“Actually,” she walked around him, causing him to follow her, “this party is in West Applegate.”
“Well I hope you enjoy driving trucks through the mud. That’s pretty much the only thing worth doing there,” he told her coldly now.
“Ha! Is this about that whole football rivalry thing?” She said it as if it was the most pathetic excuse she’d ever heard.
“This has nothing to do with sports, because ever since I started high school they’ve never won at anything that involves movement.”
“That’s a pretty big ego for someone that told me they quit the team because it was pointless,” she taunted.
“Well, when you’re done with your snack, call me, and if I haven’t made plans I’ll give you a real meal you’ll never forget,” he told her as he turned away.
“And what would I be filled up on, a boy’s ego, or a man’s reality?” she called back.
As he walked back toward the diner again, a giant flame burst out of the trash just as Spencer and the rest of the diner employees had started heading back in. He was in a rotten mood, and certain he was going to call Kelly the senior tonight. He’d be too busy to even think about Brook.
* * *
Donna
Donna put the skirt Brook had sewn for her on and looked at herself in the mirror.
Brook walked inside and ran up to Donna. “Ah, you look so hot!”
“I don’t know.”
“Donna, you are going to have so much fun tonight! Now come on let me straighten your hair.”
“My hair?” Donna imagined Brook straightening her hair with her hot flat iron and being shocked by electricity after a couple of moments. Wasn’t that what Donna was turning into? She knew it was something like that. Especially after seeing the electricity go right from the phone before she even grabbed it and into her hands. Putting that together with the man who went through her that was electrocuted, she knew whatever she was, she was dangerous.
“You didn’t think you were going to wear a hot one of a kind Brook Arthur without having your hair done, did you?”
“Brook, really, thank you for this, but when I’m here it’s best that I just stay concentrated on gymnastics,” Donna began shyly, looking at the ground. The city is where I can be anyone I want to be and have fun. This place is a place of boundaries.”
“Donna, whoever taught you that lied! Whether it’s the Applegate’s spoiled little boys, or that loathsome cheerleader Molly or Lynn, what ever her name is. Or if it’s the people who have been inhabiting this place for like a hundred years and have never stepped foot anywhere else. Or your ex-friends, who clearly were not your real friends to begin with. It’s all a lie they’ve made up to convince themselves they have a meaningful life. The only real boundaries are the ones you’ve made for yourself. Now you can sit here and just be what they want you to be, or you can run wild and be free. Make your own rules, and learn what it’s like to have fun and be happy anywhere you go.”
Donna looked at her friend who clearly was the only person left who believed in her. How could she say no after that speech? Donna would have to go. Just this one night. Knowing Brook, if she didn’t, she’d bring the party here, and Donna couldn’t do that. She listened to the rain as it began again outside and knew she could do this if she’d just be super careful. But would she really have fun?
* * *
Rebecca
Rebecca waited anxiously for Paul. He’d told her he was going to stop by tonight. She’d been so anxious and nervous, she barely knew what to do with herself. Last week Mrs. Smith had asked if Rebecca would help math tutor, because during finals everyone wanted to be tutored for extra credit. Today the freshman Rebecca had been helping had to leave early, so she stayed at the school and waited for it to stop raining before she left for home.
Now she’d changed into a white long sleeve shirt and jeans. She’d been researching everyday people with powers and strange abilities. She read a lot about scientific research in telekinesis, or moving things with your mind, some really ridiculous things about scientists mixing animal DNA with human DNA, but she suspected that was a hoax, and tons of sites on witchcraft came up. Right when she thought she’d really found something about a boy who could control electricity or lightning, it turned out the entire website was about a book a Floridan woman was getting ready to write.
She’d found legends of Egyptian goddesses who could supposedly shoot out lightning, kind of like Zeus the Greek god, but that was a myth. It didn’t mean it could actually be real. Then there were a bunch of people in Austria and China claiming they’d seen children start fires with their minds. All in all, it was probably loads of crap. It had been almost a month since the car crash had happened and she still had blurred answers.
She knew Paul had hacked into the beginning of a major government secret when trying to research a bunch of mysterious deaths that had happened over the past seventeen years. She believed him that people would probably try to hurt her if they knew what she had seen. He thought everything started with the government, but could she really believe that? She’d never believed all those books about the government really cloning people and blah, blah, blah. If they had really started doing all that, why would they keep it a secret? I feel crazy thinking about this. This is all crazy! There has to be a feasible explanation.
How could there ever be?
All Paul had were hunches and bits and pieces of clues. He told her he thought most people like Donna were her age, but he hadn’t told her why he thought that. He’d shown her weird data he’d found on a project called Biomax. Most of it even she had trouble understanding. She felt like there was still so much he was holding back from her. Yet she trusted him, and maybe she wasn’t really pressing the issue, because whenever she tried, she found herself afraid. Was she so much of a coward, so weak, that she’d look past truths so everything would make sense again? Maybe that’s how these people like Donna were keeping their secrets.
There was a knock at the door. She looked out the rainy window and saw Paul in a yellow rain coat. She unset the alarm and let him in with a giggle. He looked so funny.
