Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) (16 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

we make a plan

That had to be the
best night ever
.

Rolling over in my bed, I saw my digital clock said
8:30.
Too early to be waking up on a Saturday morning. Now that Debra is mostly recovered, everything is back to normal. Next to my clock is a picture of me and my mom right before she was diagnosed. In it, she leaned over my right shoulder, with her arms wrapped around my midsection. She kissed me on the cheek. Actually, she hit my ear instead, but that was our little secret.

“Good morning, Mom.” Like I did most mornings, I kissed the glass covering her picture and said a prayer. Nothing long and drawn out, just something like – “Dear God, keep me from killing anyone accidentally or destroying the planet today. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.”

“Prayers don’t have to be long,” she used to say. “God can hear you the same, whether you’re yelling or whispering.”

She had a way of putting things so that I understood them, instead of expecting me to figure everything out. Sasha was like that, which was probably why I was hung up on her.

Yesterday, when I landed in her backyard, Sasha welcomed me with open arms and rushed me inside. We sat at her eight-foot-long kitchen table and shared my Pudgy Burger.

The red onions on it made her self-conscious about her breath, so she wouldn’t kiss me unless she brushed her teeth or chewed gum first. While she brushed, I chomped on three pieces of gum at the same time. Then we kissed in her living room until almost six o’ clock. She got me out just in time and I arrived home right before Debra was about to pick up the phone and ask Ray if he had kidnapped me.

This morning Aunt Dee was coming over to watch Zachary. Debra and I were going to the repair place and get our personal items out of what was left of her Jupiter before they junked it. The trunk actually survived, but the rest of the frame looked like it had been kicked by a life-size Transformer. Going with her made me nervous. It might spark her memories. Rhapsody nailed it. I probably watch too many movies.

After a quick breakfast of cereal and soy milk, we drove the rental car – a red compact – to the address her insurance agent had provided. Rows of totaled vehicles lined the fence behind the main building. In the middle of the pack, a black truck with “Stop sleeping with my man” written on it in white capital letters had four slashed tires and every window had been busted.

I didn’t know much about girls, except cheating on them was a
bad
idea. Sasha and I hadn’t gone into our pasts much, but that was a deal breaker for her. I could tell that was one of Selby’s problems.     

“Here we are.” Debra stopped in front of the Jupiter. Its chassis was smashed everywhere except for the trunk and the caved-out passenger side door. “Doesn’t look like there’s much left.”  

“Nope,” I said, trying to steady my shaking hands.

“Are you okay? It’s not about Ray, is it?”

We looked at each other. “I’m not mad.”

She left the rental car running, and together we carefully dodged shards of metal and glass on our way to the trunk. Debra unlocked it using her spare key, and lifted the dented door. The contents of one of her purses, the big, black ugly one she always switched out for something “cuter,” were scattered around the spare tire. I turned my back while she gathered them and hoped she’d hide the tampons first.

“Hey, Jason?”

“Yeah?”

“Where were you during the accident?”

When this is all over, I’m definitely mentioning this to Rhapsody.
“School wasn’t over, yet,” I said, keeping my distance. It was true, but I didn’t say I was there.

Her voice no longer bottomed out in the small space of the trunk, which must mean her recovery mission was over. Still, I didn’t face her.

“It’s just. . .I thought I’d picked you up from school by then, but why would I? Did you get in trouble that day? What happened, Jason,
besides
the accident?”

I wished for something to happen and interrupt the questioning. Nobody was around to distract her. “There’s this kid at school who bullied me.”

“Turn around and look at me.”

She knew me well enough to know it was harder for me to lie that way. “This kid at school pushed me around in the lunchroom, and I blacked out.”

So far, she bought it. “My God, did you hurt him?”

“No, but Mr. Welker gave me dungeon duty for the rest of the school year. He called you to pick me up.”

“Yeah, I remember that far, but. . .” She stopped herself. “Nevermind, it’s not important.”

While she finished collecting her things, I peeked inside of my busted door. Sure enough, the seatbelt latches had been yanked out of their bases, and the bubble in the door showed where I’d pushed off with my legs after grabbing a hold of her. I didn’t spend much time obsessing over it, because I didn’t want her to do the same thing.   

“I know,” she said, joining me at the passenger side. “I wondered about that, too. The policeman on the scene, he said he couldn’t figure out how that happened to the door, either.”

My breakfast rumbled in my stomach. It couldn’t be
him
. “What’s his name, again?”

