by Sybil Nelson
I walked back into the living room and noticed that Charlie and Chester had joined the "Let's Stare at Kyle" game.
"What's going on in here?" I asked watching Kyle look back and forth between Josh, Charlie, Chester, and Marco. What was Marco even doing here? Kyle still held his hands out, palms up, as if he was afraid to move them since that was the last command from my dad.
"We're just making sure Kyle understands the meaning of boundaries," Josh said, crossing his arms. He was trying to look intimidating. I felt like walking over to him, tossing him over my shoulder and dumping him into the huge pile of cow manure outside. That would show him who's boss. I wished I had telepathy so I could tell him exactly what I wanted to do to him.
Kyle gave me a panicked look. He was completely freaked out.
"What in the world has gotten into you people? This is Kyle. Kyle Montgomery. We've known him forever. I have a picture of us taking a bath together when we were one year olds."
Kyle's face turned beet red. His palm up hands started shaking even more. He was probably afraid that one of the men in the room was going to beat him up over the fact that he'd seen me naked.
"Not to say that we're going to be...bathing together tonight or anything...I mean." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is that it's not like this is the first time we're going to be alone together."
"But it will be the first time you're alone in a dark theater. I know thirteen-year-old boys. I used to be one. I want to make sure he doesn't touch you," Josh said with his arms still crossed.
"Yeah, you better not touch our sister," Chester chimed in.
"Yeah, cause if you do, this is what we're gonna do to you." Charlie put a leftover chicken salad sandwich into a sling slot, pulled back, and sent it flying across the room until it splattered on the TV. Wait a minute. That wasn't a sling shot.
"Where'd you get my bra?" I yelled.
Charlie took a good look at what he thought was his new toy. When it dawned on him what it really was he screeched and dropped it. I stared at my bra laying in the middle of the floor for all the men in my life to see. Kill me now.
Chapter 15: The Date
When my mom found out what happened, she made my dad apologize and neutralize the solution on Kyle's hand. Then she drove us to the Subway sandwich shop across the street from the movie theater herself. She assured me no one would bother us.
Even though I told Kyle over and over again that it was okay, he refused to touch me in anyway. It was gonna be pretty hard for him to eat his sandwich with his hands jammed in his pockets like that. We didn't even get to share a decent hug. This was about to be the worst date ever.
"So what's going on in River's Bend?" I asked him while we ate our sandwiches.
He shrugged. "Not much." Kyle just stared at his food. He was even afraid of touching the sandwich for fear of making it glow. I had to figure out a way to make him relax. I needed to get him talking so it would be just like old times in River's Bend when we could spend hours debating over the best comic book villains. Kyle and I used to be able to talk about anything.
"So has anyone beaten another eighth grader in the ICC?" The ICC stood for the Ice Cream Challenge. It was a tradition between the seventh and eighth graders of Polk Middle School. On the last Friday of the month, both grades would gather in the cafeteria. One representative from each grade would race each other in an all out ice cream gorging. If the eighth grader won, the seventh grader had to be their slave for a week. It was humiliating. If the seventh grader won, they got to sit at the eighth grade lunch tables for a week.
Before my family left River's Bend, I had beaten Jimmy Vee in the challenge. It was a historic victory since girls usually didn't even get to compete. Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy my week at the eighth grade tables. The next day, my family was taken hostage and a few days later we moved to Missouri.
Kyle smiled at the memory. "No one has beaten your record, Priss. I still can't believe you scarfed down ice cream for three minutes and forty three seconds straight without getting brain freeze. You're so awesome."
I blushed.
"So, how's the modeling going? Any big shoots coming up?" I asked trying to change the subject.
Kyle's beautiful blue eyes lit up. "As a matter of fact, I think I may have landed a pretty big gig. I could be the new face of a certain cereal."
"Really? Which one?"
"I don't want to say. I might jinx it. I'll let you know when things are final."
"That's so exciting, Kyle. I'm happy for you."
Now it was his turn to blush.
When we were finished eating, we walked across the street to the theater. I went to grab his hand, but he stuffed it in his pocket again.
"Uh, maybe we shouldn't hold hands or anything." Then he actually looked around as if he expected my dad to jump out of a corner somewhere. Actually, I looked around too. That did sound like something my father would do.
This stunk! I hadn't seen my boyfriend in months and now we were about to be alone in a dark movie theater and he was too terrified to touch me. I could kill my dad and brothers. I started thinking of ways to torture them. I'd start with Charlie and Chester. I really had to teach them some manners. One day they might develop powers and be just as strong as me. Then I would lose all control. I had to figure out a way to make them afraid of me now.
I shook the thought from my mind and sat down next to Kyle. This was not the time to start plotting revenge. I only had a few hours alone with him and I had to make them count. I went back to my original plan. The horror movie. I had to get scared so maybe Kyle would put his arm around me to try to protect me. I stared at the screen for a moment. Some weak crying blond chick was running away from a zombie. I had to hold in a laugh. I mean the zombie moved at a max speed of about negative three miles per hour and had all the flexibility of a basketball goal. Why didn't she just turn around and give the stupid zombie a swift kick to the head? Done. Movie over.
