"Well, if there"s this whole group of aliens, Michael, Max, and Isabel are going to want to be a part of it," Maria said. "And we can"t be a part of that."
"But . . . but Isabel needs us," Alex said urgently. "They won"t just drop us the minute they find other aliens. They won"t."
Maria shrugged. "Still, it won"t be the same." She stared into her tea. What would she do without Max joking around with her, calling her pea pod? Or Isabel"s hilarious fashion critiques of everyone who walked by in the quad? Or Michael crawling through her window late at night just to hang out?
Yeah, that"s what she would miss the most. But if Michael found out there was a whole a.s.sortment of alien girls available to him, it"s not like he"d still be showing up at Maria"s every couple of nights. She was your basic, ordinary human chick. How could she compete with girls who would have so much more in common with Michael, girls who would share his species memories of his home planet? Girls who were probably totally beautiful in some exotic, enticing, non-cute-girl-next-door kind of way.
"Why is everyone so late?" Alex complained.
"Ray must have had a lot to say," Maria answered.
"So what"s your excuse?" Alex asked. "You were late, too."
Maria wondered if Alex was having the same kind of thoughts she was-except about Isabel, not Michael. That would explain why he was getting so annoyed.
"Alex, you have to be at least fifteen minutes late for it to count," Maria explained. "Plus I have a great excuse. My clock is doing something weird. When I was getting dressed, it skipped ahead, like, five minutes in one jump."
"There they are. Finally," Alex announced.
Maria glanced over her shoulder, her eyes going directly to Michael. His face wasn"t giving any clues about how it had gone at Fay"s. He"d shoved whatever emotions he was feeling way down.
Michael slid into the booth next to Maria. He pulled Isabel down next to him and looped his arm around her shoulders. Maria didn"t know what she was supposed to think about that. He chose to sit next to her, which was good. But he had Isabel pulled up close against him, which was- Get over yourself, Maria thought. Isabel just went through something world shattering. That"s what you should be thinking about. Not whether Michael"s sitting closer to you or her. Maria rummaged around in her purse and pulled out a vial of tangerine oil. She reached across Michael and held it out to Isabel. "I like to smell this when I"m . . . not feeling so great," she said. "I want you to try it, okay?"
Isabel didn"t answer. Her blue eyes were focused on the sugar shaker in front of her. She"s trying not to cry, Maria realized. She"d never thought of Isabel as a crying kind of girl. Isabel was so strong, the kind of person who didn"t take anything from anyone. But it was like the steel inside her had turned into gla.s.s, gla.s.s so fragile, a puff of air could shatter it.
Maria pressed the tangerine oil into Isabel"s hand and gently closed her fingers around it. "Take it home and try it later," she said. "If you like it, I"ll get you some more."
"Thanks," Max said. Maria smiled at him, although she had to fight to keep the smile in place when she got a good look at his face. He looked . . . ravaged. That"s the only word that seemed to fit. This isn"t just about what happened last night, Maria realized. There"s something new. Something horrible.
She glanced over at Liz. Liz sat with her arms wrapped around herself. It was like she was trying to take up as little s.p.a.ce as possible. Or like she didn"t want to have one inch of her body touching Max"s.
What was going on? Had Max already told Liz whatever he found out from Ray this morning-was that why she looked like she was about to throw up?
"Somebody better start talking fast," Alex said.
Max pulled in a deep breath. "Do you want to do this or do you want me to?" he asked Michael.
"You"re our fearless leader. You do it," Michael muttered.
Maria didn"t like the sound of his voice. It was too flat, too dead sounding.
"Okay, so we went over to Ray"s this morning," Max began.
"Did any of you start writing that history paper?" Alex interrupted. "Don"t tell me yes, because I haven"t even picked a topic."
What was he talking about? None of them were even in his history cla.s.s. Maria opened her mouth to ask him if he"d lost his mind, but then she heard footsteps coming toward them, and she caught a whiff of cologne. She knew that smell. She didn"t have to turn around to know that Sheriff Valenti was behind her.
What was he doing here? Did he know the truth about Michael and the others? Maria felt a shiver race across her shoulders. She hoped Valenti didn"t notice. She didn"t want to do anything that might make him suspicious.
"I"m already halfway done with my paper," she told Alex. "You shouldn"t be here right now if you haven"t started. You should be at the library."
Valenti stepped up to the table. "I"m looking for Nikolas Branson," he announced. "His parents called me this morning and informed me that he never made it home last night."
Did he sound this calm when he talked to Nikolas"s parents? Maria thought wildly. Did he just ask them all the usual questions and tell them he"d do everything he could-knowing the whole time that Nikolas was dead? Dead because of him!
"Nikolas didn"t seem like the kind of guy who would be tucked in bed by midnight, you know what I mean?" Liz said, looking Valenti right in the eye. "He probably just partied a little too strenuously last night."
"Yeah, I bet he"ll come rolling home sometime this afternoon," Alex agreed.
Valenti turned to Isabel. "Is that what you think?"
