Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) (8 page)

CHAPTER TEN

we become criminals

I shook off my mental haze, avoided having a panic attack, and caught the late bus. Rhapsody was on it, but if anyone on the planet bet me a million dollars she’d be sitting next to the guy who almost stabbed me to death, I’d have taken that bet. And I’d have lost it.

They were together, at the back. Rhapsody had cried off most of her mascara, and dabbed tissue at her reddened eyes. Was she crying because I’d walked out on her? I’m not vain enough to believe that I caused that much damage, but I hadn’t thought she’d freak out so much over my x-ray vision joke, either. Or maybe I had made her cry that much. If Selby had done something to her, well, today I’d aim my punch a little better than I did yesterday.

He didn’t notice me, after all, but focused his attention on Rhapsody. She blankly stared at me and blinked, as if to say “What’s your problem?”

When Selby finally saw me, I detected a huge surge of hostility in him.

“Give us a minute?” I politely asked.

“Nope.”

Something about this kid worked my nerves. His auburn buzz cut, round, chubby jaw line, and the freckles dotting his forehead – I just wanted to
pound him
, over and over again. My entire body sizzled with energy, like I’d licked a hundred car batteries. One wrong twitch and I’d send him over to Harleysville the hard way.  

Rhapsody laid a hand on his hairy forearm. “It’s okay,” she reassured him.

“Whatever.” Selby snatched his arm away and plopped into an empty seat diagonal from us. He started up his MP4 and put white headphones on his ears, though I’m sure the volume wasn’t up loud enough to drown us out.

“What’s
that
about?” I asked, taking Selby’s spot next to Rhapsody.

“Nothing.” Her voice cracked. “We talked, is all.”

“He beats me up, stabs me, and you
talk
to him?”

She stared at the passing cars outside the window and sniffed. “He didn’t actually
hurt
you, at least the last time. I remember you knocking him out, too, Mr. Punch-A-Hole-In-The-Wall.”

From that perspective, I sounded way more bully-like than he did. In my defense, I did have a rage blackout the first time we fought. But if she wanted me to feel bad, she’d be waiting a
long
time. It was hard for me to have sympathy for him. Selby had almost killed me over an insanely hot high school girl. He listened to Rhapsody’s troubles for five minutes and she was cool with him? Suddenly, telling her about Peters and his bracelet wasn’t as important anymore.

I eyed Selby and nodded my head toward Rhapsody. Surprised, he got up and we switched seats. At the next stop, a couple of blocks from my apartment, I prepared to get off. Walking down the aisle, I felt someone’s eyes follow me. Assuming they belonged to Selby, I didn’t turn around.  

Without looking, I crossed the street. I thought I detected Rhapsody’s perfume in the air, but it was probably the scent of flowers – someone’s spring planting – instead of her.

“Hey, Cap, slow down!” Rhapsody rushed up next to me, with Selby close on her heels. Maybe his mother was a Chihuahua, or bloodhound, and he followed her by instinct.

My smile drooped into a frown. For minutes we walked in silence – wondering who would be the first to speak. It wasn’t going to be me. Soon Rhapsody would have to split off from me toward her house, and there was
no way
I’d walk anywhere with a football player – especially this one.

Finally, Selby broke the silence by insulting me. “What’s the ‘Cap’ thing about? Comic book fan?”

I didn’t answer at first.

“Well,
Freak?”

“My name’s not Cap or Freak, it’s Jason,
Leslie,”
I said. Since he’d failed Freshman English twice, some genius stuck him in my class last semester at North High. On the first day the teacher called him by his first name, “Leslie,” instead of his middle name, Michael, which he preferred. We all found it funny, but no one dared to call him Leslie to his face. 

“It’s my nickname for him,” said Rhapsody, playing buffer between the two of us. “Captain Obvious.”

Why is she protecting this guy?
“Leslie Selby.
Your first name and last name rhyme? I just noticed that!”

“Shut up,” he said to me. His jerking hands let me know I wasn’t the first one to make that joke. He reached behind Rhapsody to slap the back of my head, but missed.

“Enough, children,” she said, holding us back with her arms. “Look, Jason. . .”

“Peters knows,” I spat out.

Rhapsody squealed. “How? You told him?”

“Peters, the science teacher? What does he know?” Selby sounded clueless, which was a good thing. Whatever Rhapsody had shared with him had nothing to do with our powers.

“He’s got three green ones, plus some white ones.”

“Three of
what?”
Selby cursed at both of us. “White ones? Somebody tell me what’s going on!”

“We have to do something,” she said, sounding absolutely convinced two fifteen-year-olds who couldn’t drive were the ones for the job. 

