by TJ Klune
Plus, that would be extremely altruistic of Nick, which meant Shadow Star would see how selfless he was and then they could go on a date before the whole rest-of-their-lives thing.
So when Nick got to their table in the cafeteria, his friends looked up at him, and he said, “Phase Two is a go. I repeat, Phase Two is a go.” And he felt good about it. Following fickle whims could sometimes turn out okay. Nick believed that with all his heart.
Jazz smiled.
Gibby shrugged.
Seth sighed.
Nick made a mental note to have them work on their reactions to his good ideas. After all, an Extraordinary was only as good as the people who supported him. And since these were his people, they needed to be at their best.
* * *
“What am I looking for again?” Seth asked the following Wednesday afternoon. They sat in the library at the school, homework spread out and forgotten in front of them, waiting for Jazz to get done with cheerleading practice. Gibby had declined the offer to join them, telling Nick she’d rather sit in the bleachers and watch her girlfriend. Nick was sure that watch meant leer, so he hadn’t pushed her on it.
“Meteors,” Nick told him, scrolling the screen on his laptop. “We need to find out what the chances of the next one falling near Nova City will be. I feel like it should occur on a regular basis because space has a lot of rocks in it, and Nova City is really big.”
“Your logic is undeniable,” Seth said. “I don’t know how anyone can argue with you based on rational fact.”
“Right? Yet people still try. It’s weird. It’s like they don’t understand anything I’m saying. It’s why I have you. You get me better than anyone else. You’re a Nick Whisperer.”
Seth coughed roughly.
Nick looked over his laptop at Seth, who was blushing furiously as he swiped his thumb over his phone. “You okay?”
Seth nodded. “Just swallowed a bug.”
“Ugh. Gross. Make sure you don’t kiss your secret girlfriend and/or boyfriend without brushing your teeth first.”
Seth looked up, eyes narrowed. “Are you going to let that go?”
“Probably not for at least three more days.”
“Three more days,” Seth mumbled. He looked back down at his phone. “Why do we need a meteor?”
“Because. If one of them comes from a distant planet, chances are it will have alien goo on it, and I’ll be able to eat said alien goo. Which, by the laws of nature and our lord and savior Stan Lee—may he rest in peace—will give me superpowers and I’ll be able to become an Extraordinary.” It was foolproof.
“You’ve certainly thought this one through with your regular amount of planning.”
“Wow. Sarcasm. Exactly what is not needed at this very moment.”
Seth sighed. “I do wonder if your life is sometimes not based in the real world.”
Nick frowned. “Weird. That’s not the first time someone has said that to me. I wonder what that means.”
“That maybe life isn’t supposed to be a comic book?”
“It’s not?”
“No, Nick. I don’t—” He shook his head like he was frustrated. “I know you want this. I get that. But have you thought far enough ahead about what it could mean? Say on the off chance this did work. Have you any idea what would happen next?”
“Yes. I’ve thought everything through. It’ll mean that Shadow Star will want to date me and I can help my dad with—” He looked away. “Just … don’t worry about it. I’m doing this because it’s something I want to do. That should be enough, right?”
“Help your dad with what?”
Yeah, Nick hadn’t meant to say anything about that. He was still dealing with the shift in his worldview that maybe becoming an Extraordinary didn’t need to be just about himself. And since he was still pretty new to the whole being mostly selfless thing, he wasn’t sure how to deal with it yet. “It’s nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“Nicky.”
Nick was getting annoyed, and he didn’t know why. “Why can’t you let me have this?”
Seth set his phone on the table. “I didn’t say you couldn’t. I just want you to be safe.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “I’m always safe.”
“That’s not always true. I seem to remember that time you wanted to see what happened when you held a flame in front of a can of hairspray.”
“Yeah, that fire was certainly bigger than I expected it to be. I can’t believe my dad didn’t notice one of my eyebrows was more singed than the other.”
“Why on earth do you think you’ll be able to find a meteor with alien goo?”
Nick shrugged. “Why not? It’s just one of the avenues I’m exploring. I’m spinning a lot of plates right now, Seth. A lot of fingers in pies. So many—”
“I get it.”
“Good. That makes things easier.”
Seth picked up his phone and began tapping the screen. “What are you researching? Because I gotta admit, I don’t think we’re going to find a meteor anytime soon. Apparently, they don’t fall from the sky with any regularity. Imagine that.”
“Hmm?” Nick said distractedly. “Oh, I’m just trying to find blueprints for the nearest nuclear power plant so I can break in and then get exposed to gamma radiation and maybe Hulk out a little or something. Do you know how much radiation a normal human can take before they get tumors in their eyeballs?”
Seth didn’t respond.
Nick looked up.
Seth was gaping at him.
“What?” Nick asked, looking behind him to see if something was on fire. It wasn’t. He turned back to Seth. “What is it?”
Seth took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You want to break into a nuclear power plant and expose yourself to radiation?”