"Sounds like Nikolas to me," she said. Her voice gave the tiniest quiver when she said her boyfriend"s name, but she answered without hesitation. She must have a little of her steel left after all, Maria decided.
"Is that all you can tell me? The two of you were together last night, weren"t you?" Valenti asked. "My son, Kyle, said you and Nikolas were going out."
Thank you, Kyle, Maria thought. The little rat boy had to tell his father everything about everyone at school.
"We were together for a while, but we . . . we had a fight. I . . ." Isabel"s breath began coming in ragged pants.
Maria shot Alex a panicked look. Isabel was going to lose it, right in front of the sheriff! What should we do? she thought frantically.
Michael grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and shoved it at Isabel. "Thanks for getting her started again," he snapped.
"We"ve been trying to cheer her up," Maria jumped in. "Nikolas was a complete jerk to her last night."
Isabel buried her face in her hands. Michael pulled her against his chest and glared up at Valenti.
"Well, if you hear from him-any of you-I expect you to call me immediately," Valenti told them. He turned and strode away.
Silence stretched out at the table. Maria didn"t even hear anyone breathing. She knew she wasn"t.
"Okay, he"s gone," Max finally announced. Maria let out her breath in a whoosh.
Isabel sprang to her feet. "Give me the keys, Max. I"m going home."
"Izzy, come on, stay with us," Max said.
"No! I can"t stay here." Isabel"s voice rose higher and higher. Maria noticed her getting some curious looks from the people in the next booth.
"One of us could go with you," Liz volunteered.
"Or we all could," Maria added.
"I need to be alone," she snapped. "All of you just stay away from me." Max pulled out his keys, and Isabel s.n.a.t.c.hed them out of his hand.
Maria watched as Isabel half ran out of the place. Doesn"t she know that now is when she needs us the most? Maria thought.
Isabel chipped a little more wild cherry nail polish off her big toe. She added the tiny red flakes to the pile on her bedspread. She should never have let Michael coax her into going to Flying Pepperoni. She needed to be here, in her bedroom, where she could work on her little nail polish mountains. As long as she kept chipping and piling, she could blank out and turn the inside of her head into a buzzing gray screen.
But when she stopped, the screen got clear and a little movie began to play. A movie of Sheriff Valenti shooting Nikolas. Over and over and over.
The movie theater in her head was ultra-high-tech. It even came with odorama. Every time she heard the shot, she smelled the gunpowder, the odor of a row of firecrackers set off all at once. The sharp scent of her nail polish wasn"t nearly strong enough to block it out.
Nikolas had always said humans were like insects. He"d said if Valenti got too close, he"d just squash him. And Isabel had believed him. She"d started thinking she had no reason to be afraid of the sheriff. That she had wasted years being terrified of a man whose powers were no match for Nikolas"s or even her own.
But Nikolas was the one who had gotten squashed last night. Leaving behind an ugly spot on the floor, like any good bug. And now Isabel remembered why Valenti had filled her nightmares since she was a little girl. She remembered that she would always be hunted and that she would never be truly safe.
Isabel chipped another piece of polish off her toe and carefully added it to her little mountain.
She glanced at the clock. Max wouldn"t be back from Flying Pepperoni for at least an hour. But as soon as he got home she knew her brother would be wanting to talk, wanting to tell her whatever they found out from Ray. As if she cared. As if she wanted to know anything more about her history, her stupid alien powers. If she were just a normal girl, none of this would have happened.
Isabel chipped the last speck of polish off her big toe. She carefully added the red flake to the very top of her mountain and studied her feet. Not one dot of color left. She grabbed her bottle of nail polish and started to paint them again. She worked fast, not worrying about being sloppy. She wanted to get her toes painted and dry so she could start chipping and piling again.
She heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Max must have followed her from Flying Pepperoni, worried about his baby sister. She wished he"d leave her alone. Him and Michael and everyone else.
A knock sounded on her bedroom door. "Go away, Max," Isabel said.
"It"s not Max-it"s Alex. Can I come in?"
Isabel sighed. She couldn"t deal with Alex right now. If she stopped focusing on what she was doing, the movie in her head would start back up. She knew it. And she wouldn"t be able to take it. She couldn"t watch Nikolas die again.
"Your mom gave me some ginger ale and saltines to give to you," Alex called through the door. "She said your stomach was upset."
She really did not want to talk to him. Maybe if she didn"t say anything, Alex would go away. She finished painting her last toe. She grabbed a magazine and fanned her feet. She wanted the polish chippable-now. Then she could get the movie to stop.
"It"s too late to pretend you aren"t in there," Alex announced. "You already said something."
"Did someone invite you over here?" Isabel snapped.
Alex was probably getting sad little puppy eyes on the other side of the door. But too bad. She hadn"t invited him.
"Nope. I know I"m always welcome," Alex answered.
Isabel tested the polish on her toes. Still too wet to chip. "What? What do you want? Do you want me to tell you that you were right about Nikolas?" she demanded. "Okay, you were right. He was dangerous. He almost got us all killed. You know everything. Okay? So go."
