Max looked at me, bewildered. “Your mom is so cool.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I’d say she’s a keeper.”
We all headed up to my room, telling my mom we were going to work on our project. Al and Max sat side by side on my bed, while the rest of us settled into a semi-circle on my plush beige carpeting.
Now that we had nothing to do but wait, we got a conversation going about school, of all things. While we talked, Jason got up and walked around my room, looking at pictures and any trinkets I had on my dresser.
I watched him as he picked up a picture my mom had taken of me on a camping trip. I was nine, and even more gangly looking than I am now. I was posing with a marshmallow on a stick, my mouth way more open than it needed to be. He smiled, not noticing my gaze. I quickly turned my attention back to the conversation, but of course, my mind wandered. I couldn’t imagine Jason as a savage killer. But he was, at least at one time. I wasn’t sure how much that bothered me.
After a while my mom knocked on the door. Not waiting for an answer, she came in carrying several pizzas. She handed me a stack of paper plates to pass out, as Max and Al came to join us on the floor. My mom set the boxes on the carpet in between us all. Being a mom, and having an obligation to embarrass me, she sat down next to Jason and folded her short, now jean-clad legs underneath her, then she began quizzing Max and Jason. I sat back down on Jason’s other side with a sigh. Jason watched the embarrassment grow on my face, smiling, and answered all of my mom’s inane questions politely. I kept my eyes on my pizza, trying not to frown.
At one point my mom pulled her pale blue tank top straight, going into business mode, and asked to see our school project. We told her we were still in the “brainstorming stage” and she let it go. Forty-five excruciating minutes later, she decided that her embarrassing mom requirement for the week had been achieved. She grabbed the empty pizza boxes and left us to “get back to work.”
When conversation began to run out, the topic came to me and the whole “non-human” thing. Sigh.
“So what are the possibilities?” Allison asked Jason.
Jason glanced at me, then answered, “There are many supernatural creatures that can produce offspring with humans, some more rare than others. Many people have elven blood without even knowing it. Full blooded elves are extremely rare these days, mainly because their bloodlines have become almost completely entwined with humans.”
“Could that be what I am?” I interrupted hopefully. Elves didn’t sound too bad.
Jason shook his head, dashing my hopes. “You may have some elven blood, but Max and I would not be able to smell the difference. Your non-human blood is something much more rare.”
I sighed, getting crabby. “Spit it out already.”
Jason went on, “One option is Ogres, but I doubt that’s what you are, you would likely be much larger. Another one is Merpeople.”
“Merpeople?” Allison asked incredulously.
Jason regarded her. “Merpeople have two forms. When under water, they are in their natural form, very similar to the common depiction of mermaids. On land, they look much like humans, except for the second eyelids. For some reason, those remain even in human form.”
Okay, Merpeople were slightly more unsettling than elves, but again, not horrible. “What are my chances of that?”
“Pretty good,” Jason replied. “Merpeople are a great deal more common than one would think.”
I nodded, taking it all in. “Any other options?”
Jason hesitated. He ran his hand through his hair. Not a good sign. Finally, he spoke. “The last option that I came up with is . . . demons.”
My heart skipped a beat. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Seriously?”
He nodded and answered, “It’s not as uncommon as you would think. Demons often mate with humans, producing half-demons. Demons can look like humans, as can merpeople and ogres. Your mom probably thought your dad was just a normal guy.”
“What about werewolves?” Lucy chimed in.
Jason shook his head, “We can rule out werewolves, vampires, or any conditions resulting from being cursed. All can produce offspring with humans, but none can pass on their afflictions.”
I held my breath at Jason’s mention of vampires, waiting for Lucy or Allison to question him further on the subject. Surprisingly, they both seemed to take the mention of vampires in stride.
Lucy nodded in response to Jason’s answer. “Well that’s something at least.”
So, I could be an ogre (unlikely), a mermaid (not so bad), or . . . a demon (gulp). That seemingly ever-present feeling of dread had returned to the pit of my stomach ten-fold. Like Lucy said, at least we could rule out werewolf and vampire, which also meant that I had my answer about how Jason became a vampire. Small consolation, that.
