Champion Chronicles: One

Detention changed my life...forever.
Honestly, it did. Usually I would scoff and wave away any and all detentions I managed to rack up day after day of not listening to my teachers at school which, most of the time included me sitting in a classroom doing absolutely nothing, while plotting in the most sinister ways I could to prank the school's population.
I never once thought that Mr. Hatcher, Stellar City High's Principal, would make me serve my Friday detention in the abandoned cemetery halfway across town, or that he would make me do it alone.

Would you like me to spill the beans about everything that happened before and after my punishment was issued? Alright then I will, but don't say I didn't warn you...

It all started as I was hopping the desks in Science Class....

"Detention Ms. Champion!"
Mrs. Glades screeched at the top of her lungs, trying to get me to stop jumping the desks. I didn't listen as usual, if anything, knowing that my behavior was directly affecting her mood made me do it even more. I can't explain it, but it brought me this sick sense of satisfaction to know that I, a simple fourteen year old child, could cause this much trouble in the presence of an adult. It was even more gratifying to know that said adult could do nothing but sit back and watch the destruction of her classroom by a troublemaker while she lost her voice due to her constant shouts of protests.
Was I a trouble-making child? Yeah, and I have really good reasons for it too...

Reason #1. I'm an orphan.
I've been parentless for as long as I can remember, which is pretty much since I knew what the word "mama" meant. I've been told by Annette, the supervising mother at the Orphanage, that my parents didn't even bother to hand me over to the officials overseeing every new child that winds up in the place. Instead, they left me half-naked in a box barely big enough to fit my tiny body laying atop a trash can by the roadside, ready to be picked up by the local trash collectors. I supposed I should at least be a little thankful that they decided to name me before dumping  me to my doom, but carrying the name Jaksyn Kolette Champion didn't manage to make me feel any better at all.

Reason # 2.  I'm a freak.
For some strange reason people avoided me like the plague. Even before I began bashing in heads of the local bullies and decorating the walls of the Police Station with fruity colored spray paint, people steered clear of me.  It was unnerving having every child scoot away from me as if I was infected with some deadly virus, and whenever I demanded that Annette tell me why, she would hold up a mirror in front of my face.
"They don't like your eyes, J." she would say softly with a frown on her face and her eyes all sad. She would try to touch me, to hug me, but I would pull away before she even so much as breathed in my vicinity. It would last only a short while before she had to look away and shiver as if she were cold. She could only look me in the eye for about five seconds tops, before going away. Do I blame her? No, not really. I would probably be a little freaked too if I was to stare at some kid with white eyes. Granted, my pupils were still there, and still black, but my irises were white, always had been, and it probably always will be...
On to the Story....

------------------------

On this particular Friday I was being even more delinquent than usual. I had this sudden urge to get on top of my desk and dance.

It was strange, unheard of, and not very Jaks-like, but the urge was so forceful inside me that I just had to try it.
And I did.
I threw all warnings into the wind and boogied on my desk, hopping from one wooded table to another, not paying anyone any sort of attention. The school bell was eerily close to chiming, and with a smile on my face I started to welcome the end of school and the satisfaction of stumping everyone once again, when Mrs. Glades's shrill voice brought me back to reality.

I stopped for a moment to look at her. "What?"

She came around the corner from her desk to stand next to mine, looking up to the heavens to see my face. Her cheeks were flushed tomato red and her eyes were narrowed into slits behind a pair of  thick-framed glasses. She looked just about ready to pummel me into the ground.

"Get down, Ms. Champion, before I alert the Principal." She fisted her hands and placed them on her hips.
"Nope." I shook my head. "I'm having way too much fun right now, Miss. Besides, what's the old man gonna do anyway?"  I questioned, knowing full well that it would only serve to make her even more angry. I also knew that the Principal, Mr. Hatcher, a stocky middle-aged man with a head full of gray hair, would do nothing at all to punish me. He was one of the only people in this town to take a liking to me, and always managed to bail me out of the endless amount of  trouble I seem to come across.

"How dare you speak of the Principal that way!" shouted Glades and she grabbed hold of my arm. She started to pull me towards her.
"Hey! Don't touch me!" She sure had an iron grip for a thin, tall woman, but I wasn't going to let her take me down. I pulled my arm back, putting as much of my strength into it as I had to. It seemed the more I pulled back, the more she pulled me forwards until I lost my footing on the desk and fell on top of her.

