I pulled on some old jeans and a tee shirt and went to check in with Sam. Surprisingly, he wasn’t in his chair. He was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking what looked like beer in a coffee mug. He looked up as I walked in. Bummer! I knew that look. He’d been waiting for me.
Ambush.
He had a concerned look on his face. That didn’t happen often. It was rare that we had actual conversations. We certainly didn’t talk about important stuff. Denial was Sam’s M.O. “How are you feeling, Autumn?” he asked.
“I’m okay,” I said, pulling out my earbuds. “I just needed a little extra sleep.” I dropped my Pod on the counter and rooted in the cupboard for Pop Tarts. I poured some juice, stuck the Pop Tart in the toaster, and braced myself. Maybe he was finally dealing with the mortgage payment problem.
He cleared his throat.
I sat down and took a mental breath. “So…” I said, waiting for the toaster to ding.
“I can’t believe how grownup you’re getting,” he said finally.
“Yeah, sixteen, almost over the hill.” I looked at his unshaven face. I shouldn’t have let Lex use the “female thing” excuse yesterday. It must have gotten him thinking.
The toaster dinged. I hopped up and grabbed my Pop Tart. It was too hot, and I tossed it from hand to hand until I could snag a paper towel. “So…” I said again, sitting back down.
“There are things a mother should talk to you about,” he said. Then he blushed and shifted in his seat.
Oh jeez, I cringed to myself, not the sex talk. I focused on the Pop Tart, peeling it apart. A strip dropped face down on the floor. I bent over to pick it up, grateful for the chance to hide. I so didn’t want to be having this conversation.
“I bumped into Pat yesterday at…um…the store,” he said, stumbling over his words.
Okay, so not expecting that. What did Lex’s mom have to do with things my mother should tell me? This was bizarre. “Yeah, so how is the Chihuahua?” I asked, trying to move the conversation forward.
“You guys are going to slip one day and call her that to her face,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”
I shrugged. There were way worse names we could call her, and she deserved every one of them.
“Pat feels,” he continued. “We feel…we’re concerned that you guys are teenagers now, and you and Lexie are…girls. And Ivan is…well, a boy…and you’re still all sleeping there together so much of the time. And…well…Pat thinks…I mean, I think… We don’t want—”
“Is that what this is about?” I interrupted, relieved. It wasn’t the sex talk, it was just the “you guys are getting a little old for sleepovers” talk. We’d been expecting it for years.
“We don’t want things to get…um, complicated,” Sam said. His eyes were glued to his coffee cup.
“Complicated?”
“You know, with you or Lexie ending up…in trouble.” He blushed and rubbed his hand across his whiskers. “Pat’s concerned.”
“Give me a break,” I said. I wondered how the Chihuahua knew Ipod was still around. It’s not as if Sam would bring it up. Her P.I., probably. Lex would be pissed. “Pat wouldn’t know concerned if it bit her in the butt.”
He just looked at me. He knew I was right. He didn’t realize that Ipod slept there virtually every night. We tried to make it seem like it was sporadic. We’d gotten away with our arrangement for years. Trust the Chihuahua to throw a wrench into things and get Sam all up in our business.
“Sam,” I said firmly. “Ipod’s our brother. We’ve grown up with him. He’s family. We could never think of him that way!” Now I blushed.
Sam just sighed and took another drink from his mug. He knew a little about Ipod’s situation, but not the whole deal. Not like I could just say, “Yeah, Ipod’s dad beats the crap out of him, and then I use my super power to heal him up.” Sam couldn’t handle my disappearing. Finding out that there was even more to my strangeness would freak him out for sure. And this focus on the issue was scaring me.
“It might be harder for Ipod,” he said. “Boys that age need…um, a certain amount of, well, privacy.”
“He can have privacy in the shower,” I said, certain that my face was beet red. I couldn’t believe I was talking about this with my father. “Jeez, Sam! Look, we’re the only family Ipod has. He’d never do anything to screw that up. Besides, it’s Ipod! Come on…he’s not like other guys.”
