"Mom let me sleep. It's too early to wake up” as I swat away the hand that keeps pushing my shoulder.

“Wake up you idiot, it’s me, Cain. Don’t you have school or something still?”

“What?” my eyes burst open as I look around forgetting where I am. Oh yeah, we’re in my house okay. I groan as I sit up from the floor rubbing the back of my head and clutching my chest, remembering the pain from earlier.

“You said something about school? What are you talking about? It's only Saturday.”

I grab a part of the couch closest to me and push myself up.

“Hate to break it to you kid, but it's Monday, you slept through the weekend. And it's 9 AM, don’t you kids usually start at like 7 or so?” he says while munching on peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“Monday? 9 AM?” I pick my phone up and almost drop it when I see 9:03 AM displayed.

“Oh my gosh, it’s 9 AM!” I rush to the bathroom and take a quick shower while brushing my teeth. I fly out of the bathroom, heading to my room to get some clothes. Running out of my room, I take his sandwich and run out of the house. A few minutes later I come running back forgetting my football jersey and gear, realizing I still have practice.

“Don’t kill anyone and stay HIDDEN if my mom comes by!”

I rush out of my house, almost tripping over my feet while I try to put my shoes on with the sandwich in my mouth. Eventually, I made it to school and burst through the door of my first-period class. Everyone looks at me, with my crazed hair, loose shoelaces, and out of breath.

“Hello Mr.Alexander, you’re an hour late. Nice of you to come to class on time. Take a seat in the back.”

I mosey my way to the front of the class and sit down knowing all the eyes are on me. Class continues, as I zone out. In school I don’t pay attention, it used to be because I was focused on football and film review. Now though, all that’s been on my mind are Gears and getting better at using mine. Not only have I only been able to use one of my Gears, but I can barely do anything special with the one I have.

Schoolwork hasn’t ever been a problem for me. No matter the subject, I’ve always been able to grasp work even when I’m not paying attention. While I’m zoning off, I would copy notes, but never actually understand what I’m writing until I go home and review the work.

The school was informed that Julia had moved out of town because her parents found a job in another town. Usually, people get suspicious when others leave town because this is such a tight-knit town, but no one questioned it with her because her parents were the only ones that worked in between towns.

Time goes on and soon I’m going in between classes, lunch then back to classes.

“Ethan. Ethan. Ethan!” I look up as I see the teacher in front of the class waiting for some type of answer for me.

“Umm, well what was the question?”

Sighing, she looks around the class exclaiming

“See this is why you need to pay attention and not doze off making yourself look like a fool. I asked, what is the derivative of sin(2x)?”

“Looking at the board, it took a moment to figure it out, my brain flying through differential equations and calculations.”

“Anytime Ethan, don’t keep us waiting. We don’t have all day.”

I hate when teachers do this. They act like I don’t understand a question or need help because I’m a jock. I look up at the teacher, get out of my seat and walk to the chalkboard.

“2cos(2x)” I say as I write the answer on the board. I put the chalk down and look at the teacher.

“And next time you want to act like I'm dumb, you can just remember who has the top scores in this class” and I walk up to her real close so only she can hear.

“Because come on, you’re the only one who looks stupid if you keep acting like this” as smirks in her face and walk away.

She coughs and clears her throat.

“Alright, well thank you for that. As for the rest of you guys-”

I zone back out, autonomously doing the work that she gives us throughout the class. As my classes go on, my eyes keep focusing on the clock, waiting for football practice. Practice is the only thing besides Gear’s that is occupying my mind right now.

Finally class ends, and with the bell ringing, I’m already rushing to the weight room.

“Hey man, welcome back.”

“Hey coach, anyone using these?” as I pick up some weights.

“Nope, they’re all yours.”

As I get working on weights, kids start pouring in, chattering about classes and their weekends. We move from weights to film study and eventually to field practice.

“Hey 2-3, we got someone new for you. I think you might like him!”

I look up from tying my cleats and see a tall kid, about 6’4 in height, broad shoulders, and curly hair.

“Hey man, I hear you're the best defender on the team. The name’s Chris, the best receiver here. I’m new to the team.”

Looking at his height and build, I could tell he might not be lying. Still, no receiver has ever gotten the best of me and I wasn’t about to let some new kid act all big in front of me.

“Alright, yeah I’m Ethan, but everyone here calls me 2-3. Line up and let me see you run some routes.”

I finish my laces, grab my helmet and run to the field to line up.

“Hey man look, 2-3 going one on one with that new kid.” Kids started gathering around, getting ready to watch our match.

