Read Beyond Our Stars for Free Online

lead.
    In this particular storage bay there was farming equipment and crates piled high in the back. I’d been schooled on how to use each piece of machinery. There was a big old tractor, a harvester, a baler, and a combine. The boys balanced on the tops of these machines, walking along slim metal bars and jumping from the metal loader with its sharp teeth as they made their way swiftly to the back and the stacks of crates built up eighty feet into the air. Once they made it to the crates they took wide jumps, landing deftly. In the beginning, I’m sure the slamming name was deserved. We must’ve been really loud, but now we knew how to make a landing fast and fluid. The boys landed gracefully and took off in the same beat. Up and up and up the crates.
    Some of the giant boxes were metal and welded shut. They had stuff in them we were trying to preserve but wouldn’t need for a while until we re-established our lives. Different pieces of technology, scientific textbooks, I’d heard there was one whole crate somewhere full of memory sticks with data encrypted on them. So that we wouldn’t be starting over as cavemen. There were wooden crates with medical supplies, and some empty crates that had held our provisions, the five years worth of food. The ones that were empty swung from side to side as the boys jumped on them, and the crowd let out collective gasps as each slammer jumped on the precarious crates. Chance landed on one and jumped from it just in time as it crashed down behind him. The crowd exhaled. Now that the crate was gone Elijah was forced to take some more time getting up the boxes.
    Chance was really moving fast and my heart started to thump in my chest. He reached Tennessee and Clark ahead of him and I thought,
this is it, he’s going to take the lead
. But both of those boys were already gathering speed as they jumped to make it to the top crate and the last shaft up. He wouldn’t make it. Then Chance leapt from a lower crate onto a far wall, not nearly close enough to the vent. I knew what he was going to attempt before he did it, and I wondered how he could be so stupid. He always did this. He’d do something risky and impossible as though there was no way he’d really get hurt. But he’d
never
make it. He jumped from the wall, up into the air, and I waited for the crash and the medics rushing in.
    But I heard screams, the excited kind, coming from the crowd. I opened my eyes. Chance was clinging by his fingertips to the ladder inside the shaft. I exhaled.
    â€œYou’re not invincible,” I mumbled out loud. The girl next to me gave me a funny look.
    Elijah jumped up too, on top of Chance, reaching for a rung above the one Chance held. But Chance grabbed the kid’s leg and pulled, using him to climb. He grabbed a fistful of Elijah’s hair and used his shoulder as leverage, climbing right over him. Chance continued up, reaching the opening that led to the main deck where the winner had to grab the slam trophy.
    The scene changed again, just in time to capture Chance sprinting across the screen. His face was red and angry, and a little blood trickled from his cheek as he grabbed the Trophy with relish.
    The auditorium and the corridors erupted in thundering applause and cheers. Elijah still placed second and he seemed pleased with that. He slapped Chance on the back as the third place finisher, Faith, arrived. She must have made up for lost time somewhere, she appeared out of nowhere. I’d have to ask her what her secret was.
    There were no hard feelings between any of them, this was sport, and there were no rules. This was how the game was played. But it wasn’t like Chance. And it bothered me. The cameras followed his face, and now he looked stunned. He forced a smile.
    I got up. He’d be surrounded by people wanting to congratulate him for at least an hour. It wasn’t about the actual trophy, that thing was an ugly twisted bar. It