* * * * *
“Rita? Rita!”
My mom.
A second later, a pair of tiny hands shook me. I forced my eyes open. The world spun around me. My mom’s face. Penny. Ryan. The ceiling. Even the ugly fake plant my mom kept at the corner of the hallway.
“Huh?” I shook my head, but didn’t dare move until the spinning stopped.
“You passed out, according to your friends. They say you were out for about a minute. Sit up, and then you’re going to the doctor.” She stared down at me, blond curls hanging around her face in a mess, which they never did. In other words, I’d scared the crap out of her. Penny and Ryan stood on either side of her, looking just as nervous.
A. Gist was nowhere to be found, of course, which meant my mom had no idea what really happened. I figured he’d gone out a window or something. What on Earth—or off Earth—had happened to me? A vision? At least my body had stayed here the whole time. That was a relief.
I sat up and let my back rest against the closet door, which squeaked in protest. The hallway stopped spinning. Good. I didn’t need to throw up on top of all this.
“Go home,” my mom ordered Penny and Ryan. “We need to take a trip to the clinic. I’m sorry to throw you out, but I think she may be coming down with something.” As if to make her point, she laid her hand on my forehead.
“I don’t feel sick,” I protested. Penny and Ryan—well, mostly Penny—were the only two who could help me work out what that blue light had done to me, and I didn’t want them to leave. I had a feeling the doctor wouldn’t be much help. Hey, the Ruler of Ageism just nailed me with a blue light and made me see visions of another world? That might land me in the mental hospital.
“You passed out, Rita. That’s sick enough for me,” my mom said. “Come on. I want to get you in to the urgent care before they close at five.”
As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point. I shot Penny and Ryan a look to say sorry. Penny nodded. She couldn’t even reason with my mom right now.
My stomach churned all the way to the doctor, which was way over in Fullerton. It had nothing to do with me coming down with anything, either. It had everything to do with the fact that A. Gist broke into my house. I wondered if he’d tortured Jerry for my address. Man, I couldn’t live with that thought. Or hacked the school computers. Or maybe Mr. Gorfel really did work for him after all, and he’d hidden the evidence better than I thought. None of those thoughts were very comforting. And just as we pulled into the Urgent Care parking lot, I remembered the disc Sean had given me. If the power was still out at my house when we got back, there was no way I’d get a chance to look at it until school tomorrow. And there was no way my mom would let me go anywhere tonight after passing out, so the library was a no, too.
It didn’t take long for us to get back into a treatment room. My mom had me explain my spell to the doctor, which consisted of me lying and saying that I felt dizzy and fell to the floor. No, I didn’t shake. No, I didn’t foam at the mouth. Yes, I felt fine now.
The doctor wrote a bunch of stuff down on her clipboard and stared down her nose at me. “We’ll need to do a blood draw and run some tests to rule out some problems. I’ll send in a nurse. After that, head up to the front desk for you co-pay.”
Swell.
“I’ll go ahead. Meet me out in the waiting room,” my mom said, rising from her orange plastic chair. I knew the real reason for that. She hated needles, and blood. I wasn’t a big fan of them myself
“I’ll be fine,” I said. At least needles wouldn’t send me to an alternate universe to be attacked by shadow people.
The nurse came in a minute later, readying something that looked like a cow shot. “Can you go ahead and roll up your sleeve for me?” she asked.
I did, exposing my forearm.
I expected the nurse to say something like, “This will only hurt for a second,” or “You’ll feel a pinch here.” Definitely not, “Oh, that’s a pretty tattoo. Where did you get it?”
“I don’t have a—” I started, staring down at my forearm.
The words died in my throat, because right there on my skin was a curly blue A.
Chapter Nine