The Trials of Renegade X (25 page)

“That’s true,” he admits, scratching the side of his head, “but
something
went wrong. What if you zapping it just powered it up again? What if it didn’t actually
fix
it? Maybe it didn’t make her better at all.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

“But how do you know that it worked?”

Well, if he wants to get technical about it, I guess I don’t. But now the device is definitely broken, and I don’t think a jolt of electricity is going to bring it back to life this time. So it kind of has to have worked. “It did,” I assure him. “We both saw it.”

He opens his mouth, looking like he wants to argue with that, but then Sarah returns with a sparkly silver dress draped over one arm, and he doesn’t say anything.

Chapter 19

DINNER TUESDAY NIGHT IS a disaster. A complete and total disaster.

For one thing, Zach, who was energetic and outgoing when we played video games last weekend, just sits there and says nothing. He occasionally looks up from his food to gape a little at Gordon, then quickly stares down at his plate. I even set it up so he’s sitting next to Amelia, and he hardly looks at her.

And Amelia’s not much better. She asks him some basic questions, like what school he goes to and if he’s going to Heroesworth next year, and then gives up on him. Though that might have something to do with the fact that he mumbles the simplest answers possible and doesn’t invite much conversation. But she doesn’t have to glare at him when he accidentally bumps her elbow and makes her drop her forkful of mashed potatoes. Especially since she’s the one who then spatters gravy on his sleeve and tries to wipe it off with her finger, succeeding only in rubbing it in. And she doesn’t have to then completely ignore him and try to talk to Riley instead.

“So,” she says to Riley, giving him a smug grin, “Damien said he redid his poster for Miss Monk’s class, but he won’t tell me how he did.”

Riley looks kind of smug himself. “Well, actually—”

I punch him in the shoulder. Hard. “
Shut up
, Perkins.”

“You redid your poster?” Gordon says, looking from me to Amelia, catching on that there’s something he doesn’t know. “How did it go?”

“We had to make posters in class,” Amelia informs Zach in a really patronizing voice. “About what heroism means to us.”

“I
know
,” he tells his plate of roast beef.

I take a drink of water, glaring at Amelia. “We don’t really want to talk about school at the dinner table, do we?”

Helen wipes a smear of mashed potatoes off of Jess’s nose. “I’d like to hear it.”

“Tell them,” Riley says. “Since you put
so
much work into it.”

Is it too late to uninvite him? Or to point and say, “Look over there!” and then electrocute him to death while everyone’s head is turned?

“What did you do?” Alex asks. He’s sitting on my other side, staring up at me with wide eyes and sort of kicking my chair with his foot. He’s built a volcano with his mashed potatoes and smashes it with his fork—a little awkwardly, since his right arm is still in a cast and he has to use his left—releasing gravy-lava all over his plate.

“Well?” Gordon says.

Fine. But he asked for it. “It was blank. Because heroism is all around us and undefinable.” I spread my hands out, indicating all the places heroism might be, and look up at the ceiling.

Riley snorts. “That’s
not
what you said in class.”

I grit my teeth, feeling sparks race up my spine. “It’s pretty close.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Damien?” Helen raises her eyebrows at me.

I fold my arms and lean back in my chair, ignoring the way Amelia’s smirking and eating all this up. “I
might
have said that heroism is just a word. And that it doesn’t mean anything. But,” I add, when Gordon’s jaw drops and his fork clatters against his plate, “I only said that because everyone at that school thinks they’re better than me.” Well, mostly because of that. Partly because I meant it. “You should have seen how pissed they looked after my presentation.”

Helen groans. “Was that really worth it?” She makes it sound like my presentation wasn’t a rousing success, as if everyone getting angry over it was a bad thing and not completely the point. “What grade did you get?”

“Grades aren’t important.” I didn’t have grades for sixteen years while Mom was homeschooling me, and I’m still here, aren’t I?

Alex whispers, “Whoa,” very quietly, like he’d never thought of that before. Or like he can’t believe I’d say something so outrageous, even though he’s known me for over six months now.

Helen’s jaw tightens as she looks from me to Gordon, like she wants to know what he’s going to do about this.

“Is that why you failed your history test, too?” Amelia asks. “Because grades
aren’t
important?”

Damn it.

“You what?” Gordon says. “Damien, if you need help with—”

I wave away his concern. “The teacher’s the one who needs help. I was just making a point.” And forging Gordon’s signature on the test I had to get signed.

Amelia shakes her head. “He failed
on purpose
, he means.”

An angry crease forms across Gordon’s forehead. “You did
what
?”

I hold up a hand, signaling I’m not listening, and address Zach instead. After all, getting him and Amelia together is what we’re here for—even if no one else knows it—not interrogating innocent half villains. “So, Zach, what’s your favorite episode of
The Crimson Flash and the Safety Kids
?” Amelia won’t be able to resist a guy who likes her favorite show. Especially since bragging about being related to the Crimson Flash is a hobby of hers, one she’s very passionate about.

“
Damien
,” Gordon growls. As if we don’t have guests over.

“Hopeless,” Amelia says, shaking her head. She glances at Riley to see if he agrees with her, then, as an afterthought, at Zach, who isn’t paying attention.

Zach looks up at me, then at Gordon, his mouth falling open. He looks like a lost fish. “I, uh ... The one with the cows. No, the one at the film studio!”

Gordon smiles, despite still being mad at me. “That was the same studio we film the show in. It’s kind of fun to see it from the other side.”

“No, wait! I think my favorite is the one where you go to the, um ...” He sucks in a deep breath, clutching his forehead like his brain is about to explode. Like this is some sudden death question and he’ll have to leave if he gets it wrong. “The, um ... space museum! Wait, no, I meant ... I think I meant a different one.”

