[WIZARD24: Chapter Three]

I started to get tired after a day of running around and doing stuff. I told everyone I was going to get ready, and went upstairs to do so. I took out the football pajamas and a pair of light gray boxer briefs and went to take my shower. After I was done, I put on the pajamas, brushed my teeth, and got into bed. I thought I would fall asleep quickly, but I couldn't stop thinking about the people on the corner. What were their names again? Jake and…Piper? Yeah. That was it. I decided that I would ignore Will's warning and try to introduce myself to them and to our other neighbors tomorrow. I finally got to sleep with the clock reading 8:54.

I  woke up the next morning at about 8:15, and changed into my Despicable Me T-shirt and a pair of jeans. I decided that I would go for a walk and start meeting the neighbors as soon as possible. It turned out that wouldn't be until after we went to church. Will, Graham, and Mr. Benson were all up and eating breakfast already. Mr. Benson said he had saved me some waffles, and gave them to me. I sat down and started eating. After we had all eaten, we quickly went upstairs and brushed our teeth. I put on socks and shoes, and was ready to go at 8:55. "The church we go to is a Lutheran church that's about 10 to 15 minutes away from here, so you can relax for a few minutes," Will said.

Everyone  finished getting ready, and we all piled into the car and left. We had to get on the highway for a little stretch, and soon got to the church. We all walked in together, and Graham and Will told me they would lead me to the Sunday school room. "During the summer, we usually watch movies and discuss them," Will told me. "Sometimes, we help with the little kids, but we haven't signed up yet this year." He and Graham led me through the church and to what they called the "new building", where the Sunday school classes were. "There's nobody here," I remarked. "Yeah, sometimes the 'youth choir' has to sing at the beginning of church, but you needed a tour anyways. I'm in high school, so I'll be over there with the couches. You're in junior high, so you'll be in the other room. This ping-pong table is for anyone to use, but only before and after our lesson. There are about 4 or 5 kids in each youth group - Graham, you, Parker Fahey, Ryan Williams and some new girl in yours, and myself, Conrad, Kane, Wyatt and Nick Peterson, and a couple of girls in the high school group. You'll probably get to know most of them," explained Will. He left me so I could explore on my own, but I just sat down on a beanbag in the junior high area. I waited a couple minutes, then people started filing in. Graham came in first, then some high schoolers (two girls and a boy who immediately started talking to Will, so I assumed he was Conrad). A boy who looked around my age with hair like mine, except blonde, followed them. "Hi, I'm Shane. I'm living with the Bensons right now," I told him as I extended my hand for a handshake. "Hey, my name's Parker Fahey. I live in the same neighborhood as you guys, maybe we could hang out later," he said. "Yeah, I'm going to take a walk later and introduce myself, maybe I'll go to your house last and just stay for a while," I suggested. "I don't know if that first part is such a good idea, there are some pretty shady people in our neighborhood," he told me. "Well, either way, I'll try to be at your house this afternoon," I said, and then a man came in. "I'm the only teacher here, so we'll just do a combined Sunday school in the high school area today," he told us. As we walked over to the high school area, I introduced myself. He told me that he was the director of youth ministry at the church, and that his name was Jeffrey Lewis. "Nice to meet you," I said as I tried to find a good couch to sit on. I ended up on a dark green couch that was much harder than I expected.

