said, alarmed. “It's not like being picked on by a school bully or
someone selling unit tests. This is drugs!”
“We need to get those FBI agents out here to see this,” I said.
“By the time we get them out here, Austin and his friends will be gone. And remember,
Lester, they are after you!”
“This could be a way to pay back the bank. Maybe there's a reward for catching drug
dealers.”

65
 Peter gave me a pointed look. “There's probably more of a reward for catching bank
robbers.”
“If I froze everyone except one of the agents, then I could bring him out here, snap, and
have him catch Austin in the act.”
“Oh, and don't you think the FBI agents would be more interested in your power than
their drug deal? Remember what happened with Mr. Carter.”
“I am not going to let Austin get away with this.” I clenched my fists, more determined
than I had ever been. Maybe it was because I hated Austin so much, or maybe it was because I
hated drugs and what they did to people. It didn't matter. My mind was made up.
“I want you to go into the dance and get back in the same place you were before I
snapped,” I told Peter. “I don't want you involved in this.”
Peter stared at me. “No,” he finally said. “I'm staying with you. Everyone knows I'm your
friend, and the FBI will interrogate me to get to you. I think I have a better chance if I stay with
you. I hope,” he added in a whisper.
The plan was I would snap, grab one of the FBI agents, and then snap again. Peter had to
keep his hand on me for the second snap. We would then bring the agent out to the drug deal,
snap, and have him bust Austin. It was a simple plan, but…
“What should I tell the agent about my powers?” I asked. “I could tell him I am an alien
from another planet.”
“Don't you think that would cause even more problems?” Peter was right; the less I told
them the better. “But what if he won't do it? What if he pulls his gun? What if he shoots before
you can snap?” Peter was always a positive thinker.
“If things start going wrong, I'll just snap and we can take off,” I said. “The agent will
have a hard time convincing people I can stop time. Who would believe him?”
“I still don't believe it,” Peter muttered to himself. The plan was set.
We went back into the dance and I placed my hand on the shortest agent. The other one
was too big.
“Keep your hand on me, Peter,” I instructed. “This is going to be a quick snap.”
I snapped. The loud music broke the silence and startled both Peter and me. The agents
and Mrs. Benchley jerked back a little from seeing me so close all of a sudden. The short agent
felt my hand on him and turned and made eye contact with me.

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 “Hey, how did you get over here?” the agent yelled.
I snapped. The music stopped. I let him go and stepped back. He was shaken by the total
silence and seeing everyone frozen.
“I need to show you something in the parking lot,” I said.
“What a minute,” he demanded. “What's going on?”
“Come out to the parking lot and I will explain everything,” I said. Peter and I walked
outside.
“I thought you weren't going to tell him anything,” Peter whispered.
“I'm not,” I replied. “I just said that to get him out here.”
The agent slowly came outside. His reaction reminded me of Peter's first time. He looked
all around and noticed that everything wasn't moving. The silence was unnatural. Spooky! The
look on his face was a combination of fear, amazement, and anger.
“There's a drug deal going on right over there.” I pointed to Austin and his friends. “I
want you to bust them.”
He looked over to the group but didn't seem interested. “Why is everything stopped?” the
agent asked, looking around. “Did you do this?”
“I told you this was going to be a problem,” Peter muttered.
“I need some answers here,” the agent yelled.
I decided to ignore his demands and deal only with getting him near Austin. “Come on,” I
said. “I'll show you.” I started walking over to Austin.
“Freeze!” The agent put his hand under his coat where I figured his gun would be. He
stuck his other hand straight out as if he was a traffic cop, stopping cars. I turned and faced him.
Maybe Peter was right again. Maybe we should have just left.
“I know this is a little hard to believe,” I explained, “but I did this so you can bust that
drug deal.”
“You did what?” the agent said.
“I thought you weren't going to tell him,” Peter interjected.
“Tell me what?” The agent was getting confused and desperate. He looked like he was
going to crack at any moment and maybe even draw his gun. Could snapping stop a bullet? I
didn't want to find out the hard way. I snapped. Music from the dance cut through the silence.
The agent jerked back as everything started moving again.

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 “Look,” I told him, getting a bit impatient, “the drug deal is over there and you need to do
something about it.” I grabbed Peter. “And now, I have to get back to my spaceship.” I snapped.

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 Chapter 10

“And now I have to get back to my spaceship?” Peter repeated for about the tenth time as we
climbed into the limousine. “Now they are going to have everyone after you. Couldn't you have
just said goodbye?”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “I shouldn't have said that. But I was getting a little angry with him,
and I couldn't think of anything else to say.”
I had called the driver and asked him to pick us up about four blocks away from the
dance. It would take even the FBI some time to figure out what had happened and come after us.
That is, if they believed the agent in the first place.
“Now what are we going to do?” Peter asked, running a hand through his hair.
“I don't know.” I sighed. “I shouldn't have let you stay with me. Now they'll think you're
an alien, just like me.”
“We can't just go home like nothing happened,” Peter proclaimed.
“Why not? Maybe no one will believe the agent that I can stop time,” I said with a fair
share of doubt.
“They have you disappearing on the bank video, they have two FBI agents who saw you
disappear, and now who knows how many others to testify that you can do things no one else can
do,” said Peter, ticking off the list on his fingers. “They must be dying to get their hands on you.”
“The only other thing to do was to go on the run,” I concluded.
“What?” Peter said. “That is a bad idea.”
“We could live by me snapping and getting what we need.”
“Not me! I am not going to become a criminal.” Peter slid further from Lester.
“Maybe you are right. The best thing might be for us to act completely normal. If I don’t
snap anymore, the FBI can’t prove anything, then maybe they would get tired and leave us
alone.”
“I think that is a long shot,” Peter said. “But it’s really the only thing we can do.”
So, that was the plan.
I had the driver drop Peter off at his house and then drive to my house. I was nervous,
scared, and unsure of what the evening would bring. I tipped the driver and thanked him for a

69
great evening. The house was cold and dark as I entered the door. My mom was gone at a bridge
party and would be home late. That was good. I needed time to think.
With every creak, with every car passing outside, with every imaginary sound, I jumped.
It was worse waiting for the FBI to arrive than actually having them arrive. Would they knock?
Would they bust down the door? Would they send cars with lights and sirens? Would they send a
SWAT team? My mind wouldn't relax. I called Peter about an hour later to check if he’d had a
visit from the FBI.
“No, they haven’t been to my house either,” he said, still sounding nervous.
Someone knocked at the front door. The knock was solid and quick. I knew it had to be
them. “I have to go. I think they’re here,” I told Peter, and hung up.
At first, I wanted to snap and run, but I had no place to run. I took a deep breath, told
myself, No matter what—don't snap, then I answered the door.
“Hi, Lester, remember me?” It was the same FBI agent I took out to the parking lot.
Three others stood behind him, all in dark suits. I figured there were a few guarding the back of
my house as well.
“Weren't you the guys at the dance?” I said, trying to sound casual, but my voice
trembled.
“So, you do remember me. Are your parents home?” Brown asked.
“I live with my mom,” I replied. “She’s not home.”
“Can we come in and ask you some questions?” Brown asked.
“I'm not supposed to let people inside while my parents are gone.”
“I think your parents would approve of us,” Sykes said.
They pushed their way in and told me they were the FBI. The big one was Agent Brown,
and the short one I'd taken out to the parking lot, was Agent Sykes. The other two stayed outside.
Brown was big and looked like a football player, the kind you don’t want to meet on the field.
Sykes looked as though he was mad all the time. He had very dark, large eyes, and a small
mouth. You wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley.
“I hope you enjoyed the dance,” Brown said. I knew he didn’t care if I had a good
time or not. He was just trying to be nice and gain my confidence.
“It was okay,” I finally said. “What do you want?” It took everything I had not to snap.

70
 “Well,” Brown said, “My partner told me quite a story about you. Can you tell me what
happened at the dance?”
My mind raced. What should I say? Should I act dumb? I knew the longer I took to
answer the more my answer would sound like a lie.
“You mean about Austin?” I said quickly.
“Who's Austin?” asked Sykes.
“He was the one with the drugs,” I said with astonishment. “Didn't you catch him with
the drugs? Didn't you bust him?”
“Is he one of the students who you pointed out to me?” asked Sykes.
“Yes,” I said. “Didn't you do anything about the drug deal?”
“We were more interested in you,” Brown said.
“Me?” Keep acting dumb, I told myself. “Why would you be interested in me?”
“Cut the dumb act, Lester,” Sykes said impatiently. “How did you do it?”
“What do you mean?” I stepped back. My voice really cracked this time. My hands were
shaking. I wasn't sure how long I could keep from snapping. Sykes was becoming very agitated.
He opened his mouth to say something when his cell phone rang.
“Hello,” he said sharply. He listened for a moment and then a smile crossed his face. “Is
he talking?”
Peter! I was sure he was talking about Peter. Could Peter hold out? What would he tell
them?
“Hold him until I contact you,” Sykes said, then he ended the call. “We have your friend,
Peter. He's telling quite a story about you.”
“What's he saying?” I asked. I hoped Peter wouldn't say anything, but I couldn’t be sure
he wouldn’t buckle under pressure.
“He's saying you're different than the rest of us,” Sykes said.
My heart pounded. Peter wouldn't say I was different. He knew I wasn't really an alien. I
had the feeling Sykes was trying to trap me.
“Different?” I asked.
Sykes ground his teeth together in extreme frustration. I had to say something to calm
him down.
“I'm not from outer space, if that's what you think,” I finally said.

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 Sykes pressed his lips into a thin line. He clearly didn't like my answer.
“Let's just take him downtown,” Sykes told his partner, turning away and clenching his
fists. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“Just calm down,” Brown told Sykes.
“I'm not going to calm down until this kid tells us what we want to know,” Sykes said as
he shot me a piercing look. I couldn't take it anymore. When they both looked at each other, I
snapped.
I paced the floor, trying to think of what to do. The FBI wasn't going to leave me alone.
They knew too much already. I tried to imagine what they would do if I told the truth. Would
they lock me up? Would they dissect me to find out how I snapped? Would they make me work
for them? I was scared and I was mad. Why wouldn’t they just leave me alone? Why hadn’t they
busted Austin?
I decided to control my own destiny. I got behind the two agents and snapped. When they
stared at where I was supposed to be, they scrambled to looking for me. Sykes smiled, but Agent
Brown was shaken up when they found me behind them.
“How did you do that?” Brown asked with surprise and fear.
“I told you he could do it,” Sykes told Brown.
“How do I disappear?” I quizzed them. I suddenly wasn't as afraid, and I felt like I was in
control. I decided not to tell them I could freeze time and move, but to let them think I was only
disappearing and appearing in another place. Stopping time had more benefits than just beaming
yourself to a new place. I wanted to make sure I kept the full extent of my power a secret.
They began slowly moving toward me. “That's right,” Sykes said. “We just want to know
how you do this.”
“Stay back,” I demanded. They stopped but looked like they were going to rush me at any
moment. I snapped and got behind them again. If they grabbed me, I wouldn't be able to freeze
whoever was touching me. I snapped again.
“You come near me again and bad things are going to happen,” I said as the two whirled
around. Sykes started reaching for his gun. I snapped. I took their weapons and threw them under
the couch. I snapped them back to life.
“My gun!” yelled Sykes. “It's gone!”

72
 Brown checked for his. It was also missing. Now they thought I could transport things
too.
“I said to stay away from me,” I repeated.
“Okay, okay,” Brown said, holding up his hands. “Let's not do anything we will all
regret.”
“Where are our weapons?” Sykes asked, angrily.
“They're gone,” I said, giving them a hard look. “All I want is for you to leave me alone.”
“I'm afraid we can't do that,” Brown said. “You were at the bank. We can't just walk
away.” Peter was right. I was going to have to pay big for my stupid mistake.
“You can't prove anything,” I said.
“No, but we know it was you,” Sykes admitted.
“You can do things that could jeopardize national security,” Brown added.
“I'm not going to do anything to hurt anyone.”
“How do we know that?” Sykes asked, with a sharp edge to his voice.
“Because I said I wouldn't.” I wished I'd never seen Austin in the parking lot and gone in
to get Sykes. I couldn't believe they hadn’t done anything about Austin selling drugs. This was
all his fault!
“Why didn't you bust Austin for selling drugs?” I asked.
“That's not what we do,” Brown said.
“That's all I wanted you to do,” I said. “He's the bad guy, not me.”
“Why is busting Austin so important to you?” Brown asked.
“Because he's a bully,” I responded with anger. “And I don't like drugs.”
“Maybe we could work together to bust him,” Brown said, but Sykes shook his head. He
didn't agree with Brown's suggestion. I didn't like Sykes.
“What do you mean, ‘work together?’” I questioned.
“You want us to get Austin, and we want to know about you,” Brown said. He sounded
sincere, but I didn't feel I could trust them, especially Sykes. Still, this was the first time they
were offering me a potential way out. I had to take it.
“Okay,” I said. “But first, I want you to know Peter has nothing to do with this. He can't
disappear, only I can, so don't hurt him. And I want to talk to him.”
“Your friend's fine,” Brown said.

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 “I want to talk to him,” I demanded.
“Okay, we’ll call,” Brown said. “Call and have them put the suspect on the phone,” he
told Sykes. Sykes reluctantly dialed the phone.
“It's Sykes. Put the suspect on the phone,” Sykes said. “Everything’s fine, just put him
on.” Sykes started toward me with the phone.
“Just put the phone on the floor and back away,” I said. He put the phone down and
stepped back. I picked up the phone, keeping my eye on Sykes.
“Peter?” I said into the phone. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” he said, but he sounded scare. “They’re asking a lot of questions. I haven't told
them anything. How about you? Are you okay?”
“I'm fine. I have the two from the dance with me.”
“Do they know?” Peter asked.
“They know,” I replied. “We're talking about what happens next.”
“If my mom and dad come home while they're still here, I'm dead,” Peter said. His words
sounded like a plea.
“I'll see what I can do,” I said. “Hang in there.” I ended the phone call and slid the phone
across the floor.
“I need you to have your agents leave Peter's house,” I demanded.
“He'll be fine,” Brown said.
“I'm not telling you anything until they leave Peter's house,” I insisted. “Peter has nothing
to do with this.”
“They'll leave when—” Sykes roared.
I snapped before he could finish. He was really annoying me. I took some duct tape out
of the drawer in the kitchen and put it over his mouth. Even when he was frozen, I felt nervous
being close to him. I backed off and snapped. Sykes frantically ripped the tape off and started
toward me. I was about to snap again when Agent Brown grabbed him and pulled him back.
“Call them and tell them to leave Peter's house,” I repeated.
“Do it,” Brown told Sykes. Sykes called and told them to return to the office and let Peter
go. It was a short conversation, and I hoped there wasn't a secret message involved.
“Now it's time for you to keep your end of the bargain,” Brown said, giving me a stern
look.

