[WIZARD24: Chapter Two]

I woke up, excited to go to Dallas. Then I remembered that was yesterday. I still got up, excited for a new day. I put on a blue Rangers T-shirt, since they were the only team playing this time of year, and matching blue basketball shorts. I put on my socks and shoes, and went downstairs. I didn't see anyone else up, so I went outside to kick my soccer ball around. Our season started last week, but we started practicing three weeks ago. My team was made of kids from 3rd through 8th grades, and there were three teams in the league, each with 4 players on the team. My team was me, twins Brady and Dustin Webb (who were in fourth grade), and a seventh grader named Zachary Clement, who played goalie. We had won our first game 1 to 0, against a team with two seventh-graders on it, so I thought we were pretty good. I decided to play outside until I got tired, or until someone else came downstairs.

***

I woke up, having slept a good 11 hours. I checked to see if Shane was still asleep and said his name quietly. He woke up too, so I came down the ladder on my bunk bed normally. I changed out of the white T-shirt and red lounge pants I had slept in, putting on a solid red T-shirt and white basketball shorts. I grabbed the white T-shirt and jeans I had picked out for Shane, and handed them to him. "We're going shopping today, so you won't have to wear those for long," I told him. He nodded and put the clothes on. We both went downstairs at the same time, and I saw Graham in the backyard, kicking his soccer ball around. I put on my socks and shoes and joined him, but told Shane he should probably rest. He seemed a little disappointed, but agreed with me anyway. Graham and I played one-on-one and I let him beat me again. "Good game," I told him. "Let's eat!" he yelled. We went inside and I started to make eggs and toast for us three. "Okay, so after we eat, I want everybody to be ready to go," I said. "Whenever my dad comes downstairs, he is probably going to eat quickly and want to go to Target immediately, so we need to all be ready - shoes on, teeth brushed if possible, everything," I told Graham and Shane. The toast came out of the toaster, ready to be eaten. Graham came over to butter the two slices and put two more slices of bread in. He and Shane split the two slices and as soon as the eggs were done, each of them wanted some. I served them their food, then ate my two slices of toast and scrambled eggs. Graham and I went upstairs to brush our teeth. When I finished, I picked out an extra pair of socks and some shoes for Shane to wear. I brought them back downstairs, and Shane put them on. My dad came down. "How's everybody feeling?" he asked. Shane said he was feeling much better and I said that Graham was brushing his teeth and then we would all be ready to go. My dad made himself some coffee and toast, gulped it all down in about five minutes, and told us he was ready to go. We all piled into my dad's sedan, and were on our way to Target.

***

We all got in the car, and started driving towards the store. We had all decided to go to Target today so I could get some clothes of my own and a toothbrush and stuff. I remembered that I still hadn't learned everyone's names, so I asked. The older kid sitting in the front today said his name was Will. The kid sitting in the back with me was named Graham. The man driving said his name was Fred Benson, but I could call him Mr. Benson or even Dad if I wanted. Mr. Benson drove us and we ended up at a very large store. It said Target on the front, but it seemed awful big to be one. "Everything's on me," Mr. Benson said. I first picked out a blue toothbrush, then went back to the boys' shoes section. I picked out some blue and black Shaun White sneakers for $21. I then picked out some underwear- two five-packs of black and gray Hanes boxer briefs, which totaled $22. I got a 5-pack of crew socks and a 5-pack of ankle socks which each cost about $8.50. I got a 5-pack of white T-shirts for $9, and a green Despicable Me T-shirt for 5 dollars. I got pajamas with a football design, red shirt and blue shorts for about $10. I got 5 pairs of Levi's jeans for $15 each. I also picked out a pair of khaki cargo shorts and light gray cargo shorts which each cost $15. To top it all off, I found some blue swim trunks with sharks on them for about 12 bucks. Overall, we were just over 200 dollars, and Mr. Benson still wanted to pay for the whole thing. We got through the checkout and went back to the house. I took the bags of clothes up to Will's room and took off his clothes that I had been wearing. I switched out my old boxer briefs for a new pair, and put on a white T-shirt and the gray cargo shorts.

