Forgotten (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 3) (3 page)

Together we walked up to the wooden porch and through the sliding glass door. The kitchen smelled like strong alcohol and vomit. Breathing through my mouth was difficult because I almost tasted the stench on my tongue. We passed the sink which was where the smell was coming from. I had the instinct to rinse it down into the drain, but a faucet handle lifted by an invisible hand would give us away.

In the living room, Sasha’s mother, Joyce, wore a white silk robe and lay face down on the floor. At her left shoulder a yellowish brown vomit stain had spread on the white carpet. An empty bottle of her $200 brandy sat on the glass coffee table. It was the middle of the day. What was she doing to herself?

I stepped forward with Rhapsody directly behind me. When one of the floorboards creaked I could feel her staring into my back.

Joyce’s body didn’t look like it was moving. Was she alive? “Is she breathing?” I whispered over my shoulder.

Rhapsody turned Joyce over. She belched as Rhapsody rolled her onto her back, still unconscious.

Sasha wasn’t home. If she had been she wouldn’t have let her mother stay like this.

We hurried upstairs and crept into Sasha’s bedroom. All of the pink and white startled me, even though I had seen it before. The bed, neatly made, had a Hello Kitty comforter on top of it.

Nothing had been touched in a day or so. I hoped she wasn’t with Selby again.

Rhapsody snickered at our surroundings before turning us visible. “Girl Genius has a disturbing little girl syndrome going on,” she said, stifling a laugh. “Grow up much?”

I ignored her, opened the bottom drawer of Sasha’s chest of drawers and removed a set of my clothing. Behind it peeked a pink and white book the size of my hand – a journal?

Without thinking about my audience, I unfastened my hospital gown and stepped into my clothes – boxers, a Raiders t-shirt, black shorts and white socks. Rhapsody had busied herself reading Sasha’s private thoughts.

“Quit it,” I told her while searching for my extra pair of sneakers in Sasha’s closet.

“We’re here for the clothes, remember?”

She held up a finger and flipped a page. “You’re here for the clothes. Did you know she thought your first kiss in the dungeon was ‘kind of sloppy’?”

I heard a door hinge open.

“Because he tried to use his tongue,” said a familiar voice.

Rhapsody cursed, turned half invisible and put her hand at her heart.

Sasha had slipped into her room. She reclaimed her diary. “Thanks for respecting my privacy, Rhapsody.”

I came out of the closet. Sasha spotted me and planted a kiss on my lips. I froze, unsure of how to respond. I shouldn’t kiss her back. So I didn’t.

Holding a finger up in protest, Rhapsody said, “Hold on, Sasha, he’s my boy…”

“What are you doing here?” she interrupted, breathing gently on my face as she spoke. “I heard your voices up here. Did you see…?”

I lied to spare her feelings. “We flew up and Rhapsody ghosted us through. I needed clothes and shoes.”

“Oh. Of course. Wait, Courtney said she had a plan, and…”

“Plan got changed, Girl Genius,” Rhapsody said, her arms crossed over her chest. “Cap got attacked and he jumped out of the hospital window.”

Sasha’s eyes bulged. “Where did he get a crystal from? Did you slip him one?”

I laced my left shoe and answered, “No. My powers kicked on without one. That’s how I smashed through the window, too.”

Her eyes rolled around like she was adding something together. My necklace hung forward on my neck as I finished lacing my right shoe. Sasha pointed frantically. “Morganite and aquamarine! Who gave you that?”

“Boy, nothing gets past you. Who do you think?”

Sasha barely bristled at Rhapsody’s remark. “Take it off, Jason,” she said. Her voice quavered as her eyes never shifted from the morganite on my neck. “It’s too dangerous.”

I stood to my feet. “Rhapsody, can you give us a minute?”

“Yeah. No! Whatever. We’re on the clock.” She ghosted through the floor.

I turned around and focused my thoughts on Rhapsody and her powers. If she reentered invisible in any part of the room or anywhere close by, we would be able to see her.

Sasha sat on the bed and invited me to do the same. She looked good in a pair of white denim cut-off jean shorts, a vintage Magic School Bus tank top, and plain navy blue and white sneakers.

“I’ll stand. Whatever you have to say to me, you can tell me from here.”

“Please sit. It won’t take long.”

I sat but kept my distance from her, at least a foot. She scooted over and my muscles tensed. Our fingertips almost touched. Sasha stroked the skin on the back of my hand. Her perfume was overpowering. She leaned in close to my face.

I swallowed hard. “I need your help,” I said softly. “The aquamarine…it…”

“Shh.”