As we were finishing that lovely subject, I glanced at the clock. It was 9:00 pm, time for the boys to “leave.” They were going to leave out the front door and drive Jason’s car to hide it. Then they would walk back to my house, do a perimeter check, and sneak back in through my window. When I asked how they were going to climb in through my second-story window, they both smiled mischievously and walked out of my room. I guess we’d find out.
The boy’s departure was Allison’s queue for girl talk. “So Xoe,” she started, “pray tell, what is going on between you and Jason?” Allison smiled wickedly at me.
I gave her my best dumbfounded look. “What? Nothing, why do you ask?”
Allison sighed, “Oh, come on. Don’t play dumb, you two are so obvious.”
With a sigh of my own, I answered, “Nothing Allison, just friends.”
“And why is that?” she went on. “Is it the whole vampire thing?”
My jaw dropped. How did Allison know?
She smiled. “Max told us.”
That little rat . . . I mean wolf. Well, at least I wasn’t the last to know. “So what if it is the vampire thing?” I replied.
Allison crossed her arms and looked at me as if I were being childish. “Who cares? It’s not like he kills people anymore. He’s one of the good guys now.”
I sighed loudly. “Emphasis on the now. The fact still remains that he killed people at one time, and who even said I was interested in him to begin with?”
“Pah-lease, I see the way you watch him,” Allison countered. “And there is definitely no mistaking the way he watches you . . . ”
At that we all turned to a knock at the window. Apparently the boys had finished their perimeter check. Thankfully, the girl talk could end. I stood and opened the window for them to climb in.
“The way who watches who?” Max asked as he pulled himself in.
How much had they heard? Their supernatural hearing was proving to be rather pesky. The three of us girls crossed our arms and stared Max down with our best stern faces. He shrugged off our glares and plopped down on my bed.
Turning my attention away from Max, I asked Jason, “Anything to report?”
He shook his head. “Not much, we caught Dan’s scent in a few places around the yard, so he’s been here recently, but nothing looked out of place.”
I nodded. There was a knock at the door. I quickly hustled the boys into the closet, then yelled, “Come in!”
My mom peeked her head in to see that we were all accounted for and told us goodnight. She closed the door softly, oblivious to our nervous smiles and murmured goodnights.
Since most of us were going on little to no sleep, we decided to sleep in shifts. Allison, Lucy, and I all changed into pajamas, while the boys chose to remain in the clothes they had worn during the day. I chose to wear a dark purple cami with matching purple plaid pajama pants, as opposed to my usual t-shirt and boxers. I refused to admit to myself that I did it because Jason was there.
Allison and Jason had first watch. Lucy and I took the bed, snuggling under my fluffy green comforter. Max was left with an orange sleeping bag on the floor. Jason turned on my desk lamp then turned off the ov
erhead light. I shut my eyes with a silent wish for normal dreams void of fire, and I was out.
Chapter Thirteen
I WOKE UP to loud ringing. My alarm clock. That meant it was 6:00 am. When blindly smacking it didn’t seem to quell the alarm’s desire to annoy me, I ripped the cord out of the wall. I sat up rubbing my eyes and looked blearily around my room. What were all of these people doing in here? My eyes landed on Jason, who had his hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh at me. Oh yeah, Jason, Max, werewolves, vampires . . . I remembered now. Jason managed to cover his smile, but his eyes still shone with humor.
“Glad to be amusing,” I mumbled at him.
I looked around to the other people in my room. Lucy and Allison had managed to ignore my alarm, and were still snuggled in bed with me. Max wasn’t so lucky. He struggled out of his sleeping bag and stumbled into the bathroom, shutting the door noisily. I looked back to Jason.
“I’ll drive you all to school today,” he said.
