“You might be right,” he said.
“Damn straight,” she said. “Still, this is strange stuff, and I just want to make sure he doesn’t screw with her. If he can knock Rove to the ground with a wave of his hand, who knows what else he can do.”
I heard paper crumbling and realized they were probably done eating. Taking a chance, I peered around the sign. Luckily, they were facing away from me. I decided to vacate before I got caught. A group of kids was passing by. I wove into the crowd and kept with them till we hit the next block. Then I headed for the caf so I could grab a slice before class.
They were checking me out. I’d made progress. That chick was sharp, making the connection with the eyes. The eye anomaly was the only outward sign of an Editor. And that dimwit in P.E. had it coming, harassing that kid for no reason. I was psyched A.J.’s friend had been watching.
I might not have my foot in the door, but at least the door was open a crack.
I spent the afternoon whipping my history paper into shape. By 3:30, my paper was done and I’d cleaned up the tree house. I was sitting on the porch, eating a Popsicle when they walked into the yard. I hopped up and got them each a cherry pop from the freezer.
“Yum,” said Lex, smiling at me. She dropped her bag and tore off the wrapper with her teeth.
“Set mine on the railing,” Ipod said as he headed to the john. “Don’t get to the good stuff till I get back.”
“Good stuff?” I asked, anxious to hear what they’d found out. “Ignore him. Spill.”
She sucked the Popsicle and closed her eyes for a minute, thinking. “My theory is that he’s like you.”
“Like me? Why?”
“You know how you’ve always thought your eyes have something to do with your strangeness?”
I did. That’s why I wore the tinted glasses to school. At the very least, I’d be suspected of being on drugs. “Yeah…” I said, tentatively.
“You just might be right. His eyes, they’re like yours. Well, not exactly like yours, but his pupils are huge.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.” She grinned. “It’s kinda cool, really. I read this article online how women in Renaissance Italy put belladonna drops in their eyes to give them a sexy, dreamy look…bedroom eyes. Of course, belladonna is poison, so they paid a heavy price. But boy, does New Guy have dreamy eyes. I think he’s like you, A.J., only a guy. How’s that for good stuff?”
I didn’t answer. I was too busy absorbing the magnitude of someone else like me. Not that I’d never wondered. I had. I had daydreams about it all the time. If it happened, I thought it would be some wise, wrinkled old lady, with snowy white hair. Someone like Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter.
I’d see her in a crowded city across a bus terminal or somewhere movie-like. She’d look at me intently with twinkly, all-knowing eyes, and then disappear into the crowd waiting for me to follow so she could enlighten me with her wisdom. I certainly never expected it might be a guy and that I’d meet him in Spanish.
Ipod jogged across the bridge, grabbed his Popsicle, and flopped down beside me.
“Tell her what happened with Rove, Ipod,” Lex ordered. “I’m going to change.”
Lex went inside, and Ipod told me the story in his matter of fact way, while I just sat there with my mouth open.
“That’s amazing,” I said.
“I know,” he said, grinning. “Of course, I can’t be absolutely certain and there’s no way I can prove it. But the way Rove’s legs just swept backward, out from under him like that—that just doesn’t happen in a fall. It was an effect that needed a cause. I think New Guy provided the cause.”
“Massive points for sticking it to Rove,” I said. “But as far as being like me, I suck at P.E. I certainly can’t wave my arm and knock somebody down.”
“It’s just a theory,” said Lex, returning to the porch in jeans and flopping down into a deck chair. “But whatever the deal is with him, I don’t think it’s anything bad.”
“Well, I’m not sold on the eye thing,” Ipod said. “But even I’m convinced that there’s something unusual about him, and you know what a skeptic I am.”
Lex snorted as she propped her foot on the railing and began polishing her toenails.
“I have to admit that the chances of him being like you are greater than him being a whole different brand of weird,” Ipod said. “No offense, A.J. So maybe she’s right.”
“Oh,” Lex blurted. “I almost forgot. There was the tree thing.”