"Okay, we're going to start off with our usual, bummers and blessings," Mr. Lewis said, "today we are going to also say our name and what grade we are in." Parker, who was next to me, invited me to sit on his couch and explained what "bummers and blessings" were - you shared a good thing (blessing) and a bad thing (bummer) that happened that week. He told me that you could have more than one, but not to say too many, unless they were important. A girl who looked my age walked in and sat down on the couch directly opposite me. The two high school girls went first. Their names were Riley and Kate, but I didn't pay much attention after that. Will went, then the other boy, who was, as I had thought, his best friend Conrad. We were going in a circle and so Graham went next. I was up next so I started to think of mine. I ended up saying that my bummer was having a headache and my blessing was that the Bensons were taking care of me. Parker went next and then the other girl went. She said her name was Alexa and that her blessing was finally moving into a new house. I wondered if she was the new girl in our neighborhood, and decided to ask her after Sunday school. Another boy, Erik Mitchell, refused to say anything for his bummer or blessing and turned around on the couch to face away from everyone. This gave everyone a good view of his polka-dot underwear, and some of us had to stifle a laugh when we saw it. We finally finished, and there wasn't enough time to watch the movie, so a few of us decided to have a ping-pong tournament. Will and Conrad, Parker and I, and Riley and Kate all formed teams to play. My team sat out the first game, which Will won 11-8. We played the girls the next game, and lost 13-11. Then, we played Will and Conrad, and they beat us 11-1. By that time, the church service had finished, and everyone started to leave with their parents. We left and went home, and Mr. Benson fixed us all grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. After I ate, I called Parker and asked him if I could come over. He said to wait a few minutes, and that I should bring Will with me because his parents wanted to talk to Will.

I messed around for ten minutes, and then told Will that I was going to Parker's house and that he should come with me. It was a quick walk over, and we reached his house within a minute or two. Will pressed a button, and someone came to the door. A man opened the door. Recognizing Will, he invited us in. "Parker's in his room upstairs changing, if you're looking for him," he said to me. Parker had worn a button-down shirt and long pants to church, and I figured he wanted to be comfortable. I waited downstairs with Will, who started a conversation with Mr. Fahey. They talked about how Will did a good job watching their kids, and that they wanted to hire him again soon. A smaller boy came running into the room. He had the same color of hair as Parker, but shorter, and looked like he was 4 or 5. Will stopped him and picked him up. "How are you, Ben?" he asked the boy. "Good! Are you here to play with me?" the boy asked. "Not really, but I can for a few minutes," Will said, and they went outside together. I introduced myself to Mr. Fahey, and as I finished, Parker came downstairs in a white T-shirt and matching white shorts. He took me around the house, showing me where stuff was, and when we were done, we went into his room. "What do you want to do?" he asked. "What are my options?" I replied. "Well, we could go outside and join my brother and Will, or stay in here and play a video game, or I could take you for a walk around the neighborhood-" "I thought you said you didn't like walking around the neighborhood," I interrupted. "Only some parts. We can go out to the water and relax, too," he said. "Yeah, let's do that," I said.

We  went downstairs, told Mr. Fahey where we were going, and headed down the path to the water. "What is this, a lake or a pond?" “To be honest, I have no idea,” Parker told me. I looked around and saw another person at the other end, feeding some ducks and holding a football. “Who is that?” I asked. “From here, I can’t tell. Maybe if we walk towards him…” We started towards the other end of the water, and once we got closer, Parker could see that it was a kid named Yates. I remembered Will saying something about Yates earlier. He seemed focused on feeding the ducks, even as we approached him. “Yates?” Parker asked. “What’s up?” he replied. “We were just coming down to the water, and saw you down here. Wanna hang out?” “I guess…who is this?” he asked, gesturing towards me. “My name’s Shane,” I said as I extended my hand for a handshake. “Oh…nice to meet you, Shane. My name’s Yates. Yates Douglas. You the kid staying with Will?” “Yes, Will and his family are taking care of me,” I told him. “Well, I guess we can throw the football around, if you want,” he said. We both agreed. “It’s hot out here, isn’t it?” asked Yates. “Yeah, you kinda get used to it living here for a while,” said Parker. “Did he not live here before?” I whispered to Parker. “No, he’s from up north, where it’s colder,” he whispered back. We started throwing, and then Yates called us over to tell us about a game. “This game is called Jackpot,” he said. “One person is the thrower and the rest are trying to catch the ball. The thrower will call out a number, for example, 400. Whoever catches the ball IN THE AIR will win 400 points. If they say Jackpot, whoever catches it wins that round. If they say Pickup, if you get the ball after it bounces it still counts. The first to 2000 points wins the round, and first to win 2 rounds wins the game. Sound good?” We both agreed, although I was a little unsure. Yates went back to where he had been, screamed out “200!” and threw a high-arcing lob. I got in position to catch it, but Parker ran out of nowhere, leaped and caught it right as it was about to hit my hands. He tossed it back to Yates for the next throw. Yates was still hot, and he decided to take off the shirt he was wearing, a white tank top, leaving him in black shorts. We kept playing, but Parker was so good that I got bored.

