#simon lowt

[marauders4evr]

The first excerpt from my upcoming book, Masked:

I was halfway up the pathway when my shoe caught my lace. I went down hard, landing on my stomach, somehow used to the sensation. Still, it took me a few seconds to look up. When I did, I realized that the door to the house had opened, and a man had stepped out onto the small ramp. 

“Are you okay?” he gently asked.

“F-fine!” I jumped to my feet, nearly tripped over my shoelace again, steadied myself, cleared my throat, and squeaked, “Is your son here?”

The man raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on my awkward attempt to not be awkward. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry, no. He’s at school. At least, he should be. Are you sure you’re all right? You’re shaking.”

“I can shake and be all right,” I said, causing him to chuckle but not necessarily disagree. “D-do you know when he gets out of school?”

“I suppose at the same time when you should be getting out of school.”

He was clearly trying not to smile. My cheeks became warm and I stared at the sidewalk. I tried (and failed) to sound natural as I said, “Right, well, um, I had a doctor’s appointment so that’s why I’m not in school. I have a note. I can show you---”

“I’m sure you could and I’m sure it’s impressive,” said the man, his smile growing. “I’ve seen my fair share over the years.”

I sighed and muttered, “Are you going to tell my parents?”

This caused him to laugh again. His eyes twinkled as he said, “I don’t even know who you are, let alone who your parents are.”

“O-oh,” I said. “Right. Um, I’m Simon. Simon---wait---if I tell you my last name, you’ll know who my parents are.”

“That does complicate this introduction.”

“Just call me Simon,” I quickly said. “I---um---have you heard of me?”

“Not at all,” he said. I squinted and realized that he was telling the truth. Still offering me a kind expression, he asked, “Should I have?”

“I guess not,” I remarked, looking back at the sidewalk. “I mean, they did say that it was confidential.” I heard my own words and my let out a small cry of horror. “I mean---I---I just came here to---I wanted to talk to him about---he said that if I ever needed to---but I---I can come back later.”

The man tilted his head and seemed to look right through me. I flinched, bracing myself for his reaction. Instead, he merely maintained his smile, his voice even gentler than before: “Listen, he should be back in about an hour. Why don’t you come in and hang out?”

I went to accept the offer but ended up hesitating. 

Sensing the pause, the man added, “Don’t worry; I’m not going to make you talk. Though I am a pretty good listener. Where do you think he gets it from?”

I smiled at that and meekly said, “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not,” he cried. “I can make you some hot chocolate while we wait.”

“Wow, thanks---um---Ty’s dad.”

He chuckled, readjusting his ponytail as he said, “Call me Lucius.”

---

The real excerpt won’t play the pronoun game so much as the reveal already happens way before this. This was just for my followers who have read One Day and will appreciate the expanded crossover.

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from Masked (x):

“So?” Tyler asked. “Are you going to show me what your secret [power] is?”

I tried to gasp but my body had completely forgotten how to breathe, let alone breathe dramatically. I staggered backwards until I slammed into one of those curved pipe things that rooftops always had. Why did they have those? Oh! Steam. Lotta steam. Whole lotta steam.

I stumbled forward and nearly tipped until Tyler caught my arms, speaking quickly but gently: “Hey, whoa, hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to share anything, okay?”

This was news to me.

“I-I don’t?” I asked. “Are you sure?”

“Uh, yeah, pretty sure.” The older teenager straightened up, still grinning, as if he wasn’t mad at me for keeping my secret. “I just think it would be cool, that’s all. But that’s all me. I like meeting people like me. It’s nice to know you’re not alone, you know?”

I slowly nodded. I had to admit, I was still breathless from first seeing his shield. It was like I had spent my whole life trying to hide a piece of me, only for that piece of me to clone into someone else. Someone who was now talking to me. Someone who was smiling a kind smile because he was a kind person. Someone I could call a friend.

I mean, I already have friends. I’m not a complete introvert. I hang out with a few kids in my class. We play video games and go get pizza and wonder if our weird teacher with the curly mustache ever killed anyone. 

