by Ryan Decaria
He nodded. “Ya ma tho ma troobule, an I com drunni ya do. Ya wuky I ha swurli wit ma.”
Sasha hobbled over, pulling off chunks of meat from her meat vest and tossing them to the ground. “What did he say?”
Billie shook Darwin’s hand vehemently, her eyes wide and smile even wider. “He said we made so much trouble he came running. We were lucky he had Shirly with him. I think that’s his gun.”
Darwin nodded.
“Thank you, Darwin.” Anika brushed a couple of busted clippies out of her hair. “You saved my life.”
“Wor wokum, ba wa da ding fwrik muk da min ta wok fu da moorinie wa?”
There was definitely a question in there at the end. Anika gaped at Billie. Her friend took Darwin by the arm and led him back to the car. “We’re going to buy you dinner and explain everything. Pizza okay? Kinda the only thing this town gets right.”
Sasha tossed the rest of the meat jacket to the ground. “What the hell was that?”
Anika surveyed the mess around the merry-go-round. A trap with no trapee and their best-laid plan in ruins. The guilt was a lump in her throat. For a budding genius, Anika was piling up a mammoth list of failures.
“Come on.” Sasha grabbed Anika’s arm and tromped toward the car. “We’ll get it next time.”
A low rumble of thunder rustled through the park. Another storm was coming. Anika’s dad would be pleased. His machine would receive more needed charge, leaving Anika another dozen lightning strikes closer to her imminent demise. Anika examined the sky as rain dropped on her face. She took a deep breath and hustled after her friends.
Anika strained to understand anything Darwin said, but failed miserably. As he rambled about the tool he pulled out of his truck, Billie beamed, announcing episode and season numbers. Sasha examined each one before placing it back in the truck bed.
Despite Anika’s misgivings, Billie was right. It seemed Darwin was the right person for the job.
Billie pranced over. “He’s not going to his producer with this, but he’d like to bring in his crew of gator hunters.”
“No.” The rain only sprinkled, but Anika had to wipe her wet bangs out of her face. If she didn’t stop the gator soon, it wouldn’t just be pets that went missing. “He’ll have to use us as crew. We can’t let this get out.”
“I think you’re wrong, but at least this way I get to be a Swampazazi Boy.” Billie skipped back to the truck.
Sasha carried over a metal pole with several sharp prongs on the end, unconcerned with a possible lightning strike. It would only make her stronger. “We need to quit clowning around and destroy that thing.”
“Sasha, that thing might be the greatest leap in science-based evolution. We can’t kill it; it’s a marvel.”
Sasha frowned. “If you’re going to survive, we need to be ruthless.”
“You sound like my mother.” Anika crossed her arms.
“And you sound like your dad.”
They stared at each other. Anika wasn’t sure what was worse, becoming her mother or turning into her father. “We have to stop my father’s insane experiments.” Or at least convince him I’m worth more to him alive than dead.
“What you need to do is get away from this madness, Anika. Go underground so deep he’ll never find you. Find a boyfriend. Study music or art. Get a regular job. Live a normal life.”
“You don’t understand.” In his quest for eternal life, Anika’s father built a machine to steal her blood, imbue it with stored lightning, and force it into his veins. “He’s never going to stop looking for me. I’ll never have a normal life.”
How was that for daddy issues?
“Hey, Herman Munster,” Billie shouted. “Darwin says that gig is for hunting frogs.”
Sasha scowled, spun the spear around until she held it above her shoulder, ready to throw. She swiveled toward Billie.
Anika grabbed her arm. “You’re right. Thinking like my father is going to get me killed, but I can’t be like my mom either. Darwin’s going to help us get the gator, then we can move on to our other probl—.”
Jackie’s convertible, with the top down in spite of the rain, squealed around the corner and sped into the parking lot. Jackie’s short afro glistened in the moonlight as the light drizzle collected on the tight curls of her dark brown hair. She laid on the horn with one hand and waved furiously with the other. She slammed to a stop, pointed at Anika, and beckoned with her plump finger and a whole lot of sass.
Sasha threw down the frog spear. “You don’t have to talk to her.”
“I know.”
