Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) (6 page)

Rhapsody shot up and ran out of the room. I followed her past the nurse’s station to the vending machine area. She paced back and forth in front of the drink machine, sniffling. She’d told me about her mother’s attitude before, but this was the first time I’d seen Ruby crush her daughter up close and personal.

In the past four hours I’d punched through concrete, jumped into another town, and broken the sound barrier. Thinking that someone killed her best friend didn’t seem that weird to me.

“I believe you,” I said with all the seriousness in the world. “I believe you, Rhapsody.”

She turned toward me, her eyes puffy and red. Determination and hope replaced the brokenness I’d seen just a few seconds ago. “You mean it?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“Yes.” I did, especially if it helped her feel better.

“Good.” She dried her tears with the back of her hand. “Help me
prove
it.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

we become science experiments

Ruby let Rhapsody and I share the backseat. She turned around more than once, pretending to check the traffic behind us and mumbling something about having a “blind spot.” True, the mirror on the right side of the car was duct-taped onto the door, but it still sounded like a lousy excuse for a “hand check” to me.

I gave Ruby directions to the apartment. Although we passed her house on the way to drop me off, Rhapsody insisted on staying with me.

Once we got to the apartment complex, I pointed straight ahead. “That’s my building, over there.”

Ruby circled around and parked across two spaces. “There you go, Jason. Goodnight. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you again soon.”

“Thanks.” I opened my door. To my surprise, Rhapsody slid over and got out, too. I didn’t hear what she and her mom said to one another, but it was confrontational. She walked with me, and the aroma of her hairspray wafted through the night air and into my nose. I loved it, whatever it was. 

“Alright, Goth Girl, what’s next?”

It was the first time I said my nickname for her out loud and it sucked. “
Goth Girl?
That’s the best you’ve got? C’mon, Cap, I’m not even Goth right now. You, on the other hand, are still clueless.”

I looked around. “About what?”

She pinched my chin and goatee between her thumb and index finger.
“Exactly.”

“After what’s gone on today, I get a pass.”

Rhapsody considered it as we reached the steps in front of the building. The bulbs in the light overhead had burned out. We could barely see each other by the lights inside the interior corridor. “The police said her death was a suicide. Either she really did kill herself, or. . .”

“You think someone is covering it up,” I said matter-of-factly.

Rhapsody licked her bare lips. “We need to find out.”

Breaking into a police precinct is fine for someone who can turn invisible, but not as easy for a kid who can jump really far and punch holes in things. “What do you want
me
to do? And, why is it so important to you?”

Her face paled at the sound of movement behind us. It was probably a bird, or, at the very worst, a squirrel.

“I think I dropped an earring. . .on the ground, over here.” She knelt down and did the invisibility thing. Ruby honked the horn twice. I’m sure she couldn’t see us from that distance. After this long, she probably thought we were kissing. Hardly. My breath smelled like peppers and onions and so did Rhapsody’s.

Instead of standing around, I tried pumping myself up to get strong, but my mind was too tired. Suddenly, something much bigger than a squirrel, stirred in the bushes. That did the trick. When I clenched my fists, my entire body rippled with electric energy. The inside of my mouth dried. Whatever happened, I was prepared to smash into it, like I had done to the wall. Before I had the chance, Rhapsody reappeared next to me.

“Found it,” she said, pretending to reattach an earring to her bare ear.

I relaxed. Normally, I’m terrible with hints, but the next several ones read loud and clear. We were not alone and might be in some kind of danger. “Thanks for dinner and the ride,” I said.

“No problem.” She gave me a slow, tender kiss on the cheek. “Pack a bag,” she whispered low enough so that only I could hear it. “Make sure everything’s locked. Two minutes.” 

Her rapidly blinking eyes set me on edge. “Be right back.”

I shot upstairs, grabbed a change of clothes and some deodorant, shoved them into a duffle bag, and was back downstairs in no time. Rhapsody and Ruby waited in the car. I’d stay the night at Aunt Dee’s with my brother. This time, when Ruby checked on us, she’d see two things – Rhapsody and I keeping our hands to ourselves and, hopefully, nobody following us.

