Totally Toxic (12 page)

And it was. But I found I didn't mind at all. The sky had turned the color of blueberries, and only a pale pink glow remained on the horizon. The air was cool but not unpleasant, with a mild breeze. I couldn't believe I was standing there,
alone
, with Josh Devlin.

“Good thing you wore your bracelet,” he said,”or we'd never have gotten in the gate.”

I felt myself blushing. “Good thing you figured out how to use the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard charm to pick the lock.”

“I guess that means we're a good team.”

“I guess it does.”

The moment was so amazingly sweet that I began to feel a little dizzy with happiness. A couple of stars had begun to twinkle above, and the whole world smelled of spicy autumn leaves.

And soap …

I ignored it. I wanted to just sit there under the stars with Josh and talk about what a terrific team we were. But the breeze carried the scent straight to my nose, and with every windy rustle of the tall grass, the soap smell grew stronger.

Too late, I realized that I wasn't dizzy because Josh was flirting with me, I was dizzy because of that darned soapy smell. And that was when I saw the security guard creeping up to the vat— his dazzlingly clean uniform must have just been washed in the factory's laundry detergent.

“What do you think you're doing up there?” the guard's voice boomed.

Howie was so startled, he bobbled, then wobbled; his foot slipped from the top rung and he began to fall.

Instinct took over and I prepared to execute a superpowered flying leap to save Howie Hunt… again! I could feel the power surge in my legs, and I was about to lift off when Josh leaped in front of me from our hiding place beside the vat and positioned himself bravely beneath the swiftly falling Howie. He held out his arms like a fireman prepared to catch a person leaping from a burning building.

Howie was safe, but it wasn't Josh who'd caught him. It was the security guard, who'd nudged Josh aside in the nick of time and grabbed Howie himself.

“Gotcha!” the guard said, then turned to Josh. “Got you, too.”

I was still in Super mode. I knew I could take off into the night and escape. I'd be such a blur of motion that the guard probably wouldn't even notice me. But I couldn't do it. Not just because I was on probation, but because I couldn't bail on my friends.

The tingle of strength fizzed around my calves for a moment more and was gone. I stepped out from the dark shadow of the vat.

“You got me, too,” I said.

We waited in the security office for my father to pick us up.

The guard had demanded our phone numbers. He'd called my house first and explained everything to my father, who told him he'd come down and collect the whole lot of us. My mother would call Howie's and Josh's parents to give them the heads-up.

The security office was a small room on the ground floor of the factory, and the smell of the officer's clean uniform was making my stomach turn. I sat on a bench between Howie and Josh while the guard filled out an incident report.

“Where's the camera?”Josh whispered across me to Howie.

“In my pocket,” Howie whispered back. “I slipped it in there right after the guard caught me.”

“Good thing the guard didn't frisk you.”

Howie nodded.

Ten minutes later, the door of the office opened. My father had arrived.

And he
didn't
look happy.

we dropped off Josh and Howie, Dad headed for our street.

I sat in the backseat, silent. Dad didn't say anything, but I could tell he was fuming, finally he pulled into our driveway and we trooped indoors, still in silence. Mom was waiting in the living room.

I sat down on the sofa, folded my hands in my lap, and waited for the explosion.

“What in the
world
were you thinking, young lady?”

“Do have any idea how
dangerous
that little stunt was?”

“You were trespassing on private property…”

“… completely irresponsible …”

“… reckless…”

“… not to mention
illegal.”

The words came at me so fast it was hard to tell who was saying what.

Not that it mattered; it all amounted to the same thing:

“You're grounded, Zoe Richards….”

“Do you understand?”

“Grounded!”

Yeah. I understood, all right. “I'm sorry,” I said in a tiny voice.

Mom and Dad were quiet for a long moment. I kept my head down while Dad paced back and forth in front of the fireplace and my mother folded her arms and tapped her foot. When they'd had enough of that, they sat down on the couch, one parent on either side of me. When I finally got up the guts to look my mom in the eyes, I realized that she didn't look angry anymore.

She looked… guilty.

“I'm sorry, too,” she said.

This floored me. Dad looked just as surprised.

“What do you have to be sorry for?” I asked.

“I'm afraid I didn't set a very good example the other day,” she admitted. “When we were at the factory and I went walking over by the river…”

“You did
what?”
Dad's eyes went wide.

“She snooped,” I clarified. “But she didn't trespass, honest. She
…we…
stayed outside the gate.”

That got Dad pacing again.

“Maria, a rally with hundreds of people and police protection is one thing. But wandering around by yourselves—”

“I know it was a foolish thing to do,” said Mom. “Zoe, you and Howie and Josh should never even have entertained such an idea. What if something had happened to the three of you way
out there? No one would have had the slightest idea you were in trouble.”

That was true, and if Howie and Josh had gone without me, then I'd have agreed with my mother completely. But what Mom didn't know was that there were probably not too many situations I couldn't have handled. Probation or not, I knew I wouldn't have let anything bad happen to me or my friends.

“You understand that we're only angry because we love you,” Mom was saying.

“You're grounded for the next four days,” Dad added. “I will allow you to attend the rally on Saturday because it is such an important issue. But if you ever pull another stunt like this, you'll be grounded indefinitely”

“So basically, I'm on probation,” I said. This was getting to be a habit.

“In a manner of speaking,” said Dad. He sat down next to me again and gave me stern look. “You know we hate punishing you like this, Zoe, but given what you got up to tonight, I think we're being more than fair.”

They were, actually. And even though it sucked, I just hoped that when creepy George Mitchell finally got his punishment, the courts would be a lot harder on him than my parents were on me.

The next night, Mom and Dad went to the movies. It was something we usually did as a family, but since I was grounded, I couldn't join them. Grandpa Zack was positively glad to hear I'd had my social privileges temporarily revoked—since I'd be staying with him and Gran while my parents went out,
it would be the perfect opportunity for me to take my superhero test.

As soon as Mom and Dad turned the corner of Grandpa's street, Grandpa and I hopped into Gran's little blue convertible, backed out of the driveway, and took off in the opposite direction. Gran was staying home because (a) although her security clearance allowed her to know about Super activities, she was not certified to attend test sessions, and (b) I was a bit worried that my parents might call to check in or something.

The superhero test! It was hard to believe I
was finally
taking it!

Grandpa guided the car through the streets of Sweetbriar; to anyone who saw us, we would have looked like any grandfather and granddaughter out for a pleasant evening drive. What no one would ever have guessed was that on the backseat of the convertible was a backpack with its own alarm system, containing a newly hemmed and virtually indestructible superhero suit in preteen size 12 slim and a very cool identity-concealing face mask.

Grandpa hadn't said much about where we were headed.

“Where are we going, anyway?” I asked.

“Not far.”