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 “First I have to pop over to Peter's house to see if your men are really leaving,” I told
him. “I'll be right back.”
They looked very angry when I snapped. I debated on whether or not to run over to
Peter's house to see if the agents were leaving or not, but then I got a better idea: make them
think I was gone so I could listen in on their conversation. There was just enough room under the
couch for me to hide. This way I could watch their feet in case they started searching the place. I
hid under the couch, pushing their guns farther back, and snapped.
“Damn!” Sykes shouted. “Should I call and warn them he's coming?”
“Too late,” Brown said. “I'm sure he's already there. Let's just wait for him. I have a
feeling he'll be back.”
“And what if he doesn't come back?” Sykes said.
“Look,” Brown reasoned. “He could have left any time he wanted, but he didn't.”
“We are going to take him in, aren’t we?”
“And charge him with what?” Brown returned. “We can't prove anything, and no one is
going to believe he can transport. It's got to be a magic trick. I just can't figure out how he does
it.”
“You mean we're just going to let him go?”
“We'll keep him under surveillance,” Brown said.
“Look, I'm telling you this kid can do more then he's telling us. He can stop everything. It
was him, that Peter kid, and I. Everything else was, like, frozen.”
“Maybe you didn't see what you thought you saw,” Brown said.
“You think maybe I'm crazy,” cracked Sykes. “Don’t you?”
“Just think about what you are saying. You're saying that a punk kid can stop everything
from moving except for the people he wants to? You think that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow or two
downtown?” There was a pause in their conversation when Brown finally said what I wanted to
hear. “I sure hope they left that kid's house before he got there. I don't think this is a good time to
make him mad.”
I smiled to myself. And I snapped. Time for me to reappear. I crawled out from under the
couch, positioned myself right in front of them, so that I would make a grand entrance, and I
snapped again. They flinched.
“How's Peter?” Brown asked.

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 “Fine,” I replied.
“Now your turn,” Brown said.
I crossed my arms. “What do you want to know?” I asked.
“How do you do it?” Brown asked. “How do you disappear and reappear somewhere
else?”
I thought about lying but, in this case, the truth would be stranger than fiction. “I don't
know.”
“Oh, come one,” Sykes retorted.
“I don't,” I repeated, angrily. “I just can.”
“Why you?” Brown asked, and I shrugged my shoulders. “Is there anyone else who can
transport themselves?”
“As far as I know, I'm the only one.”
They glanced at each other.
“How long have you had this…ability?” asked Brown.
“Only a few days.” Sykes looked like he didn't believe me. “I'm telling you the truth,” I
insisted. “I don't know why I have this power. I certainly didn't ask for it.”
“Okay,” Brown said. “Before we go on, we need a show of faith. How about our weapons
back?”
I wasn't sure if I should return their weapons or not, but I could always snap and hide
them again. I snapped and put their guns back. I got back in my place so as not to alarm them
more than necessary and snapped.
“Your guns have been returned.” They felt for them. “But don't take them out,” I quickly
added.
“How do we know they’re our guns?” Sykes asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I guess you'll just have to trust me,” I replied.
I could see them trying to assess the situation. They really couldn’t just walk away, but
they knew they couldn’t force me to go with them or to even stay in one place. I kept pressing
the Austin issue and we finally decided I would go to school like nothing had happened and find
out what I could about Austin. It was their way of appeasing me and making me feel like I was
one of them. They gave me their card so I could call them if I found out anything, but I knew

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they wouldn't go far. Sykes was against the whole idea. I was glad Brown was the senior agent
who made the decisions. I couldn't keep from thinking Sykes was hiding something.
They didn't make any more demands, which I thought was strange, but I knew I would
have to deal with them again and soon.

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 Chapter 11

The next day, Sunday, was a normal day—as much as it could be. I watched some television, got
something to eat, and then watched more television.
“Something wrong?” my mom asked. “You’re rather quiet today.”
“No, nothing’s wrong,” I replied. “Just tired from the dance, I guess.” I hadn’t told her
about the FBI. But I was expecting them to pay a visit and talk with her.
I was sure they had me under surveillance, so I peeked out the windows whenever my
mom wasn’t in the room. No strange dark cars with tinted windows or unmarked vans, but I
knew they were there. My mind was racing with wild “what ifs.”
“I’m glad you had a good time,” my mom said, folding the laundry. “How many times
did you dance?”
“Just once,” I answered. “The rest of the time Peter and I just watched.” It was true, for
some of the time.
“I need to run to the store,” my mom said. “Would you like to come with me?”
“No, thanks,” I answered.
“I’ll pick up some pop tarts.” I was sure she thought pop tarts would perk me up.
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”
Soon after my mom left, Peter came over and we discussed everything that had
happened. Peter thought it was strange they’d let us go, but then I told him about eavesdropping
on their conversation. They didn't have any proof against Peter or me.
“They knew I robbed the bank, but I wouldn’t admit it,” I said.
“You should give the money back,” Peter advised. I would if I could, I thought. But I had
spent most of the money.
We also talked a lot about Austin and his drug dealing.
“Wouldn't it be cool if I found out where he kept his drugs, snapped, and then threw his
drugs away? Or, even better, if we uncovered the person who was selling drugs to Austin and
lead the FBI to both him and Austin?” I fantasized to Peter. It gave me great pleasure thinking of
Austin in jail, although his cell would be bigger than the locker he’d stuffed me inside. Maybe
there would be a reward I could use to pay the bank back.
“I'm going to do it,” I told Peter.

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 “Do what?” Peter asked.
“Expose Austin.”
Peter gasped. “Are you kidding? Drug dealers don't just pick on you in the school
hallway. They're dangerous!”
“But I bet they’ve never had to deal with someone who could stop time,” I replied. “And
besides, Agent Brown said he would help me. I'm supposed to call him if I find out anything.”
“Do you really think he's interested in busting Austin?” Peter asked.
“No,” I replied, with a chuckle. “I really think they would rather get me, especially
Sykes.”
Peter didn’t have the same desire to go after Austin. But now, with the power to snap, I
had to use it to do something good.
***
The next day, school began like a regular day. Peter met me at my locker, and we had both
forgotten to do our homework. Word of what I did at Spring Formal had gotten around and
students were keeping their distance from me. Even Tom walked by without flicking my ear. I
didn't see Austin at all before school.
I was sitting in first period when I realized I’d gone the whole day yesterday without
snapping. I snapped to check it was still working fine. Yep, all was good.
Soon after I snapped everyone back, and as Mrs. Brooks was about to bore everyone to
sleep, I was called to the office. Mrs. Benchley wanted to see me. When I arrived, Peter was
already sitting in the outer office.
“What do you think she wants?” Peter whispered. Before I had a chance to answer, Mrs.
Benchley appeared and cleared her throat.
“Follow me, you too.” She beckoned us into her office. Her desk had very neat piles of
papers in each corner and her shelves were filled with books, each one in its rightful place. Too
neat for me!
“Did you boys enjoy the dance on Saturday?” We both glanced at each other and told her
we did. “I was a bit surprised to see you two there. I haven't seen you at dances before,” she
continued.
“It was my first dance,” Peter said.
“I must say there was quite a commotion and your names were mentioned several times.”

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 “You mean the trouble I had with Austin?” I asked.
“That, and when the two gentlemen wanted to talk with you,” Mrs. Benchley said. “You
disappeared so quickly.”
“Oh,” I said, not really knowing what to say.
“One of them was quite upset when he evidently talked to you out in the parking lot,”
Mrs. Benchley continued, tapping her nails on the desk. “I overheard him say you claimed to be
an alien and then just disappeared.”
“We didn't want to dance anymore, so we just went home,” I told her. I decided to just
ignore the alien part.
She gave us a serious look. “Is there anything you boys would like to tell me?”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Are you two in trouble?”
“No, we aren't in trouble,” I quickly replied. It was much easier for me to lie than for
Peter.
“Peter?”
“No, Mrs. Benchley,” Peter said. “I'm not in trouble.” I noticed he said “I” and not “we.”
There was a tense moment as Mrs. Benchley stared at us. She must’ve guessed we
weren’t telling her everything. I figured she was too old and it wouldn’t be a good idea to tell her
I could stop time. Her heart might not be able to take it. She finally wrote us a pass to return to
class.
On our way back to class, I saw Austin crossing the courtyard. We watched from the
safety of the hallway until we realized he was leaving school.
“Let's follow him,” I suggested.
“Why?” Peter asked.
“Maybe we can find out more about his drug dealing.”
Peter bit his lip. “But Mrs. Benchley told us to go back to class.”
“Go back if you want to, but I'm following Austin.”
“Okay, okay,” Peter muttered. “But if you snap, make sure you grab me first.”
“I will. I promise.”
It was easy following Austin. When he got far ahead, I grabbed Peter, snapped, and then
we found a good hiding place close to Austin and I snapped again. We did this several times

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until, finally, Austin was about ten blocks from school. He approached a car and talked to the
driver from the passenger window. Austin looked all around before he opened the door to get in
the car. Holding on to Peter, I snapped. We both ran up to the car to see who was in the driver's
seat. It was a big, rough-looking man with a bushy mustache.
“Who do you think he is?” Peter asked.
“Well, I don't think it's the mailman,” I said. “I bet it's Austin's supplier. Let's get in the
back seat and listen to what they say.”
“What?!” Peter reacted. “What if they catch us?”
“I'll just snap, and we'll get away.” Peter looked scared. “Okay, hide behind that
dumpster over there, and I'll get in the back seat,” I suggested.
“Okay, but be careful,” Peter warned. I got in the back seat. I peeked out to make sure
that Peter was well-hidden, and then I scrunched down on the floor as low as I could and
snapped.
“We don't like careless people,” the big man said.
“I'm not careless,” Austin replied. “What do they say I did?”
“You were seen selling at a dance.”
“No way,” Austin stated. “No one could have seen me.”
“Well,” the big man said, “someone did, and you have to be more careful.”
“Okay, okay. I'll be more careful. But who saw me, the police?”
“They didn't tell me,” the big man replied. “The boss has eyes everywhere.”
“When can I get some more? I can sell as much as you can give me.”
“Thursday,” the big man replied. “But it's going to cost you more.”
“What?” Austin cracked.
“When you're careless, it costs more,” the big man said slowly.
The dust on the floor was slowly getting to me, and I couldn’t help it. I sneezed. I wished
I could have snapped first but sometimes a sneeze comes without warning. I could hear the two
in front start to lean over the seat. The big man said, “What the…”
I snapped.
When I joined Peter, he had a worried look on his face. Probably worried about me
getting caught by Austin and his friend. I wished he had more faith in me. Peter jumped when I
snapped and tapped him on the shoulder.

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 “I will never get used to that,” Peter said, shaking his head.
The drug guy and Austin looked under the car and even in the trunk. I wished I could
hear what they were saying. They started looking all around the area, and when they looked in
our direction, I grabbed Peter and snapped. We took our time walking back to school.
I told Peter all about the conversation and how I sneezed. Peter just rolled his eyes about
the sneezing part.
“Hey,” Peter said quickly, stopping. “Do you think it's you they said saw Austin selling
drugs at the dance?”
“I don't know,” I said, twisting my mouth. “How would they know I saw him? Sykes is
the only one who knows I saw him, but it couldn’t have been Sykes. He didn't care about the
drug deal at all.”
We had no answers to these questions. Was there a flaw in my power I hadn't discovered?
It worried me a lot. It also worried Peter.
“Maybe not everyone freezes when I snap,” I uttered, gazing at Peter. It was a chilling
thought.

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 Chapter 12

The rest of the school day was uneventful, unless you count me snapping and putting sulfur in
Ellen's test tube just before she put it under the Bunsen burner. The smell spread through the
school like a rumor. Ellen couldn't explain to Mr. Henry how the sulfur got into the test tube, but
since Ellen was an A student, she didn't get in trouble. If I’d been caught, I would have failed the
semester and been suspended for three days. Life is so unfair!
Mrs. Benchley came into class to demand an explanation. She didn't stay long; the smell
was so bad. It was a big mistake on my part. There were over thirty minutes left of class and all
the students, including myself, had to breathe the foul odor until the bell rang. I thought about
snapping and leaving until the smell dissipated, but I wasn't sure if the odor would fade when
time was frozen. Next time, I would think before doing something like that. After all, Ellen,
hadn’t done anything to me, so I felt bad that I did that to her.
Mrs. Dorn, my English teacher, was in a bad mood and wouldn't let anyone go to the
restroom or to get a drink. That is, everyone except me. I knew the drinking fountain wouldn’t
work when time was stopped, so I just went for a walk down the hall.
I thought about snapping, getting a quick drink, and snapping again, but I knew that
someone would notice me disappearing from class, so I decided against it. I’d suffer without
water like the other students. When I went back to class, I thought about drawing a mustache on
Mrs. Dorn, but I thought better of that too. Peter would have been really mad if I did. Instead, I
sat back down at my desk.
Peter and I were walking to his house when we noticed a car following us. It had tinted
windows, so we couldn't see inside it, but we knew it was the FBI. When we turned the corner,
we thought we had lost them, but then we saw them on a side road ahead of us. They knew
where we lived, so it wasn't hard to know where we were going. They parked at the end of the
block near my house. Trying to ignore them was impossible. I got frustrated every time I looked
behind me.
“Let's give them a real chase,” I suggested to Peter, entering my house.
“Why?” Peter asked. “You're just adding fuel to the fire. The more you snap, the longer
they will stay around.” Peter was right, again! But I couldn't help myself.

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 “Come on,” I told Peter and we were out the door. We walked right past them with Peter
complaining all the way. The car was facing away from us and around the corner. We were
heading away from Peter's house, so they wouldn't be able to predict where we were going. After
we were past the next few houses and out of sight of the agents, their car engine turned on. I
snapped, grabbing Peter before I did. We walked back to the car and looked inside. Agent Brown
was driving, and Sykes was in the passenger's seat.
“No, you can't draw a mustache on them,” Peter insisted. How did he know what I was
thinking?
We walked back near my house and started walking in the opposite direction from
before. I snapped. The agent's car began to move around the corner, but it stopped abruptly. I
was sure they looked back and saw us, which was exactly what we wanted them to do. They
backed up and began turning around.
I snapped again. Peter and I then walked back to where we’d been standing when they’d
started the car. We made sure they could see us from where they were. I snapped again. We
walked on, and they finished their turn and then stopped again. They saw us again. Perfect!
I could only imagine what they were thinking. How could they ever keep us under
surveillance when we could just disappear?
“Let's stop this,” Peter said. “We're just making them mad.”
“Good,” I replied with a grin. “They deserve it. Especially Sykes.”
“Why don't we just go back to your house?” This game of yo-yo apparently wasn't Peter's
idea of a good time.
“Okay.” I grabbed Peter and snapped. “We'll go back to my house, and I'll snap after we
are inside, so they won't know where we are.” Peter rolled his eyes, his way of telling me I was
going too far.
I snapped once we got inside. By the time I peeked out the window, they were gone. I
wondered if they’d given up or if they were looking for us down the road.
***
“I want a rematch,” Tyrone demanded the next day at school. I hadn't been in the hall more than
thirty seconds and he was in my face.
“Why?” I asked.
“I think you cheated,” Tyrone said. “I don't know how, but you did.”

