"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" I asked.

Alex jumped. "I work here. What are you doing here?"

"I just came to escort you home. You invited me, remember?"

"I... What? No, I didn't. That's not at all what I did."

"Besides, it's dangerous out all alone at night. So, I thought I'd walk you home and protect you."

Alex looked up at the sky. There were a few clouds but otherwise, it was clear. It was dark though. The moon was nowhere to be found.

A pretty black-haired girl rushed over and wrapped her arms around me. "Oh my God, it's you! It's actually you!"

"In the flesh."

"In the flesh?" she asked.

"I don't know, it's just something I heard—aw, never mind. It's, uh, nice to meet you too?"

Jackie beamed. "Really? Because I'm so glad to finally meet you! And it's so nice of you to walk us home. Alex told me you were really nice."

"No, I didn't," he muttered.

I patted her back. "You look way better without your vest."

"Wait, what? Were you spying on me?"

I held up my bag. "Even better—I was shopping."

Jackie frowned. "Ew! Gross!"

I turned to Alex. "Aw, come on, what's wrong?"

"It's almost midnight, and you've just been out here, like waiting around for us after we closed—while Jackie and I finished work?"

"Well, it's only 11:30. But I was wondering what took you guys so long. Wouldn't it have been smarter to do your work while you're actually working? I do like your uniforms though."

Jackie blushed and looked down at the ground. She put her head in it like an ostrich.

"Oh come on, Alex, it's a nice night."

A gust of wind blew past us and rattled the bag in my hand.

"Besides," I continued, "I thought we could cut through the school. Haven't you ever wanted to see the soccer field at night?"

"No, not really. Not at all actually. It probably looks the same but darker," Alex said.

I locked my arm around his and held out the other for Jackie who quickly joined us. "Great. Now you can tell me all about work. How was your first day?"

Alex dug his shoes into the pavement. "This is dumb," he said.

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed.

He fumed. "You're impossible to argue with, you know that?"

"I'm not arguing."

"See!" he said. But his feet started moving.

The wind picked up once we crossed the boulevard. It was deserted. The only sign of life was the neon light at the corner liquor store that flickered when the wind blew. It went completely dark for a moment after a particularly large gust almost knocked it off the window. But the resilient thing buzzed back to life again. We scurried past it toward the small campus of Bluffwatch High School.

Even that looked eerie. There were no cars in the parking lot, no lights were on, and leaves skittered past our feet. A large brick wall separated us from the field.

Alex scaled over it easily enough. Jackie though had a slightly different approach. She just stood there, staring at it for a while before looking at me. That's when the giggling began.

I moved in to help. I tried boosting her over by holding her foot but she started laughing, her body wobbled, and she came crashing down into me. I dusted myself off and tried again. Then, again. After the fourth try, Alex yelled from the other side of the masonry.

"What's taking so long?"

I shouted back, "Jackie's, uh, not as athletic as you."

"I am too!" she said, then lifted her shirt to pat down her forehead like a runner might do on a hot day.

Blood rushed between my legs. Jackie had a lean, attractive build. Pale skin stretched up past her ribs to the bottom of her bra. It matched what she was wearing under her khakis. A hint of her red panties poked out the top of her tight pants.

She spotted it and tucked it in. "It's a long story. But I... I kinda stole these just before we left."

“I know a place where you can get a pretty big discount.”

“Why would you know a place like that?”

Suddenly, a ringtone interrupted the stillness.

Jackie craned her neck around to her butt. "Ugh! It's probably my dad."

"Are you going to answer it?"

"Can you help? These pants are—it took me like an hour to get it out of my pocket earlier."

And sure enough, when Jackie projected her butt toward me, there was a large imprint the size of an iPad trapped in her back pocket. I looked to the fence, then back at the panty line under her khakis. The phone chirped again.

"Well, don't just stand there!"

"What do you want me to do?"

She pointed to the computer lodged in her trousers. My hand moved toward her and slipped into her pocket. The phone rang again.

I wiggled my finger inside and pressed it into the plastic case but as I was pulling it up, it got caught on the top of her pocket and slid back down. I tried again with two fingers, this time with careful precision, trying to pinch it and pluck it out. Extraction attempt number two failed as well.

"Jesus, how did you even get it in there?" I said.

"I knew I should have stolen baggier pants," she muttered.

"You stole pants too? Honestly, I don't think you're very good at your job."

"But these are just so cute on me!"

"I agree. But it's really in there so I'm going to have to—don't move, OK?"

As soon as Jackie nodded. My fingers traced down her cheek. They went low—really low, down to the bottom of her pocket.

She squirmed. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to push it up from the bottom."

Jackie swatted my hand. "That tickles!"

"Stay still!"

The phone slid higher. I could see it moving in her pants. The ridiculous pink casing sprouted from her pocket and I seized it.

Jackie turned and flashed a smile of relief. But as she studied the confused look on my face, her smile disappeared.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "I have to take that."

