“Fine. I’m not promising that it will be easy. You’ll bleed and you’ll hurt.”
I meet his steely eyes. “When do we start?”
“Right now.”
13
THINGS ARE BLOOMING
A sharp poke in my upper arm jolts me awake, and I wipe the drop of drool pooling at the corner of my mouth.
“Wake up, or Marsden’s going to see you,” Jenna hisses in my ear. A greenish blackboard swims into view along with the glare of my English teacher, who is heading right for me. I force my eyes open and try to look attentive.
“I’m good, I’m good,” I whisper back, rubbing my arm. “What’d you poke me with? A knife?”
“A pencil. Pay attention.”
Concentrating on the blurry sonnet text in front of me, I pinch my legs to stop my eyes from going back to sleep and try to focus on what Cara is reading aloud. It’s some love sonnet by Shakespeare that she’s obviously reading to Lo in an affected voice that makes me nauseated.
“‘Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds...’”
Blah, blah, puke.
No wonder I’m passing out. I should be irritated at her overt flirtation with my sort-of-soon-to-be-but-not-really-boyfriend, but the truth is, I’m so worn out from Echlios’s coma-inducing training coupled with intense workouts that her heartsick voice and googly eyes to Lo don’t even register on my annoyance scale.
“‘That looks on tempests and is never shaken...’”
I do notice that Cara’s nearly in Lo’s lap at this point but I can only roll my eyes and slouch backward into my chair. Even with recent developments over the past couple weeks, I don’t own Lo. We only kissed that one time on the beach, and a few conversations since then does not a boyfriend make.
Still, he did call as promised over the weekend, and since then, we’ve spoken nonstop into the wee hours of the morning every night, which likely accounts for a large part of my sleep deprivation. We aren’t officially dating, but we are getting to know each other. I like that he wants to get to know me, and even though, for obvious reasons, there’s a lot I can’t tell him, I can still pretend to be a normal teen for a few hours. My secret bliss has only been marred by Echlios’s death training every other waking hour. So between school, Echlios and hours of night talk with Lo, I’m practically a walking zombie.
Another poke in the arm. My eyes snap open. “Easy,” I hiss, glaring at Jenna.
“Loverboy’s staring at you again,” she whispers.
“Huh?” I say, peeking over at Lo. “No, he’s not. Googly-Eyes’s poetic laments have totally hypnotized him. I mean, who wouldn’t be brain dead by now?”
“Look again, he’s watching you. He’s doing that weird I’m-watching-but-really-looking-elsewhere thing that he does. It’s actually kind of adorable.”
I glance over again but am distracted by Cara’s antics. She’s nearly done and has started fluttering her eyelashes to the point that it looks like she has something caught in her eye. I hide my snort with a cough. Jenna is right, though—Lo’s face is intensely focused as if he is somewhere else. I shrug. “I don’t think he’s looking at me, but can you blame the guy? I’d be screaming for mercy if I were in his shoes.”
Something wet tickles the back of my neck and I frown at Jenna. “Cut it out.”
“What? I didn’t do anything.”
“Ms. Marin and Ms. Pearce, if you have something to say, please do share it with the class,” Mrs. Marsden says loudly. Every single head turns toward us, including Cara’s furious one for stealing any of the slightest bit of her thunder.
I freeze like a deer in headlights but Jenna interjects smoothly with an earnest smile, “We were only just saying how lovely Cara’s poem is, and we’d love to hear her read more, Mrs. Marsden.”
“Yes, yes,” I agree fervently. I can’t get detention. Not only is it one of Echlios’s rules, but it’ll also cut into training time and we don’t know how much time we have left. “We’d really love to hear some more.” My emphasis on the word love is so effusive that even Mrs. Marsden looks a trifle suspicious.
Marsden’s face is skeptical but she nods at Cara to continue. Cara’s fury has morphed into complete saccharine sweetness now that the spotlight is back where it belongs. She’s an unpredictable bundle of awesomeness, that one. I’m not really looking forward to the day when Lo makes his intentions toward me public and Little Miss Shakespeare goes postal. A part of me secretly hopes that we can keep it quiet, but in a small school like Dover that’s near impossible.