After  Parker won our first round easily, Yates looked at his cell phone. “Sorry, gotta run,” he said as he took off, leaving his shirt behind. I tried to tell him to wait, but he couldn’t hear me. “Knowing him, he’d probably want you to keep it for yourself,” Parker told me. “I guess I’ll assume that for now,” I said as I folded up the tank top and put it in my pocket. “Hey, you mentioned video games earlier. What all do you have?” I asked. “Well, I have NBA 2K14 and MLB 14 The Show on my PlayStation 4,” Parker said. “Got anything on your computer?” “Computer games? No, I don’t have any of those. Those are for nerds,” he said. Parker hesitated. “At least, that’s what they say,” he finished. “Who are ‘they’?” I questioned. “You know, the bullies. It’s mostly Jake, or ‘Snake’, and his little sister Piper,” he told me. “Well, I seem to remember back at my old school, computer games were cool, like how you made friends. What’s that here? That is, how does one get people to like him here?” I asked, curious. “Well, I guess sports. You meet a lot of people through sports, and if you’re good, that gives them an extra reason to like you. But at the same time, you gotta be yourself, too. Let your true personality show, but don’t be afraid to try a new sport or anything,” he said philosophically. On that note, we went inside, where Parker’s mom had lemonade ready for us. I took a sip. “Delicious,” I said. “Let’s go up to my room after this,” Parker whispered to me. “Okay,” I told him as I looked out the window. I noticed that Will and Parker’s little brother weren’t outside anymore. “Did Will leave?” I asked the room. “Yes, he said he had something to do. He told us that you could stay for dinner, if you would like, and to be home by 7 at the latest,” said Parker’s mom. “Well, thanks,” I said.

After we finished our lemonade, Parker led the way upstairs to his bedroom. He only had one bed in his room. “Do you have this room all to yourself?” I asked. “Yeah, cool, isn’t it?” “Yeah, I have to share a bunk bed with Will,” I said. “Plus, this way, I can sit on my bed and watch TV, or play a video game. Sometimes I can stay up all night playing or watching something, if I have the sound turned down,” Parker said. “Do your parents let you?” I asked. “Well…they don’t have to. They said that if I don’t wake them up, I can do whatever I want, as long as I don’t complain to them about being tired or anything,” he said. “Wow, that’s a pretty nice deal,” I said. “Anyway, wanna play?” he asked as he handed me a controller. I looked at the screen. “What are we playing?” “NBA 2K14,” he said, and he taught me the basic controls. “Okay, but I don’t even know how basketball works!” I told him. “Well, I’ll help you as we start playing. Maybe you’ll find out that you like basketball,” he remarked. We started playing, and before I knew it, Parker was winning, 20 to 0. “What happened to helping me?” I asked. Parker started to help me, and I figured it out eventually. I found out that I kinda liked basketball, but I wasn’t very good at the game - my players never made shots, and I was losing 52 to 7 at halftime! “Maybe you should try advancing the ball a little more before you shoot?” Parker suggested. “You’ve been shooting from half-court or further, so you have a really low chance of making it,” he said. “Oh…” As the second half started, I followed his suggestion, and started passing the ball, and he had to call time-out because I had scored 16 straight points! Parker still beat me, but once I figured everything out, I had a lot of fun playing. “Wanna play some real basketball?” Parker asked me. “I have a hoop set up in the driveway,” he said. We went outside and started messing around to warm up, and then started a game. I wasn’t very good, but I could outthink Parker, and this got me a few points, as I could trick him by faking one way, and dribbling the other, to get an open shot. “Playing to 21 by ones, win by two, make it take it,” Parker said as he handed me the ball at the start of our first “real” game. “What does that mean?” I asked. “Well, we’re playing to 21 points, each shot is worth one, you have to win by two points, and if you score, you get the ball again, instead of switching,” he explained. I got the ball first, and scored what Parker called a layup, but then missed a long shot, and he caught the “rebound”. Parker was a real basketball player, and he was able to shoot from longer distance than I could, and make it. But when he tried a shot from the end of the driveway, he missed two things. He missed the shot, but as he ran to get the rebound immediately after his shot, he also missed getting hit by an oncoming car!