I didn't feel a thing as I fell.

"See what you did lady! I told you not to touch me!" A groan met my ears, and I looked down quickly, only to cringe as I saw my teacher bobbing her head from side to side as if she were in pain. I heard the shuffling of feet and knew that the entire class was now crowding around us, probably more than eager to watch the proceedings.

I didn't pay them any attention.

I felt a warm touch on my arm, and whipped my head to the side to tell off the soul brave enough to touch me, but calmed down immediately. It was only Anton.  The one and only friend I had.
Anton Syn was small for a fifteen year old boy, and had semi-long blonde hair that constantly framed the sides of his face and over the lens of his glasses.

And he wondered why he was always walking into walls...

He kneeled just next to me and touched my shoulder, motioning to our fallen teacher. "...is she okay?" he asked in a whisper.
"Who cares? I told the old bag not to touch me. Serves her right for not listening." I responded firmly, though I got off Mrs. Glades and touched her neck with my fingers, feeling for a pulse after she went completely still. "Yeah, she's alright. Just knocked out." I reassured him once I looked over and saw that he had started chewing on his bottom lip as if it were a piece of juicy meat. He was more nervous than I was...

"And why, exactly is she unconscious?"

There was a stampede in the classroom as everyone scattered, and the one voice I was hoping to not hear sounded from the entrance door.

Wonderful...
I looked up from my place beside motionless Mrs. Glades and saw Mr. Hatcher, glaring heatedly at me. He stalked into the room slowly, digging his hands into his dingy pant pockets as he surveyed the classroom.
Everyone was frozen like statues as he traveled down the middle isle, and no one blinked even as the dismissal bell chimed loudly over the intercom. We were all waiting with baited breath as he stopped short of Glades and me.
"Everyone's dismissed." I sighed in relief and stood from the floor, grabbing my knapsack.

"Everyone except you, Champion."
Crap. I was hoping he'd let me go. I flung my backpack back on the table and faced the graying man. Only, he wasn't glaring at me anymore. I followed his line of sight and blinked, Anton was still planted right next to me.
"That goes for you too Syn. Go home."

Anton hesitated for a moment, sending a couple of quick glances my way before he even attempted to get his bag.  He grabbed the brown burden and hauled it over his shoulder, stopping by the doorway.
I winked and grinned at him as he left before turning back to Mr. Hatcher who, up until now, seemed to be watching Anton and me very closely.

"You two dating yet?"

"What!" I knew my eyes were wide and practically threatening to bulge out of my sockets. The question was so random and surprising that for a moment there, I was wondering if an alien hadn't taken over Hatcher's body when I wasn't looking.
Which would have been three seconds ago...

"Hn. Just wondering. How much longer are you gonna make the poor boy wait?" he asked.

Swarms of flies could have made themselves at home in my mouth, because my jaw hit the floor.  Minutes ago Mr. Hatcher had casually strolled into the room with a look of murder upon his face, and now he was asking about my love-life? What was this man taking...cause he was starting to seem a little bipolar...

"We aren't dating. We aren't gonna be dating...Ever" my proclamation was met on deaf ears, Hatcher wasn't listening to me. He kneeled next to my fallen teacher and, as I did moments ago, felt for a pulse.

He sighed.

I bit my lip.
Apparently she was still breathing...

He looked at me, no longer angry. "How did this happen?"
I contemplated lieing for a good few seconds. Mrs. Glades was out cold, so she wouldn't be able to contest anything I was about to say. However...

"And don't lie to me. I'll know if you do."
Well, there goes that plan. No lying. Wonderful. I wonder what he'll make me do after he hears this.
"Well, see Rap, it's a long story." I folded my arms across my chest, not in the least bit sorry for using the man's first name.

"It's Friday kid, I got all weekend." he countered.
"You're not gonna let me off the hook are you?"
"Nope. Not this time." He paused. "And it's Mr. Hatcher to you. Now tell me what happened."

---------------------------

The chill from the evening breeze was still lingering on my skin and making me shiver. It had nothing at all to do with the gigantic, weed infested graveyard I would be very familiar with for the next two hours. Nothing at all.
"Do I really have to do this?" I asked Rap, peering at him from the corner of my eye.

