Starcrossed (2 page)

Shim, Rigel’s grandfather, seemed to be the only person Allister Adair ever deferred to, even though Shim wasn’t a Royal like Allister. Maybe because Shim was the oldest Martian on Earth. Shim intimidated the heck out of me, too, but I liked him a lot and trusted him completely. The fact that he’d saved my life last month had something to do with that, along with him running interference with Allister.

A minute later I took my seat in Geometry next to Debbi Andrews.

“Hey, did you hear there’s a new transfer?” she asked.
 

Petite and blond, Deb was my second-best friend after Brianna Morrison, though lately it seemed like the two of them were closer to each other than to me. Not that I could blame them, between the time I spent with Rigel and all the secrets I couldn’t tell them.

“Really? Two in one semester must be a record.” I grinned over at Rigel, who’d been the new kid at the start of the school year. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy. I haven’t seen him yet. I think he’s a junior or senior. Natalie said—”

The teacher cleared his throat then and Deb had to shut up. I was sure I’d hear more later, from Bri if not from Deb. New students were a huge deal at our little rural school.

Sure enough, the new guy was the first thing Bri talked about when we met up with her in the lunchroom a couple hours later.

“Hey, Rigel, looks like you’re off the hook for the basketball team.” Bri had been pestering Rigel for days to try out, egged on by her father, who was on the coaching staff. “This new guy, Sean, is just what our sucky team needs, according to my dad.”

“Sean?” Deb asked eagerly. “So that’s his name?”

I glanced at Rigel, who looked more relieved than curious. I, meanwhile, was having a mild
deja vu
moment, remembering when Bri had been all excited about the wonderful new quarterback we were getting—Rigel.
 

“Yeah, Sean O’Gara,” Bri told Deb.

“So, is it true he’s from Ireland? That’s what Natalie told me this morning.”

Bri nodded, her long, dark curls bouncing. “That’s what Dad said, too. I didn’t even know they played basketball in Ireland! But apparently it’s huge there.”

“Ireland? Really?” I glanced at Rigel again, remembering something he’d told me a while back, and saw he looked a little more interested.
 

“Yeah, he and his family just moved here last— Ooh, that must be him!” Bri broke off to point.

Of course, we all looked. The new guy was definitely tall enough to play basketball, maybe three or four inches taller than Rigel. He was fair bordering on pale, with bright, copper-colored hair. Very good looking, though of course he couldn’t compete with Rigel in that department. Who could?

“Let’s go say hi,” Bri suggested, already heading his way. “You know, welcome him to Jewel.”

It looked to me like plenty of people—mainly girls—were already doing just that. Again I was reminded of Rigel’s first day, especially when I saw Trina Squires—cheerleader, flirt and bitch extraordinaire—saunter up to to the newcomer. Rigel and I followed Bri and Deb, since it seemed the nice thing to do. We were maybe halfway across the lunchroom when both of us stopped cold to stare at each other.

“Do you—?” Rigel asked.

I nodded. “I feel it, too.” It was the
brath
—the weird, almost electric vibe Martians sense when other Martians are nearby. Like what I’d felt from those two tourist women yesterday.

Sean O’Gara was one of us.

brath
:
Martian "vibe" detectable by other Martians

By unspoken agreement (Rigel and I were getting better and better at that as our special bond strengthened), both of us slowed our approach to this new Martian in our midst. I was trying not to panic, but couldn’t help remembering that the last Martian who’d shown up unannounced at our school had wanted to kill me.

Who
was
this guy, really, and why was he here?

We were close enough now that I could see the scattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His smile seemed open and friendly and he didn’t
look
more than seventeen or eighteen. According to Rigel and his parents, even though Martians typically lived at least twice as long as “normal” humans, aging didn’t slow until full adulthood. So maybe he really was just a teenager. Or maybe—

“Come on,” Rigel murmured, cutting into my mental babbling. “Might as well make nice since it’s too late to hide.”

It didn’t help to know he was worried, too.

Even as a sophomore, Rigel had enough social status as quarterback to make the crowd part before him. As Rigel’s girlfriend, I had enough that people grudgingly let me through, too. A moment later Rigel was face to face with the newcomer, oh-so-casually shielding me as he stuck out his hand.