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 Tyrone's eyes were locked on mine. He was determined. For some reason, being the
chess champion didn't seem that important to me anymore. I almost wished I had lost. Almost. I
tried to weigh the pros and cons of playing him again. If I played again and lost, I would still
have won at least once, but it wasn't a true win. I knew that in my heart, so I decided I would
play him again. This time, I wouldn’t snap.
“Okay,” I said casually. “Let's play again.”
Tyrone’s eyebrows rose in surprised, like he hadn’t expected me to give in so easily.
“When?” I asked.
“Right here, right now!” Tyrone spouted, pulling out his miniature chess set. He was
serious.
Our first few moves were quick. My head was extremely clear. I felt good. We were in
the middle of the game when Peter came in. He didn't say anything, just watched. Several
students passed in the hall, but I hardly noticed them. I was concentrating on the game, yet I was
feeling relaxed. Was it because I had more confidence in myself? Was it because I didn't feel the
need to prove myself with a win against Tyrone? A strange, peaceful feeling drifted over me, one
I’d never experienced before.
It wasn't long before Tyrone had me on the run. I tried to plan ahead, but each time,
Tyrone cut me off. Each of his moves brought a smile to his face. They didn't anger me. Then it
happened.
“Checkmate!”
I lost. I wasn't upset; my ego didn’t feel bruised. Tyrone was the better player, and he
deserved to be the chess champion of the school. Deep down, I’d thought maybe my new
confidence would bring me a win. But it hadn’t. And that was okay. Maybe my self-assurance
helped me put things in perspective and see them for what they were.
I am not as good a chess player as Tyrone!
There, I said it to myself and didn't feel any less of a person. I was still who I was. Even
when wearing a tuxedo at Spring Formal or wearing nice clothes to school, I was still Lester
Lopkins. I thought that clothes would change me, change how other people thought about me.
They didn't. The only one who could change me was me. And I was beginning to wonder who
this new me was.

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 Peter looked at me with his mouth open. He couldn't believe I had lost. He must’ve been
expecting me to snap and win, but I was proud of myself for not snapping.
Tyrone jumped for joy. We both got what we wanted.
“Congratulations, Tyrone.” My congratulations put a sudden stop to Tyrone's jubilance.
He stared at me with almost sad eyes, mouth open. I guess if I would have gotten upset, it would
have made Tyrone's joy more satisfying.
I helped him put away the chess set in silence. I guess neither of us knew exactly what to
say. Tyrone and I had the same first period class, so I told him I would see him in class and he
left without saying much.
“Why did you let him win?” asked Peter.
“I didn't let him win. He beat me,” I said. Peter's eyes widened. “I guess being the chess
champion isn't important anymore.”
“Wow! It meant almost everything to you just a few days ago.”
“Things have changed.” I shrugged.
“I'll say.” And that was all Peter and I had to say about my rather short reign as chess
champion.
Moments later, Austin came down the hall. He was heading straight for me. Even though
I knew he couldn't hurt me, a knot formed in my stomach.
“Lester, I want to talk.”
Talk? I thought Austin only knew how to bully people. Talking was not his usual game
plan. There had to be something up, so I kept my fingers at the ready.
“What do you want?” My question stopped him a good distance from me. I didn't want
him to get close enough that he could grab me. If he were touching me in any way, I wouldn't be
able to freeze him.
“Have you been following me?”
“Following you?” I knew what he was talking about, but I couldn't let him know I knew
he was dealing in drugs and was taking a delivery on Thursday. I was sure that if he knew, he
would back away from his planned delivery and stay clean for a while. I couldn't let that happen.
I wanted to bust him. “Following you where?”

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 “I know you were there. And I'm telling you, you're messing around with something
more than you can handle.” He pointed his finger at me and took one step closer. Too close for
my comfort.
I stepped back, right into the arms of two of Austin's friends. Their grip was so tight that
it crushed my veins against my bones. My fingers were going numb.
“Hold him tight, guys. He's not getting away this time.” Austin stepped so close I could
smell his breath. My mind raced. If I snapped, the two holding me wouldn't freeze and I would
still have to figure out a way to get away from them. I also didn't want anyone to know the
limitations to my power. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that people touching me when I
snapped wouldn't freeze.
If this information got back to the FBI, they would have me. I’d warned them to stay
away from me when they were at my house. I was sure they were asking themselves why I
wanted them to stay back. They were probably wondering how I could freeze some people and
not others. I couldn’t let them find out my secrets.
“I'm going to give you a little advice.” Austin stepped back and looked down the hall,
presumably making sure there were no teachers around. I was sure his advice was going to be in
the form of pain. I decided I would take the punch rather than let the two holding me discover
my timeless dimension. I would recover. I just hoped that nothing would be broken.
“Stay very, very, very far away from me.” Austin turned away, but I knew he was
winding up for a punch. I was right. I could see it coming, almost in slow motion. Most people
would flinch before a punch hit, but my flinch was in a different form. I snapped!
***
The silence was sudden. The two holding me loosened their grip as they looked around, using
their eyes, hardly moving their heads. I let them take in the situation for a moment. They didn’t
say a word.
The first time experiencing a snap was eerie. You got a frightened feeling, like maybe
you were no longer part of the living world. You questioned—seriously questioned—your own
sanity. The two flanking me were no exception.
I had snapped by reflex. Self-preservation. Anyone in their right mind would prevent
themselves from being hurt if they could. It was good to know that my instincts were sharp, but I

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was still furious at myself for snapping. Now I had two more people who knew I didn't disappear
but stopped time. If I kept this up, my secret wouldn't be a secret much longer.
“You can let me go now.” I said it like a command, forceful and strong. Very slowly they
removed their hands from my arms, and I stepped out from between them and from in front of
Austin. Austin's fist was about twelve inches from my face. If I’d been a fraction of a second
slower, bam! A broken nose.
I looked around and saw Peter. He was frozen like the rest, and I had to make sure I didn't
leave him behind, not this time. His eyes were on Austin and I could see the pain in his face.
What a friend, I thought.
The two boys who were holding me hadn't moved. They were still in disbelief. I got
behind both of them. “Can you step forward? I said. At first, they didn't move, so I gently pushed
from behind until they did move. I went back to Peter. The two slowly looked in my direction. I
smiled and snapped.
Wham! Austin's fist continued its flight path and landed on one of his friends. I felt sorry
for the guy. Austin was stunned.
“Hey, man!” yelled Austin's friend, holding the side of his head.
“Why'd you let him go?” Austin sneered at his friends.
“Didn't you see him move?”
They still didn't understand what had really happened.
“There's something very strange going on here,” declared the second boy, shaking his
head. “This is your fight, not mine.”
“I'm out of here,” said the other, and they both slowly backed away and started walking
down the hall, leaving Austin behind.
“You're some kind of freak!” Austin glared at me and then cautiously backed up from me
and followed his friends down the hall.
Maybe this was it. Maybe Austin had finally had enough and would leave me alone. I
could only hope.

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 Chapter 13

“Who is that?” I asked myself when I looked in the mirror. I was taller. I had wider shoulders. I
looked more mature. Well, at least that’s the way I felt.
It’s funny how a girl can change a guy’s life. Talking to Nellie changed how I walked,
how I stood, how I looked at myself in the mirror. There was a warm feeling inside of me I had
never felt before. I thought for a minute it was a manly feeling, but that sounded stupid to me. I
wondered if it was love. Did Nellie have the same feelings?
We talked until the end of lunch, even past the first bell, when she realized she was going
to be tardy.
“No problem,” I said, and I held her hand and snapped. Her hand was soft. “You now
have lots of time to get to class. You won’t be late.”
She smiled.
We walked to her locker so she could get her books and then headed to her classroom.
The halls were filled with frozen mannequins making it hard to maneuver. We weaved between
the students, both of us laughing at the funny expressions on everyone’s faces. I had the urge to
draw mustaches on a few of the students but restrained myself.
“Here’s my class.” Nellie stopped in front of Mrs. Dorn’s classroom. The door was open,
and several students were already in their seats.
“You should stand where no one will notice you when I snap,” I told her. “It’s hard to
explain when you seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere.”
She smiled again and entered her classroom. I watched as she went to the far side of the
room and nodded at me. I stepped behind the door and snapped. When I peeked around the door,
she was already sitting at her desk, getting her books out. I watched until someone pushed me
out of the way, then I floated to my class.
Science class went by slowly. Mr. Henry was lecturing about the five layers of the
atmosphere: the troposphere, the stratosphere, and I didn’t catch the others. I was in my own
atmosphere, focusing not on his words, but on my mental picture of Nellie’s smile! Oh, how I
wished I had danced with her at Spring Formal.
After school on the way home, Peter rolled his eyes when I told him about talking to
Nellie. He didn’t understand what it was like to have a girlfriend.

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 “Do you think we should tell Sykes and Brown about the meeting?” Peter asked,
changing the subject.
“No, I think we should wait and see what happens,” I said. “Maybe Austin will lead us to
the top man. That would really impress Sykes and Brown, and then maybe they would leave me
alone.”
“There’s only one thing that will get the FBI off your back,” Peter said. “If you can teach
them how you snap.”
That was a scary thought. Were there others who could snap? Why was I the only one
who had this power? What if Austin could snap? These questions were very unsettling.
***
Thursday finally came, and I met Peter at my locker in the morning. We went to the senior hall
and waited for Austin. The other seniors stared at us as they walked by. We didn’t belong in the
senior hall, but no one hassled us.
Austin never came.
“What do we do now?” Peter asked, just moments before the start of first period.
“Come on.” I grabbed Peter and pulled him out the door. “Maybe Austin will meet that
man in the same place at the same time.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I’m not. But they didn’t talk about a time or place to meet when I eavesdropped on their
conversation,” I explained.
“But you didn’t stay to the end of their conversation,” Peter blurted out. “Remember, you
sneezed!”
Peter was right, I sneezed and had to snap and leave the car before Austin and the other
man were finished talking. It was only a feeling, so
“I know…but it’s the only lead we have.”
Peter and I headed for the same meeting place. When we got there, we hid behind the
dumpster. It really smelled bad. Peter was nervous and the longer we waited the more nervous he
got. He was worried about being involved with drug dealers. There were always news clips on
TV about someone being killed because of a drug deal that went bad. Rarely was there
something about a drug dealer getting caught. I hoped this would be one of those rare times!

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 We still didn’t have any idea what we would do once Austin got the drugs. Maybe that’s
why Peter was so nervous. He liked having a plan; going with the flow wasn’t his style.
“Relax.” I tried to reassure him. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll snap and we will hightail it
back to school.”
“That’s easy for you to say, but I can’t snap,” Peter hissed. “Remember, you left me
once.” Peter would never let me forget.
“I will never leave you again,” I promised.
A car drove by and we froze, but it passed without stopping. Both Peter and I let out the
breath we had been holding when we could no longer hear the car. I guess Peter wasn’t the only
one who was nervous. We sat in silence for a few moments.
Peter tensed up. “Someone’s coming.”
Footsteps were coming toward us. I was about to peek out from behind the dumpster
when Peter grabbed me and pulled me down.
“Just snap!” he whispered.
I almost slapped my forehead. Of course, I could snap, check out who it was, and not
have to worry about being seen. Peter was always on top of things. I placed my hand on Peter
and snapped.
We cautiously came out of hiding and found Austin standing at the curb. For some
reason, the whole situation made me feel more nervous than before. I had dealt with Austin many
times at school, but knowing that he was meeting drug dealers tied my stomach in knots. I hoped
I wasn’t getting in over my head.
“Let’s hide farther away,” Peter suggested. I agreed.
We crossed the street and moved down to a hideaway between two abandoned buildings,
far enough away that Austin couldn’t hear Peter and I whispering, yet close enough so we could
see what was going on.
Austin paced as he waited. Time seemed to stop, but of course, only I could do that. Peter
and I took turns peeking out to see if Austin was still there. The air was heavy with tension.
Finally, a car drove up and stopped in front of him. Austin got in and the car started to drive
away. Peter and I stared at each other. I guess we were a bit naïve to think that the car would just
drive up, hand Austin the drugs, and drive away. We hadn’t planned for this. I grabbed Peter.
“They’re driving away!” I snapped.

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 “Why didn’t he give him the drugs?” Peter asked, as we ran up to the car and looked in. It
was the same man as before and Austin looked nervous. The whole situation both frightened and
excited me.
“We aren’t going to get in and go with them, are we?” Peter had read my mind, because
that was exactly what I was thinking.
“If we just let them drive away, we have nothing!”
Peter stepped back, shaking his head.
“This is too much, Lester.” I couldn’t help feeling Peter was right, but I couldn’t—
wouldn’t—let Austin continue selling drugs. I wanted him, and I was going to get him. I also
knew I couldn’t do it without Peter. I needed his support.
“I won’t blame you if you back out, but I have to do this, and I could really use your
help.”
Peter didn’t say anything. Please say yes, I thought to myself. I gave him a hopeful look.
Peter shook his head again and looked down at the ground.
A long moment passed, and then he groaned.
“Okay,” he finally said. “But don’t leave me!”
“I will not leave you.”
The car doors wouldn’t open. I guess it was that momentum thing. One of the windows in
the back was about halfway down, so I squeezed in and tried to roll the window down to make it
easier for Peter.
It wouldn’t roll down. It was spooky being in the car with the drug dealer. Peter crawled
in and both of us had the feeling we were trapped, like sardines in a can. Adrenaline was flowing
wildly through my veins and my palms were sweaty. Peter looked terrified.
“Keep your hand on me every moment,” Peter demanded. We both worked our way as
far down on the floor as possible. From our hidden place, the two in front couldn’t see us unless
they leaned over the front seat. I smelled the dust from the floor. I could not sneeze again. This
was too important.
I looked at Peter, making sure he was set before I snapped. We both adjusted ourselves
again and then looked at each other. Did we really know what we were doing? Peter gave me a
frightened smile. I smiled back and snapped. The car jerked forward.
“I don’t understand,” Austin said to the driver. “Why are we changing the drop?”

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 “Sometimes things need to change,” the driver replied. “Just sit back and relax.”
He didn’t seem like he wanted to talk, and they didn’t talk again until the car slowed
down and turned into what looked like—from our view—a fenced area.
“We’re here,” the man said.
Austin didn’t say anything. The car came to a stop. My hand was still on Peter, so I
snapped. We peered out from the back seat.
We were parked in front of a warehouse. It looked newly built and there was a fence
surrounding the warehouse and parking area. There were no windows except for a small one in
the door. The area beyond the fence was unfamiliar to me. Peter and I looked around. This was a
part of the city I’d never been to before.
“Let’s get out,” I told Peter. I tried the car door and it opened. Since the car was stopped
there was no momentum, so the doors worked. The noise of the car door closing startled both
Peter and me.
“Now what do we do?” Peter asked. I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to tell Peter that. I
looked around for a place to hide. There was nothing in the small parking lot to hide behind.
“Let’s see what’s in the warehouse,” I suggested. I felt an urgency, even though time was
stopped. I tried to calm myself down, breathing slowly and attempting to hide my fear from
Peter.
Peter and I looked in the window, and I tried the door. It was locked. Things didn’t seem
to be going our way. For a moment, I thought about leaving the area before I snapped again. I
was feeling unsure of myself, the unknown future eroding my confidence, but I couldn’t give up
now.
“Okay,” I told Peter. “Let’s hide on that side of the building. We should be able to hear
when they open the door from there. Then we can go in.”
The high, chain-link fence surrounding the warehouse was only about three feet from the
left side of the building, giving us a narrow space to hide. Once Peter and I hid on the side of the
building, we both slowly sat down. We needed a moment of rest. I was sure Peter’s heart was
pounding like a bass drum marching in a parade.
“Are you ready?” I looked at Peter. He took a deep breath and nodded his head.
I snapped. No matter how often I snapped, I never got used to the sudden flash of noise
when I restarted time. Peter and I tensed from the noise and from the realization of what we were

93
getting ourselves into. My senses were heightened. I seemed to hear every single sound, from the
rustle of the leaves on the trees to the cars passing blocks away. Every sound seemed like a
potential danger.
We could hear the man and Austin getting out of the car and the man saying something,
but I couldn’t make it out. The car doors slammed shut. I could hear their footsteps. They did not
seem to be getting closer. That was good. Then they knocked and a few seconds later, I heard the
warehouse door open. Peter locked his eyes on me, as I grabbed him and snapped.
“Let’s go see what’s in the warehouse,” I told Peter, and I began to rise. Peter took a few
seconds before he stood and followed me.
The door was open, and it looked like the man who drove Austin here was stepping back
to let Austin go in first. Another man inside the warehouse was standing back from the door. He
was a short, thin man with a mustache. I frowned, disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to give
him a mustache. He was dressed in old jeans, a dirty T-shirt, and new running shoes. The
combination looked odd.
They left us enough room to easily enter the warehouse. It looked bigger from the
outside. There was a table just inside the door with some chairs. Another man was still at the
table. There was a small room to one side, several yards from the entrance. It looked like an
office with a window. The light in the office wasn’t on. You could only see things in front of the
window, lit by the light from the warehouse. The door to the office was closed. Behind and to the
side of the office was an area filled with rows of shelves. Boxes sat stacked high on them. There
were also several stacks of boxes throughout the warehouse on the floor.
We cautiously looked around, stepping quietly as if the frozen drug dealers might hear us.
We knew they couldn’t, but the situation called for caution.
“I don’t see any drugs,” Peter whispered.
“Neither do I,” I replied, also in a whisper. “But I don’t think they would have them
sitting out on a table. Let’s hide behind those boxes and see what happens.”
As we were crossing to the boxes, I noticed someone in the office. He had his back to the
window, so I couldn’t see his face.
I made a mental note: four bad guys and Austin. Correction—five bad guys. Austin was
not better than the others. I needed to keep track of how many people were in the warehouse. I
didn’t want to lose one of them and get startled.

