Authors: Kelly Oram
Ryan was a little too excited by the thought of me in a costume, so I squashed that idea, and fast.
“In your dreams.”
“Not exactly.” Ryan grinned wickedly. “In my dreams you’re usually dressed like Wonder Woman.”
Ugh. I wondered how long it would take for him to start in on the superhero crap. Obviously, not long. I was not amused, but Ryan seemed to think himself hilarious. I could also tell by the look on his face that he was quite confident he’d have me in costume one day. “Never gonna happen,” I assured him. “Ever.”
And of course he responded with that classic, cocky smile. “Just like you were never gonna be my girlfriend, right?”
All I could do was groan. I started to drag Becky off, but Ryan called out to us, saying, “Are you really going to ditch me?” and Becky stopped walking.
He pouted with this face that was just so pathetically adorable I wanted to both smack and kiss it, but Becky was the one who gave in first. “Ryan, if you really want to go out, I’ll grab Scott, and we can double or something.”
“Becky!” I had to laugh. “You’re worse than me! It’s no wonder he’s such an egomaniac.”
“What? You’re telling me you can say no to that face?”
I wanted to say yes, but it would have been a lie and we all knew it. “Fine.” I sighed. “Why not? A double date could be fun.” I looked at Ryan in defeat. “So, where are we going?”
“Nowhere,” Ryan said as he pulled me into his arms again. “I’m not going to interrupt your girl time now that you’re finally having it. I just wanted to see how long it would take for you to give in.” Ryan’s smile was back and bigger than ever. “You get easier every time.” Ryan Miller. Honestly. What can you do? Of course I laughed. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help it, so I don’t think my accompanying eye-roll was all that convincing. In fact, I know it wasn’t because Ryan pulled me against him so that my face was just an inch from his, and said, “Permission to kiss my girlfriend?”
Not that I wanted him to get his way again, but as if I could say no? He gave me a quick kiss good-bye and then handed me off to Becky and told her to take good care of me.
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Becky asked.
“No, no. You girls go do your thing. We can get a group together after the game instead.” Ryan stopped suddenly and gave me a puzzled look. “You are going to come, aren’t you?” I was actually startled by the question. I’d been watching the games for a while now, but I guess I hadn’t told him that, and I’d never thought about sitting in the stands. “What? Um, well, I was just going to…”
“Oh, come!” Becky cried. “It’ll be fun. I promise.”
Suddenly, I now had two people I couldn’t say no to. When I shrugged, Ryan’s whole face lit up.
“Come find me before the game starts.”
“We will,” Becky answered for me, and then carted me off to the practice field.
* * * * *
It felt so good to be out on the field, messing around with Becky. It was a little weird at first because I hadn’t done any gymnastics since my accident, and I had to be careful not to let my power escape while doing all those flips. Becky seemed a little self-conscious at first, but once we got going she was perfectly fine in all her tumbling—kicked my rusty butt out of the water. I think she’d only been screwing up lately because she was so stressed out over the whole Mike thing.
We stayed at it for so long that we were barely going to have time to go home, hit the showers, and be back before kickoff. I was mentally searching for the perfect outfit as I drove home, but all thoughts of getting cute or even going to the game flew out the window the minute I pulled up to my house and heard Carter’s voice coming from the living room, filling my parents’ head with stories of mad scientists.
That man was
so
dead.
I thought for sure he’d get the hint after I torched his house, but apparently it was going to take more than that to get rid of him. Maybe I’d throw him off the edge of the Grand Canyon. Or better yet, just leave him in the middle of northern Canada somewhere and let him find his own way back. That wouldn’t be murder, right? Not technically.
I barged through the door ready to throttle someone, but surprisingly, my dad looked twice as angry as I did. Angrier than I’d ever seen him, and trust me, that’s saying something. Funny thing was, he seemed angry with the wrong person.
“Jamielynn Baker!” When he shouted, the walls of the house shook, and for once I didn’t have anything to do with it. “You are grounded until you’re DEAD!” My teenage instinct to rebel won out over my shock, and I screamed right back. “What did
I
do?”
“You should have told us he was here!”
“I had it under control!”
“Control?”
Oops. That was the wrong thing to say. My father was choking on his words he was so irate. “You burned down a
house
!”
