by Amy Ignatow
“Nick,” Jay implored, turning away from Farshad, “you are starting to be able to zap yourself wherever you want to go. And now you can bring people with you! You can bring your mom to Hawaii! Why would you willingly part with that?”
Nick looked helpless. “Once the spray is in the air we’re going to be breathing it in,” he said. “I don’t know how we can spray it without being affected by it.”
“I’ll do it!” Jay yelped. “I’ll distribute the spray! It won’t affect me, I don’t have any powers.”
Nick looked stricken. “But maybe you do,” he said.
“What do you mean? Of course I don’t, we’ve established that,” Jay said. He turned to Cookie. “Do you want to lose your ability to communicate with your mind? You’re just starting to get the hang of it!”
Cookie looked down. “You don’t know what it’s like,” she said softly, and Farshad couldn’t help but feel for her. “Ninety percent of the time I don’t want to hear what people are thinking. Especially if they’re thinking things about me.”
“But you’re learning to control it,” Jay said. “Just give it a little time. Can you even imagine the potential of what you could learn and do?”
Cookie sighed. “If losing my power is what it takes to get my friends back, then I’m okay with it.”
Jay threw his hands up in the air. “But you don’t have to! I can do it! Nick can zap me into Auxano, we can find the Company Kids, he can zap out, I can spray them in the face, easy peasy lemon squeezy!”
“That doesn’t actually sound that easy,” Farshad observed.
“You can’t do it!” Nick cried.
“Then I’ll get help,” Jay said with a wave of his hand.
“From who?” Farshad asked, exasperated. “We have no one on our side. The Auxano people just want their formula to work and are clearly willing to use their own children as guinea pigs and then kidnap them. Dr. Deery is in deep with Ms. Zelle, and half our parents work for Auxano and haven’t done anything to stop it because Auxano controls the whole town. They shut it down, for godssake! No one is going to back us up.”
“And I don’t think it’s a great idea for you to do it at all,” Nick said.
“I’m ignoring you, it is a great idea. All you and the others have to do is get us in, and we will do the rest.”
“Who’s we?” Farshad asked.
Jay turned to him, his eyes twinkling. “An old friend who owes us a favor.”
It had taken Nick and Jay four tries to get close to Kaylee Schmitt’s house (they’d first ended up back in Abe’s neighbor’s barn, then Nick’s old house, and then at the Understeps in the darkened school) before finally getting close enough to the Schmitt farm, less than a mile away from the Auxano campus, to walk up to the house at nine in the evening. Nick stopped before they reached the front door.
“I don’t know about this,” he said, staying in the shadows outside of the range of the light on the front porch of the house.
“Nicholas. Come on, you stalwart old lemur, there’s nothing not to know,” Jay said, although he, too, remained in the shadows.
“You’re really reaching new heights of nonsense-talk,” Nick said, looking at the front door. Kaylee had four older brothers and they were all enormous. Nick wasn’t scared of them, per se, but he also didn’t particularly want them to know he existed. Rumor had it that they’d once filled the high school boys’ locker room with goats from their farm.
“It’s been a bit of a challenging day,” Jay admitted. “But, come on. We’re here, we’ve finally made it—”
“I was trying!”
“And you were doing a marvelous job, and now we’re here. We might as well get what we came for.”
“What you came for. No one else was particularly in love with this plan.”
“Yes, true, but no one was vehemently against it, either.”
“Farshad specifically said that it could possibly be your worst idea yet.”
“Well, the night is still young and our man Farshad is entirely too negative. When this is all over we should take him to Dutch Wonderland or something.” Jay threw back his narrow shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
Nick followed his friend to the door, and after a moment of knocking one of Kaylee’s brothers was looking at the two twelve-year-olds on his front porch with undisguised curiosity.
“Hello!” Jay blurted to the gigantic teenager. “Pardon the lateness of the hour, but is Kaylee available?”