Cara’s overhoneyed tones are enough punishment. “‘Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May...’”
Thankfully, the bell puts us all out of our Cara-induced misery, and I grab my stuff with a smothered groan. Even walking is painful. Echlios is a slave driver. Not only does he have us doing deep-water fighting sessions, he also has us training in human form, which makes no sense to me. If I face Ehmora, we’ll be in Aquarathi form. When I voiced my opinions, he shut me down by saying that our core strength is the same, regardless of external shape or stimulus. I guess he has a point.
“Why’re you walking like you just got off a horse?” Sawyer asks.
“Because I just went horseback riding,” I say, stuffing my books into my locker.
“What? Where?”
“Be nice,” Jenna says, shoving past Sawyer to her locker. “Don’t lead him on. You know how literal he can be. Now he’s going to be asking about horses all day long.” Sawyer turns red at Jenna’s teasing, belatedly realizing that I, of course, was being facetious. He grins good-naturedly.
“Asshat,” he says to me.
“Yeah, well, Cara brings out the snark monster in me. Anyway, I’ve been working out with a personal trainer,” I tell him as we walk together to the cafeteria. I look around for Lo but don’t see him. I don’t want to be too obvious about seeking him out, so I keep walking. “Have to lose a few pounds and get into shape for next summer.”
“Why?” Sawyer asks, frowning. “You’re ripped. If you need to get in shape, then the rest of us are hosed.”
“She’s training for a triathlon,” Jenna says to Sawyer, and I send her a grateful glance. She always knows exactly the right thing to say that will make sense and not sound like an outright lie. She’s the only one who knows the truth about what Speio and I are doing with Echlios. I can use all the help I could get, even from a human.
Contrary to what Speio wanted, I decided to trust Jenna with everything...down to what happened with Ehmora and the snakes. She was horrified, especially to learn about my not-dead mother, but agreed with my plan to train just in case our suspicions on Ehmora’s end game were correct. Jenna will also be a good cover if anything happens at school, or within our circle of friends.
As she’s being right now.
Not that I only need her for that. I love being able to have someone to talk to who isn’t Speio or Soren. Someone on the human side who gets that girl side of me, because she exists, too, right along with my Aquarathi side. I can’t discount that part of me. And who knows, maybe that will help me against Ehmora.
“Cool,” Sawyer says, looking at me with new respect, piling food on his tray like he hasn’t eaten in a week. “How long’s the bike piece? I didn’t even know you liked riding. We should go this weekend. I know some great trails.”
“Um—”
“One-mile swim, twenty-mile bike ride, five-mile run,” Jenna supplies, once more to the rescue. She’s a master strategist, that one. “And she can’t. She has training 24/7.” We carry our trays over to an empty table and sit down. I look again for Lo but still don’t see him. I don’t see Cara, either, which starts to grate on my nerves.
I bite into my fish and chips, and notice Jenna staring at me. “What?” I ask with a mouth full of food.
&
nbsp; “You’re eating fish?” Jenna whispers into my ear.
I stop chewing to stare at her and nod. “You saw me eating sushi at home, remember?”
“That’s kind of cannibalistic, don’t you think?”
“It’s the law of the jungle.” I swallow and answer. “Or the ocean in this case. Bigger fish eat little fish. We’re king of the aquatic food chain.” I grin and smack my lips. “Normally I like my meals way less cooked than this but when in Rome...”
“Eww, gross!”
“What’s gross?” a male voice interjects. Lo slides in beside us to sit next to me, facing Sawyer across the table. His smile is incendiary. I try not to notice the brightness of it—or any of the unhidden feeling behind it—and stare at my food after returning a tiny smile of my own.
“Riss is into raw fish, that’s what Jenna thinks is gross,” Sawyer offers. “Rabbit food, I say. Give me a cheeseburger any day.”