"Do you really need me to answer that again?" He countered and pulled me towards the metal gates that surrounded the place. We stopped just as the padded lock was in the vicinity. Rap reached into his pocket and I heard a chorus of angry jiggles before he fished out a set of keys and jammed them into the hole.

The click the lock made as it was undone was loud enough to raise the dead. I turned to Rap, trying to plaster on the most pathetic look I could muster.

"Please, please don't make me go in there." I was begging--something that utterly went against my code of honor--but I seriously wasn't going to spend my evening curled up beside some hundred year old tombstone.
Rap raised his brows, opened the gate and looked at me expectantly.

Folding my arms across my chest, I shook my head and was about to make a run for it.
"No way. There ain't no way I'm serving detention in there."

"Yes you are kid. It's either here or at the station. Pick your poison."
I gaped. "You...you wouldn't really do that, would you?"

"Oh I don't know. I'm sure Commissioner Stonewall would be thrilled to have the Barnes's garden thief handcuffed to his chair. Or better yet, I bet old man Jenkins would be more than happy to have his fifty dollars returned to him, you know, the same fifty bucks that mysteriously went missing after you accidentally ran into him three days ago." Rap said knowingly.
My heart drummed loudly in my chest and my mouth went dry. "You know about that?"
"Do you need me to keep going? Cause I know more than what you think. A lot more that Cal Stonewall and Annette would love to know as well." he responded blandly and leaned against the gate.
"Kid, I know ya ain't perfect, and the last thing I want is to rat ya out to Stone Sr., but if you don't abide by my rules this one time, I will. Make no mistake."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Would Hatcher really turn me in? I chanced a glance at his face and noted his determined eyes and a deep, firm frown set upon his lips. Yes, I decided, my longtime pal, who also happened to be my Principal and the only adult I trusted, would indeed turn me into the police.

"Fine." I spat and stalked passed him, my blood already beginning to boil in my veins. "I'll do whatever you want me to do here, but don't expect to be all buddy buddy after."
A flash of hurt entered his eyes, but was gone just as quickly as it came. He nod his head and motioned to the first batch of headstones over-run with weeds and grime. "You'll need to clean those. All of them."
"What else?" My patience was starting to wear thin. My agitation must have been crystal clear, because moments later Rap walked back on the other side of the cemetery and paused.
"Listen kid, just...do what I told you to, okay? And don't try to leave." he said.
I looked at him funny. "Why would I try to leave?"

"Because that's just how you operate. The moment my car high-tails it out of here, you'll try to hop the gate and get yourself into even more trouble than before." he stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and I had to give him credit. In all likelihood, it was true. I was planning on hopping the fence as soon as he left. I mean, how am I supposed to serve a school's detention in a cemetery when there's no one to supervise me?

Hearing the metal gates as it was pulled firmly shut knocked me out of my little daydream, and I watched Rap as he re-initiated the lock to the gate. He looked at me smugly.

"Why'd you just do that? You just said yourself that I would jump the gate, so you'd know that locking it is pretty useless..."

"I know." he grinned, and I immediately became weary of what he was about to do. Rap only grinned when something bad was about to happen. "Under normal circumstances it's useless, but not if I have this.." he released his hold on the lock and dug into his pocket once again, this time allowing his hand to emerge with a small, black circular object that set me on alert.

"Wha...what is that?"

Rap's grin widened and made him look like a maniac, and I backed away quickly. This was not good.
"This, Champion, is a remote."

"A remote to what?"

He pointed the object at the lock, pressed what I assumed could only be a button at the top, and the next thing I know, there was a flash of blue lighting up the lock. From the lock it traveled upwards, then shot all around the cemetery, enveloping the flimsy looking gate. I had the overwhelming urge to reach out my hand and touch the bars.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Rap warned, tucking the black remote back in his pocket. He lost the grin and looked at me seriously, backing away from the lock.

"Why?"

"Because kid, it'll shock you. There's an electric shock system installed on the gates, to protect the graveyard." explained Rap.
"That's really stupid. Why'd anyone want to do that? I mean, what's so special bout this dumb ole graveyard?" I gestured to the run down place. There was no way this was even real, I mean, an electric system? Just who are they trying to keep out, or better yet, to catch?

Rap caressed his forehead and sighed. "It doesn't matter. I've told you what you needed to get done. Do it without managing to burn yourself to a crisp and everything will be just fine." He said. "I'll be back in two hours to check on you." Then he was gone.