I nodded sleepily, and got out of bed to find something to wear. Jason watched me as I shuffled through the shirts hanging in my closet, finally settling on a plain, dark gray tee shirt with a faded Star Wars logo on the front. I was searching for a clean pair of jeans when Max came back out of the bathroom. He walked towards the window, unlatched it, pushed it open, then hopped, and I mean hopped, out of my second-story window. Yeah, I wasn’t getting used to this supernatural stuff anytime soon.
Jason spared me a final smile then followed Max’s lead. I walked to the window and looked out at the ground. Max and Jason were already out of sight. Too weird.
I returned to the bed and shook Allison and Lucy awake, much to their chagrin. We all took speed-showers and got dressed. A cold gust of wind from the still open window reminded me to throw on my forest-green hoodie. I watched Allison while she was putting on her make-up. She was dressed in a sea foam green blouse that was kind of draped in the front, I’ve never known what those types of blouses are called, and a beige mini-skirt with knee high dark brown leather boots. I asked her if Jason had been the one to keep watch all night.
“Vampires don’t sleep,” was her reply. Ask a silly question.
We went downstairs into the kitchen. I headed straight for the coffee maker. My mom had left me half of a pot. I filled my travel mug with as much as it would hold, then went to the pantry to find something for us to eat on the way to school. Looked like it was granola bars for breakfast again. I handed one each to Lucy and Allison and stuffed my own into the front pocket of my hoodie.
We went out the front door to find Jason’s car waiting to take us to school. I snagged the front seat without protest from Lucy and Allison. I could feel them watching and waiting to see how I would interact with Jason. I wanted to stare ga-ga-eyed at him, but wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Girlfriends . . . can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. At the moment I was leaning towards without. I contented myself with watching him out of the corner of my eye. He was still in his clothes from the day before, but the t-shirt looked so good on him, that I didn’t really mind. I placed my travel mug into one of the cup-holders and slowly began to unwrap my granola bar, refusing to be the first one to make conversation. Jason put the car in drive and away we went.
We drove in silence to the school. I fiddled with the radio, just for something to do, scanning through the few radio stations that come in clearly in Shelby. As soon as we pulled up to the school Allison and Lucy practically leapt from the car, leaving me alone with Jason. It seemed a planned move, and probably was. Sigh.
“What’s the plan for today?” I asked him.
He turned his attention to me. “I am going to wait around the school and make sure Dan does not get to Lucy without me or Max there. I will pick you all up when you get out.”
“You aren’t coming to class?”
Jason smiled and shook his head. “I am not exactly a student.”
That reminded me of another question I had for him. “How did you manage to register and get into my English class anyways?”
“I mustn’t reveal all my secrets,” he answered, wiggling his eyebrows at me.
I gave him a good-natured smirk and got out of the car with a smile that I simply could not help.
By lunchtime there was still no sign of Dan. I met up with Allison and Lucy and we sat at our usual table. “Anything to report?” I asked them.
They both gave me mischievous smiles. “We were gonna ask you the same question,” said Allison.
I gave them wide eyes.
“What did you and Jason talk about?” Lucy interjected, smiling from ear to ear.
“We simply discussed the matter at hand, nothing more,” I answered with my nose up. My denial did nothing to dampen their knowing smiles. Time for a subject change.
I looked at Lucy. “How are you feeling today? Do you feel any . . . different?”
Lucy thought in silence for a moment, unconsciously straightening her pale purple sweater, then answered, “I don’t know. I keep looking for changes, but I feel pretty much the same. Max said that my senses would increase, but I haven’t noticed. I guess it just takes time. What about you? Have you come up with any ideas about your ‘mysterious origin?’”
I sighed. “Let’s not even go there, I haven’t had any time to think about it. Even if I did, I don’t see how I’d be able to figure anything out on my own.”
Allison and Lucy both looked down at the table.
Allison turned her eyes back up to me. “You could always ask your mom. Maybe tell her you want to track down you dad, just to meet him. All you need is his name. We can track him down and ask him ourselves.”
