Being Jamie Baker (31 page)

“You guys call an ambulance, and I’ll go find Mr. E. He can’t have gotten very far. He isn’t exactly in prime physical condition right now.”

“Be careful, Jamie,” my mom whispered as I left the classroom.

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m not going to hurt anybody.” I couldn’t help thinking about the control I’d just gained, and a smile broke out on my face.

It had been only a minute or two, and Mr. E. really couldn’t have gone far, so I closed my eyes and concentrated on just listening. When I found him, he was running through the quad, nearing the front steps of the school. Conveniently for me, the quad is full of nice little throwable objects like trash cans and vending machines.

Now, I knew I promised I wouldn’t hurt him, but he didn’t know that, and I was still pretty ticked off about him torturing my boyfriend, so I didn’t see any harm in scaring the pants off the guy. I mean, come on, would Johnny Storm—who happens to be my favorite superhero, by the way—do things the boring way? Or would Wolverine—who I also love because of Hugh Jackman in the X-Men movies?

Delicious!—let him get off as easy as just being tied up or whatever? I don’t think so. So when I caught up with Mr. E., instead of just grabbing him and hauling him back to wait for the cops with everyone else, I picked up the nearest thing I could find and chucked it at him. When the concrete bench I’d thrown came crashing down on the steps in front of him I’d never seen anyone look more frightened.

“Aw, come on, Mr. E. Don’t leave yet,” I taunted coldly. “I thought you wanted to experiment with my powers.”

Mr. E.’s eyes widened, and then he tried to make a break for it around the rubble I’d placed in his path, but there was a trash can just to the side of the steps. I happen to know from personal experience that if you shoot lightning at something it tends to explode from its spot, so I zapped that trash can the minute Mr. E. headed to the left. When it blew up in front of him, he tried to reason with me again.

“I abandoned my whole life for you, Jamie! Don’t you see how much I care?” Oh, I saw all right. I also saw a recycling can sitting on the other side of the steps. Mr. E. saw me take aim and started running again.

I cringed a little when the recycle can I blew up went flying through the window of the administration office. Oops. My bad. My accidental destruction of school property distracted me enough that Mr. E. was able to get down the steps and dash into the parking lot.

I couldn’t very well start blowing things up in a big open parking lot next to a crowded stadium full of witnesses, so whatever I did to stop Mr. E. had to look natural from here on out. Well, lightning is natural, right? As long as it’s coming from the sky and not the palms of my hands, of course.

There was always plenty of electricity in the atmosphere around me, whether it was coming from buildings or power lines or even the clouds, and now that I knew what it felt like and how to move it, it was almost too easy to make it rain down from the sky like a freak lightning storm.

I ducked behind a large tree and held my hands up to the sky. I started pulling lightning bolts down from the clouds, being very cautious not to hit any poor sucker who might be arriving late to the game or any of my classmates’ cars. Mostly, I let it crash down around Mr. Edwards’s car as he tried to escape the parking lot, hoping he would run it into some large, stationary object.

Okay, okay, so maybe I accidentally let one slip and blew Mike Driscoll’s big, shiny 4Runner to kingdom come. Oops. My bad again. But other than that, I swear I was being very careful!

Unfortunately, all the lightning had gained the attention of the sports-goers, and they were all fleeing the metal bleachers, looking for safe cover. They would be headed my direction any second, not to mention Mr. Edwards was almost free of the parking lot. I looked up at the shiny new marquee standing proudly at the exit and smirked to myself. “Sorry, Mr. Huang.” With one final lightning bolt, that stupid sign came crashing down right on the hood of Mr.

Edwards’s car. He was going nowhere now, and the cops were already screeching around the corner.

Problem solved.

* * * * *

Ryan was conscious when I returned. He looked like death, but just seeing him alive and awake was enough to make me burst into tears. I threw my arms around him, but was soon dragged away when police, firefighters, paramedics, and who knows who else, swarmed the scene.

Ryan was taken to the hospital, while my parents, Carter, and I were all hauled down to the police station. We were there for so long that I actually fell asleep in the lobby on three hard plastic chairs that I’d pushed together. I didn’t wake again until I heard Carter shuffle past me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked, startling him.

