The Courage Within

By Andy Coltart

‘As the Secret Service agents realised what was unfolding they started to run … but it was too late. The gun had fired!’

Riley Bennett is a teenager in the USA who hates going to school, but with good reason: she gets bullied every day just because she has epilepsy. But everything changes when a freak storm comes over the town during a games lesson. Riley and two other teenagers are struck by lightning. They don’t know each other until they meet in hospital for the first time. Follow Riley, Casey and Alex as they discover what the lightning has done to them and how their lives will never be the same again!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legend Press
• Release date: Feb 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781800319523

Book preview

Author

Chapter 1

Just Another Ordinary Day

As the morning sun pushed its way through the gap in her bedroom curtains it cast its light on Riley’s face. She could feel its warmth and knew it was only a matter of minutes before the alarm on her phone would ring out loudly, announcing the start of a new day. As she lay there waiting for the inevitable, she thought to herself, if only there was some way to pause time, I could stay here and not have to face another day in that awful school.

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the ‘beep, beep, beep’ of her phone’s alarm. She turned over, picking the phone up from her bedside table and switching it off. She lay back on the pillow and sighed.

‘Riley, up you get,’ came a loud shout from the other side of her closed bedroom door. ‘Now, Riley!’ said her mum. ‘Okay, okay, I’m up,’ she said, as she pulled back the covers and stepped out of bed.

She wandered across her room in her pyjama shorts and vest top, her bare feet sinking into the soft rug on the floor in the middle of the room. She stopped to look in the mirror. Looking back was a fifteen-year-old teenage girl with long curly blonde hair. She rubbed her eyes in a vain attempt to wipe away the tired look they were giving her in the mirror. Turning from the mirror she grabbed her towel from the radiator and headed for the bathroom.

Alex had been up for several hours. He always got up early in the week. Doing a paper round before college meant leaving the house around 6.30 a.m. every day. He didn’t mind though as he was a morning person. You know the sort, full of life at a time of day when most of us are hoping to stay under the warm covers and snooze for a while longer!

Alex had taken his bike from the garage that morning as he’d wanted to do his paper round quickly in order to get to college. It had been dark when he’d left the house but now the sun was coming up. This brought with it some warmth after the cold night air. He was just delivering his final paper when he realised he’d not packed his notebook in his college bag. Frustrated, he turned his bike round and headed back in the direction of home. This was not how he’d wanted his day to start.

Casey sat in her pyjamas on the sofa. The sun was up now but it had been dark outside when she’d woken. Not able to sleep anymore she’d decided on an early breakfast and was now sat with toast and tea and the television on.

‘It is a school day,’ said her mum as she passed the lounge on her way to the kitchen.

‘Yeah, and?’ said Casey, ignoring the reply that followed.

A key turned in the front door and Casey’s dad came in tired from the night shift.

‘Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?’ he said. She stared up at him as if the words were alien to her.

‘Come on,’ he said, ‘you’ll be late again.’

‘So?’ came the brief reply.

‘So, you’ll land yourself in more trouble,’ said her dad. Reluctantly, Casey rose from the sofa sending toast crumbs tumbling from her pyjamas all over the sofa and the floor. As she walked towards the stairs she could hear her father saying, ‘and I’m guessing you’re expecting me to clear that up too!’ She ignored him as she slowly climbed the stairs to her room.

Her dad grabbed a dustpan and brush and cleared away the mess before following her up the stairs. Casey had shut her bedroom door. Her dad knocked and said,

‘I hope you’re getting dressed in there. We leave in twenty minutes.’

‘Yeah, whatever,’ came the nonchalant reply. Riley stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel round herself. She then took the small towel she had brought from her room and wrapped her hair in it on top of her head. Unlocking the door she made her way back to her bedroom to get dressed.

‘Are you nearly done up there?’ called her mother from the kitchen. ‘Breakfast is on the table,’ she went on.

‘Five minutes!’ shouted Riley from behind her closed bedroom door.