“Uh . . . yeah,” the teenager said. “KAYL. GET DOWN HERE. SOME NERD WANTS TO SEE YOU.”
“WHO?” Kaylee Schmitt’s voice called from up the stairs.
“I DON’T KNOW, SOME NERD.”
“Jay Carpenter,” Jay helpfully interjected.
“JAY CARPETER.”
“Carpenter, my dear man, it’s not that difficult.”
“SOME NERD.” They could hear Kaylee coming down the stairs. “She’s coming,” the brother said.
“Yes, thank you so much,” Jay said, and Nick could tell that Kaylee’s brother was trying to figure out whether or not Jay was being a punk to him. Nick was used to people wondering that about his best friend.
Kaylee looked first surprised and then suspicious to see them. “Uh, hi,” she said, making no moves to invite them into the house. She looked around, and definitely seemed confused. The Schmitts’ house was very far back from the main road, and two kids without a car or bikes would have had to walk a very long way to get there. The Schmitts didn’t get a lot of drop-in visitors. “What’s up?”
“Kaylee,” Jay said happily, “how nice to see you. How are you faring after our little encounter today?”
“I’m fine,” she said warily as her towering brother looked on with curiosity. “What are you doing here?”
“Do you mind if we come in and sit down?” Jay asked. “We have a story to tell you.”
When Jay was done talking Kaylee and her four brothers sat in silence. They were all sitting on a long L-shaped sofa; first Kaylee, then Kyle, Kurt, Kameron, and Korbin. Their mother was working a late shift at the call center and their father was already asleep, so Jay told the story of the bus accident and everything that had happened since in an uncharacteristically hushed tone while the Schmitt siblings listened attentively. Nick noticed that they had been shooting one another looks while Jay talked. After a moment, Kyle turned to Kaylee.
“Text Paul. Tell him to come over and bring the goat.”
Nick looked at Jay, who seemed equally confused as Kaylee hunched over her cell phone, texting furiously. “Goat?” Nick asked tentatively.
“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Goat.” He thought a moment before speaking again. “So, nothing you’ve told us just now is that surprising.”
“I’m surprised about Ms. Zelle being involved.” Kurt sighed. “I liked her.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “What I’m saying is that the people who don’t live in town have known for a while that messed-up stuff was happening at Auxano.”
“Why haven’t you told anyone?” Nick asked.
Korbin snorted. “Who’s going to believe us?”
“But what did you mean by ‘messed-up stuff’?” Jay asked.
“Paul is on his way,” Kaylee said. “You’ll see.”
A few minutes later they were all standing on the front porch as Paul Yoder approached, coaxing a goat to come along with him. “Come on,” he grumbled, “we’re almost there.”
“Want food,” the goat said.
“You just ate,” Paul said.
“Want more food,” the goat replied.
“Did I just hear that goat talk?” Jay asked, incredulous.
“Yeah,” Paul said. “Hey, Jay. Hey, Jay’s friend.”
“Want more food now,” the goat said.
“Holy smacks,” Nick breathed.
“Do you have food? Want food.”
“This is extraordinary,” Jay whispered.
“Not really. All she ever does is ask for more food,”
Paul said.
“About a month ago Gertie over there wandered off,” Kaylee explained, “and Paul found that she’d broken into the Auxano campus and was eating their garbage, and she’s been talking ever since.”
“Name not Gertie. Name MAAAAAAAHH. Want more food.”
“Should I get her something?” Kaylee asked Paul.
“Not if you think it’s going to stop her from asking for more,” Paul growled.
“This is incredible.” Jay was excited. “Did you tell Auxano about it?”
“No!” Kyle snapped. “We don’t tell them anything. They’ve been trying for years to buy out our farms so they can do their creepy experiments. You can’t trust anything they do or say. Look at what they did to Gertie!”
“MAAAAAAHH. Feed me.”
“So if what Kaylee texted me is true,” Paul said, “could you cure Gertie and make her less annoying?”
