Sidekicks (9 page)

"So you're staying with Marty Bookman?" Mom asked Cooper as she spooned steaming pasta onto his plate.

"For now. Do you know him?"

"I know his whole family. They eat at the restaurant a lot. Both your parents were from this area, right? You don't have any relatives around?"

"No ma'am."

I slashed my hand across my throat to kill that line of questioning.

Dad quickly took up the slack, asking Cooper about his new job, school, and football. "What position do you play?"

"Tackle."

"How's the season going?"

"We're five and one. Two more games left."

Since I had no interest in sports, even one Cooper loved, my mind wandered while they discussed game details and the upcoming basketball season. For some reason, a spirit I knew but didn't know approached, startling me. Strange ghosts seldom showed up at the Tagliaro house, something I constantly thanked Nick for. I figured he was protecting me from unwanted intrusion since I wasn't very good at doing that, myself.

Hard to ignore, this spirit--an Asian mix, I thought--hovered. As I shoveled pasta into my mouth, I became more and more disturbed and, as a result, jittery. I dropped my fork, which clattered onto my plate but didn't chip it, thank goodness. I bobbled my stemmed glass, spilling Coke. Then I knocked over the bowl of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

"Are you okay?" asked Mom, quickly righting it.

"Uh-huh." I laid my cloth napkin on the table and pushed my chair back. "Excuse me. I'll just be a sec." Practically running, I went to the bathroom and locked the door. "What do you want?"

Though it felt as if the spirit had followed me into the room, I got no response. Impulsively, I turned off the light, which doused the area in darkness, any specter's playground. I instantly saw an apparition that was mostly a face with a wispy body. I couldn't make out clothing at all. Had the spirit from the hospital followed me home? And if so, she'd sure faded a lot. And why didn't she feel the same?

A new possibility came to me. Was this the woman lying in the leaves in that snapshot in Detective Simms's office? She had bruises and scratches that told me she'd died a violent death. But how had she found me?

Weirded out, I flicked on the light to chase her away. A nanosecond later, I puked over the toilet, heaving until my ribs hurt and I thought I'd keel over.

Someone pounded on the door.
Bang. Bang
. I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Mia! Are you sick?"

Mom.

"I'm fine. Be out in a minute." I quickly flushed and rinsed my mouth. Then I looked in the mirror. A pale, wide-eyed girl with brown eyes and black hair looked back at me. I pinched my cheeks for color, pasted a smile on my face, and opened the door. "Yuck. Something did not agree with me."

"So Cooper said."

It didn't surprise me that he knew. Naturally I wondered if he'd seen the spirit, too. "Hope nobody else gets sick."

"So do I." She led the way back to the dining room.

I slipped into my chair, next to Cooper.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, avoiding his intense gaze.

I played with my food during the rest of the meal, unsure if I should try eating again. But by dessert time--good ol' American apple pie--I managed to get something down. After dinner, Mom and I sent the guys to the den. We quickly cleared up and joined them just fifteen minutes later. I immediately invited Cooper to accompany me to the back deck even though it was a little cool out.

He snagged his hoodie; I snagged mine. We went out through the door in the utility room. A black sky spangled with stars drew us into the night. Since I'd deliberately left the deck light off, we were nothing more than shadows in the dark as we sat on the steps descending onto the lawn. Cooper chose the step above mine, which left me free to settle right in front of him. Leaning back, I rested my arms on his thighs. I looked around, half expecting that scary spirit to show up again. But she gave us our space.

"You saw her?" I asked.

"For a split second. Did she follow you to the bathroom?"

"Yeah."

Cooper leaned forward slightly to wrap both his arms around me. "That wasn't the woman from the hospital, was it?"

"I don't think so, but she favored her a lot."

"As in Asian."

"Exactly. Or a mix. The eyes were exotic, but not really Asian."

"Well, whoever she is, she definitely died a violent death."

So he'd picked up on that, too. I shivered at the memory.

We sat in silence for a minute, with Cooper rubbing my shoulders.

"If the police have everything under control, why are these women coming to me?" I said, breaking the silence.

