The Next Full Moon (5 page)

There were worse twins to have, she had to admit. As her grandmother would say, that Ava Gardner was one tall drink of water even if she was only five foot five.

Now there was no way she could stay home, though she definitely felt sick. Felt like she was dying, in fact. Didn't that horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach count for something?

“I think it's called I-don't-want-to-go-to-school-itis,” her father said. “Believe me, I've had it, too. And why have you suddenly decided to wear a hoodie every day in June? What's going on under there? Do you think Ava Gardner ever wore a hoodie?”

“Dad, I'm twelve!” she cried, and then ran into her room and slammed the door.

How could she possibly go to school and face Jeff Jackson and Jennifer Halverson and all the rest of them? Not only did she have thick white feathers all down her arms and across
her shoulders and back, but now the skin around the feathers seemed to be wrinkling, drying up, separating. It was getting worse! And even more gross, which hadn't seemed possible the day before. By this time next week she could look just like Big Bird.

The hoodie hid everything, but on top of looking totally ridiculous in this weather, it also made her look like she'd gained twenty pounds.

Which she hadn't. At least not
yet
.

“Ava, you are going to school if I have to drag you there by that ridiculous hood!” her father yelled, banging on the door. “You have less than two weeks left, all your exams, and no child of mine is going to fail the seventh grade!”

“How can they fail me for being
sick
!” she yelled back, from behind the door.

She knew she was being ridiculous, but what was she supposed to do? It was all so unfair!

“Ava, we both know you are not sick. If you'd tell me what is actually going on, I could possibly help you. You can tell me anything, you know. Whatever's going on with you. I am an adult and fairly intelligent as well.”

“You can't help me!” she said, throwing open the door. A dramatic gesture worthy of a movie star, she thought, Ava Gardner flashing through her mind. “You would never understand!”

Her father rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. “You're
not even a teenager yet, Ava. What am I going to do with you? Now get dressed and I'm taking you to school myself.”

“Fine,” she said, slamming the door shut again and throwing herself onto her bed.

She would just have to wear hoodies every day until school was over and then she had the whole summer to lock herself in her room—well, maybe hang out in the backyard, and in the woods, and in the den in front of the big-screen television, and maybe at Grandma Kay's house, though only if her father dropped her off and she rode in the trunk of the car—to be a freak by herself. And after that? She'd obviously have to run off and join the circus.

That wasn't a bad idea, she realized. Imagining herself, suddenly, covered in white feathers, her black hair piled on top of her head, riding around on the top of an elephant. The crowds would laugh and roar and applaud as she guided the elephant around the ring. Maybe she'd stand on the elephant's back and wave a baton with tassles on the end the whole time. Tassles on
fire
.

“Ava!”

“I'm coming!” she said, jumping up from the bed and throwing on her hoodie and a pair of jeans, a feather drifting to the ground behind her.

She grabbed her school bag and her cell phone, which she flipped open for the first time in two days. She'd finally silenced it the night before to avoid Morgan's calls. Now
she had thirty-one missed calls, and nearly twenty text messages. At least Morgan loved her. Morgan
was
like her sister. Maybe Morgan would still love her when she turned into a giant bird.

“WHERE RU?” was the last text.

Ava wrote back. “Was sick, coming today.”

She spent the rest of the ride deleting her in-box, one message from Morgan after another, until they pulled up to the front of the ugly gold brick building with the words HOUGHTON MIDDLE SCHOOL across it.

“Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?” Ava's father asked, turning to her. “Or at least take off that hood?”

He looked so loving and worried. She felt terrible for him suddenly. Not only had he lost his wife and never really even looked at another woman since, but now his daughter was covered in feathers and very likely going to join the circus or go live in a cave. On impulse, she reached over and kissed his cheek.

“I'll think about it, Dad,” she said. “Thank you for driving me to school and caring so much about my education even though I am deathly ill.”

