Rise of Alpha (The Prodian Journey #1) (17 page)

“Carionis, what the hell happened after you took Kevin to the principal’s office?” I asked, scooting over to give him some space to sit.

“Just call me Car, okay? Carionis is for Aarmark biz only.”
 

I nodded.
 

“I told the principal what happened.”

Darryl had lost interest in the game. “But I heard that you threw the first punch!”
 

“That’s true, but it was in self-defense. He would’ve clobbered me if I hadn’t acted first.” Car laughed. “He deserved it. But since I’m a nice guy, I suggested to the principal that Kevin didn’t deserve a suspension. He already got what was coming to him. So he put us both on warning.”
 

“Unbelievable,” Mark said, shaking his head. “You talked the old fart into giving Kevin a warning?”

Car laughed again. I was slowly learning that this was his way of saying yes. He was one weird guy, and I would know.
 

“It takes one to know one,” Car said.

“I hate when you do that,” I said, flustered.
 

“I’m special.” He laughed again. “Do you guys have an extra controller?”
 

Just like that, the Three Stooges became the Super Friends.
 

Corpse Flower
 

We got to the end of the week without any further school drama, or embarrassing tic attacks. To say it was a relief would have been an understatement. It was difficult to impress a girl when I had to spend so much time worrying about my next phonic attack, although I had to admit, Shannon had been a trooper. She rarely jumped when I blurted my F-bombs. Regardless, I still hated not being able to know when the big one would come.

After my morning run, I jumped in the shower for my ‘date’ with Shannon and the corpse flower. I chose a freshly laundered plaid shirt that didn’t have any ink stains on the pocket and fixed my hair to the best of my ability. When I inspected the finished product in the mirror, I didn’t look half bad.

“Looking good, Morrison.” I did my favorite Captain Underpants pose and chuckled. Then I gathered up my keys and a tube of sunblock and hurried out the door. Sure enough, the sun was beating down, and the temperature was pushing into the high eighties.

Over the course of the last two days in school, Carionis had been quite visible, but he’d stayed out of our way. He would say hello in passing, but otherwise, he kept to himself. If Shannon had qualms about his presence, she didn’t say anything, although I’d seen her glance Car’s way a few times. So far, he’d kept his distance, which suited me just fine.

I parked my car in front of Shannon’s house and texted her to come out.
 
There was a large moving truck in front of their garage. This reminded me that Detherina had mentioned her plan to purchase our neighbors’ house. I wondered if the sale had been finalized.
 

Shannon came bursting out of the front door, lugging her camera, a tote bag, and a wide-brimmed straw hat. She was wearing one of those ruffled sleeveless blouses over very short shorts. I tried not to stare, but who could ignore such a vision?

“Hi, Brian!” she said the moment she got in the car.

“Hey.” I tried to sound cool, but my voice squeaked. A total fail.
 

Shannon didn’t seem to notice. “Are you excited to get your picture taken?” She eyed my plaid shirt before her gaze slid down to my khaki shorts. Her face colored, and she looked away.

Did Shannon McKesson just blush because of me?

“Ecstatic,” I said in a dry voice.
 

She laughed at my effort to sound sullen. Once we got on the freeway, I decided it was a good time to ask about the truck.
 

“Is someone moving?” I tried to sound nonchalant.

“Oh, that. I forgot to mention it to you, but Mother thinks the house will remind us too much of my dad, so she decided to move to a smaller place.”

“Oh, yeah?”
 

“Yes. She found a house in the Los Feliz area.” Shannon sound excited and my heart did a couple of happy flips. “In fact, we did a walk through last night, and guess what?”

“What?” I answered too quickly, but I bet she didn’t even notice.

“You and I are going to be next door neighbors! Isn’t that amazing?”
 

She sounded happy, and my heart did a quick celebratory moonwalk. Shannon and I would be living next to each other. It was the coolest thing to happen since the Lakers won the NBA championship.

I pumped my fist and hooted. “That’s awesome! We can ride together to school every day. When’s the big move?”
 

“We’re moving some of our stuff already. I guess the sellers were in a bit of a hurry to leave. We should be all moved in by next weekend.”

Then an idea struck me. Did her presence last night in my neighborhood have anything to do with the appearance of the Ergans? That would explain Car’s presence, too. As much as I wanted to think that he was watching over me, he had mentioned that his main responsibility, first and foremost, was Shannon. I was fuming, but I tried to keep a straight face for Shannon’s sake. Good thing she seemed caught up in her own happy bubble.

We found a parking spot right away and followed the pebbled path on foot to the admission booth. The crowds were already building, despite the heat. After we paid for our tickets, we walked around a bit, looking at plants, flowers, and some of the other oddities the botanical garden housed. We covered most of the displays, including the corpse flower, which was the foulest smelling thing I’d ever encountered. The stench was like being in an enclosed space surrounded by a thousand rotting cheeses. Yeah, it was bad.
 

After our experience with the flower, we stopped under the shade of a tree. I held Shannon’s camera bag while she used her camera’s viewfinder to search for an ideal spot to begin my torture.

She pointed her camera in every direction imaginable. When she let out an excited squeal, I realized she’d found her perfect picture location.
 