“Hey, welcome to Jewel.”

“Thanks,” Sean replied. He seemed even taller up close, at least six-six.
 

Maybe it was the press of people or maybe he just hadn’t been concentrating the way we were, but not until they gripped hands did the newcomer realize Rigel was another Martian. Sean’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and then he released Rigel’s hand like it had burned him.

“Let me guess. Stuart?” Sean’s voice had a slight Irish lilt, not as strong as I’d’ve expected from someone who grew up there. I wondered if he really had—or if he was just good with accents.

“Rigel Stuart. That’s right.” Rigel’s voice didn’t give anything away.

Sean’s gaze slid past him to me and his eyes widened again. “Then this must be—”

“Marsha Truitt,” I said quickly before he could say something he shouldn’t in front of all these witnesses. Those tourists yesterday weren’t the first to get stupidly obvious in town and I definitely didn’t want it to happen right here in the lunchroom. “Everyone calls me M.”

“M,” he repeated, his surprise giving way to a perfectly charming smile. “It’s really great to meet you.” He extended his hand.

I hesitated for just a fraction of a second before doing the same, hoping I didn’t look as nervous as I felt. He seemed harmless enough, so far.

But the moment our hands touched, I nearly jerked away and had to clamp my teeth together to keep from exclaiming aloud. Sean’s hand gave me a zap nearly as intense as the one I’d felt the first time Rigel touched me!
 

That first jolt, back on the second day of school, had totally freaked both of us out. We still felt an echo of it every time we touched, though now it was exciting instead of scary. Later I’d discovered all Martians gave me a slight tingle, but Sean’s was more than that—more like the half-electric, half-adrenaline zing I got from Rigel.
No
other Martian had ever done that.

Sean’s hand—his very big hand—trapped mine for what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds, while I struggled to control my shock. I glanced up, expecting him to be as startled as I was, but instead found him watching me intently, an almost expectant look in his brilliantly blue eyes. Then, finally, he let go.

Frowning, I immediately stepped back, closer to Rigel, but Sean gave me a knowing smile and the ghost of a wink.
 

Before I could think of anything to say, Trina stepped in. For once, I was actually grateful. “So, Sean, why don’t I introduce you around to some of the people you should know?” Her dismissive glance making it clear I wasn’t in that category, she turned to Rigel with a smile. She still hadn’t given up trying to steal him back from me. I hoped Sean might give her another focus.

“Looks like you’ve already met Rigel Stuart, the guy responsible for taking Jewel’s football team to its first Regional championship in twenty years,” she said.
 

Sean nodded, though it looked like he dragged his eyes away from me with an effort. “Yeah. Quarterback, right?”

“Right.” Rigel took my hand again. “C’mon, M, let’s go eat.”

I was too surprised to argue, since Rigel was almost never rude. But now I could feel his uneasiness, maybe mixed with some irritation. Unfortunately, thoughts didn’t come through as clearly as emotions. Had he been able to sense that jolt I’d gotten from Sean?

“What was that about?” I asked once we were out of even Martian earshot. “Should I be worried about this guy?”

He didn’t answer until we were back at our table—alone, since Bri and Deb were still in the circle around Sean. “I don’t know. There was something about the way he looked at you— And no, I’m not just being jealous,” he added with a crooked grin.

“I wasn’t going to ask.” Though the thought
did
cross my mind. “You should know by now you never need to be.”

Because Rigel and I were bonded by the
graell
, a powerful link so rare that most Martians regarded it as folklore instead of fact. So much so, I wasn’t sure even his family had totally accepted it.
 

Our bond enhanced us to the point that I no longer needed the glasses I’d worn all my life, and Rigel’s football skills had attracted national attention. We could also sense each other’s moods and sometimes, if we focused hard enough, each other’s thoughts.

The downside of our bond was that it really sucked to be apart. In September, when we broke up for a couple of weeks, we both became physically ill. So even if I hadn’t been totally, irrevocably in love with Rigel, the very idea of wanting to be with another guy was ludicrous. Already, I was wondering if I’d imagined that unexpectedly strong zing from Sean.

“I guess we’d better find out what he’s really doing here, huh?” I finally said when Rigel remained silent.