“He’s a guy, Autumn, trust me—”
“It’s not a problem!” I interrupted, louder than I’d intended. I slammed my juice down hard and it splashed out on the table.
“Take it easy, Autumn,” He grabbed a bunch of napkins to wipe up the juice. “We just—”
“You don’t have to worry. It’s not like that with us…not at all.” I grabbed the napkins from him and finished cleaning up the mess. “Ipod lives in his head. You know that. Besides, there are studies that show when children grow up as a family, they don’t have, well, they don’t feel that way about each other.”
Lex found this out from Shrink Three. We’d tracked down some research on the net, knowing this time would come. We were prepared.
“Studies?” he asked.
“Yes, legitimate psychological research.”
“Okay then,” he said, obviously wanting to be done as much as I did. “So the studies…I mean, Pat…”
“I’ll email them to Arthur,” I said. “Besides, she’ll forget about it by tonight.” Which was good; because our studies said the phenomenon applied to kids raised together before they were six. We didn’t think anyone would actually read the stuff. We just needed to send some links to impressive sounding websites.
“Well, all right then,” he said, relief flowing off him like rain off a metal roof. I could practically hear it hitting the floor.
“Exactly,” I said.
“You want another Pop Tart?” he asked, nodding his head at the table.
I looked down and realized I’d been tearing my Pop Tart into little pieces instead of eating it. “No,” I said. “I think I lost my appetite.”
“You’re a good kid, Autumn.” He kissed me on the head. “I just worry sometimes.”
He walked into the living room and I made my escape while I could. As awkward as that talk had been at least it was out of the way. We were safe for a while longer. The threat of losing Ipod scared me, to say nothing of thinking of him with that monster. There was no way I was going to let them break up my family, just because the Chihuahua was a bitch…no freakin way.
I was still hungry, but there was cereal at my real house. I curled up on the sofa with a book and a bowl waiting for Lex and Ipod to get home. I wanted to tell them about the talk. I wanted to tell them that we were safe again for a while as far as our living arrangement. But mostly, I was eager to hear what they found out about Constantine. I decided that tomorrow, I’d go back to school and see for myself.
Yeah, getting bold in my old age.
As if.
I didn’t catch her before school and I didn’t sense her energy all morning. I couldn’t believe I let my power slip the day before. Obviously, I’d scared the kid. It had to have been the first time she’d ever encountered another Editor, let alone get slammed by a wave of energy. For me to have let that happen—what a moron.
Smooth, move, Constantine.
She was probably freaked. I had no idea how she held it together in the first place. Being an Editor and not knowing it would be utterly bizarre. Sort of like someone slipping you acid and then not having a clue what was happening when you started hallucinating. Editors have really complex nervous systems that are extremely sensitive. It takes a lot of management, and I gotta say, skill, to deal with the energy. I wondered how she pulled it off with no training.
She attended school so she couldn’t be totally whacked. Still, I had no clue what the story was. I needed to tread carefully, curb my enthusiasm, and move slow. This was the one chance I had to fix my mess. I’d probably
go the rest of my life without meeting another Shadow.
The morning crawled by. Finally, fourth period came. I was the first student through the door. The class began to fill. Kids wandered to their seats, talking in groups or sneaking a final text moment before the teacher arrived. A few hastily scribbled down the last few homework answers. I waited…not exactly patiently. Again seconds before the bell, in walks the blonde. And I think, okay, this is it.
But the blonde was alone.
Her walk said self-assured, focused, and don’t mess with me. She scanned the room, her eyes hesitating briefly on me and then moving on. Other than that small flicker, she ignored me. She sat down slightly ahead of me to my right. I assured myself that just because they arrived together last time, didn’t mean they always came together. I watched the door expectantly, but no frickin dice.
Damn! I let out my breath and slumped in my seat.
