Everyone is good at something

[Casey]

Eric agreeing to the extra passengers was no surprise. Miles had been with them a few times and as for Teagan, well she was girl and Eric had no problem with girls. Art sat in the back of the van that one of the guys had removed the last few rows out of. Eric sat in the driver’s seat, Troy in the passenger’s, everyone else on the floor in the back. So far they had never pulled over, which was probably because Eric’s dad was a police officer. Resting his head on his wrist Art glanced at the two near him as the other boys talked.

“So,” he said evenly, “How you been?”

He was a little weirded out by sitting next to Teagan. She had pulled a gun on his brother after all. Then again she was just probably messing with him. Having her back would be entertaining to say the least. Honestly he didn’t know what her opinion of him was; he just hoped it was the kind that didn’t get a gun pointed at him.

[Teagan]

Teagan wasn’t sure how legal a group of teens chilling in the back of a vehicle on the floor was, but since she had joined the world of hunting, the technicalities of legality didn’t bother her much. In truth, she was slightly miffed that Aiden and Yuki had been so gung ho to get her to leave the Wesson. They had just pulled the greatest stunt in history and what did they do? Kick out the mastermind behind the plan?

Fools.

Begrudgingly she had agreed to join Art and Miles on some trip. She hadn’t quite caught the name of the destination, focusing instead all of her efforts on protesting her boot. In the rush of events, she now found herself in the back of a van with a group of guys heading somewhere. Teagan glanced around, analyzing the group for any threats. No, she’d be safe for now…as long as the driver –Eric, was it?- kept his eyes on the road and not in the rearview mirror on her everyone would be okay.

Teagan glanced up at the younger Rook, grateful for the conversation in her awkward silence. Unfortunately though, sitting next to Art made Teagan feel slightly off-balance. Last time she had technically seen the boy was when Portland had been blasted into the future by a demon and his future counterpart had warned them about everyone’s impending doom. Which –of course- raised numerous questions, changed the course of events in the present, and oh, right, revealed to Teagan how she was going to die. Everything on that trip had centered on Arthur, the shockingly changed man who had at one point played the role of the socially-awkward reader in Keystone. Drastic was a small word for the transformation: the teenager next to her barely resembled the smoking, drinking man with strange tattoos who had some level of affection for her. Or so Aiden teased. And Arthur returned with wit.

“I’ve been fine,” was her uncreative response. “Just facing evil and things I’d never dreamed about for the past few months. You?”

[Casey]

“That’s good I guess,” Art shrugged, “Guess I’ve been about the same. Got a nephew.” He jerked his thumb in Miles’ direction. Compared to what
Teagan must have been doing in Portland, Art figured his life was relatively mundane. No point in boring her with the details he figured.

He braced himself and said, “Pothole,” before Eric ran over one. The others did as well, everyone who had been on the road knew what spots to avoid or brace for. It may have been the fastest way but not the most enjoyable. As he returned to a relaxed state he noticed a few of the other guys glancing in his and Teagan’s direction. Art raised an eyebrow and a few of them chuckled.

“Chill dude,” one of them, Richie, said, ”Just enjoying a rare sight, Arthur Rook talking to a female out of his own free will.”

They burst out laughing and Art just rolled his eyes. He could think of a number of times he had talked to a girl out of his “own free will” but didn’t see the point. Instead he settled on hoping Richie would end up on the opposite team for the match.

“We should be getting there in a few minutes,” he said to Teagan.

[Teagan]

“Nephew, huh? You’ve got one up on me,” she shrugged. “I’ll never have a nephew- no siblings.”

The next thing Art said she didn’t quite catch, but she did note him suddenly tense and followed suit. Good thing too-either the roads were treacherous during winter or this kid was a bad driver. She sent him a dirty look, not caring if he caught it or not.

Laughter from the other boys in the van caught her attention. It seemed like Art was still….Art. Good…well, for the future, anyways. Probably not for him though.

“Watch your back if you’re going to refer to me by ‘female’ and not my name,” she replied, narrowing her eyes at the group in front of her. She held their gazes seriously for a moment before breaking out in a smile at Art’s timing comment. “Cool. What’s the battle plan once we get there?”

[Casey]

“Unless you marry a guy with siblings,” Art answered. Made sense in his mind.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he rubbed the back of his head, “It was meant as insult to me, not to you.”

He blinked at her next question. As far as he knew Teagan knew exactly where they were going and why. Shaking his head, he shifted his weight and sighed.

“When we get there, we split up into teams. You can play if you want, Miles does sometimes. Then we just play soccer for a bit. Might get food afterward too if we have enough time,” Art shrugged.

Art tapped his fingers on his leg, “You played much soccer?”

