The Next Full Moon (9 page)

“So they won't grow back on me? Now that they have come off? I will be normal now?”

“Yes,” Helen whispered. “You will seem normal, anyway, but you have a great power. You can be one of them, and you can be one of us, too. Very few have the freedom to straddle two worlds. One day you will choose, but that is not for a long time yet.”

The moon, the forest, the women in the clearing, some of them swans again now, Helen and her jewel eyes and talk about other worlds—it was all too much. Ava stood transfixed, dazzled like the fish in the creek. No wonder her father was able to catch them, again and again. The word came to her:
moonstruck.
Like that movie with Cher. She and those poor trout were all moonstruck.

Helen tilted her head and smiled. “I will take you home now, dear girl. You have a lot to absorb from tonight.”

Ava nodded. She was so sleepy, suddenly. She tried to keep her eyes open, to take it all in, in case she was dreaming.

“But when will I see you again?” she asked, her voice slurring a little now, she was so tired.

“The next full moon,” Helen answered.

And then, before her eyes, Helen slipped on a robe—one of the others had been holding it—and as she did, her whole body bent down, turned into an
S
, and then she was on the ground, her great white wings stretched out on other side, her glittering blue eyes staring up at Ava.

Lara smiled, gesturing. “Go ahead, sit on her back.”

Ava looked at her, and then at Helen. “It won't . . . hurt her?”

Lara laughed. “No. Go ahead.”

Ava walked over, tentatively, and stretched one leg over the swan's back. And then she sat down, pressing her legs on either side of the bird's thick, soft body. Lara smiled and slipped on her own robe, and then she, too, transformed, her body slipping down, her neck stretching out, feathers sprouting all over until she was white as glittering snow.

Ava blinked, smiling at the clearing filled with swans that now, one by one, began launching themselves into the sky.

“Swan Maiden,”
Ava thought.

And then, under her, Helen's body clenched and her wings rose into the air and suddenly the grass was far below them, the moon seemed so close, and they were rising
together over the trees.

Ava's hair flew out behind her. The air streamed against her skin. She held on to Helen's neck, and didn't know whether to look up at the moon and stars or down below at the treetops, the curving, gleaming creek, the twinkling lights of the houses, and, farther away, much farther, the town, as she and the swan swam through the sky.

“Ava!”

The banging seeped into her sleep. Over and over and over.

“Ava!!”

She bolted awake.

Sun streamed into the room. She looked at the clock. It was 8 a.m.

“Ava, you're going to be late for school!”

Her head ached. She felt as if she could sleep for hours more.

“Avaaaaaa!”

“Yes, I'm coming,” she grumbled. “I'm getting up.”

“Since when did you start locking your door? And leaving the gourmet dinners I leave for you in the microwave to rot?”

Since I started growing feathers
, she thought, automatically reaching up to feel her upper arms. To her surprise, her arms were smooth. Perfect. Smoother than they'd ever been before.

And then she remembered the clearing and the swans, the beautiful woman, Helen, who'd shown up at the door, who'd taken her flying over the forest . . .

And the spaghetti bolognese. Had she really forgotten to eat her father's famous spaghetti?

Either it was all true, or she'd had one very, very strange dream while, apparently, letting her father's spaghetti rot. Which was really almost the strangest part.

She shook her head, pushing the covers off of her, and looked around the room.

Everything seemed normal. Her window slightly open, the smell of summer blowing in from outside. Flowers and warmth and freshly cut grass. She could hear the sprinkler going off in the backyard. A lawnmower in the distance.

“Ava,” her dad called from outside her door, “please do not turn into a sullen teenager on me. Your old dad may not be able to take it.”

“Dad, I'm getting ready!”

She leapt up and stared at herself in the mirror. She was normal, perfect. In fact she had never been so happy to see
her normal self. So what if her stomach pooched and her upper arms could have been skinnier? So what if she couldn't get a tan? She was completely feather free! Everything
had
been a dream, hadn't it?

A pang of sadness moved through her, a hollowness in her heart and gut, as she remembered the magical woman telling her that her mother was alive, a swan maiden, and that she would be able to see her. Imagine! Her mother with her long moon hair, transforming into a swan. She and her sisters swimming in the creek. Her mother never having really died, just having flown away. It was all so beautiful, but none of it had been real. Had it?

And then suddenly she remembered something else. Under the bed.

Her heart racing, she bent down, lifted the comforter . . . and there it was. The feathered robe. Ava reached in and pulled it out and spread it over the bed.

The feathers sparkled in the sunlight. Seemed to breathe in and out, as if they were alive. She ran her palms over the robe and the feathers seemed to move into her hands, like before.

She lifted the robe up to her neck, turned and faced the mirror.

Outside, her father banged on the door.

“I don't hear a shower running, kiddo, and it's 8:15!”

“I'm showering right NOW,” she said, sighing, shoving the feathered robe into her backpack and stumbling into the
bathroom.

Sadly, exploring her magical new swan maiden robe would have to wait.

School always got in the way of things that were important.

Morgan was waiting on the front steps of the school when Ava's father, who was in an unnaturally good mood for some reason, dropped her off.

“No hoodie?” she cried out as Ava approached.