I was left standing on the other side of the dangerously creepy gate with orders to clean the graves in just two hours.
Alone.
Great. Didn't see how my predicament could've gotten any better than this.

"I'm so glad you think I'm responsible enough to actually do what you say." the words were wasted in the air, but it made me feel slightly better. Rap should've known better than leaving me here, alone, with a job to do. I never listened once in the past, what made the old man think I'd actually start listening now?

I turned from the gate and cringed as my eyes landed on the filthy stones I was required to clean. Was it even fair to have a child, a mere kid doing such menial chores? Don't they have other people, maintenence personnel or whatever term they called them to do this sorta thing for the city? On second thought, I was pretty sure that the folks down at City Hall knew I was doing this, hence the reason for the installed alarm. The old croakers probably was just waiting for me to crash and electrify myself.
I'd show them...

Jumping over the first couple of graves, I started to trek farther into the desolate place. My mind and eyes wandered  from the leaf-less ensemble of Yew trees decorating a large, water-free fountain further down the middle of the path, to the thick vine woven fences that squared off in several places that denoted where certain family's were clashed together. 

Man how I would've loved to have my headstone cramped in with the rest of my family--even thouggh I'd be dead and my body rotten with maggots slowly munching away at my flesh. At least I'd be apart of something, not constantly alone like I was now.

I continued stolling through the grassy place when my eyes roamed across the largest, gated plot of land by far.

"The Bartons?"
My eyes widened and a slow grin stretched across my face. "I can't believe it. They're really here." I whispered and climbed the small barricade that housed the graves of the largest, most notorious family to ever have lived in Stellar City. My feet touched down on the ground, and a cool feeling of excitement welled in my chest and threathened to burst the longer I feasted my  eyes on the hundred and something headstones glaring back at me. I'd started to remember the many stories I'd read in the old newspaper clippings about this morbid, very peculiar family. It all started with the first Barton--Dimitri was his name, and the madness he unleashed upon the town at the disappearance of his fiance` was a story long told in the books of old...
From what I understood, Dimitri the first was a ruthless man; he set a a deadly fire that wiped out more than half of Stellar's population and continuously rummaged the residents that survived his attempts at a masscre. He was said to have been a tall man, towering a little over six foot--something that was most unusual for a man living in the late 1890's, and was exceptionally handsome. Eyes as bright as the devil he had and hair was thick and black as the night the books described him, and rumor had it he only ventured outside at dark...

Perhaps he was a vampire? An undead creature of the night?

I quickly shook my  head and dispelled such nonsense, snorting as I proceeded to stroll by the darkened graves of the bizarre family. Vampires and such mumbo jumbo were silly, and I didn't believe that there was anything out there, only that people loved to make up stories about things they didn't understand. Something the Barton Family--all of them in particular fell under the category.

Funny, I could sympathize with them about that, and only that.

"Stupid. The dude was prolly heartbroken" I muttered.
But was it heartbreak that led him to kidnap every newborn infant born into the town that year? I don't know, but I sure was glad he was long gone.

I kicked stray stones that lay in my path and ignored the grass and twiny weeds that hooked in my sneakers and threatened to plant me face first on the ground. I still had yet to start the chores Rap ingrained into my noggin, and if I was being perfectly honest with myself I wasn't going to do it. I had no business cleaning these old cold graves.
Jaks Champion didn't work here.

I'd  just descended upon the resting place of Ralph Di Barton, one of Dimitri the first's more otherworldly kin, when the sound of feet and crunching pebbles caught my attention. I stilled and strained my ears in the direction  of the noise. Someone was getting closer and closer towards me, and quickly too by the sounds of it. Whoever it was, wasn't all that smart I thought. Why sneak with heavy footsteps behind an unsuspecting individual when they were already alerted to your presence beforehand? This person wasn't all that bright.

I whipped around and got ready to fight the intruder, but a flash of bright blond hair hanging over a pale, freckled face made me drop the punch I was about to throw.

"Anton!" remarked I misbelievingly.
I licked my lips and loosened my fists. "Have you any idea how close you were to getting your face re-arranged?"

"You...wouldn't hurt me." the blond stuttered confidently before wringing his fingers. "...besides, I...I made a lot of noise...so you'd know it w...was me."