[Teagan]

Soccer? Since when did Art start playing soccer? Teagan blinked. He was more of the sit-quiet-and-read-in-the-corner type. She was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

With a quick glance around the van, she sized up the other occupants of the vehicle. All of them –including Art and Miles- were ridiculously taller than her. That might give them a slight advantage when it came to power behind a kick, but Teagan would have the element of surprise: no one expect the –what a terrible word- short girl provide the rear-kicking.

“Soccer, hm? I haven’t played in forever,” Teagan mused. She needed to figure out how talented this sorry bunch was so she’d know exactly what buttons to push later on. “Why don’t I sit on the sidelines for the first part and remind myself of the rules, then join you guys at halftime?”

“Besides,” she winked at Art. “You don’t need a girl slowing you down, right?” Hopefully he’d get the message.

[Casey]

Art nodded at Teagan’s idea, whatever she wanted to do was fine in his opinion. As long as he had a good game he was good. Since he had kinda, sorta graduated it meant that this would possibly be one of, if not the last game he’d have with his former team. It was sad to him but downright depressing for the rest of the team, or so they kept saying.

“Alright,” Art shifted when she caught Teagan’s wink. He doubted that she would slow anyone down but two concerns ran through his mind. The first was that the girl had some evil plan and everyone in the van was in trouble. Second was that Teagan didn’t know exactly what she was getting into.

Troy called that they were almost at the door. Art turned around slightly and said, “Get ready to get out.”

Troy jumped out of the passenger’s seat and ran around to the back of the van. When he opened the back doors everyone winced from the drop in temp. Art hopped out and motioned for Teagan to follow. He glanced up at tall building and couldn’t help but smile. The indoor sports center had been a saving grace during the winter months, since teams practically boycotted playing in the snow. Roof was more than high enough to not interfere with any stray kicks and the fake grass didn’t cause rug burn.

“I’ll show you the way in,” Art said to Teagan and began walking toward the building. Since it wasn’t a professional game or anything the guys weren’t changing into their uniforms, which made life a whole lot easier. He really didn’t want to leave her alone for a long stretch of time. That would just be inviting trouble in his opinion.

[Teagan]

Teagan hopped out of the van after Art and turned back, waiting for Miles –who had for some reason been silent up to this point- to catch up. The drastic temperature change caused her to rub her arms a bit, wondering why she had left her jacket in Aiden’s car. Something about an impulsive prank and a one tracked mind to pull it.

The sports center, fortunately, held a more natural temperature and Teagan felt her arms defrost as she entered. “Nice place,” she nodded to Art, admiring the bright pseudo-grass. Almost looked natural, except that natural then would be defined as covered in snow. She claimed a seat on the bench as the boys began to stretch.

“Miles, you don’t strike me as the sports type,” she kidded, glancing amused at the tech-geek she had chatted with the past few weeks. “Did someone threaten to take away your computer?”

[Miles]

The reunion with Portland--and his first time meeting the group--was unexpected, and to say the very least, interesting. They had arrived on a day that both of the youngest teens in the faction of Keystone had a regularly scheduled soccer practice (now that Miles had taken to playing). Miles would have thought that with all the Hunter business that they would skip practice, since it wasn't a high stakes game or anything, and plan, explain...hunt...whatever else it was that happened when a group of Hunters met up. But instead, they somehow were dragging Teagan with them to practice, with Aiden and Yuki practically pushing her out the door.

Miles had been taking to another one of the players for some of the ride, for they both shared an interest in an online game. Besides, Art seemed a little adamant on talking to Teagan, and vice versa. Most of the time, the guys might have teased him more for talking to her, but recently, as Art started to catch them and surpass them physically, they started to back off. Even Miles was now starting to incline his head to look at Art when they were standing.

Soon enough they were at the center, and Miles slipped his hands into his sleeves, and prepared for the weather outside. He was used to it, having lived in South Dakota through his childhood, but it was still always uncomfortable for the first few seconds. Hopping out of the back of the van, Miles made his way inside, careful not to slip on the slick ground--though now that he was learning some combat moves, he might have been able to save himself and amaze Art's friends. If only his clutziness didn't outweigh his ability to fight and defend.

Ultimately, Miles took a seat next to Teagan on the bench. The guys began their match, and Miles then turned his attention to Teagan. "I'm not," he replied simply, watching the ball move this way and that. "But see...as you can tell, I'm rather...I guess scrawny would be the best word. And with...our hobby? You need to be able to run. So Deacon promised me a new LCD monitor, huge, bright, amazing quality, perfect for videos and gaming, its a flat screen and its resolution...right, sorry. Anyway, so this thing is awesome, right? I just have to beat Art on one of our three mile runs. He wakes me up at like, six every morning to go run, and then we do it again later that night. I've tried, trust me, but this guy always outruns me. Then again, he is eight years ahead of me. Anyway, so I started playing soccer with him to increase my stamina and stuff," he explained.