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 We hid behind some boxes and then I snapped. Austin and the other men entered the
warehouse and gathered at the table just inside the entrance. I could barely see them through the
gap between the boxes, and they were too far away for us to hear what they were saying, but
Austin’s nervousness was obvious.
I whispered to Peter, “We need to get closer.” I turned to look for a new place to hide and
then—I couldn’t believe that I did it—I knocked over some boxes. I snapped but not fast enough.
Some of the boxes hit the ground and made a crashing sound. Everything stopped, with a few
boxes suspended in mid-air. Peter was also frozen.
I was furious at myself!
At a time when I needed to be extra careful, I was a klutz! Now the men knew we were
there. Our cover was blown. I swore at myself, loudly, and kicked one of the boxes. It must have
still had some momentum because it was like kicking a rock. It only inflated my anger and made
my foot hurt. Stupid, I thought to myself. You have to stop being stupid!
I tried to put the boxes back up in stacks, but they wouldn’t move. Once I snapped again,
they would come crashing down, making even more noise. I had to get Peter and myself out of
the area before I snapped again and the drug dealers converged on us. Peter had momentum—
along with wide-eyed terror on his face from seeing the boxes come tumbling down—so I
couldn’t move him. I would have to do a quick snap. I planned to snap, let the boxes fall, grab
Peter, and snap again. Then, Peter and I could figure out what to do together. It was the only
way.
I grabbed Peter and snapped. Although the noise from the boxes hitting the ground
wasn’t that loud, it seemed deafening coming from total silence. I didn’t read Peter’s momentum
correctly, which caused him to crash into me. He was as shocked as I was when I suddenly
appeared in his path, and he hit his head on my shoulder. I didn’t get the second snap off as
quickly as I had planned, and I could hear footsteps stomped in our direction before I did.
“Ouch!” Peter yelled, holding his head. He didn’t feel any better after I told him what had
happened.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Peter said.
“I’m not leaving yet,” I told him. “I didn’t come this far to quit now. Let’s hide on the
other side of the warehouse. Maybe they’ll just think the boxes fell.”

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 Peter gave me a look I hadn’t seen in some time. I called it his “you’ve got to be joking”
look.
“What?” Peter choked. “You think they’ll think the wind blew them over?” He was
grounding my feet. “In a building?” he added.
Okay, so revenge was clouding my judgment. I thought for a second.
“Maybe you’re right,” I admitted. “Maybe we should get out of here before something
big happens.” Peter looked taken aback by my comment.
“Something big has already happened,” he replied.
“Come on,” I said.
As we stepped out from behind the boxes, we could see that the men were only about ten
feet from where we were, but they still hadn’t seen us yet. I was glad they wouldn’t find us; they
had blood in their eyes, and it gave me goosebumps seeing them up close. Austin was still at the
table, looking in the direction of the noise.
We were heading for the door when I glanced in the office. The person was still in there,
only a silhouette in the shadows. The shape looked somehow familiar. I had seen this person
before. I went to the window of the office and peeked in, cupping my hand near my face to block
out the glare. My heart sank and I couldn’t breathe.
“Peter, come here!”
Peter stopped. His eyes were on the door, the way out of the building.
“In the office. It’s Sykes!” I tried the office door, but it was locked. Peter slowly turned
and walked over to me. I wouldn’t have thought we could feel more fear than we were already
feeling, but seeing Sykes raised it up a notch.
“What’s he doing here?” Peter could hardly get the words out.
“Sykes must be working with the drug dealers. It’s the only conclusion I can come up
with,” I said. “I don’t think he followed us here, and I don’t think he’s here to bust those guys.
He has to be one of them. He’s a dirty cop!”
“Oh, man!” Peter peeked into the office at Sykes.
“We can’t leave now. We have to find out for sure what Sykes is doing here.”
Peter just looked at me. He looked at me with eyes that said it all: we were getting in over
our heads. Maybe we were, but we still didn’t know enough to get Austin busted. And now I

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added Sykes to my list. There were no drugs that I could see, and no one had done anything
against the law. We had to stay. We had to get more.
Then I couldn’t believe what I saw, off to the side, near the office—a cat!
“Peter, look! A cat!”
“Yeah, so?”
“Don’t you see? We can put the cat over by the boxes, and they’ll think the cat knocked
the boxes over!”
“How can you be sure?”
“I’m not, but it’s worth a try.”
The only problem was if the cat had momentum when I snapped, I wouldn’t be able to
move it. I reached down and grabbed the cat. At last, I had some luck! I could pick the cat up. It
felt much heavier than it should, still and like a rock. I wondered if that was because time had
stopped, or if I was just more aware of everything, never really noticing how heavy a cat could
be. I picked a location near the boxes that was hidden from the men so that they wouldn’t see the
cat appear. I wondered what the cat would think, suddenly being in a new location with several
men coming at him. I petted the cat’s head.
“Thanks, cat,” I said, and then I rejoined Peter, who was still in front of the office.
“Let’s hide over there.” We hid on the other side of the warehouse, hoping that the cat
near the fallen boxes would satisfy the men and things would continue as before. If they started
searching the place, we would have to leave.
After hiding again, I snapped.
From our new hiding place, we couldn’t see what was happening near the fallen boxes.
After a few seconds, someone yelled, “It was Oscar!” I hoped Oscar was the name of the cat.
The cat came running out and then down another row of shelves. It was definitely
confused. The men went back to the area where Austin was. They were no longer concerned
about the fallen boxes. It had worked. They thought the cat had knocked over the boxes.
Don’t do that again, I told myself as I looked up at some boxes above my head.
For the next few minutes, not much happened. The other man in the office came out and
talked to the other men and Austin and then returned to the office. Sykes never came out. We
couldn’t hear what was being said. I grabbed Peter and snapped.
“We have to get closer,” I told Peter.

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 “But they’ll see us.”
“Not if I go alone.”
“And leave me here?” Peter sounded alarmed.
“We have to know what’s happening. You’ll be safe here.” I didn’t have time to try and
convince Peter. “It’s the only way!”
I could see that Peter was scared, but then again, so was I. When I turned to go, he
grabbed me.
“Don’t leave me,” Peter demanded.
“I won’t leave you.”
As I was moving closer, I noticed that the man was entering the office and the door was
still open. There was just enough room, so I entered. Sykes was sitting at the desk. I looked for a
place to hide, hoping to find out what Sykes was doing here. Two file cabinets, a deck, and a
large garbage can didn’t leave much to hide behind. There was another door leading to a small
storage room, the door was cracked open. I glanced behind the door. There was enough room for
me to stand. I got behind the door and snapped.
“He’s got to go,” Sykes told the other man.
“But Austin’s a good kid.”
Good kid? I thought. A guy who sells drugs, a good kid?
“He’s being careless,” Sykes said. “I can’t have people be careless and have it lead back
to me.”
“But how can that be? He had never even saw you. Even the guys out there haven’t seen
you. They only know your voice.”
“I’m not going to explain myself,” Sykes said with anger. “Just do as I say.”
I wondered what Sykes meant by “he’s got to go.” Go where?
Someone knocked at the door.
I heard the other man answer it and say, “Yes?” Then, there was a pause. I could barely
hear them whispering. I think he stepped out of the office and pulled the door closed, but not all
the way. After a moment, it sounded like he came back in. More whispering.
“What?” Sykes blurted out. I heard a chair scoot across the floor. Sykes must have stood
up. “Take him to the other warehouse immediately.” The man left the office and shut the door.

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Sykes sounded like he was pacing. I kept my fingers ready in case he pushed open the door of
the small room I was in.
I could hear him pick up the phone and dial.
“Hi. This is Sykes. “Give me Brown.” His voice had changed; it sounded calm, unlike a
few seconds ago. “Hi, what’s up?” He was talking to Brown.
“The Lester kid?” Sykes continued on the phone. “No, no, I haven’t seen him either.
Right, turkey sandwich, I won’t forget.” He hung up the phone. I couldn’t put all the pieces
together. What was Sykes up to?
The man entered the office.
“He’s on his way.” I wondered why they were taking Austin somewhere else.
“Search the warehouse,” Sykes demanded. His voice was mean again, short and sharp.
“Why?” the other man asked.
“Just search it,” Sykes yelled. I snapped.
I ran out of the office and over to where I left Peter. I could not let them find him. I
promised him I wouldn’t let it happen again.
I rounded the corner, but Peter wasn’t there!
“Peter! Peter!” I began yelling, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me when time was
stopped. I ran up and down the rows of shelves. I searched everywhere. Then I noticed Austin,
still at the table. Alone! Who were they talking about in the office? Peter?
Where were the other men? I quickly counted: one was in the office with Sykes, one was
down one of the rows, and Austin was still at the table. That made three bad guys plus Sykes.
Two were missing. I raced to the door and looked out.
The car was gone, and so was Peter!

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 Chapter 14

I didn’t know what to do. I was frantic! I’d promised Peter I would take care of him, and now he
was gone. They had taken him. At first, I wanted to show myself to Sykes and then find ways to
punish him until he told me where Peter was. I could do so many things to him, but I had to be
smart. I had to think this through.
Keep listening, I told myself. Maybe they would give me a clue about where they’d taken
Peter, so I could rescue him. Then I would take care of Sykes, once and for all—but my first
priority was to find Peter.
I went back into the office and hid behind the door of the storage room. My emotions
were running high. I felt anger, intense anger, towards Sykes. I had to be smart. I had to keep
myself under control.
I snapped.
The man at the door of the office shut the door and walked away. They had to be
searching the warehouse. Now seemed like a perfect time to go after Sykes, but I also knew
Sykes would never tell me where Peter was. I had to wait him out and hope he would drop the
information I needed.
After several minutes, the same man entered the office.
“There’s no one else here.”
“There was and he might be back at any time,” Sykes warned.
“How can he?” the man asked. “The door is locked, and I have a man at the door.”
“A locked door doesn’t stop this kid and he could walk right past your men without ever
being noticed.”
“What is he, invisible?”
“Almost.” Sykes was talking about me. It was good he thought I could go through locked
doors. Keeping him in the dark about how my snapping really worked would be to my
advantage.
“Things are out of control,” Sykes complained.
“I don’t understand. How can that kid we found in here be a threat to you? He never saw
you.”
“He isn’t a threat to me, but Lester is.”

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 “Who’s Lester?”
“Never mind.”
Hearing Sykes say my name raised the hair on the back of my neck. My fear level moved
up a notch. Things did seem to be getting out of control, and I decided once I got out of here that
I was going straight to Agent Brown. I didn’t think Brown was mixed up in something like this.
“Bring that kid in here,” Sykes demanded.
“What?” the man said. “I thought you didn’t want to be seen by anyone but me?”
“I don’t have a choice. Bring him in.”
“Okay.” The man opened the door of the office and called out, “Austin, in here. No, not
you, just the kid.” The door closed.
“Sit down,” the man said.
“Austin,” Sykes began. “They tell me you do your job well.”
“Yeah,” Austin replied. His voice was thin, barely audible.
“We are going to see just how good you are,” Sykes insisted. “Do you know that boy
they took out of here?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you know his friend, Lester.”
“Yeah, I know Lester.”
“And he knows you. He knows what you have been up to.”
“No way!” Austin said. “I don’t even sell to him.”
“He knows because you have been careless. And when someone is careless in our
organization, they have to redeem themselves.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that Lester knows you are selling drugs and he has to be taken care of. And you
have to do it.”
“You—you mean you want me to kill him?”
“You made the mess. Now, you have to clean it up.”
“I can’t kill him.” Austin sounded frantic, scared.
“You will or it will be you.” Silence took over the room. I was sure Austin was stunned,
wondering how things had gone terribly wrong so quickly.
“Well?” Sykes finally asked.

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 “You don’t understand Lester… He moves really fast. It’s like he can disappear.”
“You’re just going to have to do it when he’s not looking,” Sykes said. “Now wait out by
the table.”
I heard Austin get up and leave the room.
“He’s not going to do it,” Sykes said in a lower voice. “I can read people well, and he
doesn’t have the guts.”
“What do you want me to do?” the man asked.
“I want you to take Austin for a ride. Make sure it’s clean. I don’t want him found.”
“Okay,” the man said. “What about this Lester kid?”
“I’ll have to take care of him myself. After you get rid of the kid, I want you to clean this
warehouse out.”
“Okay.” The man opened the door.
I snapped.
My heart was racing, and I felt completely overwhelmed. And alone. They had Peter and
I didn’t know where, and now they were going to kill Austin. Even though I didn’t like Austin, I
couldn’t let him be killed. Besides, maybe he knew where they’d taken Peter.
I put my head in my hands and groaned. People’s lives hinged on my actions. I’d never
intended for anything like this to happen. Peter’s words the day he first found out I could snap
re-played in my mind—him saying my snapping would lead to trouble. He was right, but I never
figured it would be this kind of trouble.
On my way out of the office, I stopped and looked at Sykes. I searched his pockets for
any clues to where they might have taken Peter. Nothing. Touching him made me feel dirty. I
took his gun and hid it in the storage room. Then I took my marker and drew a mustache on him,
smirking to myself. There wasn’t a mirror in the office, so he wouldn’t be able to see what I had
done for a while. He also didn’t know it was my trademark, but he would know it was me.
I decided I would wait until Austin left the warehouse before I tried to grab him. The
other man was staying too close to him. I went outside and hid on the side of the warehouse and
snapped.
It didn’t take long before the man who was in the office with Sykes and Austin came out.
Car doors opened and then closed.
I snapped.