Riley’s little sister and brother were already sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen. They were eight-yearold twins and as far as Riley was concerned they were your typical, over excited, over energised annoying siblings. They were both munching their way through toast and bowls of cereal, talking constantly as they ate.

Finally, after a long cycle back up the hill to his house, Alex arrived home.

‘Hello, son,’ said his father, ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you again this morning.’

‘I forgot my notebook,’ said Alex as he tried to catch his breath.

‘Oh,’ said his father.

‘Yeah it’s made me late,’ said Alex.

‘I can drop you off as I’m heading to downtown this morning,’ said his father.

‘Thanks that would help a lot,’ replied Alex.

Alex put his bike back in the garage and went inside to find his notebook. The desk in his room was covered in books and pens. There was a laptop half buried on the desk. It flickered on as he moved some books from its keypad.

‘There you are,’ he said, as he picked up the red notebook lying next to the laptop. Putting the notebook in his bag he hurried back down the stairs and out of the front door. His father was waiting on the steps of the porch.

‘Ready?’ said his father.

‘Yup,’ replied Alex. They both climbed into his father’s Mercedes and set off for college.

‘It’s time to go!’ called Casey’s dad from the hallway. There was no reply. Her dad paused for a minute deciding whether to go upstairs or just shout again. He decided on the latter.

‘Casey, come on!’ he yelled. Finally, she appeared wearing ripped black jeans with a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and a jacket.

‘And you’re going to school dressed like that, are you?’ he said, as she walked past him and out of the house to the car.

‘Yes, I am,’ she said, defiantly. Her dad decided not to argue the point as he knew he was in a losing battle. So he just unlocked the car and they got in. They headed for school not saying much along the way.

As Riley entered the kitchen there was a loud honk of a horn outside on the road.

‘Oh no, the school bus!’ said Riley with a panic in her voice.

‘It’s okay’ said her mum, ‘you can eat this on the way.’ She handed Riley a cereal bar and an apple. Riley just about managed a ‘thank you,’ as she grabbed her bag and ran out of the house. The bus driver honked the horn again.

‘Okay, okay, I’m coming,’ she said as she ran down the front path and stepped onto the bus.

The doors closed and the bus pulled away. Riley made her way slowly down the aisle looking for somewhere to sit. The first empty seat she came to had a girl sat in the next seat. She stared at Riley and then placed a bag on the empty seat. Riley moved on. Everyone seemed to be staring at her. She wished she was invisible. She wished she didn’t have to take the school bus, but her brother and sister went to a school in the other direction so her mum couldn’t take them all and be on time.

She continued down the aisle passing a group of wannabe mean girls who stopped talking as she passed. They were wannabe mean girls because no true mean girl would ever ride the school bus! Finally, Riley found two empty seats. She sat down relieved to be out of sight and by herself.

Moments later a lad from the year above her plonked himself in the seat next to Riley.

‘You’re that Crazy Curls kid, aren’t you?’ he said. She stared at him but said nothing.

‘Aren’t you gonna freak out for me?’ said the boy, laughing.

‘Leave me alone,’ she replied.

‘Oh, come on now, Crazy Curls. You know you want to!’ said the boy. Lots of the kids around her started to laugh.

Suddenly a deep voice said, ‘Leave her alone and get out of my seat.’ The boy looked up to see one of the senior baseball team players standing over him. He immediately moved and the other lad took his seat.

‘Sorry about him,’ said the baseball player.

‘It’s okay,’ said Riley. ‘I’m used to it. Every day is the same.’

‘I’m Josh, by the way,’ said the baseball player. ‘Why did they call you that?’ he continued.

‘Oh, I have epilepsy,’ said Riley. ‘I frequently have seizures in class, which they all find very amusing.’

‘What a bunch of jerks,’ said Josh. Riley smiled. This must have been the first time anyone in her school had stood up for her.

‘Here you go, son,’ said Alex’s father as they pulled up outside his college. ‘You got any idea what time you’ll be home?’ his father went on.

‘Not too sure,’ replied Alex. ‘It depends how much of this assignment I can get done in between lectures.’