I stepped closer, put my arm on her back, and showed her the screen. It wasn't ringing and there were no missed calls. Just then, Alex's voice came through the other side of the wall.

"Yeah, Steph, work was fine. Really. No, I didn't get fired!" he said.

"Well, he almost got fired," Jackie told me. "I'm his boss."

I brought my head in closer. "Oh yeah? What did he do? It was the go-backs, wasn't it? I heard them calling his name."

"Yeah, he's not very good at sorting clothes. It's basic stuff but he just has so many questions. I'm too busy to deal with all of that—and the customers!"

"He does complicate things. And with all your grand larceny I can see why you don't have time to deal with him."

"It wasn't grand!" she insisted.

My hand traced over the outline of her bra. "Oh, come on, tell me what happened. We'll trade. I'll tell you something too. Then, we'll be even."

Jackie scoffed. "I already know about you, mister. I know that you have a crush on his sister!"

"Is that all he told you?"

"Maybe. But, you can, you know, give your side of the story."

My head slowly swiveled side to side. "Uh-uh, you first."

From beyond the wall, we could hear Alex rationalizing to his sister the shortcut we were taking to get home.

I considered, then asked, "Do you guys do stuff together a lot—like fun stuff?"

"No, not a lot, this was the first time—hey! No fair, you tricked me!"

The breeze pushed her ponytail gently back and forth. I pinched her bra and snapped it lightly back into the skin on her back. Little dots popped up along her arm. She rubbed at them.

"What are you doing?" she huffed. "Alex is literally ten feet away. I don't know if we should, you know..."

"What are you talking about? I'm just asking you what happened at work, that's all."

"But you're, you know—" her voice dropped to a whisper "—I can see it. I can see it in your pants."

I peered down into the small space between us and shrugged. "So are you."

Her face turned red. The shape in the front of her khakis kicked forward. Even Jackie's nipples were projecting through her shirt. She rubbed her knees together and coughed.

"So, this does have something to do with why you stole those panties, doesn't it? What did you and Alex do?"

"No! No. I mean, kind of—but it's not like that. I didn't mean to do anything with your boyfriend!"

"Boyfriend? Who said anything about a boyfriend? And besides, I wouldn't mind if you did. Did he like it?"

Jackie wiggled her shoulders. The lumps of flesh on her chest bounced.

"Then what's the big deal? I never understood why people get so weird about this stuff."

Alex's voice sounded through the wall. "Guys?" he shouted. "What's taking so long?"

The disheveled girl turned back to the wall and waited. She looked like she was about to take a step, then she paused. My palm had found her lower back and settled just above her pants. There was a nice, strong curve to her spine. It almost seemed like I could feel right through her thin top.

"Guys? Hello?" Alex said again.

"Jackie, I'm going to grab your ass."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah that makes sense—wait! What? I just met you. I mean, just—excuse you, Mister!"

I waited for her to finish. Then, I waited some more. Eventually, I pointed to the wall. "Look, if you're going to climb that thing you're going to have to pull, and I'm going to have to push."

"Why can't you just, like, hold my legs?"

"I've tried that before and trust me, it doesn't work."

Jackie scrunched her nose. "Well, fine. But no funny business."

"You have my word."

My hand found her ass before even had time to take a breath. She jumped. Her eyes narrowed. It was a nice butt. She had solid, round cheeks, and on that cold night when the temperature was dropping into the low 50s, it was a nice relief.

She immediately began to complain. "You just said... I mean... What are you doing? You call that pushing?"

"I'm just getting ready. You can start climbing now."

Alex again. "Guys? Hello?"

"Be right there, just a sec!" I shouted back.

That was our cue. Jackie took a breath, dusted off her hands, and bounded for the wall. I groaned.

"Don't make that noise! I'm not that heavy!" she said angrily.

"You can start pulling now."

"And you can start pushing!"

My hand slipped between her cheeks and crashed into a fleshy bulge. She yelped.

"Jesus! Easy!" she complained.

"Just climb over! At least try!"

"I am trying!"

I had it—something—cupped right there in my palm. "Just pull yourself up!"

Jackie leaped up, latched onto the top of the wall, and straddled it. She looked down from her perilous altitude.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about this part," she said.

The wind on the other side of the fence was non-existent. It just disappeared entirely. Everything was suddenly very quiet, and very dark, as we made our way to the sideline. Jackie turned to Alex.

"How's your sister doing?"

Alex shrugged. "She's mad. She wants to call my boss and complain about how we had to stay an extra hour and a half after closing. I think she has a point."

"Oh please," she said dismissively. "You love working with me and you know it."

"But is it always like that?"

"Like what?"

"Yeah, Alex, like what?" I asked.

He shrugged, took a few more steps toward the middle of the field, then suddenly stopped. His sneakers dug into the grass.

"What was that?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" I said.

"You didn't hear that?"

I turned—we all turned. Several dark figures stood behind us. Their silhouettes were big—exceptionally big. They drew closer.

I squinted. "Darren? Is that you?"

