Star Angel: Awakening (Star Angel Book 1)

by David G. McDaniel

  Bianca grinned, putting away her books. They’d only talked briefly on the bus that morning, unable to find any privacy to rehash the experiences from the night before. Toby hung all over Bianca the entire ride making it impossible to connect. Strangely Bianca almost seemed as if she’d forgotten the intensity of what happened, so consumed was she with the significance of the first day of high school. But Jess did have a chance to confirm for her that the guy hadn’t left during the night.

  Just then Mike Skarsden walked in.

  “Mike’s in this class?” Jess wondered aloud, under her breath, even as the teacher reprimanded him for being late. Jess ignored Bianca’s knowing little smirk and watched as Mike looked for a seat. To her great interest he took an empty one nearby, one row up and one over, and she found herself excited that she’d be able to stare at him from behind without him knowing.

  And, with a sidelong glance, found herself hoping her friend wouldn’t take that same opportunity to make casual comments or otherwise try to set them up.

  Mike was a sophomore like them, and had been in a few of the same classes while finishing middle school. It seemed he and Jess were always missing each other. She had a suspicion Mike was interested—Bianca sure seemed to think so—but he never did or said anything that might confirm or deny that attraction. They hardly spoke, as a matter of fact.

  She watched him sit.

  He was cute. Tall and lean, dirty blonde with a few muscles under his baggy clothes. Due to lost school time back when he was a military brat Mike was a year older than all the other tenth-graders. Rather than capitalize on his advanced age to increase his popularity, however, he ended up taking the role of loner, hanging with his few friends and working on cars. He and his friends were always working on and talking about cars. Most specifically a Japan-only model Mike was building with parts brought over by his dad, who’d been in the Navy. Any day now Mike would get his license. Already he’d spent the last two years—near as Jess could tell from overheard conversations—in anticipation of this moment, building the car from scratch. It would be an epic day, to hear him talk, when he rolled it out for the first time. The town would be terrorized by his amazing, drifting insanity, powered by three-hundred-fifty stock horsepower and an additional one-hundred-and-fifty from a shot of nitro for five-hundred total, on-call, tire-smoking horsepower in a two-thousand-eight-hundred pound, strategically lightened rocket.

  Embarrassingly she’d managed to overhear—and remember—all the details.

  Mike didn’t dress cool, didn’t cut his hair right, didn’t play sports and wasn’t in any clubs, so he went largely unnoticed by the girls who might otherwise have fallen at his feet. Jess sometimes imagined asking him out, then fixing him up to realize his potential. Like in the movies or something, where the hero was transformed into a hottie. Then the quiet, smart girl would suddenly be on the arm of the cutest guy in school.

  Deliberately she tore her gaze from his back. Whether he truly thought about her or not she might never know. He noticed her now and again, of that she was sure. Nodded “hello”, sometimes. In her mind he was interested, but was he really? Unlike Bianca, who just talked to boys at random, Jess would never have the courage to find out. This was her curse, it seemed, where such things were concerned. To be hobbled by her own fear.

  The teacher called them to attention. The classroom quieted. Roll call began and she listened for familiar names. Many from middle school were there.

  “Jessica Paquin.”

  “Here,” she answered up.

  And got ready to sit through four more intolerable periods.

  * *

  The outdoor lunch area was crowded, everyone soaking up the beautiful late-summer weather. Boys cut up, girls gossiped and … Jessica sat alone. At the farthest corner bench she could find, picking at her food as she listened to music on her earbuds.

  Feeling like a spectator.

  She hadn’t bothered seeking Bianca out, especially today of all days. Her friend was too busy making new hookups. Rather than beat herself up about it, however, as she usually would’ve, rather than sulk at her own shyness on this, the first day of high school, today Jess was glad to be away. For today impatience was nearly killing her. Everything else seemed trivial.