“You’re annoying. Feed me.”
“Yes,” Jay said. “But we need help.”
The plan was simple. Nick would teleport everyone except for the Farm Kids to the women’s bathroom at Auxano (he’d done several test runs, and every time had ended up in the women’s bathroom). Then Rebecca, Beanie, Cookie, and Jay would escort Willis to the lab with the enormous centrifuge while Farshad, Martina, and Nick found the Company Kids, Mr. Friend, and Invisible Ed. Then they’d all meet up and Jay would spray everyone. The Farm Kids would storm the facilities to cause mayhem and get them out, as once the spray was in the air anyone present with powers would be normal again. The Company Kids would be cured, along with Rebecca and Beanie and whomever else wanted to stay to get sprayed, and they’d all get out of there and continue on with their lives.
Simple.
Cookie looked around the room again. Everyone except for Martina and Willis looked anxious, and she could hear and feel the nervous thoughts swirling around her. Kaylee, Paul, and the rest of the Farm Kids were freaked out. Cookie couldn’t blame them—they’d just seen Nick teleport for the first time (although they had opted to drive to Rebecca and Beanie’s in Kyle’s truck). Korbin in particular was staring at Martina, trying to catch her eyes changing color. He should have been more worried about Cookie hearing his thoughts, but people tend to pay more attention to the wonders they’re able to see (even though Martina was looking down at her sketchbook, as usual).
It was difficult enough for Cookie to gather her own thoughts without the jumble of Farm Kid anxiety creeping at the edges of her brain. She rubbed her temples.
Let’s go outside.
Cookie looked up and saw that Martina had planted a thought in her brain. She was too good at that, although Cookie didn’t really mind. Martina only sent thoughts to her when it was necessary, and like Martina herself they weren’t that intrusive. She stood up. “I need some fresh air,” she declared.
Nick shot her a concerned look.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine, I just need to get my head in order before we do this thing,” Cookie said, and headed out the door of the apartment. Martina followed, and Cookie was pretty sure that no one (besides Korbin) even noticed.
They walked silently down the stairs of the old house where Rebecca and Beanie lived to the driveway, where Kyle’s truck was parked. Cookie leaned against it. Martina looked at her. She didn’t even have to ask what Cookie was thinking and Cookie knew it.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Cookie said.
Martina looked at her questioningly, her gray eyes turning a light blue.
“What?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t need to, your eyes are all changing color.”
“I don’t know why they do that.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure they correspond with your thoughts,” Cookie said. “I just haven’t figured out the pattern yet. Do they turn blue when you’re happy and green when you’re scared and purple when you’re hungry?”
“Are they purple now?”
“Wait, are you hungry?”
“Kind of.”
“I was just saying. They’re still blue. I don’t actually think I’ve seen them turn full purple.” Cookie took a deep breath. “Do you know what you’re going to do?”
Martina looked up at the night sky. “I think I’m going to stay the way I am,” Martina said. “If I can.”
“Well it’s easy for you,” Cookie grumbled. “Your power isn’t driving you up the wall.”
“I was probably already up a wall anyway,” Martina said.
“Tell me something,” Cookie said. “Your power is more than just your eyes changing color, isn’t it?”
Martina nodded.
“But it has a lot to do with your eyes,” Cookie prompted, looking expectantly at Martina, who looked up at the stars.
“I think I see things that other people don’t see,” she said quietly.
“Like when you could see Invisible Ed.”
“Right. And how I could tell where we were going in the woods without much light. And what I see when I teleport with Nick. Lots of things.”
“And you want to keep seeing them,” Cookie said. Martina nodded again.
“But why haven’t you told us about this before?” Cookie asked.
“I figured you would all just think I’m crazy,” Martina said.
Cookie laughed. “That’s ridiculous,” she said, “we already think you’re crazy.”
Martina looked at Cookie in surprise, and then let out the loudest laugh Cookie had ever heard. She laughed until she was nearly doubled over with laughter, and Cookie couldn’t help but join in.