I went back downstairs in my new clothes. "Let's play a game or something," Will said. We decided to play Uno. It went pretty quickly and I ended up winning. "Wow, you're really good at this," Graham said. We played again, and I won this time too. We played eight more games, and I won 7 of those 8 - the other one I was one card away, but I had to draw cards on the last play, and Will snuck in and won. I still won nine out of ten, though. "Wow," Graham remarked. He was very surprised, but didn't seem angry that he didn't win. We then played another game, Monopoly. It came down to Graham and I. Graham was very aggressive and had Boardwalk, Park Place, the red properties, and the yellow properties, as well as about 500 dollars. All of his properties had hotels on them. I had the other properties, and about $1400. I rolled and advanced to Ventnor Avenue. Graham rolled directly into my trap at St. James. It cost $28, and Graham had doubles and rolled a 3 to New York, where he had to pay another 32 dollars. I rolled a 4 to Pacific Avenue. Graham rolled a seven to Atlantic Avenue, where he paid 44 dollars. I had not improved any of my properties with houses or hotels, but I was slowly taking his money. It was my turn again, and I rolled a three to advance to Pennsylvania Avenue. Graham then rolled a 9 to Short Line, where he had to pay $200. We kept going and eventually Graham had to take all of his hotels off just to pay rents. I only landed twice on any of his properties, and they were both without hotels. I ended up winning with just over 2200 dollars, as well as most of the properties. "You're good…too good," Will said. "Are you a genius or something?" "I--I can't remember, honestly," I said. "I've just always been good at games like these," I told them. "Oh, okay. Well, it's lunchtime. Maybe after lunch, we could go outside and test your skills in other games like soccer or basketball?" Will asked. "Yeah, I don't think the doctor will mind me getting hit in the head with a few kicks," I said sarcastically. Just then, Mr. Benson's phone rang. "Oh, it's the doctor, probably wanting a progress report," he said as he hit "answer". I could only hear his end of the conversation, but I could hear him telling the doctor that I was feeling better and staying awake. Will went into the kitchen to start making lunch. "Is grilled cheese okay?" he whispered to me. "It's Graham's favorite," he said. "Yeah, that sounds good," I whispered back. He made one sandwich for each of us, four total, and cut them into triangles. Will finished making lunch just as his dad got off the phone. "Thanks for making lunch, Will, and congratulations, Shane!" he said. "Congratulations for what?" I asked. "The doctor liked my progress report, and he said you can now participate in mild activity. You can't do anything with your head yet, so be careful, but you can still run around and stuff now," he said. I was very happy and rushed to eat my sandwich so I could go outside with Graham and Will. We all finished eating, and we went outside. "Let's just kick the ball around," I told them. They agreed, since actually playing soccer could mean the ball hitting my head. We kicked the ball around for almost half an hour, playing games with different twists, such as trying to kick it higher than everyone else, or trying to make it bounce of the post on the goal. We all had fun, but got really tired and decided to go inside. Right as we got inside, Will's phone buzzed.

***

My phone buzzed right as we got inside from playing. I had one new text from my next-door neighbor, Mr. Walker. He was also a teacher at Martin, the high school I attended. He was asking if I could watch his kids for a little while so he could go run some errands. I told him I would be right over with an extra helper. I told my dad what Mr. Walker wanted, and that I was bringing Shane with me. Shane agreed to go next door, saying that it would be good to meet some of the neighbors. We headed out and walked one house down to the Walkers' house. Mr. Walker had two sons, Mason and Timmy, who were both 4 years old. I knocked on the door and a boy about my age opened it. We talked for a little while, and I was able to figure out that he was the son of Mr. Walker's step-brother. He said that he, his dad, his two younger brothers, and his best friend who lived with him were visiting from Massachusetts. "Whoa, that's way up north," I said. He told me his name was Pete Grossman, and his younger brothers were named Frank and Colt. "How long are you here?" I asked. "We're actually staying in Texas for the next month or so, until about a week before school starts," he said. "That's good. We should get to know each other, then," I told him. "My name's Will, by the way, and this is Shane. He's not my brother, but he is living with us, I guess sort of like your friend," I continued. "Well, my brothers, Peter - my friend - my uncle, and I are all going to run some errands and drive around the city, so I guess you're watching the little kids?" "Yeah," I said as I led Shane into the house. I introduced Shane to Mr. Walker, and talked to him for a minute, and then everyone left but Shane, myself, and the two kids.