“The police are done with me,” he said with a yawn.

“And?”

“And it’s one in the morning and I’ve still got a story to write.” I got up and quickly blocked the exit. I glanced around. No one was paying attention to us. “You and I still have to talk,” I said in a low voice.

Carter sighed like he was just so over my threats. “Don’t worry. The cops bought the story.

Everything’s going to be just fine.”

“Except we still have one problem.”

“Which is?”

“You still know my secret.”

“And I’ll never breathe a word about it.”

“Oh!” I barked with as much sarcasm as I was capable of. “Well, okay then. I guess we’re all good.”

Carter was as good with the sarcasm as I was. “Thanks for the trust, Jamielynn.”

“What have you ever done to earn it?”

“Today wasn’t enough?”

I just folded my arms tightly across my chest, and he sighed again. “All those articles I wrote in Illinois?”

I suppressed the anger starting to boil in my stomach. “About how I murdered Derek because he broke up with me?”

“Yes,” Carter said. “Did you ever notice how I wrote about anything and everything I could come up with that had nothing to do with what my real theory was—that the accident gave you superhuman abilities?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but it was true. None of his stupid rumors ever came close to the truth about me. I suddenly didn’t like where this conversation was headed.

“Jamielynn, back then you were a wreck. You didn’t even know what was happening to you, much less have any idea how to control it or hide it. Remember that day you handed your dad a wrench and nearly put him in the hospital?”

I didn’t have the heart to answer him, and not just because I was so shocked that he knew about that. Carter seemed to know how upset I was because he softened his voice. “I’ve always had the evidence I needed.”

“B-But…” I stammered, swiping at a couple of rogue tears. “Why?” I didn’t have to be more specific with my question. He knew what I meant. “Visticorp paid me to spy on you after your accident. But when I found out all that you could do? Well, I’m not stupid. I knew how much that kind of power would be worth to people, and I knew what they might try to do in order to get their hands on it.

“I did some digging into Visticorp before handing over my evidence, and it turned out my hunch was right. I was able to hack into some of their files. There was a young girl about fifteen years ago who was in an accident and ended up with special abilities, much the same way you did.” I couldn’t stop myself from gasping. I couldn’t believe it. “There’s someone else like me?”

“Was,” Carter corrected solemnly. “Visticorp ran all kinds of tests on her and experiments. They were trying to figure out a way to duplicate what happened to her. There was an explosion in one of their secret labs, and four people were killed, including the little girl.” I gasped again, and more tears sprang from my eyes. For a brief moment I almost wished Visticorp were really coming for me. I dared them to try it.

“Despite what you think, Jamie, I’m not a monster. I couldn’t turn you over to them when I knew what they would try to do, so I churned out story after story about you with a million wild speculations about anything as far from the truth as I could think of. I’m sorry for the trouble it caused you, but it was the only way I could think of to keep you safe.

“When you stopped that accident a couple months ago and Edwards approached me again, I panicked. I figured Visticorp finally knew the truth. I really did think that you coming forward was the only way. But after what happened today, with Ryan? If the world finds out about you, there will always be some psycho coming after you. Eventually, someone will die, whether it’s someone you love or someone you kill. And no offense, Jamielynn, but I don’t think I like the idea of anyone’s fate being in the hands of someone with your temper.”

I didn’t want to smile. I tried not to. But I failed, and we both chuckled while I dried my eyes.

“The way I see it,” Carter said, “I have to keep your secret because if I don’t call a truce with you, that someone who’s going to get killed someday will probably be me.” I shrugged. He was right about that. But I smiled again and held out my hand. “Fine. Truce.”

“Truce,” Carter agreed, and shook my hand. “So how about a statement for my article?”

“Sure. ‘No comment.’ ”

Carter chuckled and shook his head as he headed out the door. “See you around, Jamielynn,” he called over his shoulder.

“I certainly hope not.”

I was still watching him go when my parents came up behind me. “What was all that about, sweetheart?”

“Just calling a truce, that’s all.”

“Well, thank heavens for that.”