“I brought a blanket,” Shannon announced, slinging the camera strap around her neck. She spread it down in a grassy area next to a trellis with funky-looking vines everywhere. It was perfect all right, considering a small tree there provided shade from the sun’s harsh rays.
 

“I brought sun block, just in case you forgot,” I pulled out the tube from my pocket with a flourish like I was performing a magic trick.
 

“Good call. I forgot all about that,” Shannon said, settling next to me. “Do you mind putting some on the back of my shoulders?” She lifted her shoulder length hair and whipped it up into a ponytail.
 

Good Lord! I stared at the expanse of her back. It was the most beautiful thing I’d seen in my life. “Um . . . of course.” Again, I tried to play it cool. I squirted some lotion in my hands.

I ran my palms along her shoulders and at the base of her neck, covering the entire exposed area. When the lotion sank into her skin, I noticed a weird reddened area and leaned closer to study it. It wasn’t a rash, but a mark of some sort. The longer I studied it, the clearer it became. It was circular shape and had an eye in the middle and four spokes radiating from the center.
 

Crap! Was this something I should mention to her? As I wrestled with the question, involuntary garbage slipped out of my mouth. “Fuck,” I blurted before I could stop myself.

Shannon laughed and looked over her shoulder at me. “Are you okay? Do I make you nervous?” Her pale cheeks showed a nice pink glow from the sun.

I stifled a jerk rolling on my shoulder, and I stiffened. “Yes and no.” I continued applying sunscreen on her skin until I’d covered everything well. The marking was much more pronounced by now. “There . . . you’re now ready to take on the sun.” I felt like I should say something about the mark, but I bit my tongue. Maybe Matro would be kind enough to enlighten me about what it meant.

“Thanks.” She released her hair, and I caught a whiff of her glorious scent.
 

Pretending to busy myself with recapping the tube, I moved away a bit. I didn’t want her see how much she affected me.
 

“Here’s what I want you to do.” She lifted the camera to her face. “Lie down, use my tote bag as a pillow, and pretend that you’re reading a book. Cross your legs at the knee and relax.”
 

Did she say
relax
? I was wound up so tight that I could hardly breathe, but I did as I was told, arranging the bag and spreading myself out on the blanket. It took me several tries to cross my legs before it felt natural and comfortable.

I opened the book in the middle and breathed deep. Shannon didn’t say anything while she moved around on her knees, circling me. Before long, she was snapping picture after picture from different angles. Since I didn’t have to look straight at the camera, I began to relax, and my shoulders loosened up.
 

“Brian?” Shannon asked after a few minutes.

I looked up from the book. “Yeah?”
 

I heard a swift
click
,
click
,
click
and realized she had stolen a few head-on shots. Although I covered my face with my arms and tried to block the lens, she continued her assault with the camera.

“You think you’re sneaky, huh?” I said once the clicking had stopped.

“I have an unwilling model, so I had to get creative.” She laughed. “Why don’t you sit up cross-legged this time?”

“You’re not done yet? You must have enough to fill a whole yearbook.”

“Not quite. I want a lot of pictures to work with.” She aimed the camera at me again without waiting for me to rearrange myself.

“I have a better idea.” I tried to take the camera from her, but I’d forgotten that the camera’s strap was around her neck. Shannon fell forward, our bodies pressed together for a brief moment. Despite an urge to kiss her, I recalled my promise not to kiss her until she asked me. I pushed her back instead.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pull so hard.” I let go of the strap.

“What is your brilliant idea?” she asked, her voice sounding a bit shaky.

My heart was stuck in my throat, but I managed to say, “Let’s take a picture together.”
 

“How do you intend to do that?” she asked, although she handed me the camera without hesitation. “Do you want me to ask someone?”

“No, I can do it. You just have to move closer.”
 

Shannon hesitated but then scooted closer until our shoulders touched. “Like this?” she asked.

I tried to gauge the angle. “A little closer. I don’t want to cut your face off.”
 

She scooted closer. “Better?”
 

“I think so.” I took a picture and then turned the camera to see how it came out. The top of my head was cut off, and only half of her face made it in. When I showed her the photo, she wrinkled her nose. “Okay, let’s do this one more time.” With one arm, I circled her neck, keeping my other arm extended forward to steady the camera. “Ready?”

Before she could answer, I pressed the button and kept pressing it. With my finger on the button, I blew in her ear, and she began jerking away, giggling. When I reviewed the pictures, I saw that they had turned out just the way I intended, candid and relaxed. We were laughing, our faces toward each other—it looked so natural.

“Take a look,” I said, handing back her camera.
 

Shannon checked out the pictures one by one. Each brought a bigger grin until she was laughing out loud. “You’re crazy!” she said after she had seen them all.

Yeah, because of you
,
I thought, but I had to settle for saying, “Well, if you can’t beat them, join ‘em!”
 

Laughing, I tickled her until she fell back on the blanket, giggling. Although she tried to fight back and climb on top of me, she was smaller and lighter, so I was able to wrestle her back onto the blanket, pinning her hands and legs.

“You give up?” I asked, looking down at her pretty face.

She laughed and nodded. “I give up!”
 

After releasing her, I collapsed next to her and sighed. God, I couldn’t remember being this happy . . . ever. There hadn’t been a time when I hadn’t felt self-conscious, but being with Shannon was liberating.