“Yes, you! The boy in the black and white sports shirt! I see you trying to hide from us.”
“She picked Caleb!”, Katie whispered, as Nate leaned over to look. The Sorcerer was pointing directly at Caleb, who sat back upright with a stunned look on his face. Next to him, Olivia looked mildly surprised and disappointed that she wasn’t the one picked.
“Hmmm, are you afraid? But you seem like such a brave boy, aren't you? Come on up, show everyone that you’re brave.”
He didn’t move at once. After an awkward few seconds, Caleb slipped out of his seat with hands in his pockets.
“There we go, everybody give our first brave volunteer a hand!”
The crowd of kids applauded as Caleb walked down the bleacher seats towards the stage, with the same solemn pace as a juvie marching towards an electric chair.
“Here is our first brave volunteer!” the Sorcerer proclaimed, as Caleb stepped upon the stage, and stood on a spot not too close to the Sorcerer. “What’s your name, boy?”
Caleb gulped. He didn’t know why he didn’t just stay in his seat in the first place. His sister wanted to go up, didn’t she? Maybe he just assumed the Sorcerer would do something worse if he tried to defy her.
“Uh, Caleb.” Caleb was trying his hardest not to glance anywhere at the nude caped woman except for her eyes.
“Caleb, that’s a good name. Play a lot of sports at school?”
“Yeah,” Caleb replied.
“Ah, and you must be quite the bad boy. I can see you’re trying to spy at my boobies.”
The kids in the audience laughed and giggled. Caleb dipped his head down, with his cheeks as red as a tomato.
“Well, don’t fret yet, you might get even redder in just a moment,” quipped the Sorcerer. Caleb gave another glance at the sorcerer's eyes, and for some reason he pictured a fox teasing its trapped prey right before biting down on its neck.
“Now, what shall you become…”