Generation Dead (37 page)

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snit fit, and she already missed him. It didn't seem right to be here at a dance and not at least see him and share a joke together.

"Hey, Phoebe," a low voice said, cutting through the bass beats and her thoughts. It was Harris Morgan, Martinsburg's crony, the one whose nose she'd bloodied in the forest. He stepped toward her.

"Hey," he repeated.

"Leave me alone," she said. She tried to rise, but he stepped in front of her chair, meaning she'd have to brush against him if she wanted to stand up. The chair was flush against the wall, so she wasn't going anywhere.

"It isn't like that," he said.

"What's it like, then?" If she called for Tommy, would he hear her over the sound of Karen's laughter? Maybe he'd be too caught up in the bass beat that seemed to give him and his friends a quicker step. Or maybe he'd be watching Karen too intently, intoxicated by the subtle scent of lavender that Phoebe smelled wafting from Karen's hair when she spun.

"I'm just trying to talk to you," he said, "to warn you."

"Go away."

"I think Pete and TC are up to something," he said.

"Really? Are they rolling freshman for soda money in the little boys' room?" Her tone was belittling, but she was certain that Martinsburg--and probably this jerk in front of her--had been responsible for the retermination of Evan Talbot.

She decided she wouldn't call for Tommy, no matter what happened. If Harris tried anything, she'd stand up and shove him as hard as she could.

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Morgan shook his head and held up his hands. "No. No, I think they're planning something serious. Something that is going to hurt people. You and your friends."

"What do you care?" She rose, brushing him back with her body. She'd dropped him once, she'd do it again, pretty dress or not. And then she'd leave and let all the zombies and living zombies have all the fun they wanted.

Morgan shook his head. "I'm just telling you, is all." He turned away.

"Hey," she said, and he stopped. "Is he here? Pete and the big one? Are they here at the dance?" "They're coming," he said.

They stared at each other a moment longer, until Harris looked away and drifted back into the stream of students milling around the edges of the dance floor.

Phoebe remained standing, and she didn't really notice that the flashing lights had been lowered and turned to blue as the first slow song was spun by the DJ.

"Phoebe," a voice called. It was Tommy, looking awkward for the first time that night as he shouldered his way through the kids, many of whom were escaping the dance floor while others were just setting foot on it.

"Will you ...dance with me?"

Phoebe smiled and took his hand.

"Gross," Holly said. Adam saw what she was commenting on: Tommy Williams leading Phoebe out onto the dance floor so that they could slow dance to an old Journey song.

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His reaction was far different, but he kept it to himself.

"What's with your friend, anyway?" Holly said. Adam thought that if she was angling for an invite to dance, she had a funny way of going about it. He didn't bother to answer. He watched Thorny pull his giggling date out onto the dance floor. Haley Rourke was a junior and nearly a foot taller than Thorny. She was the star forward of the Lady Badgers basketball team, and Adam thought they were a great match, personality-wise. She was very athletic but shy, and Thorny did his best to be athletic and was one of the least shy people he knew.

Thorny had tried to pal around with Adam, but Holly was making it difficult because she didn't approve of either Thorny or his date. She'd much rather be hanging around people like Tori Stewart and Pete Martinsburg, who'd breezed into the dance about five minutes ago.

Adam watched Phoebe loop her hands around Williams's shoulders as the dead boy placed his hands on her hips. He wanted to look away, but found he couldn't take his eyes off her.

She looks happy, Adam thought.

"Why would she want to dance with a dead kid, anyway?" Holly was perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation with herself, Adam knew. "I'm surprised they even let dead kids in here, it's so gross. That one kid dances like a bug that has been stepped on. And the girl ..."

"Hey, Holly," Adam said.

Holly looked up at him. "Yes, Adam?"

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There was an expectancy in her eyes that he felt bad about, but not enough to change his mind.

"Do you think you could get a ride home from Tori or someone else?" he asked. "I'm not feeling so great, and I think I'm going to take off."

He didn't wait for her answer; he just turned and left her standing there in her pretty yellow dress, her mouth open but for once not producing any sound.

"Okay," Pete said, "we've made our appearance. Let's get out of here."

TC nudged him in the ribs. "Hey, what about the zombie?"

TC pointed right at Williams, who was spinning slowly with Scarypants. Piggy Sharon and Tori were giggling behind him, and Pete found himself really regretting giving them the bottle of schnapps for the ride.

"You want to go mess with him?" TC asked, his voice carrying over the music.

"Not now," Pete said. "Soon."

It wasn't just Williams. Dancing next to them was the slutty dead girl and the other zombie kid on his list. Pete thought he moved like a twitching bug.

" 'Kay, girls," he said, turning back to Tori because Sharon was a little sloppy, "TC and I have to go do that little trip I told you about. We'll see you later at Denny's party."

Tori pouted up at him, stumbling a little as she presented herself to be kissed. Pete obliged, tasting the peppermint alcohol on her lips. TC and Sharon locked up like a pair of

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wrestling octopi. Pete wondered if they had killed the whole bottle.

"Whereya guys going?" Tori asked. "Special mission," he replied.

"Got a prank to pull," TC said, squeezing Sharon to him with one heavy arm. "We're gonna get--"

"More booze," Pete said, and gave TC a look intended to sober him in a hurry. TC shut his mouth and let go of Sharon.

Pete kissed Tori a second time. "We'll see you later."

As they were leaving, Pete saw Adam across the floor, walking toward them. Adam saw them and drew up short.

Pete smiled and pointed his finger like a handgun at Layman, who looked as if someone had just kicked him in the gut. Pete winked and dropped the thumb hammer, mock shooting Adam in the head. Then he led TC out the door.

