Chapter 41: ~Chapter 13~ Part 2

As it turned out, yes, we did. Apparently it was Monday's PE switched with our last history class for some reason. It might have had something to do with my previous afternoon being spent restraining the princess, but I honestly didn't notice the switch. Some observer I am, right?

I silently snorted in self-derision and hurled the javelin in my hand a little angrier than before. It flew in a beautiful arc, staying straight and true until the moment it hit the ground with a loud ‘thunk', embedding its tip into the grassy ground a good five meters ahead of the second-best throw, which also happened to be mine.

"Wow..." Joshua let out an awed whistle and patted me in the back. "You broke the school record. Again."

"You are a natural!" Angie agreed, though I still didn't know what she was doing hanging around on our side of the field while the girls also had their own evaluations going on in parallel. It was about throwing these small, yellow balls made of rubber as far as they could. I didn't really see the point of it aside from providing a simple number they could pin a grade upon, but I was no PE teacher, so who knew? Maybe it did build the arm muscles. Or failing that, character.

Meanwhile, Angie continued to buzz around me, even going as far as to poke the biceps of my throwing arm.

"Maybe you were a hoplite in your previous life?"

"Hoplites didn't throw their spears," came the instant rebuttal from the class rep on my left, and no, I didn't know what she was doing over on our side either. She still seemed to give me the evil eye from time to time, but otherwise she was back to normal, which was a relief. Anyways, it was Josh's turn on the field, so he grabbed one of the brand new red-white striped javelins from the pile at our side and winked at us.

"Just you watch! I think I've got the basics of your technique down!"

With that said, he raised his javelin, took a running start, and threw it with all his might. The moment it left his hand it began wobbling in the air, and while it certainly flew a respectable distance, it still fell short, and to the right, of my second best throw by about two meters. He clicked his tongue in frustration but still smiled.

"It's progress!"

"Yeah." I nodded and picked up another javelin even though it wasn't my turn. I waved Josh over and showed it to him. "You need to hold it a bit closer to the head, like this. Also, you need to focus on where you want to throw it and adjust your strength accordingly. If you just toss it with all your might without giving it a clear direction, you are never going to hit anything."

"But this is about distance, not accuracy."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah..." Joshua waved his hand and then grabbed hold of the javelin in mine. "Like this?"

"No, not that close. A little lower, closer to the middle... yeah, that's about right."

"Are you giving free lessons?" This time it was the princess who came over. Her bangs were pulled into a loosely hanging ponytail, probably so that they wouldn't interfere with her activities. It actually suited her. "Where did you even learn to throw like that?"

"The Chief is a man of many talents," came the needlessly mysterious explanation from my assistant. "Throwing things to great distances is merely one of them."

"Now that you mention it," Josh spoke while hefting the javelin in his hand," You suddenly became ridiculously good at sports. You are a menace on the basketball field too."

"And table-tennis. Don't forget table tennis."

"I'm trying to, but you keep reminding me!" he grumbled as he stuck the javelin into the ground next to his feet and faced the girls. "By the way, how is the evaluation going on your side? Are you going to finish soon?"

Judy shook her head and pointed at the princess at her side. "Eleanor lost the balls, so we are on break until they find them."

"I didn't lose them! They are right over there on the field! ... Somewhere..."

"That was a little vague," I mused as I looked over the girls' side, and they indeed seemed to be in the process of combing the field. "How did you even lose them?"

"Her throws were all over the place," Angie told me while waving in the direction of the field. "Aaaaaall over."

"That much?" She nodded, earning a contemplative 'Huh.' from me, and after a moment of thinking, I lightly shrugged. "I thought she would be good with balls, being a tennis player at all, but I can certainly imagine it. She is pretty clumsy."

"Hey! I'm standing right here!" the subject of our conversation protested aloud while stomping her feet. "I can hear you! Also, I'm not clumsy!"

"You kind of are, but don't worry. It's one of your charms. Right, Josh?"

"Um... Sure?" he responded a tad uncertainly, probably because he wasn't even following our conversation.

"See, the male population is in agreement. A little clumsiness from time to time is totally all right."

The princess stared at us for a while, but in the end she turned around with a small huff.

"I'll go and help to look for the balls!"

Just like that, she left our side of the field, and Angie and the class rep closely followed after her.

"Well, there she goes," I muttered to no one in particular, but then I noticed my assistant's piercing stare and I raised a questioning brow at her. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"No."

Following that curt answer, she turned around and left as well, leaving me scratching my head.

"You know," Josh remarked while gathering up some discarded javelins, "It's because of moments like these that I can't decide whether you are good or horrible with girls."