But Tyler was different. Tyler was like me. Someone was finally like me and if that wasn’t cool enough, someone was excited to be like me.

“Simon?” Tyler snapped a few times until I was paying attention again. “Hey, I mean it, don’t worry. You can tell me when you’re ready.”

“What if I’m never ready?” I blurted out.

What the hell kind of uncool question was that, you idiot?

He shrugged. “Then you never have to tell me.”

“Wait, really?”

“That’s the cool thing about your identity,” he said, smile growing. “It’s yours.”

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from Masked, my upcoming story and the closest thing to One Day 2 that you’ll ever get:

Lucius dropped a stack of waffles onto my plate and my mouth immediately watered. I brushed my arm across it, embarrassed, but he merely chuckled. Mr. Kane handed me the syrup and when I put a droplet on the very top, he snorted, took it, and emptied half the bottle, until every single part of the golden tower was covered. I couldn’t stop the drool from coming back, much to the others’ amusement.

“Just think, Simon,” Ty said, swiping a waffle from my plate and taking a bite. “When Lucius finally gets around to adopting you, you can have all the waffles you want. Well, not all the waffles you want, he has to stop cooking eventually. But I feel like he’d hold out for at least a few weeks in a row.”

My fork slipped from my hand, falling into my lap. Though I hadn’t yet taken a bite, I felt a lump drop from my throat to my stomach, nearly pushing itself all the way through. It was warm and it tingled and I had no idea how to get rid of it. 

Mr. Kane managed to blurt out the laugh that adults gave when they wanted to quickly bypass an awkward situation. He reached over and took the waffle back from Simon, putting it on my plate. I pulled the fork back up and managed to take a bite which was a really stupid idea.

"I think we should go to the courthouse today,” Ty added, leaning back in his chair until it was on two legs. “What do you say, Lucius?”

The piece of waffle threatened to come back out and it took everything I had to force it down. 

Ty’s dad, who had been pulling the final waffles from the iron, turned with an odd look on his face. “I say that you need to eat your waffles, Waffle.”

“Oh, come on, the courthouse opens at 9:00.”

“Tyler.”

“What?”

“Just eat your breakfast, Ty,” Mr. Kane said. “Stop joking around.”

The legs thumped back down as Ty’s smile slipped. “Who’s joking?”

I tried to swallow a second bite but it got stuck in my throat. I subtly coughed. I then not-so-subtly coughed. I then hacked. Mr. Kane reached over just as I managed to get it down, causing him to rest his hand on my shoulder instead.

“Tyler,” Lucius firmly said, “can I talk to you upstairs?”

Something drained from Ty’s face and as he slowly stood up, I immediately did the same, only realizing that I had done so when the distance between my mouth and the waffles increased. 

Mr. Kane stood as well, if only to push me back down into my chair, his voice gentle as he said, “It’s okay, Simon. He’ll be fine. He’s just scared because he might be grounded by the end of the conversation.”

I couldn’t take that chance. As a reluctant Tyler followed Lucius upstairs, I ducked under my mentor’s arm and tailed after them. I had just reached the top when Mr. Kane caught up with me, resting his hand on my shoulder again, though this time, it was to hold me in place.

“I thought you were joking,” Lucius was saying. 

I crept up to the top step, dragging a reluctant Mr. Kane with me, crouching down and peering through the railing. Ty could see me but Lucius had his back turned. 

“Of course I wasn’t joking,” the teenager said. “You should adopt him.”

“I can’t just go around adopting random kids, Tyler!”

“Riiiight,” he said, crossing his arms. “That’s not like you at all.”

“You two were different.”

“How were we different?” Ty asked.

His voice had risen. His voice had risen. My eyes widened as I realized that his voice was allowed to rise; Lucius was clearly annoyed but he didn’t do anything other than say, “Easy, young man, I got your brother through his angsty teenage years, I’m well-prepared to destroy you.”