He laughed. “No problem, kiddo. I love you, too. Now go knock 'em dead.”

The school loomed up in front of her, kids standing all around and hanging out on the front steps. She took a deep
breath. It was worse than she thought. It was as if no one had ever seen a girl in a hoodie on a hot June day before. She walked hunched over, with her head down, but she could still feel everyone staring.

It
was
hot. High of ninety degrees, the weather forecast had said. Already she was starting to sweat, which made her feathers stick together. As if she didn't feel like enough of a freak already. Everyone else was dressed as if they were living in a California beach town rather than the center of Pennsylvania. Louis Woods was even wearing a surfer shirt that hung to his orange fake-tanned legs. Ridiculous.

And right there by the front doors, Jeff Jackson was standing alone. She glanced up and met his eyes. He was staring at her. She could feel herself blushing wildly. He had to think she was completely mad after what had happened, not to mention hideous and deformed and totally impolite. But to her surprise, he smiled and waved.

Immediately she looked down, and then caught herself and looked up again, forcing herself to wave back. Ava Gardner would have waved back. The circus star who could stand on an elephant and twirl batons would have waved back. She forced herself to keep walking, even though every instinct told her to turn around and run. Her heart was pounding in her chest. What if feathers started spilling from her body and onto the ground?

He obviously wanted to talk to her. He was actually
smiling and gesturing for her to come over.

Nervously, she walked toward him. She wracked her mind for something to say, to explain her strange behavior at the lake. Maybe she could explain that her body had been temporarily taken over by extremely dorky aliens? Maybe he found it charming that she lacked any kind of social grace?

As she walked toward him, a group of girls burst out of the front doors of the school and skipped down the stairs. Within seconds Jeff was surrounded.

“Jeff!” they called, giggling. “What's going on?” one voice in particular asked. Jennifer Halverson's voice. Of course.

Jeff gave Ava a small smile and a shrug as Jennifer threw her arms around him.

Awkwardly, Ava changed direction to pass the group of them on the left, and almost stumbled.

“Nice outfit,” Brenda Mulligan called out. Brenda was one of the small group of girls who seemed to follow Jennifer everywhere. A zombie, Morgan called her. “All those girls are zombies,” Morgan had said. “Except they don't even
want
brains!”

Ava ignored the group's laughter. If they were laughing at her, which they probably were, she didn't want to know.

“Hey, cut it out,” Jeff said.

Ava looked up in shock. He was defending her! She couldn't believe it. He was so gallant, like Cary Grant. She wanted to run up right then and there and plant one on him.

She gave him a bright smile as she passed, just to annoy Jennifer even more, and a thousand fantasies filled her head as she raced up the front steps of the school.

She imagined herself and Jeff going down a wedding aisle. Her sitting on her elephant and wearing a big white feathered dress, him in his swimming trunks, his tanned muscles gleaming, his handsome face smiling as he vowed to defend her and love her and act just like Cary Grant but even more awesome until they were old and dead.

As she pushed through the front doors, she was jumping down from the elephant's back and into Jeff Jackson's arms.

“Ava!” Morgan's voice called out, piercing through the hallway chatter.

Ava tried to pretend she couldn't hear her friend. Suddenly the hallways seemed impossibly crowded—and dangerous. All she had to do was get to homeroom and she'd be safe. She shouldn't have even been here. What she should have done, she realized, was walk right past the school and loiter all day at the supermarket down the street, or out in the woods like some juvenile delinquent.

“Ava!”

Morgan was right in front of her. Despite herself, Ava was impressed that her friend could move so quickly. Morgan wasn't the most graceful girl ever, not that Ava could talk.

“I have a test, I need to study.”

“Bull. What happened?” Morgan stood with her hands
at her waist, refusing to budge. Her red hair wild around her freckled face.

“I got sick. What do you mean?”

“Something
happened
, at the lake. You weren't sick, you freaked out.”

“You misunderstood.”

