Project Integrate Series Boxed Set

by Campbell, Jamie

  “And give your mom another reason to hate me? I don’t think so.” Mrs. Mercury would probably kill me. Half the population would probably be okay with that.

  “She doesn’t hate you.” He leaned back to his side of the couch again. Talking about your mom while making out was obviously a turn off. “She just doesn’t deal with change very well.”

  “Let’s not talk about it.” We had had that same conversation too many times already in the past few weeks. “I should probably go before I break curfew and my parents send out a search party.”

  “You could still stay.”

  “They’ll do a bed check. And at least one of them will be waiting up to make sure I get home.”

  “Probably Garrick.” He spat the words out, like he always did when he mentioned Garrick.

  “He would be tucked up in bed right now. When are you going to bury the hatchet with him? I thought we’d all moved on.” We’d had that conversation too many times as well. History really felt like it was repeating itself.

  “I’d be happy to bury the hatchet. I have a few good places to bury it.” At the reaction of rolling my eyes, he leaned in to place a new set of kisses of my lips before I could scold him. A Lochie distraction had to be the best distraction of them all.

  But I really did need to go. I leaned out of his embrace. “I seriously have to leave.”

  He finally realized I meant it. “Okay, so not tonight, but another time? We could have a nice dinner somewhere – not mac and cheese – and stay at a fancy hotel or something?”

  While that sounded nice and lovely, getting time away from everyone was not going to be so easy. “I’ll think about it.”

  He made a point of sighing. “We’ve already done it once, it’s not like it will be the first time.”

  “Yeah, it’s even weirder the second time.” He cocked his head to one side, clearly not having a clue about what I was talking about. I wasn’t entirely sure I would be able to explain it. I guessed I needed to try though, he deserved that. “We already know what to expect now, what about if it isn’t as good? It might just be… awkward.”

  He chuckled, so much for tact or regard for my feelings. “Are you worried about having bad sex with me?”

  “Shhh, your mom might hear.”

  He had enough sense to lower his voice to just a whisper. “Amery, don’t worry about it being bad or awkward or weird. It’s you and me, we figure things out. We’re awesome together… no matter what we’re doing.”

  That actually made me feel a little better, but I still wasn’t going to dive into something I wasn’t sure I was ready for again. The first time we had been together, I thought my life was going to end the next day. It felt like someone was holding a gun to my head and I was going to be leaving everyone I loved behind. I felt desperate to live and be alive.

  Now, I had more time. I had spent so long regretting being with Lochie like that because he didn’t know I was an alien then. He knew nothing about what was really going on. It took a while for me to realize he didn’t care about what I was. What he cared about was that I disappeared in the morning before he woke up. Understandably, he was angry about it.

  “I still need to go,” I said in the silence. I started to get up to reiterate my intention to leave. Lochie stood too.

  He walked me downstairs, his mother shooting daggers our way as I said goodnight to her. If I had a shot at winning her over, it was going to be a long and windy path.

  Lochie walked me all the way to my car, parked outside his house. He always insisted on doing that. He didn’t have a father figure in his life, so I had no idea where he learned to be such a gentleman. But I enjoyed it anyway.

  He opened my door for me. “M’lady.”

  “Thank you. And thank you for dinner and the movie too. I had a really good night.”

  “Anytime, Jones.”

  “I really will think about it,” I assured him. He kissed me softly on the lips, a kiss that would linger for a long time.

  “I’m not pressuring you. I’d wait forever for you, Ame. I happen to think you’re worth it.” He stepped back before shrugging. “Although, I don’t know why. You literally drive me crazy.”

  I half-heartedly pushed him. “I love you too.”

  “Text me when you get home so I know you’re safe.”

  I nodded and climbed into the car. He waited on the sidewalk until I was out of sight. It could have been longer but I wouldn’t have known.

  Lochie could seriously be the most annoying person on the planet at times, but he could also be the sweetest person too. Just the fact that he waited for my text after I left was enough to bring a warm and fuzzy feeling flooding over me. He really cared about me, he had proven that time and again. Now, if we could get everyone else on board, we’d be doing well.

  Just like I had hoped wasn’t the case, at least one of my parents was waiting up for me. This time, like most times, it was my adoptive mother.

  “Hey, honey, I’m glad you’re home.”

  I gave her a kiss on the cheek as I sat on the couch beside her. “You didn’t need to wait up for me.”

  “I know, but you know what I’m like.” I did, she was a worrier. Thinking about everything I had gone through over the last few months, you’d think she’d learn to let go a little. But not Mom, she was probably going to be worried about me for the rest of her life. “How was Lochie?”

  “He was good.”

  “Is his mother any better towards you?”

  I shook my head sadly. I wished I had better news for her. “She’s openly hostile. I can’t believe how much she’s changed just because she knows that I’m an alien now.”

  “Doesn’t she understand you are still the same person?” Mom’s eyes were full of gentle sympathy.

  “I don’t think she much cares. All she’s worried about is her son dating an alien. I guess Project Integrate couldn’t work on everyone.”