I whimpered and Mr. Kane whispered, “He’s not speaking literally, Simon. He’ll just stop Tyler from eating ice-cream for a few days. That’ll drive him nuts. It used to drive me nuts. That’s pretty much the worst thing he did for me. Well---that and he stopped---certain people from coming over. But don’t worry, no, don’t worry, he’ll never keep you away. These people were different than you. Lucius doesn’t mind having you over; he likes you. And he loves Tyler. Nothing bad is going to happen. I promise.”

“You do?” I whispered back.

He nodded and I nodded back. Still, I turned to face my friend again, refusing to leave, even when Mr. Kane gave my shoulder a gentle tug.

“I can handle you grounding me, Lucius,” Ty angrily said. “Just tell me why you don’t want to adopt him.”

“Tyl---” Lucius broke of before saying, “I appreciate your enthusiasm and I want to help him as much as you do, but adopting a child is a lot of work.”

“Again, can I just point out that you adopted us?”

“You can,” he remarked. “If I can once again point out that that was different.”

And then an unexpected temper flared up in Ty, causing me to rocket back into Mr. Kane’s chest as the teenager screamed, “What, because you don’t want to screw his mom?”

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that passed, a silence that was only broken as Mr. Kane said, “Oooohooo---ohhh---oh shit---oh shit!”

His voice sounded completely different, as if he had briefly turned into a teenager again. When Lucius whirled around, however, the 'adult’ returned as Mr. Kane said, “Hey, Simon, what’s your favorite ice-cream flavor?”

"Um, chocolate?”

“Great, let’s go get some right now!”

[marauders4evr]

I just keep thinking about my upcoming book Masked (x) which is unabashedly 100% character-driven and relationship-driven and the relationships are so pure, I’ll make a separate post about Tyler and Shay (most likely after this post) but in this post, I need to talk to you about my child, Simon, who is the most innocent kid you could ever come across. He’s going to form a crush on a girl, Olivia, but one of those “I may be twelve but I know what true love is, we’ll be married in the morning” types of crushes you know? Like full force awkward middle school crush. It’ll be awesome.

Olivia is also going to be a Super who has to hide her powers from society and thus comes to the support group which is how she and Simon meet. Olivia’s power is simple---flight. What’s not simple is that Olivia also has cancer and thus has to carry around an oxygen tank so that she can, you know, breathe.

And just imagine all of the cuteness that happens. Like Olivia’s parents are extremely overprotective and Simon’s parents are extremely not interested so these two twelve-year-olds just meeting up in the fictional equivalent of Chicago and going around, doing dorky adorable things. Eating pizza, playing video games, going to the beach, etc.

Imagine a reverse-Superman where Olivia carries Simon as she flies.

Imagine these two going to a middle school dance.

But most importantly, imagine the climax of the book where there’s a supervillain and all of the kids from the support group are coming together to take the supervillain down and the supervillain’s winning and they [the spv] grab Simon and Olivia is somehow able to take off her oxygen tank and utilize it in a way so that it explodes, taking out the supervillain but not before she’s able to fly in and save Simon.

So they get to safety but obviously she’s now dying because, you know, no air. So my twelve-year-old son just gives her pseudo-CPR for like ten minutes until the EMTs show up and are able to get her on another tank.

In like an hour I fleshed out a relationship between two fictional twelve-year-olds that is more whole and pure than anything I’ll ever find.

Thoughts?

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from Masked (x):

“Can I ask you something?” I blurted out because I’ve never said a normal sentence in my life which is one of the reasons I hate said life.

Tyler grinned and said, “Yeah, sure.”

“What if this is just a phase?” I asked, and even though that sentence probably seemed normal, trust me when I say that it wasn’t. Somehow, some way, I messed up. Just trust me on that one. “I mean, this whole---this whole superhero thing. What if it’s just a---you know---a phase---you know?”

I was really banking on him knowing.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, knowingly, in a knowing fashion. “I get it, Simon. You don’t want to put all the effort into this if you’re gonna wake up in a few days and feel like a completely different person. Right?”

“Riiight,” I said slowly because, again, unable to form sentences.

He shrugged. “Okay, so, let’s say it’s a phase. So what? You’ve gone through other phases before right?”

