Starfall: A Starstruck Novel (16 page)

“Yeah. I…we…were worried. It’s great that you’re here and that you’re okay. I mean, except for the memory thing.”

I have to grin at her embarrassment. “Thanks. Maybe we can talk later?” She might be a good person to fill in some of the blanks Trina can’t.

Even as I ask, I feel it again—that super-strong
brath
that can only be the Sovereign’s. Even though I don’t turn my head, I’m completely focused on where she is, coming up from behind my left shoulder. Passing me without a glance.

“Definitely! Later.” Molly nods vigorously and goes to sit near the Sovereign, two rows away. M? Is that what people call her at school? I still feel her
brath
, way stronger than Molly’s, even from ten feet away. Must be a Royal thing.
 

I’m still watching her when a cute, short blonde girl runs across the classroom and practically launches herself at the Sovereign, hugging her and squealing. “M! You
are
here! When you weren’t on the bus this morning, Bri and I worried those rumors about you not coming back this year were true. I’m
so
glad they’re not!”

The Sovereign answers more quietly, but with my extra-acute Martian hearing I have no trouble eavesdropping from halfway across the room. “Thanks, Deb. Yeah, it was touch and go for a while there. I didn’t get home till last night, so Aunt Theresa drove me here early this morning so she could get me registered and everything.”

“So—” Deb looks her over. “No cast or bandages or anything? You’re all healed up from that accident? You can’t
imagine
how I felt when I heard that rumor you were killed! It was awful! I cried and cried. But then, just a couple days later, we all found out it wasn’t true. Bri and I—”

Class starts then, so the little blonde, Deb, shuts up. I’m still processing everything I just overheard. The Sovereign was in an accident, too? The same one I was in? If nobody knew for sure she’d be back, that at least explains why my folks didn’t mention her.
 

I spend most of the period distracted by my thoughts and by the Sovereign’s super-strong vibes. Even so, by the end of class I’m pretty sure I won’t need Trina’s help with math. Any healthy guy ought to feel disappointed by that. So why aren’t I? Just because Trina’s a
Duchas
? Am I prejudiced?
 

For the first time, I wonder if I’ll learn things about this past year—about myself—that I won’t like.

In Spanish class, Trina motions me to the desk next to hers. “So, how was Pre-Cal? I can help you with Spanish, too. We had almost
all
our classes together last year. Maybe we should plan some evening tutoring dates this week?” She leans toward me and flutters impossibly long eyelashes.

“Yeah, maybe. So, um, what else can you tell me about last year? Not just schoolwork. Who I was friends with, what I did besides football, that kind of thing. It’s weird not to know.” I’ll also ask the guys on the team some of this stuff after practice today. Last week we were all so focused on catching me up on the plays and all that I never even thought about it.

Shooting a quick glance at the teacher, Trina puts a hand on my arm and leans in closer. “I can only
imagine
what you’re going through, Rigel, and I’ll help
any
way I can! You and I were friends. Obviously.” She slants a flirty look up at me. “And you hung out with most of the guys from the team, of course.”

“Do you mean… Were we…” Jeez this is awkward! “Were you and I a…a couple last year?” There. I asked.

“A couple?” She trills a little laugh. “Duh! We were on Homecoming Court together!”
 

The way she says it makes me wonder, though. “So…did we date the whole year? Or did I, um, go out with anybody else?” She frowns and I quickly say, “It’s just I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, y’know?”
 

She gives a little huff and I realize, too late, what a stupid question that was to ask Trina, no matter how much I need to know.
 

Before I can apologize, a girl with long, dark, curly hair on Trina’s other side leans forward to look past her at me. “Hey, Rigel, I’m Bri Morrison. I heard what happened, so I know you don’t remember me, but we used to hang in the same crowd last year. Right, Trina?”
 

Trina doesn’t answer, just ignores her, and then the teacher starts class.

When the bell rings at the end of the period, Trina waits until Bri moves away, then finally says, “Okay, fine. You might have gone out with other girls, but nothing serious. You
definitely
weren’t dating anyone else when you left for Ireland.”