"Have you seen more than just those two?"

"No."

"Then I think they're coming to
us
."

He had a point, and that made me feel a little better. "I don't know one thing about what happened to those poor ladies. Are you getting any details?"

"Not yet."

So he thought he might. Good. Another forward step towards a full sidekick reunion. "So all we can say for sure is that they're definitely dead. Even that little bit of information might help solve Detective Simms's cases if I told him."

"It might for sure. Assuming they have something to do with him, and I think they do since he had those photos on his bulletin board and was at the hospital, too. But he may not thank you for the information. I mean, he seemed pretty adamant about keeping us out of it."

"For sure." I thought about helping anyway, trying to picture myself at the police station passing along terrifying details about a murder. In my whole life, my sidekick had never once focused on anything so scary. The spirits I communicated with were happy ones. I feared letting bad stuff inside my head would change me and what I normally did. "Even if Detective Simms would agree to let us help, I'm not sure I want to or can do it. What about you?"

He didn't hesitate. "Honestly? I'd rather not. I'm afraid I might open a door I could never close again."

"So how do we handle this?"

"We were told to stay out of it, so that's what we should do...at least for now."

That sounded good to me.

We went inside a few minutes later since I'd started to shiver. Mom and Dad were both in the living room. Preferring privacy to their favorite sitcoms, we headed upstairs to my room. I didn't really have a comfortable chair, the perfect excuse for us to stretch out on the bed and begin some channel surfing of our own. I loved the way Cooper slid his arm under my neck, which gave me freedom to cuddle up to him. I didn't even mind when he found a football game on TV.

But he didn't really watch it. Instead, he began kissing me. Though I'd left the door open, I didn't hold back. Kissing Cooper was pure heaven. I loved the way his heart beat so steadily beneath my hand; I loved the scratchy feel of his chin against my face; I loved his lips, always gentle but firmly pressed to mine.

Sensing we had company--the spirit kind--I waved Nick away. "Not now. I'm busy."

Cooper turned on his side to face me. "You need to set limits, as in when you're making out with your handsome, brilliant, totally awesome boyfriend, no dead people can come in."

I snickered just a little. "Doesn't work."

"Then I'll do it for you. Dude--"

"His name is Nick."

"Nick, we have a new rule. When Mia is entertaining someone up here-- Let me rephrase that. When Mia is entertaining me, you can't come in. You're also not welcome when she's in the bathroom, dressing, or naked. If, however, she's got another guy in here, feel free to barge right in." He caught my eye. "Have I missed anything?"

I could barely answer for laughing. "Don't think so."

The room instantly felt lighter.

I slapped my hand over my mouth. "Oh my God. It worked. Don't be mad, Nick. We really aren't trying to hurt your feelings."

"Hey now! Do not undo what I've just done, please."

"Sorry." I spoke to the ceiling. "The new rules still apply."

"That's better." Cooper sat up. "I need to go. Marty's parents sometimes go to bed really early during the week, and I don't want to wake them when I get there."

"Okay."

We kissed again and then got off the bed. I walked him downstairs, where he said his goodbyes, and then stepped out the door.

He turned to face me. "Are you coming to my game tomorrow night?"

"Um...I guess I could."

Cooper chuckled. "Just testing your devotion. It's out of town and it's supposed to rain, so don't bother. I'll tell you all about it on when you come into Chick-fil-A on Saturday."

"Great." I hoped he didn't pick up on my lack of enthusiasm for a sport he loved. "I'm going to be at Chick-fil-A on Saturday?"

"If you want to see me, you are. I'm working from three until eleven, so we sure won't be able to do anything after I get off."

Since I hadn't really thought about the difficulties of dating a guy who played football on Friday nights and worked on Saturday nights, I was pretty bummed.

"Of course, there's always Sunday if you want to hang with me," he added.

"Do
you
want to hang with
me
?"

He grinned. "Baby, you have no idea."

* * * *

We had a pep rally at school on Friday just before lunch, something we only did for away games that some students couldn't get to. And though I'd reluctantly attended every one held so far, this one was different because I actually had a player to root for. Since Brynn did, too, we both cheered our hearts out, something new. Oddly enough, I almost felt as if I belonged with the other kids crowded around us.