  Mom pulled me closer so I was embraced in her hug. I felt like a five year old kid again and wished she could take away all my booboos. That would have been nice.

  She kissed my forehead. “Just continue to be yourself. I know you’ll win her over eventually. Everyone loves you.” I would have liked to believe that was true but it was far from it.

  “Thanks Mom,” I mumbled in reply.

  I took myself to bed and tried to forget about the long day. My night light was casting weird shadows all over my walls. If I forgot about Krom and Mrs. Mercury and just focused on Lochie, I would have drifted off to sleep happy. But that wasn’t how my brain worked – unfortunately.

  I was still tired when I awoke from what little sleep I had. Still, I plastered on a smile and headed down to breakfast. The kitchen was empty except for Garrick. “Where is everyone?”

  “The moms went grocery shopping, the dads went to the Department for a check in,” Garrick replied through a mouthful of cereal. It was kind of gross.

  “So it’s just us? That’s got to be a first around here.” I poured a bowl of completely unhealthy chocolate flavored cereal and sat at the table.

  “The place to ourselves, what shall we do?”

  “Light fires and hold a house party?” I joked. It sounded like something normal teenagers got up to when left unsupervised. “So, in the middle of the night, I was thinking.”

  “I was sleeping.”

  “Lucky you. I was thinking we should go talk to the Originals and see what they have to say about you being framed for murder.”

  Garrick almost choked on his cereal. “We’re not doing that. Don’t even think about it, Ame.”

  “Why not? If they are the ones behind it, we might get a clue or something.” It sounded perfectly logical to me. What better way to find out who framed him than to look the most likely suspects in the eye and ask them?

  “If you remember the last time you saw the Originals, they tried to kill you. Like, legitimately kill you.” He stared at me wide eyed, like he couldn’t believe what I was suggesting.
“Do you have a death wish or something?”

  “I’m trying to help you.”

  “Then stay away from them. I don’t want to have to come and rescue you.”

  “I don’t need to be rescued like some damsel in distress,” I said haughtily. Like he could talk anyway, he had been rescued just as many times as I had. Not that we were keeping count, that would be too depressing. “I can look after myself.”

  “Not against the Originals. Didn’t Lochie have to drive through a wall to save you last time?”

  “I had a plan to escape.” That was a lie, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I didn’t like remembering that night and the way I truly thought my life was over. “Anyway, the Originals are out in public now, they can’t kidnap people and hide like they did before. They can’t hurt us.”

  “Riiight,” Garrick stretched out the word so it sounded like it had many more vowels than it really did. “Promise me you won’t go running to the Originals.” I shot him a look, which must have had the desired effect. “Seriously, Ame. We can think up a better plan, okay? If all else fails, then we’ll go to the Originals together.”

  I guess that sounded fair. “Fine.”

  He quickly changed the subject before I could argue any further. “So what are you doing today?”

  “I’m doing my rounds of the new settlers. Want to come?” I was always happy for anyone to accompany me when I did my rounds. Lola normally came with me, but she was going to be tied up with Asher today.

  “Hmm, doing some volunteer work, that’s got to look good on my police record, right?”

  Whatever reason he had for doing it was fine by me, just as long as it meant I wasn’t going solo.

  We started the rounds less than an hour later. Starting at one end of Portview, we wound our way around the town.

  The people of Trucon had been matched up with willing families when they first arrived. The host families helped them to get used to the way things worked on Earth. Once they were ready, the families then moved out on their own. They needed help for every step of the way. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like for them to relocate to another planet. I didn’t even like it when my locker at school moved.

  I knocked at yet another house on my list and the door was answered by Rubette, the mother of the household. “Amery! So good to see you, come in.”

  “Thanks. This is Garrick.” He nodded his head and held up his left wrist so she could see his triangle tattoo. It was the easiest way of saying ‘I’m an alien too’.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Rubette graciously welcomed him. “I’ve got some exciting news.”

  That sounded promising. “What is it?”

  She led us into her kitchen where two alien children were drawing in a coloring-in book quietly. Trucon children were so well behaved it was almost freaky. Whatever they did to teach them respect, I wished they would show humans.

  Rubette was practically bursting with her news. She blabbed the moment we sat down. “I got a job!”

  “Wow, that’s great news.” It was too. It was rare to find someone who would chance hiring an alien for any job. Besides the technology companies and medical researchers, nobody wanted to risk putting off their human customers. “What kind of a job is it?”

  “I work weekends at the supermarket on the checkouts. I’m really enjoying it and everyone has been super nice so far.” It was a little disappointing to know it was a small customer service job. Rubette used to be a midwife nurse on Trucon but her qualifications weren’t recognized here.

  But still, any job was a win for the alien community. “I’m so happy for you. How are Davide and the kids handling it without you here?”

  Rubette tenderly touched her daughter’s head. “They’re coping with it okay. It works in really well, actually. Davide goes to work during the week and I have the kids and we switch on the weekends. We’ll be able to find a place of our own soon.”