I’m not dumb enough to ask which other girls. Way safer to ask my teammates later. We’re heading down the hall to our next class when a guy with bright, copper-colored hair makes a point of stopping to introduce himself. This guy is seriously tall, at least six and a half feet. He’s also Martian.

“Hey, Rigel. You won’t remember, but I’m Sean, Sean O’Gara. Just wanted to say how sorry I am this happened to you and that if there’s any way I can help, I absolutely will.”

“Thanks.” I shake his extended hand. “I met your sister first period. She says we all hung out some last year?”

“Kind of a lot, yeah. We even went to, um, Ireland together. Seriously, anything I can do, just let me know.” He smiles, claps me on the shoulder and continues on down the hall.

Trina glances over her shoulder at him. “Sean’s our basketball phenom, kind of like you were—are—with football. And Molly, his sister, is on the cheer squad with me. She’s really good.”

Huh. So Trina
is
capable of saying something nice about another girl. Must mean Molly and I never dated.
 

I file that tidbit away as we enter the Chemistry classroom to find Molly and the Sovereign already there, sharing a lab table. Again, the Sovereign’s special vibe is oddly compelling. Almost magnetic. Remembering how it distracted me in Pre-Cal, I don’t argue when Trina drags me to a lab table on the exact opposite side of the room.

Even so, I find myself trying to listen in on whatever Molly and the Sovereign are saying.

“I’m sorry, M. This has to be really hard for you.”
 

“Even more than I thought it would be.” Like before, the Sovereign’s voice sort of thrums through me. I swallow, hard. “But I’m still planning to do everything I can to—”

“Everyone, please pick up the syllabus sheets on your tables and look through them,” the teacher says, so the Sovereign breaks off. For a second I’m ticked at the teacher for making her stop, she has such an amazing voice.
 

“This will be a fairly hands-on class, with one or two labs a week,” the teacher continues, and it’s not till then I realize
he’s
a Martian, too.
 

Sheesh. This school is positively infested with us! Because Jewel is where the Sovereign grew up and all? I could swear they said in Ireland she’d gone off to Mars to be Sovereign there, but apparently not. I’ll have to get Sean and Molly O’Gara to fill me in. They’ll not only know what the other kids remember from last year, but the Martian side of things, too.
 

On the way to our next class, Trina and I end up walking right behind Molly and the Sovereign but Trina’s chattering so much I don’t get a chance to eavesdrop. I want to tell her to shut up but don’t feel like I can afford to piss her off.

“Anyway, maybe some afternoons after football and cheerleading practice, you can come over to my house. It’ll be fun, plus I can tell you more about all the stuff you don’t remember, maybe jog your memory?”
 

In front of me, I see the Sovereign’s head twitch like she’s about to turn around. She doesn’t, but she can obviously hear Trina’s flirty prattle, what with Martian senses and all. From what Molly said, the Sovereign and I were actually friends last year, though my parents never mentioned it. I wonder if we were
close
friends or—

“Rigel, are you listening to me?” The edge in Trina’s voice snaps me back to the present. Which is all I have now anyway.

“Sorry. I keep, um, spacing out.”

Immediately Trina’s all apologetic. “Poor baby. I keep forgetting how overwhelming this must be for you.”

She keeps talking until we reach the classroom—which the Sovereign turns into right ahead of us, though Molly keeps walking. Man, I am never going to catch up in my classes if she’s in practically every one! I know it’s a tiny school and all, less than a quarter the size of Center North, where I was a freshman, but still.

This time I end up sitting the next row over from her, which means her
brath
affects me more than ever. Like my skin is too tight or something. Maybe I’ll try to talk to her again after. If we really were friends, that shouldn’t be too out of line.
 

I hope.

At lunch, when Trina finally goes to talk to some of the other cheerleaders, I use the opportunity to get a few questions answered without pissing her off.

“Hey, Matt, can you tell me what the deal was with Trina and me last year? Or me and anybody else, for that matter?”

Matt, one of our receivers, glances after her and frowns. “You and Trina went out for a couple weeks last fall, got voted onto Homecoming Court together, but other than that you didn’t really hang much with her last year. Not for lack of her trying, though. If you’re still not interested, feel free to pitch her my way. Bitchy or not, she’s pretty hot.”

