The Trials of Renegade X (28 page)

“That’s not ... I mean, I don’t ...” He swallows and clears his throat. “She can stay.”

Amelia gets this really pleased look on her face. She sits down in an easy chair and watches the game, her chin in her hands. Then she scoffs at me. “Laser eyes, Damien? Isn’t that your
mom’s
power?”

“Shut up, Amelia. He said you could stay. He didn’t say you could talk.” I use my laser eyes at the same time as Zach uses his freeze breath, and our two powers collide and we end up in a button-mashing duel to see whose power actually overtakes the other. I win, but my victory is short-lived, since Zach manages to duck and roll away, avoiding my lasers.

“I told him he should pick flying,” Zach says, his eyes darting over to Amelia, then back to the fight.

“Yeah, right,” she says, actually trying to sound friendly for once. Something I wasn’t sure she was even capable of. “He
hates
flying. He’s probably too scared to do it, even in a game.”

I grit my teeth, trying really hard not to zap the controller. Or Amelia. Even if she kind of deserves it for not keeping her stupid mouth shut.

Riley sits up, suddenly interested. “Wait, you mean he actually
can
fly?”

“Yes,” Amelia says, basking in the fact that somebody actually cares what she’s saying for once. “But not very well. It’s wasted on him, really.”

Geez. I set her up with the guy she likes to help her self-esteem, without her knowing it, and
this
is the thanks I get? “You want to talk about superpowers? Stolen anyone’s shirt today, Amelia?”

Her face goes completely red. So does Zach’s.

That’s what I thought.

“That was an accident,” she says quietly. “I didn’t mean to do it.”

Zach nods, not looking at her.

I lean forward and get a couple more hits on him before he finally takes me out and the fight is over.

“That’s right!” he says, forgetting about being shy in light of his victory. He drops his controller and throws his hands up. “First time playing, and I totally beat you!”

“I’m out of practice.” Which is true.

“He was still better than you,” Amelia says.

Zach looks over at her, his eyes a little wide, probably not expecting her to compliment him. Then he gets over his shock and grins. “What can I say? I’m a natural.”

“You’re a natural
ham
,” Riley says. He rolls his eyes at Zach and holds out his hand for my controller.

But before I can give it to him, Amelia asks, “Can I play?”

“Uh, no,” I tell her. “You hate this game. You refused to play it before, remember?”

“Well, maybe I just didn’t want to play it with
you
.”

“Besides, it’s Riley’s turn and he’s not going to just let you have it.”

“Well,” Riley says, “I can go next. It’s not a big deal.”

“Cutting in line isn’t a big deal? Right. I’ll remember that at lunch tomorrow.” He always gets there way earlier than me, though that may have something to do with my third-period class being on the second floor and the cafeteria being at ground level. “And anyway, Amelia, you don’t know how to play. Someone would have to teach you, and I’m not doing it.”

“It’s not that hard,” Zach says.

“For you, maybe. I mean, maybe it wouldn’t take
you
that long to show her how to play, but you’re my guest, and she shouldn’t be bothering you with things like that.”

“Well, it’s not ...” He looks up at Amelia, meeting her eyes, then stares down at his knees. “It wouldn’t be bothering me. And you’re right, it probably wouldn’t take me very long to teach her, and then we could all play.”

“Seriously?” I give him a skeptical look, then shrug. “
I
wouldn’t have the patience for it, but if you really don’t mind—”

“He doesn’t,” Amelia snaps, grabbing the controller out of Riley’s hand. “You just don’t want him to teach me because then you know I’ll beat you.”

“Unlikely,” I say, sighing and pretending to sound annoyed. Which I will be if he actually does teach her how to beat me, though I doubt that will happen within the next million years. I get up, giving Amelia my seat so Zach can show her what all the buttons do, and then tell Riley I need to talk to him.

He’s kind of smirking as he follows me into the kitchen.

“What?”

He leans against the counter. “Nothing. Just picturing you flying.”

“Well, don’t, or I might picture you with another broken finger.”

“Can you
really
fly? You have two powers? Because I want to see it, if it’s true.”