“What tree thing?” I asked, instantly alert.
Lex relayed the conversation in the hallway, “…and when he said the word ‘trees’ he emphasized it.’”
“That is strange,” I said.
“I know, right? Who would say that, especially a guy?” She set her bottle of polish on the floor and flipped her Popsicle stick at Ipod. “He was trying to say something without really saying anything—totally a coded message.”
“All my passwords are tree names,” I said, getting a chill down my spine. “I mean, if there are more people like me, and trees are part of what I am, a tree word could be the connection.”
“Logically, yes,” said Ipod, pushing up his glasses.
“So, what do you think?” I asked them.
“We have to consider the facts,” said Ipod “First; I think he’s a stand-up guy.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” Lex asked.
“Stand-up,” repeated Ipod. “Like in standing up for that geek when he was in trouble. Volunteer when help is needed. I think he’s that kind of guy. His records look legit. He has a family. I found another article about his brother’s accident, and the kid in the photo looked a lot like Constantine only stockier and younger. That alone makes me think he’s just a kid like us or maybe like you, A.J. So at the very least, I think we can safely rule out the long list of anyone/anything bad out to get you.”
“Plus, there’s the fact that he’s hot,” Lex said, arching her eyebrows.
“Hot is irrelevant, and it doesn’t count as evidence,” said Ipod, walking back into the tree house.
“No duh, Ipod. I’m not a complete idiot,” Lex said. “But it doesn’t hurt either.”
With Ipod gone for the moment, she turned to me and whispered, “You’d like him. I know you would. And if he’s like you, maybe…” she trailed off and looked me in the eyes. She’d been trying to get me interested in guys since, well, forever.
It wasn’t that I had no interest. It was just that I figured guys were off limits for me because of my secret. “He sounds amazing,” I whispered back, fiddling with my braid.
“I’m impressed,” she said in a normal voice. “And in spite of whatever paranormal thing that might be going on, he seems pretty human. I watched him all through Spanish. He has this habit of running his hand through his hair, pushing it back, like it discharges energy or something. He did it all through class and then again in the hallway.”
“How do you know?” asked Ipod, coming out with a banana. “I thought you were sitting in front of him.”
“I have my ways.”
“Well, I hope you weren’t being obvious. We agreed we’d—”
“Jeez, Ipod, give me a little credit. I was one seat ahead and over a row, which was the perfect spot. I could hold a mirror a little to the side and see him perfectly.”
“Sorry, Lex,” said Ipod. “I didn’t mean to insinuate—”
“Guys, enough! Just give me the facts,” I said.
Lex stretched back in her chair, closed her eyes, and continued. “There’s something different about him. I don’t mean the paranormal stuff. I mean him. He thinks before he speaks. I like that.”
“You got a lot from one conversation,” I said. I knew how good she was at reading people.
“I pay attention,” she said. “He seemed concerned that he’d scared you. I told him it had nothing to do with him, that you had migraines.”
“Why migraines?”
&nb
sp; “I had like two seconds to pull an excuse out of thin air. You did take one look at him and run out of the room. I needed something.”
“Better than I could have done,” Ipod said, swinging the hammock with his foot against my deck chair. “I have to admit, you’re quick with the comeback, Lex.”
“Damn straight,” Lex said, grinning her I’m-devious-and-I-like-it grin. “He might be a worthy adversary. He knew I was playing him, but he didn’t call me on it. It wasn’t as if he was backing down. It was more as if he was just not pushing me to say something I didn’t want to say. It was a simple thing but it kind of got my respect.”
Respect from Lex was rare. Now, I was impressed.
“But here’s what sealed the deal,” she said. She got out of her chair and leaned against the porch rail, obviously planning to act out the scene. “Between second and third, I’m standing outside the classroom, reading a text. I look up, and I see him from behind, walking up the stairs. All of a sudden, he stops, turns around, and practically flies down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He ducks into the first door he comes to. I look back up the stairs, thinking ‘what the heck?’ Seconds later, guess who comes clomping down?”