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 Since the car hadn’t started moving yet, I was able to use the back door rather than
climbing in through the half-opened window. I scrunched down on the floor and snapped.
“Where are we going?” Austin asked in the passenger seat.
“You want your shipment, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s where we’re going.”
Austin had no idea what they had planned for him, and I had no idea what I was going to
do to save him. They kept driving for a long time. I bit my lip hard, my anxiety rising by the
minute. I had to start looking for Peter. I didn’t want to deal with this man in a car. Too close. I
had to get him to stop. I also wanted to scare him good, so that he wouldn’t run back to Sykes.
The dust on the floor was tickling my nose again, bringing on a sneeze. And then, I thought, Why
not? It had worked before.
I stopped fighting the sneeze and let out a big one.
“What the…?” the man said before the tires screeched. The car stopped suddenly and,
before the man could lean over to see me, I snapped.
When I got up, it was obvious Austin had seen me. The angle was right, and the
expression on his face confirmed it. I tried the door, but it wouldn’t open. I’d snapped when there
was still momentum, so I had to crawl out the window.
We were on the edge of town. There were a few houses but no people that I could see and
no cars coming from either direction. Perfect! I stepped away from the car and snapped. I didn’t
care if they could see me. Both the man and Austin looked in the back seat. I wasn’t there, of
course. They both got out of the car, and the man opened the back door.
I snapped. I got behind the man and snapped again. With his back to me, I tapped him on
the shoulder and stepped back. He whirled around, almost hitting me with his arm. I gave him a
wide smiled.
“Hi,” I said. “You don’t know me, but I’m Lester.”
He lunged toward me. I snapped. Austin was taking this all in, but he didn’t look as
surprised as the man. Austin had seen me in action before. I moved to the rear of the car and
snapped again. The man, with both arms out, grabbed only air.
“Over here!” I yelled. He twirled around, his mouth falling open in shock to see me in my
new location. I snapped before he ever moved.

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 I moved to the front of the car and snapped again.
“I’m sorry, I mean over here.”
He looked my way. His face paled as his shock turned into fear. I grinned and snapped
again. I needed to check him for a gun. I didn’t want him to get a shot off before I had time to
snap. He had one tucked behind his belt. I took it and considered what to do with it. I didn’t want
to throw it into the bushes nearby in case a child found it, so I just put it under the seat of the car.
I got behind him again and snapped. This was fun!
“Hey, back here!”
He whipped around so fast he lost his balance and fell.
Austin still stood by the car, watching. I ran over next to him. He pulled back as if he was
scared. Austin? Scared of me? Now that was a switch! I grabbed him and snapped.
The tough guy, Austin, didn’t seem so tough anymore. He just stood there, shocked by
the sudden silence and by the man, who was frozen halfway to a standing position.
“What’s happening?” Austin’s voice shook. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“I had to stop time,” I told him with a shrug, like I did it all the time. No big deal.
“Stop time?” People always questioned it the first time, and even the second and the third
time. It was difficult to believe.
“Yes, I had to. That man was going to kill you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. They were going to kill you because they didn’t think you would be able to kill
me.”
Austin’s eyebrows rose in surprised. “How…how do you…”
For once, I had something on Austin. Me! Someone who was always the butt end of his
jokes, was laughed at by him and his friends, and stuffed into lockers. Now, I had the control.
“Surprised that I know that?” I asked. He just nodded his head. “I know you sell drugs, I
know that you’re supposed to kill me, and I know that Sykes ordered him to kill you.” I pointed
at the frozen man.
Austin looked puzzled.
“Sykes is the man in the office. He’s with the FBI.”
“FBI?”

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 “It’s not what you think. Sykes is a bad FBI agent. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the
head of the drug dealers.”
I didn’t have any more time to explain things. I needed to find Peter. I also couldn’t have
this man who was frozen go back and tell Sykes I had rescued Austin. I decided to scare him,
and scare him good.
“Just stay right here,” I told Austin, and I snapped. The man got up and reached for his
gun.
“Sorry, but your gun’s gone,” I said, then I snapped. I got behind him, locked my foot in
front of his, and pushed on his back. I snapped. He fell—hard! He rolled over and looked up at
me, in my new location.
“The police have been called, and if I were you, I’d run.”
He got up and scrambled to get in the car. I needed the car myself and didn’t want him to
take it. I snapped again. The car door was open, and he was just getting to the door. I tried to shut
it, but half of his body was in the way, so I left it partially closed. I snapped. His momentum took
him right into the side of the door and he cut his head. He backed up and leaned on the rear side
of the car, holding his head and moaning.
“No, you can’t have the car,” I told him. He didn’t move.
“Run!” I shouted, and he started to run down the road.
I walked over to Austin. He kept his eyes on me wary. He must’ve been afraid I was
going to do the same thing to him as I’d done to the driver. But all I wanted was information.
“Do you know where they took Peter?”
“No.”
“Can you drive?” It was a silly question to ask Austin. I knew Austin had a car. The
problem was I couldn’t drive, so I needed him to do so. I was sixteen, but my mom just didn’t
have the time to teach me, nor did I have the money for a car. And living near school, I just
walked every day.
“Yes,” Austin said.
“Then let’s go.” Austin got in the driver’s seat and I climbed in the passenger side.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“To the FBI,”

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 Austin shrank down in the seat. He must’ve thought I was going to turn him in. That’s
what I would have done a few hours before, but somehow, I felt he would be a help to me in
finding Peter. And right now, I could use all the help I could get.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn you in. I have to talk to one of the agents I am
working with.”
Boy, did that make me feel like a big shot! Me? Working with the FBI?
“Come on, let’s go!”
Austin hit the gas.

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 Chapter 15

“How do you do it?” Austin asked me as we drove.

“I don’t know. I just do.”
“You did it to me at school and at the dance, didn’t you?”
“Well, remember what you did to me?” I paused, letting him think about it. “You picked
on me, stuffed me in my locker, and laughed about it. Remember?”
He looked over at me and I think, for the first time, he saw me as a person.
“Yeah, sorry.” I wasn’t sure if he was apologizing because he meant it or because he was
afraid of me. Either way, I didn’t see him as the big, bad senior anymore.
There was a time when he had power over me. A time when I would hide when he came
down the hall, a time when my heart would race with fear just at the sight of him, but not
anymore. I once thought of him as better than me. So popular. A jock. Now, he didn’t have that
power. I really didn’t believe I was better than him either, though, and I was thankful I didn’t.
Somehow it made me feel good not thinking I was better. It made me feel more mature, and I
liked that feeling.
It didn’t take us long to get to the FBI. I had to check the card Brown had given me to
find out the address. Austin drove us right there. After we parked, Austin wasn’t sure what to do.
I was afraid if I left him, he might drive away.
“You better come with me,” I told him.
“Why?”
“In case Sykes comes and sees you in the parking lot. He’ll know something happened.
Besides, I might need your help. But stay close to me. I have to be touching you when I snap.
Otherwise, you’ll freeze too.”
“You have to touch me?”
“Yeah, that’s how it works. Anything I’m touching when I snap doesn’t freeze.”
“Snap?”
“That’s what I call it. When I freeze time. Snapping.”
He got out of the car. “What if that guy is in there?”
“You mean Sykes?”
He nodded.

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 “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.” Boy, did that sound funny—me, telling Austin I would
protect him!
I thought the FBI would have their own building, but it was only a suite in an office
complex. The lady at the front desk didn’t look friendly.
“May I help you?” she asked
“I need to see Agent Brown.”
She looked up at me over her glasses. “Do you have an appointment?”
An appointment? People made appointments with FBI agents?
“No.”
She folded her arms like she was annoyed with me and asked, “What is it about?”
I didn’t have any more patience, and I was getting angry that she was making me feel
insignificant.
“It’s about people disappearing.” I made sure she was looking right at me.
“Into thin air.” I grabbed Austin. “Poof!”
I snapped.
“Why did you do that?” Austin asked.
“I don’t like her, and we’re running out of time.” Yes, I did realize I could stop time, but
it wasn’t like I could stop if forever. “I need to find Peter.”
I walked down the hall and opened the first door, an empty office. I tried the next door,
and there was Brown, on the phone. Austin was staying close to me, maybe too close. We went
into Brown’s office, and I closed the door. I snapped. Brown jerked but recovered quickly from
his surprise.
“I’ll call you back,” he said into the phone and then hung up. “Well, hello, Lester. Who’s
your friend?”
“This is Austin.”
“The drug dealer?”
“Yeah, but I have something much more important to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“Your partner, Sykes, is part of the drug ring.”
“What are you talking about?” Brown leaned forward on his desk.

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 “I followed Austin and one of the drug dealers to a warehouse where Austin was
supposed to get a delivery of some drugs. Sykes was there.”
Brown crossed his arms and frowned at the two of us. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’m telling you the truth. Austin can confirm it.”
“He’s right,” Austin said.
“And I am supposed to believe a drug dealer and a bank robber?” Austin looked at me
funny as Brown said this.
“They have Peter, and I have to find him.”
“What proof do you have that Sykes is mixed up in this?”
“How about this?” I pulled out Sykes’s badge. I’d lifted it from him when I took his gun
and threw it on his desk. Brown stared at it for a moment, and I almost thought he believed me
now, but then his face changed.
“You could have taken his badge just like you once took my gun.”
I ground my teeth together. Why would I lie? How could I get him to believe me? How
could I get him to help me find Peter?
If he wasn’t going to help me, I needed to quit wasting time and search for Peter myself.
“Where is Sykes now?” I asked. Brown didn’t answer. “I’ll tell you: getting your turkey
sandwich.”
I grabbed Austin and snapped.
“Come on,” I told Austin. “We’re going to find Peter ourselves.”
“But what about Brown?”
“I hope he enjoys his turkey sandwich.”
As I was walking past the receptionist, I paused. Yes, I told myself, and I drew a
mustache on her.
“I hated when you did that to me.” Austin frowned as he watched my artistic work. I
knew I shouldn’t have done it, and I knew Peter would be mad at me for doing it. But, well,
sometimes a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do!
I didn’t snap until we got to the car. As we got inside, I wondered what Brown would do.
Would he question Sykes? Ask him where he had been? Would he wonder how I knew he
wanted a turkey sandwich? He had a lot of pieces, but I didn’t have time to wait for him to put
the pieces together.

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 Brown had no idea where we were going or what we planned to do, so I didn’t worry
about him following us. I didn’t even know what I was going to do myself, but I had to do
something. The first person who came to mind who could help us was Nellie. She was good
when it came to putting pieces together.
“Take us back to school,” I told Austin.
“School?”
“Yeah, I have to talk with Nellie.”
“Nellie?” Austin said. “That freshman nerd?” I shot my head toward him and looked at
him from the tops of my eyes.
“Oh, sorry.” He got my message. I guessed it might take some time before Austin came
around and started treating people equally.
I thought about snapping as we drove—giving us more time—but it would have been
impossible to drive around all the cars frozen in the middle of the street. I also wasn’t sure if the
engine of the car would continue working if I was touching only the body while I snapped. If it
didn’t, I would be thrown through the windshield. I didn’t have time to experiment.
As we drove, I tried to remember what class Nellie had for fourth period. I wasn’t sure I
ever knew. I would have to go to the office, snap, and look it up. I knew where they kept the
students’ schedules.
Austin parked in the student parking lot, and I got out of the car.
“Wait here for me,” I told Austin and ran toward the office. I got only a few feet before I
realized I wasn’t sure if Austin would wait for me. Why would he? I ran back to the car.
“You will wait for me,” I asked with uncertainty, “won’t you?”
I could see he was thinking about it. I hoped he realized that if Sykes and his men showed
up and I wasn’t around, he would have no hope.
“I’ll wait.” He didn’t say it with conviction, but I had a feeling he would.
“Keep low. And if you see Sykes or his men, come find me.” I had to say it. It made me
feel big! Austin shrank down in the seat as I ran.
Before I got to the office, I snapped. I had no trouble finding out that Nellie was in Mrs.
Potter’s keyboarding class, a class I’d managed a “D” in. When I got to her class, I tried to figure
out a way to get Nellie out of there. My only choice was to lie—something I was good at.

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 I snapped, knocked on the door, and entered. Everyone looked my way, including Mrs.
Potter, whose eyebrows rose in surprise.
“May I help you, Mr. Lopkins?” I hated it when she called me by my last name.
“Uh, Mrs. Benchley wants to see Nellie in the office.” Maybe my lying skills weren’t as
good as I thought. I didn’t sound convincing.
“Why didn’t she just call me?”
“I don’t know.”
She frowned like she knew I was up to something. “I think I’ll just call her first.”
Why had I thought this was going to be easy? Mrs. Potter didn’t trust me when I had her
class, so why would she trust me now? I made eye contact with Nellie, trying to convey
everything I wanted to say to her. She must’ve sensed my worry.
“That’s okay, Mrs. Potter,” Nellie said, quickly getting up. “I need to talk to her
anyway.” Nellie was out of the room before Mrs. Potter could pick up the phone, and since
Nellie was a good student, Mrs. Potter didn’t come after her.
When she cleared the door, I closed it, grabbed Nellie’s hand, and snapped. My mind was
working a hundred miles an hour, but my mouth was working at about fifty as I tried to catch her
up on what was going on. I kept skipping parts and forgetting important details.
“Just slow down, Lester.” Her hand on my shoulder calmed me. “Time is stopped, so you
have plenty of it.”
“I need your help,” I said calmly after a big breath. “They have Peter.”
“Who has Peter?”
“The drug dealers!” Nellie’s eyes widened, and she put her hand over her mouth.
I slowly told Nellie everything. About going to the warehouse, knocking over the boxes,
and about how they wanted Austin to kill me. She listened intently, questioning me when I was
unclear.
“I’m hoping that you can help me put the pieces together so I can find Peter before
something happens to him.”
I could see Nellie going over everything I had told her in her head. She shook her head.
“I need more information.”
“But that’s all I have.”
“Then we will need to start over, from the beginning. Take me to the warehouse.”

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 “I can’t get you involved in this,” I told Nellie. “This could get dangerous.”
“It already has for Peter, so let’s not waste any more time.” She took off.
I stood there unsure about all this. I needed her, but I didn’t want her to get mixed up
with drug dealers. I had already messed up by not protecting Peter; I didn’t want to mess up and
have something happen to Nellie.
Nellie stopped and looked back at me.
“Come on,” she said. I sighed and followed her. “Let’s go.”
As we neared the car, my heart started to pound because I didn’t see Austin. But when we
got closer, I saw him. He was so far down in the seat you couldn’t see his head.
“Let’s get in before I snap,” I said, opening the door so Nellie could sit in the middle.
After I shut the door, Nellie looked down at Austin.
“He looks kind of scared, not so big and tough.”
“I know,” I replied.
Austin must have really been on edge because when I snapped and he saw us, he quickly
sat up and away from us, hitting his head on the driver’s side window. He had them all rolled up
tight. Austin quickly tried to regain his composure.
“Hi, Nellie.” This had to be the first time Austin had ever greeted Nellie.
Nellie looked up at him, surprised. “Hi.” She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.
“Take us back to the warehouse,” I told Austin.
“The warehouse?” Austin obviously didn’t have Nellie’s detective mind, and neither did
I.
“That’s the logical place to start looking for clues to find Peter. The place he was last
seen.” Nellie sounded like a female Sherlock Holmes.
I was proud of her. She was so sure of herself. That’s my girlfriend, I thought. Well,
maybe she wasn’t my girlfriend yet, but maybe I would have enough courage to ask her to go out
with me after this was all over. Provided we live through it.
Austin started the car and we were off.
“Now tell me everything again,” Nellie demanded. “And make sure you tell it to me in
the order that it happened.”
I guess my earlier explanation of the events was a little mixed up.
“We were in the warehouse, and…”

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 “Start at the beginning,” Nellie interrupted. “When you got in the car with Austin and the
drug dealer.” Austin looked at Nellie. “Well, I have to know everything if we’re going to find
Peter.”
I started at the beginning and Austin even added a few things I’d forgotten, like me
drawing a mustache on the lady at the FBI office. Nellie glanced my way when Austin told her.
I gave her a sheepish smile. “If you met her, you would approve.”
“Continue,” said Nellie. I tried not to leave anything out.
When we arrived at the warehouse, there were no cars in the parking lot. I didn’t think
Sykes was still there. We hoped someone was inside. None of us wanted to break in. The
question was: how could we get them to open the door?
“Peter was taken before Austin met Sykes, right?” Nellie asked.
“Yeah,” I responded.
“Then the two who left with Peter wouldn’t know that Austin is no longer working with
them.”
“That’s right,” Austin said.
“Unless the man who took Austin called them, but he would have called Sykes first, to
tell him he failed to complete his task,” added Nellie.
“You sound disappointed that I got away.”
“No, not at all,” said Nellie. “Just thinking out loud.” She continued, “Even if the man
who took Austin called, they would still want to get their hands on you and open the door if they
saw you through the window. Am I right?”
Austin and I looked at each other. “Sounds right,” I said.
“Don’t worry. I’m right.” Nellie smiled. She was always right.
We both listened carefully while she told us her plan. Austin would knock on the door
and get them to open it. I would hide behind the door and when it opened, I would grab Austin
and snap. Nellie would hide behind me, keeping a tight hold on me.
It didn’t work out quite like we planned.
When we were getting out of the car, someone came out of the warehouse front door. He
paused, clearly surprised to see us. But before he could do anything, I leaned through the car,
right over Nellie— knocking her in the head with my elbow— grabbed Austin and snapped. My
shoulder hit the steering wheel.