Was this a good time to tell him about the space phase? Probably not. No, nope, no, we’re never telling anyone about the space phase. Ever.

“A lot of those phases probably ended,” Tyler continued. “But did that mean that you were less of the person you were when those phases were happening?”

Oh, cool, so I wasn’t the only one bad at creating sentences. Then again, the more I thought about what he had said, the more it actually made sense.

“You see,” he said. “It’s just like that. Maybe it is a phase. Maybe you’re going to grow and change and become something else. But right now, this is who you are. So you might as well enjoy it.”

“Y-y-yeah,” I said, returning the smile. “T-thanks.”

...Oh come on, now I couldn’t even do words?

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from Masked:

“That’s the third teacher who’s been arrested in the past five years,” Lucius said, shaking his head. “Tyler, I don’t know how I feel about you going there anymore.”

I froze, my mouthful of soup awkwardly setting as I stared at the family. Tyler’s eyes had widened and he trembled slightly as he said, “Wait, what---Lucius, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” he slowly said, “there are plenty of other nice schools in the area that we could potentially---”

My matzah ball ended up going down the wrong tube. Over my choking, Tyler shrieked, “Wait, what?” He leapt to his feet, startling Lucius and Mr. Kane. His cheeks darkened as he screamed, “Absolutely not! I can’t just leave!”

I swallowed the dumpling, hard, and went to repeat the sentiment. Sadly, my throat closed, until it felt like I was choking again.

"Whoa, hang on, hang on,” Lucius said, also standing. “Obviously we’re going to talk about this because this is a conversation we have to have. That school clearly isn’t---”

“Isn’t what?”

“Appropriate.”

Tyler threw his hands into the air. “It’s not like I’m sleeping with the teachers!”

“Tyler!”

“Well, I’m not.”

“Easy,” Lucius said as my breathing began to hitch. “You’re scaring Simon.”

“You’re scaring Simon!”

“Tyler.” His voice was firm and I winced, before realizing that he was still remarkably calm. “I know that you would never do anything, but the fact that the school would allow this kind of behavior is concerning.”

“Yeah, I gotta admit,” Mr. Kane said, “I’m not sure how I feel about any of my kids being in that environment.”

“Oh my god,” his brother said, doing a twirl for what I could only assume was dramatic effect. “First of all, I’m not your kid.”

He spun back around to face Lucius. “And I’m not---”

Once again, everything froze. I looked back and forth, feeling like I was at the worst tennis game in the world. Lucius, surprisingly, smirked as he sank back down into his chair, resting his elbow on the table, his chin on his palm. “Are you gonna finish that sentence?”

Mr. Kane---whose eyes had widened---slowly twitched his head.

I waited, absentmindedly kicking my legs, until I ended up kicking Lucius a few times. He didn’t seem to mind, too focused on Tyler, intently focused.

The teenager swallowed and said, “And I’m not---I’m not leaving the school.”

“Oh, good save.”

“I learned from the best.”

“Yeah, well, Ryder isn’t here which means I can actually catch you if you try to run up the stairs right now.”

“I actually meant you and I---I’m not gonna run away,” Tyler said. “Not from the kitchen and not from the stupid school. There are too many important things I’d leave behind.”

Still resting his chin on his palm, Lucius tilted his head and asked, “Too many important things or too many important people?”

His eyes flickered and I felt like I was choking again. 

[marauders4evr]

Another excerpt from Masked (I’m getting into it):

SIMON

Mr. Kane pumped a large tower of whipped cream onto my milkshake. When he had finished, Lucius took the can and gave me even more. I laughed with delight and grabbed my spoon, eagerly digging in, watching as Mr. Kane added a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of strawberry to the blender for his own shake. For some reason, this seemed to greatly amuse Lucius. I realized that it had to be an inside joke as Mr. Kane caught his eye and winked.

The back door abruptly crashed open and I choked on my drink, sending a landslide of whipped cream and chocolate ice-cream down the front of my shirt. Tyler came into the kitchen, looking weird, like he was going to throw up.

“Ty?” Mr. Kane asked.

