Luke Vance, code name: Apollo
Then

          I think I was sixteen when I first became aware that there was a drugs problem at Roosevelt.  I mean, yeah, I’d read about it- every kid in high school has read about it- but I’d never come face-to-face with it before.

          I was in the locker room with a couple of guys on the football team.  We’d been running our mouths- about our chances in the playoffs, I think- when our second-string quarterback, a wiry kid named Donald Shaw, reached into his athletic bag and pulled out a small bag of pills.

          I didn’t say anything, but Shaw must’ve seen me looking, because he scooped two into his hand, then resealed the baggie and dropped in back into his duffel.

          “Just helps me focus,” he said tersely.

          I shrugged.  I knew kids who popped no-Dōz like Skittles; I certainly wasn’t going to be upset if Shaw felt like he needed his own ‘feine pills.

          “Man, you oughtta just lay off,” Don continued, rounding on me as if I’d criticized him, “we can’t all be the golden boy, right?”

          “I guess,” I submitted, shrugging my shoulders.  This really did feel bizarre- what the Hell was he getting at?

          “There’s a bunch of us doing it, too,” he added defiantly, “and you get all the benefits in the game.  That’s why nobody can get past our offensive line…”

          The penny dropped.  “You’re taking drugs?” I asked incredulously.

          “Fuck no!” Shaw denied, “these are performance enhancers!  Nobody on the team would be stupid enough to do drugs.  Coach’d kill us!”

          “So… drugs are bad, but steroids are okay?” I asked.  I couldn’t believe he was defending this shit.

          “Oh, whatever,” Shaw grunted.  “Look, just don’t say anything, okay?  Just leave it alone.”

          “Sure,” I said reluctantly, “whatever you say.”

          Evin saw me after practice and asked me what was eating me.  I guess I still looked a bit bewildered.  Hell, I felt bewildered, and I told him so.  I also told him why.

          “You gonna turn ‘em in?” he asked.

          I mulled it over.  I’d always thought the answer would be easy- if Shaw had offered me drugs, it would’ve been.  In that case, I would’ve turned him over to school authorities and let the Devil take care of his own.  The problem was, he hadn’t.  Furthermore, Don was a friend- not my best friend, certainly, but he was a good guy, dependable in the clench, and he was good to his siblings.

          “I don’t know,” I admitted, finally, and Evin nodded.  It was easy to guess what Evin would’ve done- Evin didn’t really give a rat’s ass about the integrity of the team; as long as the only person Shaw was hurting was himself, Evin would undoubtedly let it go.

          That had been a Tuesday.  I remember it, because I remember agonizing about my decision all day the next day, which was a day off from scheduled practice, so I used it to hit the gym.  I called in sick on Thursday, which was a lie, but I still needed to try and get things sorted out in my mind.  I was still struggling with a decision on the way into school on Friday.

          When I stepped off the bus, Assistant Principal Newell was gathering a number of athletes into a group in front of the school entrance.  Shaw was there, as were a few other football players and athletes big in other sports.  I wandered over, curious what was going on, but Newell waved me away.  I was a bit surprised- I wasn’t huge on the team, yet, but I was making a name and that meant I was frequently tapped when anything big happened in Roosevelt sports- but I let it go and headed for class.

          I found out at lunch that thirteen kids in the school had been busted on possession and were suspended from school.  Including the four football players, that was a good portion of our offensive line, and it meant that I was being tapped to fill in to take Shaw’s place.  I got a lot of dark looks in the locker room, and I took some of the biggest hits of my career in that game; I was not especially popular with the rest of the athletic community for the remainder of the year.

          Years later, I mentioned it to Evin and he laughed.  “You never figured it out?” he asked.

          I admitted I had not.

          “I turned ‘em in,” he admitted.

          I must have boggled at him, because he chuckled.

          “Why?” I asked.

          “Because you weren’t going to,” he replied, “and it was killing you.”

*****

Now

          Shae woke up the next morning feeling miserable.  She hadn’t wanted to be a mom- certainly not at her age and with no partner to share the burden with- but having Sadie taken away from her still felt like a slap in the face.

          She puttered around in her small apartment, going about her usual morning things- coffee, a bowl of cereal, listening to NPR on her stereo- and growled at herself for her own fickleness.  She felt restless, on edge, and only part of it was because of her impending interview with Angel Falls’ finest.

          She went up the stairs to the room Sadie’d used and stripped the bed, then folded it back up into its sofa configuration.  Sadie had left almost no mark on the space that she’d occupied for barely a day.  There were even a couple of unpacked boxes still stuffed in the corner- the last remnants of Shae’s move, just a couple weeks prior.

          She went over and picked from the uppermost of the boxes, but the knick-knacks and kitsch in the container weren’t speaking to her.

          She rubbed her temples and headed back downstairs.  There was still a stack of cards left on her coffee table- invitations to the theoretical house-warming party she fully intended to throw provided she could ever claim the space as fully her own.

          “Two weeks,” she told herself, “or it’ll never be done.”

          She picked several cards off the table.  She could just call most of her friends- she’d probably send them a card anyways, since her mom seemed to think it was proper- but there were a few people she thought she’d like to see there who she didn’t know quite as well, yet.

          Evin could bully the rest of Friendly Fire, she supposed.  And she could drop by the police station to invite that big sniper she’d met last year.  She sniffed.  If she was inviting Zed, she probably couldn’t get out of inviting John Grady, which promised to be all sorts of fun.  She hadn’t liked him, but he had helped track down that crazy hitman…

          A thought struck her; if she was going by the station anyways, she could ask Ellie- Sergeant Martinez- to get in touch with Sophia and Hailey, maybe get them to bring Sadie by, as well.

          She dropped the invites into her purse and headed for the door, leaving her half-drunk coffee on the table.

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Apollo has always been a boy scout; he hasn't always been ready to accept that others are not.  This picture- and all the artwork for Shooting stars- is brought to you by the amazingly talented and lovely .

Shooting Stars is an epic tale (okay, maybe that's pushing it, but I've always wanted to call something I wrote an epic) taking place in  and will feature characters by , , and an appearance of Esau by .

All the characters in this section belong to .

You can find the previous section here: 



Mature Content