Strange Country Day by Charles Curtis

Ptuiac. We’ve got it under control. Forget you ever saw anything.”
    I nodded, and he released me. We walked back up to the field, and I sat back down next to Dex.
    “What happened?” he asked, giving me a worried look.
    “Couldn’t find my helmet.” I felt numb all over.
    The rest of the game was a cakewalk. Our defense forced two fumbles and sacked the opposing quarterback four times in the second half, giving us a 43-14 lead with five minutes left. At that point, after our third interception of the night, Coach Schmick told Jimmy to stay out and called out to Jesse, the backup, to go in. But Jimmy waved him off and ran onto the field anyway, shrugging and grinning as he put his helmet back on. Mr. Slick, as always. Schmick grumbled something about making him run extra laps tomorrow, but I could see the corners of his mouth turn up a bit. The rest of the team started giving each other hugs and high fives.
    “Congrats on our first win,” I said to Dex. I turned around to find my parents and waved to them. Mom responded with a fist pump and Dad applauded. But I could see they looked worried from all the way down the field.
    I gave the thumbs up back and glanced at Sophi.
    She gave a half-wave, which I was ready to respond to when I heard someone a few yards away yell, “Yeahhh, Sophi, big win!” I didn’t have to look. Flab was waving back and blowing her kisses. I turned back around to talk to Dex.
    “So, she hasn’t said anything to him,” Dex said at half-volume. I shook my head. “Whatever. He can think they’re dating, but they’re not. That’s enough for me,” I replied.
    “I was walking to history class the other day and heard one of the popular girls talking about her. Thought you’d want to know.”
    “Really? What’d she say?”
    He leaned a little closer. “She was telling some people that she used to be friends with her, but that she stopped because … Sophi’s a witch.”
    We started laughing as the ref whistled for the two-minute warning, but in the back of my mind, I realized how perfect that’d be. My parents are trying to protect me from God knows what, my locker is being stalked by strangers, my coach is one of my protectors, I’m filled with machines …
    And of course, Sophi’s a witch! But I was starting to believe it.

Chapter Thirteen
     
     
    “We’re still working on it.”
    That was all my father had to say after a stranger had infiltrated a supposedly secure gym locker room and tried to get into my locker?
    Three weeks later, I still had trouble sleeping. Every time I woke up, I saw the Man in the Hat at my locker or the Man with the White Patch reaching out to me. My body’s defense mechanism, allegedly operative at times of stress, never even bothered to kick in.
    Everything else in my world, however, seemed to move into place. The Griffins had a 3-0 record, I was somehow getting decent grades, and I was nervously, secretly dating Sophi.
    At practice, my throws got a little more accurate, and the workouts got a little bit easier. Occasionally, I’d get a compliment from a coach. Flab lurked in the background, as always, but left me alone now, too.
    “You won’t say who’s protecting me besides Coach Carson?” I knew I was badgering my father, but I didn’t care. I wanted answers.
    Dad hunched over his keyboard in the underground headquarters. “Look, Alex. You want me to tell you the truth, so I’m telling you: we’re working with our security forces to find this guy and figure out how he got in there. As you can see here, I’m working on it. We need to analyze the chemistry behind your nanobots before we can understand how you can control their response. Finally, no, I won’t tell you who works with us. It’s for their safety and yours.”
    “You haven’t made any progress with this in three weeks?”
    “It’s a question of the right balance.” He stared at the numbers on the enormous computer screen.
    Besides the potential danger of getting hurt