‘No problem,’ said his father, ‘I’m downtown until late so I’ll see you when I get in.’

‘Okay, thanks for the lift,’ said Alex as he climbed out of the car, remembering to pick up his bag and his notebook. Alex’s father pulled away from the curb and turned on the radio as he drove towards the city.

‘Here now with a weather update is Darrel Hanson.’

‘Yes folks it’s looking like we have one hell of a storm on its way in. You may want to keep your pets indoors today,’ announced the radio presenter.

Casey’s dad stopped the car by the bus stop outside her school.

‘Off you go then,’ he said, looking at his daughter. She sat there for a moment, thinking of a reason to stay and some witty remark to make. She quickly came to the conclusion that she had no choice in the matter so she took off her seatbelt and opened the door.

‘Do you want me to pick you up?’ said her dad.

‘No, it’s okay, I’ll make my own way home,’ replied Casey.

‘Okay,’ said her dad, ‘but don’t be in too late.’ Before she’d finished getting out of the car a loud horn honked behind them. The school bus was trying to park at the stop. Casey closed the door and her dad sped off leaving the bus room to stop. Casey stood and watched as kids stepped off the bus, hoping a friend might be amongst them. The only person she recognised was Riley from her gym class. But the two of them had never spoken and Casey wasn’t going to strike up a conversation right now. So she turned and walked into school alone, following Riley and the other kids from the school bus.

Chapter 2

School

As they made their way into school Riley and Casey found themselves in a corridor full of kids of all ages. Some were stood at their lockers swapping books from their bags. Others were just stood around in groups talking. Riley made her way to her locker. Taking the padlock in one hand she twisted the numbers within it to her personal code. The lock popped open. Removing it from the door she opened her locker. She started to replace the books in her bag with others from her locker. Moments later the first bell rang out. It was time for registration. Riley quickly replaced the lock and grabbed her bag. She headed down the corridor to her form room which was already filling with kids from her class. She hesitated at the door, wishing she didn’t have to go in but knowing there was no choice. Stepping into the room she could see her desk by the window about half way down the room. She walked across the class and headed to her chair making sure she made no eye contact with the other kids.

People were talking in the classroom. Some were throwing bits of paper around. Mr Willis, her class teacher walked in.

‘Settle down you lot,’ he said as he placed his case of marked school books on his desk. Everyone quietened down and Mr Willis began to take the register. The kids replied with ‘here,’ as their names were called. When Riley’s name was called, she was about to say ‘here,’ when one of the boys shouted ‘Crazy Curls here, sir.’ Everyone laughed. Riley shrank in her chair wishing it would swallow her up. Oh, how she hated being at this school.

‘That’s quite enough of that,’ said Mr Willis. When he’d finished the register he dismissed the class. He waited at the door and asked Riley to stay a moment as the others left.

‘Are you okay?’ he said softly.

‘I’m fine, sir,’ replied Riley. Inside she was screaming ‘get me out of here,’ but couldn’t tell Mr Willis that. What could he do about it anyway?

‘Okay, go on then, get to your next class,’ he said letting her past him. Out in the corridor pupils were pushing and shoving in different directions. Riley’s heart sank even further as she realised her first class was PE out on the sports field.

Alex walked up the path to the college main entrance. As he reached the steps his friend Will was waiting for him. ‘Come on,’ said Will, ‘I thought we’d agreed to get in early today!’

‘Don’t start,’ said Alex. ‘I left my notebook at home and had to go back for it.’

‘I did wonder why you’d not arrived on your bike,’ said Will.

‘Yeah, Dad offered to save me some time with a lift,’ said Alex.

‘Come on then, let’s get to the library,’ said Will. ‘Actually, I thought we could sit outside for a bit and go through our notes before the first lecture,’ said Alex.

‘Sounds good,’ said Will, walking down the steps across the lawn at the front of the college.

The two boys sat down on a bench and took out their folders. They started to talk about the project and the research involved.

‘Are we going to have to find some fossils or will the college let us study ones at the museum?’ said Will.

‘I’m hoping they’ll let us use the museum,’ said Alex. ‘We could spend months trying to find ones in the wild.’