“I did
not
. One minute you were making out with the most popular boy in school, the next minute you were freaking out in the bathrooms.”

“We didn't make out.”

“Whatever. You would have, if you hadn't freaked out.”

“Quit saying that!”

They were standing in front of a classroom, and now kids were pushing by them to get inside. People were starting to stare.

“Ava! Why are you being so weird? And why are you wearing that hood?”

Ava took Morgan's hand and started pulling her down the hallway to the girls' bathroom.

“You better tell me what's going on,” Morgan said, “if you're going to make me miss homeroom. I already have three tardies, you know.”

“Listen, something really terrible is happening, okay?” Ava said, pulling Morgan into the girls' room.

She'd expected to find a safe haven there, but she realized, too late, that they weren't alone. Jennifer Halverson's BFF
Vivienne Witmer was standing at the mirror smearing gloss over her perfect Angelina-Jolie lips.

“I hope everything is okay,” Vivienne said, turning to them with exaggerated concern.

“Thanks,” Ava said.

“You must really be having a bad hair day,” Vivienne said as she walked past and out the door. “See you!”

“She is so unpleasant,” Morgan sniffed. “It's just because Jeff Jackson likes you, you know. Now are you going to tell me what's going on or not?”

Ava studied her friend. If she had to tell anyone, it would be Morgan. She probably should tell someone what was going on in case the feathers killed her or something, or she suddenly turned into a giant bird. But just the thought of talking about it out loud made her feel sick.

“How bad can it possibly be? We live in Pennsylvania and we're
twelve
. Do you have some weird rash or something?”

“No!”

“Why do you have your head covered? Did you get a bad perm? Or cut off all your hair?” Morgan's eyes widened. “Oh my god, you shaved your head.”

“Why would I shave my head?”

“You totally liked that girl's shaved head on
America's Next Top Model
. You did it, didn't you?”

“No!”

“Do you need me to help you shop for a wig?”

“No, I do not.”

“Ava, look on the bright side. You could get a pink bob or something.”

“
Okay
,” Ava said. “I'll tell you what happened, and what's happening, but you won't believe it. And you have to swear you will not tell one single other soul.”

“I swear!”

“But I can't tell you here. Can you come over after school? My dad gets home around six so we'll have a couple of hours.”

Morgan crossed her arms and leaned against one of the sinks. “You can't make me wait until after school. It's only first period! Which we are missing, by the way, thankyouverymuch.”

“You might freak out when I tell you.”

“I promise not to freak out, okay? No matter what it is.”

“You swear?”

“Yes!”

Ava took another deep breath. Outside, the halls were quiet now. Normally she would never have skipped a class, but nothing about today was normal, was it? She thought wistfully of her straight A's and how little good they would do her in the world now. Obviously, it was all downhill from here.

Morgan stood waiting, her big green eyes watching Ava worriedly, impatiently.

“Let's go into a stall,” Ava said. “Just in case anyone comes in. And then I'll show you. The one at the end.”

“Okay,” Morgan said.

Ava checked all the other stalls, just to be sure, even though all the doors were wide open. She would die if anyone overheard what she was about to tell her friend.

And then she followed Morgan into the last stall and latched the door.

“Okay,” Ava said. “So . . . ”

Her voice caught in her throat. To her surprise, she started to cry.

“Ava,” Morgan said softly, reaching out to touch Ava's arm, “whatever it is I will help you. You're my best friend.”

Ava nodded. Even with Morgan, it was so unbelievably embarrassing. She had to just do it quickly if she was going to do it at all.

“Well,” she said, sighing, “just look, then. And no screaming.”

And she unzipped her hoodie and pulled it off. Under, she was wearing a black Rolling Stones T-shirt her dad had given her, which she took off, too, until she was standing in her flowered bra.

Wincing, she looked up to see Morgan's reaction.

Her friend stood there with her mouth hanging open, staring in wonder.