“Yeah. Genius, right? Since the whole cricket-in-the-microwave debacle—which, again, was it really so hard to find a spider, Jazz?—I got to thinking more about it. After Chernobyl and Fukushima, the plant and animal life there genetically mutated. Yeah, it was because of a nuclear meltdown, but I figure if I can get just a minuscule fraction of what they got hit with, I can probably mutate a little.” He frowned. “Granted, I’d want to avoid any loss of life because getting what I want shouldn’t mean hurting someone else, so it can’t be exactly like Chernobyl and Fukushima, but keep in mind, this is a work in progress.”
There was a moment of silence. Then, “Sometimes, I don’t know if you’re really smart or completely insane.”
“It’s a fine line,” Nick agreed. “There are a couple of nuclear power plants within a few hundred miles, but not a single one of them puts their blueprints online.”
“Wow,” Seth said faintly. “It’s almost like they don’t want someone getting inside.”
Nick scowled at his laptop screen. “I’ll figure it out. We just have to have faith that someone made a mistake and put clear, detailed instructions online on how to break into a power plant and get a safe blast of radiation that will give me superpowers and not make my testicles explode. Should be—”
Seth’s phone beeped in his hands.
Nick looked up again.
Seth’s expression tightened. His brow was furrowed, his mouth in a thin line. He looked tougher than Nick had ever seen him before. It was … shocking. For a moment, Nick almost thought Seth looked dangerous, but that was ridiculous.
“Is everything okay?” Nick asked slowly.
Seth stood abruptly. His chair scraped against the floor, bumping into a shelf of books behind him. One of the librarians glared at them. “I have to go,” Seth said, shoving his books back into his backpack.
“What? What do you mean, you have to go? We’re busy! You’re supposed to be helping me—”
“I’m sorry, Nicky. It’s—there’s been a break—an emergency at the animal shelter. They put out a call to all volunteers. Apparently it’s a pretty big deal.”
Nick squinted at him. “An … animal shelter emergency?”
&nbs
p; Seth nodded. “Flooding, because of the rain. They have to move all the animals, and they need all the help they can get.”
“I thought you stopped working there after school started.”
“I did,” Seth said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “But they need me. I have to go help them. Can’t let the animals drown, right?”
Well, no, because that would be evil. “Need help?”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
That sounded fake, but okay. “I … guess?”
“I’m sorry,” Seth said, but he was distracted, like he was already somewhere else in his head. “I know this is important to you, but I’ve got to do this. It’s not—just stay away from midtown, okay?”
Nick didn’t understand. “What the hell does that have to do—”
“Promise me,” Seth snapped, that hardened expression back on his face. He reached down and put his hand on top of Nick’s, squeezing tightly. “Stay away. Because of the flooding.”
“I promise,” Nick said. “Because of the flooding.”
“Thanks. I’ll text you later, okay? Just … don’t go to any nuclear power plants. That idea is ridiculous, and you’ll most likely end up dead. Think of something else.”
“Well, maybe if you’d found some freaking meteors, I wouldn’t have to—”
And then the most extraordinary thing happened, something that caused all Nick’s thoughts to come to a screeching halt.
Seth leaned down and kissed his cheek.
Nick felt the quick, hot pulse of breath against his skin, the scrape of lips and then—
He turned slowly to look up at Seth.
Seth, who looked horrified by what he’d just done. “I—uh—Holy crap, I’ve got to go.”
Nick watched as Seth walked backwards, staring wide-eyed at Nick. He walked into a girl who told him to watch where he was going, and then into a bookshelf, knocking books onto the ground, much to the consternation of the librarian who looked like she was about to descend into an apoplectic fit.
Nick stared, dumbfounded, as Seth finally turned around and ran from the library. Nick couldn’t be sure he’d ever seen Seth move that fast in his life.
He reached up and pressed a finger to where Seth’s lips had been just a moment before.
“Huh,” Nick said to no one in particular.
“I will see you banned,” the librarian whisper-shouted.
* * *
Jazz and Gibby found Nick an hour later, staring forlornly at his laptop. The internet had never betrayed him like this before. He didn’t know how to handle it. From not giving him blueprints to a nuclear power plant to finding out if friends kissed each other goodbye on the cheeks if they weren’t French, it was useless.
Gibby ruffled his hair as she slumped gracefully into a chair next to Nick. “Where’s Seth?”
“Animal shelter emergency,” Nick mumbled, feeling his face grow warm.
“Animal shelter emergency?” Jazz asked, standing next to Nick, looking at his computer screen. Thankfully, he’d already closed the tab with the search what are you supposed to do when your best friend kisses your cheek. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You look very pretty,” Nick told her, because she deserved to hear it on a regular basis. She was wearing her cheerleader uniform, the Centennial Fighting Wombat grinning from where it was stitched on her chest. Also, he hoped it would prove to be a distraction so she wouldn’t see the Seth-kissed-my-face expression he most likely wore.
“Thank you. Animal shelter?”
“Flooding, apparently.”
“Flooding,” Gibby repeated slowly. “Um, excuse me for a moment.”
She stood and walked away quickly, pulling her phone from her back pocket.
Nick stared after her. “What is with everyone leaving in a dramatic fashion today?”
Jazz took the seat her girlfriend had vacated. “We’re friends with a bunch of drama queens. What’s that?” She pointed at his laptop.
