Better Late Than Never

  Jenna steeled herself to stare right back into those blue eyes. "Where did you go?"

  "California." He smiled in an almost sheepish way. "I was a good-looking kid, and I thought I could make it in the movies."

  Jenna eyed him skeptically. "Did you? Are you some famous movie star I've never heard of?"

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  He laughed. "Hardly. Did you ever see Invasion of the Mile-High Martian Zombies?"

  Jenna shook her head.

  "I don't think it was ever released in theaters. I'm pretty sure it went directly to DVD. I was one of three hundred Martian zombies on stilts. You can't pick me out because we all wore the same mask. And I didn't even get a credit. So no, I'm not a famous movie star. I'm an unknown DVD extra."

  At least he was able to poke fun at himself, Jenna thought. But she'd watched enough crime dramas on TV to know that scam artists were usually charming.

  "How did you know you had a daughter?" she challenged him.

  "Your mother had a friend, Sylvia Tinsley. You wouldn't remember her--she passed away ten years ago. But we stayed in touch, and she wrote me that Barbara gave birth to a little girl."

  "But you didn't come back," Jenna stated.

  "No." He bowed his head. If he was an actor, Jenna was surprised he hadn't made it big in Hollywood. The guy looked really sad.

  "How did you find me?"

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  "Research. The Internet." He gave her a half smile. "Your little brush with the police had one positive consequence: your name got on a database or two."

  "I never did drugs, you know, no matter what you read," Jenna declared. "I was just with some people who had them." Now, why had she said that? What did she care if this total stranger thought she was a druggie?

  "Perhaps I should leave you two alone so you can have a private reunion," Mr. Jackson said as he started to get out of his chair.

  "No!" Jenna cried out. "I mean, that's not necessary. Nice to meet you, Mr. Kelley. Can I please go now, Mr. Jackson?'

  The principal's eyes darkened, but Stuart Kelley seemed much more understanding. "I know this must come as a huge shock, Jenna. And this is a difficult time for you, with your mother in rehabilitation."

  Wow! He really did know a lot about her, Jenna thought, but she said nothing.

  "I can understand if you don't want to have any-kind of relationship," he continued. "But would you mind if I contacted the family you're staying with?

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  Perhaps I could visit you there, if it's okay with you."

  Jenna swallowed, trying to lose what felt like a gigantic lump in her throat. She supposed there wasn't any harm in that. And the Devons were smart people. They'd be able to figure out who he was and what he was really up to.

  So she shrugged. "Whatever."

  This time she didn't bother to ask the principal's permission. She turned and walked out.

  The secretary, still smiling, handed her a note that would allow her to show up late to whatever class she was supposed to be in now. But that wasn't where she went. Instead, she walked down a silent hall and went straight into a restroom. She needed time alone to think.

  "Who was this guy? And what did he want from her? He had to be pulling some kind of scam, but why? It wasn't as if he could kidnap her and ransom her for money.

  Mr. Jackson claimed there was evidence that this Stuart Kelley really was her father. But why would he come looking for her? So he could claim her and get the welfare allowance the state gave her mother? But

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  it wasn't much money--hardly worth the effort. None of this made any sense at all.

  She was almost relieved to hear the bell ring. At least class would be a distraction. She left the restroom and practically collided with Amanda Beeson.

  "There you are!" Amanda exclaimed. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

  "What do you want?" Jenna asked, knowing her rudeness would have no effect whatsoever on Amanda.

  She was right. Amanda practically shoved her back into the restroom. "I have a favor to ask you."

  The door to one of the stalls opened, and a girl Jenna vaguely recognized came out. She was Nina something, a friend of Amanda's.

  "Hi, Amanda. You're Jenna Kelley, aren't you?"

  "Yeah, so what?"

  "So nothing. I just didn't know you two were friends." Nina sauntered out of the restroom.