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 “Ouch!”
I had trouble getting my fingers to snap quickly. I was reaching with my right hand and
when I grabbed Austin, I realized I was a right-handed snapper. I couldn’t let go of Austin and
snap because he would freeze, so I tried to snap with my left hand. For a moment, I thought
maybe I’d lost my power. I had to snap three times before it worked. Exhaling in relief, I made a
mental note to practice snapping with my left hand so I could be an ambidextrous snapper.
“Warn me next time you’re going to elbow me,” Nellie said, rubbing the side of her head.
“Sorry,” I replied. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“At least the door is open,” Austin said.
Luckily, the guy left us enough room to squeeze past him through the door. We looked
around. The warehouse seemed deserted.
“Okay, now we have to look for something that will give us a clue as to where they took
Peter,” said Nellie, taking charge. “Lester, what exactly did Sykes say to the man in the office
just before Peter vanished?”
My mind was spinning in circles. I struggled to remember as I rubbed my sore shoulder.
“Uh… something about another warehouse.”
“Okay, we need to search for a name or address of another warehouse. The most logical
place to begin is the office. Come on.”
Thankfully, the office door was unlocked. We began our search. Austin just watched as
Nellie searched the desk. I looked in the closet but found nothing.
“Austin,” Nellie cracked. “Why don’t you go and search the warehouse.”
“For what?” Austin asked.
“A clipboard with papers, address labels on some of the boxes that might be for a
different warehouse, an invoice lying on the floor, anything that might give us a clue.” Nellie
was speaking fast, as if time was zipping by.
“Time has stopped,” I reminded Nellie. “We don’t have to rush.”
Nellie took a deep breath. “That’s right. I forgot.”
Austin left the office and began looking around.
“I used to think of him as kind of cool,” Nellie said, watching Austin from the office
window. “A bully, but cool.”

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 “I know what you mean,” I said. “I think this experience has really changed him. And
me!”
“I can see the change.” Nellie looked at me.
Panic!
Nellie wasn’t just looking at me but looking into my eyes, even past my eyes and into
me. My stomach was suddenly queasy, as if I had just gotten off a roller coaster ride. My mouth
went dry and my palms started sweating. It was like my insides were being probed and opened
for the world to see. It was a frightening feeling.
I had seen things like this before on soap operas—not that I watched soap operas, but my
mother would sometimes have them on in the summer. A girl would see a boy from across the
restaurant. Their eyes would lock on each other, tight and strong. Their penetrating stare would
last for seconds, minutes, hours, reading each other’s thoughts, their hopes, their dreams. Saying
with silence what words could not. And then… a commercial!
There I was, in the same glance, the same glimpse, the same gaze as in a soap opera,
feeling her thoughts, her hopes, her dreams—well, at least noticing her eyes were blue. She too
was inspecting my thoughts, my dreams, my hopes…my hopes for a commercial!
“There’s nothing out there,” Austin said, entering the office and breaking our lock onto
each other’s soul. It was the first time I was thankful to see him.
“There is always a clue,” Nellie said, going through some papers on the desk. “We just
have to keep looking until we find it.”
“Nice hat,” I said to Austin. “Where did you get it?”
“I found it out in the warehouse.” It was a bright red baseball cap advertising some bar
and grill on the front. I never thought I looked good in a baseball cap, so I never wore one.
“Are you two just going to stand there?” Nellie was right. We needed to keep searching.
“Let’s go search the warehouse again,” I said to Austin, motioning him out of the office.
“But I already searched it.”
“Let’s search it again. Maybe you missed something.” I walked out of the office and
began looking around. Austin followed close behind.
“Are you sure you don’t know how you snap?” Austin asked as I looked through some
boxes for an address.
“I’m sure.”

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 “You mean you don’t have some kind of power device, like on Star Trek or something?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I just snap.”
“Can you teach me?”
I winced as I did before at the thought. If Austin had the ability to snap, I could imagine
the pain he would inflict on me. On others! On the world! A big guy, who picked on almost
everyone, who could snap! Seemed like a very dangerous combination to me.
“How can I teach you when I don’t even know how or why I can snap?”
It was true. I had thought about it many times: why did I have this power? I thought
maybe I would wake up and find out it was only a dream, so I pinched myself and it hurt, but
wouldn’t pinching hurt in a dream too?
I’d seen movies where aliens came to earth and had powers that humans didn’t have.
Could I be an alien? Many of the students at school might think so. Maybe aliens had visited me
in my sleep and given me the power to snap. It seemed impossible, but then so did stopping time,
and I could do that.
The truth was, I had no idea how I’d gotten this power. Maybe I was dreaming, maybe I
was an alien, maybe I was just imagining all this. But dream or reality, one thing was for sure—I
could snap and stop time. How I was going to use this power was the important thing. I’d learned
the hard way that snapping for personal gain just made things worse. Peter had warned me, but it
had taken me some time to learn it.
“Hey, guys! Come here!” Nellie had found something. We rushed into the office and
found Nellie holding a piece of paper.
“A list of phone numbers.” She held up the list. “I bet one is to the other warehouse.”
“That’s great, but how are we going to find out where it is?” asked Austin.
“We can go back to school and I can search the internet for these phone numbers and see
where the locations are.”
“Can you do that?” I asked.
She smiled. “Of course, it’s easy.”
We were out the door and on the road in no time.

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 Chapter 16

I snapped right after we got in the car. Austin was able to get the car started and drive us out of
the parking lot before the guy at the door could do anything. He had no idea we had searched the
office or that he was sporting a well-drawn mustache. We also cut the phone lines before we left
—no sense in making it easy for him.
Time was very important now. It wouldn’t be long before Sykes was notified and started
putting all the pieces together. We had to work fast, before they found out we were on their trail
and they had time to move Peter.
Traffic seemed heavy. It always does when you’re in a hurry. I was amazed at how well
Austin maneuvered around the traffic. He was in complete control of the car, not a hot rodder
like I thought he would be. He even wore his seatbelt!
We didn’t say much on the way to school. Each of us, I’m sure, was thinking about
different things. I was thinking about Peter and how scared he must be. I hoped he knew I was
doing everything I could to rescue him.
Austin was probably worried about what was going to happen to him if we didn’t stop
Sykes or what was going to happen to him if we did stop Sykes. After all, he had been dealing
drugs and everyone knew it now.
Nellie might have been thinking about me. I don’t know why I thought that, but a few
times I looked her way and she just smiled and then looked ahead again.
“Austin, you stay in the car again,” I told Austin as we pulled into the school parking lot
of the school. “And watch yourself. Sykes could be close behind.”
“What are we going to tell Mrs. Benchley if she catches us?” Nellie asked.
“Whatever we have to say to get the information we need to save Peter.” I opened the
door for Nellie, and we started for the computer lab. After running down a few hallways, we
turned the corner and there she was: Mrs. Benchley. I let out a soft groan. Why do things always
happen to me?
“Lester?” She looked surprised to see me. “We’ve had you on the absence list all
morning.” I didn’t answer. “And Nellie, do you have a pass to be in the halls?”
I looked at Nellie. I had to come up with something.

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 “I had an appointment.” It wasn’t a lie. I did have an appointment with a few drug
dealers, but of course, I couldn’t tell her that.
“And why didn’t you check in at the office? You know the rules.” Mrs. Benchley was
particular about rules; she liked them followed, but then most teachers did. Why is that?
“I was going to, but I saw Nellie walking to the computer lab.”
“I see.” Why do principals and teachers say, “I see,” when they really mean, “I don’t
believe you?”
I really didn’t think we had the time to chat with Mrs. Benchley, and I knew she was
going to have me come to the office with her. Mrs. Benchley was predictable.
Just then, we heard a classroom door open. All the doors at Franklin High squeaked. I
think it was the administration’s way of preventing students from sneaking around so easily.
When Mrs. Benchley turned toward the door, I snapped. I really didn’t want to disappear in front
of her, but I hoped she could take it. There was no choice but to use my snapping to get Mrs.
Benchley out of our way.
I didn’t grab Nellie before I snapped. She looked kind of pretty frozen in time. She had a
concerned look on her face, probably worried about getting in trouble with Mrs. Benchley. She
never got in trouble. On the other hand, Mrs. Benchley and I were well acquainted. I was always
in trouble.
I decided to hide around the corner and hope that Nellie would play her cards right to get
Mrs. Benchley to leave. Surely Nellie wouldn’t get in trouble. I hid and snapped.
I heard a gasp.
“Where did Lester go?” Mrs. Benchley exclaimed.
“Lester?” Nellie didn’t sound surprised at my disappearance.
“Yes, he was here just a moment ago.”
“Maybe he disappeared?” Way to go, Nellie!
“Maybe I should just go to my office and rest.”
I wasn’t expecting Mrs. Benchley to come around the corner so fast. When our eyes met,
my instincts took over and I snapped. I moved around the corner and next to Nellie and snapped
again.

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 Mrs. Benchley’s scream was almost instantaneous. Nellie wasn’t surprised to see me
appear next to her. We both quietly listened to Mrs. Benchley’s footsteps as she rushed down the
hall.
“I didn’t mean to do that,” I told Nellie.
“Come on. Let’s just get to the computer lab.”
The librarian, who also watched over the lab, was busy and didn’t even notice us enter.
Only two other students were in the lab, and they looked too busy to worry about us.
It only took Nellie a few seconds to get online and find the place for phone number
searches. The first number was a plumbing service, and the second was a sporting goods store.
“What are we looking for?” I asked Nellie.
“It could be almost anything,” Nellie explained. “We have to keep our minds open for
any possibility. What I am hoping for is a name of a warehouse, like Sykes was talking about.”
“But couldn’t they have listed the phone number under a different name?” I asked.
“Possibly, but when you’re dealing in drugs, you don’t want to have your number listed
as a plumbing service. Otherwise, you would get a lot of calls for a plumber.”
Nellie kept tapping in the numbers as she talked. How could she do that? I could never
type and talk at the same time, but then again, I couldn’t type well to begin with.
“The fifth number is unlisted,” Nellie said, twisting her mouth.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the information about the number is not available to the public.
“Can we get it some other way?”
“Only if we hack into the phone company’s computer, and I don’t have time for that.”
Nellie pressed her lips together. She wasn’t the type of person who would approve of hacking
either.
None of the numbers had given us what we needed. We thought about calling the unlisted
number but were afraid it might tip off the drug dealers.
“What are we going to do now?” I asked Nellie.
“I don’t know.” She bit her lip.
I put my hand on Nellie’s shoulder and snapped so that we could have more time to
figure out what to do. We slowly walked back to the car.

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 “We have to go back to the warehouse and search again. There is always a clue.” Nellie
started going over what we knew as we came up to the car. I chuckled when I saw Austin’s hat
he’d found in the warehouse. It seemed to be floating in mid-air because Austin was scrunched
down, hiding.
“Maybe that’s it.” Nellie’s face brightened.
“What’s it?”
“The hat!”
“The hat?” I said, confused.
“The name on the hat.” Nellie replied. I was still confused. “Come on.”
I followed her as she ran over to the phone booth. She looked up John’s Place—the name
on the hat.
“Look! John’s Place is on the east side of town. The warehouse we were in is on the
north side. Maybe John’s Place is near the other warehouse.”
“Isn’t that a long shot?”
“It’s the only shot we have. Let’s go.” I could hardly keep up with her as we ran back to
the car and got in.
I snapped. Austin jumped. We chuckled.
Austin drove as Nellie explained her reasoning.
“Isn’t that a long shot?” Austin asked. Nellie looked at me and then back at Austin,
rolling her eyes. I guess she didn’t like our pessimistic attitudes.
“Do you have a better idea, Austin?”
Austin didn’t answer. I didn’t think he liked it when a girl had something over on him.
Again, time seemed to be ticking by quickly. It took us over twenty minutes to get to
John’s Place. The second the car stopped, I grabbed Nellie and Austin and snapped. We had to
save every second we could.
“Now, let’s search the area for a warehouse,” Nellie instructed.
Austin groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” She didn’t.
“But any of these building could be a warehouse!”
“Look for a building with few windows. I’m sure the drug dealers don’t want their
actions easily seen. Just keep your minds open and make a list of possibilities.”

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 We divided up the area and took off. Every building I looked at seemed like a possible
warehouse. This was not the best part of town, and there were several old buildings. Most had
windows, some so dirty you couldn’t see inside. I kept asking myself, If I were a drug dealer,
would that building make a good place? It didn’t help. I had no clue what I was looking for.
I couldn’t help but stop and look at the few people in the area, frozen. I wondered what
they were doing, where they were going, if they had seen Peter. Most had an expression on their
face that told me a lot. Some looked sad, some looked happy, some looked stressed. After
looking at several people—and holding back my desire to draw mustaches on them—I reminded
myself I was there to find Peter.
I peered up streets and down alleys. And then, I saw him.
He caught my eye from a distance because he was wearing new, white running shoes. But
when I got a closer look, fear filled my mind. I gasped.
It was the man from the other warehouse!

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 Chapter 17
I ran back to John’s Place, yelling for Austin and Nellie. Austin was already there, and Nellie
came running. I told them who I’d spotted while gasping for breaths.
“Are you sure?” asked Nellie. I guess if you have a detective mind you always have to
doubt people.
“I’m sure!” I sucked in more air.
“Where is he?” Austin asked.
I pointed in the direction I’d come from.
“Then let’s go.” Austin and Nellie started running. But they paused when they realized I
wasn’t following them.
“Can’t we just rest for a few minutes?” I asked. Let’s face it: I was a wimp who couldn’t
run four blocks without having near heart failure. Why did we need to run anyway? It wasn’t like
we would run out of time.
Nellie and Austin looked at me. You know the kind of look—the “what are you, a
wimp?” look. I had seen it many times before.
“Okay, okay,” I pleaded. “But let’s walk.”
It didn’t take us long to return to the frozen drug dealer.
“Yep!” Austin said. “That’s him.
I could see Nellie’s brain working fast to come up with a plan. She examined him and
found a paper in his hand. We couldn’t see all of the writing, but it looked like a list: beef,
olives…
“And anchovies?” Nellie finished. “Yuck!”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“That they don’t have good taste in pizzas.”
“Is that what he is doing?” I asked. “Getting a pizza?”
“I’m sure of it,” Nellie declared. “Since he’s walking this way, he must have come from
that way.” She pointed in the opposite direction of where the man was walking. “Which means
the warehouse is somewhere in that direction.”
“Of course,” I added, making it sound like I’d come up with the same conclusion.