I sighed again. “I guess we can try, I doubt my mom will give me his name. She likes to pretend that he never existed. If I would believe it, she’d probably try and tell me that I was a test-tube baby or something. Plus, I’m not really sure I’d want to meet him, even if it was just to get answers.”
It was my turn to look down at the off-white table. I tried to distract myself by reading the various things that people had carved into the tabletop over the years. I traced my finger over a star that was carved deeply into the wood. Our school was either too cheap to buy new tables, or else they were smart enough to know that the new ones would be carved up within weeks. Curse that teenage angst.
“So what’s the plan after school today? Another slumber party?” Allison asked, regaining my attention.
Allison can stay over whenever she feels like it. Her parents don’t really place many rules and restrictions on her. She pretty much does whatever she wants.
Glad to have the subject off of me again, I answered, “All I know is that Jason is picking us up after school. He said that he was going to try to find out what Dan is up to, so I guess that will govern what our plan will be.”
Lucy looked worried. “Now that my parents are back, I don’t think they'll let me stay away another night, and it’s doubtful they will let anyone stay over either.”
Hmm, quandary. “I dunno,” I said. “We’ll figure something out.”
The bell rang. It was time for gym, the one bright spot besides lunchtime in my day. Allison and I said goodbye to Lucy then headed to the gymnasium.
According to Mitch the plan for gym today was a free day. Free day? What the heck was a free day? Mitch’s gym teacher license should have been revoked long ago. Allison was all smiles after Mitch announced that we could do whatever we wanted with our gym period, as long as it was P.E. related of course. Allison and I went into the locker room and changed into our gym clothes.
As we left the locker room we were joined by a suspicious looking Brian. He looked down at me with squinted eyes, “You care to elaborate Ma’m?” he asked me as he crossed his arms, looking very detective-like.
I answered snarkily, “What are you talking about Brian.”
He continued, “You know what I mean. What were those guys doing at your house yesterday? Did you suddenly decide to expand your circ
le of friends?”
I nodded, smiling sweetly.
He continued, “No, doubtful, very doubtful. Hmmm, let me guess again. You’re involved in a random conspiracy concerning aliens, and that Jason character is a rogue FBI agent out to reveal the truth to the public. Yep, that sounds a lot more likely than Alexondra Meyers trying to make new friends.”
Ok, so he obviously was not going to let it go. With a resigned sigh, I explained, “We’ve been having some trouble with that new guy, Dan. Jason and Max have been hanging around to make sure that he doesn’t bother us, that’s all.”
Brian looked hurt. “Why didn’t you ask me? I do live right next door, and I should hope that you trust me more than some guy you’ve hardly ever spoken to and some guy you just met.”
I hadn’t considered that when I fabricated my lie. In an effort to soothe his hurt feelings, I lied some more. “Lucy’s dating Max, so Max volunteered to watch out for us. Max brought Jason along to help out.”
Allison gave me an ‘are you crazy?’ look. Yeah, so I’m not the greatest liar around. Shouldn’t that be a good thing? I just had to hope that Lucy wouldn’t find out, or I’d be in for a major lecture.
Brian was not so easily sated, he continued, “Jason seemed awful possessive of you to be just a random friend that Max brought with him. He was practically guarding your heels the whole time I was there.”
I was out of lies, so I feigned ignorance instead, “Oh, um, I hadn’t noticed.”
Brian didn’t look like he believed me, but he let it go. I had a feeling that the subject had only been dropped temporarily. Brian grabbed a basketball and looked at me, then nodded towards the unoccupied hoop. Brian and I went to play one-on-one while Allison watched.
The rest of the day went by too quickly for my taste. I never thought I’d see the day when I would be reluctant to go home from school. The end of the school day meant that our focus had to go back to werewolf matters.
Allison and I left our last class and headed towards the school entrance to find Lucy waiting just inside the doors, rather than outside like she usually did. I was glad to see that she was being cautious. I linked my arm with hers and the three of us headed to the parking lot to meet our fate.
Riot Girls: Seven Books With Girls Who Don't Need A Hero Page 10