by Jena Leigh
Kenzie was practically vibrating with excitement. “You have no idea how happy I am that I was here to witness that. I only wish I’d caught it on camera!”
Alex shrugged, feeling sheepish. “So I forced Nate to dodge a branch,” she said. “What’s the big deal?”
Nate shook his head, smiling. “The ‘big deal’ is that no one’s ever bested me in a one-on-one match involving abilities before. Any time powers are allowed… Well…”
“He always wins,” said Kenzie. “Every. Damn. Time. Nate’s never lost against someone in a match with abilities before. You, Alex Parker, just bested the best.”
Nathaniel had never been outmatched before?
“There are three very important things we should take from this,” said Aiden, ticking them off on his fingers as he spoke. “One, Nate can be beaten! Which pretty much means it’s open season on Palladino from here to eternity, because there is blood in the water, my friends. I mean, he just got his ass whooped. And by a pretty girl, no less!”
Kenzie smiled wide. “And wasn’t it a thing of beauty?”
Alex couldn’t hold back a laugh at the expression on Nathaniel’s face when he stepped closer and slung an arm around her shoulders. It was an adorable mixture of embarrassment, exasperation, amusement… and pride.
He actually seemed happy that Alex had been the one to best him.
“Two,” Aiden continued, “And this one’s important, because it could save your life one day—don’t throw shit at Alex unless you want to get pummeled by the exact object you just chucked at her head.”
“Noted!” said Kenzie.
“And three,” said Aiden. “Never, ever, under any circumstances, piss her off.”
“Hmm,” said Kenzie. “Declan’s probably going to have a hard time with that last one.”
Aiden laughed his agreement. “Kid should probably invest in a better helmet.”
“Maybe some football padding, too,” said Kenzie.
Smiling, Alex shook her head. “You guys are nuts. What are you doing here, anyway? Thought you were going to train back at the house tonight.”
“Wanted to see how you were faring with the TK thing,” said Kenzie.
“And we figured while we were here, we would get in a quick match.” Aiden stood up a little straighter. “I’ve come to defend my title as champion. Kenzie, meanwhile, is here to suffer a rather embarrassing beat-down.”
Kenzie rolled her eyes. “Whatever, coz. I’m totally ready for you this time.”
“Oh, yeah? Then let’s see what you got, Short Round.”
“Bring it, Sasquatch.”
The two of them were still trading insults as they moved off to find an area of the field not covered with debris. She and Nate did a pretty fantastic job of trashing it over the course of the last two hours.
Figuring she should probably do something to remedy that, Alex set about levitating the larger branches and moving them to the outskirts of the field with small movements of her hand.
Nathaniel dropped his arm from Alex’s shoulders and looked her over with a frown. He carefully brushed a smudge of dirt from her upper arm, revealing a dark purple welt underneath.
He cursed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You know, I was only joking about bruises earlier. I didn’t intend for you to actually be injured by anything. You should have told me the volleys were hurting you, Lex. I would have let up.”
Alex shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said, dismissing his concern. “They really didn’t hurt, I just bruise easy. Besides, I needed some motivation to access the ability. Especially there at the beginning.”
And it was true. There was nothing quite like being beaned with a rock, even at half-speed, to trigger a reaction from her borrowed abilities.
Kenzie and Aiden found a spot at the center of the field and began a sparring match of their own.
Aiden bobbed and swerved like a drunken prize-fighter, kept on the defensive while Kenzie bombarded him with a swift array of jabs and kicks directed at his torso.
Alex might not have been able to name their moves, but she did know this much—either one of them could probably knock her senseless with a minimal amount of effort.
And that reminded her… Nathaniel still hadn’t gotten around to the self-defense portion of her lesson, yet.
Judging from his expression, he was still feeling guilty over having used too much force.
“Yeah, well,” he said. “It might not have hurt, but it still left you with bruises, so I’m apologizing anyway.”
“I told you it’s fine,” she said, still watching Kenzie and Aiden.
“No, it’s really not.” He shifted so that he was standing beside her, shoulder-to-shoulder, as they watched the ongoing match. “I don’t ever want to hurt you, Alex. Accidentally, or otherwise.”
“It’s okay, Nate. I trust you.”
The comment caused Nathaniel to flinch, though he tried to hide it by taking a few steps forward and turning to face her.
He held out a hand and smiled. “So, Alex. Ready for round two?”
— 15 —
“Miss Parker?”
Alex’s elbow slid wildly across the top of her desk. She managed to stop herself just short of faceplanting onto the lacquered wood.
The half of her chemistry class still awake stared at her expectantly. Judging from the expression on Mr. Jones’ face, they were waiting for her reply.
Her reply to what? What was the question?
For the last ten minutes, Alex had been analyzing the patterns in the linoleum beneath her feet and hadn’t heard a word of Jones’ pre-exam lecture.
Her eyes skimmed the whiteboard. Nothing that needed to be solved, just notes on how to balance a complicated equation.
“Um.”
“Yes, Miss Parker?” prompted Mr. Jones.
A light touch and a shiver of electricity cascaded through the base of Alex’s neck, just beneath her ponytail.