The tall senior laughed. He stood casually with his hands in his pockets. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? It's late."

I took a step back. "We're just on our way home."

"Strange way to get home," he mused out loud.

"Not really, it's a shortcut."

Jackie elbowed me. "Shh!"

"Yeah, listen to your girlfriend," Darren said.

"She's not my—"

Another elbow.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Darren and his goons gathered closer. He looked up at the dark sky, his normally bright complexion was gray and foreboding. A sour smell rolled off his breath and when I wrinkled my nose, he too soured.

"You got a problem?" he asked.

"What? No."

"You look like you got a problem."

"Have you been drinking?"

He looked to one of the members of his entourage who handed him a paper bag. Darren took a swig and then wiped his mouth.

"No, I haven't been drinking," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"It's not a big deal, we won't tell anyone."

His voice went quiet. "Tell anyone what?"

I held out my hands to either side, collected my friends, and took a step back.

"Scared?"

Our little group huddled closer and took another collective step away from the imposing young man. His grin stretched wider.

"What are you afraid of?"

"Just... Just leave us alone, we're just trying to get home, OK?" I said.

Jackie stumbled and fell onto her butt. Darren turned to her, smiling.

"Fucking freak."

"Hey!" I shouted.

"Relax, buddy, it's cool."

"Yeah," his associate added, "it's cool if she's a freak, we don't care. Are you OK, freak?"

"Come on," I pleaded, "she didn't do anything to you."

"She?" Darren scoffed. "She!"

I reached down and scooped her off the ground. Darren's tall frame closed the gap between us in one, giant step. He pressed a finger into my chest.

"Are you a freak too? Are you a fag?" he said.

"What's wrong with you? Stop it!"

"Answer the question. Do you like dick?"

I swatted his arm away. Darren recoiled. He cocked his head and his grin vanished.

"Did you just hit me?" he asked.

The goon beside him nodded. "Yeah, I think he did. I saw it."

Darren calmly began rolling up his sleeves. "Alright, tough guy, you wanna go?"

"What? No—of course not. Just leave us alone and we'll go, OK?"

"You started it."

"No, I didn't! You did!"

"Afraid? Come here."

Jackie took a handful of my shirt. "No! Justin! What are you doing, come back here!"

I brushed her aside, raised my fists, and stepped toward him. Alex was right beside me. I saw him out of the corner of my eye heroically lunge forward, trip, and hit his head on the ground.

Just then, a tremendous light shot up from the ground all the way up to the sky. It enveloped me and my attacker, swirling around us. Accompanying the blinding, white flash was a loud thunderous boom that shook the ground. It knocked our assailants off their feet.

Before my vision went black and my hearing faded, I saw Alex lying there, face down in the dirt. I moved toward him, crawling, feeling for him with my hands. I bumped into his limp body.

I screamed his name but I couldn't hear my own voice. I rolled him over and raised his head. "Alex! Are you OK? Say something!"

The foul smell of singed earth stung my nose. It polluted my lungs. I gagged. But still, I started tugging Alex toward the blurry figure standing at the edge of the melee. It was Jackie.

She rushed toward us and knelt down. Her lips moved but all I heard were muffled noises.

"You're hurt! You're hurt!" she cried over and over.

"I'm fine," I reassured her.

"No, your shirt! Your shirt!" she repeated more clearly.

I looked down. It was gone. Only some frayed, blackened strands remained. Some of them were still glowing. I brushed them off. Then, Alex opened his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

I looked to Jackie.

"Let's get out of here, come on!" she said.

"Wait, what about them? Where did those lunatics go?" I asked

Jackie pointed to the dark lumps scattered in a circle around us. They started to stir. "They're on the grass—over there!"

"How'd they get over there?"

Darren sat up and coughed. The confusion on his face was magnified by his partially intact and smoking eyebrows.

"OK, yeah, let's get the hell out of here," I said.

Alex wheezed.

We helped him to his feet. He wobbled, stepped backward, and then found his footing. But it was only after Jackie and I wrapped our arms around him. We hobbled as fast as we could into the dark recesses of the field.

We paused at the entrance to the alleyway and peered back behind us. I squinted into the darkness. Everything was calm and still. Alex wheezed again. He turned to me.

"What was that? What did you do?" he coughed.

"Me? I didn't do anything."

Jackie stepped closer, staring at my bare chest. "You have superpowers," she whispered as if our attackers could still hear us.

"Superpowers?"

She nodded. "That was insane."

"If anything, it was lightning."

"Don't you need, I don't know, clouds for lightning?"

I looked up at the three, lonely clouds in the sky.

"And besides," she continued, "isn't there like a lot of electricity in lightning? Like all the electricity?"

"Yeah, somewhere between 5,000 and 50,000 volts. Everyone knows that. Why?"

"First of all, no one knows that. And second, because if it was lightning, you probably wouldn't be alive."

I nodded. Jackie had a point.

"Don't look at me like that!" she said. "I'm smart. I mean, I can be if I want to."