“Hey,” he half smiled, looking more serious.
“Come in.”
He took his coat off and walked in. He had a laptop case covered with a garbage bag to protect it from the rain. She turned the kitchen lights on and they both sat down.
“Are you thirsty?” she asked him.
“Ah, no, thank you,” he said, fixing his glasses.
“Ok, well, tell me what’s going on now?” she asked him, getting to the point.
Paul looked really tired to her. His eyes were baggy and his skin looked pale. He pulled out a piece of paper, placed in between his laptop, and a pen from his ear, and started writing while he was speaking.
“I just wanted to tell you about the math class I’m taking,” he told her as he held up the paper so she could read it. It read in large letters: I found a bug in my car!
That’s when Rebecca thought her heart was going to stop. Fear had become a host which had taken over her body. Paul looked afraid too, like he hadn’t slept in days. Rebecca’s heart started beating, and she struggled to digest this. She felt as if her heart had turned to ice, she mouthed the word “bug,” without actually saying it and he nodded.
He started writing again and showed it: Your house could be bugged too; we can’t talk about this until I’ve checked.
Her heart began beating faster and she felt herself shake. Could someone have come in her house and bugged it? If so, what would they do next? She closed her eyes and wished this were a nightmare. Then she opened her eyes and pinched herself hard. She felt the pain and knew it was real.
How can we know? she wrote him.
He pulled something out of the garbage bag he’d brought. His graphing calculator. He’d broken it apart and wired it into a cell phone. On the side of it he’d attached what looked like a piece from a metal detector. She nodded, desperately hoping he was t
ruly as brilliant at building all this stuff as he appeared to be. It was like the day of the accident all over again.
* * *
Donna
It was 9:30 at night, and Donna didn’t know where Brook was taking her in her old Mustang. All she knew was they were heading west and they’d been driving for twenty minutes. Soon they’d be out of East Applegate. The city was about five or six hours away and she couldn’t believe they were going all the way there just to meet some guys. Though with Brook you never knew; she was the queen of adventure and travel.
The car stopped outside Jetties, a bar in West Applegate. Donna and her dad had stopped there on the way home before. It was a place where a lot of teens hung out.
“Why are we stopping here?” Donna asked, afraid to hear the answer.
Brook smiled at her while she smeared her ruby red lipstick on.
“The guys you met were from West Applegate, and they want to come here?”
“You’ve got it,” Brook teased.
“Brook, this is nice, really, but West Applegate and East Applegate hate each other, and this is like their main haven,” Donna told her.
“Donna, do you even go to these stupid sporting events?” Brook argued.
“Um, well, not all the time, but—”
“Well then what does it matter?” Brook interrupted. “It’s not like you’re a cheerleader or anything. Besides, in two years none of this high school bull will even matter. Trust me, if your town’s not showing you a good time, then let’s see how this one does. If you don’t have fun after a half an hour, we will leave.”
Donna panicked, trying to think of another excuse, but knowing Brook, she would find a way around whatever Donna came up with. In middle school, if you stepped foot in West Applegate you’d get taped to their flag pole or something. Even though she was a nobody at school, if anyone heard about this she’d go from low to lower. Ignored to picked on. This can’t be happening!
Brook clearly felt she had won the argument, and right as Donna went to speak, she got out of the car. Donna was horrified as they walked up to the door and the bouncer asked for their ID’s. He checked them, letting Brook go through and marking Donna’s right hand with a big X in permanent marker. Great …
Brook, still holding Donna’s hand, dragged her through, already starting to dance to the music. It was some mix of rap and country. Donna recognized both songs but never imagined they could be played together. Brook dragged her right to the middle of the dance floor and started dancing. Donna could barely move, feeling very out of place. In New York, she could dance until she dropped with Brook, but here she was Donna Young from East Applegate in West Applegate, too close to home and in dangerous territory.
Donna saw two girls she recognized as West Applegate’s cheerleaders from football games point at her. Both towns were small, and it was hard to miss someone. To make matters even worse, a group of guys Brook seemed to know came over. One went right to Brook and gave her a hug. Donna recognized the guys; they were West Applegate’s football players.
“Hey, boys,” Brook started, hugging each one. “This is my girl Donna.”
Donna smiled shyly, nervous.
“Where do I know you from?” one of them asked her.
“She goes to East Applegate!” One of the cheerleaders from before said over the loud music, walking up to them all.
The whole group eyed each other and then eyed Donna.
“Aren’t you a cheerleader?” the girl probed Donna.
Brook laughed; this to her seemed hilarious, while Donna stood feeling as if she was in the sixth grade again, where bullying was just as typical as county music.
“No, I’m on the gymnastic team,” she said shyly.
Two other cheerleaders joined their group. “No way, they have a gymnastic team? That’s not fair!” the girl wined to her friend.
“So you’re not in any other sports?” one of the guys asked Donna. “You look pretty athletic.”
“Wow, what is this, kindergarten? She’s not in any other sports, hates her school, and I brought her here to have a good time. Something you,” Brook pointed to the first guy that had hugged her, “insured me we’d have.”