She heard the doork.n.o.b turn, heard Alex mutter a curse when he discovered it was locked. "That"s what you think?" he exploded. "You think I came over to get my jollies off making you tell me I was right all along?"
Good, Isabel thought. Get mad and get out. She waved her hands over her toenails. Almost done. Almost.
Alex sighed. "Why is it always so hard with you?" he mumbled. "Let me spell it out. I came because I wanted to see if you"re okay. You went through something pretty traumatic. I thought you could use a friend."
Oh, great. Now he was going to be nice to her. She couldn"t take it. She and Alex . . . they had something sort of nice starting up before . . . before Nikolas came to town. But Nikolas had totally blinded her to everyone else.
Isabel"s eyes filled with tears. How was she going to survive without him? She didn"t have one thing to remember him by. Not one picture. Not anything. She wished she could have that ring he always wore, the one with that strange stone. She could hold it in her hand and at least know that it was something Nikolas had touched. Something Nikolas had . . . had . . .
Isabel"s throat began to b.u.m. She felt a tear slide down her cheek. Nikolas . . . oh, G.o.d, Nikolas . . .
The smell of gunpowder flooded her nose. She sc.r.a.ped at her toenails, trying to block out the image of Nikolas dying. But the polish wasn"t dry enough to chip. It smeared across her fingers, wet and red.
Isabel choked back a sob. What was she going to do? She"d go crazy if she couldn"t make the screen go blank.
"I"m not leaving," Alex said, his voice quiet. "Yell at me. Give me your ice princess thing. Whatever. I"m not leaving. If you don"t want to talk, fine. I"ll talk. I"ll tell you about my champion Little League season, for starters. One of the best times ever. I can still smell the gra.s.s in the outfield. And taste that flat purple taffy from the snack shack . . ."
Alex kept talking. And his voice, his voice made the screen go blank.
Isabel stood up and crept over to the door. She sat down and leaned her cheek against the door. Listening to Alex describe every moment of the very first game of the season.
He was so normal. A nice, normal guy.
She wished she could be normal like him. A nice, normal girl who couldn"t see auras or dream walk or heal. A girl who didn"t ever wake up screaming from dreams of Sheriff Valenti with the eyes and teeth of a wolf, a wolf intent on hunting her down.
I can be normal. I"ll be just like Alex. I"ll never use my powers again, she decided. Never.
-=(3)=-.
Michael glanced at his alarm clock. Ten-thirteen. He"d only been in bed for thirteen minutes. It felt like thirteen days. He wasn"t tired. At all. He only needed two hours of sleep a night-one of the cool things about not being human-and he wouldn"t even be needing those two until later.
But ten o"clock was his bedtime. His bedtime. He could not believe he had a bedtime. Mr. and Mrs. Pascal thought that structure was the key to making children feel happy and secure. Or some stupid psychobabble like that.
His new foster parents had rules for everything. They had given him a typewritten list with a dorky little drawing on the top-a racc.o.o.n that had one of those cartoon balloons coming out of its mouth. The racc.o.o.n was saying, "Rules for Pascals" Rascals."
The rules were in the form of a poem. "Please lower the toilet seat. Wash your hands before you eat." That kind of thing. Alex had practically wet his pants laughing when Michael showed it to him.
But there was nothing funny about the rules when you had to follow them. And Michael did. At least for a while. His social worker, Mr. Cuddihy, would have a hissy fit if he got a complaint call during Michael"s first week at a new place. So that meant no sneaking out of the house for a few weeks.
Which meant no late night visit to the Evans house. Michael wanted to check up on Isabel. He felt like shaking her for wasting one tear on Nikolas. But he also felt like holding her tight and letting her cry as much as she wanted. He"d do whatever it took to get his Isabel back-smart-mouthed, sa.s.sy, stuck-up Izzy, not that pale sad-eyed girl who"d been sitting next to him at Flying Pepperoni.
Tomorrow, he promised himself. I"ll get there first thing in the morning, score some breakfast, and see if Isabel needs me.
He rolled over onto his side. The covers were tucked in too tight. He felt like a mummy. He gave them a yank, but it didn"t help. The kid in the next bed-Dylan-gave a high, whistling, wheezing snore. Michael pulled his pillow over his head.
Down the hall he heard the baby begin to cry. A moment later he heard Mrs. Pascal"s bunny slippers flapping down the hall.
I would kill, Michael thought, or at least maim, to get out of this house. I could just crawl out the window and go. I don"t need to go to Isabel"s. I could go somewhere else. I could go . . . to Maria"s!
Yeah, that was perfect Right now he just wanted to kick back-and Maria"s girlie-girl room was the place to do it. He liked the way she had clothes and nail polish and all her little vials of perfume oils scattered everywhere. He even liked the weird way her room smelled-like roses and cough drops.
Even when Maria wasn"t home, he liked to hang there. But it was better when she was there. Maria could always make him laugh. A lot of times she wasn"t even trying to be funny, like when she was getting all earnest about her aromatherapy.
Mrs. Pascal started to sing to the baby. It cried louder. Michael didn"t blame it. Mrs. Pascal"s voice . . . well, she better keep her day job, that"s all he had to say.