Silver by Cheree Alsop Page A

at them. Girls and boys lounged on benches that had been
pulled out at the other end of the clearing. Several students sat
in a circle around a manhole cover and tossed cards onto a pile.
Nikki caught up to me as I walked through the crowd. Both of us
tried to act like we fit in. I didn’t catch a single whiff of
werewolf and began to relax.
    “ So this is what a bunch of
oppressed high school students do during curfew,” I said to
her.
    Her eyes were wide. “I guess so; I never
knew!”
    The skaters rushed by again; we dodged them
and made our way to the benches. “I know one thing,” I told
her.
    “ What’s that?”
    “ I’ve gotta unpack my
skates.”
    She stared at me. “You’re going to play with
them?”
    She made it sound like I wanted to take on a
whole S.W.A.T. team by myself.
    “ Why not?”
    “ You could get killed!” she
replied.
    I gave a grim smile. “Oh, and that would be
any different from my life right now?”
    She was silent for a few minutes, then
surprised me when she said, “Well, if you’re going to play, I am
too.”
    It was my turn to stare. “You, out
there?”
    We both turned to look just as the entire
north team crashed into the goalie of the south team and flattened
him against a park bench that had been flipped on its side to serve
as a goal. They helped each other up, one picked up the puck and
threw it, and they were off again.
    “ It could be fun.” She
grinned. “Besides, there are girls out there. And girls can be more
aggressive than boys.”
    “ Oh really.”
    “ Yes, really.”
    I laughed and shrugged. “Fine, if you want
to play, meet me behind the fence tomorrow night with some
skates.”
    A boy tapped my shoulder. “You guys wanna
drink?” He held out a selection of sodas.
    “ Thanks.” I took a
Pepsi.
    Nikki took a Sprite. “Who do we pay?” she
asked.
    The boy shrugged. “No one; it’s covered by
the school, right Bode?” he shouted over his shoulder.
    A husky guy who looked like he could take on
a bull single-handedly raised a can in salute. The coolers he
leaned against looked overloaded with cans.
    “ That’s the quarterback of
the high school football team,” Nikki whispered to me in surprise.
We raised our sodas back and he gave us a thumbs-up.
    “ So, what do they do if the
cops show up?” Nikki asked the boy who gave us the
drinks.
    He pointed to two students I hadn’t noticed
perched on top of the back buildings. I saw two more at the other
two corners of the square. “We take turns acting as sentries for a
night. If the cops show up, we’re outta here before they know
anything’s up.”
    He left and I turned back to Nikki. “The
things you would’ve missed if I hadn’t shown up next door.”
    “ Hey, it’s the brawler!”
someone shouted.
    I shook my head, but several students came
over anyway. “You took on like twenty guys by yourself,” one boy
said.
    “ Yeah, and you didn’t even
bleed!” another crowed.
    Embarrassed, I shrugged. “They got me, but
I’ll live.”
    “ Show us,” an overzealous
girl with red streaks in her hair demanded.
    “ You got hurt?” Nikki asked
quietly next to me.
    “ It’s nothing, really,” I
protested. I lifted up my shirt so that they could see my side,
forgetting that the wound had opened again when I punched the bag.
Dried blood caked it, making it look worse than it was.
    Several students gasped and whistled. Nikki
touched my arm. “You should have that looked at,” she said.
    I shook my head and lowered my shirt. “I’m
fine; it's really not that bad.”
    “ And you gave them worse
than that!” a skinny redhead from the group said.
    A student with short black dreadlocks
grinned. “Dude, those guys have beaten up practically every kid in
school; it’s good to see someone get the best of them for
once.”
    “ Yeah,” other students
agreed.
    I shrugged. “Hey, I’m just glad to find a
place to escape this curfew.”
    Several students laughed. The dreadlocked
guy held out