“Yeah, I bet he did,” one of the girls whispered to another.
“Well,” the original cheerleader started, “you’re not friends with that Lynn girl, are you?” she asked Donna, still deciding if Donna was cool enough to hang with them.
“No, not at all,” Donna told them. That answer seemed to slip off her tongue before she fully thought it through.
“Fine, we’ll see,” the girl snapped.
Just then a faster song started to play, causing their group to separate and start dancing. Brook grabbed Donna’s hand and started dancing too. She smiled, bringing Donna closer. “Come on, just let go. It’s not like anyone here knows you or goes to your school,” she whispered.
Donna started to move a little to the song so she didn’t look like a complete idiot. Brook had a point. Donna wasn’t known as the former fat, loser gymnast here. She didn’t have ex-best friends here who looked at her like she was the plague. There was no nosy townspeople who gossiped about Donna’s father’s reputation and downfall. Here in this moment, she was in a place that looked exactly like her town, but she was free. She had passed the popular girl’s test, or whatever that was before, and this wasn’t middle school. No one was going to bully her around.
So she danced a little, and by the second song she was dancing a little less awkwardly. She started to feel herself loosen up, and Brook handed Donna the margarita one of the guys had brought to her while they were dancing, letting her drink some. Donna drank very little, knowing alcohol dehydrated people, and that was the worst possible thing she’d need right now. No, she was beginning to have a little bit of fun all on her own.
Donna noticed one of the jocks from earlier eyeing her, and it wasn’t just any jock, it was Cody Lighter. Cody Lighter was West Applegate’s version of Ryan or Randy. He’d been on every major varsity sports team that rivaled her school. His name was always being called on the sports intercom, and he’d made the paper a couple times. He’d almost won against her school in football, but Randy had taken him down.
Donna smiled briefly, her nervousness reaching an all time high. If her school knew she was hanging with him she’d be lunch meat, but in that moment his bright green eyes seemed to make her heart beat faster. Up close, he is really handsome … Oh gosh he’s still looking at me. Donna felt herself blush, and hoped no one could tell.
The next song was one of her favorites and she felt herself finally let go as if she were in the city again. The three cheerleaders from before joined her and Brook, and all the girls made a circle together.
* * *
Rebecca
After two hours, Paul had searched every inch of Rebecca’s house she could think of. They’d pretended to talk about school, but finally now they both took a breath of relief.
“You’re okay,” he said with a shy smile.
“Thank God,” she mouthed in a whisper.
“Where’s your laptop?” he asked her next.
She brought him over to it, and he took a USB cable and hooked it from his laptop to hers. “I’m copying my hard drive to yours,” he told her as he typed in passwords. “It should take about two hours, everything’s coded, but just in case something happens, you’ll have everything,” he said to her slowly, looking at the ground.
Rebecca felt like her goose bumps had become tiny glass spikes that were seeping through her body. “Something else happened to you?” she asked, reading his face.
“I hacked all the way in. I know—” he fixed his glasses “—everything, and I think they know … ” As he kept on talking, Rebecca only heard half of what he was saying. She felt afraid again and helpless all at once. His words seemed to blur into each other, yet she felt she was finally starting to understand. Tears fell from her eyes, and she turned away, trying to hide them.
“
I, I’m so sorry,” Paul began nervously. “I’m sorry about all of this.”
“No,” she interrupted him. “Please, I’m glad you’ve trusted me. You saved me that night. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.” More tears were coming now, and she felt Paul’s hands around hers, and she wished they’d stay like that forever. He moved away from her slowly, his lips close to hers.
“Rebecca, there’s something I have to tell you,” he said in a low voice.
At that instant, being so close to him, all Rebecca wanted him to do was kiss her. She looked into his eyes, and as if he read her mind, he moved in slowly and nervously, and their lips touched.
She closed her eyes and they kissed. She had never been kissed before ever. She had dreamt about Spencer kissing her at school millions of times, but this was much more perfect. Rebecca knew she’d never forget this moment. They kissed again, and she felt herself melt into Paul’s arms.
* * *
Ms. Klingalsmith
Spencer’s mother, Rachel Klingalsmith, drove up to the Applegate mansion. The man at the gate made a call, and after a few minutes he lifted the gate, letting her car come closer. Just being at the mansion made her feel like she was in high school again. As if her secret lover was going to bring her to the guesthouse, where they could be alone in seclusion.
She hated this place. After everything that had happened … Even after he’d helped them stay safe for the last couple of years, she still hated him. She stepped out of her car, walking up to the door, where before she even knocked, the same maid that had worked there seventeen years ago opened the door. She had the same disapproving look on her face at seeing Rachel as if she were still a teenage girl, but Rachel was a woman now. She held her face high, giving the woman no power.
“Mr. Applegate will see you in the library,” the maid told her.
Miss Klingalsmith walked right in without giving the maid another look. She headed up the enormous staircase, remembering the place the best she could. She opened the large door, not bothering to knock, as the maid followed behind her.