“Yeah. I’ll see if my folks know anything.”

“Or we could just ask him,” I suggested. “Privately, I mean.”
 

Rigel frowned again. “Only if it’s both of us. Don’t be alone with him until we know more, okay? And it’s
not
jealousy! I just want you safe, especially after—”

“I know.”
 

We’d come way too close to losing each other last month before we defeated those Martians who wanted to invade Earth and exterminate me, the last of the monarchy. At one point during that battle I’d thought Rigel was dead and I never, ever wanted to experience
that
again. So I understood how he felt.

“Maybe after school we can—” I began, but Bri and Deb rejoined us before I could finish.

“Wow, he’s a hottie,” Deb said, slipping into her chair across from me. “Kinda tall for me, but I could adapt.” Deb was barely five feet tall, but blond, cute and curvy enough that guys noticed her anyway.

“No fair—you can date anyone without looking silly, unlike me. Leave the tall guys for us tall girls.” Bri, who had long, dark, curly hair, was only an inch or so taller than me, about five-seven, so hardly a giant. But a cute new guy was a cute new guy, as far as she was concerned. I’d worry about her if she wasn’t interested.

Though knowing what little I did already about Sean, I’d also be worried if he returned her interest.
 

“You guys did notice he’s totally swamped by cheerleaders, right?” I said, trying to inject a shred of reality into the conversation. It was true that since I’d been dating Rigel, Bri’s and Deb’s social status had climbed a few rungs along with mine, but we were still basically sophomore geeks.

Bri gave me a sly grin. “That didn’t stop you from going after Rigel, did it?”

“Well, no,” I admitted. There were extenuating circumstances in my case—like us being the only two Martians in the school and having this amazing, soul-deep bond. But to anyone who didn’t know that, it was like the geekiest girl in our class had just lucked into having the hottest guy in school fall for her. Who was I to stomp on anybody’s dreams when mine had come so incredibly true?

“He has the dreamiest eyes,” Deb was saying, glancing over her shoulder at Sean. I wondered if the poor guy was going to have a chance to eat lunch. “Hey, did you know he has a sister here, too? She’s younger—a sophomore, like us. She was in my English class.”

“And you’re just now telling us this?” I exclaimed, exchanging a quick look with Rigel, wondering if this news would make him worry more or less.
 

Deb shrugged. “I was a little distracted,” she confessed, with another look at Sean.

“So what’s she like?” I prodded. “Is she here in the cafeteria?”
 

Deb dragged her eyes away from Sean to scan the lunchroom. “I don’t see— Oh, there she is, over in the corner, by herself.”

“Poor thing,” I said instinctively, remembering way too many times last year when Bri and Deb were busy with chorus and nobody else would sit with me. “I’m going to go say hi to her.”

Rigel came with me, though I suspected his motive was less social than mine. Still, it would be nice for both of us to have other Martian friends our own age. Wouldn’t it?

The girl looked up as the two of us approached. She was as pale as her brother, but with dark hair—nearly as dark as Rigel’s. She was also very pretty. Judging by the glances from several guys at nearby tables, she wouldn’t be sitting alone tomorrow.

I felt a teensy twinge of something like envy or even jealousy. Yeah, it was true that my skin had cleared up since bonding with Rigel. My mousy brown hair had even developed waves and highlights. But I’d spent so many years being brutally plain that I still tended to think of myself that way—and to envy those who obviously weren’t.

The stranger’s long-lashed, blue-gray eyes widened as we got close enough to feel her
brath
and, presumably, for her to feel ours. This time I spoke before Rigel could.
 

“Hi, welcome to Jewel. I’m Marsha Truitt, but you can call me M. What’s your name?”

Her eyes got even bigger. “You’re— You mean— I didn’t— Um, Molly. Molly O’Gara. Hi.”

She was so flustered I felt sorry for her, no matter how pretty she was. She glanced over at Rigel and he smiled, an apparently genuine smile.

“Hi, Molly. I’m Rigel Stuart. It’s great to have you guys here. We’ll uh, talk later, okay?”

Her expression showed clearly that she knew what he meant—that what we needed to talk about couldn’t be said in a crowded cafeteria. But her expression showed just as clearly that she was noticing how gorgeous Rigel was, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.