Sodium, Alex. Declan’s voice in her head was oddly monotone. Just say, “sodium.”
“Sodium,” she repeated.
“That’s right.” Mr. Jones turned his back to the class and began scribbling on the whiteboard once more. “And why is it important that the pure metal form of sodium be kept under oil or kerosene? Mr. Newark?”
Silence from Mr. Newark.
“Come on, guys.” Mr. Jones pinched the bridge of his nose. “We learned about this in the very first week of class. I realize you’ve all slept since then, but that AP exam this weekend is going to expect you to remember.”
The attention no longer focused on Alex, she turned slightly in her seat and mouthed the words, “thank-you” to Declan where he sat in the desk behind hers.
He shrugged.
Alex fought back a sigh.
He’d been like this for days, now. Distant. Disinterested… Declan.
Back to his old self.
But why? What had changed? Had she done something?
Alex switched her focus toward keeping out the myriad voices pressing against the barrier around her thoughts.
A parting hug from Kenzie the night before left Alex with Red’s powers—and a serious inability to concentrate on anything except keeping her walls up and her mind empty.
The ability transfer hadn’t been an accident. Alex did it intentionally.
At the time, it had seemed like an excellent idea. She’d more than recovered from her breakdown the Friday before, and Masterson was most likely waiting in the wings to see how she would proceed.
Alex was currently being forced to keep track of three separate abilities at one time—jumping, telekinesis, and now telepathy. Three powers ought to be enough to satisfy him, at least for the time being.
Besides. It wasn’t just Masterson she had to worry about, now.
In a few weeks she’d be taking the most important test of her life. If she passed, the Agency would allow her to remain free.
But if she failed…
Her train of thought w
as derailed once more by the increasing volume of the voices in her head. The town of Bay View was significantly more populated than the area of the Adirondacks where the Grayson cabin was located and where Alex last attempted to maintain her telepathic ability.
Alex reinforced the mental barrier that blocked out the sea of voices drifting through the ether around her, allowing only one of the thought signatures to sneak through.
With her walls firmly in place, Declan had needed to touch her to get his initial message across. Now that she had adjusted her defenses enough to listen to him, she could hear Declan clearly, without the physical contact.
What’s with the space cadet act? Declan asked.
He was one to talk.
It was Alex’s turn to shrug.
It’s kind of loud in here, she projected.
Their wordless interaction was attracting the attention of nearby students. Alex turned back around in her seat, returning her gaze to the front of the classroom.
Loud? Declan repeated.
I’m having to focus more on keeping the voices out than I’d anticipated.
Even after reinforcing the barricade, a low hum still resounded in the back of her thoughts.
It was a little like apartment living. When your next-door neighbor throws a raging kegger, you might not be able to make out the lyrics of the song playing on the radio, but you can definitely feel the bass.
Alex was constantly aware of each and every mind within range of her powers, and tuning them out entirely took no small amount of effort.
Ah, thought Declan. I wondered.
Something cold and damp touched her bare shoulder. Alex jerked slightly, turning in her seat to identify the object.
Declan was holding out the unopened can of soda he’d bought during passing period.
She accepted it with a puzzled expression.
Thanks? The word was sent to Declan laced with her confusion.
He raised an eyebrow. Haven’t you ever wondered why Kenzie drinks so much coffee?
“Oh, caffeine!” Alex said aloud. “Smart.”
Caffeine meant concentration. Any student that had ever pulled an all-nighter knew that much.
“What was that, Miss Parker?”
“Uh.” Alex whipped back around in her seat. “I was just… Just thinking that I’d be needing quite a lot of caffeine for tonight’s Chemistry study session.”
Mr. Jones—as well as the rest of the class—was staring at Alex the same way they would at a schizo who’d forgotten to take their meds.
Well done, Lex, projected Declan. No one suspects a thing.
“Right,” Mr. Jones drawled. “As I was saying, sodium is considered a reactive metal…”
Ready for tonight? asked Declan.
She paused in surprise. This was the most he’d said to her all day.
Of course I’m ready, she replied.
After three days of bailing on sessions, Declan was now being forced by Grayson to take the lead in Alex’s training that night, so that she could fine-tune her jumping ability.
Under any other circumstances, she’d probably be thinking about their upcoming session non-stop. Instead, Alex was far too preoccupied with worrying about the final presentation she had to give in 3D-Art next period.
Delivering a speech to a class of bored high schoolers was hard enough. Add Jessica and Marcie to the audience—as well as a slew of abilities that were known to spiral out of control any time Alex was stressed—and you had a recipe for disaster.
Burying that thought, Alex tuned back into Jones’ lecture. He’d digressed, humoring Mr. Newark’s question about what happens when you fill a film canister half full of water, drop in an Alka-Seltzer tablet, and then replace the cap.
“Oh it’s a pretty basic experiment, really,” Mr. Jones was saying. “The lid of the canister is placed under an intense amount of pressure as a result of the build up of carbon dioxide gases and, well, all that energy has to go somewhere, right?”
“So,” said Jenny Holmes, seated at the very back of the class. “Chemical reactions plus pressure equals explosion?”