“Who?” I asked, flipping out my hands.
“Oh, please,” she said, grinning at me. “If you don’t get this, I’m going to have to punish you.”
“The Bratz Doll?”
“Ding! She wins the prize.” She mimed dinging the bell. “He’s the new guy and he’s hot. She and the Kicks came marching down the stairs, looking left and right. They were on the hunt and they weren’t happy. Ha! It was rich.”
“Did they see you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t care. I ducked into the classroom till they went by. Then I came back out to send one more text, and I saw him back on the stairs, taking them two at a time, going up. That boy is smart. He has their number. He wanted your name. He ran after me to get it. My vote is to give him a chance but go slow. We don’t say anything about…you know. We can at least talk to him, feel him out.”
“I concur,” said Ipod, mimicking Einstein. He touched my arm and gave me his “serious” look. “A.J., you sensed him. If Lex is right, and he’s like you, he probably sensed you too. Who knows what his story is. Maybe he’s just as much in the dark as you are. From how he acted with Lex, it seems like he wants to meet you. I think you need to meet him.”
“I don’t know about this,” I said. I was suddenly really apprehensive. I mean, he was a guy…a cute guy. Ipod was the only boy I talked to other than the occasional geek he hung with or one that was being nice to me to get to Lex. After so long in hiding, it was stressful to think of being seen. “Talking to guys is not my thing. You know that, Lex. I want to know about him, but I don’t know if I want to do it in person.”
“This could be the chance of a lifetime,” she said. “What if he has answers? Jeez, I want answers.”
I did want answers. And suddenly, I knew. I had to do it. I had to meet him…no matter how hard it was. If there was even the remotest chance he might have answers, I had to go for it. “Okay, I’m in,” I said, with determination.
“That’s my girl,” Lex said. “So you know I have your back, right?” She had that devious face on, where she kinda arched her eyebrows and bit her bottom lip. She was up to something.
After a moment of hesitation, I answered, “Yeah...”
“In having your back, there’s no way I’m going to let you meet a guy—who, I might add, could end up being important—looking like this.”
I glanced at my hoodie where I’d tossed it over the porch rail. “I guess this hoodie’s a little ratty, huh?”
Lex snorted. “Finally, Captain Obvious! Yes, this thing is horrible.” She picked the hoodie up for a moment and then dropped it as if it had fleas. “Sweetie, the time has come.”
“She’s right,” said Ipod, giving Lex a thumbs up. “We’ve discussed this. That get-up even scares the geeks away.”
“That’s the point,” I said, kicking his butt where it hung down in the hammock. My disguise had a purpose. It made me into an “ugly.” That helped me fade into the woodwork with everyone except for Sloane Cheney. I didn’t know if I was ready to give that up.
“No offense,” said Lex quickly, giving me the “sorry” look. “You’re beautiful, A.J. You could be the mousey librarian who takes off her glasses, shakes out her hair, and then…instant hot chick.”
“Yeah,” agreed Ipod, “you hide all the good stuff, even your hair. The rumor in the geek world is that you’re in the witness protection program.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Okay, that might be my bad,” Lex said, with a laugh. She shrugged and rolled her eyes at me. “What? I have to say something when people ask me what the deal is with you. Give me a break. I do have a life outside this tree house, you know.”
“I know,” I said, slumping in my chair. “I’m sorry my strangeness is hard on you guys.”
“It’s not your strangeness,” Lex said, picking up the hoodie again. “It’s how you handle it. I understand about the code—I do. And in the beginning, I agreed with it. God, there was that period in middle school where you kept getting yanked to Oz so often it was insane. If that had happened to me, I would have hidden in a hoodie too. We never knew what was going to happen. It made sense to lay low.”