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***

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

T
HE PLAN WAS TO MEET ADAM outside at ten, but Phoebe hadn't seen him all night. Whatsername was there, clustered in the corner with two other cheerleading harpies. Phoebe wondered what the deal was.

"What are we going to do if Adam didn't come?" she asked Tommy, who danced next to her in a loose circle with Karen, Kevin, Margi, and Norm.

"He came," he said. "I saw him talking with his date earlier." "I haven't seen him all night," she said. "He's sort of hard to miss." But she missed him a lot, actually. All night she had been wishing that he was there, dancing with them. She couldn't even imagine him dancing, but she wanted to see it.

"Norm has ... a car," Tommy said. "So does Thorny. Or his date, I forget which."

"I'm going to see if Adam is outside," she said. "I'll be back."

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Oakvale had a strict no-reentry policy aimed at foiling parking lot shenanigans of various stripes, but Principal Kim was a sucker for kids as well behaved and academically achieving as Phoebe was, so she was able to get an exception after only five minutes of wrangling. She hurried out the door. There was a girl sitting on the stone steps. She was crying under the wary eyes of a pair of cops standing watch at the curb. There were a few cars parked in the loop, one of them being the STD's truck. She could see Adam slouched in his seat, staring off into the night sky. The sight of him sitting there by himself, so solid and dependable, erased all of her anger at him.

Phoebe ran over to the truck as fast as she could in her heels. She called his name.

He rolled down the window and turned his Van Halen CD down.

"Hey, Pheeble," he said without enthusiasm.

"What's going on?" she said.

"Lost my date," he said.

"Really?"

"Really. I like that dress. It looks like moonlight. Ghostly. Maybe even spectral. Shimmery."

Phoebe smiled. "Flatterer. Thanks."

They looked at each other in silence for a moment, and Phoebe thought it was strange, this distance between them. She'd almost forgotten what a judgmental jerk she had been.

"Listen, Adam ..." she began.

"I'm sorry, Phoebe," he said; and she had never noticed how like a little boy's his face could become. Adam was so big,

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so quietly confident and mature, she'd always thought of him as being much older than she was, but there was something in his eyes, something hurt and vulnerable, that she'd never seen before.

"No, Adam," she said, "I was really ...."

He shook his head. "Don't even. And don't worry about it. You'd better get your dead pals soon, though, because these cops have tried to roust me a few times."

She laughed; it was like his strong arms had just lifted a big weight from her back. "
Roust
? They actually tried to roust you?"

"Roust," he answered. "What I said."

"You know, you have a pretty good vocabulary for someone who can't get through
Wuthering Heights
."

He lifted the battered paperback off the seat. "I just now finished it," he told her. "I'm a changed man."

"Well, good for you."

"Absolutely. And hey, I was just kidding about the rousting. Stay longer if you want. You looked like you were having fun."

Something about his comment seemed off-kilter, but she couldn't identify what it was. He'd seen her, but she hadn't seen him?

"Yeah, I am," she said. "The dead kids are, too. You should see Kevin dance."

"I did. He's a better dancer than I am."

"I doubt it. Especially after karate and
Wuthering Heights
. Grace and romantic prose? You'll be the terror of girlhood everywhere if you get on the dance floor."

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"Yeah."

Something was bothering him. He was acting like he had that night he'd asked her to play Frisbee, when he didn't want to share whatever it was that was weighing on him. But she knew him well enough to realize that no amount of prodding would pry loose whatever it was; he'd share it in his own good time--if ever.

"Okay," she said, and knocked on the door of the truck twice. "I'll go do some rousting and get this party started." "Great. See you in a few." "See you."

She was halfway up the steps when her friends came out en masse from the building. Kevin's shoulders were still rolling and twitching as though permanently infused with rhythm. Tommy jogged ahead to her.

"Margi said that Norm would like to take us," he said. "Margi...said that he is more socially ...inept...than most zombies, even."

The last bit he did in a fair approximation of Margi's signature machine-gun delivery.

"God love her," Phoebe said, looking over to see Margi and Karen goofing on something poor Norm had said. "But Adam's right over there."

"Oh, I'll go with Adam!" Karen called, waving at him as he sat in the now-warming truck. "I'll see you all at the Haunted House. Maybe."

Kevin didn't seem to mind; he looked like he was trying to perfect the undead version of the Robot, which

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was very strange to watch without any music playing, so Phoebe followed Tommy and the others out to Norm's car.

Phoebe looked back once, to see Karen practically bouncing into Adam's truck.

That will be good for him, she thought, but really she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure what she thought about it at all.

Norm was a much more cautious--and less-skilled--driver than Adam, and he might have had some additional nervousness about having a pair of zombies in the backseat; but it wasn't often he got invited to parties, so he managed to get them there in one piece. They arrived just as Adam and Karen were heading up the porch steps.

Phoebe was the first one out, and she saw Mai, his huge figure filling the doorway, waving his absurd four-fingered wave.

"How ...was ...the ...dance?" she heard him say.

"Great," Karen said, grabbing Adam's hand and pulling him along. "No one threw rocks or bottles or even insults. I think Kevin might have ... stepped on a girl's toe, but that was as violent as it got."

Inside, the dead were dancing to a loud club mix that blared throughout the house. Phoebe had never seen so many zombies in one place before There had to be at least two dozen of them, just in the foyer and the front room, all swaying and jerking beneath an array of decorations and lighting.

"You like it?" Karen said, detaching herself from Adam for the moment. "I got my parents to buy the lights. And