“You okay, Milkshake?” Lucius asked.

“Mm, yeah,” Tyler said, shaking slightly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m---yeah.”

I knew that something was wrong and the other two sensed it as well. Still, Lucius nodded and slowly said, “Well, great. We’re just making milkshakes. Your brother’s being annoyingly metaphorical but we still have some chocolate and some---”

Crack!

I screamed and Mr. Kane roared, “Holy shit!”

Ty had just slapped his dad as hard as he could. I knew at once that he had broken Lucius’ neck. Or maybe he had just really injured his face. Or maybe he had at least left a substantial bruise. Or maybe he hadn’t actually done much of anything. In fact, Lucius, while initially shocked, managed to continue as if nothing had happened: “---strawberry so you’re more than welcome to help yourself to either.”

Tyler merely took a few watery breaths, looking nothing like the cool teenager I knew. His mouth made a bunch of really weird shapes, as if he had swallowed a lemon whole. It was a moment before he spoke, each syllable small and fragile: “So I asked Shalynn out today.”

“What?” I shrieked.

“No way!” Mr. Kane cried.

“That’s great,” Lucius said. “So what’s the problem?”

“The problem?” Tyler repeated. “The problem is that she knows who you are, Lucius. She knows that you’re a supervillain!” He shoved his shocked dad. “She knows that you have supervillain friends!” Another shove. “She knows that you and your stupid supervillain friends have been doing horrible things for decades!”

A final shove sent Lucius into the counter, causing him to let out a hiss of pain. Tyler was staring at him with such fury and hurt in his eyes that I immediately felt tears run down my own cheeks.

“Okay,” Lucius said. “So, she knows. I still don’t understand how---?”

The enraged teenager tried and failed to get his emotions under control. In the end, he could only let it burst out: “You killed her mother, Lucius!”

“What?” I gasped as Mr. Kane’s jaw dropped.

There was a pregnant pause. The milkshakes were beginning to melt now, sending an even bigger mess onto my clothes, but I didn’t care. I gaped at Mr. Kane who was gaping at Lucius who was gaping at a furious Tyler.

At last, Lucius said, “I mean, in all fairness, I also killed your mother.”

---

Again, this is the closest thing to a One Day sequel you’re getting.

The whole book is going to be written a la a Jodi Picoult book wherein each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view. And since “Mr. Kane” is the one running the support group with Tyler acting as the main peer mentor, the family is a central part of the story.

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from Masked (x):

We scooched away until Olivia’s back slammed into the lockers. I stood in front of her, kind of feeling like a hero if heroes trembled and whimpered like frightened kittens. 

Chuck and his friends stepped forward and I threw out my hand. A burst of light caught him in his face and he let out a high-pitched scream, spinning around to clamp his hands over his eyes. Olivia cheered and I grinned but it was a short-lived victory. When he turned back, it was with a fury that only steroid-filled wrestlers had.

“Wait,” I cried as he raised a fist. “Wait, wait, wait---”

I closed my eyes, bracing myself, but he never struck. It was only when Olivia squeezed my shoulder that I felt brave enough to pry my eyes open. 

Tyler was calmly standing in front of us, a well-defined shield balancing on his arm. Chuck was clutching his red fist, howling in pain, having hit the shield instead of us. Olivia and I exchanged surprised looks before looking back at the older teenagers, one of whom was wearing his signature cool smile.

“Hey, Chuck,” he said, not bothering to lower his shield. “Are you okay there?”

“T-Tyler?” Chuck stammered. “You’re a---?”

“A freak?” Tyler asked. “Yeah, yeah, I am.”

The larger teenager immediately went on the defensive. “Okay, no, wait---when I said they were freaks---I didn’t mean you. I meant them.”

“I am them.”

“You---no, man, you’re different,” Chuck said. “You don’t go around throwing your powers in our faces.”

Tyler tilted his head before saying, “Not true.”

With that, he threw his shield right into Chuck’s face, knocking him on his back. Two more shields had his goons down. They were bleeding and everything! 

Olivia and I screamed with delight and Tyler’s grin stretched.