This was so not helping.
A thud reverberated through her chair as Declan kicked the metal rack beneath it.
Stop worrying, he ordered.
I’m fine, she replied.
As if to illustrate his point, Declan siphoned off some of the excess energy Alex had culled from their surroundings.
I don’t know why you’re still so uptight about the training thing, projected Declan, not realizing that Alex was spazzing over something else entirely. There’s nothing but palm trees and swampland around that pasture. The worst that could happen is you accidentally nuke a gator.
Alex fought back a smile.
You look nice today, he observed.
She pursed her lips at the tone of his words. It hadn’t been a compliment.
Yeah, well, Alex tried not to huff. I didn’t wear this skirt for your benefit, O’Connell.
Honestly, she was surprised it had taken him until sixth period to comment on it. She’d finally broken down and decided to wear the outfit Cassie gave her—a white tank with a small black vest and a layered, asymmetrical red skirt, finished off with black tights and black, knee-high dress boots. Definitely not her usual jeans and sneaker combination.
She’d even gotten up an hour early that morning to tame her loose, frizzy curls into something presentable.
What are you all dressed up for, anyway? Hope you brought something to change into for training this afternoon.
I have that presentation today, remember? The one where I present a semester’s worth of shattered artwork to the entire class? The presentation that’s worth ten percent of our—of my—grade?
Oh, right. Forgot.
Alex rolled her eyes and put her mental walls back in place, effectively shutting him out.
The final ten minutes of Mr. Jones’s lecture felt like an eternity. By the time Alex and Declan made their way into the crowded halls, she’d had more than enough time to imagine a dozen new ways her presentation might blow up—quite literally—in her face.
Kenzie caught up with them in the hall as they were making their way into the commons area. Her class was located just a few doors down from the art room, in the same direction they were headed.
“Are you ready?” asked Kenzie.
Unlike her brother, Kenzie had clearly remembered Alex’s upcoming date with public embarrassment. And she wasn’t even in their class.
“Are you nervous?” she asked. “Do not be nervous. Just imagine them all in their underwear or something.”
Alex arched an eyebrow.
“I know, I know,” Kenzie sighed. “Worst advice ever.”
Declan was walking a few feet ahead of them and appeared to have checked out of their conversation.
“Break a leg, Lexie!” Cassie called as she approached them, headed in the other direction. “You’re going to do great!”
Alex watched Cassie disappear back into the crowd.
A full three days had passed before her friend finally forgave her for being left out of the loop over the weekend.
When they returned to class on Monday, Cassie spent the entire lunch period forcing Alex and the others to recount the events of the previous weekend, furious that no one had answered her calls and texts for three days running.
She’d nearly throttled Alex when she found out that Masterson was involved and she was the last one to hear about it.
Today marked the first day Cassie hadn’t brought it up in conversation.
“Well you look cute, if that helps,” said Kenzie. “And who cares what those losers in your class think?”
Kenzie hooked her arm with Alex’s.
Alex flinched at the skin-to-skin contact, but didn’t pull away. If Kenzie noticed, she didn’t say anything.
“I care,” Alex admitted. “About some of them, anyway.”
“Yeah, well. You shouldn’t. At all. It isn’t worth it,
” said Kenzie. “How bad could it possibly be? It’s just a few minutes rambling in front of the class about your magnificent artwork. Easy A.”
“My magnificently broken artwork,” she corrected.
Distracted by their conversation, Alex slammed into another student headed in the opposite direction. The lanky boy she’d collided with grabbed her arms to steady her.
His fingers felt like ice against her skin.
“I’m so sorry!” said a slow southern drawl. “I should really watch where I’m—”
Alex instinctively yanked her arms back. Their eyes met.
The senior!
“Going,” he finished, then snorted in amusement. “You know, we’ve really got to stop meeting like this.”
“Sorry about that,” said Alex. “I wasn’t looking where I was walking.”
“No harm, no foul. To be honest, I was actually kind of hoping I’d run into you again.” He smiled, realizing what he’d said. “I mean… Not literally, of course.”
Alex returned his smile.
“You’re looking better,” he observed.
She blushed. Well, it would be hard to look much worse than she had the last time he’d seen her.
“Uh,” said Kenzie, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “Care to introduce me to your friend, Alex?”
“I, um,” Alex began, awkwardly. “I wish I could.”
The senior’s grin widened. “We haven’t officially been introduced,” he said.
“Right,” said Kenzie. “Okay, then. I’m Kenzie. This adorable klutz here is Alex. And you are?”
He held out a hand to Kenzie, inclining his head slightly when she took it. “My name’s Aaron. Aaron Gale. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kenzie.”
The smile that elicited from Kenzie was one Alex definitely hadn’t seen before.
It was almost coy.
He extended his hand to Alex. She kept her eyes on Kenzie and pretended not to notice. After a moment, he dropped it.
“Hmm. Nice to meet you, too, Mister Aaron, Aaron Gale,” said Kenzie, jokingly. “Where do they teach manners like yours? I need to send my brothers there for lessons.”
“Born and raised in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina,” he said, grinning.
Alex flinched. North Carolina… mountains…