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 “Since he isn’t wearing a coat and it’s a little cool out, he must not have come far.” She
looked down the street. She pointed. “The only building that looks like a possibility is that old
building just down the street.”
I was amazed by how sure Nellie seemed of herself.
“Let’s check it out.”
We ran down to the building. Again, I didn’t know why we ran, but excitement dictated
at least a run, if not an all-out sprint. I had walked right by the building earlier and never even
thought of it as a possibility. It looked like an old garage that hadn’t been used in some time. The
windows were dirty. As I was about to clean one off to peek in, Nellie stopped me.
“Don’t do that!” Nellie shouted. “If they see that the window has been cleaned off, they’ll
know we were near.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I was glad to have Nellie along.
She tried the door, but it was locked. We tried to look through the dirt on the windows,
but it was dark inside, and we couldn’t see anything. What did I think, that they would make it
easy for us?
“What do we do now?” Austin asked.
“We have to wait until the guy returns with the pizza,” Nellie said. “And then, when he
opens the door, Lester can snap, and we can enter to see if Peter is inside.”
“That’s what I was going to suggest,” Austin said.
Nellie and I looked at him.
“Well, I was,” Austin declared. Austin wasn’t used to having a girl come up with the
ideas; he was too macho for that.
“One of us should keep an eye on the man going for the pizza, and someone should watch
the warehouse,” said Nellie. “I’ll watch the pizza man.”
“Why you?” Austin asked. I think Austin thought he might get a slice of pizza out of the
deal.
“Because he has never seen me and if he happens to get a glimpse of you, he’ll know we
are closing in on him. And then who knows? He just might shoot you.” I knew Nellie added that
last part just to scare Austin.

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 Austin had a hint of fear in his face as he stepped back. “Okay,” he slowly said. I
couldn’t help feeling a little pleasure seeing Austin in a situation where he was not in control and
he backed down.
“Austin,” Nellie continued, “you hide and watch the warehouse.” Austin made no
objection, nodding his head.
“And what about me?” I asked.
“I think you should be somewhere in-between us, so if one of us needs help, we can get
to you faster.” Nellie was always thinking ahead.
“But if Lester snaps when Nellie needs help, then I’ll be frozen.” Austin was implying
that Nellie was the one who would need help, not him.
Nellie gave him a dirty look.
“And I will be frozen if he helps you. Besides you won’t even know if you’ve been
snapped,” Nellie said. “Okay, we have our assignments. Lester, wait until both of us are in place
before you snap again. Let’s go.”
I followed Nellie halfway to where the man was, and Austin hid in an alley across from
the warehouse.
“This should be far enough,” Nellie said.
I stopped and looked for a place to hide where I could see both Nellie and Austin.
“I’ll wave my hands when I am in place,” she continued. “And remember, don’t let our
pizza man see you.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.” I reassured her with a smile. Nellie started walking down the
street. I was proud of her. “And Nellie,” I called out. She stopped and turned toward me. “Be
careful.”
“I will.” She smiled back.
I watched as she strolled down the street to just behind the pizza man and positioned
herself next to some newspaper stands. I stepped into an entryway by a door leading to some
stairs. I peeked around the corner. She waved. I snapped.
It had been silent so long that the sudden noise made me jump. I peered around the corner
again and watched as the pizza man continued down the street and around another corner. Nellie
began to follow.

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 Soon I lost sight of her. If she needed help, I wouldn’t know. My heart began to pound. I
guess I had more feelings for Nellie than I thought. I made up my mind I would ask her to be my
girlfriend, as soon as we rescued Peter.
I peeked in the other direction and couldn’t see Austin, but I knew where he was. I felt
somewhat helpless, waiting for something to happen.
I hoped Peter wasn’t too frightened. I hoped he knew I was coming for him. After all, he
was my best friend, and I would do anything for him.
Doubt started drifting through my mind. What if this wasn’t the place they’d taken him?
What if they had moved him? What if they had… No, I couldn’t say it. Peter is alive, I told
myself.
Each passing minute seemed like an hour. Time was moving so slowly. I peeked in both
directions and didn’t see Nellie or Austin. I thought about snapping and checking on Nellie but
decided to let time continue. Nellie could take care of herself.
I glanced at my watch. It was way off. My snapping didn’t stop my watch and I never
could keep it on time.
I almost jumped a foot in the air when Austin rushed in front of me. I must have been
daydreaming.
“It’s Sykes!” Austin was breathing heavily, his eyes wide with fear.
“Sykes is here?” I asked, and Austin nodded. “Where?”
“He went into the warehouse.”
My mind flooded with questions. Should I run to get Nellie? Should I wait until she
comes? Should I run back to the warehouse?
Peter! What if Sykes was coming to get Peter?
“You left the warehouse unguarded?” I shouted. “They could leave with Peter and we
wouldn’t even know it.” I tried to think fast. “You stay here and wait for Nellie. I’m going back
to watch the warehouse. That way I can snap if they start leaving with Peter.”
I didn’t allow Austin time to say anything; I just snapped. Now I had time to go back to
the warehouse and hide. I started running when I realized I needed to give Austin some more
instructions. I ran back to him, snapped, and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped. Normally, I
would have laughed, but it didn’t seem right.

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 “And one more thing,” I said. “When Nellie comes back, stay with her. When I see the
man getting close to the warehouse door, I will snap, come and find you two, and then snap to
unfreeze you. Then I’ll snap again so we can get back to the warehouse before the man opens the
door.”
Austin looked confused. I probably spoke way too fast, but I didn’t have time to go over
it again. I thought about grabbing Austin before snapping to freeze everything again and return to
the warehouse, but then decided to just let him freeze like everything else. It would also remind
Austin I had the upper hand.
There was no sign of Sykes, and I wondered if Austin was right. It didn’t matter if Sykes
was in the warehouse or not. I was going in after Peter as soon as the pizza man returned.
I waited again.
I hated waiting. So many horrible things ran through my mind, about Nellie, about Peter,
and about Austin. Not complete thoughts, just pictures, flashing from one to another.
Suddenly, there he was!
***
I pressed myself up against the wall, trying to be part of it, invisible. It was him! The man in the
new running shoes with a pizza. My mind raced. I had to time this just right so that I could get
Nellie and Austin with me and snap as he opened the door to the warehouse.
I snapped. The pizza man was about a hundred yards from the warehouse, frozen. I ran
back to where I’d left Austin. Nellie was with him. It looked like Austin was frantically telling
Nellie what I had told him. I snapped.
“Grab me!” I quickly said. They startled at my sudden appearance and my command.
Then they reached for me, and I snapped again.
“The pizza man’s almost to the warehouse,” I told them. “Come on!”
We raced back to the warehouse and hid. We paused, all of us breathing hard, both from
the run and the thought of what might come next.
“Are you ready?” I asked. They nodded. I snapped.
The pizza man continued to the door of the warehouse and knocked. I kept my eyes on
the door, ready to snap when it was open wide enough for us to enter. For a moment, I thought
no one was going to come to the door, but finally, the door opened. I hesitated. When I thought

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the door was beginning to close, I snapped. Austin and Nellie had kept their hands on me the
whole time. I sighed.
We didn’t move right away. I knew we weren’t going to waltz in, grab Peter, and waltz
out. Sykes would never make it that easy. I was sure he was waiting for us.
Without saying a word, Austin, Nellie, and I glanced at each other and then slowly
walked to the warehouse. We squeezed our way by the pizza man and looked around. The place
was dark and littered with car parts, old workbenches, and boxes similar to the ones in the other
warehouse. A man stood inside the doorway with a magazine in his hand. He looked happy,
probably because of the pizza.
“Do you think Peter is in here?” Austin asked.
“That’s why we’re here,” Nellie said. “To find out. Let’s keep our eyes open and look
around.”
We began searching the warehouse, but the place was small, and we finished quickly.
“I don’t see anything,” I said, shaking my head. My heart was sinking again.
“What about up there?” Nellie asked. “That looks like a room.”
She pointed to a set of narrow stairs leading up to a small landing with a closed door. The
room beyond didn’t have any windows, and it looked more like a large closet rather than a room.
We raced up to the room and tried the door. It was locked.
“Now what do we do?” Austin asked.
Nellie started to examine the area. She leaned over the railing on the landing, and her
eyes followed something along the wall and down below. I followed her gaze.
“What do you see?” I asked.
Nellie didn’t answer but went down the stairs and over to the telephone jack along the
wall. Two wires led out of the jack: one was stapled to the wall and led up to the room at the top
of the stairs; the other led to a phone over on a work bench. She picked up the phone and
listened.
“Of course, it doesn’t work. Time is frozen,” Nellie said. She looked at the phone and
read the number that was printed just above the buttons. She then pulled out the paper we’d
found at the other warehouse and compared the numbers.
“Bingo!” she said. “The numbers match.”

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 “What are you doing?” I asked. I couldn’t understand why it was important to have the
numbers match. After all, we had already found the warehouse, so how could the phone number
be of any help to us?
“We need to get someone to open that door.” She pointed up to the loft. “Right?”
“Right,” I answered.
“If I’m right, the wire that leads from this jack to the loft room has a phone connected to
it that will ring when someone calls. All we need to do is disable this phone and then call the
number. Hopefully, they will hear the ring from the loft. When they find out this phone doesn’t
work, they’ll have to open the door to answer it. And when they do, you will snap, and then we
can see if Peter is in there.”
“Nellie, you’re a genius,” I said. I never would have thought of that.
“But what if someone already in the room answers that phone?” Austin was trying to find
a hole in Nellie’s plan, but it was a good question.
“That’s always a possibility, but it won’t hurt to try,” Nellie said.
“But we don’t have a phone to make the call,” Austin declared.
“There’s one just down the street,” Nellie said. “First we have to disable this phone.” She
picked up the phone and began taking it apart.
“Why don’t you just pull the cord out of the jack?” Austin asked.
“Because we don’t want to tip off the drug dealers,” Nellie explained, using a screwdriver
she found to loosen some screws in the bottom of the phone. “If we pulled out the cord, they
would know someone was here. However, if we just disconnect one wire inside this phone, it
will look perfectly normal, except that it won’t work. They will just think the phone is broken,
rather than thinking someone messed with it.”
Austin just nodded his head and let Nellie work. It was a good plan.
It took Nellie no time to disconnect some wires and then put the phone back together.
“Okay,” she said, making sure that the phone was back in the same place as before. “Give
me a minute or two to get to the phone booth down the street, and then snap.”
“But I don’t want you to go alone,” I said. “Take Austin with you. That way when I start
time again, you’ll have someone to help you if you need it.”
“But then when they open the door and you snap, we will both be frozen and I won’t be
able to help you,” Austin said. Like I really needed his help.

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 “Once I find out if Peter is in there or not, I can come and find you guys and then do a
quick double snap. Then, we can come back and rescue Peter,” I explained. “…if he’s in there.”
“Okay,” Nellie agreed.
“Come on,” she said to Austin, and they squeezed their way out through the door.
I found a place where I could hide, and I waited. The place seemed eerie alone. It was
dark and totally silent. And then I realized something.
Where was Sykes? Austin had said he saw him come in here, but where was he? Had he
left before I had a chance to get back to the warehouse? I didn’t think he could come and go so
quickly. Was he still in here? Goosebumps crawled up my back and neck thinking of him nearby.
Was he in the loft room with Peter? My stomach knotted up. I didn’t want to think of Peter in
there with Sykes. I started breathing fast as my mind went wild with thoughts.
I checked my watch. I gave them a full three minutes to get to the phone and then I
snapped. The sudden noise was crashing. The door slammed as the man with the pizza entered, a
radio started playing loud, and horns honked out in the street. The noise came from all directions,
and I felt surrounded.
I listened for the phone and wondered if they would hear it with the radio so loud. I didn’t
think I would be able to hear it from where I was. Why was the radio playing so loud?
I peeked out from my hiding place and saw the two men walking away from my area. As
I raised my head to see where they were going, something hit me hard on the head.
Pain radiated from my head downward. My mind started to twirl around faster and faster.
And then…nothing.

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 Chapter 18

I slowly came to from a deep unconsciousness, as if I was gradually floating upward like a
balloon, but ever so slowly. My head throbbed, and with each breath my heart beat faster. I
relaxed, trying to keep my breathing steady and easy in an attempt to control the pain.
I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids wouldn’t open. My head pounded harder. I felt
confined, as if underwater, like something was pressing on all sides of me. I tried to raise my
hand to my head, but it wouldn’t move. Was I paralyzed?
I searched my brain, trying to remember where I was and what I was doing. Oh, yeah!
The warehouse, Nellie and Austin, a phone, the drug dealers, the smell of pizza—Peter!
I forced my eyes open, feeling nauseated from the pain. What little light there was
flooded my eyes, and I took a deep breath. More pain.
“Lester? Lester?” Nellie’s voice reached my ears, sweet and soothing. Then I heard
another familiar voice.
“Lester, are you all right?” It was Peter. I turned my head in the direction of the voice.
Through the pain and the blurry dizziness, I saw him.
“Peter?” My voice was a whisper, a fraction of what it was just moments before.
Seeing my friend at last, my head cleared and my eyes adjusted to the low light. Peter,
Nellie, and Austin were sitting on the floor at the other end of the room. A man stood at the door
with a gun in hand.
I looked down at myself. I was tied up. As the pain subsided from my head, I could feel
new pain: pain in my hands, arms, and legs. I was tied very tightly to a chair. I had always had a
fear of being confined, a little bit of claustrophobia, like when Austin stuffed me in my locker,
but this was heart-pounding. I pulled at the ropes and couldn’t move at all. I was not going
anywhere.
The man at the door opened it and yelled, “Hey, boss, he’s awake!”
Footsteps clunked up the stairs. I wasn’t surprised when Sykes came through the door
and looked my way.
“Well, Lester,” he said with a smile. “How’s your head?”
I didn’t answer.