Our coach walks up to us and says

“This will be a best of 5, Ethan your goal is to make sure he doesn’t catch more than 3 catches. If he does, you lose. Got it?”

“Loud and clear coach.” I look back at Chris sizing him up.

“Get ready man, I don’t play when it comes to these drills.”

Putting his helmet on

“Funny you say that, I was just about to tell you the same thing.”

We both get in our stances with Phil, our starter QB throwing the passes.

“Ready! Ready! Down set… HIKE!”

Chirs starts to run down the field and when I recognize it's a simple go route where he just runs straight down the field, I relax a bit and pretend he has me beat. As the ball soars through the sky, I can hear my teammates chanting, screaming

“Catch the ball!”

“Swat it away!”

“Show that kid who’s boss!”

Chris goes up for the ball, but I’m ready for it and easily swat the ball away forcing the incompletion.

“1-0. It’s gonna be a long day for you, keep it up.”

We go through the next play and this time he manages to snag the ball, while the play after that, I force another incompletion.

“What happened 2-3? I thought you never let anyone get anything, but we are 2-1 right now.”

“Man, I know you’re not talking about being great right now. Keep talking that talk and you’ll get put in your place by and only so line up.”

We line back up, and as Phil calls hike, a shock goes up my leg stopping my momentum as I try to run causing me to trip.

It ends up being a simple catch for him as he runs across the field and back.

“We tied up now ‘2-3.’ Last one to make or break it, don’t miss this one up now.”

I wipe the dirt off my legs and knees, massaging my calves as I do. Most likely my body isn’t 100 percent healed from the fall this past Friday, and running these drills isn’t the best way to heal my legs either.

“Ready! Down… set… hike!”

Chris runs forward at me and I backpedal, keeping his pace. This is another go-route I thought, so I prepared myself for the ball to be thrown. But that’s not what happened, and instead, he stops and pivots his body to the right which catches me off guard. To make matters worse, Phil pumps the ball in our direction making me think he’s going to throw the ball, and that’s when it all fell apart. It wasn’t a throw, but instead a pump fake and by the time I realized that Chirs was already bolting back up the field.

I try to catch up to him and that’s when Phil launches the ball in our direction. For the first time, I was the one trying to make up for my mistakes in a route, not the other way around. As I jump up to try and swat the ball out of the air, from the corner of my eye I see Chris leap into the air attacking the ball and grabbing it over my head.

He comes down with the ball and when I get up, the next thing I see is him taking dramatic steps over me in disrespect with the ball in his hands.

“Know your place boy!” as he throws the ball down to my chest and walks away triumphantly. A crowd of teammates come rushing over to us and start cheering Chris on. I’ve been playing football for a long time and I’ve been the best at what I do for a long time, so this is the first time anything like this has happened to me before. To get beat out like that, that’s a no-no, added with the disrespect, and you have yourself a fight.

I was pissed, tired, exhausted from just coming back from almost dying in the woods this past week. I knew I shouldn’t have the energy, but something inside me didn’t accept that, I felt my blood boil, a heat, this pressure rise up and build in my chest. I got up and quickly walked over to Chris.

“Hey, Chris!”

He looks back at me and that’s when I lose it. I throw a right hook across his face and the entire crowd gasps.

“Try that shit again and see what’s gonna happen to you!”

He doesn’t back down though, as he wipes some blood off the corner of his lips and smiles.

“There’s the fight in you I’ve been hearing all about” and with that he lunges at me and we start throwing punches.

“Woah Woah break it up!”

“Get him!”

“Sock his ass!”

Our teammates circled us as both of us ended up on the ground grabbing and punching each other. I end up on top of him and as I get punched across the jaw, I raise my right fist to punch back, but then stop when I see my veins glowing orange. I suddenly stopped my punch, examining my right arm. This is it, this is the second Gear I realize. What’s the most surprising fact though is that before he punches me again, he looks at my arm, but instead of being confused, he seems to know what it is.

Just as fast as it came, it disappeared, my arm turning back to normal. I didn’t waste any time, however, throwing the next several punches, which caught him out of surprise since he started blocking my punches in retreat.

“Hey hey! Break it up NOW!”

Our coach comes flying in, separating the crowd making his way to the both of us.

“Both of you with me! NOW!”

Eventually, our fight breaks up after the coach pulls us apart. Both of us solemnly walk towards the bleachers. We get our gear and head to the locker room, where the coach is in his office waiting for us, stern-faced while leaning against his desk.

“So tell me. What on EARTH could’ve been so important you fight like that!? You know I’m okay with a little brawl and competition here and there, but to end up like that! With bruises on your eye and hit marks everywhere! You two are our best players, and especially you Ethan. After…” he had to stop himself in respect and the pain that still lingered because of Darnell and Jalen’s deaths.

