Page 11 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

“No, Shelly, you don’t understand. Icannotbe physically injured. I have not experienced any physical pain of any kind since my parentsdied.”

Shelly’s eyes stayed narrowed. “What the hell are you talkingabout?”

“I’m talking about … I’m like … Superman or something.” Tara paced aimlessly, taking small, quick steps,around the locker room. “My body, my skin, my skeleton doesn’t sustain injury when brought against any kind of negative force. Not stabbing, not falling onto a hard surface from a significant height, not dropping a bowling ball on my foot.Nothing.”

Shelly’s mouth opened and closed several times before she finally got the words out. “Okay, let’s say that I don’t think you’re crazy—because I really don’t want you to be crazy— and I believe you. Would you show me? Is that cruel of me toask?”

“I’m telling you something that should be scientifically impossible,” said Tara. “I don’t think it’s wrong to want proof. Of course you can ask. You just can’t go running and screaming and freakingout.”

“I don’t freak out,” Shelly said, giving a slight sniff ofindignation.

“You totally do,” Tara argued. “At any and every available opportunity. No one freaks out more thanyou.”

“We can agree to disagree. Now, as much as I fear you are wrong and you’re going to do something to show me you can’t be injured and then wind up dying or something, please prove this to me. I want to believe you, Tara. But like you said, it’s just sounbelievable.”

“I’m not mad or hurt that you want proof. Just please try and remaincalm.”

“Again, I don’t freak out,” Shellysaid.

“You do,” saidTara.

“But… if you do die,” said Shelly quickly and loudly, overriding her friend’s arguments, “because you are crazy and aren’t actually a superhuman, I will be forced to call 911. And I will have to explain to them thatIasked you to do some asinine thing to prove that you were some sort of superhuman. That will be embarrassing for me. In retaliation, I will give Tucker your diary to read. So, choose wisely if you want to continue with thisnonsense.”

“You’re evil. Now shut up and pay attention.” Tara pulled one of her soccer cleats out of her bag. They were the kind with the metal traction on them instead of plastic. She placed her hand on the bench and swung the cleat, spikes down, onto the back of her hand as hard as she could.Whap!Shelly jumped. Tara did it again. Over and over, she slammed the cleats down on her hand, never once uttering a sound of pain because there wasnone.

“Stop! Enough, bloody hell, it’s enough,” Shelly yelled and lunged forward, reaching for the offending shoe. She was breathing hard as she stared down at the completely unharmed skin on Tara’s hand. There wasn’t even so much as a red mark. It should have been bloody and swollen from the amount of abuse Tara had just put it through, but it looked as fine as it had before Tara had gone psycho onit.

“That’s not some sort of fluke, is it?” Shelly asked. “That’sreal.”

Tara shook her head. “No.”

“I just don’t see how this can be possible. I … it’s … how?” Shelly stumbled over her words as she looked at Tara’s hand and then back to herface.

Tara could still see the skepticism in her friend’s eyes.She needed to find something that would take any doubt out of Shelly’s mind. If Shelly was going to know this secret, then she had to fully understand that it was real, and it was a threat to Tara if anyone else found out. Tara wasn’t stupid. She knew if someone with any kind of medical interest found out about her, they’d toss her in a laboratory so fast her head would spin. So, she started looking around for something else she could use to fully convince Shelly that what she was seeing was real.Tara honestly couldn’t believe she was doing this. For some reason, she had lost her damn mind, that or she was just tired of being so alone. But, probably, it was that she’d just lost her mind. Denial, people, denial. She dropped her cleat and walked over to the athletic trainer’sstation.

“What are you doing, Tara?” She could hear the nervousness in Shelly’svoice.

Tara hesitated at the table. “I need you to believe me without a doubt.” When she turned back to Shelly, Tara was holding up a pair ofscissors.

“Tara, what the hell? You’re starting to freak me out.” Shelly’s eyes had widened to a ridiculous size, reminding Tara of one of the Disney princesses. It would be a moment like this that in the movie one of them would break out into song to somehow explain why they were doing what they were doing. Tara tried to think about how her song would go. Maybe something like, “Do you want to stab my shoulder? Or maybe shoot out my eye.” Yes she likedFrozen. Who didn’t? And if you didn’t, Tara was convinced you must hate all good things and snow. Which in her book made you acommunist.

“I thought you said you didn’t freak out,” Tara remindedher.

Shelly growled. “Yeah, but this. How can you expect me not to freakout?”

“Just don’t scream,” said Tara. Now that she had finally told someone about her “ability,” for lack of a better term, Tara felt like a giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She could finally breathe. Not to mention there was a small amount of twisted pleasure in seeing her annoying BFF becoming a little unhinged. Tara held up a finger, placed it between the scissor blades, andsqueezed.

Shelly squealed, holding out her hands as if that would somehow make Tara obey. “Stop!”

Tara raised her eyebrows and removed the scissors. She held out her perfectly intact finger to Shelly, whose mouth was now hanging open. There was no blood. No cut, not even a small scratch. Completelyunharmed.

“How?” Shelly muttered, her eyes as wide as saucers. “How? How is this possible? It’s not.” She shook her head. “It’s not possible, and yet here you are with no injuries when you should clearly have injuries. OMG. I think I’m going to puke. You just tried to cut off your finger. What the hell, you mangy female dog with deformedteats!”

“I thought we agreed no freaking out,” Tara said calmly. “Although I have to say I’m impressed with that insult, and it wasn’t even inLatin.”

To drive the point home, no pun intended, Tara took the scissors, held them in her fist, and stabbed them into her thigh. The scissors bounced off her leg as if she’d just stabbed arock.

Shelly gaped at her. “Would you please stop trying to cause yourself bodily harm? It’s giving me acomplex.”

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