  A group of goth kids sat not far away. Otherwise the area she occupied was empty; about as far removed from the action as you could get and still technically be “at lunch”. Furtively she studied them, a small group dressed entirely in shades of Dark, the goth theme the easiest to spot among the various cliques. Practically classic at that point; goth, as a teen sensation, was decades old. In some ways, Jess imagined, she probably had more in common with them than with any of the more standard social classes. Except, of course, she dressed normal. In fact, today in her all-white fashion fiasco she was practically anti-goth. They might’ve called her a tomboy at one time. Now she was merely a social malfunction.

  Why couldn’t it just be popular to be yourself?

  Movement in the corner of her eye brought her to the present. Mike and his two car buddies, Matt and Levi, were coming over with trays of food, heading for a nearby table. Seeking also, it seemed, to be apart. She grew nervous at their approach. Mike checked her out, as did the other two, until they realized she was watching them back, then everyone kind of looked away, including her—though Mike stole another furtive glance. As did she. Curious, she thought, and for a brief instant her heart fluttered.

  Discreetly she turned down her phone but left the earbuds in, suddenly interested in what the boys might say. They sat only one table away, far enough not to be in her space but close enough for her to eavesdrop. She pretended to be reading something on her phone as she ate, taking small bites.

  “Dude!” Levi leaned in to Mike, trying to be quiet but still loud in his teen-boy exuberance. “She’s cute.” From her peripheral vision she saw him look in her direction, making a curving motion with his hands as he snickered. For an instant she smiled to herself—then realized he was talking about her.

  There were no other girls around.

  Studiously she stared ahead as if not hearing, nodding to the “music”. Trying, in fact, not to blush and give herself away.

  Cute?

  Secretly she thrilled with the compliment.

  Mike glanced over; caught her peeking and both of them, again, looked away. Her self-consciousness grew and she cast her gaze even further away, pretending to watch a group that was laughing and making a scene in the distant courtyard.

  “So?” Mike challenged.

  “So,” Levi repeated, as if Mike were an idiot, “I’m saying she keeps checking you out. She’s the shy girl no one pays attention to but she’s hot! Dude! What more do you want? Look, she’s sitting right there, all alone.”

  Now Jess debated turning the music back up. Unsure if she wanted to hear more. Already she didn’t trust her reactions, afraid she’d choke on her food or something. She’d always assumed boys thought her a dud. Did other boys think she was hot?

  Hot?

  This was shaking her in unexpected ways.

  She peeked carefully at Levi. He himself probably wasn’t the best judge of who was hot and who wasn’t. Levi was one of those guys that got excited by anything with boobs. Still, Mike wasn’t disagreeing with him. In fact, by his reaction he seemed to share Levi’s opinion. At least a little. Mike was just shy.

  Like her.

  “She’s always hanging out with Bianca,” he made something up, voice dropping so low Jess could barely hear. “They don’t go out with guys like me.”

  What? Did she hear right? Does he want to go out?! For a moment she felt on top of the world, then ... all her insecurities came crashing in. If Mike wouldn’t ask her out then they’d probably never go out. Bianca was right. He was too shy. And she …

  She’d never have the courage either. Never to risk that sort of rejection. What if she was reading it wrong? What if he changed his mind? Better to leave it there as a dream than risk
him rejecting her for sure and dashing all hope. The idea of that was more than she could stomach.

  She turned up the music, disgusted.

  She’d never have a boyfriend.

  * *

  The bus came to a halt, airbrakes hissing as the door squealed open. Jess pulled the earbuds from her ears, shoved them and her phone in her skirt pocket, grabbed her school bag and hurried off, followed by Bianca and Toby at a more leisurely pace. When they were clear the door closed and the bus lumbered off, distinctive school-bus sounds filling the streets as it rounded the corner out of sight.

  Bianca walked backwards in front of Toby.

  “I cannot believe you did that!” She laughed again in memory of it. She’d been joking loudly the whole bus ride home.

  “What?” Toby feigned innocence.

  “You mooned the school, Toby!”