  “And your host family are okay?” I mentally went through a checklist to make sure I was covering all topics. Any sign of trouble and I was supposed to report it back to Krom and his minions. I hadn’t made any reports yet, thankfully I didn’t need to.

  She nodded eagerly. “They are like grandparents to the kids. I can’t thank them enough for helping us settle in. I never thought I’d say this but I think things are really going to be okay.”

  “It has to be good not having a horrible asteroid looming over you all the time,” Garrick added. It was nice to have him joining in the conversation.

  “We always had faith our babies would come through for us.” She looked at us proudly, like she was the one who had given birth to us.

  I was glad I hadn’t known before their arrival just how much faith they had in all the project members. Apparently we were spoken about quite a bit on Trucon, we were going to be their saviors. Thank goodness we actually succeeded, I couldn’t handle the guilt otherwise.

  We had a cup of tea with Rubette as she gave me a full report about every aspect of her life. The children had made some friends in the next door neighbor’s kids, Davide was impressing them at the mechanics he worked for, and she was learning how to ride the bus so they could get around independently of their host family. It was all very positive.

  Upon leaving, I decided we could walk to our next house. It was only one block away and I could use the exercise. Lounging around with Lochie for a few weeks was at risk of making me lazy.

  Halfway there, we passed a familiar face going in the opposite direction. “Ella, hey.”

  She stopped, snapping out of her daydream. “Amery, Garrick! What are you doing here?”

  “Visiting new settlers. What about you? You don’t live around here, do you?” I hadn’t seen Ella for a few weeks, not since she had rallied nearly an army of teenagers to help us.

  “I’m visiting too. I just finished up with the Wexford family. Have you seen the Anglemyers?” I nodded and she continued. “They’re so cute, aren’t they? I love checking in on them. I saw Rubette working last weekend and wanted to congratulate her on the new job.”

  “She’s pretty happy about it.”

  Ella’s gaze went to Garrick as her smile grew wider. That was new. “I haven’t seen you around for a while. Are you in town for a bit, Garrick?”

  “A while, I guess,” he replied gruffly. I wanted to elbow him in the ribs. I would have done it if he was standing closer.

  “I might see you around then,” Ella replied, unfazed.

  “Doubt it.” Now I definitely wanted to inflict some pain.

  I turned my attention directly to Ella. “We should catch up sometime. Maybe we could get a coffee or something?”

  “That sounds great. Oh, and I’m having a party in a few days to celebrate my parents being away for the week. I’ll text you the details. You’re both invited, I hope you can make it.” She gave Garrick one more flash of her smile before we went in different directions.

  I didn’t know Ella all that well, but I was definitely picking up on some Garrick admiration vibes. Poor girl, she really didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Garrick was a handful.

  “Ella’s really pretty, huh?” I said casually, trying to fish for some information.

  Garrick shrugged. “I didn’t notice.”

  “She’s nice too.”

  He stopped to stare at me. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing, just commenting on a friend. Why are you getting all weird about it?” I played innocent, hoping it would work.

  “I’m not getting all weird about it.” I hated it when he imitated me. He did it too well. “I just don’t want you thinking about doing anything.”

  “Can you be vaguer?” I could play dumb too.

  “You know what I mean.” He stared me down. “All I can think about right now is my murder charge. That’s it.”

  “Fine, I didn’t mean you should think about anything else,” I replied, throwing my hands up in the air to give up. Talk about touchy.
/>   A car suddenly roared past, a guy hanging out the passenger side window. “Aliens! ET says go home!” Their laughter could be heard even as they rounded the corner.

  “Idiots,” I muttered. We kept walking because that’s all we could do. I was getting used to being randomly abused by racist morons. Although, it would have been nice for it to not happen all the time.

  “Clearly they don’t have lives of their own,” Garrick added. I was surprised he didn’t add in some choice swear words.

  I was about to complain some more when my phone beeped with a text message. I checked the cell. “Wait, Garrick.” I tapped his arm to stop him walking any further. “Lola’s found something. We need to go.”

  We turned around and headed back to the car. My hopes were lifted. If Lola was texting me, she must have found something that just might save Garrick’s butt.

  CHAPTER 6

  If there was someone I was glad to see when we needed to gather evidence against a murder charge, it was Asher. Not only was he a guitar god, a great boyfriend for Lola, and a good friend, he was also a world class computer hacker.

  I had asked him to fish around and see what he could find out about Garrick’s case and he had spectacularly delivered. “This is really the autopsy report?”

  He nodded proudly. Lola did the same at his side. “Did my man come through, or did he come through?”

  “He came through,” I confirmed. I held the report up so Garrick and I could read it together. It was hot off the coroner’s press, only prepared an hour earlier according to the logged time. “Did you have any trouble getting into the system?”

  Asher waved his hand like it was no big deal. “They are using old encryption. Someone needs to tell them to get with the times. My little sister could hack into their system.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” I replied. I turned my attention to the report and scanned through, trying to read each word even though some of them were completely foreign to me.

  On the page was a crude outline of a body. The coroner had hand drawn some marks on it and made notes. His handwriting was atrocious, but that’s probably not what I needed to be focusing on.