Tyler, a fan of most other sports, seemed a little bored with everything, as usual. We secretly decided he needed a girlfriend to liven things up and promised each other we'd be on the lookout for a female senior who liked six-foot-plus guys with a wicked sense of humor, a lot of loyalty, and no sense of romance.

Once that was over, we all filed into the caf at once, causing a huge traffic jam of human bodies at every entrance. Focused on feeding my growling tummy, I didn't see three girls approaching me until they stood barely a foot away. I'm sure my eyes flew open wide when they blocked my path.

Though Martinsburg had its share of Goth chicks, I'd never been approached by one, much less three of them. Startled, I backed up a little, which put me in contact with Cooper, rock solid and standing right behind me.

"Can I do something for you?" I asked when I found my voice.

The girls, all with ebony hair and too much eyeliner, wore clothes only a double-double-toil-and-trouble sort of gal could love. They smirked at me as the center one spoke. "We don't think you're the real thing."

And they were? I bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing. "Sounds like a personal problem."

"We hate fakes," said the girl on the left.

I noticed she had black lipstick on her tooth, which sort of spoiled the look she was going for, but I didn't enlighten her. Any chick who thought lips were
naturally
that color had to have serious mental problems. "And you're telling me this because...?"

"You should watch your back," said the girl on the right.

That did it. I laughed out loud. Cooper, however, went ballistic. "Just in case you weirdoes don't know--" He got right in middle wannabe-witch's face "--this school doesn't tolerate bullying. But that wasn't really bullying, was it? That was a freakin' threat."

I'd never seen his cheeks so red. Concerned that he might just lose it and start yelling or something, I shot a glance at the teachers watching us and touched his arm. "Cooper, no. They're not wor--"

"Cooper? Would that be Cooper
Marsh
?" The girl on the left glared at us. "Just because your dad is the principal doesn't mean you have the right to harass us."

Huh? I immediately wedged myself between my guy and the idiots confronting us. "Marsh isn't his dad, and I believe you three started this."

"Cooper!" Patrick Marsh's cry from our left instantly defused the situation. The cowardly witches scattered, leaving just we two to face our principal's wrath. And was he ever pissed. "My office. Now."

Meekly, we trailed him all the way down two halls to the front of the school. He barged past the secretary into a room behind hers and waited for us to follow before shutting the door. "I knew this would happen."

That got me. "You knew that three rude girls would accost me in the hall?"

"Don't get smart with me, Miss Tagliaro."

I clamped my lips together to keep from saying something that would probably piss him off even more and put me in D-hall for the rest of my life.

"I knew all this talk about supposed psychic abilities and communicating with the dead would cause nothing but trouble." His gaze nailed Cooper to the wall. "Yet you've ignored my repeated warnings and a very reasonable request to step away from it. As a result, students are disturbed, scared even, and our counselors are now fielding questions on the paranormal when they should be focusing on benchmark exams."

In disbelief, I sneaked a glance at Cooper, who stared back at his stepdad in stony silence.

Marsh shifted his attention to me. "As for you, Miss Tagliaro, I heard all about you giving a supposed message to Cyndi Caplan from her dead sister. You must realize I can't condone that kind of behavior. I'll have every parent in the city and surrounding parishes up here complaining."

"Excuse me," I said, determined to be respectful. "I really don't understand why I can't be who I am, but every other student, from Goth to geek, gets to be what they are. Or is diversity not encouraged at Martinsburg High."

"Of course it is, but not when--"

Cooper cut him off. "May I say something?"

Mr. Marsh nodded.

"I don't believe this is really about Mia, so can she please leave?"

"What?" I grabbed Cooper's face by the cheeks, which puckered his mouth, and made him look at me. "I'm not going anywhere." Whirling, I faced Marsh. "Just because you don't understand something, doesn't mean it's not real. Cooper has amazing abilities, yet he's been forced to keep them hidden, suppressed even, to keep the peace at home, which is nothing but mean."