“Well, that’s—”
“I’m not finished. Just let me get this out.” She sat down on the arm of my deck chair and looked down at me. “Shrink Three said you’d lose the hoodie when you got over the death of your mother. But she never knew the real reason you wore it—obviously. Shrink Four said that you’d give it up once you discovered boys. They were both wrong. I’ve tried to be patient about it, but I’ve finally realized that if I don’t intervene, you’d wear this ratty thing to the grave. This whole “ugly” thing has run its course. It’s time for a new strategy.”
“I barely exist at Boulder High,” I said, rubbing my key. “If I ever have to go into hiding, I don’t want anyone to be able to recognize me. And if I were to—”
“Yes, yes, I know,” she interrupted. “If you were to ever disappear at school…has that ever happened?”
“Not so far,” I said, defensively.
“Well then, I think it’s safe to assume—Ipod, back me up on this—it won’t happen in the next week or month.”
“She’s right, A.J.,” he said, nodding his head. “Logic dictates that—”
“Let me finish,” Lex said. “Not once have you ever disappeared at school. It doesn’t make sense anymore. You’re just in a rut. You can still keep a low profile and just blend in with the masses.”
Maybe she was right. I’d gotten so used to my disguise; I didn’t want to let go. I knew it was a crutch, and to tell the truth, I’d been giving it some thought myself lately. “Are you done?” I asked. I knew she was winning this time.
“No.” She put her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “It’s really starting to piss me off when Bratz doll is so condescending. You’ve worn that same outfit since sixth grade when you were flat as a board and had a mouth full of braces. She has no clue what you have under that hoodie. You even wear baggy clothes and glasses in P.E. You could use a little help in the cleavage department, but in a year or two...”
“Not everyone can be a Bratz doll,” I said, sarcastically. I huffed and hunched over, folding my arms across my chest.
“I’ve seen you naked,” said Lex grinning.
“I haven’t,” said Ipod, “but I’d be willing to take a look—for the sake of science, of course.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
We looked at him, then at each other, and rolled our eyes.
“In your dreams.” I flicked my Popsicle stick at him. “Okay, I’ll think about it,” I said to Lex. “But remember, I still have to deal with the energy and the static. I still need the code.”
“That’s all I ask,” she said, giving me a hug. “You can
adhere to the code without that stupid hoodie.”
Ipod’s comment reminded me of the conversation I’d had that morning with Sam. I gave them the highlights. They agreed with me that the Chihuahua would space it within the day. Lex was pissed that her mom might have had her P.I. spying on us. She said she’d handle it. And they were both psyched we’d moved past the subject with Sam and were safe for a little while longer. Ipod went inside to do homework, and Lex dragged me to the bathroom for a makeover.
“You’ll love it,” she said.
“And if I don’t?”
“Anything’s better than this,” she said, flinging out her arm. “If you don’t look amazing when I’m done, I’ll…I’ll walk up to the Chihuahua and give her a hug.”
“Shut up!” I said. I couldn’t pass up a bet like that. But as for the me-looking-amazing part, I wasn’t holding my breath. Lex was psyched that she’d finally broken me down. I had no choice but to go along with it…at least for now.
Besides, I had a back-up hoodie in my locker.
I waited as long as I could before heading home. But by dark, the guilt-meter had rocketed into the red zone. I could hear Devon’s game almost two houses down—great. I bet the neighbors so psyched we’d moved next door. Devon liked the war games best; the more violent, the better, and he played them loud. I snuck in the back way so that I didn’t have to step directly into the insanity. Any hope of a reprieve vanished the moment I cracked the door.
BAM!
Machine guns firing, voices screaming, bombs blasting! The game shrieked through the house at full roar. It echoed off the walls. It bounced off the hardwood floors. It sounded like the frickin end of the world. The war had come to my house, that’s for sure. I was home and Life was waiting with my nightly, morbid martini.
Yea, crappy hour.
I walked through the kitchen and peered out the door. The first thing I saw was my mom, leaning against the wall outside the family room. She had her arms wrapped around herself and her eyes were closed. It looked like she was working up the courage to go talk to Devon. She had her bizarre, Joker smile frozen in place, and she twitched each time Devon scored a kill shot. It was seriously scary.
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