I glanced at the blonde from time to time, but she seemed mesmerized looking at herself in a mirror. She didn’t turn my way even once, so I couldn’t make eye contact or anything. I needed to talk to this chick. I didn’t know what she knew. I didn’t know if she knew. When class ended, the blonde leapt up, but I was faster.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I tapped her on the shoulder.
She kept walking as though she hadn’t heard me.
I followed, determined to make contact. “Please?” I asked, as politely as I could.
She kept going for a couple of seconds. Then she slowed, hesitantly, as if she was considering whether or not to stop.
“I just wanted to ask if your friend was okay,” I said, to the back of her head.
She stopped but didn’t turn around.
I walked to her side and held out my hand. “I’m Constantine,” I said, looking her in the eyes with what I hoped was my trustworthy look. “I just moved here from Seattle.”
She looked at my hand and kind of smirked. “Shaking hands…what are we, fifty?”
She took it anyway and shook it firmly, as if establishing dominance. But I have big hands, and it just ended up being obvious. Didn’t faze her at all. In fact, I could tell that she thought it was funny. Well, she thought something was funny…me maybe? She almost slipped and smiled. There was somebody home, there. I could tell that immediately. You could see it in her eyes.
“Lex” she said, finally, folding her arms across her chest and cocking her head. “Well, New Guy? Spit it out. Tick tock, tick tock. ”
“What happened yesterday?” I asked, innocently. “Is your friend okay?”
She looked up at me suspiciously, arching her eyebrows, and biting her bottom lip. She hesitated for a moment, and then she said, “yeah…why?”
“It seemed like I scared her,” I said.
She shook her head. “No, she just…she’s just sensitive.”
“Sensitive?”
“Yeah, to um…chemicals and stuff. You know…all the toxins and crap that they pump into the environment. They must have cleaned in there the other night and used—I don’t know—ammonia or whatever. She gets these wicked migraines from it. They hit her suddenly. Sometimes she passes out, and she didn’t want to do that in front of the class.”
“So it wasn’t me?” I was impressed with her off-the-cuff explanation. I grinned.
“No.”
“Really, because it seemed like it—”
“Not you, migraine.”
“She seemed fine until she saw me—”
“Get over yourself,” she interrupted, “nothing to do with you at all. She doesn’t even know you. How could it possibly have anything to do with you?”
I could tell that this was a chick who was used to winning arguments. I didn’t want to push her too far. But I couldn’t really ask what I wanted to ask, and she certainly wasn’t volunteering anything. “Well, I—”
“Look, New Guy,” she said, “forget about it.”
“If you say so. But if there’s anything I can do…”
“Not your problem. I have to go.” She resumed walking.
“Lex,” I called to her back. I had to take a shot at something.
She stopped, but didn’t turn around.
“What’s her name?” I asked as if I didn’t know already.
She hesitated a moment. “A.J., A.J. Jones.”
“Well, tell A.J. I hope she feels better soon. Tell her that the trees are in bloom, and smelling the blossoms…tell her it’s good for migraines.”
She turned, looked at me funny, and then hurried off. I followed several yards behind, trying to blend in with the crowd. She met up with a geeky kid on the sidewalk. They spoke for a moment and then headed across the street to the Pita Pit.
I circled around, so I could cross the street incognito. Peering into a window, I saw the two of them paying for their order. No A.J. The place was packed, and all the inside tables were taken. There was one table left outside. It was next to a huge box sign, sitting on the ground in front of the joint. Moving fast, I dropped down behind the sign, crossing my fingers, hoping they’d grab the table before anyone else.
They did—score! I could recognize her voice. Pulling out my phone, I leaned against the sign, “texting” so I wouldn’t look obvious to people walking along the sidewalk.
“Yeah, but don’t you think that’s weird?” Lex asked.
“Could just be a coincidence,” the guy said.
“Right. With all the things he could say, he wants me to tell her that the trees are in bloom. He used the word blossoms. That is not a guy word. Come on…it means something.”
