In all his life John had never been so surprised, so shocked. How could she have known? He glanced around the basketball court where a hundred people still milled trying to figure out what to do next.
All he wanted was to run and run hard, maybe leave town. Maybe leave the country.
Why hadn’t she reported him? Did she know that he had watched her and the football player’s mouse hand? He could feel his face turning red.
“How did I know?” she asked, laughing at what must have been a shocked look on his face. “You’re not the only one who’s going to MIT next year, you know.”
Now he was really shocked.
Trudi at MIT? She was a cheerleader. He hadn’t heard she had gotten into MIT. He hadn’t even given it a thought. How closed minded had he been?
The answer to that question was easy: Very.
“What I want to know,” she said, holding onto his arm clearly to make sure he didn’t run, “how you managed all this?”
“Chemical breakdown of molecules,” he said, “triggered by sound.”
She patted the horn in the pocket of the coat she was wearing. “Brilliant. And you put the chemical into the city water supply, right?”
He nodded.
“Brilliant again,” she said. Then she laughed the most beautiful laugh he had ever heard. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I haven’t had this much fun in a long, long time.”
“Thanks,” he said, looking into her blue eyes and realizing that there really was a depth in there, a person with a real brain and a real sense of humor. “But to be honest it worked a little better than I had hoped.”
“Only aiming at the cheerleaders, huh?”
She looked at him, smiling.
“Of course,” he said, his tension of her knowing what he had done easing. “Actually, you more than the others?”
“Wanted to embarrass me, huh?”
“That, and see you naked,” he said, finally admitting to himself the real drive behind his idea, planted by his vision.
“Well?”
“Well what?” he asked.
“Well what did you think of me naked?”
“Perfect,” he said, smiling at her. “Worth every minute of the end of the world.”
“Seems to me the world is just beginning,” she said, smiling up at him. “How about you walk me to my car and drive me home to get some clothes? Then over a pizza that you’re going to buy me I want to hear every detail of this crazy idea.”
“And then?” he asked, smiling at her.
“Then,” she said, taking his arm and turning him toward the gym door, “if you’re a really good boy, I’ll let you blow your horn again.”
“I like that idea a lot,” he said, smiling back at her.
The end of the world had never sounded so good.
About the Author
Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and hundreds of published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom.
He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He is now an executive editor for Fiction River.
Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.
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