by B. V. Larson
I did smile, I have to admit that. But I didn’t laugh. Everyone else laughed so hard he just hopped down from the lunch table and crawled away toward the office. He had lumpy warty skin and huge eyes and an even huger mouth. I could see in his big eyes he was scared and upset, and somehow it just wasn’t funny to me. He had hidden in the Principal’s office the rest of the day.
But later on, he told me he had noticed that I hadn’t laughed.
“You know, Jake,” I said.
He didn’t look at me.
“You know why I didn’t laugh at you that day you changed in the cafeteria?”
He finally looked at me. “Why?”
“Because I don’t know what I’ll become. It didn’t seem funny to me. One of these days, I’ll become something, but I don’t know what it is. That worries me. It could be something a lot worse than what happens to you.”
Jake was quiet for a minute.
“Thanks,” he said finally.
“Thanks for what? For not laughing?”
“No,” he said. “Thanks for making me think that maybe, just maybe, someone at this school will have it worse than me.”
I made a face at him. He laughed.
“That’s what I’m here for,” I said, “to cheer people up. If you feel down in the dumps, just say to yourself: ‘Well, at least I’m not Connor Ryerson.’”
We both laughed loudly until the dog pack behind us demanded to know what was so funny.
We just laughed harder, knowing that would annoy them.
Sarah scooted over to our seat then, coming to talk to me. Sarah had dark eyes that darted everywhere and never seemed to miss anything. She always wore her ginger ale-colored hair in a ponytail. Her hair was so short, however, that the ponytail couldn’t even droop down and instead formed sort of a fan of hair behind her head.
“What are you guys laughing so hard about?” she asked.
“Three in a seat breaks the rules,” said Jake teasingly.
“Shut it, you old toad,” she told him.
“Catch any good worms, lately?” he asked her.
She slapped at him. It was all in good play, I knew. We were tight friends. She was such a good friend that she could tease Jake about being a toad and tease me about not being anything at all without getting us mad. In turn, we could tease her about being a blue jay on sunny weekends in the park and she didn’t get mad either. Of course, what did she have to become angry about? The only bad thing about being a blue jay was the serious business of eating worms. She always swore she had never tried one because she didn’t want to change back and be sick afterward.
Danny popped up behind us again, making a tsking sound. “Three in a seat, that will never do,” he said. “Mrs. Terry,” he cried out loudly. “Children are breaking the rules back here, and I fear for their safety.”
“Shut up,” said Sarah.
“Mrs. Terry!” Danny shouted more loudly. He jabbed his finger down at Sarah’s head. “Safety first!”
Sarah tried to duck down low, but the driver’s eyes were on us in that big mirror of hers. Sarah’s standing spray of hair gave her away instantly.
“Back to your seat, Sarah. Keep your seat or I’ll have to report you.”
“Yes, Mrs. Terry,” said Sarah.
“See you boys at lunch and in Algebra,” she said.
As she passed Danny, she shook herself. It was an odd gesture, something only angry birds can do: she ruffled up, seeming to swell. A single blue feather slipped out of her sweater and floated down.
“Jerk,” she said to him.
“Only protecting your delicate feathers, Miss,” said Danny as if he were some kind of good Samaritan. He snatched Sarah’s blue feather out of the air and tickled Thomas’ nose with it until he sneezed.
Chapter Four
The New Girl
The next time the bus stopped, my day changed completely. Looking back, I think maybe my whole life changed.
A new girl got on the bus. She was cute. She wore one of those girly coats with a hood that had fake fluffy white fur coming out of it. The white fluff encircled her face like a picture frame. Her nose was small and turned up a tiny bit. There were three tiny freckles on the tip. That nose and her naturally smiling eyes made her look like an elf. I liked her immediately. Sometimes, a girl’s face will just strike me as especially nice, even though a hundred other guys wouldn’t think she was anything special. This was one of those times.
Everyone stared at her. In Camden, everyone is somebody else’s second cousin, and we aren’t used to new kids. Every once in a while, someone would try to move into our town who wasn’t special like us. After a few months they figured out that Camden was no normal little backwoods town and they would move out again-usually really fast in the middle of the night. But even that kind of thing was rare. People from Burns and other small towns in Harney County knew about us. They knew there was something different about our little town.
Oh sure, they might smile nervously at us when they stopped to get gas or to buy a cola at the Stop-n-Go. But they weren’t trying to make friends. They just didn’t want any trouble. They smiled at us the way you might smile at a mean dog that is curling its lips, but hasn’t come after you yet. Oh sure, they acted friendly enough, but none of them would ever even think of moving here.
The elf-looking girl was very self-conscious. She knew we were all staring. She didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. She came down the aisle slowly, looking for an empty seat.
“Jake, get down,” I hissed.
“What?”
“Just get down off the seat. Sit on the floor.”
“Why?”
“Just do it, for me, man,” I said. I half shoved him down to the floor.