I gave him a flat frown. I thought we were over this already. However, before I could raise the point, Josh switched gears and let out a heavy sigh, stopping me in my tracks.

"How are we going to have our basketball duel like this?"

"You were serious about that?" He gave me a look that could be roughly translated as ‘Duh?', and after a moment of consideration I turned to him again. "How about after school?"

"Not today. I already have plans with Angie." Noticing the subtle signs of curiosity I was giving off, Josh took a deep breath and continued, "There is this new gyros place that opened up in the neighborhood recently, and she's been pestering me about it for ages. I gave in this morning, so we are going there after school."

"Date?"

"Obviously not."

I chuckled to myself and waved a dismissive hand as we got into the line for the next throw.

"Fine, fine. You were the one who wanted to play. I can wait until you have a free afternoon."

My friend stopped in his tracks for a moment and after a few seconds of thinking his mood seemed to considerably brighten.

"Actually, we really should do that soon. It's been ages since we hung out, just the two of us."

"All the more--" I got that far before the words froze in my throat. There was a small yellow blur in the corner of my vision, and at once my body reflexively twisted itself to the side with little input from any conscious thought. In fact, I did it so abruptly that I nearly lost my balance and fell on my butt. I managed to catch myself at the very last moment and shook my head with a frown.

"What the hell?!" Josh exclaimed at my side while holding his forehead, and I could already see a circular red bump forming on it. His question mirrored mine perfectly.

"Sorry!" the princess cried out in panic as she rushed up to us. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, but that came out of nowhere!"

"Sorry..." she apologized again, and by this time the initial surprise subsided enough for the little wheels in my head to start spinning again and connecting the dots. I dodged something yellow. The girls were throwing balls over there. The princess came running over. Q.E.D...

"Excuse me, but weren't you supposed to throw balls in that direction?"

The princess shuddered and gave me a glare that somehow also looked hurt. Don't ask me how that worked; she was a virtuoso when it came to glares after all.

"I-Indeed. It just... slipped out of my hand."

She kept glaring at me as if she was daring me to say anything else. I decided that there was no point in teasing her over an accident like this, so I shrugged and grabbed hold of Josh instead.

"Fair enough., I don't think there was any harm done. Hey Josh, how many fingers am I showing?"

"Two?"

"See. No concussion. I bet you were more surprised than actually hurt."

"Of course I was surprised! That ball flew through your head!"

"Through my head?" I repeated after him, and Josh responded with an enormous nod.

"Not literally," he grumbled while still rubbing his forehead. "One second we are talking, the next you sway to the right and then I get hit by a ball! Dick move, pal!"

You are reading story The Simulacrum at novel35.com

"Wait, what was I supposed to do?"

"Warn me! Or failing that, take the hit! Friends are supposed to take some hits for one another!"

I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Well, I guess this time you took one for me, buddy." He only frowned at me without a word, so I rolled my eyes and patted his shoulder a bit harder. "Oh come on! Stop with the long face. I will treat you to something later."

"It was a nice dodge though," the class rep declared, appearing out of nowhere like usual. By now I wasn't even surprised. "I honestly thought it would hit you in the back of the head."

"Back of the head?"

I looked over in the direction of the field and my brows knit themselves before I even knew it. Indeed, considering that Josh was hit squarely on the forehead, and that I was facing him at the time, it meant that the ball was literally coming at me from the back... But I could distinctly remember seeing the ball coming. Well, a blur coming.

I looked at the class rep and, after a moment of hesitation, I ventured a guess.

"ESP?"

She blinked at me, but then she put her hands on her hips and frowned with the ferocity of a wounded... well, maybe not a tiger. Housecat? No, that's too mild. Let's go with 'feline of unusual size'; it should cover all the bases. Anyways, she set her mouth in a line and said;

"Very funny. I'm not falling for that again."

"Ack. Look at me Josh! I've become the boy who cried wolf one too many times!"

Everyone ignored me, which hurt a little. In the meantime, Angie rushed over to Josh's side and took a look at his forehead.

"Wow, that left a mark! Are you all right? Do you feel nauseous? Should we go to the infirmary?"

"I'm fine," he protested, but his childhood friend already got herself riled up too much. Resistance was futile.

"Elly, grab him! I am going to tell Mrs. Applebottom where we are going! I'll be back in a moment!"

The princess followed her instructions, and after a little while the group, including Mrs. Applebottom, left the field to take the still objecting Joshua to the nurse's office. Since the teacher wasn't around to give them instructions anymore, the placeholders began doing placeholder things in the background, such as talking about the weather or playing around with the equipment without any rhyme or reason.