“I burned creepy surveillance photos and videos that prove I have powers. The rest of the house was an accident.”
“And what about the physical assault?”
Carter told my parents I physically assaulted him? What a baby. I barely even threw the guy. “He was trying to destroy my life again. I was a little angry. And besides, you know where I get my temper.
You’d have hit him too, and you know it.”
“He
did
hit me,” Carter grumbled under his breath.
I glanced at Carter for the first time and noticed that he was holding a bag of frozen peas over his left eye. It was easy to picture my father answering the door and punching Carter before he could get a single word in. “Nice.” I showed no sympathy when I finally addressed Carter. “Let’s see it.” Carter grudgingly removed the vegetables, and half his face was black-and-blue. I’ll admit the sight of him gave me an overwhelming dose of sick satisfaction and also made me quite proud of my dad. I raised an eyebrow at my father and laughed when I noticed his lips twitching as he fought back a smile. “You’re still in trouble, young lady,” he said stubbornly.
I was good and ready to argue my punishment and defend my actions. I mean, yeah, maybe I burned the guy’s house down, but it was a crappy one anyway, and he really didn’t leave me any other choice. But then something else occurred to me. “Wait! Why is he even still here?” My mother finally spoke up. “He came to warn us.”
Warn us?
Puh-lease
. I rolled my eyes. I know my mom hates that, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Don’t tell me you’re buying—”
“What choice do we have, Jamie?” My mother cut me off with unusual harshness. “If there’s even the tiniest bit of truth to this, and people are really looking for you, then he’s done us a great favor.”
“A favor?” I asked, too incredulous to actually scream. “Even if what he says is true, that means he’s the reason we’re in this mess in the first place! All those stupid articles he wrote back in Illinois!
Can’t you guys see that he’s just trying to scare you into coming forward? He’s still just looking for his story!”
Carter’s patience finally wore thin, and he joined in the argument. “Is
this
just a story?” Carter threw a large manila envelope across the coffee table at me, and despite all the control I’d gained recently, when I saw it, I blew the circuit breaker again. “If this is more blackmail pictures, Carter, I swear I am going to launch you off the Golden Gate Bridge!”
“Jamie, easy on the death threats, honey,” my dad warned. But I could tell he liked the idea.
“But, Dad!”
“Just look at the picture, Jamielynn!” Carter snapped.
I wanted to be stubborn, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I slid the photo out of the envelope. “Big deal,” I said. I’d seen this picture before. It was the same picture of guys in lab coats from the Visticorp website, only this one was ripped from a magazine. “This is an article on stem cell research. It doesn’t prove that they know about me.”
“Look closer,” Carter said. “Recognize anyone?”
I looked closer.
Shocked
does not even begin to cover it.
“After you destroyed everything,” Carter explained as I stared at the picture in front of me in disbelief, “I didn’t know what to do. So I did some digging and figured out who exactly had been contacting me. It wasn’t easy because I was looking at Visticorp employees, but he doesn’t work for them anymore. He quit just months after Derek died.”
I was still too overwhelmed to process everything he was telling me. “B-But,” I stammered. “This isn’t right… This can’t be right!”
It just couldn’t be. I mean, I trusted him. But there he was, sporting a white lab coat, standing proudly with his research team in an article ripped from the pages of
Time
magazine. “He cared about me. He
helped
me.”
“He suckered you.” Carter used a softer voice than I thought him capable of, but his words were still harsh.
I felt so stupid, so young and naive, like Carter once told me I was. His comment wounded my pride as well as filled me with fear. I mean, if he could have me that fooled, anyone could. I would never really be safe. My eyes filled with tears, and I was grateful when both my parents scooped me tightly into a Jamie sandwich.
I think the closeness of my family made Carter a little uncomfortable. Or maybe it was my falling apart in front of him.
“It’s not too late, Jamie,” he said, clearing his throat to break up our group hug. “The good news is, Visticorp doesn’t know about you. Without them, he’s just one man. And his plan isn’t to expose you.”
“How do you know what his plan is?” I snapped.