Jackie and Anika had smashed the meteorology event at the Science Olympiad and had planned a heist together. Now, Anika wasn’t sure what to think of their former team captain turned rogue agent.
“We got work to do.” Sasha bit her lip, smearing her black lipstick on her teeth. She had a few blades of grass in her hair and one stuck to her purple eye shadow just above her left eye. Her sweats had clashing meat stains and grass stains.
Anika dug her heel into the grass. “I know.”
Sasha scrunched up her nose as her thick makeup started gooping from the moisture. “I thought you didn’t trust Jackie.”
Anika sighed. Jackie was the smartest person she knew and had led the Olympiad team to their greatest victory only a few weeks ago. Up until the lab heist, Jackie was their most trusted ally, before they all found out her alter ego had been working there at night, keeping secrets, and unapologetically remained employed with only a promise she was still on their side.
Anika put her arm on Sasha’s shoulder. “It’s Hayden I don’t trust.”
“Technically,” Sasha said, “Jackie and Hayden are the same person.”
From Darwin’s truck, Billie stared Anika down, shaking her head from side to side.
“I’m sorry.” Anika darted toward Jackie. She wasn’t going to give up on her like the rest of their friends when they learned about the whole Jackie/Hayden thing. “I’ll meet up with you later.”
Sasha called after her, letting all of her frustration seep out in her voice. “Anika, what’re we supposed to do about Darwin?”
Anika already felt horrible, so a little remorse wasn’t going to matter. Darwin was Billie’s problem, and Sasha would keep her in check. “You can handle it,” she called back over her shoulder.
Sasha’s shoulders slumped.
Anika would have to make it up to her later. Jackie flung the car back around and drove toward the exit, not waiting for Anika.
“Get your scrawny derrière in the car,” she called.
Anika sprinted toward Jackie. “Slow down.”
“Jump.” Jackie pointed to the passenger seat.
Anika ran to the car, grabbed the door, and vaulted into the seat. She sucked in air as Jackie swerved on to the road and hit the gas.
Anika held on, rain pelting her face. “Where are we going?”
“To the lab.”
Panic rose in her throat. “Is Blake okay?”
“Blake’s fine.” Jackie scrunched her nose. “You barely know him. Why do you care so much?”
Blake was a fellow science nerd and the only boy she’d ever kissed. Granted, she had just managed to reverse the process that turned him into a giant insect. Barely. Never mind he tried to ingest her. Or that he was barely conscious at the time. Or that she’d had to wipe goop from his lips to kiss him.
He’d spent the last few weeks holed up in the laboratory’s infirmary, recovering.
From the insect thing. Not the kiss.
“Never mind,” Jackie said. “We’ve got more important things to worry about.”
Anika braced herself against the dash as Jackie swung around the corner. “Did Macy wake up?”
“If Lefty ever wakes up, I won’t be the one coming for you.”
Jackie had a point. Macy had been unconscious since they had broken into the lab. She might never wake up. The alligator had gotten free of its cage because Sasha had knocked the power ou
t. Siccing the gator on Macy was the only way Anika could escape uncompromised. Her father could never know she’d been there. Her life depended on it.
Even the word father bothered her. Dravovitch? Darik? Pops? She didn’t even know how to think of him. Certainly not dad.
Running from Dravovitch and his goons was inevitable, but the thought made Anika’s stomach churn worse than Jackie’s driving. She’d done enough running for one lifetime, and if she bolted now, she’d spend the rest of her life peeking around every corner, a go-bag in every closet.
“Then what is so urgent?” Anika held on for her life. The streets of Moreau were mostly vacant this late at night, but there were fire hydrants. The entire town either worked for the lab or worked to make the town functional. No excess people wandering around, no mall, no food court, and, criminally, no coffee shop. The half-finished town was mostly housing, the schools, a few parks, a couple of terrible restaurants, dueling gas stations, and a solitary grocery store.
“It’s awful.” Jackie swung into an alley and slammed the gas pedal to the floor. “Horrible.”
“What?”
Jackie slammed on the brakes as she squeezed between a dumpster and a brick wall. “Your father keeps hitting on me.”
Anika closed her eyes as Jackie pulled back on the main road. “How is that my problem?”