Rhapsody and I didn’t get a chance to talk again until the next morning on the bus, when she slid into the seat I’d saved for her. Back in black with spiked hair and dark clothes, she scooted over, so that whatever we said would be private. It likely gave our classmates riding the bus a different idea, because everyone else sitting that close was dating.  

“Who was it?” I didn’t give her a chance to talk about anything else.

She looked around to make sure no one was paying us any attention. “Peters.”

My stomach hardened. Our Earth Science teacher? “What? Did he see you?”

Rhapsody shook her head. “Couldn’t see anything from where he was.”

If he
heard
us, that wasn’t necessarily a problem. We talked about what we
planned
to do, but vaguely. “Ideas?”

“I’ve got a little handle on what I can do. You need at least that much.”

Is there a good use for an ability to smash things?
I had dungeon duty until the end of time, so maybe we could brainstorm on how to get my strength functional. Which brought me to another question.
I’m the only one here
wondering how we became comic book characters overnight? If it’s really in the crystal, who’s to say we’re the only ones who have ever found it? 

We didn’t talk for the rest of the ride, not about the green stones or Peters and why he was hiding out near my apartment. It made no sense. No teacher I’d ever known would stalk a student. There’s
no way
he knew about the crater and my jump. But if all those crime scene shows Debra watches taught me one thing it’s that there’s
always evidence.
 

I elbowed Rhapsody. “We’ve gotta go to the crater.”

Rhapsody pointed outside. “Are you nuts? See all these back roads we’re taking? I-48 is shut down, Jason, going both directions. Haven’t you watched the news?”

I woke up late, and had just enough time for an untoasted Pop Tart and a shower. “No. Little busy not getting stalked.”

“They’ve got
military
out there checking for bombs and stuff.”

“This is
bad,
” I thought out loud. “My book bag or what if I left something there?”

She patted my knee. “Don’t worry, Cap. It’ll all work out.”

After the bus ride, we split company at the Reject High entrance. I’d go to class, and she’d go. . .somewhere else. In the halls, I searched for Selby. Not to pick a fight, but to send him a clear message. He’d bullied me for the last time. I turned away when I spotted Peters instead. He called my name twice, but I pretended not to hear him and ducked into Freshman English.

The warning bell rang and I situated my things across my desk as the other students trickled into the room. My peripheral vision picked up Art Girl. I tried playing it cool. She wore a pair of powder blue pants that stopped at her calves, open-toed sandals, and a clingy white t-shirt. Her curly hair wildly dangled beside her ears. When our eyes met, she showed two perfect rows of teeth. Of course she had straight teeth. She probably didn’t know how to sweat, either.

“Hey.” Had I made a sound, or was that just in my mind? Is my mouth even moving?

“I’m Sasha Anderson,” she said, sliding something underneath my notebook. “See you in art.” 

Of course she’s Sasha Anderson. Guess I’m not dodging her after all.
I waited until she walked down the hall to check what she had left me. The folded-up note contained her name, phone number, and a few things she liked to do. If the last two on the list are some of her hobbies, it’s not hard to see why she got sent here. Even I did the second to last one. The last one was wishful thinking. My mom Anna used to call me handsome, but she
had
to. I’m her son, and we looked almost identical. 

Today math interested me more than usual. My teacher used “the event” yesterday as a “teachable moment.” She tried cracking the code of exactly what could have traveled that fast at that trajectory and her educated guesses got me worried.

Thankfully, no one suggested a human being flying through the air.

First, she assumed a starting point on the highway not too far away from where our car accident had happened, courtesy of the smoke stream.  It had never occurred to me that, in addition to my landing spot,
someone could figure out from where I jumped.

She could not pinpoint my exact speed, beyond being around 761 mph, and without my weight, shape and activity, wind resistance was impossible to calculate. Peters was right – there were too many unknown variables. And, no disrespect to her, but she’s a
high school teacher at an alternative school.
Something told me that a team of genius-level government scientists would have me chopped up and under a microscope by the end of the week.