The  ball fell right by me, and Parker, oblivious, went and got it, and kept playing. “What’s the matter?” he asked after I continued to not respond. “You almost got…hit…by a car!” I choked out between heavy breaths. “What?” Parker was surprised that he had been that close. “I thought no one would be out this time of day,” he said. “Maybe it was a kid that’s on summer break like us,” I said. “Conrad’s the only kid in the neighborhood with a license, and he’s at a church camp,” he told me. “I don’t know, but I feel like going back inside,” I told Parker. “Okay, I guess we can do that.” We went back inside, and went up to Parker’s room again. “Want to play something, or just chill?” he asked. “I don’t really feel like doing anything right now,” I said. “I’m still trying to get over the fact that you almost got hit,” I continued. We both jumped onto Parker’s bed, and relaxed for a while. Parker had a clock on his wall, which read 4:50, and we just sat back on the bed for almost a whole hour. At 5:45, Parker’s little brother came and knocked on the door. “Dinner’s ready!” he said excitedly. We both got up and followed him downstairs. Parker’s dad had made chicken tenders, and his mom had made a Caesar salad for us. The salad was just lettuce, shredded cheese, and some sort of ranch dressing. We said a quick prayer, and dug into the food. I only ate one chicken tender, which was good, because the salad was so good! I couldn’t stop eating it, and except for the little bits that Mrs. Fahey and Parker had, I ate every bit of the salad. After eating, Parker walked me out the door, and watched to make sure I got home safely. I waved to him as I knocked on the door to “my” house. Will answered the door, and he waved to Parker as well. I went inside, and Will asked me what all we had done. “Well, we played a game called Jackpot with Yates, and then he left, and we went inside and played a video game, and went outside again and played basketball, and then went inside and relaxed before dinner. We had chicken tenders and Caesar salad for dinner,” I told him.

I went upstairs to get ready for bed, and also to think about tomorrow. I was thinking that I could go to Yates’s house to return his shirt, and then sneak over to the dangerous house. I laid out a pair of black boxer briefs and my football pajamas to put on after my shower. I showered quickly, brushed my teeth, and went to bed before it was even 8 o’clock. The next morning, I woke up early, with the clock reading 6:15. I wrote a note, saying that I was going to return Yates’ shirt, and left in search of the Durhams’ house. It’s the one on the corner, I thought. I walked over to that house, listened for a minute, and then rang the doorbell. I shoved the tank top deep into my pockets, and waited. A tough-looking guy answered the door. “What do you want?” he asked in a quiet yet angry tone. “Hi. I’m Shane, and I just wanted to meet some of the neighbors,” I said. “Oh. Well, I guess you can come in. I’m Jake. I probably don’t have a good rep around here,” he said. I looked around, noting that Jake was only wearing his underwear, allowing me to also see the tattoo on his chest, of a snake. I also saw a girl coming down the stairs, which I assumed was Jake’s sister. I sat down and talked to Jake for a few minutes, and thanked him for welcoming me, but I did have something else to do. “You know, you have a reputation for being a jerk, but you seem nice,” I said as I left, closing the door quietly behind me. I walked up the street to the last house before the gate, which was Yates’ house. I saw lights on inside, so I figured it was safe to ring the doorbell. A man came to the door. “Yes?” “Is Yates home?” “Yates? Yeah, he’s asleep upstairs. What do you want?” “He left his shirt out yesterday when we were playing, and I wanted to return it.” “Knowing him, unless it’s a special shirt, he would let you keep it.” “It’s just a white tank top,” I said. “Well then, you can keep it, unless he tells you otherwise.” “Thanks, sir,” I said as I went back home. I made it home before anyone woke up, and crumpled up the note I had written. I went back upstairs to Will and I’s room, and changed into a white T-shirt and tan-colored shorts.