Anyway, when Blondie tripped and fell on a tree branch, I jumped and leaned toward Kyle. Nothing. His hands were still securely jammed into his pockets. Removing the damage caused by my dad and brothers was going to be harder than I thought.
Later when the zombie fell through the roof of the blonde girl's hiding place, I screamed and buried my head in Kyle's chest. Kyle put his arm around my shoulder and leaned down to whisper in my ear. Mission accomplished. Or so I thought.
"Nice try, Priss," he said. "I know this crappy movie doesn't scare you. Nothing scares you. You're the bravest girl I know."
I looked up into his smiling blue eyes. How did I ever think I could pull such a lame trick on him? Of course he would know a horror movie wouldn't scare me. He knew everything about me. Well…almost everything.
Kyle licked his perfect pink lips and leaned in further to kiss me. Just when our lips were about to make contact, I saw Marco standing right behind Kyle's head.
I nearly fell out of my seat.
"What's wrong?" Kyle asked. He followed my gaze and looked behind him, but Marco was already gone. He was really fast.
"Oh, nothing…I gotta… um…yeah...um I need some Mike and Ikes stat. I'll be right back." I leapt up from my seat and went after Marco. Why was everyone in the world trying to sabotage my date? I'd had enough. Marco was about to get a piece of my mind. Or better yet, I was gonna toast his little metal tail.
"What are you doing here?" I asked pushing him so hard he fell onto the wall of the lobby. I think he left a dent.
"There is an emergency. You must come to the safe house immediately."
"Why? What could possibly be so important that you had to interrupt my date with my boyfriend?"
"The President's daughter has been kidnapped."
"Whoa. Wait. What?" Okay, well...alrighty then...that was kind of a big deal. But still, Marco was just as capable of handling the situation as I was at this point. I mean, we wouldn't be able to take any action for at least five or six hours until
we did some research and tried to figure out what was really going on. My dad would have to try to hack the CIA, FBI, and Secret Service computer systems to find any information. That alone could take hours, even days. The way I saw it, I could still have a few more minutes of quality time with Kyle.
"Well, why don't you guys try to figure out who did it and then I'll come when we get to that point?"
"We already know who did it which is why you need to come to the safe house immediately."
"Really?" Well, that was fast. I had to admit, I was a little curious to find out who had the skill and boldness to kidnap the First Daughter. "Who did it?"
"Apparently…you."
Chapter 16: Kidnapping
"But I don't understand," Kyle said to me as Josh drove us back to our house. "Why do we have to end our date?" He looked at Josh's cold serious face. His eyes expanded. "I didn't touch her. I swear, I didn't touch her," he said holding his hands above his head like he was getting robbed. "I only hugged her. And it wasn't even really a hug. I just put my arm around her when she leaned her head on my chest. Don't kill me, Josh."
Josh actually chuckled a little. Ugh, I was so mad at him for scaring the poop out of my boyfriend like this.
"No, Kyle, calm down," I said putting a hand on his shoulder. "This has nothing to do with you. We just have a little...family emergency. I'm sorry. We'll try again next week, okay?"
Kyle leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. He wasn't happy about the situation, but at least he knew he wasn't going to die. Suddenly, he started staring at Marco who was sitting in the front seat of the Escalade.
"Are you sure it's really a family emergency?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why is he here?" He nodded toward Marco. "He's not part of your family."
How was I going to explain this to him? In some ways, Marco was definitely family. He was one of us. He was a part of me that I would never be able to explain to Kyle. Kyle would never understand that side of me, the genetic mutant side.
Marco turned around and glared at Kyle.
"What are you looking at?" Kyle said after a few seconds of Marco's creepy staring.
"Not much," Marco replied.
Kyle lunged forward as if he wanted to punch Marco. I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back in place. This is so not what I needed.
I looked over my shoulder and noticed Marco's hands converting to metal. Great.
"Kyle, I promise this isn't about him," I said trying to block Kyle's view of Marco.
"Yeah, right." Kyle slouched in his seat and stared out the window. "You like him, don't you?" His voice was barely a whisper. If I didn't have super hearing I might not have heard him at all.
I wasn't sure if it was a question or statement. I opened my mouth to say no, but nothing came out. I couldn't say no. I did like Marco and I couldn't deny that. But that didn't mean that I couldn't like Kyle too, did it?
Thankfully, I didn't have to answer the question. We pulled up to our house and Josh asked Kyle to hop out. Kyle reluctantly opened the door. I hopped out with him and wrapped my arms around him.
"I'm sorry, Kyle," I said into his chest. "I'll explain everything later, I promise." He didn't hug me back. Before he could respond, I let him go and jumped back into the car. As I pulled away, I couldn't help but feel like this was the beginning of the end for us.