I turned around to face my parents. I couldn’t help throwing my arms around them both, and I started crying again. It’s just that I couldn’t imagine having to go through all of this without them. Not to mention, they didn’t even get mad at me for all the destruction of property back at the school.

Granted, they didn’t know about Mike’s 4Runner.

But a girl’s gotta have
some
secrets, right?

We hugged wordlessly for a minute. I mean, really, what was there to say? But eventually I thought of something to break the silence. “I love you guys.” This made my parents hug me again, and of course my mom started blubbering. “We love you too, honey,” she sobbed, “and we’re so proud of you.”

“Yes we are,” my dad agreed. “And someday after everything settles down again, we’ll have to go do some target practice. I want to see how all this lightning stuff works.” We all had a good laugh, I wiped my tears, and then my mom said the words I’d been dying to hear all night. “They said we’re all finished here. You want to go to the hospital to see Ryan?” I didn’t wait to ride in the car with them. I disappeared the moment I stepped out the front door.

It was one in the morning, so visiting hours had ended like a bazillion years ago, but sneaking past the hospital staff was easy thanks to a little thing called superspeed. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought of anyone else being inside Ryan’s room. When I opened the door Ryan’s stepdad was passed out in a chair in the corner, and his mom was sitting at his bedside, holding one of his hands, running her free hand through his hair and even humming quietly to him. The sight explained so much about Ryan.

I smiled at how adorable they all looked together and then tried to back out of the room as quietly as possible, but the door squeaked and Ryan’s mother looked up. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, still backing out of the room. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I know it’s not visiting hours.” When Mrs. Rosenthal saw me, a flood of tears began pouring down her face, and she practically tackled me to the ground. “Oh, Jamie!” she cried, giving my father a run for his money in the bear hug department. It took her a minute to get her sobs under control enough to speak again. “I can’t thank you enough for saving my son’s life! If you guys hadn’t found him when you did…” Her voice trailed off again as another round of sobs hit, and it was impossible for me not to get caught up in the emotional onslaught. I hugged her right back, every bit as grateful that Ryan was safe now as she was, but at the same time feeling utterly responsible for the entire situation. “I’m so sorry,” I choked out, but was unable to say anything else.

When we finally pulled apart and tried to wipe our tears, I barely even noticed Ryan’s stepdad, who had come over to us, because Ryan was watching me with bright eyes and giving me the most Ryan-y Ryan smile that I’ve ever seen. He held out his hand to me, and when I felt his firm squeeze around my fingers, so much relief washed over me that my tears started all over again.

Ryan’s parents not so subtly decided that they needed to get some air. Once Ryan and I were alone, things got almost awkwardly quiet. I was feeling so much but had no idea where to start. The only words that wanted to form in my mouth were “I’m sorry! Ryan, I’m so sorry!” Ryan waited patiently, patronizing me with a smile, while I apologized over and over again. He must have known this was coming. He must have known I’d blame myself for everything. But I was surprised he let me get it out of my system. He didn’t even protest and tell me to stop being ridiculous.

Not that he believed it was my fault, he just knows me well enough to know it wouldn’t make a difference. Instead he waited until I’d cried just about all I could cry and didn’t have any more sorrys in me. Then he smiled and said, “Is it my turn to say I’m sorry yet?” That confused me. “What do you have to be sorry for?”

Ryan grinned. And not at all apologetically. “I’m sorry for making you fall in love with me.” Well, naturally, this came so out of the blue that it completely voided the thought I was about to vocalize. I sat there gaping at him like a moron. Ryan chuckled every time I tried to speak and couldn’t seem to find words. Eventually I gave up and gave him a dry look.

“According to Mr. E., all of this was my fault,” Ryan explained. With a little too much amusement if you ask me. “For making you fall in love with me and ruining everything.”

“Why did that ruin everything?”

Ryan was quiet for a moment, and I couldn’t believe it when his grin changed into that infamous cocky smirk. “You just said you love me!” he accused with excitement.

Again, I gaped at him, temporarily speechless. Of course I denied it. I had to; it was my natural reaction to his ego. “I did not!”