  He smirked, still pretending to be blameless. Bianca kept laughing at him. Right before leaving school that afternoon, at bus time, Toby had been swarmed by the seniors and thrown up onto a short wall out front. Thumbditty, as predicted. Instead of being shy about it, however, or scared, he’d gone with it, enhanced it, even, putting on an amazing show—no doubt earning major points with the older “in” crowd—at the end of which he turned and—as Bianca couldn’t seem to get enough of—dropped his pants, showing the entire school his lily-white cheeks. Jess had to admit it was funny. He looked like a male version of the Coppertone girl. Miraculously no teacher saw.

  But that was an hour ago. Barely amused by it anymore Jess picked up the pace, leaving Bianca stuck between her and Toby as she began striding with purpose. Jess knew Bianca was eager to go with her and sort out their little mystery yet, at the same time, was too charmed by Toby to send him on his way.

  “Come on,” Bianca decided all of a sudden to involve him. “Come with us. We’ve got a secret.”

  Jess whirled, stunned.

  “Bianca!” She couldn’t believe it. “You promised!”

  “What?” Her friend was all blamelessness. “Toby won’t tell anyone.”

  “Tell anyone what?” he started paying attention.

  Bianca cocked her head. “Jess found a man.”

  “What?! Go Jess!”

  “Bianca! God! I thought you were my friend!”

  All at once Bianca knew she’d messed up. She tried to rationalize it. “Toby will give us perspective.”

  Now Toby was definitely curious. He followed more briskly, eager to see what these two crazy girls were up to. Jess fumed, not wanting the company at all. She just wished they’d both leave her alone. Alone to be with …

  Her man.

  Maybe she was going a bit overboard with this. They had to figure out what to do and do it.

  In no time they were walking up to her front door, heading inside to drop their bags and continue on through, outside to the back yard. Toby and Bianca talked as they hurried, Toby prodding for more info, Bianca only building the mystery by refusing to give details. Halfway to the playhouse Jess stopped the procession.

  “Listen,” she held them in their tracks. The afternoon sun shone brightly on their faces. “You can’t tell anyone anything. Okay?” She looked hard at Bianca, then Toby. He in turn looked at Bianca, then shrugged at Jessica.

  “Okay,” he agreed, not taking any of it seriously.

  “I’m serious,” said Jess.

  Bianca backed her up: “She is. This is really weird. You’ve got to keep it a secret.” Now that they were actually there Bianca seemed to be recalling more of the gravity of the situation.

  This was no joke.

  “Okay.” Toby repeated. Exasperated but sincere.

  Jess stared at him a moment longer, making sure he really got it, then headed quickly for the playhouse.

  At the door she stopped, took a deep breath and opened it slowly, peering inside.

  It was empty.

  CHAPTER 7: A MYSTERIOUS DEVICE

  Jess froze, blood going to ice. Adrenaline kicked into high gear and she began to panic.

  “What is it?” Bianca asked from several paces behind, where she waited with Toby in the yard.

  Jess went all the way in, looking frantically around the inside of the playhouse, panic spiking and shutting off all reason. Where would he have gone?! The basket was there, totally empty—he ate everything—and it took a few seconds of desperate searching before she realized she was looking in the corners of an eight-foot-wide room for a six-foot-tall man.

  He was gone.

  Shaking, she turned to stare wide-eyed at Bianca.

  “He’s gone.”

  Toby laughed, “Maybe he was just an imaginary man,” blissfully missing the tension in the air.

  Suddenly Bianca had her own sense of panic. “Gone?” She stared hard at Jess. Now there was a guy on the loose thanks to them. A guy who last night fell from the sky, on fire.

  God knew what else he was capable of …

  “Here I am,” a young, male voice cut the air. Bianca screamed; Toby jumped. All of them whirled to look in the direction of the voice. And there, coming up the hill from the field beyond, was Zac.

  “Sorry I left,” he said, continuing up until he stood before them. “I know I wasn’t supposed to.” Toby stared at him in absolute shock. Zac looked at Toby, then glanced at Bianca, but kept talking to Jess: “I started thinking I needed to go back into the forest,” he explained. “Like there was something I’d forgotten.” He held up what looked to be a fancy, chrome dumbbell. “I found this. Near where I fell.”

