Chapter 2: Letters and Numbers

Present time. Belmont, Portage County, Wisconsin.

            Eric, Kent and their teammates in Belmont Braves football varsity team hollered upon charging the sturdy dummies against them. They tackled them to the ground and were contented to bring them down to the ground with all their might.

            “Yeah!” they shouted with fists shaken up in the air.

During weekdays, the high school varsity team practiced three times and one whole day during the weekend either Saturday or Sunday, which depended on their coach’s schedule.

            The football field seemed to be so large for there were not so many students enrolled in Belmont High School.

The town had only around 240 households or so, and the number of male population was higher than of the female. The town was on the east of Dayton, Waupaca County, west of Almond, Portage County and south of Lanark of the same county.

****

The red bricked two-story house was located east, a mile or so from the center of the town; and south, a mile or two from the nearby popular Belmont High School.

The front yard was surrounded with different kinds of flowers and orchids. At the back of the house, there was a fence made of wood. An iron grill stood at the far side, where the family sometimes held gatherings like barbecue, birthday or Christmas party; whereas on the other side, a customized swing made of iron also stood still. And some herbs, shrubs and flowers were planted near the fence.

“Elise, dinner’s ready!” Her mom called out from downstairs, at the foot of the wooden stairs.

Elise Helmrick was turning sixteen this summer. Her mother was so proud of her being one of the elite students in her school—as she was one of the members of the cheerleading team, which was very popular in their whole town.

Elise was a slim girl with green eyes, pert nose, smooth cheeks and long brunette hair that reached up to her waist that she always braids everyday.

            “Coming!” she answered after turning off the TV.

Her dainty feet automatically searched for her pair of slippers under her bed. She ran out of her room to go downstairs. She passed by the painting of her grandmother that was hanging on the base of the staircase wall. She caught a glimpse of it, and it looked like her grandmother smiled at her.

How could it be? She stopped for a moment and asked herself, but did not bother to look behind her. She thought it was only her imagination running wild because her grandmother was definitely not smiling in that painting!

“You’re watching again that same movie?” Her father asked who was just seated on his favorite chair at the dinner table. He was referring to “The Mummy” that starred Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.

“I don’t know, Dad. I’m just so into Egyptian movies lately.” She frowned a little.

Her parents exchanged glances before they looked at her. Her mother was a little worried while she sat on her chair next to her husband.

“Is something wrong, Mom?” Elise’s older brother Eric asked, who was sitting next to her.

Eric was already in his senior year in high school and was a member of the school’s football team. He had sturdy body for his age as he regularly practiced martial arts, Tai Chi with meditation and his favorite sport, football. His hair was red while his eyes were black as midnight, a perfect opposite to his sister’s features. Nobody could tell which lineage of the family he—or she—took after.

“Well, not really. Don’t mind me, Eric.” Their mother hastily answered with a forced smile. “Anyway, I heard from Mrs. Thompson that your football team will go on a camping trip this summer?”

Elise watched her brother as he helped himself with lasagna that was placed at the center of the rectangular dining table.

“Yeah, Mom. Can I go?” he said.

“Well, it depends on your father.”

Their father was thinking hard before he answered. “If you want to go, you can—provided that,” he paused, “you’ll not forget your 5 to 15-minute meditation.”

            Eric looked at Elise in resignation before he swallowed.

            “Well, the cheerleading team would be there, too,” Eric said a matter-of-factly.

            Their mother Zoe looked at her. Her brown eyes twinkled and her blond bob-cut hair swung. “So, I presume you’re going too,” she said to her daughter.

            Elise nodded while chewing her food.

            “She’s going to be the team captain next year, I hear,” Eric bragged.

            Their mother’s smile was now wide open and her eyes twinkled again with excitement.         “Wow! That’s great, honey! Don’t you think so, too, Aidan?”

            “Yeah. I believe so, too, sweetheart!” His blue eyes twinkled as well as he agreed amiably. And it was like his short blond hair shone as well.