“After they passed, you are our only solid defender right now. I can’t have both my star defender AND my star receiver injuring each other. So you two are gonna talk it over and if you even THINK about fighting again, I promise you both that you won’t be playing when the scouts are here again.”

“But coach, he was-”

“I don’t care, figure it out. NOW!”

And with that he storms out the room, leaving us two in silence. Time goes by for what seems like forever, but when I look at the clock it only shows 5 minutes have passed by. Great.

“Hey man” as I lean over to face him.

“Look, let's just forget this whole argument fight thing okay? I respect your game, that should be good enough for you right?”

With an annoyed look, he goes

“What’s with you and thinking you’re the best. You’re not and today just proved it. So why don’t you just admit it and we’ll both be fine.”

Normally I’d reluctantly admit that we’re both great players, but after the disrespect he did and the weekend I’ve had, I was in no mood to apologize or admit anything.

“Look man, coach really will keep us here forever until practice is over, and probably for the next few practices if we don’t figure this shit out. I’ve been here before I know how this works.”

“So then you should know that when a defender like you who talks way too much trash than he can back up gets his ass kicked like that, he should know his place on the team right.”

“And what’s that?”

“My stepping stool to become the best player on this team that’s what.”

Not only did he just insult me, but he insulted my pride and the rest of my teammates who were also great receivers.

“Man WHAT did you just say!?” as I get up and grab the collar of his shirt.

“You heard me. Or is your head too big for yourself you can’t even realize who’s the fool here?”

I push him back into his chair and sit down in mine next to him.

Several minutes go by as I stare at the pictures and plaques on the walls.

“Hey before, that was a Gear right?”

I look over and am confused at first then realize he must be a Gear user too. But what if he works for the ‘Boss’? What if he’s one of the guys after me?

“Gear? What’s that?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You know what it was” turning towards me

“I’m not here to fight you or anything, nor am I working with the ‘Boss’ if that’s what you’re concerned about. Trust me I’ve had my fair share of problems with him, I have no intention of being with him.”

“Well, that’s a relief. Yeah, it was. But how do you know all about Gears?”

“Because you’re not the only one who can use them” as he shows me his arm, his veins glowing bright red.

“Woah, you can use them as well.”

“Well duh, how do you think I know about them.”

Sitting back in my seat I think about what this means. This whole time it’s just been me fighting these guys, and occasionally Cain. But now another kid my age who’s not trying to kill me is in the same situation as me.

“Hey man, are you free tonight?”

“What?” looking at me as if I wasn’t human.

“I said are you free tonight? If not, come with me, I got something I want to show you.”

Sighing he says

“Alright fine, I have nothing better to do anyway. Can we go back out now, I’m tired of sitting here like a baby on timeout.”

Laughing, we both get up and walk out the locker, already better off than we were before.

The practice goes on, the coach smiling as he sees us finally somewhat getting along. We pack up our things and head to my house. On the way, he explains why he transferred to our school and how he learned about Gears. We get to my house and we head inside.

“Mom I’m home and I brought a friend home if that’s okay,” checking the basket at the door I see my mom is out once again with her friends. Man does she go out a lot, and she expects me to not stay out late.

“Cain, where are you? I brought a friend with me who you might like” as I call out.

“Hey man you can just sit on the couch, I’ll be right back” as I go to my room and put away my bag and football gear.

I walk back into the living room to find Cain standing in the hallway, looking at Chis who’s relaxing on the couch with a newly found sandwich.

“Hey kid, that’s my sandwich.”

Chris looks up at him then goes back to eating his food.

“You should’ve paid more attention to it, old man.”

“Huh!? What you say, kid. Listen here, I don’t know who you are but I’m not afraid to-”

“Okay okay, take it easy now” as I walk out, interrupting him before he tries to kill him.

“Cain, this is Chris. Chris this is Cain. Cain, you might like him since he knows how to use Gears better than me right now.”

Taking a look at Chris, sizing him up Cain says

“Huh!? And why should I care about him? So what if he can use a Gear, you just haven't had enough practice.”

Finishing the sandwich and licking his fingers Chris slowly gets up and steps right into Cain's face

“Well well well. So what old man, is that an excuse for Ethan? Aren’t we part of something bigger, or did he forget he’s one of the 7?” while giving him a fake innocent smile that hidden behind it, was filled with sadistic behavior.

He pulls back his sleeves revealing bright red veins and with that, his arm combusts into bright red flames. Both stand looking at each other and finally Cain steps back smiling.

“Looks like you are better than Ethan. So, what can I do for you? Son.”