I force a laugh. “I may do that. So…did I go out with anybody else? Have any special friends or enemies? I can’t tell you how weird it is not to remember anything—or anybody. I’m always worried I’ll say the wrong thing.”

“Yeah, that’s gotta be tough. Let’s see. There was the thing you and M—Marsha Truitt, I mean—had going at the start of the year, then you two were kind of off and on for a while after that. Until Sean O’Gara got here, anyway. Sorry, man, but she…kinda dumped you for him.” He grimaces again, but in sympathy this time.

“Huh. Ouch. Maybe just as well I don’t remember.” I barely know what I’m saying, I’m so boggled to hear I once had a
thing
with the Sovereign.

Michael Best, on my other side, chimes in. “You were still mostly friends after, so it couldn’t have been too bad a breakup. You even stayed friends with Sean, mostly, though sometimes you and he sorta went at it.”

Whoa! “Like, getting into fights?”

“Nah. Not that I heard about, anyway. Just digs and stuff. Mostly over M. She probably loved it.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” says Jimmy Franklin from across the table. He’s new on the Varsity squad, though he was JV last year. “M never tried to play you guys off against each other that I saw. Not like—” He nods in Trina’s direction. “She was always trying to rile both of you up. I heard her doing it more than once.”

“Yeah, well, Trina and M go way back,” Michael says. “In middle school and even before, Marsha was Trina’s favorite punching bag. She always hated it if M got anything she wanted. Like you. And then Sean.”

Matt starts laughing. “M sure got her back, though! You all saw that video Amber got on her phone, right? The day before you guys left for Ireland,” he tells me. “I don’t know exactly what Trina did, but I guess M finally got fed up and went after her. It was actually pretty funny, even though Trina ended up with a broken nose—which was totally her own fault.”

“So don’t go believing everything Trina tells you,” Jimmy cautions me. “That one’s
always
got an agenda. Or two.”

“Still…” Matt’s eyes stray to Trina, where she’s apparently demonstrating a cheer to one of the other girls, her backside wiggling. “I wouldn’t say no if she, y’know, offered.”

The warning bell for next period sounds. As we all grab our trays I glance thoughtfully at Trina myself. Could she be coming on to me to make M—the Sovereign—
jealous
? Seems unlikely. Even if M and I did date briefly, which I still can’t believe, we apparently broke up the moment Sean, her Consort, got to Jewel. Which makes total sense, though none of the guys would know that.
 

In U.S. Government, after lunch, I get my first chance to see the Sovereign and her Consort-fiancé-whatever together. The two of them and Molly all say hi to me, so I sit on the same side of the room with them. It helps that Trina’s not in this class.

“Hey, Rigel,” says the Sovereign’s little blonde friend from Pre-Cal—incidentally
not
a Martian. “I didn’t get a chance to reintroduce myself earlier, but I’m Deb Andrews. We were friends last year.” She doesn’t say it like Trina did—like we were something
more
than friends. Which is a relief since I don’t need any more complications right now.

“Hi, Deb. Nice to meet you. Again.”
 

Bri, the dark-haired girl from Spanish class, is here, too. The Sovereign is talking with her, apparently continuing some conversation they started at lunch about who went out with who over the summer. I don’t pay attention to their words, just to the Sovereign’s voice, which still seems to affect me way more than anybody else. Or maybe they’re all just used to it? Probably I was, too, before I lost my memory. Gonna have to develop my immunity all over again, I guess.

Even though they’re sitting next to each other, I don’t notice anything special about the way M and Sean talk to each other, or the looks they exchange or anything. Not like you’d expect between boyfriend and girlfriend, much less two people who are practically engaged. Huh.

Sean and I both have Weight Training right after Government, so I finally talk with him while we take turns spotting each other on the bench press.
 

“This has to be super strange for you.” He says it quietly enough that even the guys on the next weight bench probably can’t hear him. “It’s kind of weird for all of us, too. I keep forgetting how much you, um, don’t know. Especially since I’m not even sure exactly how much that is. What did they tell you after you, er, woke up?”

I give the barbell another couple of lifts, trying not to make it look too easy in case any of the other guys are watching. One drawback of Martian strength—trying to be inconspicuous about it.