“Crap!” Spence shouted, slamming his fists onto the table on both sides of his laptop. “No!”

“You weren’t supposed to attack yet, newb!” Cody exclaimed from across the table. He stared intently at his laptop screen, his fingers gliding in a blur across the keyboard and the buttons on his mouse. “You just pulled all the ads.”

“And here comes the boss. Yet another wipe, sponsored by Spence the Great,” Kyle said, shaking his head as he furiously clicked his keyboard.

“I didn’t mean to cast the spell! I was trying to select a target, but my stupid sat-card is lagging,” Spence said. He stared in horror as the pool of acid dissolved his character. He watched helplessly as the boss and his ads slaughtered the raid party. No! In addition to the anger of his friends at the table, the online raid characters were giving him a nasty beating through instant messaging. Thirty seconds later, the twenty characters’ bodies lay strewn across the cavern floor. The instant messages continued.

“And the vote to kick,” Kyle said.

“It wasn’t my fault! Give me another chance,” Spence pleaded, his voice quivering. The vote was unanimous, and Spence’s character suddenly appeared by itself back in the city. “Even you guys?”

“Spence, how many times do we have to wipe because Twitchy the Mage can’t keep his finger off the cast button?” Cody asked.

“Uh oh,” Kyle said.

“What?” Spence demanded, logging out of the game.

“You’ve been kicked out of the guild too.”

Spence slammed his laptop shut, shoved it into his backpack, and placed the pack on his lap. He then pushed hard on the wheels of his chair and backed away from the end of the picnic table. “You all suck! And so does the stupid guild. I’ll join another one, and they’ll appreciate me and Anniswind—the greatest mage in the realm. You’ll all be sorry.”

Spence heard Kyle and Cody laughing behind him as he quickly wheeled down the concrete pathway leading away from the shelter and toward the nature trails. He struggled fiercely to fight back the tears. Before his car wreck, he was used to getting teased and bullied. After being confined to a wheelchair, he had immersed himself in online role-playing games and somewhat escaped reality. He was able to become an anonymous, powerful mage. He was reasonably good at it but still usually found a way to screw things up when it counted the most.

“Spencer,” Ms. Stephenson’s voice called from up ahead. “You’re just in time to join our group.”

Spence looked up to see a group of students and his history teacher gathered on the trail. He had brought his laptop on the trip in hopes of playing World of Warcraft for the entire time. For most of the week, the other students had climbed trails and explored parts of Sedona that were much too difficult to do in a wheelchair. Besides visiting the Chapel of the Holy Cross, he had avoided the rest of the excursions by staying on the bus or finding shady places outside to play on his laptop. Occasionally, his pseudo-friends, Kyle and Cody, gamed with him.

He inhaled deeply and tried to regain his composure. He knew his cheeks still glowed, probably redder than his hair. “Uh, Ms. Stephenson, I’m not sure if I can do any of these trails.”

“I think this one is paved most of the way and should be pretty easy, at least to Red Rock Crossing. There you’ll be able to see Cathedral Rock and hopefully feel some vortex energy,” Ms. Stephenson replied.

“I can help out my bud too,” a student volunteered.

Spence swallowed hard as the cold chill raced down his spine. The student was none other than Trey Morrison. Trey was a star football player and all-around jock but also one of the worst bullies in school. Even though Spence and Trey were in the same grade, Trey had helped the upperclassmen introduce him to a swirly in the bathroom on his first day of freshman year. Since Spence’s accident, Trey had stopped most of the physical bullying, but the verbal and mental abuse was about as bad. As much as Spence tried to avoid him, Trey was impossible to escape totally. Yet somehow, Trey never seemed to get into trouble. He could always talk or smile his way out of anything.

Spence watched the large blond-haired student stride over to him. His khaki shorts and red football team T-shirt displayed his muscular physique. His face was full but not fat, and his eyes were bright blue. Trey patted him on the shoulders roughly and then walked behind his chair and grasped the handles. “Don’t worry, Spence, I’ll get you there,” Trey chirped.

Ms. Stephenson smiled, nodded, and then led the group down the trail. Spence tried to enjoy the scenery but was tense and distracted by the thought of his fate literally being in Trey’s hands. This part of Sedona little resembled a desert. There were green trees and grass on both sides of the trail, and Oak Creek rolled and splashed to his left.

The concrete walkway soon transitioned to a red-dirt path, although the new trail was still wide and relatively flat and smooth. A comfortable breeze blew, and before long, Spence unclenched his hands slightly from his chair handles and began relaxing his upper body. It was a beautiful, peaceful place, and Spence was actually feeling a little bit fortunate at having stumbled into the tour. Maybe he could even experience some healing vortex energy.

They rounded a bend in the trail and suddenly spotted the majestic red spires of Cathedral Rock in the distance, stretching high above the green treetops. The rocks seemed to radiate their own red glow against the azure background. Spence had seen pictures of the formation but seeing it in person was breathtaking even from this distance. He knew some of the other students were going to hike up to it and climb it if Ms. Stephenson allowed or if they could do it without her seeing. He would have to be content just studying it from afar.