  The color drained from Amanda's face. Despite everything she'd just been through, Jenna burst out laughing. Clearly, poor Amanda was devastated at having been caught talking to notorious bad girl

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  Jenna Kelley.

  She almost felt sorry for Amanda--but not quite. "Why would I do you a favor?"

  Amanda recovered from her shock and faced her squarely. "Do you want me to tell everyone you still sleep with a teddy bear?"

  "I'll just call you a liar," Jenna replied.

  Amanda grinned meanly. "I have a photo."

  Jenna doubted that. When Amanda had been Tracey and they'd slept in the same room, she didn't recall ever seeing a camera. And with everything else on her mind now, and her reputation not exactly squeaky clean, did she really care if people knew she slept with a teddy bear?

  But she had to admit--she was curious to know what Amanda could possibly want her to do. "What kind of favor?"

  "I want you to read Ken's mind. I've been flirting with him like crazy, and he's totally not responding."

  Jenna cocked her head to one side. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe Ken just doesn't want to be with you?"

  "No," Amanda replied. "There's got to be another

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  reason.You have to find out what it is."

  It was so annoying--the way Amanda just assumed that every girl wanted to be her friend and every boy was madly in love with her. And there was something else about this that bugged Jenna.

  "Weren't you listening when Madame said we shouldn't use one another to exploit our gifts?"

  "Since when do you do what the teachers say?" Amanda retorted.

  She had a point. But Jenna shook her head. "Look, Amanda, if he's not interested in you, then he's not thinking about you. What difference would it make if I found out that he was thinking about--I don't know--football, or soccer, or macaroni and cheese? How would that help you?"

  Amanda was momentarily at a loss for words.

  "I've got a better idea," Jenna said. "You're a body snatcher. Why don't you just take over his body? Then you could fall in love with yourself. It shouldn't be too difficult, considering how conceited you are."

  And she walked out of the restroom, pleased that for two whole minutes she hadn't thought about the mysterious Mr. Kelley.

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  Chapter 7

  AS JENNA LEFT THE restroom, half a dozen girls entered, and several of them greeted Amanda. But she was barely aware of them. She walked out in a daze, with Jenna's words still ringing in her ears. Not the part about being conceited. She didn't care one little bit what Jenna thought of her. It was Jenna's idea that was stuck in her head.

  Would it work? Could she really take over Ken's body and make him fall in love with her? Of course, if she was inside Ken, her physical self would be that robotic Other -Amanda who took over when she was elsewhere. But so what? That Amanda-robot-thing acted just like her. And once she-as-Ken asked Other-Amanda out, she'd get back inside herself and charm him on their date. It was just a question of getting him alone, of having his full attention.

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  There was only one problem--but it was a big one. How could she take over Ken's body? Body snatching worked only when she felt enormous sympathy for someone. How could she ever feel sorry for Ken? He was good-looking, he was popular, and she was pretty sure he had no problems with schoolwork. She didn't know much about his family, but she'd seen them all together at a restaurant recently. Thinking back, she recalled two parents and a little sister. They had seemed okay--a normal, ordinary family.

  But maybe his parents weren't ge
tting along-- maybe they were even heading for divorce. There'd been no evidence of that when she'd seen them, but you never knew what went on behind the scenes. She'd have to ask her mother-- she kept up to date on community gossip. Amanda knew it wasn't very kind of her to hope that Ken's parents were breaking up, but at least it would give her something to pity.

  Or maybe the whole idea was absolutely stupid. First of all, she didn't have that kind of control over her gift. She could avoid body snatching by not feeling sorry for someone, but could she actually

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  initiate a snatch? She'd never tried because she'd never wanted to, and there was no reason to think she had the ability.

  On the other hand, since she'd never tried, she didn't know if she couldn't.

  So what if she could make this happen? What if she could take over Ken's body, ask out robot-Amanda, and then get back inside herself just in time for the big date? Would Ken even remember that he'd asked her out?