As for me, I spent most of the empty time sitting under a tree by the side of the field, near the ball-catching fence of the tennis courts, preoccupied with the possibility of me being actually psychic. That was another notch in my notes under the ‘ideas I never thought I would take seriously' header. Well, it was already obvious I could do some impossible things. Being able to view people from afar was already ESP territory, but now that I had a second ‘power' under my belt, it opened the idea up for further investigation.

"Chief?"

I looked up and found Judy looking down at me. I smiled at her and patted the ground beside me.

"Perfect timing." She didn't say anything; she just sat down by my side and waited for me to elaborate. "Remember my ability?"

"To flirt?"

I rolled my eyes.

"No, I mean my ability to listen and see people at a distance."

"Oh. You mean your alleged ability."

"I thought we pretty conclusively decided it was a thing."

"It's still not conclusive, and you haven't been using it since Sunday."

"Well, yeah..." I scratched my chin and tried not to grimace. "I just don't like to invade other people's privacy unless they invade mine first. Also, it's a little disorienting." She nodded but at the same time continued to look at me expectantly, apparently waiting for the reason why I brought it up. "Okay, here's the thing: When Josh got hit with that ball that I dodged? I could see it coming even when I shouldn't have been able to."

"New power?"

"Possibly. Or just an extension of the first one. It's the first time this happened, so I have no idea."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Testing?" she finally asked in the most excited voice I have ever heard coming out of her.

"Testing," I affirmed with a sharp nod. "We haven't done any experiments yet, so it's about time."

"I'll go and get some tools." After saying so, she stood up and scampered away. In the meantime I moved to an out-of-view corner and prepared the area. After a minute or so Judy returned with a couple of the yellow rubber balls and two cans of soda. She promptly handed one over to me.

"Thanks?" I looked inquisitively at the drink in my hand.

"The vending machine was on the way."

"I see."

After that short exchange we both opened our cans and drank their contents in more-or-less one go.

"All right!" I told her as I rubbed my palms together. "Here's what we are going to do: You will throw a ball at me and I will try to dodge it."

"Okay."

Without waiting for any signal Judy threw the ball in her hand at me.

"Ow." I declared flatly after being hit by it, more out of obligation than actually being hurt, and I picked up the ball at my feet. "You were supposed to wait until I closed my eyes."

"You never specified that."

"I would've if you let me." I paused for a moment, only just noticing the slightly petulant edge her voice had. Normally I might not have noticed, but since our traditional nightly phone conversations started I began to focus more on her tone and less on her barely existent facial expressions. "Or... Did you just want to hit me with a ball?"

"Baseless accusation." She stated, and then she threw another ball at me. This time I avoided it, though not because of any special ability but simply by good-old-fashioned reflexes.

"Actually, you have been giving me mixed signals for a while. Did I make you angry without noticing?"

"Not really."

She might have said that, but she was already preparing another ball to throw at me. In fact, she would've thrown it anyways if not for a new voice entering the conversation.

"What are you doing?"

We looked in the direction of the voice and found the class rep there, her hands crossed in front of her chest.

"We are testing the chief's reflexes by throwing balls at him," my assistant supplied the information. It made the class rep visibly ponder for a moment, and then she uncrossed her arms and stepped closer.

"Can I help?"

She didn't even wait for an answer; she picked up a ball and began practicing some over-the-shoulder throwing motions.

"Not just yet," I told her with my hands raised. "Also, what are you even doing here? I thought you would go with the others to the nurse's."

Amelia stopped swinging her arms and shook her head.

"We wouldn't all fit in the room, and as the prefect," she stressed the word and gave me a meaningful look before continuing with, "It's my duty to stay here and supervise the class."

I nearly pointed out that she wasn't doing that at the moment, but on second thougt I decided to ask, "So you aren't worried about Josh?"

"Not really. He has a thick head."

"In more ways than one," I mumbled under my breath in a voice I thought no one could hear. Judy might have anyways, though I couldn't understand what she mumbled in reaction. Something about ‘calling' and being ‘black'.

I wanted to ask her to repeat herself at first, but I already had a good idea what it was about, and I didn't want to poke the hornet's nest just yet. The PE class was almost over, so if we wanted to do any testing, we had to do it quickly and without any more distractions. As such, I quickly gave out some basic instructions to the girls and took my place in front of the fence. I faced them, readied myself, and then paused for a moment.

"Is it just me, or do you two look unusually eager?" I asked them while following the balls Judy was trying to juggle between her hands. She snatched them out of the air and answered in a voice about 150% more deadpan than usual:

"It's just your imagination."

You can find story with these keywords: The Simulacrum, Read The Simulacrum, The Simulacrum novel, The Simulacrum book, The Simulacrum story, The Simulacrum full, The Simulacrum Latest Chapter