So there's this kid in my class who's an amazing athlete. And when I say amazing, I mean out-of-this-world-how-the-heck-does-he-do-it-amazing! The guy is so coordinated he could probably balance his entire weight on a dime propped on its side.
Felix Fine has only been at Planet Nine Elementary for two months, but already he's the best athlete in the school. He can run faster than anyone (except for Marion Dorsey when the moon is full), jump higher and throw farther, and can do it all without even breaking a sweat. The guy is like a superhero. Which is why it's so awesome that I got picked to partner up with him for our Social Studies project. I've been trying to make friends with Felix since he started at the school, but it hasn't been easy. He doesn't talk at all unless the teacher picks on him to answer a question, and even then he talks in this quiet, soft voice barely above a whisper. Some of the kids like Cody Tyler think he's kind of strange. Cody is the kid whose head expands like a big blue balloon when he smells some kind of flower, so who is he to talk? Anyway, I think Felix is way cool, so I was pumped about going over to his house after school today to work on our project. Maybe he'd teach me how to do that jump shot of his so I could land some baskets like he does. He makes a basket every time he gets the ball. Every time. Some day Felix'll be playing for a pro basketball team and we'll all be saying we knew him when. How cool is that?
So anyway, I get to Felix's house and his mother lets me in. She's thin like Felix and walks like him, so softly that I didn't hear her footsteps. Her eyes are wide and curve up at the edges, but what I notice
most are the color. They're bright green, just like Felix's, and they kind of glow as they stare at me. I don't know what to say, so I stammer.
"Hi...uh...Miss...Mrs....um...Fine. I'm here for my homework....I mean...Felix's homework. No, that's not right. I mean---"
"---I know what you mean young man. Felix is expecting you. He's up in his room. You may go on up. Second door on the left."
She steps aside to let me in, then kind of glides down the hall. As I start to head up, she turns and says, "Would you like a glass of milk? It's full fat."
Weird! "Uh...no thanks," I say and watch her as she walks away. It's uncanny. Her footsteps don't make a sound. I feel a little weirded out, but clump up the stairs feeling like a charging rhino. I try to make as little noise as possible just because there's not a sound in the whole house, but the stairs creak and groan no matter how quiet I try to be.
At Felix's bedroom door I pause. I raise my hand to knock, but before I can the door opens and Felix is standing there looking at me with those strange green eyes he inherited from his mom.
"Hi!" I say, a little too loudly, wishing with all my heart that Fatty and Wiley were here with me. Maybe then I wouldn't feel so creeped out.
Felix inclines his head. "Rodney. Please come in."
I step into his room and my jaw drops open. The walls of his room are plastered with pictures of cats. I mean they're everywhere! And I don't mean kitty cats either. I mean gigantic lions, tigers, cheetah, leopards, jaguars, panthers, cougars, bob cats. In fact, every kind of feline known to man, and even a few that I'm pretty sure haven't been discovered yet. And there weren't just posters. There were statues everywhere.
"Wow!" was all I could manage. "You...er...you really like cats, huh?" I lean over to look at a shiny black stone statue of a cat.
"That's Bastet," Felix says from behind me. At the sound of his voice I jump. I didn't expect him to slink up behind me so quickly.
"Who?"
"She's a Cat-Goddess from Ancient Egypt." He gestures around his room. "All these statues are of her."
"Why?" I say.
He looks puzzled. His green eyes glitter in the darkness of his room. "Why what?"
I shrug. "Why do you have so many statues of a dead goddess from Ancient Egypt?" Seems like a reasonable question, right?
Wrong!
"She's not dead," he hisses, his eyes flashing now. "Bastet lives, but in a world of non-believers." His head whips around, and I stumble back. "She is closer than you think," he says softly. "And soon her full power will be restored to her, and when that happens those who mock her will pay."
Time to leave.
"I see...o-kay. Um...listen, maybe we should put off working on the paper until tomorrow, huh? I...I just remembered my mom has some chores she wants me to do. We...er..we could meet at the town library and work on it there."
Silence.
I clear my throat. "So, wh-what do you say?"
"If that's what you want."
Whew! "Great! That's great." I can't seem to stop nodding. "So, I guess I'll leave now then. I mean, those chores won't do themselves, you know?" I start toward the door. "See you at school tomorrow," I say, turning to look at him.
Man, I wish I hadn't turned. Felix is crouched on the window ledge, staring at me with those bright green eyes. "Tomorrow then," he says softly, and before I can yell or stop him or do anything he leaps out the window. At first I'm frozen in shock, then when I hear a yowl from the ground below I run over to the window. Felix is nowhere in sight, but my bike is on lying on its side and a black cat is sitting beside it licking its right front paw.
I turn and run down, wondering what the heck happened to Felix. Ahead of me, Mrs. Fine is at the door, moving faster than I've ever seen a grownup move. By the time I run outside, she's scooped up the kitty and is cradling it in her arms, whispering in its ear.
"What happened to Felix?" I say, panting.
"I'm sure he's fine," she says, her attention focused on the cat in her arms that is clearly in pain, judging from the sounds its making.
"What happened to the cat?' I ask.
""It seems he...it...collided with your bike when it landed," she whispers.
"Landed from where?" I glance up and the only window I see is in Felix's bedroom directly above us.
"And where's Felix?" I glance around but there's no one else there except for the two of us and the squirming cat.
She looks up at me then. "It's getting dark," she say softly. "You'd better get home. Your mother will worry." She glides to the front door, the cat in her arms.
"What are you going to do?" I say, wondering what the heck is going on here.
"I'm going to bandage his injured hand," she says, holding the cat's right front paw very gently in her hand. "Goodnight young man."
The front door closes behind her and I'm left standing alone outside, thinking this is a pretty weird day, even by Plutonian standards.
The next day at school during gym class I see Felix sitting on the bleachers. "I wonder why he's not dressed for gym?" I say.
"Oh, didn't you hear?" Fatty says to me, bouncing a basketball off my head. "He hurt his right hand yesterday and has to wait until it heals."
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