Time's Daughter (15 page)

I felt slightly guilty until I recalled that he was
far more popular than me despite the fact that he was different. If
anyone was the freak, it was me.

“
I wish I were normal.” He pressed
his forehead against the divider wall between the enlargers.
“Especially if it freaks you out that I’m not.”

Now I felt
really
guilty. Wasn’t I being a
little hypocritical? A girl who could freeze time and was
supposedly the daughter of a god shouldn’t shun a guy who could
turn into a big black cat.

“
You did freak me out,” I said
quietly. “And your family scares me. And yes, I was avoiding
you.”

His profile turned toward me. “Was?”

“
I think I just realized that I was
being a little hypocritical. But it wasn’t just that you freaked me
out. It was that you guys represent this whole other world I didn’t
know existed. Now everything is different.”

“
I don’t understand what that is
like. I’ve always known it existed.”

I shook my head in slow disbelief. “That’s just
unreal.”

He lifted his head from the wall and took a step
closer. In the red light I could somehow see his eyes clearly. His
mouth was parted slightly as if he wanted to say something. It
closed again. He’d decided against it?

“
I like you, Aeon.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“
And not because you’re different. I
liked you before I knew about that.” He paused. “But now that I can
be myself around you, I like you even more.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. So I said what was
actually on my mind. “I think you’re out of my league.”

Alex barked in laughter. “What?”

“
You could be popular if you wanted
to.”

“
So could you.”

“
No.” I shook my head firmly. “I’ve
been here long enough and made a big enough fool of myself that
people know I’m too weird to be popular.”

“
Do you want to be?”

My first response was a snicker. “Not really. Those
people are worse backstabbers than even my friends.”

“
I like weird,” he said with what
sounded like a smile. “But I really doubt you’re that
weird.”

“
That weird?”

He gave a negligent shrug rather than answer.

“
You’re trying reverse psychology on
me,” I said.

“
I wouldn’t try to manipulate you
like that. But I doubt you’re all that weird. Remember, I live in
that other world. I’ve seen a lot of stuff.”

“
Touché.”

He learned forward a little closer, crowding my
personal space. “I like you, Aeon, and I don’t think I’m going to
leave you alone until you like me too.” He didn’t wait for a
response before unlocking the door and disappearing into it.

I was still staring at nothing in particular when
the twin I’d been helping returned with her sister. Due to my
inability to speak, I was conned into helping the other because she
claimed Mrs. Lozano had sent her to me. That, of course, meant that
the twins gossiped while I did most of the work. Sabrina was at
least attempting a print on her own since I’d already done one with
her but it didn’t make listening to them any easier.

“
I heard Chelsea asked that new kid
Alex if he wanted to join her study group for Latin and he told her
no,” Sasha said in a conspiratorial tone.

Sabrina shook her head. “Does he
want
to be
outcast?”

“
I think so because the rumor was
that he told her he didn’t need any help and she got annoyed
because he was basically saying they did. I guess she accused him
of being rude and he turned it back on her.”

“
She must have thrown a
fit.”

“
I heard she tried to start a rumor
about him but Tyler stopped her because they’re
friends.”

“
What rumor did she try to
start?”

Sasha giggled for several seconds before answering.
“That he’s gay.”

“
Ashley thinks he is. She says he’s
never had a girlfriend.”

“
Okay,” I said in annoyance and
pointed to the wall. “Just follow that chart over there and you’ll
be fine.” My fingers gestured to the trays in front of us. “Right
to left. I gotta go.” I jumped into the door, turned it quickly and
emerged squinting into the light.

I couldn’t find him at first. He was in the unlikely
spot of the matte cutter. Guy stood and started for me as I walked
toward Alex.

I quietly asked a question and hoped the new kid
remembered the conversation from last week. “Do you still need to
find rundown places downtown?”

The startled expression on Alex’s face implied I’d
snuck up on him. “I could use a better roll…yeah.”

My gaze remained on the table rather than him. “I’m
not working tonight so today is as good as any for a photo
shoot.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw his lips lift.
“All right, mute girl. You’re on.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the use of the
nickname. It was cute.

“
After P.E. then,” I said and
returned to my usual seat. There was homework to be done until the
bell rang.

* * * *

Two different students were picked as captains in
gym class. Tyler and Alex were split up and I was picked last on
Tyler’s team. Alex smiled at me but didn’t try to talk in between
scoring several goals against our team.

Somehow I managed to beat him out of the locker
room. I waited in the gym between the two exits. Everyone but him
had come out already. It was possible that he’d hurried and gotten
out far earlier.

He emerged clad in his usual black clothing but
smelled as if he’d put on a little cologne. I hid a smile behind my
hand while starting for the door.

Alex fell into step beside me. “Do you need to go to
your locker?”

“
Nope.”

“
I need to go to mine. Do you want
to meet me at my car? It’s in the lot—”

“
I’ll just follow you.”

He hesitated. “Okay.”

We walked across almost the entire school and to the
second floor before we got to his locker. I was beginning to see
why he’d wanted me to meet him at his car. He put his bag down
beside it and shifted so he was in the way of the door. It seemed
like an odd movement but I didn’t question him. It took him two
tries to get the lock undone. He moved closer and rummaged inside.
I leaned against the ones beside him, gazing across the
hallway.

Something fell out and rolled behind him. Alex
cursed and turned to get it. It was then that I saw what he’d
obviously been trying to hide.

The black and white print I’d seen in the trays in
the darkroom was taped between the narrow metal door’s frame! It
had in fact been my face I’d seen. And Alex had been the one to
make it.

