School was easy for Sal. He learned fast and got straight A’s. The other high-schoolers respected him. Most were either frightened by him or fascinated with him. Sal didn’t blame them. He was a peculiar being. Tall, with a muscular, athletic body and raven black hair, his dark, seductive eyes seemed to put a spell on anyone who came close. With his pale skin, people sometimes mistook him for a vampire.
He never heard a bad word from anyone except the time a new student had joked around, calling him Edward Cullen. He'd made a pass at the little bastard in the hallway, and they'd ended up making out in his car. He never saw the kid again after that.
Sal was a star on the basketball team at school. He was a popular kid which was odd because strange kids never had it easy.
He had experienced many romantic encounters up on Lover’s Hill. It was nothing but a steep hill with a great view, but on a clear night, the stars danced in the sky. Sal was a charming sweet-talker, and it always helped to put his dates in a romantic mood.
Sal was bisexual. Some people might call him promiscuous behind his back, but he wasn’t. Not according to him, anyway. He had a special someone, besides: Robin.
He'd been Robin’s math tutor for six months, but he'd had no luck asking her out on a date, even though they had chemistry. According to Robin, Sal was too extroverted and outgoing. He wasn't the type to stay around for long. Sal wasn't marriage material.
Robin was more down-to-earth. She was beautiful, with curly hair and blue eyes. Robin was a top-of-the-class student who only stepped in all the right circles. Some would say she was an overachiever with a trust fund. Robin also didn't date jocks.
Sal's friends didn’t understand his infatuation, but with Robin, Sal never had to pretend. He never knew what was up with Robin, and it was liberating. She was a challenge.
He remembered when he'd first met Robin. Sal had been in need of money and had posted an ad on the school board, searching for students to tutor. Robin had shown up by his locker to respond to his ad. Sal ended up doing the tutoring for free, he was that star-struck by Robin. She'd told him about not being able to pass math, but he hadn’t listened. The magnificent creature was in trouble, and it was his duty to help.
They met up every Wednesday. Sal had done everything in his power to charm Robin, but nothing seemed to do the trick, and they'd become friends instead. Sal treasured those Wednesdays.
His parents didn’t know much about his life outside the home. They knew he was a star on the basketball team, but they didn’t know about his dating or sexuality. He'd assumed they didn’t want to know. Whenever the topic of homosexuality came up, or they watched a gay couple go by, Sal’s dad would go pale and act flaky.
Sal's parents left him alone because he did well at school. It was worse for Carl, who earned frequent flyer miles when it came to detention. He'd get into fights and his grades were low, but Sal believed he liked his bad boy reputation. Carl thought of himself as a rebel, someone society couldn't mold into whatever they wanted. A mindless puppet, as he would put it.
He and Carl had a love-hate relationship. Carl hated Sal because he excelled at everything. He loathed Sal’s popularity, and his ability to get away with everything. Carl loved Sal because they understood each other. They'd always been best friends and had always looked out for one another. Being the odd one growing up was hard, but Carl always had his back. If anything, Carl knew what it was like to be the black sheep.
One time, some of the neighbor kids accused Sal of being one of the Black-eyed Children, a frightening phenomenon of urban legend that had spread like wildfire among the kids in Strong Edge. The encounters always happened the same way: someone home alone in the middle of the night would hear a knock on the door. When they looked through the window, a pair of children were there, standing out in the cold. When the cautious inhabitant opened the door to see what might be wrong, a mundane feeling of fear washed over them. The strange children pleaded to be let inside, but something seemed "off" with them. They were said to have pale skin, dress strangely, have odd haircuts, and not make eye contact. As the lonely inhabitants looked closer, they saw the children’s eyes were black as onyx, an unsettling detail that caused them to slam the door, denying their pleas for entrance. The moral of the story was to never, ever let the Black-eyed Children inside. They brought nothing but ill will and personal doom. They were also believed to possess the power of low-level mind control.
The kids had gone crazy, accusing Sal of being responsible for the death of Mrs. Carrington, an elderly woman in the neighborhood who had died from a heart attack a few weeks prior. They spat on him, hit him, and wanted him out of Strong Edge, only a few pitchforks short of being an angry mob.
Sal had been terribly frightened, but Carl had stepped in to defend him with all his power. He told them to stop picking on Sal or they'd pay dearly.
The kids—on a witch hunt—refused.
Carl went crazy, jumped the kid closest to him, and began to pummel him until his nose bled. He looked like Muhammad Ali beating the shit out of Sonny Liston. Foam even appeared around his mouth.
The other kids stood dumbstruck for a while, but then engaged in the war and started to punch Carl. It looked like a prison riot.
Sal started to pull the kids off Carl, screaming and kicking wildly as he went along. There were so many kids, so many hands, so many punches, and so many voices.
Then, a distinct voice blared, “Leave them alone, you sons of bitches.”
It was Jack. He rode his bike right into the midst of the fight and commenced smacking the bullies around. The bullies knew when the battle was lost and evacuated.
It was over.
Three victorious kids emerged with the promise of retaliation. They had become brothers in arms.
The parents were upset, but the bullies had learned their lesson: don’t mess with the Williams brothers and their friends.
The neighborhood kids more or less coexisted peacefully after that, but the incident had left its mark on Sal. He wasn’t dumb—far from it. Sal knew he was different. For all he knew, he could be one of those Black-eyed Children with supernatural powers.