            The siblings looked at each other. Their mother’s dream was for her to be the very next team captain of the cheerleading team so that she could brag it around their town. She shrugged her shoulders and looked away from her brother to continue to eat.

            “Well, I can tell that idiot Mrs. Summers that her daughter can go to hell!”

            “Mom!” the siblings said in unison.

            “Well, she told me that her daughter will be the next team captain and that you’re going to be ditched. So I naturally told her that my daughter is way better than hers!”

Their mother’s eyes were expressing so much anguish that they could tell she had said something more than that.

            “Mom, you shouldn’t have said that to her,” Elise mumbled quietly. “After all, Aubrey was my best friend!”

            “Yeah, like five years ago,” her brother supplied.

            “Well, it’s all over now. I think we both had our mistakes at the time. Anyway, she’s a good friend still.”

            “But you should have never befriended her in the first place,” her mom protested.

Her mother still thought about that day when Aubrey took Elise’s role as Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” play at school. She was already the chosen actor to play the role but her friend talked their teacher out of it because Elise had a lot of extra activities—a white lie that could have been handled by Elise at the time if she weren’t so shy to tell their teacher about backing out from the said role.

            “And it was just a petty thing to have a grudge on, Mom,” she told her mother.

            “Well, look where she’s now. She’s just your shadow!” Their mother spat.

            “Zoe, that’s enough,” her father scolded her quietly.

            Her mother took a deep breath and nodded. “Sorry. I was just heated up for no reason.”

            Their father just shook his head and continued to eat. So did Elise and Eric.

****

            Elise went back to her room upstairs after washing the dishes. Her brother retired to his room next to hers, after eating. She could barely hear the rock sound of the music from his radio. She imagined that her brother was reading his favorite comic book while listening to it—and not studying!

            She turned the TV on and continued watching the movie she just left out a while ago before dinner. She let it play while flipping the pages of her Algebra book but the numbers were dancing in front of her eyes. Their finals were coming up fast. She needed to study but she wanted to watch the movie at the same time!

            She decided to turn off the TV at last, blowing  a deep breath.

            “Now, concentrate, El,” she said to herself aloud like it was a mantra.

She closed her eyes tightly and opened them again to look at the book.          Still, the numbers and letters were literally dancing in front of her eyes! They formed into different shapes of symbols or drawings she had never seen before.

She closed her eyes again and thought it was just stress. She inhaled and exhaled deeply. Then, she opened her eyes again. This time, the numbers and letters were not dancing and forming into symbols and some weird shapes. They were just static like normal text in the book. She then breathed out lightly with relief.

            “Phew! Just what I thought—stress,” she murmured to herself, although the weirdness she felt was gnawing at her.

            She took out her notebook from the bag that was lying in her bed. She began to study the pointers for their finals. But first, she had to deal with their homework yet.

She truly liked her Algebra teacher Mrs. Dickson as she gave out pointers far advanced for the students to study ahead. It helped to make her a straight A-student this year and a favorite of the cheerleading team squad captain. She had been told early this week that she was the favorite to be the successor among the other candidates.

“You’re not serious, Diana,” she said to her.

“Of course I am!”

Her smile was wide open and Diana Gomez held her hands.

She shook her head in disbelief. “But I’m only a freshman!”

“You’ll be sophomore next school year!” Diana countered. “I am confident you’ll do well and better until your senior year. You’re so smart and creative. Besides, you can do better than anyone else in the team. You got my drift, right?”

Elise was speechless. She felt very delighted of this great opportunity she was going to have for the next three years of her life in high school. On the other hand, she felt that there was something that would trouble her in the very near future. Of what, even though she could not tell herself, she could really feel it deep in her bones, which was kind of odd.

            Elise continued to study her lessons until around midnight. She had to go to sleep right afterward as she was going to have an early meeting with her cheerleading team the next day.