"Okay, so what's going on?" I asked as we drove toward the safe house. We let Kyle stay with Tai and the twins while the rest of us traveled the thirty minutes to Kansas in order to meet in the briefing room. I felt really bad for Kyle. He'd probably been looking forward to this date just as much as I had and now he didn't even get to spend any time with me. He was stuck hanging out with Tai (who he could see every day in River's Bend if he wanted to) and with Charlie and Chester who…let's face it, no one wanted to hang out with. There was nothing I could do about the situation though.
"About an hour ago, I had a vision of you kidnapping the President's daughter," Josh said.
I rolled my eyes. "Is that what this is all about? You only had a vision? Josh, you know your visions don't come true immediately. You and Metal Head interrupted my date for something that might or might not happen now or ten years from now?"
"Metal Head?" Marco asked. "My head is not metal. Not all the time anyway."
Humor was so lost on that boy.
"It already came true," Josh said ignoring my sarcasm and Marco's lack of imagination. "Twenty minutes ago, there was a breaking news story that Elizabeth Gonzalez was taken from school. Just like in my vision."
"But it wasn't me! There has to be some mistake," I said leaning forward. "How do you know it was me?"
"I think I know what my own sister looks like." Josh sighed in frustration. "I know what I saw. You. Kidnapped. The. President's. Daughter."
Josh's tone made me a little nervous. It was like he was mad at me for something I didn't do.
"Maybe that's what they want you to think," Marco said to Josh after a few minutes of tense silence. "Maybe the vision was planted into your mind."
"But by who? And why?" I asked.
He didn't have to answer. I think we all simultaneously thought of the same person.
Colonel Selliwood.
I couldn't help but think back to the last time I saw Colonel Selliwood. I overheard a conversation between him and the President. After the President took away all Selliwood's government funding for projects and experiments, Selliwood said the President needed to learn a lesson. Then he and Dr. Witherall decided it was time to start the next phase of the plan. I guessed that next phase somehow involved me.
Chapter 17: Criminal
By the time Josh, Marco and I arrived at the safe house, the investigation was in full swing. Will Smith studied TV screens with news coverage of the event. My dad typed away at several computers. Mom sat with Peter, Ryan, and Katya trying to train their telepathy in order to find out any more information. When we came down the stairs, Josh joined Mom and the kids, Marco joined Will, and I went to see what Dad was up to.
"What have you found so far?" I asked pulling up a chair next to him.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," he said as his fingers moved about a mile a minute over the computer keys.
"What are you looking for?"
He sighed. "Anything on the news is going to be either sensationalized or outright wrong. I'm looking for the real story." He turned away from the desk top computer and started typing on one of his laptops. "This computer is running encryption codes trying to break into the CIA's network. This one," he said turning to another laptop, "is working on the FBI. This one is working on the Department of Homeland Security. And this one," he said turning back to his desk top, "is working on the White House."
"Wow," I said. "Do you think it'll work? Do you think you'll be able to hack into one of those systems?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I can't think of anything else to do right now. They haven't released who they think the suspect is. Josh is convinced it's you, which is impossible. There has to be a way we can find out who's really behind this."
I leaned back in my chair and tried to think. Somehow I knew computer hacking wasn't going to work. How in the world did my dad expect to hack into those security systems? I mean, he was smart, he was really smart, but I wasn't sure if he was Break-Into-the-White-House-With-A-Computer smart.
There had to be another way to get some more information. I closed my eyes and focused. Okay, Josh said in his vision, he saw me take Elizabeth at gun point. How did I...well...how did my look-alike even get into her school with a gun? You would think a school that enrolled the President's daughter would have pretty tight security. Hey, that's it.
"Dad!" I said bolting upright. "Security. Cameras. There had to be security cameras everywhere at that school. I bet the kidnapping is on tape."
My dad stopped typing and looked at me. "You're right. It would have to be on tape."
"And if a security camera caugh
t it on a tape. There's a security company out there that has the tape or at least a copy of it."
He nodded. "And I know just how to get it."
My dad whipped out his cell phone and started searching through his address book as he said, "One of the Selliwood guards I used to work with went on to own a security company based in DC. It might not be the same company that installed the system at Elizabeth's school, but he should know someone. He may even be able to get me a - Hey Jim, how's it going?" my dad said in to his phone.
Thirty minutes later, my dad's friend Jim emailed him a copy of the security camera footage.
"What if it's just a doctored video?" my mother asked after we'd watched it for the fifth time. In it, a girl (who looked like me but obviously wasn’t me) dressed in a school uniform dragged Elizabeth Gonzalez out of a bathroom of her expensive private school in Washington DC. Because of the security risk of enrolling the First Daughter, the school had added cameras to each classroom and hallway. The girl held a gun to Elizabeth's head as she led her down the hall. None of the Secret Service agents dared take a shot and risk hitting the First Daughter. The video was short. Right after they left the bathroom, power went out all over the school.