Resistance (The Variant Series #2) (19 page)

“Oh it’s a pretty basic experiment, really,” Mr. Jones was saying. “The lid of the canister is placed under an
intense
amount of pressure as a result of the build up of carbon dioxide gases and, well, all that energy has to go somewhere, right?”

“So,” said Jenny Holmes, seated at the very back of the class. “Chemical reactions plus pressure equals
explosion?
”

This was so not helping.

A thud reverberated through her chair as Declan kicked the metal rack beneath it.

Stop worrying
, he ordered.

I’m fine,
she replied.

As if to illustrate his point, Declan siphoned off some of the excess energy Alex had culled from their surroundings.

I don’t know why you’re still so uptight about the training thing
, projected Declan, not realizing that Alex was spazzing over something else entirely.
There’s nothing but palm trees and swampland around that pasture. The worst that could happen is you accidentally nuke a gator
.

Alex fought back a smile.

You look nice today,
he observed.

She pursed her lips at the tone of his words. It hadn’t been a compliment.

Yeah, well,
Alex tried not to huff.
I didn’t wear this skirt for your benefit, O’Connell.

Honestly, she was surprised it had taken him until sixth period to comment on it. She’d finally broken down and decided to wear the outfit Cassie gave her—a white tank with a small black vest and a layered, asymmetrical red skirt, finished off with black tights and black, knee-high dress boots. Definitely not her usual jeans and sneaker combination.

She’d even gotten up an hour early that morning to tame her loose, frizzy curls into something presentable.

What are you all dressed up for, anyway? Hope you brought something to change into for training this afternoon.

I have that presentation today, remember? The one where I present a semester’s worth of shattered artwork to the entire class? The presentation that’s worth ten percent of our—of
my
—grade?

Oh, right. Forgot.

Alex rolled her eyes and put her mental walls back in place, effectively shutting him out.

The final ten minutes of Mr. Jones’s lecture felt like an eternity. By the time Alex and Declan made their way into the crowded halls, she’d had more than enough time to imagine a dozen new ways her presentation might blow up—quite literally—in her face.

Kenzie caught up with them in the hall as they were making their way into the commons area. Her class was located just a few doors down from the art room, in the same direction they were headed.

“Are you ready?” asked Kenzie.

Unlike her brother, Kenzie had clearly remembered Alex’s upcoming date with public embarrassment. And she wasn’t even in their class.

“Are you nervous?” she asked. “
Do not
be nervous. Just imagine them all in their underwear or something.”

Alex arched an eyebrow.

“I know, I know,” Kenzie sighed. “Worst advice ever.”

Declan was walking a few feet ahead of them and appeared to have checked out of their conversation.

“Break a leg, Lexie!” Cassie called as she approached them, headed in the other direction. “You’re going to do great!”

Alex watched Cassie disappear back into the crowd.

A full three days had passed before her friend finally forgave her for being left out of the loop over the weekend.

When they returned to class on Monday, Cassie spent the entire lunch period forcing Alex and the others to recount the events of the previous weekend, furious that no one had answered her calls and texts for three days running.

She’d nearly throttled Alex when she found out that Masterson was involved and she was the last one to hear about it.

Today marked the first day Cassie hadn’t brought it up in conversation.

“Well you
look
cute, if that helps,” said Kenzie. “And who cares what those losers in your class think?”

Kenzie hooked her arm with Alex’s.

Alex flinched at the skin-to-skin contact, but didn’t pull away. If Kenzie noticed, she didn’t say anything.

“I care,” Alex admitted. “About some of them, anyway.”

“Yeah, well. You shouldn’t. At all. It isn’t worth it,” said Kenzie. “How bad could it
possibly
be? It’s just a few minutes rambling in front of the class about your magnificent artwork. Easy A.”

“My magnificently
broken
artwork,” she corrected.

Distracted by their conversation, Alex slammed into another student headed in the opposite direction. The lanky boy she’d collided with grabbed her arms to steady her.