“Well,” Amelia says, as if anyone asked her, “I don’t have a favorite. I like them
all
.”

I lean toward Riley and whisper, “What the hell is wrong with your brother?”

“What?” He glances over at Zach, who’s rubbing his forehead and looking like he’s going to have a heart attack if he doesn’t think of the perfect answer in the next five seconds. “Oh. That’s how he gets when he’s nervous.”

Nervous. Great. Nervous isn’t going to get Amelia to Homecoming.

“You know,” Gordon says, “I think my favorite is the one about the studio. But I also really enjoyed filming the one where we visited the space museum.”

Zach swallows and nods, his whole face turning red.

Amelia scowls at him, like it’s his fault Gordon didn’t tell her how awesome she is for liking every single episode of his show equally.

“You know, Amelia,” I say, “if you hadn’t applied for early admittance to Heroesworth, and if you’d gone to a high school for heroes instead of a regular one, you and Zach would have been in the same grade and gone to the same school. You guys would have, like, known each other. How weird is that?”

Amelia scoffs, giving Zach a withering look, like she really doubts she’d have had anything to do with him. For someone so desperate to have a boy actually like her, you’d think she’d be less of a bitch. “My birthday’s in five weeks,” she tells him. “When’s yours?”

“May,” he croaks, hardly getting the word out.

“Do you even have your power yet?”

He doesn’t answer, too busy trying to clear his throat. He reaches for his glass of water, but his hand’s shaking so bad that he just ends up knocking it over, dumping ice water into Amelia’s lap.

She jumps up, screaming and holding her hands above her head, as if that will help anything. Her nostrils flare as she takes deep breaths and generally acts way more dramatic than necessary.

“Sorry,” Zach manages to mumble.

“It’s
fine
,” she snaps.

Helen starts to get up from the table. “Let me get you something to clean that up with.”

“No. I’ll get it. I
do
have my power.” She says that last part very obviously for Zach’s benefit, in case he wasn’t clear on the fact that she thinks he’s beneath her. She holds her hand palm up, closing her eyes and making a big deal about using her ability.

Then Zach’s shirt appears in her hand.

At first I think she did it on purpose, because she’s actually
that
mean, but when she opens her eyes, shock and horror spread across her face as she realizes what she’s holding. She looks down at Zach, her face going completely red as she openly gapes at his naked torso.

Zach looks just as mortified, closes his eyes, and says in a squeaky voice, “Can I have my shirt back?” It’s the most he’s spoken to her all night.

Amelia tosses his shirt at him and runs from the table.

Zach turns invisible. Kind of too little too late, I think, though I guess it means he has his power after all.

“I don’t suppose you know any available guys?” I ask Kat on the phone later. I’m up in my room, sitting on my bed, long after the brothers Perkins have fled the house in shame. Well, Zach may have fled in shame. Riley seemed somewhat amused and said we’d have to do it again sometime. Though I’m pretty sure he was joking, especially since he said it in front of Zach, who, I’m fairly certain, will never step foot inside our house again. “Preferably someone under sixteen with no
V
on their thumb, since my stepmother would freak out. Though, at this point, I’ll admit I’m not too picky.”

“I know how you like them young,” Kat says.

“I like being
alive
. So, do you know anyone or not? What about Julie’s brother?” Not that Helen wouldn’t flip the hell out if I set Amelia up with Kat’s cousin, but it would only be for one night. Plus, they’re from her mom’s side of the family, so they’re not even related to Helen’s nemesis. I mean, they’re still supervillains and everything, but setting Amelia up with him wouldn’t make me
completely
a bad influence.

“Will? He has a girlfriend now. Plus, I wouldn’t subject him to your sister. He’s kind of shy, and she’s kind of ...”

“A total bitch?” I sigh. Maybe Sarah knows someone. Well, someone other than Zach, that is. “I hope you didn’t have your heart set on me being around for very much longer or anything. Because if I don’t find someone for Amelia before Homecoming this weekend, she’s going to spill my secret and Gordon is going to kill me. Also,” I add, reading from the quiz in
Spandex
that I stole from Amelia, “when you go to the movies with your guy friend, does he
a
, offer to buy your ticket,
b
, share his popcorn, or
c
, flirt with other girls the whole time?”

“Your dad won’t actually kill you, will he? I mean, it’s not your fault you got that lightning power. And definitely
b
.”

“You’re right—if you think about it, it’s actually
his
fault. If he didn’t want a kid with lightning power, he shouldn’t have slept with my mom. And what do you mean,
b
? Who have you been sharing popcorn with?” I tap my pen against the shiny magazine pages, not marking that one down.

“It was the midnight premiere showing of
Pirate Zombies from Hell
. You
know
how much I wanted to see that one, and everyone was going. And what kind of quiz is this?”

“Uh, not everyone, Kat,” I say, ignoring her last question, “because I don’t remember being there. We were supposed to see that one together. I can’t believe you went without me.”

“I didn’t know when we’d get a chance to, and I didn’t want to miss it. Plus, it was fun.”

Fun? Without me? I find that very hard to believe. “And the popcorn?”

“Jordan got too much, so he offered to share it with me.”

So he’d have an excuse to sit next to her, she means.

“
And
,” she goes on, “before you say anything about how he just said that so he’d have a reason to sit by me or something, you should know that he’s gay.”

“Why, Kat, I would
never
say something like that. You make it sound as if I think every guy out there is trying to get somewhere with you.” Which they are. Well, except for Jordan, apparently. “Though, while we’re on the subject, are you sure you don’t know anyone desperate enough for your attention that they would, say, take your boyfriend’s superhero half sister to a dance at Heroesworth? As a personal favor for you?”