Part 12 (1/2)
He carefully hands it back to me, and I slip it into the pouch. ”Looks like this meteorite is the closest I'm going to get to finding a comet or asteroid. Or life on another planet.”
”Not necessarily,” Jack says. ”What would you say if I told you I know another way?”
BREE.
5.
With my hair restored to its usual sheen and my makeup on, I feel a little more like myself again. As long as I don't look down at my clothes. Those boxes really better get here today! As I suspected, Ryan is proving a welcome distraction. He talks a lot and at lunch he entertains Kenny and Melanie (who are now glued at the hip) by telling them stories about vampires and werewolves who haunt campgrounds. He better be making those stories up. I keep glancing over to see when Ally's parents are going to come out of Mom and Dad's cabin. I think they'll have to pa.s.s this way. I'm still not sure where everything is around here. Hopefully I'll never have to find out.
Melanie jabs me with her pointy little elbow. ”What?” I ask, rubbing my arm.
”Ryan's asking you a question.”
”Oh, sorry. What was the question?”
”I just asked what you like to do,” Ryan says, downing his container of milk. ”You know, besides wearing other girls' clothes.” He says this with a wink. At least he realizes I wouldn't normally dress this way, which is a point in his favor.
Borrowing clothes makes me think of Claire. I wonder what she's doing right now. She's probably at the mall with Lara Rudy, the best friend stealer! How do I answer his question? I can't very well say, I like to take pictures of myself with my friends and then stick them in a Wish Book alongside real models. So I say, ”You know, hang out with my friends, go to the movies, shop at the mall, the usual.”
Ryan nods. Kenny says, ”That's not the usual around here, that's for sure.”
”What's a regular day like here?” Melanie asks.
Leave it to Melanie to ask questions that no one else (okay, me) wants to hear the answers to.
”Well,” says Kenny thoughtfully. ”It depends. If it's a school day, we do schoolwork in the morning and then do our ch.o.r.es and stuff in the afternoon.”
”But it's not like real school,” I point out. ”You don't have tests and book reports, right?”
”Sure we have tests. My mom makes them up, but they're based on the books she gets for us. Then at the end of the year she has to send stuff to the state, to prove we're learning and everything.”
I turn to Mel. ”Can you picture Mom as our teacher?”
”She'll be too busy,” Mel replies. ”We're gonna do the school-in-a-box thing. It's different than regular homeschooling-it's more on our own. The curriculum arrives in a big box and then we have all year to go through it.” She turns back to Kenny and says, ”I can't wait.”
I roll my eyes at Ryan. ”Melanie loves school.”
”So do I!” Kenny says. He and Melanie high-five each other. They start to compare their favorite subjects, and I want to scream. I've had enough of Melanie and her excitement over everything. For such a genius, it drives me crazy that she isn't smart enough to see what a bad idea moving here is.
Jack and Ally come into the pavilion, but I don't wave them over. I thought Ally would be really upset about the whole alien thing, but she looks okay. Jack's talking and she's listening intently. Jack's not the kind of kid I would have given a second glance to at school-he's pasty and has clearly eaten a few too many cookies-but he seems to be good for Ally. I bet she's glad I made her brush her hair!
I stand up with my tray and Ryan immediately grabs his and stands up, too. ”Do you want a tour of the Moon Shadow?” he asks.
”Okay.” Anything to get away from the two uber-geeks.
Kenny and Mel are now testing each other on vocabulary words and don't even notice when we leave. As we walk down the path toward the stream, I wonder if all the people swarming around the campground think me and Ryan are a couple. He's as cute as any of the guys I was considering dating at home, even if he does look for aliens in his spare time. I'm cool with him putting his arm around my shoulder, mostly because it would freak out my parents if they saw.
We pa.s.s a clearing with a fire pit in the middle of it. A big pile of pointy sticks lay a few feet away. I pick one up and hold it out. ”For killing the vampires, I presume?”
”For toasting marshmallows,” he says, grinning. ”But if you do run across any vampires, you might want to keep one handy. You know, if your family moves here, you'll probably get the fun job of whittling the sticks!”
I quickly toss the stick back into the pile like it burned my hand. ”I don't whittle. I'd bleed all over the sticks.”
He puts his arm around me. ”Don't worry, you'll learn all these things. Ally had to learn everything once, too.”
I push his arm off my shoulder. ”I'm not Ally,” I say. ”I can't do all the stuff she can do. And I don't want to learn how.”
”Hey, sorry, just trying to help.”
”No, I'm sorry,” I say contritely. The last thing I want to do is push him away. He's my only link to the real world now. ”Let's just talk about something else. Tell me about football tryouts.”
His eyes light up as he tells how the coach specifically asked him to try out, and how he's working out really hard. My mind starts to drift, and I'm sort of sorry I asked. I think I'd rather hear about the vampires and werewolves again. I'm saved by Ally and Jack running up to us.
”They're out of the meeting!” Ally says, breathlessly. ”They were standing on your parents' porch when we left. Let's go. See you guys later!” She grabs at my sleeve and pulls me away from Ryan. I just have time for a backward wave before we're out of sight.
”Hold up, Ally. Why'd you ditch Jack back there? I thought you guys were getting all hot and heavy.”
She stops running. ”Hot and heavy?” She asks this like she has no idea what the words mean.
I sigh. ”You know, like you guys liked each other.”
”Oh. He's nice.”
”Nice? And . . . ?”
”And what?”
This girl is hopeless. ”Never mind. Let's just go.”
We keep going and run right into both sets of parents in front of the sign that says labyrinth, this way with an arrow underneath.
”Well?” I ask my parents. Ally s.h.i.+fts her weight from one foot to the other in obvious antic.i.p.ation.
”What's up, girls?” asks my father. ”Having fun exploring?”
I open my mouth to say no, but before I do, they look at each other and laugh. It takes a few seconds to realize they're laughing at us. I feel my face darken. Ally stops s.h.i.+fting. ”What's so funny?”
Her mother puts her arm around Ally's shoulders. ”Honey, we understand what you're trying to do, but you've got to trust us.”
Mom says, ”We should thank you both, actually. You've raised some very good points. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.”
Ally's eyes fill with tears and mine follow. Ally puts her hands on her hips. ”So you don't mind having a tattooed druggie gang member for a daughter?”
”We'll take our chances,” says her father. ”You're a smart girl, Ally. You'll do just fine at school.”