“He’s your dad!”
That word! It made Anika’s skin crawl. “So?”
“He’s over two-hundred-years old!” Jackie’s voice raised an octave. “And Edward Cullen he is not!”
Anika’s voice rose to match. “So quit working for him!”
“I’m trying to help you!” Jackie swerved as she texted someone.
Anika stared out the window at the shrubbery whizzing by. The awe-inspiring greens had faded to blah after a few weeks. The hues hadn’t changed. She had. “I can’t convince Sasha to trust you.”
“It doesn’t matter what Sasha thinks,” Jackie said. “Do you trust me?”
Anika put a hand on top of Jackie’s and smiled. “I trust you.”
Jackie tossed her head back against the headrest. “But you don’t trust Hayden. None of you do.”
Anika glanced at her reflection in the side mirror. She wasn’t sure she even trusted herself anymore. It seemed each night spent at the lab made her much more open to the madness. The scientists were doing great things, off the record of course, but the ethical violations were mind boggling.
Anika wanted to believe her. Jackie was gruff and blunt, but she’d been the kind of friend Anika had dreamed about. Up until she revealed that Hayden had been working the graveyard shift at the lab. Could Jackie’s alter ego be trusted?
“I don’t know.”
“Hayden is still me, Anika. I’m still the same person.”
Anika studied Jackie’s face. Her friend had sacrificed so much—given up the scholarship she’d worked so hard to obtain and quit the Scientific Olympiad team she’d perfected. Her friendships were all strained. Perhaps worst of all, she torched her relationship with her own father. Granted Mr. Edwards had been the one experimenting on her without permission, so Anika had little sympathy for him, but she still felt for Jackie. Perhaps he could help fix his past mistakes if his daughter gave him a chance.
Ha. Anika’s father was worse. “I know you are, Jackie.”
Jackie grinned as she peeled around a corner. “How’s Hawking?”
Anika stared at the road. Jackie’s best friend and unrequited crush had remained on the Olympiad team after Jackie quit, and the two hadn’t spoken since.
“He won a physics award.” Anika shifted in her seat, bracing for the next turn. “But he’s still in denial about his parents’ involvement at the lab. How can they not be? They run the flunking mortuary.”
“He never will.” As Jackie swerved, her tires slid off the pavement into the dirt shoulder. “He’s got to feel the knife in his back before he’ll change his mind about someone.”
Hawking didn’t even know where to begin with Jackie, and honestly, none of their other friends did either. Jackie was more unapologetic and abrasive than her usual cheery self, but Hayden made everything infinitely more complicated.
Jackie was trying to make the most of an insane world with Hayden taking over every night. Hayden’s personality was near opposite of Jackie, but at the core, Anika knew Jackie was at the wheel.
Ahead, a garage door opened, and Jackie pulled inside. The town’s dance studio was where Jackie spent her evenings before changing for work.
As the garage door closed and Anika relaxed the muscles in her body, she examined the lines around Jackie’s eyes. “Do you even sleep anymore?”
Jackie opened her door and put a heavy boot out of the car. “I don’t know, exactly, but I’m going with a shaky affirmative. When Hayden takes over, I’m still me, but I feel different. When I wake up again, as me, I don’t remember everything, exactly, but I know I’m on your side. I’m trying to help everyone.”
Anika’s mom taught her that trusting people would lead to ruin. Every time they’d gotten close to someone, Anika would be ripped away, heading to a new life. Anika had watched people’s eyes when her mom fought for someone in distress. Fear. No matter how much they helped, people would turn them in. Can’t trust anyone.
Anika didn’t want that to be true. Not anymore. Jackie had proven herself, had helped get all three Mistys out of the lab after she’d helped get them all inside.
“I’m here for you,” Anika said. “The others will be too, when you need them.”
“Great.” Jackie pulled herself out of the car with a grunt. “Let’s go. We’re running out of time.”
Anika rubbed the bridge of her nose. There had to be a cost to never sleeping. Whatever Jackie’s dad did to her, Anika doubted it could last indefinitely. They needed more information.
Anika got out of the car. “Did you hear back from your dad?”