His fingers felt like ice against her skin.

“I’m so sorry!” said a slow southern drawl. “I should really watch where I’m—”

Alex instinctively yanked her arms back. Their eyes met.

The senior!

“Going,” he finished, then snorted in amusement. “You know, we’ve really got to stop meeting like this.”

“Sorry about that,” said Alex. “I wasn’t looking where I was walking.”

“No harm, no foul. To be honest, I was actually kind of hoping I’d run into you again.” He smiled, realizing what he’d said. “I mean… Not
literally
, of course.”

Alex returned his smile.

“You’re looking better,” he observed.

She blushed. Well, it would be hard to look much
worse
than she had the last time he’d seen her.

“Uh,” said Kenzie, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “Care to introduce me to your friend, Alex?”

“I, um,” Alex began, awkwardly. “I wish I could.”

The senior’s grin widened. “We haven’t officially been introduced,” he said.

“Right,” said Kenzie. “Okay, then. I’m Kenzie. This adorable klutz here is Alex. And you are?”

He held out a hand to Kenzie, inclining his head slightly when she took it. “My name’s Aaron. Aaron Gale. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kenzie.”

The smile that elicited from Kenzie was one Alex definitely hadn’t seen before.

It was almost
coy
.

He extended his hand to Alex. She kept her eyes on Kenzie and pretended not to notice. After a moment, he dropped it.

“Hmm. Nice to meet you, too, Mister Aaron, Aaron Gale,” said Kenzie, jokingly. “Where do they teach manners like yours? I need to send my brothers there for lessons.”

“Born and raised in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina,” he said, grinning.

Alex flinched.
North Carolina
…
mountains
…

“I
knew
I grew up on the wrong damn mountain range,” said Kenzie, smiling.

Aaron sent her a questioning look.

“Adirondacks,” she explained. “New York.”

“Ah,” he said. “Well right there’s your problem. Too far north of that Mason-Dixon line.” Aaron switched his attention back to Alex. “How about you, Miss Alex? Bay View always been home for you?”

The answer, of course, was no.

Bay View
hadn’t
always been her home. Once upon a time, the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina had been her home, too.

Before.

Aaron’s brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?”

“No!” she said quickly. “No, not at all. Sorry, Aaron, but I’ve really got to get to class. It was, um…
nice
seeing you again.”

“You too,” he said, smiling once more. “Guess I’ll see y’all later.”

“Yeah,” said Kenzie. “See ya ’round, Aaron.”

Declan had paused in the hall just ahead of them and stood rigidly in place, marking Aaron’s progress.

“You passed your classroom, Red,” he said as they approached, never taking his eyes off the senior.

Kenzie took in their surroundings and sighed. “You will be
fine
,” she insisted as she began walking backward down the hall. Annoyed students pushed past her as she worked against the flow. “Don’t you dare freak out on me!”

And then she was lost in the crowd and Alex found herself standing just outside the art room.

Declan had already walked in and taken a seat at their joint workstation.

A rough shove knocked her into the door frame as Jessica strode past her. “Move your fat ass, Parker,” she hissed.

“Love the skirt. Where does one
find
such a gem?” Marcie snickered, following Jessica into the room. “A Walmart clearance rack?”

Resigned, Alex made her way over to the cabinets to retrieve her work tray and sullenly took her seat.

Declan sat silently beside her as the rest of the class trickled in.

Alex picked over her painstakingly reassembled artwork—glued together haphazardly in an attempt to make it halfway presentable—and went over her presentation once more in her head.

“You’re not fat.”

“What?”

“You’re.
Not
.
Fat
,” Declan repeated angrily. “And I like your skirt. It’s… nice.”

“Uh.” Alex looked up from her artwork, unsure of how she ought to reply to such a statement. “Thank… you?”

Then it hit her.

Move your fat ass, Parker.

Where does one find such a gem?