“You’re not going to see it, so I guess that means it isn’t. And we have more important things to discuss, like the fact that Sarah’s still screwed up.”

He scrunches his eyebrows. “What do you mean? And you’re not getting out of it that easily. You think you can just bring up Sarah and I’ll forget about the flying thing?”

“There is no flying thing. Amelia’s a liar. You shouldn’t believe a word she says. And yes, I do think that, because I’m trying to tell you that you were right. When you said the device didn’t work. She’s definitely not better.” If anything, she might be
worse
.

“Why? What happened?” Now he looks worried. “Did she go on another crazy mission?”

“Well, no. Not that I know of.”

“Okay. So, what did she do?”

“It’s not so much what she did as what she said. We were talking about the dance on Saturday, and I was telling her how I’m going to wear swimming trunks, and she—”

“You’re going to wear
what
?” His mouth twitches, like he can’t decide if he should laugh or frown.

“That part’s not important.”

“Yeah, but swimming trunks? That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to be wearing a tux, and you’re just wearing shorts?”

I glare at him. “You’re missing the point. Which is that
after
I said that, I mentioned I was still bringing Kat, and she said it wasn’t a good idea.”

Riley scratches his ear. “Well ... I kind of have to agree with her.
Not
that I’m not grateful for you and Kat saving me or anything, and not that I think she’d do anything bad. But you’re not supposed to bring supervillains into Heroesworth. What if people find out?”

“They’re not going to. She can shapeshift and have an
H
on her thumb.” And show me up. Whatever. “So, problem solved. Nobody will know the difference.”

“Okay ...” he says, not sounding at all convinced. “But if they did, you’d be in serious trouble. You know that, right?”

“They
won’t
. And Sarah is the one in trouble here, not me. She said I couldn’t bring Kat, like she has any say in it, and then she said all supervillains are sociopaths.”

Riley sighs, taking that in. “That is kind of extreme.”

“And offensive. She even said
I
had sociopathic tendencies and that I didn’t feel guilty enough for all the bad things I’ve done.”

“Well, do you?”

“Will you stay on track here, Perkins?! We’re talking about Sarah, not me. And you know how much I hate admitting you’re right, or at least you can imagine it, since it’s never happened before, so you know I wouldn’t be saying this if it wasn’t true. The device didn’t work, and Sarah’s not back to normal.”

“Based on the fact that she doesn’t think you should wear your bathing suit to Homecoming? Or bring your supervillain girlfriend to Heroesworth?”

“No, just the second one. And that she thinks all villains are sociopaths, which they’re not.”

“I don’t know. Is that really proof that she’s not okay?”

“You’re the one who thought she wasn’t. You’re the one who said it didn’t work, and now you’re arguing that she’s fine?”

“I didn’t say that. I
am
still worried that the device didn’t work. I’m just not sure that what you’re saying confirms it.”

“So, what, you agree that all supervillains are sociopaths? Because
you know
that’s not true.”

He holds up his hands. “I’m not saying that. But let’s not jump to conclusions. Let’s just wait and see.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a brilliant plan.”

He glares at me. “You don’t know that anything’s really wrong. So she has an opinion about supervillains—so does
everybody else
. And we’re not messing with her personality until we know for sure we need to. Not that I know what we’ll do, since the device is broken, but we’ll figure it out. But
not
until we know for sure. That cool with you, X? Or do you want to screw her up even more than you already have?”

Electricity sparks at my fingertips, but I take a deep breath and hold it back. “Fine,” I tell him. “We won’t jump to any conclusions. But I’m telling you, Perkins, something’s not right.”

“Yeah, well,” he says, not looking at all happy about this, “let’s just hope you’re wrong.”

Chapter 21

I WEAR DARK-BLUE SWIMMING trunks with white stripes down the sides on Saturday night. Kat wears a shimmery light-green one-piece with big pink and yellow polka dots all over it. Both of us are wearing flip flops. I have to give her my phone to put in her purse, because any weight in my pockets starts dragging down my entire ensemble. And while I might want people looking at me tonight, I have my limits. Kat is the only one who gets to see
that
, at least without paying the appropriate fees first.

