“Hey, Harmony,” I said as she sat next to me in a secluded corner of the lunchroom. “Why are you really here—” I was going to add “on Earth” but, she interrupted me.
“You should know that Jareth is on drugs,” she said without preamble. “He can’t be trusted.”
I ripped the top off my yogurt and began to spoon it out. It was then that I noticed she was dumping Equal in her bottle of water. I was really going to have to dig out that science notebook again and update it.
A sudden thought crossed my mind: Maybe it was my responsibility alone to investigate these creatures—for the sake of humanity. I found myself warming up to the idea that I might have a crucial part to play in solving a grand, new cosmic puzzle. The fate of the world itself might depend on me.
“Did you hear me?” she asked.
“Yeah, Jareth is on drugs,” I repeated and then added, “Rafael said the same thing.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t date Rafael, you know.”
At that, I blinked. “Huh?” I lost my train of thought.
“He isn’t available,” she informed me. “He’s already taken.”
“Well, good for him,” I said, frowning at her. “Dating is the last thing on my mind, I assure you.” If my mother had raised her, she would have understood my response.
As it was, she squinted at me suspiciously, trying to determine if I were telling the truth.
“Is that why you’re here … to tell me to leave your brother alone?” I laughed a little. If they really were aliens on some kind of mission, they probably weren’t even related. I couldn’t resist and added, “That is … if he even is your brother? I mean, isn’t it just a cover story for your mission here on Earth?”
Harmony’s long lashes fluttered in surprise.
It was pretty much an admission that I was on the right track. Pleased with my developing detective skills, I smiled before a new thought struck me, and I had to ask. “Are you his girlfriend?”
“Heaven’s Bells, no!” She looked disgusted at the thought.
Oddly, I was relieved. I paused, confused at my unexpected reaction. The pause was a mistake, because I then lost control of the conversation.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Sydney. You’re sounding a bit strange. I’m merely here to check out the school, and you haven’t really told me much of anything about what it’s like here. What do you do every week? Let’s take last week for example. What did you do last Tuesday or Wednesday? Thursday?”
I shook my head, clearing my thoughts and began to plot how to weave my list of questions back into the conversation when I suddenly recalled Jareth’s comment about my having been touched and Rafael claiming it had just happened in the past few days. Something clicked. Harmony was here to find out when and how it had happened!
What did being touched really mean? I shivered and fear flooded my mind as a new worry surfaced. Maybe I was infected with a virus or something worse!
“Are you there, Sydney?” Harmony was growing exasperated. She shook my arm, hard.
Taking a deep breath, I regained control of my thoughts.
“I was asking you about your schedule last week!” She practically growled.
“It changes every week,” I answered, a bit cross. I wished I could take a perverse enjoyment in watching her annoyance. It would have been satisfying, but now I was fretting about being touched.
Harmony slammed her palm on the table.
I jumped, nervously.
“Well, if it isn’t Jareth’s new girlfriend—drumroll—Sydney!” Ellison’s voice sounded from behind me.
Harmony bristled, but I couldn’t tell if it was over the mention of Jareth’s name or the fact that Ellison and his posse of friends had interrupted our conversation.
I was grateful when they all sat down and began to chat. They teased me unmercifully for a few minutes about the Jareth misunderstanding. No one doubted me when I said it had been a mistake. Oddly, it was a little insulting that they were so quick to believe me. It’s not as if I were the ugliest girl on the planet.
Harmony grew increasingly aggravated. High school was hard enough on humans. I supposed it was even worse for an alien, and patience obviously wasn’t her strong suit. Her demeanor was making me increasingly uneasy.
As everyone chattered around me, I shoved my hand in my pocket and played with the fairy runes and the mirror Rafael had given me. They had a peaceful, calming effect, and I found myself beginning to think clearer. I took comfort in the thought that if being touched were bad, then surely Rafael would help me. He seemed to have been protecting me so far. I didn’t think he’d ever let me be contaminated with something awful, or at least I spent the remainder of lunch trying to convince myself of that.
As we headed back to class, I watched her walk ahead of me and wondered where she was from, exactly. Did she even really look like that, or was she a little green person inside a human suit? Or a lizard? The thought of Rafael really being a lizard was oddly humorous, and I entered my history class with a tiny smile on my face.
We had a new substitute teacher, a Mr. Hunter. He began by ordering each of us to take notes on his forthcoming lecture.
“You, the girl in the blazer,” he said, pointing to Harmony.
“What?” Harmony asked, a bit rudely.
“Take notes!” He snapped his finger.
“She’s a visitor,” I inserted, clearing my throat. “I’m her Buddy.”
“Then give her something to write on, Buddy!” Mr. Hunter directed in clipped tones.
A little taken aback by his brusque behavior, I searched through my notebooks for one to lend her. I was careful not to select the science one with my research in it. That would have been a disaster! Handing Harmony my English notebook, I muttered, “Just doodle on it.”
Mr. Hunter began to speak. As he droned on and on, I found my mind wandering, and I began doodling myself.