I shoved off the locker, poking a finger at the
photo. “That is seriously weird. You didn’t even know me then.”

He grabbed the pencil sharpener he’d dropped and
faced forward. “I don’t know you now.”

“
You know me better.”

Alex set the sharpener back on the shelf. “Should I
take a new photo then? Print another one?”

“
No. You should burn all likenesses
of me.”

“
Why?”

“
Because.”

Alex fixed me with those intense eyes of his.
“Because why?”

I folded my arms in front of my chest, dropping my
gaze to the floor as a frown made its way onto my face. “Because
I’m not locker door worthy.”

“
I think you’re lovely,” he said.
“You’re
billboard
worthy.”

A snort was the only response I was capable of
giving. I didn’t understand why he was saying things like that. He
couldn’t honestly mean them, could he?

No one thought I was lovely. Maybe cats had poor
vision.

“
Maybe if the billboard were about
freaks.” I laughed nervously as I started down the hall.

“
That we are,” he said while
hurrying to catch up to me. He had a camera in one hand and
struggled with his other to get his backpack on. “So where to
first?”

“
Dewey elementary. It’s four blocks
away.” I pointed in the direction of the rundown school. “They say
it’s haunted.”

“
Excellent.” He sounded like he
meant it.

Actually, he sounded like he meant
everything
he said. I liked that about him.

I had to consider that if vampires and witches were
real, ghosts might be too. “Have you ever seen a ghost?”

“
No, but my grandfather
has.”

It would figure their clan’s wisest member would be
the one who had seen a ghost. The mention of a specific family
member had me contemplating his relatives again. If I had the well
wishes of the leader and his wise old father, then it couldn’t be
all bad could it? Except that there were three of them who despised
me. Not to mention Alex’s mother hadn’t seemed overly pleased with
me either.

“
Have you?” Alex asked.

“
Nope. It would probably scare the
heck out of me.” I laughed a little nervously.

“
I’m sure you’d be fine.”

Was he saying that because I hadn’t run screaming
away from him when he’d turned into a
giant cat
? I’d tried
to back away at least. Maybe I would have run screaming if his dad
hadn’t stopped me.

“
The parking lot is this way,” he
said as I stepped onto the sidewalk in the opposite
direction.

“
And Dewey is only four blocks this
way.” I pointed in a diagonal. “Save your gas for
later.”

“
Do you walk everywhere?”

I glanced over. He watched me through eyes that
feigned ignorance.
Alex knew I walked everywhere and I knew that
he knew.
But the cameras didn’t.

So I played along. “Unless Mom and I go grocery
shopping or I go to the mall with Melissa, yeah, I walk
everywhere.”

“
Do you have your
license?”

I faced forward. My cheeks warmed. “No.” It was
something I was embarrassed about. Everyone I knew had gone through
driver’s education but we hadn’t been able to afford it.

“
Just didn’t want it?”

“
I walk everywhere. And if I can’t
walk to it, then I don’t really need to go there.”

“
But there’s so much around here
that you can’t get to by walking—Vermont, Maine, Canada,” he said
the last almost wistfully.

What was it about Canada that got everyone so
excited?

“
I’m good with the Hill until
college,” I said. It was a fib. I wanted more than anything to be
able to get out of Junction Hill as soon as I could. At the rate we
were going, I doubted I’d be able to afford to go to the Tech
school let alone a college far from home.

“
Where are you thinking of
going?”

I glanced at him in confusion. “Hmm?”

His handsome face tilted closer. “To college?”

The proximity addled me. “Oh. Um. I don’t know. I
haven’t started looking. Probably someplace warm.”

“
I’ll probably go to the same one my
dad went to.”

“
Which is that?”

“
Eastern Illinois.”

“
Eastern Illinois? I’ve never heard
of it.”

“
My dad went there because he liked
the mascot. He’s got a thing for black panthers.”

He held my widened gaze firmly until I glanced away.
Had Alex admitted that aloud in front of the cameras?

“
Panther is just another word for
cougar but he likes to use it instead,” he said. “He claims it
sounds more exotic. Did you know that black panthers are
melanistic? It’s the opposite of albinism and a genetic mutation.
If you look closely at them you can see the markings in their fur
like printed silk. It’s actually cool.”

“
Neat,” I said in distraction
because I wondered why he’d brought this up. And I still wondered
if he could
actually
shift into an animal. It was too
unreal.

“
My mom likes white panthers best,”
he said. “She says they’re mellower.”

“
That must cause
arguments.”

“
Sometimes, but in the end Mom
always supports Dad,” he said.

We weren’t talking about the white versus black
panther discussion any longer, were we? Had he told me that to make
me feel better? It hadn’t.

Our chat ended as we neared the fenced-off
boarded-up elementary school. There was a portion of fencing that
had been forced apart. We headed for it. We picked our way around
broken stone, shattered glass and wooden splinters within the
school’s old yard. Several of the basement windows were uncovered.
I thought I could make out eyes in the darkness within. I shivered
without realizing it, worried that those weren’t simply
people
. What if they were vampires?

“
It looks like we might have found
some squatters in despair,” Alex whispered. “I’ll be right
back.”

He took his camera to one of the larger uncovered
windows and slipped inside. Worry instantly rose. Even if they were
just regular homeless people, they could have weapons! What if they
didn’t appreciate their home being invaded by a punk kid with a
camera?

A flash of light startled me. Then two more
followed. The click of the shutter closing was audible but quiet.
Moments later Alex appeared again.