“We?
As in the two of us?” Keeping the last month of my freshman year drama free was pretty much a wrap after last week, but
this
was something totally different.

“Maybe.” Her voice trailed off at the end of the word, but she meant to say more.

I caught a glint in her eye, like she was up to something. Was
that
the reason Selby followed her around? “Think about this, for a second. He
stabbed me,
Rhapsody. I could’ve died. If he’s in, you’re on your own.”

Selby reached into his pants pocket and retrieved his knife, a small blade bent into a “J” shape. He held it out in front of my chest. “I stabbed you with
this
. How did you do that?” 

“Kevlar,” Rhapsody explained before I could stumble through a lie. Her eyes shifted wildly in their sockets. “We could steal them from Peters.”

“My dad’s a cop. He complains about how Kevlar
doesn’t
stop knives,” he argued. “Lie again?”

Rhapsody ignored him. “I doubt Peters is listed, but there’s this website. . .”

I’d had enough. “Stop. You can’t break into a teacher’s house.”

“No,” she corrected me.
“You
can’t.
I break rules because I think I’m supposed to,
remember? He’ll never even see me.”

I wanted nothing to do with getting into
more
trouble, but Rhapsody had made up her mind, and that worried me. “Alright.”

“That’s my boy,” she said. “I’ll text you the address. Meet me there at midnight.”

“What’s going on?” Selby yelled. 

It occurred to both of us that we’d discussed everything in front of him. Though he did not know about our abilities, we could not leave him alone with that kind of information.

He had to come with us.

Seeing Debra and Zachary back at the apartment did me good, especially with Aunt Dee springing for Chinese takeout. She even got me plain brown rice and General Tso’s chicken – my favorite. Aunt Dee left after dinner and I helped get my little brother into his crib. My stepmom fell into her bed soon after he closed his eyes.

I slept until eleven o’ clock. Being as stealthy as possible, I snuck out of the back door onto the wooden deck. We lived three floors up, and it was kind of fun to climb down and lower myself to the ground. A part of me wanted to jump, but making another crater in the ground wasn’t smart.

After I caught a bus, I received a text from Rhapsody. “What’s ur 20?” Since she and Debra shared a love of cop shows, I knew that was code for wanting to know my location. I shot back the names for the nearest inter-section. It wasn’t my fault Peters’ fancy neighborhood was on the outskirts of town and the bus arrived late. How could he even afford to live in the Heights on a public schoolteacher’s salary?

The closer I came to the destination, the sweatier my palms became. “She has a good plan,” I thought out loud to an empty bus, “and she can turn invisible. Easy and simple.”

Minutes later, I met Rhapsody and Selby in front of Peter’s upscale ranch home. A lone light shined in the foyer, but the rest of the paneled white house was dark. “What’s the plan?”

“I break in and get the thing off his wrist.” She handed Selby a laser pen. “Flash this in the alley window, if there’s trouble. I checked the floor plan for this development online. That’s his bedroom, which is where I’ll be.”

“I can do that,” Selby said, eagerly accepting his task.

“When we get out of here, Jason, you’ll crush the bracelet. Tomorrow, at dungeon duty, we’ll take care of the rest. Selby, we’ll catch you up then.”

A nagging pain pulled at my stomach and it must have showed in my face. “What if you can’t break in?”

“I have to try. There’s no other way. He’s not one of the good guys. Wait ten minutes. If I’m not out yet, jump him out of here.” She pointed at an angle close to the top of a pretty large tree. “It’s that way. Or you can be totally boring and take the bus.”

Still not totally convinced, I studied the direction she’d indicated. “Whatever.”

Without hesitation Rhapsody approached the house and vanished in front of our eyes, causing Selby to stiffen with shock.

“Yeah,” I said nonchalantly. “She’s invisible.”

From beneath the street lamp light, I saw her footsteps imprinting on the grass as she walked forward, past the “sold” sign. One of the windows in the front was propped up, to allow a breeze inside. Only a screen protected the inside from being totally open. Slowly the screen folded, leaving a gap large enough for a human body to fit through it.

She was in.

Over the next moments we did whatever we needed to do to avoid suspicion. I beat-boxed rap songs and pretended to be waiting for the next bus. Selby tossed his damaged knife into a wire trash can and stared at me. 

“So,” Selby said, trying not to sound weirded out. “Are the two of you aliens or something?”

“Something,” I said, squinting through the darkness. I couldn’t tell anything was going on. Maybe Rhapsody had succeeded in our mission. Or Peters could have quietly killed her. “We’re humans, dude.”