Then, my first useful thought of the day struck me. Metal. How would Harmony react to metal? Jung had mentioned that it causes them problems, but I hadn’t confirmed it yet. If true, it would definitely be a useful thing to know. I hated to think about having the need to defend myself, but I couldn’t just ignore Jung Lin’s fate. She had ended up dead, and there was very little chance it was an accident.
Next to me, Harmony randomly flipped through the pages of my notebook, obviously bored out of her mind. She was sitting on a plastic chair, her legs crossed and not touching the chair’s metal legs; but then again neither were mine. And the tops of our desks were made of wood. Surveying the room for metal objects, I realized there was actually very little exposed metal to be found. But then—I grinned a little evilly to myself—my next class was Ceramics. There would be no shortage of metal in that classroom.
It seemed forever before Mr. Hunter finally ended his speech and we were free to go.
I hurried downstairs, nearly running down the steps to the art studio.
“Ceramics,” I announced cheerfully as I pushed open the door.
Harmony paused on the threshold.
“My favorite class,” I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the room. She appeared reluctant for some reason, so I baited her a little. “Actually, you know, last Tuesday we did have a special speaker for our mentor class.”
It worked. She perked up, asked me for details, and followed me to my workbench hanging onto my every word. I made up a bunch of stories while I collected my tools for class. As I blabbed nonsense, it suddenly dawned on me that the small metal mirror in my pocket, the one Rafael had given me the night of the concert, appeared to be, in fact, made of metal.
I was disappointed. Jung’s assertion had been wrong; they can touch metal. But then another thought came to mind. Maybe they can’t touch a specific kind of metal. Actually, the whole thing sounded a bit preposterous. I mean, how could metal hurt anyone simply by touch? That brought up the thought that Jung had only said it caused them problems. That could mean anyth
ing. Suddenly, I felt like my head was going to explode. I definitely wasn’t cop material. I didn’t like puzzling out these mysteries, but I was still determined to try.
I kept chatting about the make-believe visitor as I scanned my workbench for metallic objects. I had to be careful, because I didn’t want her to catch onto what I was doing. In my mindless rambling, I must have contradicted myself about the special speaker, because she interrupted suspiciously.
“I thought you said she was an older woman?” She sounded a bit annoyed.
“Huh?” I mumbled. I had run out of time. Not really expecting anything to happen, I picked up a hammer with a huge cast iron head. Holding onto the wooden handle, I thrust it into her hands, the iron head first.
Her reaction was beyond anything I could have imagined in my worst nightmare.
A scream ripped from her lips. Her blue eyes widened in horror as she fell to her knees, gasping. Her hands seemed glued to the hammer, and she was clutching it as if she couldn’t physically let it go. She continued to scream.
As everyone in the classroom descended upon my workbench at once, I was jolted out of my own shock. Grasping the handle of the hammer, I wrenched it free from her grasp and tossed it away. She curled her hands up into fists, hugged them close to her chest, and remained where she was on the floor, tears running down her cheeks and her face chalk white.
“What happened?” The ceramics teacher asked, running to my side.
“I’m … not sure.” I swallowed, completely unnerved. I felt terrible. I really hadn’t believed anything would happen, much less this.
Harmony had quit shrieking, but she was still gasping and clasping her hands close to her chest.
“Where are you hurt?” the teacher asked as she placed a hand on Harmony’s shoulder.
Harmony drew back and made a noise not unlike a growl. I found it a disturbing reaction.
The teacher withdrew her hand and quickly said, “I called the nurse. Oh, look! She’s already here.”
“I don’t need a nurse!” Harmony growled again, but she was shaking now.
The school nurse pushed her way through the crowd of students, ordering everyone back to their workbenches. They ignored her until she clapped her hands and then they scattered.
“I want to go home,” Harmony hissed through clenched teeth.
“What happened? Did you hurt your hands? Let me look at them!” The nurse tried to grab Harmony’s hands to pry them away from her chest.
“No!” Harmony grated, glaring at the woman. Struggling to her feet, she choked, “Get me home, Sydney. Call Rafael.”
“Did she burn them?” the nurse asked me as she once again tried to grab Harmony’s hands.
“Don’t touch me!” Harmony bellowed. Even though she was gorgeous, looking like a fashion model more than anything else, the way she was glaring at the nurse was quite chilling.
Unconsciously, we all took a step back.
After a moment, the nurse cleared her throat and said, “I think she’s in shock. Sydney, help me get her out of here.”
Feeling remorseful and more than a little scared, I slid an arm around Harmony’s shoulders to assist her out of the classroom.
“Call Rafael!” she repeated several more times as she let me guide her out into the hall.
“I don’t know his number—” I began when she shoved her hand into my sweatshirt pocket and grabbed the small mirror Rafael had given me.
“Bring her to my office, Sydney. Follow me!” the nurse ordered. She seemed quite happy to leave Harmony to me. Moving in front of us, she began shooing gawking students away.
It was slow going because Harmony had difficulty walking. We had only gotten halfway there before I heard Rafael’s voice calling from behind. “Harmony!”
I glanced over my shoulder to see him striding toward us at top speed. His brows knit with concern. He reached us in a matter of moments. Slipping his arm around her, he quickly passed his left hand over her face.