  She thought back to her time inside Tracey's body. She'd never really talked to Tracey about it, so she wasn't sure how much Tracey remembered after she got her body back. But after she'd been inside Tracey for a while, she had felt some sort of connection, like Tracey knew what was going on.

  So what if Ken did remember and he wasn't happy about what Amanda had made him do? She could make things even worse than they already were.

  Not to mention the weirdness of being inside Ken's body. It was one thing to act like Tracey Devon; how could she possibly act like a boy? No, it was

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  insane--she could never pull it off. She'd have to come up with something else.

  But what? This was so frustrating--it was driving her crazy.

  "Hello, hello, is anyone home? Earth to Amanda! Come in, Amanda."

  She turned to see Nina, Sophie, and Britney walking alongside her. She had no idea how long they'd been there, but they were all giggling.

  "What's so funny?" she demanded.

  "You," Nina said. "You look so out of it! Have you been taking lessons from Emily Sanders?"

  "Don't be stupid," Amanda snapped. "I've just got something on my mind, that's all. Honestly, can't a person think about something? And don't ask me what I'm thinking about, because it's none of your business!"

  Now all three girls were staring at her, and she wanted to kick herself for going all postal like that. Why had she sounded so annoyed? Getting upset like that--it was so uncool.

  "Don't bite off our heads!" Nina exclaimed. "I don't know what's happened to you lately, Amanda."

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  Sophie nodded. "You're just not yourself."

  Britney chimed in. "Ever since you got stuck in that weird class, it's like you've changed."

  "I have not!" she declared indignantly.

  The three girls exchanged looks, and Amanda knew immediately that they'd been talking about her behind her back. This was bad.

  Her mind began to race. Personally, she didn't think she'd been behaving any differently, but clearly they did, so she had to do something to provide an excuse for her attitude. She needed a problem, but it had to be a cool problem, something that would give her status.

  "It's Ken," she said suddenly

  They all looked puzzled. "Ken Preston?" Britney asked.

  Amanda nodded. "He likes me. I can tell. He's been coming on to me like crazy--flirting at school, calling me at home, sending me instant messages ..."

  Now her friends looked confused. "What's wrong with that?" Sophie wanted to know. "Ken is hot!'

  "Oh, sure, I know that," Amanda said carelessly. "I'm just not sure how I feel about him. And I don't

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  want to hurt his feelings."

  Uh-oh--wrong comment. The notorious Queen of Mean Amanda Beeson didn't care if she hurt someone's feelings. Was it her imagination or did all three of the girls just take a step backward, creating more of a distance between them? And ohmigod, was that Tracey Devon coming toward them? The old Tracey Devon would never have had the guts to approach Amanda Beeson. She'd created a monster!

  "Amanda, hi. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in class today. But I really want you to know how grateful I am--"

  Amanda grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the others. "Shut up!" she hissed in Tracey's ear. "My friends don't know about me!"

  Tracey's eyebrows went up. "Really? But I thought--"

  "I have to get to class," Amanda said frantically, turning her back on Tracey. But her friends were already halfway down the hall. She raced to catch up with them.

  "Wait up," she demanded.

  "Sorry," Nina said. "We wanted to give you some

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  privacy with your new best friend, Tracey."

  Britney started to giggle and then quickly clamped her hand over her mouth. Britney Teller, who worshiped Amanda! Could her life get any worse?

  It could. Because here came Ken Preston, ambling down the hall.

  "Hi, Ken!" Nina called out, and she stepped aside to reveal Amanda, practically pointing at her. Ken glanced in their direction.

  "Hi, Nina."

  That was it. Not a word of greeting to Amanda.

  "I don't think you're going to have to worry about breaking his heart, Amanda," Nina said. "He didn't even look at you. Oops! The bell's going to ring." Everyone took off in different directions.

  This wasn't good. Amanda wasn't just teetering on her pinnacle anymore--she was slipping off. This couldn't be happening to her.