Mason and Timmy saw me and came running up to me to say hi. Mason sprinted to me and yelled "Hi!" at me, and Timmy ran over normally and just told me hello. The two brothers were pretty much the opposites of each other, but I knew what they had in common. I knew they both liked superheroes. They didn't have the same favorite, but I figured I could work with that. I also quickly introduced them to Shane. "What are we gonna do?" Mason asked me. "I don't know, what do you want to do?" I asked him back. We did this back and forth a few times as we always did, and we ended up asking Timmy, as usual. He said he wanted to go outside and play soccer, so we ended up playing soccer for the second time in one day. I took Mason on my team, and Timmy and Shane were the other team. I told them to wait and asked Mason to go change since he was wearing nicer clothes. He ran inside and quickly came back out, but he was only wearing his Batman underwear. "I meant go put on some different clothes that you can play in," I told him. He ran back inside and came out, this time with a T-shirt and shorts on. He put his shoes back on and we were ready to play. We decided to play with no goalies, since there were only two people per team. Our team got the ball first, but Mason tried to pass to me and Shane intercepted it. He passed to Timmy, who was about to score when Mason came diving out of nowhere to stop the ball from going in. He popped right up and kicked it hard at me. I let the ball bounce off my chest and then softly kicked it into the goal. I ran back and high-fived Mason. Timmy got the ball and passed to Shane. Shane fit a pass right between us, and Timmy managed to stop the ball and kick it towards the goal. His shot bounced off the post but hit it at the right angle and went in. I got the ball after the goal and pretended that I was going to take a shot from the other end of the field, but actually passed to Mason, who was weaving his way between the defenders. He slowed down the ball with his left foot, and passed back to me as I ran down the middle. I took a shot, and scored! "First to 3 goals!" Timmy said as he took a wild shot that missed the goal by several feet. It also missed a window by about 3 inches. I picked the ball up and threw it in. Mason took a chance and tried to head it in, and it worked! We won 3 to 1! All four of us ran inside and sat down on the couch in the living room. I looked over at Timmy and he looked really sad. I slid over towards him. "What's the matter?" I asked him. "Well, I was sad that I had lost our last game with our cousins, and now I'm sad that we lost this game, too," he said to me. "It's just a game," I said trying to reassure him. "Maybe to you, but in our house, the loser has to pay," he told me. "Pay, like as in money?" I wondered, thinking that Mason and Timmy probably had no money. "No, they have to do something like a dare," Timmy told me. He continued, "Last time we played, Mason lost and I told him he had to wear all pink for a whole day. I'm just scared of what his dare will be, that's all," he said. "I'm sure it won't be anything too bad, but I'll talk to him," I said as I went over to Mason. I told him that Timmy was scared of what his dare would be, and I said to go a little easy on him for this one. He told me he had an idea if he could go talk to Timmy by himself. I told him he could, and they both left the room together. I watched as they went up the stairs and into their room, but I couldn't hear anything after they closed the door. Shane and I talked a little while we waited, and then we heard the door open. Mason walked out and told us to close our eyes. We both closed our eyes, and I could hear them walking down the stairs. "Okay, open them now," Mason said. I looked up and saw Timmy standing in the middle of the room with a ballerina costume on. "I will now dance for you," he said quietly. Timmy began to dance, and he looked very embarrassed, but got through it okay. After he finished his routine, they went back upstairs, so Timmy could change back into the T-shirt and shorts he had on earlier. They came back down, and I turned on a baseball game on TV for us to all watch. The game had just started, and after the second inning was over, Mr. Walker came home with Pete and his brothers. He paid me 10 dollars, and I left with Shane.

I decided to take Shane on a little tour around the neighborhood, so we stopped in front of the Walkers' house. "Okay, so this is the Walkers' house. To our left is my house, and directly across from us is Joseph Phillips' house. He's a little weird, and really smart. He wants to be a detective, so sometimes he spies on people." I turned to my right. "The house on this corner is empty. The house on the corner across from us is the Durhams' house. Jake and Piper. Jake is a senior at my high school, and Piper's in sixth or seventh grade. Stay away from them at all costs. Jake's favorite activity is beating people up. The Cozarts live next door to them, Maddie's okay but Shane is kind of a troublemaker," I said. Shane - our Shane - said it was going to be confusing if there were two people named Shane in one neighborhood. I started walking down the street to our right, pointing out that the two houses to the left of the gate were where Yates Douglas and Conrad Clarke lived, the latter being my best friend. I turned around and led Shane back towards our house, but kept walking. "There's a new girl who lives down the street, at the corner,” I said, pointing. "I don't know her name, but she's about your age." We kept going, on to the last street, where I walked to what seemed like a backyard. Shane asked why we were going through here, and I just told him to trust me. We reached the end of the walkway, and I pointed to the giant body of water. "This is actually completely open to the public. It's kinda fun to come down here and feed the ducks or throw a football around," I told Shane. "The house next to the walkway is where the Faheys live. You'll get to know them, they have two sons, Parker and Ben. There are a few more families that live in this neighborhood too," I said. We headed back up to my house, and went in this time. We all decided to just relax for the rest of the afternoon.