Connection (Le Garde) (16 page)

“
And.
 
.
 
.and do you think Stanford would be a good fit for my sisters?”

Joseph paused, possibly trying to figure out what I was trying to say or how to respond. “I don’t know. Did you know there used to be a time when Stanford would only accept one person from each family? I think a lot of things are like that. One child gets the good looks, another gets the talent.”

I didn’t think what he said about Stanford was true, but I understood what he was saying. One child. Why me, why Aaron? Why not Ginger and Mitch? That would be gross, though, if they were connected to each other, given the huge age difference. “Why do you think Aaron and I are the ones with the brains?”

Joseph chuckled. “Who’s to know why? Are you interested in more about Stanford? Maybe I could meet with you and tell you more about the school.”

Aaron and I stared at each other. “You’re pretty far from San Francisco,” Aaron said. “We don’t have rides. We’re only on Spring Break.”

“
Ah, yes,” Joseph said. I heard noise on the other line, maybe shuffling paper. “Well, perhaps one of our admissions staff can visit you. Would you be willing to meet with Kristina?”

I tightened my hold on Aaron’s knee, as though he were keeping me steady. In a way, he was. I felt safer calling Joseph with Aaron. Even though I wouldn’t have this issue without Aaron. I could feel his excitement mixing with fear, and I felt the same thing, but I couldn’t help being suspicious, too. Why did they want to meet us? Did Joseph have some kind of angle?

“
We leave town on Friday,” Aaron said. “Can we see her before then?”

“
Of course,” Joseph said. “You know, Kristina might be in town right now. I could call her for you. Maybe I could give her your number.”

Aaron looked at me. I swallowed and gave a nod.

“
Okay,” Aaron said in a shaky voice. “Sure, why don’t you have her call us?”

“
All right, great,” Joseph said. “It was great talking to you two. I’m sure we’ll be in touch.”

“
Thanks, Mr. Harwood,” Aaron said.

“
Have a good night.”

Before either of us could respond, the call ended. I let out a breath and put my head in my hands. “This is insane.”

“
I know.
 
.
 
.I can’t believe it.”

A sudden thunderous noise above us made me jump, grabbing Aaron’s wrist. The touch shocked me painfully, and I darted away, swearing. It was just kids above us. I left the nook, and Aaron followed me. Glaring at the kids, I stalked over to the swing and plopped down on one. I couldn’t even touch my best friend.

Aaron sat next to me, quiet. I knew he wanted to touch me, too, and probably not in ways that would make Steven happy. Or ways that would make me happy, for that matter. I didn’t know. I didn’t want to think about it along with everything else.

Aaron’s phone rang, and he answered it, moving to stand next to me. “Hello?” he said.

I heard a female voice as Aaron put it on speaker phone, then, “Kristina. I’m the.
 
.
 
.uh, the person from Stanford.”

“
Right, we just talked to Mr. Harwood,” Aaron said.

“
So did I. You by Steven’s uncle’s house?” Kristina asked.

Another chill ran through me. How much did these people know about us?

“
Yeah.”

“
You know the coffee shop on Harvard road?”

“
No, we’re not from around here. If you gave me the address, I can look it up.”

Kristina huffed. “It’s called Rose Coffee. It’s on Harvard road. I’m sure you can find it.”

“
Okay.
 
.
 
.are you going to meet us there?”

“
No, I just wanted to tell you they had awesome espresso,” Kristina said. “Ten minutes?”

“
We’ll try. I don’t even know where it is.”

“
Okay, see you then.”

Kristina hung up, and Aaron raised his eyebrows at me.

“
This is getting weird,” I said, crossing my arms.

“
It’s a coffee shop,” Aaron said with a shrug. “She can’t kidnap us or anything, right?”

“
If she tries, we can strike her with a lightning bolt.”

It took us fifteen minutes to walk to Rose Coffee. It was a small black coffee shop squeezed between an antique shop and a realtor’s office. By the time we stepped inside, the tips of my fingers were tingling from cold. I remembered my pen pal from Liberia used to think California was always warm and full of movie stars. I’d sent her a picture of me on the snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains.

The walls of the coffee shop were covered with different paintings and pictures in which roses were either the focal point or in the background. I glanced around while Aaron ordered a coffee. He insisted on paying for my smoothie, and I stopped protesting when I saw Kristina walk into the shop, a broad-shouldered man following her.

Kristina’s different colored eyes found me right away. They were entrancing. She walked over to us. “You found it.” 

I nodded, not sure what to say. I stood by while she ordered a hot chai, he a black coffee. They got their drinks and led Aaron and I to a table in the back corner. “We don’t have much time,” she said as she sat down, “but we couldn’t pass up an electric pair.”

“
Yeah, we’ve never met one,” her companion said. He stared at Aaron and I with the sort of look a child had when seeing a fascinating animal at the zoo.

“
This is Drew,” Kristina said. “We’re teleporters.”

I stared at them. Wait, she meant they could
actually
teleport from one spot to another?

“
Oh, I forgot you haven’t met any pairs before,” Kristina said. “Other than your parents.”

“
And we just found out about that on Friday,” Aaron added.

“
Really?” Drew asked. “Why didn’t they tell you?”

“
They’re the ones who have one parent each,” Kristina told him.

“
What happened to their Partners?”

“
Joseph never found them.”

“
No,” I said. “They’re.
 
.
 