It was then I noticed he wore a ring. It looked like one of those intricately woven Celtic wedding bands. It sparkled, as if sunlight was glistening off it, but we weren’t near any windows.
Rafael looked at me. Our eyes briefly locked and then I glanced away, awash with guilt. I wondered if he somehow already knew that I had caused Harmony’s injury. I truly hadn’t intended to cause her any real harm, and the thought that I had made me sick to my stomach.
“You have done enough, Sydney,” he said sharply.
The way he looked at me was disconcerting. What did he mean I had done enough? Enough to her? His eyes drilled through mine, in a very penetrating, intense kind of way that made me wonder if he could read my thoughts.
“I haven’t had a chance to examine—” the nurse began.
Rafael tilted his head to the side, enough to acknowledge her comment but not to actually look at her. “Your help isn’t necessary,” he replied tersely. “We will leave immediately!”
The nurse frowned a little and folded her arms. “Listen, young man! Just who exactly are you?”
“I’m her brother.” Rafael replied calmly enough, but there was a chill in his tone. “We must leave at once.”
“She looks like she’s going to faint! At least let me check her blood pressure first!” the nurse protested.
His gray eyes flashed imperiously. “I already told you that we must leave. There is no time for your test! I’m well aware of her medical conditions and what she requires.”
I was surprised at the sudden change in him. He seemed vastly different. He stood with his feet planted slightly apart, his body rigid, and a dark intensity burning in his eyes. This Rafael was threatening, powerful, and decidedly dangerous. For the first time, I felt a ripple of fear looking at him. Maybe Jareth was right and Rafael was the one I should avoid. At the moment, he made Jareth look like a harmless kitten.
I suddenly felt ill. Maybe they did have superpowers. Could he read my mind? Did he know I had deliberately shoved the hammer into Harmony’s hands as an experiment?
The nurse was trying to talk to him, but he brushed her curtly aside. “Enough! You are dismissed!”
The woman’s mouth dropped open.
I began to panic.
His lips tightened in a grim line as he pushed back the hair from Harmony’s sweating forehead. Glancing down at me, he said, “I’ll take her, Sydney. You can let go now.”
I was surprised to discover I was still hanging onto her in almost a death grip. Swallowing, I forced my fingers to relax.
Rafael caught her as she collapsed.
“We should call an ambulance!” The nurse was obviously worried as she reached for her cell phone.
“Your assistance isn’t needed.” Again, Rafael inclined his head her direction without bothering to look her way. Hefting Harmony over his shoulder, he studied me for a moment. “We will speak later, Sydney.” A chill hung on the edge of his words.
He didn’t look at me again. I watched him carry Harmony down the hall with the school nurse at his heels.
I shivered.
He would speak to me later? About what? About my role in Harmony’s collapse?
It was hard to concentrate on schoolwork after that. I felt overwhelmed by guilt and fear. Guilt because I had hurt Harmony and fear because I was convinced Rafael had read my mind and hadn’t liked what he’d learned.
Everyone kept asking me what had happened. Stories of Harmony collapsing in class were running through the school like wildfire, and I was immensely relieved when the day finally ended.
Grace and Betty were shocked when I told them what had happened.
“I didn’t think she was still in school,” Grace muttered.
“There must have been something on that hammer, Sydney,” Betty stated with finality as she pulled into the driveway. “It wasn’t your fault. I’m sure they know that. Maybe you should go check on Harmony and see how she’s doing.”
I glanced across the street at Rafael’s car in the d
riveway.
“Why don’t you make a plate of cookies and take them over. Yes, that’s what you should do.” Betty decided as she handed me a bag of groceries. “I just bought chocolate chips.”
“Yeah,” Grace agreed. She seemed unusually reserved. “It’s better to not go over there empty-handed.”
Looking back at Rafael’s car, I again felt a mixture of fear and shame. I really hoped Harmony was ok, but I wasn’t sure it was a bright idea to go marching over there. Cookies were hardly a good defense against aliens, not unless I delivered them on a cast iron plate.
Chapter Thirteen - Aliens and Tinfoil
Al had come home early from work. He’d been fighting a cold the past few days, and it had taken a turn for the worse. As I walked into the kitchen, I found him sitting at the kitchen table, scowling at his surveillance tapes and nursing a cup of hot tea.
“I’m telling you, Betty,” he was saying. “It don’t make sense!”
“Doesn’t, dear,” Betty corrected as she kissed the top of his bald head. “You should just turn that over to Sydney and go rest if you want to get over that cold. I’ll make you a bed on the couch and you can watch Glee. There’s a new episode tonight.”
I smiled a little. Al really loved Glee. He was always singing the songs. And now that I thought about it, he actually had a good voice.
His eyes lit up when he caught sight of me. “Check this out, kiddo. Tell me what you think.” He pointed to the monitor.
I stared at the video monitor apprehensively. I was hardly in the mood to see what weird thing our neighbors had done this time. I knew it wouldn’t be normal, but I couldn’t let Al down. Suppressing a sigh, I moved closer.
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