“Because I know why he left. He was convinced you were special. Obsessive about it. But Visticorp never believed him, so he quit. He was probably trying to get close to you in hopes that he’d eventually be able to convince you to go back with him. He wants to prove Visticorp wrong. He wants to study you. He wants to be the one to figure out what happened. He’s looking for a Nobel Prize. If you were exposed, he could never keep you to himself. No, he doesn’t want your secret getting out at all.
But, Jamie, he’s still dangerous. If you don’t give him what he wants, he’ll expose you to Visticorp just to prove he’s not crazy. And if they find out the truth…”
My mom shuddered.
“That’s exactly why Jamie needs to come forward,” Carter told her.
And that’s where he lost me. “Un-be-freaking-lievable! You just never quit, do you!”
“Jamie, it’s the only way.”
“No! You’re not taking away my life! You’re not putting my family in danger!”
“You don’t think they’re in danger now? Jamielynn, he knows everything. He’s obsessed with you.
You don’t think that when he realizes you’re not going to cooperate, he’ll use the people you care about as means to persuade you to go with him?”
I heard a gasp, but I wasn’t sure if it had come from my mother or me. I looked at the picture again. He’d never seemed dangerous until now. “He… He couldn’t.” I glanced frantically at my parents.
“I can protect them.” I didn’t sound anywhere near confident enough in my declaration. Probably because I wasn’t.
We all stood there locked in a staring match until my cell phone rang, startling us all. I glanced at Becky’s number on the display, but now was not the time to answer it. My mom chose the distraction as a way to break the deafening silence.
“Jamie, sweetheart, maybe Mr. Carter’s right. Maybe it’s time.” I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. My heart gave out inside my chest, and I had to sit down before I fell down. I tried to protest, but my words caught in my throat, so I just cried.
“Don’t worry, Jamie,” Carter said. “I’ll make sure you’re safe. We’ll be smart about it.” Carter’s voice was
so
not what I wanted to hear right then. I don’t know what kind of look I gave him, but it was enough to make my father step in front of him protectively. He put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Mr. Carter has a point. If the whole world knows about you, then the government or anyone else won’t be able to take you away.”
“And you’re such a sweet girl, Jamie. The world will just fall in love with you,” my mother added.
I guess she didn’t know my nickname was the Ice Queen. “They’ll want to help us. Maybe we can finally get some answers.”
My phone blared again, and I nearly crushed it in my hand. This time the display read “Scott Cole.” As much as I was curious as to why on earth he could possibly be calling me, I threw my phone down on the coffee table and ignored the sounds that rang from it.
Letting my hurt turn to anger again was the only way to get my sobs under control. “I don’t want to be a worldwide freak!” I shouted through my tears. “People will never leave us alone—the paparazzi, the government! Even if they can’t actually take me away, they’ll camp out front of our house, watching us. They’ll follow us everywhere. Doctors will show up wanting to study me, just like after my accident, only worse. It’ll ruin our lives. And in the meantime, the guy”—I pointed at Carter—“who discovered Electric Girl—or whatever stupid name you invent for me—gets rich and lives happily ever after. Can’t you guys see what he’s doing?”
I think my parents were starting to listen to me. I could see it in their eyes, hesitation and even fear.
I opened my mouth again, but then Carter blurted out, “I’m only trying to help you, Jamie!” At the same time, my phone roared to life a third time and I just snapped.
“WHAT?” I screamed into the receiver.
“Uh, Jamie?” It was Mike Driscoll of all people, and he sounded terrified to be calling me.
It would have been fun to rip his head off, but I was too surprised by his call. “Yeah?”
“Is Miller with you?”
“No. The game’s about to start. I’m sure he’s at the school.”
“He’s not. The game should have started five minutes ago. They’re not going to let us wait any longer. We’re gonna have to put Warren in as QB, and he totally sucks!”
“Well, where’s Ryan?”
Mike didn’t sound scared anymore. “You tell me! You’re the one who’s had him on a freaking leash lately.”
That did it.
You know, it’s kind of funny—but not ha-ha funny—that even with Carter standing right in front of me, trying to turn my parents to the dark side, the person who made me lose total control of my temper was Mike. I pulled the phone away from my ear and held it in front of my mouth so that I could scream a deafening scream more directly into Mike’s ear. Then I hung up on him and dropped the phone, unaware that I was stirring up an electrical storm until my parents and Carter jumped back for safety and started screaming at me.