Jackie closed the garage door and headed up steps to the house. “He’s in Europe somewhere, but he wouldn’t tell me anything. Said it was too dangerous.”
Anika glanced around the garage at dance competition posters and trophies—from California, if Anika had to guess. The outfits were foreign, but the thrill of competition and victory was all too familiar. Constantly being on the run growing up, hiding from her father, she never got to keep her trophies from her science fairs. She assumed her own garage would have looked something like this, except for all the pretty faces on the posters.
“What are we doing here?” Anika asked.
“Jackie took up dancing.” Jackie’s use of the third person sent a chill up Anika’s neck. Maybe she was joking, or maybe she was as confused as the rest of them about Jackie’s split personality.
No, Anika had to trust her.
“It’s my alibi,” Jackie said, seemingly oblivious to Anika’s reaction. “With my dad out on assignment, I need to cover my tracks better.”
Anika followed Jackie up the stairs into the dance studio. “You trust these people?”
Jackie pushed through a swinging door into a bustling kitchen full of lean girls prancing about, stealing cookies off the countertop.
A dark-skinned woman with a bright kanga wrapped around her lean dancer frame smiled at Anika and, with a sweeping motion of her arm, waved her inside. She spoke with a thick African accent. “Welcome my dear. Come have a treat. We’ve all heard so much about you.”
Jackie grabbed a few cookies off the table and chomped on one. “These are my people.”
The small kitchen bustled with children, ranging in age from about twelve to three. Anika waved as she stood awkwardly by the door. “Pleasure to meet you all.”
Anika grinned as two of the littlest girls pulled her to the table and sat her between them.
Each girl danced up to her chair to introduced themselves with a skip or a twirl, Afryea, Haniah, Morowa, Serwa, Kisi, and Xoese. Each child moved with fluidity Anika could never hope to emulate. They were beauty incarna
te, full of giggles and grace. Afryea was as tall as Anika, and the others would follow soon enough.
Jackie eyed the large clock on the wall. Almost 10 p.m.
“Got to change.” Jackie grabbed another cookie and bounded into the back room.
Morowa, who was about eight, wore a bright leotard and a matching headband. She stood by Anika’s chair and shuffled her feet. “Can we touch your hair?”
“Jackie wasn’t kidding,” Haniah said. She was about ten and wore a lab coat that drowned her. She got in line behind Morowa.
Anika got on her knees. “I suppose that would be fine as long as you each take a clippie as a gift.”
The others darted into line. Anika let each feel her wiry, springy hair. Her brown curly locks sprung out, free of their plastic prison. The girls around her had tight, dark brown curls, with braids or bright bows. Each girl took a clippie and put it into their own beautiful hair. After Afryea’s turn, Xoese, the littlest one, pranced up a second time, holding a yellow and green plastic lizard, and fixed it into Anika’s hair. She tapped her chin, examining its placement, and smiled, apparently satisfied.
Anika sat at the table and Xoese climbed into her lap.
Akwete, their mother, poured her a cup of tea. “Please eat, or I will be offended.”
Anika devoured three cookies. As an only child, moving often, living a lie, and all that, she couldn’t wipe the grin away while listening to the girls chatter and try to out dance each other. She felt more welcome in this home than she’d been her whole life.
“Anika, dear,” their mother said. “Jackie has high hopes for you.”
Anika took another cookie. “No pressure, right?”
“I fear for you like I fear for my own.” Akwete took a slow sip from her mug. “My husband is smart when it comes to books, but he didn’t see Dravovitch for who he was until it was too late. We must proceed cautiously, no?”
“Yes.” Anika hugged Xoese tight.
“Then I share Jackie’s faith in you.” Akwete smiled. “No pressure.”
Hayden skipped out of the bedroom, looking smashing in a simple gray jumpsuit and a white lab coat. Her skin was a milky white—a sharp contrast to the deep brown of Jackie’s skin. Her blonde hair hung in ringlets and her lips full and bright, though she wore no makeup and hadn’t used a curling iron in her life. Anika smoothed out her shirt and straightened her shoulders, suddenly feeling frumpy and plain. She reached around Xoese to pour Hayden a cup of tea and knocked her cup over.