He muttered something about being mistreated just because he was a toad and sat on the floor. I scooted over into his spot, with my legs hanging over his shoulder.
“What the-” he complained.
“Shhh!”
Sure enough, the girl saw the open spot. It was the first one in sight, and she headed right for it. I knew she would. All she wanted to do was get away from all those eyes, and the quickest way to do that was to get her rear into a seat.
She slid in next to me. I felt my heart quicken. She smelled good, like fresh snow and perfume and fruity shampoo.
“I’m Connor Ryerson,” I said, putting out my hand.
She looked at me and stuck out her hand slowly. “Elizabeth Hatter,” she said, “But everyone calls me Beth-” she broke off here, noticing Jake, who glared up at us.
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, that’s Jake,” I said breezily. “Don’t mind, him, he likes it down there.”
“I do not,” said Jake, pinching my leg.
I gave him a mild kick.
“Nice to meet you, Jake,” she said, trying not to laugh.
“Let me up,” he complained.
“No, you can’t,” I hissed. “If Mrs. Terry sees we have three in the seat again, she’ll fuss about it.”
He glared. “You owe me, dude.”
“I’m the only one that didn’t laugh, remember?” I reminded him.
“You still owe me.”
Beth looked from one of us to the other in bemused disbelief. She looked around on the bus, and for a panicky moment, I thought she was going to get up and find another seat.
Right then, Mrs. Terry finished marking down the new arrival on her clipboard and the bus lurched back out onto the road again.
“Great to meet you, Beth,” I said with my best winning smile.
“You too,” she said. She shook her head at us and laughed. “You guys are the class clowns, aren’t you?”
“You figured it out!” I said, laughing with her.
She addressed Jake, and leaned down toward him. “You really like squatting down there?”
“Squatting,” I chuckled, “a very good choice of words.”
Jake made a growling sound. “One word about toadstools and I’ll bite your
legs off.”
Chapter Five
Ketchup
We hadn’t gone another five minutes before I was certain she was a normal person. For most people, this is a good thing, but not in Camden. If you’re not a monster in my hometown, sooner or later, you are going to have a problem. Normal people, or mundanes as my mom calls them, never seem to like living in a town full of creatures. Once they figured it out, they panicked every time.
But in matters of the heart, I’m not always reasonable. Well, in truth, I’m never reasonable about girls. Heather would say that I’m totally immature and that I freak out every girl that likes me. My mom says I’m not even in high school yet and not to worry about it. But I do.
Beth was different. She was so easy to talk to, not like most of the boring girls in town who all wanted to know if I had changed or not yet. That was all they cared about. But Beth wouldn’t know anything about that. In fact, she probably would be happy if I turned out to have no powers at all. If I was a mundane, I would eventually have to leave Camden. That was clan law, our law, everyone here had to have the power to change or they had to leave.
“I like math, do you like math?” Beth asked me.
“Yeah! Well, no,” I said.
Beth pulled down that fluffy hood of hers and revealed hair that was somewhere between brown and red. It was straight and long and she had a gold barrette clipped over each ear. A wisp of white fluff caught on one of her barrettes and just floated there as we talked. To me, it seemed like an angel’s halo.
“What about Geometry?” she asked me. “Have you got that far yet?
“No,” I admitted. “I’m in Algebra.”
“He’s getting a D in there, too,” said Jake, interrupting.
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
Beth giggled.
“I’m getting up. I’m done squatting down here,” Jake said. He began pushing his way up onto the bench seat with us.
“Toads like squatting,” I told him.
“Not one more word,” said Jake. The green vinyl seat wasn’t really wide enough for three. I found myself pressed up against Beth.
“What is it with you guys and toads?” asked Beth. She started talking very quickly and excitedly. I liked the way she did that. “Do you like them or hate them or have you been traumatized by a wild herd of toads? Or what?”
“Or what,” said Jake.
“Well,” I said slowly, not sure how to tell her.
“Just tell her,” said Jake. “She’s going to find out soon enough anyway.”
“That’s right,” said a new voice, butting into our conversation. It was Danny from the seat behind us. His grinning face was the last thing I wanted to see hovering over my shoulder like a bad moon, but there he was.
“Danny”, I said, “people tell you to shut up all the time for good reasons.”
“Make me.”
“Danny, she’s new. There’s no need to be rude.”
“She’s a mundane. I can’t believe anyone rented her family a place.”
“I’m staying with my Aunt Suzy,” said Beth, talking quickly again. “It’s just for the rest of the year, I guess. My parents split up and somehow I ended up with my Aunt. What the heck is a mundane, anyway?”
“It just means you’re normal,” I said.
“Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Not around here,” said Danny. “It means you don’t belong.”
“Danny, just back off,” I said.
“Make me,” he said again, resting his chin on the seat between us. His face was inches away, and I thought of all sorts of mean things to do to him. Then I got one of my ideas. I dug into Jake’s lunch with one hand.
“Hey, get out of there!” Jake complained.