I bit the inside of my cheek and glared weakly at the boy. "Still. I could've hit you. You know I'd never forgive myself for that."

A pink hue stained the boy's cheeks and a shy smile flitted across his face.
I blinked rapidly and cocked my head to the side. Was he...blushing? I was about to ask but the smile and color left his face just as quickly as it came. "Why are you here? Better yet, how did you get in here? There's some sorta alarm system on the gate so..."

Anton shrugged and moved his hair out of his eyes. "I...I followed you two and hopped the back fence." he said without incident.

"Really?" I asked dubiously, raising my brows and crossing my arms across my chest. Anton jumping a gate? It was practically unheard of. Last time I checked, the boy could barely jump a foot in the air without hurting himself.

"You hopped the fence? You...hopped the fence?" I repeated over and over, finding it extremely difficult to believe that sweet, innocent Anton would do something so---Jaks like.

Anton flushed darkly and clenched his fists at his side, but his eyes were trained on the ground. "Yes I did. Why's it so hard to believe that I could do that? I...I just thought of what you would do!"

I  exhaled loudly and pulled Anton's face close to my own and gave the boy a lopsided grin. "You're my best friend, d'you know that?"

Anton's grin mirrored my own and he squeezed my hands gently before pulling away, his cheeks once again stained pink. "...I...I know."

"Good." I said with an air of finality, and turned, though not before I  grabbed the blond's arm and began to drag him along.

"So um...what're you s'pose to be doing?" he asked softly.
"Plucking weeds from the tombstones."
"Are you gonna?"
I stopped. "What? No! Rap's got another thing coming if he believes I'll actually listen to him."

"Well, what're we going to do, if not clean up the place?" he asked tentatively, as if he was afraid of the answer I was about to give him.

"Explore."

Anton gave me a look of mock horror and pretended to shiver as if he were cold.
I chuckled and pulled him along, being mindful not to step on the headstones that were embedded deep into the earth.

We continued our playful banter throughout the cemetery, basking in one of the only moments we were allowed to act as carefree children. No adults were present to tell us what do to, or how to do it, and better yet, no bullies to pick stupid little fights. We had just stepped foot in front of the dilapidated mausoleum located at the very back of the Barton Family sanctum, when a deafening crack stopped us.

A shiver shot down my spine, and I pulled Anton close to me. I felt the boy shiver as he leaned against my arm, and I squeezed his hand for good measure.

"W..what..what was that?" I could practically hear the fear in his voice as he stuttered out, and I released his hand instantly for fear that his emotions would leave him and overtake me. I ignored him for the moment and darted my eyes about the place.
Dark, foreboding clouds now littered the heavens when just a split second ago the last few rays of the evening sun was glittering madly on Stellar. The sky was now black as if night  had descended, and the wind whipped dangerously around us both.

Again I  grabbed hold of Anton's hand to keep him from flying away like an over-used plastic bag. His palms was sweaty and shaking. I chanced a look at the boy, and immediately wished I hadn't. The boy was trying to steady himself behind me, and I caught a good look at  wide, panic-stricken brown eyes when his hair flapped in the wind and revealed them.

His bottom lip trembled dangerously and he shut his eyes tight as another crack of the heavens rang in the air.

He's terrified I thought and turned my attention to the mausoleum. I walked the rest of the distance, pulling Anton along with me, and released his hand.

The entrance to the mausoleum, I presumed, was the stone door currently staring me down, it was almost like it was just begging me to come closer.

I did.

I closed the distance between us cautiously, my fingers barely grazing the stone just as a thick, jagged rope of white hot lightening struck  the Yew tree only feet away from where we stood.

Anton cried out and I turned swiftly as chunks from the newly destroyed tree came sailing our way. I ran to Anton and tackled him to the ground as a large trunk of the demolished tree soared over us, disintegrating several headstones and upturning the earth as it crashed to the ground.

I coughed up dead man's dirt as I raised my face from the ground and took a swipe at my cheeks and lips with the hand that wasn't currently holding Anton down. I looked at her dirt ridden hand, appalled at the filth I saw there, and cringed, a little disgusted to know that it all came off my face.

Anton raised his head, looking less than thrilled as well. He freed his hands and wiped his face furiously before glaring at me.

"Just what was that for?" I didn't answer him.
My eyes widened as I looked up ahead.