Battlefield by J. F. Jenkins Page A

patience for it.
    â€œYes,” she repeated and poked him in the side. She jumped in surprise as he let out a girlish squeak. “Are you ticklish?”
    Orlando narrowed his eyes. “No.” His lie was revealed when he jumped away from her outstretched and eager fingers. He shivered with disgust. “Stop it. I can feel them all over me, and it’s violating.”
    That was the scene JD and Alan stumbled upon when they finally reached the room.
    â€œWho’s violating what now? Or do I not wanna know?” JD asked as he rejoined the two.
    â€œYour friend didn’t learn the golden rule of kindergarten. You know, that whole concept of keeping your hands to yourself.” Orlando glared at Cadence, shivering one last time.
    â€œI believe the golden rule is, ‘Do unto others like you would like them to do unto you’.” Cadence placed her hands on her hips before turning to JD. “We’re not having a lot of luck with the costume hunt.”
    â€œSpeak for yourself. I know exactly what I’m going to do,” Orlando mumbled as he stared at the fedora hat she had given him.
    â€œCare to share?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œBut—”
    JD pinched the bridge of his nose. “Whatever. If he doesn’t want to share, then he doesn’t have to.” He started to roam around inside of the boxes and pulled out various articles of clothing. “I got something together here. Cadence, I think we need to get going. Let’s meet up again tomorrow night and prowl the streets.”
    Orlando raised an eyebrow. “Prowl the streets? And do what? Search for villainous evildoers? Sounds kind of ambitious, don’t you think?”
    â€œWell, we have to do something,” JD said.
    â€œI can’t go out of the house.”
    â€œBust out!”
    â€œI’d rather not be grounded for the rest of my life. How about we first work on honing these abilities after school and on the weekends until I’m free? Or you know, first making sure we have an ability, so we don’t go out and randomly get ourselves killed.” He made sure to look at JD as he said the last part. “Let’s put the prowling off and look for some leads first? You know—use our brains.”
    â€œI use my brain plenty,” JD said under his breath. “Fine, if you’re too much of a wuss to break out of the joint, we’ll waste time and wait. Or maybe Cadence and I can start without you. You know, do that sleuthing thing you were just talking about.”
    She shrugged. “We’ll see what we can do, but we probably shouldn’t bite off more than we can chew either. I think for this weekend we’ve made some good progress. We have our bat cave and our spandex.”
    Orlando snorted, and he was positive he was the only one there who was actually taking the whole thing seriously.

Chapter Six
    Â 
    Two weeks passed and already Orlando was enrolled at Lunar Falls High and had a new schedule. Lyssa worked fast, and he appreciated it because after one day with nothing to do in the house, he needed something to keep himself entertained. Filling the gap had been difficult, especially without his video games. He read through his entire collection of books, reorganized his bedroom, and her closet.
    It took him twenty minutes to drive to school on Friday morning. An odd day to start his new classes, but he no longer wanted to delay the inevitable. Ideally, he was hoping for an excuse to get out of playing hero over the weekend. Every day he got a call from Cadence and JD wanting to talk details. And every day he told them not yet. He wasn’t ready. He had no clue how he was going to tell them he might never be.
    That was something he constantly chewed on over and over again in his mind, how to tell them. The more comfortable he became with his abilities, the more uneasy he began to feel. Lunar Falls was a nice new distraction.
    The school was nowhere