“The cop? Spivey, I think? I’ll have to look at the business card.”

How did he get there that fast? How did he know? This was
so
bad. “Is it okay if I chill out with a few friends today, around noon?”

She shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Who are these ‘friends’, anyway?”

“Rhapsody, you met her at the hospital. Selby. . .he’s a guy who played football at North. We go to Reject High together. Don’t worry, they’re not criminals.”

“And
who else?”

It’s like she had radar tuned to my brainwaves. “Sasha.”

“Ooh,
Sasha.
Here’s the deal. You can go, if. . .”

“If. . .”
Please don’t let it be what I think she wants.

“You invite her over for dinner later. I want to get to know her better.”

Crap.

Rather than fly the friendly skies, I asked Debra to drop me off at the neighborhood playground around noon and to pick me up at one. The less I jumped in broad daylight, the better. We added that to the list of rules.

“Selby, you can’t zip into girls’ locker rooms,” Rhapsody said.

Sasha gasped and punched him in the arm. “Seriously?”

Selby grunted and faced Rhapsody. “Whatever. You can’t be sneaking around. If you’re invisible, we need to know it when you’re around.”

“Yeah,” I was all about that one. But because I was dating Sasha, I got
two
rules – no jumping the daytime and no taking advantage of her outgoing clone.

“So, why are we here, Cap?” Rhapsody asked as Sasha snuggled against me. “To watch you two?”

“We’re here because we need a plan to get the source. Knife Boy’s plan didn’t quite work out, so I’m gonna need some help.”

He sucked his teeth and cursed at me. “Will you stop calling me ‘Knife Boy’ already?”

“Fine, stop calling me
Freak
and stabbing people
.”

“Enough, children.” Rhapsody held her arms out. “Do you have any ideas,
Jason?”

“The bullet Peters fired passed
through
you. Can you can walk through the wall to see the source’s dimensions? Then I might be able to get it out.”

I’d only seen Rhapsody’s emotions shift so quickly once, and it was because she thought I saw her naked. She stiffened up. “I don’t know.”

“Once I get it out, if it’s not heavy, Selby can super-speed it out.”

Selby snickered. “I can bench two hundred fifty pounds,
Fre
-Jason.”

“Sasha can split, stand guard and make a distraction, in case something goes wrong. Can’t you?”

She nodded. “Totally.”

Still spooked, Rhapsody posed the next question. “When?”

“Last day of school.” That gave us exactly six days to plan things.  “At night. Until then, we wait.”

At that, she relaxed until Selby pounded his fist into his palm.

“We do it
tonight,”
he said. “Or else Welker or someone else gets it before we do.”

Rhapsody backed off. “We wait because I can’t pass through walls, Jerk, that’s why.”

“So?” Selby pointed at me. “He couldn’t jump without crashing into something two days ago. Now, he can. Just tell her how to do it, Man, and get on with it already.”

I held up my hand. “It’s not that simple.”

“Because
you’re
making it complicated,” he argued back. “Tell her and get it over with.”

I watched my friend’s fear morph into terror. There’s no way she could do it tonight. “Focus,” I told her. “Close out everything else from your mind.”

“Okay,” she said, barely above a whisper.

“So?” Selby egged her on. “Try it already!”

Rhapsody sniffled and dabbed the mascara tears running down from the corners of her eyes.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, no matter what he says.” Sasha sounded like she spoke from experience. 

Rhapsody brushed Sasha away, closed her eyes, and vanished. The wind whistled past us. Sasha, Selby, and I looked at each other. Had she done it? Rhapsody didn’t make a sound, not even a whimper.

“Rhapsody?” I called out, reaching my hands where her shoulder used to be. “Rhapsody?”

“Where are you?” Sasha yelled, sounding more worried than the first time we jumped. “Say something.”

Rhapsody screamed a bloodcurdling “Help!” She reappeared two feet shorter. Her legs stuck into the ground like plant roots. She frantically pulled at her knees.

I sprang into action, pounding the ground around her with my fists. Dirt flew into the air in mounds. When I stopped, Rhapsody fell backwards into the pit I’d created.

“Can’t feel my legs,” she said, sniffling and waving her hands in front of her face. “I can’t. . .”

Sasha knelt down and ripped open Rhapsody’s black stockings. Her calves were swollen and pale, but not blue. She helped Rhapsody rub them until Rhapsody excitedly said “pins and needles!”