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 “I knew you would come,” Sykes explained. “I don’t know how you found this place, but
somehow I knew you’d be here. I’m just glad I got here before you. I was hiding as I saw you
appear. Then I hit you. I told all of my men to act like I wasn’t here, and the loud music made
sure you couldn’t hear me come up from behind. A simple little plan, but it worked so well.”
I pulled at the ropes again, swallowing hard. How was I going to get out of this?
“Why don’t you just disappear?” He asked the question like he knew I couldn’t. How
could he know how my power worked?
“I have been doing a lot of thinking about you and your power,” Sykes said. “I don’t
think you can disappear and reappear somewhere else.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I think so,” he answered, nodding his head with assurance. “Somehow, I think you can
stop everything around us. But transporting yourself? No, I don’t think you can do that.” He
walked over to me and knelt down, so we were face to face.
“Remember at the dance? You stopped everything but me.” He rose, took out his gun,
and pointed it at me. “No, I think you just stop everything and move to a new place before you
restart everything, which means you won’t be going anywhere when you are tied up. And if I’m
wrong, go ahead, disappear.”
He waited for me to transport myself away, but he was right—I couldn’t. Of course, I
could snap, but it would do me no good if I was still tied up.
“I must be right,” Sykes said, with a smirk. “I just can’t figure out how you allow some
people not to freeze. But, somehow, I think there is a limitation to that, too. Otherwise, you
wouldn’t still be tied up.”
At least Sykes didn’t have full knowledge of my power. But it did little good for me now
with my friends so far away from me. Still, him not knowing that part of it might be the only way
I could get us out of this mess.
“Now, since I don’t think you can show me how you do what you do, my only choice is
to get rid of you and your friends.”
There was a commotion down below in the warehouse.
“Go see what that is!” Sykes ordered. The other man left. Sykes stood at the door, trying
to see down below and keep his eyes on us. I made eye contact with Austin and tried to tell him

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with my eyes what I was thinking. He was the closest to me and he needed to get to me, touch
me and then I would snap. But he had to do it quickly before Sykes could shoot.
Austin raised his eyebrows and looked at Sykes and then at me. He understood. But the
minute he moved, Sykes was there.
“Don’t move!” he shouted. Austin fell back into his place and stared at Sykes as he
pointed the gun his way. “One more move like that and I will shoot!”
A man came into the room.
“It’s your partner, Brown,” he said.
“What?” Sykes barked. “How did he know about this place?” The man shrugged. “Bring
him up here.” The man left and soon returned with Agent Brown, hand cuffed with his own
cuffs.
“Sykes,” Brown said gruffly. “So, Lester was right.”
“How did you know?” Sykes asked.
“A turkey sandwich told me,” Brown replied. Sykes looked confused, but I knew what
Brown was talking about. I smiled. “Then I followed you here,” Brown continued.
“Too bad,” Sykes said, then he looked toward the man holding Brown. “Put him with the
rest.”
The man pushed Brown to the floor with Peter, Nellie, and Austin.
“Well, this just might work out even better,” Sykes said with a soft chuckle. “When they
find all of you, they will think Brown is the dealer working with Austin, and Lester and his
friends got caught in the middle.”
“How will you explain that we all died by bullets?” Brown asked.
“Oh, I’m not going to shoot you. We’re going to burn the place down.” Sykes smiled,
showing his teeth. “They may wonder why Lester is the only one tied up, but that can’t be
helped.” He turned to the man at the door. “Douse the place with gas.”
The man started to leave the room. But before Sykes turned back, Brown jumped up and
lunged at him. He caught Sykes in the middle, but Sykes was able to catch Brown off balance
and push him back down to the ground.
Austin rolled as quickly as he could toward me. “Hurry!” I said, hoping he could make it
in time before Sykes gained the upper hand. Austin was only inches away from me, but they

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seemed like yards. I waited, ready with my fingers for Austin’s touch. His hand landed on my leg
just as Sykes pointed the gun at Brown and fired.
I snapped.
Silence!
For a moment, nothing moved. I wasn’t sure if Austin had touched me before I snapped
or not.
I looked down at Austin. His chest rose and fell.
“Are you with me?” I asked.
Austin glanced up at me. “Yeah.”
“Please, untie me,” I pleaded. “My hands and feet are going numb.”
Austin rose and began untying me. He glanced over at Sykes and the others as he worked
on the knots. I rubbed my hands together as Austin finished untying my feet.
I slowly stood up and looked at the others. It was hard to take in what was happening.
Peter and Nellie were frozen in the midst of turning away from Sykes. Peter’s hands were
coming up to protect his head. Brown was attempting to get up again after Sykes had knocked
him down. His brow narrowed with anger, and fire filled his eyes. Sykes had both hands on his
gun, pointing at Brown.
The bullet from his gun was frozen in mid-flight, heading straight for Brown!
The man at the door was either attempting to open or close the door; I couldn’t tell.
Austin and I looked at each other. He was still breathing heavy.
“What do we do now?” he asked.
I took a deep breath. “I don’t know.”
First of all, we needed to stop the bullet from hitting Brown. I was sure we needed his
help once I snapped. If the bullet hit him, we would be on our own, and I didn’t think we could
win against Sykes and the other man. We had to deflect that bullet.
“We can’t let that bullet finish on its current path,” I said to Austin. “We have to stop it
somehow.”
“Stop it?” Austin asked, astonished. “Stop a bullet?”
“We need Brown if we are going to get out of this,” I said. “Let’s see if we can find
something out in the warehouse to place in front of the bullet to stop it.”
“Like what?” Austin asked.

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 “I don’t know. But we have to find something.” I went to the door. The man was in the
way and the door was only open about three or four inches, not enough for Austin or I to squeeze
through. I pushed on the door. It wouldn’t move.
“Here, let me.” Austin pushed on the door. Nothing. He maneuvered around the man and
put his shoulder on the door. He gritted his teeth and forced his shoulder hard against the door.
The door wouldn’t budge.
“It’s no use,” I said, shaking my head with frustration. “Anything that has momentum
when I snap can’t be moved.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just the way it is!”
“Let’s just move Brown,” said Austin. He walked over to Brown and tried to move him.
He pulled and pushed Brown, but nothing worked. I turned my attention to the bullet.
I looked around the room again, looking for anything that might deflect the bullet. There
was a small flimsy card table, the chair I was tied to, and a pile of broken-down cardboard boxes.
Nothing to stop a bullet.
“You’re just going to have to snap and hope the bullet doesn’t kill Brown,” Austin said,
dropping his hands in defeat.
I looked at him. “I’m not going to let the bullet kill Brown.”
“We can’t just stay in here,” Austin said, his voice rising. “Time may have stopped, but
we haven’t, and we can’t survive in here forever.”
Forever, I thought. I wondered if there was a forever when time was stopped.
I tried to think of what Nellie would do. She would examine everything before doing
anything, I thought to myself.
Talking a deep breath, I looked over everything one more time. A bullet in mid-flight
aimed at Brown; a door that couldn’t be opened trapping us inside the room; three frozen people
who had momentum and could not be moved; Sykes with a gun in hand. He could get several
more shots off if I started time again. What could I do?
I looked closely at the bullet, twisting my mouth. “Do you think we could push on the
bullet and move it just enough so that it would miss Brown?” I asked. Austin just stared at me for
a moment.
“Push a bullet?” Austin didn’t like my idea. “Are you crazy?”

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 Maybe I was, but it was the only thing I could think of. If one of us pushed on the bullet
hard—before I snapped—the bullet would move, ever so slightly, but we only needed a little
anyway. It sounded possible, and yet it sounded impossible, but what other choice did I have?
“Give me your shoestrings,” I told Austin.
“What are you going to do with my shoestrings?”
I started taking off my own shoestrings. “We’re going to tie them around Sykes’s feet and
the other man’s. That way, when I snap, they will lose their balance and hopefully fall, giving us
the advantage.”
Austin started taking off his shoestrings. We tied the laces around the feet of the man at
the door and Sykes. We tied them as tight as we could. We stepped back, ready to do what we
had to do.
“You’re going to have to push on the bullet,” I told Austin.
“Me?”
“I can’t push on the bullet and snap my fingers. I will hold on to Sykes’s gun and
hopefully pull it away before he can shoot again.”
Austin looked at the bullet and then back at me. He put his hand against the bullet and
pushed. Of course, it didn’t move.
He hesitated, looking uncertain. “Do you really think I can move it?”
“If you push really hard.”
“What if the bullet goes through my hand?”
“It won’t kill you if it does, but it will kill Brown if we don’t try.”
Austin squinted from behind the bullet and followed its likely path. He looked at me. I
was pretty sure he was thinking the same thing I was: the bullet would hit Brown about mid-
chest. We could not allow the bullet to continue without trying to move it.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Austin positioned himself next to the bullet and planted his feet. He
twisted the ball of each foot, making sure they wouldn’t slip. He carefully placed the heel of his
right hand on the bullet and then the left on the top of his right. He looked at me and nodded.
I positioned myself to the side of Sykes and grabbed the gun with my left hand. I
wrapped my right hand around his arms, keeping my right hand free so I could snap.
“Ready?” I asked Austin.
“Ready!”

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 “Wait,” I said. I couldn’t resist. Even in a tense moment like this, I had to do it. I took a
marker and drew a mustache on Sykes. I think even Austin was pleased with my work.
“Okay,” I said, grabbing the gun again.
Austin pushed as hard as he could, and I tightened my grip on the gun. I took a deep
breath and snapped!
The commotion was overwhelming.
The blast from the gunshot filled the room, loud and deafening. Austin screamed as the
bullet shot forward, burning his hand. Sykes whipped me around like a rag doll, staggering from
the shoestrings around his feet.
Brown, Nellie, and Peter continued their momentum, trying to move away from Sykes.
Brown was hit by the bullet, but it only grazed his shoulder and he jumped up to help. Nellie and
Peter stumbled into the corner. I wished I was with them.
Sykes fought me, trying to get me to let go of his hands and the gun while also struggling
to stay on his feet. I held on with all my might, trying to keep the gun pointed away from
everyone. He was powerful! I knew I couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
The man at the door—with our shoestrings tied around his feet—quickly stumbled up to
Sykes. Austin was holding his injured hand and looked over in my direction. He could see I was
losing. I wondered if he was going to help me.
Suddenly, I heard a sound like a bear’s growl. Austin, like a locomotive, his arms
stretched out, tackled all three of us—Sykes, the man at the door, and myself. The power of
Austin’s force knocked all three of us down to the floor.
“Ooph!” The wind was knocked out of me, as I was sandwiched between Sykes and
Austin.
Austin grabbed the gun and, with the help of Brown, gained the upper hand.
It was over!

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 Chapter 19

The paramedic wrapped Austin’s burned hand as I stood by with Nellie’s arm around
mine. I guess I didn’t have to ask her to go out with me; it was assumed. Peter stood on the other
side of me. It was so good to have him back, safe and sound. He didn’t seem upset from the
whole ordeal. Brown came up behind Austin and placed his hand on Austin’s shoulder.
“How’s the hand?” Brown asked.
“It’s going to be okay,” Austin said.
“Thank you for saving my life,” said Brown. “You have no idea how grateful I am.” He
looked at us. “And how about you guys? You okay?”
“We’re fine,” said Nellie, holding my arm tighter.
The police had arrived shortly after Brown took control of the situation. They had Sykes
and his men in the cop cars and had taken statements from us. Brown advised us not to tell them
about my snapping. Who would believe it, anyway? The story was that we rushed Sykes when he
wasn’t looking. Of course, Sykes’s story was a bit different, but the police thought he was crazy.
“What’s going to happen now?” I asked Brown.
“With Sykes?” Brown asked.
“No, with me. After all, I robbed a bank,” I said. “Isn’t that why you were after me in the
first place?”
“You’re right about that,” Brown replied. He thought for a moment.
I didn’t think I deserved jail time or anything. After all, I’d uncovered a drug ring and
exposed a bad FBI agent. That should at least get me a lighter sentence…right?
Finally, Brown said, “I think there is a reward for catching drug dealers, and if you would
allow me to repay the bank with the money, I think I could take care of everything.”
I exhaled in relief. “Yes, that would be great.”
“Reward?” Austin chimed in, perking up. “I helped catch the drug dealers too.”
“Austin,” Nellie said, giving him the stink eye. Austin looked at each of us.
“Okay, okay,” said Austin. “Give it to the bank.”
“And I won’t mention in my report you were working with the drug dealers,” Brown
said, patting Austin’s shoulder. I smiled at Austin, and then Brown looked at all of us. “Your
parents should be here soon.”

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 “Our parents?” I gasped.
“I couldn’t not call them,” Brown said.
“Mine too?” Austin said.
“All four of you,” Brown said.
“Are you going to tell my parents what I was doing?” Austin pleaded.
“Like I said, I don’t know anything about that, and it won’t be in my report,” Brown
explained.
“And please don’t mention my ability to my mom,” I begged Brown as I shook my head.
“She doesn’t know?” Brown asked.
“What would you do if your son could snap?” I asked.
“Good point,” Brown said. “Well, that won’t be in my report either, I don’t want my boss
thinking I’m crazy.” Then Brown joined the other agents.
“My mom is going to kill me,” I said.
“I have no idea what my mom and dad will say,” Peter said. “I might be grounded for
life.”
“I think my parents will be proud of me,” Nellie exclaimed.
“I have no idea what to even tell my parents,” said Austin.
“We all need to have the same story,” Nellie said. “We tell the truth, except about
stopping time.”
“What about me?” Austin asked. We couldn’t tell everyone that Austin was working with
the drug people, so we decided to say that Austin knew about the drug deal and we were helping
him stop it. That was kind of true. I thought it gave him too much credit but then I really didn’t
care. I was just happy that everything came out okay.
Austin’s parent arrived first. The police were keeping people far behind the police tape.
“My parents are here,” Austin said. “Bye.” Austin started to walk away.
“Bye,” I replied. “Hey Austin.” I ran up to him. “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have
done it without you.”
He looked at me for a moment. “You’re okay, Lester,” he said. “And I won’t be
bothering you anymore.” He nodded his head, and then walked to his mother’s arms.
Peter and Nellie’s parents arrived at the same time. Peter put his hand on my shoulder.
“Thanks for saving me, Lester,” he said.

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 “We’re friends,” is all I said and then Peter ran to his mother and father.
“Bye, Lester.” Nellie said. “See you at school?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “See you at school.” She hugged me and walked away. Yep, we are
girlfriend and boyfriend.
As I waited for my mom to arrive, I thought about how crazy the last few days had been.
I hoped that things would calm down, but then how could they if I could still snap.
When my mom pulled up, I proudly walked to her, almost tearing up. I was a different
person than just a few days ago, but still her son.
She rushed to me and hugged me. “Are you okay?” She said through tears.
“I’m fine,” mom. “I’m just fine.” She looked at me for a moment and she could see the
difference too. “You better had a good explanation for all this?”
“I do,” I said, and she put her arm around me, and we walked to the car.
***
As I walked to school the next day, I thought of how I used to think that having money
and nice clothes would make me popular, but it didn’t. I was still Lester Lopkins, a nerd in the
freshman class. Except, I didn’t really feel like a nerd anymore. I found out that what’s more
important is how you think about yourself.
“Hi, Peter,” I said, as I dialed my combination.
“Hi, Lester,” Peter replied. It was almost like nothing had happened.
I noticed Austin coming down the hall and I wondered how we would interact after
working together. As we made eye contact, he nodded but he and his friends just walked by.
“He didn’t even say, hi,” Peter said.
“Yeah, well, he’s still Austin,” I explained.
“I don’t think he will be bullying you anymore,” Peter concluded.
“I don’t think he will be bullying anyone anymore,” I said.
“I hope not,” Peter said. “Did you do your Biology homework?”
“Did we have Biology homework?” I asked. I guess somethings never change.
“You know, Peter, you were right,” I told him. “My snapping causes nothing but
problems.”
“Yeah. It nearly got me killed.” Peter was being a little dramatic.
“You didn’t have to follow me to the warehouse,” I said.

139
“Yes, I did,” said Peter. “We’re friends!” He smiled.
Very good friends, I thought to myself.
“And, as my friend, I will take your advice. I’m not going to snap anymore.”
Peter raised his eyebrows. “Right!” he said.
“No, I’m serious!” I declared.
“Right!” Peter repeated, rolling his eyes.
“I can stop snapping, just like that!” I snapped my fingers. “Oops!”

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