“Maybe.”
They were talking about me. It was a start.
“You know how A.J.’s pupils always look dilated?” Lex asked.
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, his eyes, they’re like A.J.’s. His pupils are huge.”
“We have no evidence that her eyes have anything to do with her strangeness,” he said. “He was probably high.”
“His eyes weren’t red. Besides, I can tell if someone’s high. It’s a clue. You can be really stubborn sometimes, you know that?”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He lowered his voice. “Still, I have to admit there’s something strange going on with this guy. I’ve been waiting till I was sure we were alone…”
“Spill,” she ordered.
“He has P.E. second period, like me,” the guy said. “His class was running track. I was on the bleachers, and, of course, I was focused laser sharp on him. You should see him run. He’s a machine.”
“What do you mean a machine…like a cyborg?”
“He’s not a cyborg. You watch too much TV.”
“Don’t give me shit,” she said sarcastically. “Even I know that a cyborg is more probable than time travel. Besides, I’m not ready to discount anything after last night.”
“Point made,” Ipod said. “Sorry, just fast, human fast.”
So they knew. I wondered what had happened last night. I hoped it wasn’t my fault. Sometimes energies can collide and trigger strange effects. I needed to be more careful.
Ipod spoke again. “Anyway, Rush Rove was shoving this kid around. I don’t know him…some freshman geek. Rove was threatening him with something. I couldn’t hear anything, but the kid looked like I feel when I see my father walking towards me. Anyway, Rove smacked the kid to the ground, just as the coach blew the whistle for people to line up for the 600-yard dash.”
“He is such a tool,” she said. “Somebody needs to—”
“Somebody did. Rove swaggered over and got in position. New Guy picked the lane beside him on his right. You could see Rove was annoyed, probably because the new guy’s so tall, and Rove doesn’t like anyone faster running beside him. But it was too late to change lanes.
“At first, New Guy kept pace with Rove, who was giving it everything he had. The new guy looked like he wasn’t even breaking a sweat. You know how you run with your arms bent like this?”
“Yeah, so?”
“New Guy was three feet away and a little ahead of Rove. They got going really fast. And as they rounded a turn, New Guy whips his left arm down with the palm facing Rove, not touching him or anything. And at that exact moment, Rove’s legs went flying out from under him. I couldn’t believe it.”
“No shit!” Lex said, “What gives?”
“No clue, but the second New Guy’s arm went down, Rove was airborne. New Guy bent his arm back up and just kept on running as if nothing happened. He never even looked back. Rove didn’t know what hit him.”
I couldn’t help grinning. Reflective gravity could be really useful sometimes.
“Cool,” Lex said. “How do you think he did it?”
“No clue, but the movement was so synchronized and isolated it couldn’t have been coincidence. And the way Rove fell wasn’t like what happens when you trip. New Guy might be living his life as a high school kid, but there’s something unusual about him. A.J. was right.”
“Well, at least he used his power for good,” she said. “Shoving it to Rush Rove…gotta like him for that. Anyone suspect anything?”
“There’s no way I could know that, but I don’t think so. Logically, what could he have done? I’m only thinking outside the box here because of A.J. Otherwise I’d never have connected the two things, no matter how isolated his arm movement was. Rove fell flat on his face. He got a bloody nose and looked like he was going to cry. It was really satisfying to see him brought down a notch…a gift for the geek world. Rove reminds me of the Hammer.”
“No doubt. I don’t suppose you got it on your phone.”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“YouTube’s loss,” she said.
“I know! While Rove was whining to the coach, the new guy went over to the geek, high-fived him, and they walked to the gym laughing their asses off. It didn’t take rocket science to put two and two together. Made my day. Whatever weird is going on with him, I think he’s a stand-up guy. Why else would he go out of his way to protect a geek?”
“Well, I think he’s like A.J. She can’t be the only one. The eye thing, the tree thing, that’s gotta be it.”
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