It only took a second to find one of those little ketchup packets. Jake always had a few in his lunch, those little white ones that have about enough ketchup to dip three fries. I held it in my hand so Danny didn’t see it.
“What’d you take?” asked Jake, digging in his lunch in outrage.
Danny had his tongue out now, making “Mmmm,” sounds like a little kid. Boy, was he asking for it.
Beth saw the packet in my hand, and she saw me pop it open with my thumbnail. Our eyes met, and she gave me a little smile. I could tell right away that she was like me, that she got ideas… If she had frowned, I might not have done anything. But with her encouragement, I squirted it into Danny’s face.
He had his eyes closed at the moment of impact and that made the surprise complete and all the sweeter. We roared with laughter. He had ketchup on his cheeks and around the rims of his nostrils and in his eyebrows and gluing his bangs down to his forehead.
Everyone around us laughed too, and soon everyone on the bus was gawking and laughing. Even Thomas had a grin on his face.
But not Danny. His face was as red as the ketchup. He glared at me and rubbed the stuff off with his shirt, which was green. It made dark stains in his shirt that he would wearing all day.
“Hey!” said Mrs. Terry. I could see her eyeing us in that big long mirror she had up there above the windshield.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked. “Why are there three of you in that seat again?”
We sank down, trying not to be noticed.
Then I heard a voice in my ear. A quiet, angry voice. It was Danny.
“After school, you’re dead,” he said.
Chapter Six
The Thing on the Roof
While Danny sulked behind us and made dark plans for my future, Jake, Beth and I held our own meeting in our seat.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Beth. “And you never answered any of my questions. What’s with you two and toads? What is a mundane? Sounds like a breed of dog, or something.”
Jake nudged me.
I eyed him and sighed. “I suppose, I might as well tell you. But you probably won’t believe me. Not at first, anyway.”
“Just do it,” said Jake, “she’s already gotten you in enough trouble.
“I’m sorry if I did, but I surely don’t see how,” said Beth. “All I did was walk onto this crazy bus with you crazy kids. Everyone’s been acting strangely since I got here. It’s like you all have a big secret. No one will tell me anything.”
I nodded. “Well, the thing is, we aren’t normal people in this town. It’s kind of hard to explain.”
“I can tell that!” she agreed heartily. “You all seem a bit nutty.”
“Come on, get to it,” said Jake.
“Can I just tell her my way?” I asked.
“First you make me squat down in a hole and now-”
“Toad-in-a-hole!” shouted Thomas from behind us. He laughed uproariously. He had a very strange sense of humor and it was probably best for everyone that he never said much.
“See?” said Beth. “Like that! Why don’t you just tell me about the toad thing?”
“Okay,” I sighed. “Jake here is a toad. At least, he can turn himself into a toad if he wants to. And when the moon is full, sometimes he turns into a toad whether he wants to or not.”
There it was. It was out, and now she could stare at me as if I was completely nuts, just as I knew she would.
Thomas shouted, “Toad-in-a-hole!” again from behind us, laughing like a mad man.
Beth opened her mouth, but for once, she didn’t know what to say.
Then, there was a whooshing sound outside. A big shadow came over the bus, as if a small plane or a huge bird were up there cruising by.
“What’s going on now?” said Beth.
We all craned our necks to see out the windows above the bus. There was something up there, above the snow-crusted pine trees. Or someone.
“Who is it?” asked Jake.
“I can’t see,” I said.
“It looks like a pterodactyl up there!” said Beth excitedly.
There was a thumping, slamming sound on the roof of the bus. Some of the kids squealed. Everyone sta
rted yelling at once.
Mrs. Terry pulled the bus over to the side of the road. We lurched to a stop. Everyone fell forward and some people were left rubbing their heads.
“No one lands on my bus,” muttered Mrs. Terry. She climbed out of her chair and pulled the lever to open the door. A cold gust of freezing air swept in.
We were on Berger Street, right near the park. Snow covered everything in the park, of course. The statue of a soldier standing at attention was a mass of icicles. We were only a few blocks away from the school now.
“What the heck is going on?” asked Beth.
“A flyer just landed on the roof,” Jake explained as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Obviously, they wanted us to stop the bus.”
“Hey!” said Mrs. Terry, craning her head out the open door. “A flyer? Who’s up there? There had better be a bridge out or something!”
A figured climbed down from the roof onto the hood of the bus, and then dropped lightly onto the sidewalk. It was Miss Urdo, the school Principal.
“How can she fly?” asked Beth, staring. “She must have been on a hang-glider or something.”
“She’s a hawk. She must have changed back,” I told her.
Beth stared at me for a moment, and then shook her head and smiled in disbelief.
“Oh, hello Miss Urdo,” said Mrs. Terry. Her anger melted a bit, seeing as it was someone from the school. “I thought a high-schooler was playing a joke.”
“It’s not a joke, I’m afraid, Mrs. Terry,” said our Principal. “School is cancelled today. You have to take all the children up to the Estate.”