Everyone stares. And whispers about us. And they might know who I am—that weird half-villain kid nobody likes—but they don’t know that Kat isn’t the real thing. She shapeshifts her thumb to look like it has an
H
, just in case anybody looks up close. Something her parents would kill her for if they knew. But they don’t know, and neither does anybody else, because everybody gives me
those
looks. The “how the hell is he with
her
?” kind. Which I take as a compliment.

Everyone looks at me like that, that is, except for Amelia, who spots me after we get our pictures taken and then looks like she’s going to die. She’s here with Zach, exactly as I planned. They spent the whole afternoon on Thursday playing video games and not giving anyone else a turn, though he got pretty nervous when Gordon came home and asked if he’d like to stay for dinner again. Then Zach and Riley were out of there. But not before Amelia asked Zach if he was busy Saturday and if he’d like to go to Homecoming at Heroesworth with her, even though it was such short notice. Luckily for me—and for her, I guess—he said yes. And
even though
I supposedly didn’t fulfill my part of the bargain, Amelia said I didn’t owe her anymore, since she wouldn’t have met Zach if it wasn’t for me. She thought she was being really generous and kept lording it over me, which meant it took real effort on my part to keep my mouth shut.

Now, Amelia’s wearing a pink dress she already had in her closet, and Zach, like all the other guys here, is wearing a tux. I have never been so underdressed in my life. It’s perfect.

“Oh, no,” Amelia says when she sees me. She puts her hand over her eyes, though I can’t tell if it’s to show how embarrassed she is for me, or if it’s to block the view. Then she lets her hand fall and shakes her head.

“Hi, Amelia,” Kat says. She nods at Zach—who’s gaping at us and can’t decide where to look, since everywhere seems to be inappropriate—and adds, “You must be the idiot’s brother.”

“This is Zach,” Amelia tells her, grabbing his arm. “He’s my ...” Her cheeks turn red and she doesn’t actually finish that sentence, even though I’m pretty sure the word she was looking for was
date
, preferring instead to flare her nostrils at me. “Do Mom and Dad know you’re wearing that? Because that’s
not
how you left the house.”

“Why do they care what I’m wearing?” Besides, they’ll find out soon enough when we get our pictures back and I put them up on the wall. Then Helen—and anyone else who walks through the front door—will have to see me and Kat, practically in our underwear, having a good time together. Every single day.

“Because,” Amelia says. “You’re supposed to get dressed up
.
Not show up like that and embarrass me.” She glances apologetically at Zach, who’s still trying to decide where to look.

“Zach,” I say, ignoring Amelia, “this is my girlfriend Kat.”

“Hi,” he tells her. “Do you go here, too?”

“
No.
” Amelia gives me a sharp look. “She doesn’t.”

Kat inspects her thumb, letting Amelia get a good view of the
H
there. “I don’t know. I was thinking about transferring.”

Amelia’s mouth turns down and her face goes pale before she realizes Kat’s joking. Then she grabs my arm and pulls me off to the side, far enough away where Kat and Zach won’t hear. “What do you think you’re doing? Mom and Dad are going to kill you when they find out you brought her here. To Heroesworth.” She says that last part like I might not have realized where I was.

“Yeah? And what are they going to do, ban her from the house?”

A group of girls walks by, pausing to look me over. I smile and wave at them, and they burst into embarrassed laughter before continuing on their way to the buffet table.

Amelia’s eyes go wide, and now she
really
looks like she’s going to die. She smacks me in the arm, hard. “I have classes with some of them! And now all I’m going to hear about on Monday is how my idiot brother dressed like a freak!”

I sigh and put my hand on her shoulder. “Amelia, Amelia, Amelia. I think you’re missing the big picture here. If everyone is looking at me, then no one is looking at the crud hanging out of your left nostril.”

“The what?” She clamps her hands over her nose, then not-so-subtly tries to wipe away the imaginary crud. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“And if everyone’s distracted by my near nudity, then they’re not noticing that big green fleck between your two front teeth, or the underwear lines showing through your dress, or the awkward way you’re walking in high heels. And they’re not even that high.”

She slides her tongue across her teeth and glances down at her hips, trying to smooth away the pretty much invisible lines with her hands. “Oh, my God.”