  Jess looked at him. Looked at the shiny device. Looked at her friends who were, in turn, staring at the tall, muscular …

  Zac.

  She swallowed. “You,” she looked frantically around the back yard. At her house. At the neighbors’ houses. Was anyone watching? At the window? Was Amy home? Mom? Dad?

  “You have to stay out of sight.” She took his arm and hustled him into the playhouse. Inside she turned him around and motioned for Bianca and Toby. Nervously her friends entered, filling the space with bodies. Jess closed the door and faced them. Zac stood in the middle, head at the ceiling. Toby was tall but Zac was at least a few inches taller and … so much more filled out. Next to Zac Toby looked not that big at all, like a kid, Zac like a college guy or even a Pro football player or something. Jess stared at each bewildered face. Zac was the only calm one.

  “There’s something else,” he said. Jess welcomed it. Anything to get things moving again. “Something I discovered I could do.” Now she grew uneasy. Bianca, too, shifted where she stood. “It might explain how I survived the fall.” At that Zac pointed to the bench against the wall, directing their gazes to a chunk that was broken off.

  “I grabbed it kind of hard to get up and it broke away. I tested a little and found I could do this.” He reached for the bench, pinched the edge between a thumb and forefinger and …

  POW! snapped away another chunk. The three teenagers, as one, took a step back. A difficult move in the small space, leaving each with their backs pressed against the wall.

  “At first I thought it might just be brittle,” Zac explained. “But then I thought, wood that thick shouldn’t break that easily. Right?” He looked at Jessica. “You can’t do that, can you?”

  She stared at him. Then down at the bench. She had no idea what force it would take to do what he just did. The bench was a sturdy piece of wood, at least an inch thick. With a big pair of pliers and a lot of effort she didn’t think she could break off a chunk like that. And he did it with two fingers. Like he was breaking off a piece of Styrofoam. Practically no effort. If he could do that …

  She kept staring at him, knowing she was gaping but unable to close her mouth. If he could do that …

  Falling from the sky and landing uninjured suddenly made a lot more sense. If any of this made any sense at all.

  Zac studied the girls. “You said I was on fire?”

  Toby just continued to stare, harder each second, eyes as round as th
ey could get; like they were popping right out of his head. Zac pointed to the bench. “It seems I can do things a person shouldn’t be able to do. Just to see, I went down into the woods and punched a hole in a tree. Pushed another one over. It wasn’t hard.” He drifted a little in contemplation of it. Then, directly to Jessica: “There’s something unusual about me.”

  They were all frozen. At that point Bianca and Toby were committed, in some twisted way; they probably couldn’t move even if they wanted to. They certainly weren’t running home. It was like being witness to a circus freak show. Like the thumbditty at school; it might make them cringe, might make them stand ready to flee at a moment’s notice, but there was no way they were going to miss it.

  “Then there’s this,” Zac said, holding up the chrome, dumbbell-shaped device. “It must’ve fallen with me. I seem to remember it, but only vaguely. I think I had it in my hand when I fell and lost it on the way down. I didn’t seem to have anything else with me.

  “It wasn’t far from the impact,” he turned it in his hand.

  Bianca was getting frantic. “We’ve got to figure out where he’s from,” she hissed. “What if he’s a military experiment or something?”

  Jess was about to admonish her friend, to remind her Zac was standing right there and could hear, but she couldn’t form words. Not yet.

  What if he was some sort of experiment? A super solider, like right out of the movies? He certainly fit the bill.

  For all this, however, Zac appeared more thoughtful than anything. “I’ve been trying all day to remember who I am or where I came from.” He concentrated on the device. “When I found this in the woods …” He shook his head, trying to make a connection. “It just looks so familiar.”

  Jess unstuck herself. Tentatively she reached for the shiny device. Zac hesitated then let her hold it. She took it, hefted it and began looking it over. Despite appearances it wasn’t heavy. Like a metal casing for something else. Technology of some sort. It definitely had the air of technology about it, smooth with faint lines etched across its curved surfaces; as if certain parts moved. Strange inscriptions were visible if she held it just right. It was sturdy, but light.