It felt really, really good to laugh. The girls clutched their sides and leaned on the truck and laughed and laughed, because if they didn’t they’d probably start crying (or Cookie would, at least). She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed as hard or as long as she was laughing, and after a while she couldn’t even remember what they were laughing about. She just knew that laughing felt great.
“So,” Martina said, once they’d finally quieted down and caught their breath. “Do you want to keep your power?”
“No,” Cookie said, and was surprised to hear it coming out of her mouth. Martina looked at her expectantly and Cookie half wondered if she could see something that Cookie couldn’t.
“Look, I’m the only black kid in school. I already know what people are thinking half the time. Do I need to read minds as well?” she asked.
“I suppose not,” Martina said, and paused for a moment. “Are you afraid of what you can do?”
Cookie looked up. The stars were incredible, something she was never able to see when she visited Philadelphia. “After what happened with Jay, yes,” she whispered.
“That makes sense,” Martina said, and it was a relief to hear her say it. Cookie felt strangely lighter.
“You know, I’ve never had a friend that I didn’t feel like I needed to impress before,” Cookie admitted.
“I’ve never had a friend before,” Martina responded, and Cookie laughed.
“Well, you do now,” she said, linking her arm in Martina’s and heading back to the house. “Let’s go raid a laboratory and save some deranged chemically altered middle schoolers. It’s what friends do.”
“Friendship is weird.”
“Sure is.”
Farshad stood with the strange group of new friends and nervous allies at the edge of the forest near the east wing of the Auxano campus. In the distance he was able to see the same door that they’d escaped from during their last raid on the chemical company. The doorknob that he’d crushed with his thumbs had been replaced, and for a moment he wondered if they’d taken his thumbprint. It was probably better not to think about it. But now he kind of wished he was wearing gloves.
In the Schmitts’ trunk on the way over Cookie had announced that she would be taking the antidote and giving up her powers. Farshad had expected Jay to try to dissuade her, but Jay had just given Cookie a quick nod; something about his encounte
r with her power must have convinced him that everyone would be better off if she didn’t have the ability to melt brains. Cookie seemed resolute. Farshad couldn’t help but to admire her. Imagine having all that power and being willing to give it up.
He hadn’t yet decided what he wanted to do. On one hand, having super strength could be amazing. If he learned how to really control his powers, he knew he could be un-stoppable. But on the other hand . . . what if he couldn’t control himself? What if he became like Mr. Friend, unstable and unable to stop himself from doing incredible damage? Farshad had already destroyed a computer keyboard and a phone and a kitchen counter and a car bumper, and there was no telling how much more he’d demolish, especially if his powers increased. And it seemed like everyone’s powers were increasing.
Farshad looked over to where Willis was standing with Rebecca and Beanie. He, at least, was determined to get rid of whatever was causing his brain to run like an insane hamster on a million-mile-per-hour wheel. Rebecca, who could heal with lightning speed, wanted to return to normal as well, which seemed crazy to Farshad. He’d have loved to have that power. But she was convinced that by giving it up she would be welcomed back into her community. Farshad knew his parents would never have rejected him the way that Rebecca’s had shunned her, but what if they did? Would he even want to go back to them?
Beanie had remained quiet about what he wanted to do. He could make himself as heavy and immovable as a rock, which seemed to Farshad like the sort of power that would be pretty easy to hide. Nick was going to try to keep his power, as was Abe, who really seemed to enjoy talking with animals and didn’t seem particularly worried about being shunned if he was found out. Maybe a man’s power to easily herd livestock was more important than a girl’s power to heal herself.
“Okay, team,” Jay addressed the group, rubbing his hands together. “I wish I had time to think up a name for us but . . .”
“The Sprayers,” Willis blurted.
“The Odd Army,” Nick offered.
“The Oddballs,” Cookie grumbled.
“The Antidoters,” Kaylee suggested.