“I like burgers,” I protest. “I just like fish more. And who doesn’t like sushi?”
“I like sushi, too,” Lo says. “I know a great place. We should go one of these days, if you like.”
“Like on a date?” Jenna can’t help herself, but Lo takes it all in with good humor, smirking at her obvious ploy.
“Sure, a date sounds good,” he says, totally playing along at my expense and winking at Jenna. Her expression is gleeful. “When do you think she’ll prefer to go? Friday or Saturday?”
“Definitely Saturday,” Jenna says.
“Um, guys,” I say. “I’m, like, right here. And as empty as my social calendar may be, I’m not that desperate. I can make dates for myself. Plus, I can’t Saturday. I have training.” I sigh, cursing my stupid idea of training with a certified masochist. “For the foreseeable future, I am on lockdown.”
“You can’t go out to eat?” Sawyer says.
“Nope. School, homework, hockey, training. This is my life.”
Underneath the table, Lo’s hand slips into mine, and for some reason it reminds me of our kiss on the beach. His thumb circles in the inner part of my palm, and every part of me is consumed by warmth. With each move of his fingers, my pulse spirals. If my skin gets any warmer, I’m going to burst into flames. Everything else—Cara, dating, training—takes a backseat to the tingles taking over my entire body just from Lo’s light touch.
“Riss!” Jenna is yelling over the table. “Hello?”
“What?” I say, blushing and ripping my hand out of Lo’s.
“I’ve only been saying your name for the past ten minutes,” she says, shoving something in my face. A newspaper. With an article about an ocean disturbance last Friday just before the big storm, something about phytoplankton. “Did you guys see this?” She stares meaningfully at me, glancing away quickly when she sees Lo looking at us.
Grabbing the paper, I read a few lines only to have my stomach sink. The storm had blown in on Saturday as predicted and the pictures showed some of the oversized swell, but that wasn’t all. My fingers clutch the newspaper as dread pools in my stomach. I didn’t know about this, though—this one is all me.
Lo leans in and scans the headlines quickly. “Cool, I love plankton, amazing creatures. Something must have disturbed them.”
“What’s it say?” Sawyer asks, looking over the top. “I surfed one time at night during the Red Tides and it was magic. I was like a fairy surfer with a trail of blue pixie dust.”
A snort from Jenna has Sawyer going pink. “’Cause that’s exactly what you want to be, a fairy surfer. You’re lucky I’m madly in love with you with the things you come up with.”
“Fairies are cool. Especially badass boy ones,” Sawyer retorts. “Come on, Riss, ignore my unimaginative girlfriend and read.”
I read out loud. “‘Experts are baffled by the localized appearance, commonly called a bloom, of greenish-blue phytoplankton—early for this time of year—two days ago about forty miles northwest of San Diego. Marine biologists at the San Diego Marine Center claim that the odd cluster of the organisms must have been preceding the famous Red Tides, which periodically affect the California coastline, turning the waters an electrifying blue at night.’” I pause, the weight in my stomach rising into my throat.
“Keep going,” Sawyer insists, his eyes wide.
“There’s not much more,” I say. “Just a comment from Kevin at the center that phytoplankton is usually blue, and this one was an anomaly that looked more green and yellow instead. They’re saying it was a marine abnormality because it only lasted a few minutes and it was during the day. And they plan to learn more with some expedition to capture data.” I can’t read any more, and I shove the paper toward Sawyer. “Here you go. Knock yourself out.”
My belly feels like there’s a black hole in the bottom of it that’s sucking me in. The bioluminescence reported in the paper was obviously me, when I’d been fighting off Ehmora’s serpents. We must have been closer to the surface than I’d thought for any of it to be visible. The plankton had been a lucky dodge, but I know that Echlios will only be more on edge if he knows that any bioluminescence—particularly mine—is the subject of potential discussion and research at the marine center.
“As much as I love plankton, I gotta run,” Lo says, pushing his chair backward and standing. “See you in Calc,” he tells me. “Have to see Cano.”