  But throughout the rest of the school day, she saw sign after sign of her diminishing popularity. She received no compliments, not even for her new shoes. When she went into her algebra class, she saw that her friends Emma and Katie had their heads

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  together. And when they saw her, they immediately moved apart. She knew what that meant. They'd been talking about her, too.

  The worst was yet to come. There was an assembly scheduled that day, during the next-to-last period-- another one of those dull programs on the environment. They'd been having them every week--on global warming, recycling, all kinds of boring topics. Amanda had no idea what this week's subject was, and she didn't care--she had bigger things to worry about than the future of the dumb planet.

  But everyone liked assemblies, even boring ones. You got out of class, and assemblies were a good excuse to spend time with your friends. You could sit wherever you wanted, so it was like the cafeteria, where the cliques could gather. Best of all, assemblies were usually held in the gym and the students sat on the bleachers. The coolest kids commandeered the highest level, where they could ignore the speakers and talk to one another without being seen by the teachers.

  Amanda's gang always sat on the top row of the

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  left side, farthest from the stage. Automatically, she went down to that end of the gym and started up the stairs. She was more than halfway to the top when she was confronted with a sight more horrifying than--well, than any massacre in any horror movie that Amanda had ever seen.

  There they were: Nina, Britney, Sophie, Emma, and Katie--and they hadn't saved a space for her. Instead, they'd allowed Cara Winters and Terri Boyd to join them. And now they were squeezing themselves together even more tightly to let in Heather Todd. Heather Todd! Who, just that very morning, had been thrilled to give Amanda a completely illegal photocopy of Ken's class schedule! How was this possible? This couldn't be happening to her. How could someone's reputation totally collapse in one crummy day?

  Now Emma had seen her, and she was nudging the others. They were all looking at her, standing there all alone, with no place to sit. For what would have to be the one and only time in Amanda's life, she wished she were Tracey Devon and could just vanish.

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  But she was Amanda Beeson, ruler of all that was cool at Meadowbrook Middle School, and if nothing else, she could try to preserve some dignity. Refusing to meet anyone's eyes--but knowing full well that all eyes were on her--she turned and
walked down the steps. Now she knew how Marie Antoinette must have felt on her way to the guillotine or how Anne Boleyn had felt when she faced her executioner. Fallen queens, all of them.

  By the time she'd reached the bottom, the program was beginning and she had to take the first seat available, at the end of a row of nerdy brainiacs who probably actually cared about the environment. At least they weren't paying any attention to her. They didn't even notice her, and for once she was grateful for that.

  And unlike Marie Antoinette or Anne Boleyn, she still had a head and she could use it. She would not fall apart. She would deal with this situation and she would overcome it. She would reclaim her throne.

  But how? That was the big question. And so she went back to that conversation with Jenna in the restroom and began to consider Jenna's

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  suggestion again.

  From her bag, she pulled out the copy of Ken's class schedule. According to it, he had gym class after the assembly. Excellent. This meant that after the last bell, he'd need a few extra minutes to change his clothes. That would give her time to get to that end of the building and position herself somewhere unnoticeable but from where she could see him emerge. Her plan was to follow him home, and just before he arrived, she would corner him.

  At that point, she had two options. She could flirt--but that hadn't worked so far. The second possibility was to discover something about him that would elicit her sympathy and, she hoped, give her the means to take over his body. She strongly suspected that this option was the better one. If she could control Ken, she could make him do what she wanted him to do: hang out with Amanda, date Amanda, make the whole school believe that he was madly in love with Amanda, and put her back up on the pedestal where she belonged. And even if it wasn't real, even if he didn't want her once she gave him back his body, so what? She'd already be back on

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  top, and she could let everyone think she'd broken up with him, which would give her only more prestige.

  Yes, the second option was definitely the one to go with. True, she'd never before tried to take over a body on purpose, but Amanda Beeson always got what she wanted. And if she wanted her life back, she'd figure out a way.