STORMS AND TWISTS

CHAPTER TEN

Clara finally drove home when it was 11:00a.m. She couldn’t walk for two hours and Josiah was nice enough to stay with her. She didn’t know why he was so nice to her. Twice he had bumped into her and twice he had prevented from falling. A premonition rang into her thought to place it that the whole scenario was creepy.

The thought of her second encounter occupied her mind as she drove towards home. She couldn’t concentrate. Almost colliding with a truck made that evident. She just hoped she got home safely.

Finally, the car pulled up at the garage. She came out of the car holding the car keys and her bag. She walked into the house and was surprised to find Casey right by the door. She screamed in fright.

“Casey, what were you doing there? You almost startled to death”. She said, holding her chest and breathing heavily

“Let’s be less concerned about what I was doing by the door, let’s turn all gaze to you. How was your meeting?” he asked, moving his eyebrows.

“It was good.” She said, nervously. She started twiddling.

“You’re lying”. He said, moving closer to her.

“Hey, you don’t tell you sister she’s telling lies”. She said, frowning at him.

“We are both in the know that you get nervous and do twiddle when you tell lies to deceive me”. He said, folding his arms.

“Okay you got me. The director didn’t show up and he rescheduled the meeting. I’ve never been so tired in my whole life and my body is aching.”

“I told you a lot of rest is accruing to you and that you’d exhaust yourself if you are not cautious but you turned deaf ears and now that’s the end result of not listening to your baby brother”.

“Save your sermons for another day.”

“You need your rest a lot”. He said in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry about it. You are a sweetheart to worry about me. I’ll be fine”. She said, patting his shoulder gently. She yawned and went straight to her room.

“She’s been acting all weird lately. Not cool”. He said with a shrug.

Clara walked into her bedroom. She had a quick check of the pink-painted room and was rest assured everything was intact after some seconds. Casey was in the habit of coming to her room whenever he was bored. His visits usually made the room untidy. She exhaled in relief when she saw that the room was in good order.

She walked up to her bed and fell on it. She was hiding something from her brother. Apparently, she knew it was the best to make the situation obscure to him. It wasn’t fair to him but she had no choice. She had to keep him out of the whole scenario and by so doing she was protecting him. She wouldn’t want him to suffer consequences of coincidence.

Clara heaved a sigh. She was bothered and the crux of the matter was that she couldn’t control the things that were occurring. She was troubled and she wished the trying times would just pass by at the wink of an eye.

“God, I believe in you. Please make these things pass over for my little brother’s sake.” She said, clasping her hands in prayer. She felt relieved after the prayer and she was able to have a perfect and sound sleep.

It was the next week. Cody was back in school but he was busy a lot. They had to practice harder for the tournament. They had won the previous match and that had sealed their continuity in the tournament.

He was unable to converse much with Casey. The only thing they were able to do together was to chat for a few minute and to brainstorm together with the aim of solving assignments. It was Friday and the bell for closing chimed earlier than for the previous days. Cody was about to leave but Casey called him back.

“Bro, wait. It’s been weeks since we discussed at length. You don’t even stay back after school again.”

“I’m sorry but this competition is a big one for us. I don’t have much time to read again.” Cody said, dropping his bag on the desk.

“I would like you to narrate how you defeated Chavez High School again.” Casey said, brimming with smile.

“Okay, I see you are interested in it”. Casey paused to look at Casey’s expectant face.

“The match was dramatic. They scored against us in the first half. We felt discouraged but we didn’t allow that to deter us”.

“What!” Casey exclaimed loudly.

“You probably should get some popcorn”. Cody said and laughed. Casey did the same too.

“You rascal”

“Anyways, we scored towards the end of the first half. Carl was reluctant to give me a pass even though I was right in the best position to score a goal. He passed to Jay, a mid fielder instead. Jay attempted shooting but it hit the crossbar. The ball came back to me and I made no mistake in converting the opportunity into a goal.

“You are so cool”. Casey opened his mouth in awe.

“Others thought that too. I really created a lasting impression on everyone’s mind with that goal. I dazed everyone there”. He said with a giggle.

“The second half was juicier, wasn’t it?” Casey said, rolling his eyeballs in a dramatic way.

“Yes, of course. Oliver was brought in to replace Adrian, a left mid-fielder and we switched from the 4-4-2 we had applied earlier to a 4-3-3 to spice things up. He got a pass from Carl. He dribbled two of the defenders and got a shot that scored with the woodwork.

“Yah” Casey said in jubilation.

“However, the opponents scored their second goal with a header. It was 2-2.

“Aw!” Casey said, frowning sadly.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you. We got a chance to shoot a free-kick near the box-18 because Oliver was brought down by a defender from the other team. He got a muscle pull and he had to get replaced by Jasper McGinnis, the fourth striker on the team. Carl argued with me because he wanted to take the free-kick. To end the strife, Ethan the captain had to come from the defender’s position to shoot the free-kick. Ethan shot it and I headed it right into the top corner. The encounter ended with a 3-2 on our favor. I scored a brace, Oliver also scored a goal, Jay, Carl and Ethan provided an assist each.”

“Wow. Classic friend”.

“I have to get home now”. He said, picking up his bag from the desk.

“Sure but I have something more vital to discuss with you.” Casey said.

“Okay, I am all ears”.

“Melissa and Carl have been intimate these days. Don’t you think there is more to it than it meets the eye?” Casey started off, placing his hands on the desk.

“Are you for real? I didn’t even notice it. Well, good luck to them”. Casey said with mixed feelings of surprise and indifference.

“But”… Casey said in a worried tone but Cody was quick to cut in.

“The both of them are famous even outside this school and they are good with each other. You are a sweetheart to worry about me. I’ll be fine”. He said, patting Casey’s shoulder gently.

“I can see you are worried but nothing ominous is going to happen. Trust me”. Casey said and left.