[Teagan]

Scrawny was the right word to describe Miles. Compared to all the other occupants of the room, the poor kid was nothing, so Teagan was relieved to hear that he and Art had been running day and night. As excessive as that was, at least the boys were preparing for a life that would drag them face first through the mud.

As Teagan had lovingly discovered within the first month.

"Good luck to you on that," Teagan smiled at him. "Although..." She glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping on the conversation. "...you know the life of a Hunter comes with a few benefits, right? As in, you never have to pay for anything ever again? Ask Aiden to teach you about how to use a credit card when we get back."

She turned back to the game, curious to see how the game progressed. To her surprise, the boys played a at more professional level than she had expected. None of the usual beginner errors were being made, each shot and pass precise and direct. Maybe joining them at the half wouldn't be that great of an idea after all. Teagan's eyes habitually scanned both teams, analyzing the strengths and abilities of each player. Yeah, most of them were on a level she could barely keep up with -it would be difficult, but she could keep up. Again, all of them were above her height, and many of them showed physical attributes that only came from months of training. Teagan eyed them with approval, inwardly smiling at the thought of how jealous some of her friends would be if they knew what she was doing at the moment.

Big room. Lots of well-built guys. Only girl. Who happened to be single.

Yeah, they would freak, Teagan chuckled, swinging her feet back and forth. She was admiring one of the nice figures when, to her surprise, he started walking in her direction. Not wanting to be caught staring, she adverted her gaze before returning it to his face. Art's face, to be specific.

...

...

Teagan mentally cursed at herself. That was going a bit too far, in her opinion. Thoughts like those should never cross her mind. Ever.

Rebooting mindset.

"What happened? Don't tell me you got hurt already or something. The game just started!" she teased, raising an eyebrow.

[Casey]

After greeting the guys from the other nearby teams, they began the always difficult task of dividing teams. Long ago they had learned to stretch while arguing over who was on what team, it sped things along. The problem was that everyone on one team wanted to stay with their team. They knew each other’s moves and how they played. That wouldn’t have been a problem if they had enough players in two teams or four but they had three teams there. Another decision had been that separating the one team was un far to that team so all the players had to be divided. Then moved to the debate over individual players and that could get pretty in-depth.

Art stood and shook his head at the others. He would let them sort it out, seeing that he didn’t really care what team he was one. He was going to be the sweeper and he was going to have Miles sub for them. The other guys liked the kid and the added fact they could yell “Rook!” at both of them. Both teams were more than happy to let him play, unless they were down in the points then they pulled Art back in.

Stretching done, the de facto captains had a general sense of who was on what team. Not long after they started playing. Art moved to his spot on the defense and waited. It not being a proper game or even practice however lead to it basically turning into a game of chicken at half field. Crossing his arms, he looked up at the ceiling and raised an eyebrow. His friends could be such idiots, and apparently so was he when he realized he was still wearing his jacket. And glasses.

Sighing he glanced ahead of him and saw no progress, unless you counted showmanship was being made. He pulled the jacket over his head and told the defenders he’d be right back, and they nodded more interested in the show in front of them. Art tugged on his white shirt, which didn’t want to stay down around his belt loops. It was one from before he his growth spurts started and every time he lifted his arms it showed his stomach. Which is why he never wore this shirt in public or alone. It was however one of his favorites, his mom got if for him while she was in Europe and it had a faded gray design up the side. Thus it became one of his junk shirts for working or playing, so far just playing, he wasn’t ready to ruin it yet.

“Uh no,” Art blinked at Teagan’s enthusiasm. He pulled at his beanie before continuing, “I was just wondering if you guys could watch my stuff.”

He set the jacket next to Teagan and took of his glasses. Art gave a weak smile and put them on top of the jacket.

“Thanks,” he said without response and started back to the game.

[Miles]

Although he was still scrawny, Miles had built up a minimal amount of muscle tone, mostly in his arms. His endurance had increased, some, but nothing in comparison to what he needed to beat Art. Even cheating hadn't worked out the few times that he tried, not to mention that Deacon was on Art's side. Maybe his 'grandparents' would buy him the monitor anyway...they did adore him after all...the proposition didn't seem so bad, now that he thought about it.

Teagan's comment made him raise a brow. Credit card fraud? While easily traceable, that meant virtually unlimited money. Imagine, the monitor, the microphone, the webcam, the security cameras, a new laptop, new parts that weren't recycled, external hard drives to hide things on (not that he didn't do that already, but splitting things up between them was safer, especially all the supernatural stuff), the games, and he could run it all at once and use the card to pay the electric bill. Aiden might just become his new best friend. And Teagan would get the credit, of course.