.they’re ‘partnered’ with each other. My mom and his dad.”

Kristina’s brow furrowed. “What? Why didn’t they get together?”

“
When they met, they were already with other people.”

“
You’re kidding me,” Kristina said, her eyes wide.

Drew let out a low whistle. “That’s horrible.”

I shifted in my seat, all too conscious of the implication. “What, every ‘pair’ has to get together?”

“
No, they don’t
have
to get together, but everyone does.” Kristina looked at Drew. “This one has a different boyfriend.”

Huffing, I said, “How long have you been following us?”

“
Only since you got to San Francisco. Once we found out we—”

“
Wait, wait a second,” Drew said, putting his hand up. Kristina rolled her eyes, and Drew asked, “You have a different boyfriend? You’re going out with someone else?”

My face grew warm, especially as I could feel how Aaron found the situation just as senseless. I leveled a steady gaze at Drew. “Yes, I am.”

Drew looked at me, then Aaron, then back at me. “How the hell do you manage that?”

“
Don’t mind him, he has no manners,” Kristina said, leaning forward. “As I was saying, once we found out you’d be close to San Francisco, we moved in. Didn’t Joseph tell you that?”

“
But how did you find out we were coming here?” Aaron asked.

“
Joseph has kept tabs on you since he knew about your parents. It’s almost always passed down, and usually to a Pair who’s born in the same timeframe and location.”

“
My mom was born in the Congo,” I said, “and Aaron’s dad was born in.
 
.
 
.”

“
San Jose,” Aaron finished.

Kristina shrugged. “Well, we can’t explain everything. It’s not like there’s a simple equation behind it all.”

I rubbed my forehead, trying to ward off a coming headache. “No, I guess that’d be too easy.”

“
How’d you know for sure?” Aaron asked. “Was it the party?”

“
Yep,” Kristina said after taking a sip of her chai. “Drunk sixteen-year-old partners, not a good idea.”

“
I wasn’t drunk,” I said.

“
And I’m seventeen,” Aaron added. I could feel his amusement, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“
Either way, you’re just getting used to everything,” Kristina said. “I’m guessing you can’t touch each other without something happening, right?”

I nodded, staring down at my smoothie.

“
It’ll pass,” Drew said. “Once you get used to it.”

“
How long does it take?” I asked. My face warmed up again. At least when I blushed, it wasn’t as noticeable as Sam, who looked like a tomato. Kristina and Drew might not notice at all, but I knew Aaron might if he studied my face.

Kristina and Drew exchanged glances, and Kristina shrugged a shoulder. “Depends. Some people, a year. Others, more.”

Drew chuckled. “Once, Kristina and I were making out when we were eighteen, and we were suddenly in the middle of the street.”

I raised my eyebrows as Aaron laughed, both of us taken aback.

“
Like I said, no manners,” Kristina said. She looked at her watch. “We need to go soon, but we can keep in touch. E-mail and phone is too traceable, so maybe we can visit Sacramento
as we need to.”

“
El Dorado, technically,” I said quietly.

“
Why are you worried about it being traceable?” Aaron asked.

“
You want people to know about this?”

“
But is someone tracing stuff like this?” I asked, exchanging a glance with Aaron. “Why wouldn’t these conversations just get lost in the mass of it all?”

Kristina and Drew paused, and it seemed like they were carrying on a nonverbal conversation, like Aaron and I could sometimes. “Yeah,” Kristina said, “there are people tracing stuff like this. There are people interested.”

“
What?” I asked, my body tensing. “Like who? Like what are we talking about?”

“
It’s a long story,” Kristina said. “People who aren’t Pairs found out about it, and they’re interested in the power, in the connection.” She leaned toward me and touched my hand. “As long as you don’t draw attention to yourselves, you should be all right. It’s almost kind of good your parents don’t have it, too. Pairs that don’t have parents like that aren’t found easily.”

“
But you guys found us,” I said. Aaron’s hand touched my knee. I tensed at first, then relaxed. I had a surge of affection for him, and I didn’t want to go home to Steven’s. I wanted to go home with Aaron and fall asleep on his bedroom floor, like we used to when we were young, before my mom thought it was weird because he was a boy and I was growing boobs. I knew he was worried, too, but he reassured me we were in this together.

“
We found you because of Joseph,” Kristina said. “He has years of research with genealogy. He and his dad have been trying to bring the Pairs back together since World War II.” She lowered her voice, squeezing my hand. “Listen to me. No one’s going to find you unless you make yourself known to them. Two power outages in the same area isn’t noteworthy, but if anything else happens, people might start asking questions.”

I nodded, and she pulled her hand away.

“
We want to practice,” Aaron said quietly. “What about that?”

“
If you have to, do it far away from where people aren’t going to notice if something goes wrong,” Kristina said. “Abandoned buildings, outskirts of town, that kind of thing.”

Drew stretched his arms over his head. “We gotta go, Kris.”

Kristina stood up. “You’ve got my number, and I have yours. We’ll keep in touch. Don’t call Joseph again unless it’s an emergency.”

“
Wait, shouldn’t you tell us a little more about these people?” I asked.

“
You don’t need to know anything about them because they’re not going to cause you any trouble,” Drew said, getting to his feet. “Don’t worry about it.”

I sighed. Easy for him to say, he knew what was going on. I thought about standing up, but I didn’t want to go back to Steven’s yet. “Thank you,” I told them.