“Generic blueprints for a nuclear power plant where I was supposed to get hit with radiation to give me superpowers.”
Jazz sighed. “Drama queens. All of you.”
“Hey!”
“Probably not safe.”
“Now you sound like Seth.”
“That’s a nice thing to say. He’s pretty smart.”
“Yeah, except for when he ditches me. Again.”
Jazz frowned. “I’m sure he didn’t want to. You know there’s nowhere he’d rather be than with you.”
“Then why isn’t he here?”
She kicked his shin underneath the table. “Because the world doesn’t revolve around you, idiot. Other things happen, even if we don’t want them to.”
Nick groaned as he reached down to rub his leg. “I deserved that.”
“Probably.”
“It’s just … he’s been weird lately.”
“Weird how?”
Nick shook his head as closed his laptop. There was nothing else he could do with it now. “He’s always busy. He’s distracted. I barely saw him over the summer, and even when I did, it was like he wasn’t there. I don’t know. I’m probably making it a bigger deal than it is. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I tend to do that sometimes.”
“No. Really?” She smiled at him, but it faded before too long. “Okay, maybe this summer was a little weird. It seemed to be you and me more than anyone else after Gibby left with her parents on their trip.”
“Right? Not that I didn’t want you to be there, or anything. You’re perfect.”
She laughed. “Thanks, Nicky. I know I’m not Seth or Gibby, but I like to think we got to be pretty good friends on our own, right?”
“Right,” Nick said promptly, because it was true. Jazz wasn’t just Gibby’s girlfriend. Maybe that was how it’d started, but this past summer changed that for him. Jazz was funny and kind, and sometimes when she laughed, Nick thought it was one of the nicest sounds in the world. He was happy to have her, even if right now he was feeling sorry for himself.
Then she said, “Maybe he’s scared.” Nick didn’t like the sound of that.
“Of what?” he asked, perplexed. Seth wasn’t afraid of anything, not really. He was brave and awesome, and Nick couldn’t think of a single thing that frightened him aside from snakes, but that was okay because snakes were terrible creatures that served no purpose.
“Things changing,” Jazz said, picking up Nick’s pencil from the table and twirling it deftly between her fingers. “It’s going to be different soon. Everything will be.”
“What will?”
“This.” She shrugged. “Us. Gibby’s going to graduate, and go to college, and then it’s just going to be the three of us. Then we’re going to graduate, and who knows what will happen then?”
“We’re still going to be friends,” Nick said with a frown. “Even if we end up going to different places, that’s not going to change.”
“It might,” Jazz said, and that didn’t sit well with Nick. “We could become different people. People don’t always stay friends with the people they grow up with. In fact, most don’t.”
He took the pencil from her since she was starting to twirl it with anger. “Gibby loves you. You know that, right?”
Her smile was tight. “I know.”
“Then you should trust her to know what’s right. And on the off chance that your paths split, well. Maybe it doesn’t have to be forever. Or if it does, it doesn’t mean what you had mattered any less.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think people give you enough credit. You’re smarter than you look.”
“Thanks. I think. You too.”
“Seth loves you.”
Nick blushed. He couldn’t help it. He could still feel the way Seth’s nose had pressed near his ear. “Um,” he managed to say. “I … know? He’s my best friend. Of course he does.”
“And you love him.”
Nick
nodded dumbly.
“You’re aware of that at least.”
Nick’s face felt like it was on fire. “Am I missing something here?”
She opened her mouth—to say what, Nick had no idea—but she was interrupted when Gibby came back to the table. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Life,” Jazz said airily. “And all that it entails.”
“Sounds deep.”
Jazz hummed. “You have no idea. Isn’t that right, Nicky?”
“Right,” Nick said, feeling twitchier than normal.
Jazz looked up at Gibby. “And where did you run off to?”
“Phone call,” Gibby said easily. “Nothing important. We should—uh-oh.”
“What uh-oh?” Jazz asked.
“Nick has his thinking face. And it’s red. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his red thinking face before.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Maybe I should go visit Seth at the animal shelter,” Nick said, tapping his fingers against the table. “I mean, it’s obviously important to him, right? Does it make me a bad friend that I never went there this summer? I should take an interest in his interests, right? I mean, that’s what you’re supposed to do when your best friend starts something new.”
“No,” Gibby blurted.
Nick and Jazz turned slowly to look at her. “Why not?”
“Because,” Gibby said. “It’s … uh. Probably super busy. With the … flooding thing. And, Nicky, aren’t you allergic to cats? There’s probably lots of cats.”
Oh. Right. But still. “It’s not that bad. I mean, yeah, I swell up and get blotchy and then almost die, but so what? If Seth likes it, then I should like it too, right?”
“Oh sure,” Gibby said quickly. “Totally. But I don’t think he’d want you to get sick because of him. That’d make him feel bad, and you know how Seth looks when he feels bad.”
“My greatest weakness,” Nick breathed. When Seth Gray felt bad about something, his eyes got really wide and his bottom lip trembled, and all Nick wanted to do was hug him close and protect him from everything.
“Exactly,” Gibby said. “And we can’t have him getting distracted from all those cats. Besides, he’ll probably be done sooner than you think—”