They fell silent, and Miles too began watching the game. He was used to sitting out while the game was established, and often times as the game finished. Because he didn't have the skill that the others did, he was used more when there was a significant lead, and someone needed a break. Not that he minded, he would much rather prefer not to be obliterated on the field. The few times he had successfully stolen the ball, by the time he could crack a grin at his victory, the ball was already gone. He had made a few goals here and there, but only when he was literally three feet or so away from the goal. But it counted, right?

Miles glanced back over at Teagan, and found her staring intently at the players. After following the path of her eyes, his brow raised again. That look was directed at Art? The corners of his lips tugged slightly, unsure if he should make a verbal comment or not. Something playful, or something direct? Before he could decide, though, Art approached them, and Miles gave him the usual nod and slid his things to the end of the bench they were on. Once Art turned his back, Miles decided to act on that comment. "Art getting hurt? Why would you ask that when you were just watching him?" Miles asked, sounding genuinely confused.

[Teagan]

"Yeah, no problem," Teagan weakly agreed, trying to keep her eyes up as she grabbed Art's jacket and folded it neatly before returning it to the bench. What on earth was her problem? Art is the kid brother of a friend, she chastened herself. So why couldn't she focus on something other than how his shirt fit a little too well? She'd only been gone a couple months. What did he do-work out everyday?

She blinked, and shook her head, trying to erase the thoughts buzzing in her mind. This was the bookworm. Read: not her type.

Not her type.

Not....her...

...type?

No. Not my type, she semi-reluctantly decided and pointedly diverted her gaze to the other boy sitting next to her. Miles was a safer person at the moment to talk to. He had more of a personality than Art did and Teagan enjoyed talking with him. Substance would be an accurate word. While Art was read and kick and push glasses up, Miles actually had something in common they could discuss. Like electronics.

Wait a second- Teagan took a second look at what Art had tossed next to her. His jacket and...glasses? Didn't he need those to see? She turned back to the game, wondering if Art was about to trip over his own shoes. It seemed like something he'd do...but when she spotted him, he sprinted across the field like he had wings on his shoes. No stumble, no tripping, and...and he didn't look half bad witho-

Teagan bent her head toward Miles, trying to hide the fact he had jerked her from forbidden thoughts. "Come on, smart one, it's called sarcasm. Don't tell me you spend too much time on the computer you can't catch a decent joke when it's right in front of you."

Jeez. Just sarcasm.

...right?

[Miles]

As Miles watched Teagan stare off at the players, and more specifically Art, he couldn't help but to track her expressions. Aside from the absent gaze, her brows showed hints of confusion, shock, and other emotions that were hard to discern from each other. So Teagan was surprised by...something. By Art's skills? By Art himself? Miles took a moment to watch the game, needing to know the score and other such things should he jump in, before turning his attention back to Teagan as she spoke to him again. Yeah, that was definitely a front for something, and it was Miles' duty as (basically) Art's brother and (technically) nephew to figure out what was going on. After all, relatives looked out for each other, right?

"Ha. Ha. I'm not that bad, Teagan," Miles responded, figuring out how best to proceed. "I don't know, you sounded pretty sincere to me. Not that much can hurt him anymore. I mean, I heard he used to be a book worm...well, he still is, just without the muscle. But now, he's a giant, and he's strong so no one will mess with him, unless its something supernatural, of course." And just to add a little creative flair, Miles created just a small lie to keep her going. "You should have seen the way all the girls at school looked at him. Of course, he doesn't have to worry about that anymore, now that he's graduated." Miles paused, realizing what all he was saying. "Wow, I sound really creepy right now. How about we talk about that monitor again?"

[Teagan]

"If you're going to pretend to be a Hunter Miles, you'll need to be able to read people better. That was complete sarcasm, buddy."

Teagan narrowed her eyes at the younger boy, not amused by his rant at all. What was he inferring? Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense. On the bright side, his comments instantly extinguished any -unpleasant- thoughts that might have passed through her head, allowing her to focus on more important things.

Like the information Miles had shared about how Art was changing. As much as she hated to admit it, she didn't want to hear that he was getting more active and stronger. Anything that would bring a closer similarity to Arthur disturbed her. Immensely. She had sworn not to let him turn into that man and not even the gates of Hell would stop her from that. How much had he changed while she was gone?

"Miles, from what the guys were saying in the car, it sounds like Art still needs that dating website address I gave him back in July," she chuckled before her smile faded. "On a serious note, -and don't tell him I asked- but Art doesn't smoke does he?"