Ava swung her hips from side to side, in an exaggeratedly sexy walk. An Ava Gardner walk. For once in her life she didn't care who was watching. She could just be herself. Let them all laugh if they didn't like it! AVA LEWIS, she imagined, in sparkling lights.

“I am much too fashionable for a hoodie,” she said, stretching out her bare arms and flipping her hair. Not only was she not wearing a hoodie, she was wearing a pretty sleeveless blouse and a short skirt rather than her usual jeans and T-shirt.

“Oh my god,” Morgan said. “You're... They're gone.”

“You look great, Ava,” George Kutz said as she walked by.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ava saw Jeff Jackson standing with a group of his friends. She turned and waved, smiling brightly at him.

For some reason, she didn't feel nervous the way she
usually did. She didn't feel nervous at all.

“Ava!” he called out, and he rushed up to her, leaving his friends gaping at them both. Jennifer was there, Ava could not help but note with an unusual feeling of satisfaction. Standing, as usual, with her hands on her hips and that mean-girl look on her face. Ava raised her hand and waved.

“Hey, Jennifer!” she called, smiling as Jennifer lost her cool and looked away awkwardly, not knowing how to respond.

Ava glanced up at Morgan and winked. Her friend raised her eyebrows and both thumbs.

“Dork,” Ava mouthed.

She turned to Jeff, who was just walking up to her. “How have you been, Ava?” he asked. He stood towering over her, his head bent down, his blue eyes seeming to crackle like a turning kaleidoscope.

“I was sick for a few days,” she said. “I'm sorry if I was kind of a freak at the lake. I didn't know I was sick, but I'm better now.”

“You seem better,” he said. “You look really pretty.” A slight blush spread over his cheeks.

Jeff Jackson—blushing! And calling her pretty! This was definitely the best day of her life, ever.

“Thank you,” she said, feeling the blush creep into her own cheeks as well. Why couldn't she be the cool one, just this once?! “How are you?”

“Good,” he said. “Will you be at the lake again next weekend, you think?”

“I think so,” she said. “I mean, it's summer now. I love it there.”

“Me, too.” He paused. “Maybe we could get a lemonade again, walk around some.”

“Ride the carousel,” she said, smiling.

“Yeah. Okay well. So we'll talk more then.”

“Sure. That would be great.”

He looked down, and then up again. “Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.”

She watched him walk off, back to his friends. A second later, Morgan was beside her, staring at her with huge green eyes. “Ava Lewis,” she said. “You NEED to start returning my text messages.”

“Did you see that?”

“Like, the
whole school
saw that,” Morgan said. “What did he say?”

“Oh, just that we'll get some more lemonade at the lake next weekend. You know, hang out.” She grinned. “Me and Jeff Jackson!”

“He so likes you.”

Smiling, Ava looked over again, saw Jennifer and her friends looking her up and down over their shoulders as they headed into school.

They were just trying to intimidate her. What did she
care? Her mother was alive. And her mother was a swan maiden.

“I've got something amazing to show you,” Ava said, turning to her friend.

“I just
saw
something amazing, Ava. You and Jeff Jackson! Do you realize what this means? It gives hope to all of us. Anything is possible!”

“Thanks a lot.”

“You know what I mean. You're not one of the zombies, and the most popular guy in school is totally into you. It gives us all hope. If you can get Jeff, maybe one day I can get Josh Kirschner.”

Ava smiled. Josh had brown hair, dark eyebrows, and the coolest greenish blue eyes, like marbles. He was one of Jeff Jackson's best friends, and Morgan had had a crush on him forever.

“Hey!” she said, a thought occurring to her. “Maybe this year I'll have a really great birthday party and invite them both!”

Morgan looked at her with huge eyes. “Yes! That would be so cool!”

“You have to help me. I want to throw the best party
ever
.”

“I have a million ideas already!”

The bell rang, signaling two minutes until homeroom. Immediately, the groups on the lawn broke up, and students from every direction began swarming into the school.

“Hey! Do you notice anything else different about me?” Ava shouted over the crush of students as they headed to the front doors.

“Oh my god, I was so amazed to see you and Jeff I forgot about the whole feathers thing! I mean, I thought you'd blown it, Ava. I really did, between your freaky behavior at the lake and your general freakiness yesterday. Some guys must just like freaks, even handsome popular guys.”

It was so typical of Morgan to be more concerned about boys than the most momentous, magical, amazing thing that could ever happen to anyone
ever
.

“Being a freak is underrated,” Ava said. “Meet me at lunch and you'll see.”

“Like I'm
not
meeting you for lunch. Sorry, I have a date at the beauty salon with my best friend, Jennifer Halverson.”

“Jealousy really doesn't suit you, Morgan,” Ava said, blowing her friend a kiss and heading to the first class of the day.

She didn't even mind walking into homeroom and possibly trying to face her language arts homework to boot.

There was a first time for everything.

Finally, sitting at her desk, she had a chance to think, about the swans, the woods, her mother. She wondered if her father knew. Had he known all along? Could you marry a swan maiden and not know?

But Ava thought about Helen and Lara and the rest of them, who, no matter how beautiful and extraordinary, looked 100 percent human. If there was a way to pick out a swan maiden in human form, Ava had no idea how.