‘True,’ said Will. Alex and Will had both opted to study palaeontology at college and were starting to wonder if they’d bitten off more than they could chew.

Although Casey was in a different class, she and Riley did PE at the same time and she was already in the changing rooms when Riley walked in. The changing room was packed with girls in various stages of undress. Some had got their sports kits on and some hadn’t started. A group of mean girls were stood in their underwear admiring themselves in the only mirror in the room.

Riley made her way through the chaos to a space at the end of a bench in the corner of the room. She was careful walking across the room not to trip on the array of hockey sticks strewn across the floor. A large, muscular woman appeared from the teachers’ room and blew a whistle, which nearly deafened everyone in the room.

‘Two minutes, girls!’ she shouted, before disappearing out of sight again.

Two minutes, thought Riley, I’ve only just got here. She quickly took off her clothes and grabbed her tracksuit bottoms, a vest and a hoodie from her kit bag. Before she could finish changing the mean girls appeared next to her.

‘Look at poor Crazy Curls,’ they said, ‘she’ll never attract a boy with a body like that!’ They walked away laughing. Riley looked down at herself, trying to hold back the tears in her eyes. The truth was she was probably more attractive than those mean girls, but that didn’t seem to stop them picking on her.

‘Right you lot, outside now,’ bellowed the teacher as she blew into her whistle once more. The door in the corner of the changing room burst open and forty or more girls poured out of it onto the sports field. As the muscular teacher followed, she looked up at the sky. The sun had gone and it was now looking much darker than before.

‘Hmm,’ she said to herself, ‘I hope this weather holds for the next hour.’

‘Alex, would you mind if I went and got us some coffees from the college cafeteria?’ said Will.

‘Not at all, it’s been hours since I had breakfast, as I’ve been out on my paper round this morning,’ replied Alex. ‘Great,’ said Will, ‘I’ll be back shortly as I’m going to collect a book on fossils from the library too.’

‘Okay I’ll be here,’ said Alex. Will got up, leaving his bag and books with his friend, he headed back towards the college main entrance carrying his wallet and library card.

Alex opened his notebook. Inside he had hand drawn pictures of fossils with scribbled notes next to each one. He flicked through the notebook, looking for a particular fossil. It was a detailed drawing of a T-Rex tooth.

Oh how I’d love to discover one of these, he thought to himself.

Twenty minutes must have passed before Will reappeared carrying two coffees, a library book and what appeared to be a bag of donuts.

‘Hey, I was wondering what had happened to you,’ said Alex.

‘Yeah, sorry, got held up. Wow, it’s gone dark out here,’ said Will.

‘I know, I think a storm is coming,’ replied Alex.

‘Do you want to go inside?’ asked Will.

‘No, I’m okay out here for now. Did you find the book you needed?’ replied Alex.

The two of them sat down on the bench and ate the donuts and drank their coffees. Will explained what he’d seen in the book about the fossils they were researching and Alex shared information from his notebook.

The girls had all lined up along the side of the hockey pitch. Riley’s stomach squirmed and twisted inside her as she knew what the teacher was about to do. Sure enough two names were called.

‘Emma and Lily, pick teams please,’ said the teacher. The two girls stepped forward, both choosing their best friends first. Slowly all the names were called until just Riley stood on the line. Emma looked at Lily.

‘It’s your turn to pick so you can have her,’ she said. Riley reluctantly walked over to join Lily’s team.

‘You can go in goal,’ said Lily to Riley. Riley knew it was Lily’s way of keeping her at a distance from the rest of the team.

The teacher blew her whistle once again and the game started. Girls were shouting – screaming in some cases – at one another as they ran up and down the field. The ball seemed to fly across the grass as it was hit with considerable force from one girl to another. The whistle blew, ‘goal,’ shouted the teacher as Lily’s team scored again. Fortunately, Riley had found herself on the better team which meant being in goal wasn’t so bad. Most of the activity was happening at the other end of the field away from her.

That was all about to change though as the other team seemed to be