Marcie and Jessica. Declan had heard what they’d said.

Alex felt her face flush with embarrassment. She was saved from having to make further conversation when Coach Roberts started the class.

“Alright, guys.” Coach Roberts dragged a low table to the front of the room. “Today’s the day. Hope you’re all prepared to make your presentations! You know the rules. Positive feedback only. This is a celebration of your work this semester, not a critique. So… Who would like to go first?”

No one raised their hands.

Bad sign.

Alex ducked her head and tried to make herself smaller.

Coach’s eyes scanned the room before coming to rest on her former swim team member. Alex cringed inwardly.

“Parker!” she chirped. “Why don’t you start us off?”

Alex let out a long breath. “Sure, Coach.”

She made her way to the front of the room, her tray of artwork cradled in her arms. Setting it on the table, she reached in and withdrew her first piece—a barely recognizable kite that had been sculpted as though it were in mid-flight.

Alex had been able to piece most of it back together, but the glue she’d used had left odd lumps around the smaller, more delicate features.

Sucking in a breath, Alex launched into her explanation behind the broken pieces—an accident, she called it—and her description of the first project: An object in motion.

A flicker in the fluorescent lights overhead and a gentle tug at the currents reminded her that she was summoning more energy than she could control. The lights went back to normal. She could sense Declan handling the excess.

Jessica and Marcie smirked as they sent each other text messages on the cell phones they had concealed in their laps.

Alex tuned them out and focused on her presentation.

Don’t rush. Eye contact. Smile. Be normal.

Be normal.

“This is… erm. Well, I mean, it
was
a turtle.” She held up the shell, which was still mostly intact. It was one of the few pieces that she hadn’t gotten around to gluing yet, so the poor guy was currently missing his head. Other than that, he was doing alright. “It was for project two, an animal designed with more than one texture.”

The snickering grew louder.

And then the currents shifted. The power Declan was draining away from Alex was suddenly redirected and concentrated in another area of the room—directly to Alex’s right.

Marcie and Jessica let out simultaneous yelps as their cell phones were fried to a crisp, sending a concentrated charge through their fingertips in the process.

“Girls!” Coach barked. Marcie and Jessica had both dropped their phones onto the floor the moment they’d been shocked. “No phones during class. You know the rules. Now put them away before I’m forced to take them away.”

Rubbing her right hand, Jessica sent Alex a vicious glare that promised retribution.

It wasn’t me!
Alex wanted to shout.

Instead, she projected a wave of exasperation toward Declan.
What the crap was that?

Declan had a self-satisfied grin plastered on his face. He shrugged.

My bad,
he replied.
Let the currents slip. Now take a breath, Lex, and finish your speech. You’re doing great.

“Please continue, Alex.” Coach sent her a reassuring smile. “What did you have for project three?”

Alex stuttered her way through the presentation of two more projects before being interrupted once again, this time by a fake cough from Marcie laced with the word
freak
.

Most of the class snickered. A small minority sent her pitying looks.

And Alex’s resolve broke.

Freak.

She
was
a freak. More so than any of them even realized.

Who was she trying to fool with this facade of normalcy?

Her paltry attempts to look cute for this moment suddenly seemed like overkill. It didn’t matter what clothes she wore, how she styled her hair, the words she said or didn’t say… None of it would make a difference in their eyes.

They’d never see Alex for who she was, no matter how hard she tried.

Her chest tightened. Her breath hitched.

Outside the art room windows, the sun-dappled parking lot had been cast in a shadow that turned day into night. A rumble of thunder echoed through the building.

Alex fought back an urge to run from the room as fast as her legs would carry her… Or better yet, to
jump
, and damn the consequences.

Looking back, Alex couldn’t be certain which came first—the flash of light, or the sudden chill—but within seconds, the temperature had dropped a good twenty degrees and the room had been consumed by a brilliant red glow.

It was slow to fade and left Alex momentarily blinded.