He was too enthralled with the view to notice the big rock on the path. He just felt the jolt, the chair stopping and tipping forward, and his body sprawling onto the dirt and rocks of the trail. He fell hard onto his backpack, forcing the breath from his lungs. He lay there desperately struggling to breathe again as the cloud of red dust rose around him.

“Fail,” a voice said from somewhere in the line of students.

“Stupid gravity,” another added.

Spence listened in silent rage to a mixture of snickers and outright laughter. It had been bad enough being physically bullied before his accident. Now, he was utterly helpless, like a turtle lying on its back. He didn’t know whether it was more upsetting that most of the others laughed at him or the fact that he wasn’t surprised by it.

Finally, Ms. Stephenson’s voice rose above the harsh comments and laughter. “Trey, do you want to be suspended?”

“Suspended? It was an accident, Ms. Stephenson! I was staring at those cool rocks in the distance and didn’t even notice the one on the trail.”

Spence was finally breathing again by the time Trey arrived with his chair. Trey reached down and, despite Spence’s girth, snatched him to his feet and dropped him back into the wheelchair. He roughly patted Spence’s arms and shoulders, sending more clouds of red dust into the air.

“Sorry about that, Spence. Still bros?” Trey leaned around the chair, grinning.

Spence was too mad even to reply. His body shook, and his stomach churned. He wanted so badly to punch Trey in his smug face. He didn’t hate many people, but Trey Morrison was at the top of the list.

“Are you OK, Spencer?” Ms. Stephenson asked, having walked over to check on him.

Spence nodded silently. His bottom lip quivered slightly.

They proceeded without incident a little further until the trail intersected the creek. “OK. This is Red Rock Crossing. We’ll take a break here for pictures. Everyone pay attention to the stone cairns and the twisted limbs and trunks of the juniper trees. They say the cairns mark where the vortex energy is the strongest and that the vortexes actually bend and shape the trees. We’ll stay here for half an hour. You may get into the water, but no horseplay,” Ms. Stephenson said, her gaze lingering on Trey.

The group of students quickly dispersed. Some headed for the water, some took pictures of Cathedral Rock, and others took photos of the cairns and juniper trees. There was plenty of posing and selfies too. Thankfully, Trey abandoned his position behind Spence and went to talk to some of the other football players.

Spence wheeled himself a little further up the trail. When he reached a side trail to the right that led into a thick patch of trees, away from the creek, he thought he heard, or more felt, some type of humming or buzzing. He thought it must be his imagination, with all the vortex talk, but he didn’t want to spend any more time with his classmates, who would tease and laugh at a crippled kid being dumped out of his wheelchair. He wheeled his chair through the loose dirt and disappeared into the trees.

The trail was wide enough for his chair and reasonably smooth. It was tough to push the wheels in several places, but he managed to power through and make decent speed. The trail twisted back and forth through the juniper grove, slowly leaving the voices of the other students faint in the distance. The humming gradually grew louder, almost like the sound of powerlines. But he wasn’t sure if it was in his head or if he actually heard it. After a couple of minutes, the trail ended at a clearing surrounded by twisted and contorted juniper trees. The ground was smooth and covered with red desert dirt. In the center was a ring of the stone cairns—little stacks of smooth stones—around twenty feet in diameter. Above the trees to his left, he could still see the top half of Cathedral Rock.

Spence’s gaze was immediately drawn to the figure standing in the middle of the cairn ring. Her black Goth garb appeared supernatural in the bright red and green setting. He knew without seeing her face that it was Morgan Turner. She must have headed here right after Trey dumped him from his wheelchair.

“Can you feel the energy?” she asked, not looking at him. “It’s amazing!”

Spence glanced behind him and realized he was the only other student in the clearing. He was stunned she actually spoke to him. He didn’t think she was mean, but the Goths were weird. They usually brooded together in small groups and complained about this or that injustice in the world. “Uh, yeah, I think so. It’s like some kind of humming or buzzing. I thought maybe I was imagining it.” He cautiously wheeled his chair to the edge of the circle of stones.

She turned to face him. Her tightly curled, long, mahogany brown hair framed her light brown face. She wore black eye shadow and liner as well as black lipstick. She had piercings in her bottom lip, left nostril, right eyebrow, and numerous ones up and down both ears. “Yes! It’s like a tingling feeling…electricity…energy. This area is supposed to have a powerful vortex.”

Spence realized Morgan was an attractive girl, despite being weird and a little freaky looking. She always reminded him of Zendaya, only a little rougher around the edges. Even in her unrevealing baggy black jeans and black Marilyn Manson T-shirt, her body was very shapely. He wheeled into the ring of stones until he was beside her, hoping to experience the energy.

“Wow. What kind of geek fest is this?”

Dang it. Spence didn’t have to turn around to know who had found them. His heart instantly raced, and his body went numb.