“What’s up with Cano?” I ask, forgetting about the article.
“What can I say? No one’s immune to these charms,” he says with a deadpan look, and I burst into laughter. “Plus, he likes to think that he’s in control. You know, running the school like it should be run, and he wants to make sure I’m toeing the line. Didn’t exactly get off on the right foot, if you remember.”
Meeting Lo that first day seems like aeons ago. We had a spark from that very first day, only I was too blind to see it. Or maybe I did see it, and was afraid of what it would mean for me. Either way, I know that I can never ignore what I feel for Lo, even if it won’t last because of who I am. And with everything moving so quickly with Ehmora, my time here is limited. For all I know, she could challenge me on my seventeenth birthday, the minute I come of age.
“I remember. See you later.”
“I’ll catch you guys later, too,” Sawyer says. “Need to talk to Coach for a second. Wait up, Lo. I’ll walk part of the way with you.”
Jenna sighs and falls back into her chair. “I thought they’d never leave. Sorry about the newspaper. I brought it from home and had to show you.”
“No, I’m glad you did. I’d rather know than not know.”
“So I take it that was you?” I nod. “I figured after what you told me. The distance sounded right. Will they be able to trace anything?”
I shake my head, toying with the French fries on my plate. “No, because it’s not plankton. But I’m going to need to find some, and fast.”
“What for?”
“Hello! Unexplainable phenomenon, curious scientists, ZERO plankton—what do you think would happen?” I nearly screech, letting my bubbling panic rise to the surface.
“Riss, calm down,” Jenna says in an even-toned voice. “They’re scientists, not the FBI. They’ll put it down to a jellyfish bloom or something like that. Come on, it’s the ocean. Things move quickly, you know that better than anyone. Relax and don’t go hunting down any plankton, for heaven’s sake.”
“Right.” It’s the only word I can manage, because, of course, she’s right. She’s always right. “I swear to God, you are one of the smartest humans I have ever met, and we think we’re way more evolved than you are.”
Jenna grins, her face wreathed in mock shock. “You’re a fish, an überevolved fish, I’ll give you that. But more evolved than humans, come on!”
“Girlfriend, I can transform from this form to another. Evolve that.”
“No fair!
That’s biological evolution and nothing to do with intelligence.” The bell rings, interrupting our sham power struggle, and Jenna shoots me her game face. “Species intelligence showdown, my house, after school.”
Laughing, I completely forget about the stupid article and all of my worries. I love that girl so much. “Can’t. Have training after school. But definite rain check, Miss Brainy-Pants.”
The rest of the day passes by quickly. I might have fallen asleep a couple times but no one noticed and I didn’t get the pencil death jab from Jenna, so win-win all around. Sawyer and Lo took off with the surf team right after school and Jenna had to meet her mom in town. I’m on my own, but not really because I get to go play Torture-the-Princess with Echlios. Yay, me.
Oddly enough, I haven’t seen Speio all day. I know he’s at school because we drove here together, but I haven’t seen him lurking around the hallway or the cafeteria like my second shadow as he usually does. It’s not like me not to notice his absence but I’ve haven’t exactly been on my game most of the day.
I pull out my phone to see if I have any texts as I’m walking to the parking lot, and notice that Speio’s waiting, leaning casually against the Jeep. “Were you at school today?” I ask him.
“Sort of.”
“What kind of answer is that? Either you were or you weren’t.”
He shrugs. “I was, but then I wasn’t. Had to do something for my father,” he adds when he sees my look. “Something to do with jellyfish. A whole bunch of them.”
My heart sinks. “He saw the newspaper article.”
“It’s all good. Fighting for your life against a psychotic rebel queen wannabe qualifies as a hall pass on this one.” Speio jumps into the passenger’s side of the Jeep. “He isn’t mad, he just wanted to make sure that you’re covered, given all the attention. You know, just in case someone talks to someone else who lets something slip, and then they find out you’re really an alien giant sea creature pretending to be human. And then the Men in Black show up and we’re all toast.”
Waterfell Page 17