She put her finger to my lips then gave me a peck on the mouth. Again. Before long, we were full-on kissing. Nothing felt right or wrong about it. I closed my eyes and the inside of my mind swirled in circles like thoughts down a drain. We stopped kissing long enough for me to remove her tank top. Her bra was lemon yellow and looked perfect against her skin. I lost myself in kissing her, touching her warm back.

It all became clear, like a series of graphic movie scenes spliced together.

I pulled away. “You slept with Selby?”

Once I had said the words, I could not take them back. She hung her head down. It was all true. Without even trying I had read her mind. Maybe she wanted to tell me all along. Seeing inside her brain, it was like a thick velvet curtain pulled back and she was willingly showing me everything.

I saw Sasha and Selby in my mind’s eye, standing on the balcony of a hotel room. Behind them was a breathtaking view of the ocean.

“You want to do this,” Selby told her.

She wore her armored jumpsuit. Sasha did not say no. She did not say yes. But wherever he led her, she went.
Thank God I did not see the actual play-by-play. Otherwise, I’d have to wring out my brain and pour bleach on it.

Her lip quivered. “Morganite.”

I saw that he’d given her a piece of pink crystal, hidden it on the inside of her suit with his speed as we went to the insane asylum where King’s wife had been buried. I remembered she had gotten flirty with him all of a sudden. Only one part didn’t make sense. Morganite releases desires, it does not give them to you. Deep down, she must have wanted to sleep with him. While I was off saving the world, they were having sex in a deluxe hotel room.

Sasha sniffled her way through a series of apologies, though none of them stuck with me word for word. She didn’t seem to think she’d had control over what she had done in a way. It didn’t change the fact of what had happened and deep down, I guess, she had wanted him like that and not me. Being shot by Ryan Cain hurt much less than this. I felt every bit as nauseous as Joyce must have but I kept it together.

“I’ll be downstairs,” I said before leaving the room.

I told Rhapsody, about the kissing and Selby. To my surprise, she only smacked me across the face once. I didn’t tell her about pulling off Sasha's shirt. I'm not that stupid.

“He basically roofied her,” she said while rubbing her hand. Her voice carried a note of sympathy. “She might have wanted sex with you and instead, he was there to give it to her.”

“That’s lame,” I shot back. “Who does that? Deep down, she must have wanted it.”

Rhapsody shifted her body. Her eyebrows rose. “Her mom’s a drunk. Her dad’s not around. You dumped her for me. And look at Selby. She probably didn’t even like it.”

“So?”

“So, Girl Genius is smart and good-looking, but she’s mad lonely and unloved. Why do you think she kissed you up there? Desperation sex happens all the time.”

I’d shrugged. I was supposed to know that? What was I supposed to do, go back to her? And how did Rhapsody know so much about desperation sex? Wasn’t she still a….

Rhapsody grunted and shook her head. “Not for me, I still have my V-card. Man, you’re such a dude. Just be there for her.”

I felt my face screw with confusion. “How do I do that without being her boyfriend?”

She nudged me with her elbow. “Be a friend, Cap. Give her support. She needs it.”

Sasha appeared, still shaken by what happened upstairs.

Rhapsody left the bench and gave her rival a hug.

Sasha collapsed into tears.

Rhapsody held her and stroked her ponytail. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. He used you,” she said, mixing the phrases together over and over again.

A little while later they separated.

Sasha sniffed and dug out a tissue from her shorts. “What’s next?” she asked while dabbing at her eyes.

We needed to get somewhere safe. And I could only think of one place.

CHAPTER THREE

on the run

Standing there in Sasha’s backyard, the three of us checked off the potential places we could stash ourselves. Reject High had been demolished. North High had after-school activities going on by now. And none of our homes would do. Especially not mine, according to Sasha.

“The house was deep in foreclosure,” she said. She distanced herself from me, her voice still shaky from our conversation. “Debra said they had an arrangement with the bank…”

“Wait, you talked to Debra?” I was jealous. The last time I had spoken to my stepmother was not long before King crushed her vertebrae.

“…but then she got laid off. I visited her one time a few weeks ago. Your aunt couldn’t keep up the payments without Debra’s income. The sale happened last week.”

“Where
are
Aunt Dee and Zachary?” I couldn’t stop the anger tremoring in my voice.

Hands in her pockets, Sasha answered me. “Staying with family.”

Great. I’m homeless.
I briefly mourned my day bed, Xbox and iPod. I could see them once I found out their exact location. Understandably, Sasha wouldn’t say it out loud. “Remember about my hiding spot in Aunt Dee’s basement?” I asked her. “There were dozens of prisms in it we can use. Red, white, maybe a green, too. They could still be there, right?”

“Sorry, Cap.” Rhapsody patted me on the shoulder. “Foreclosures, they take out everything, especially something like that. They are precious jewels, after all.”

Sasha tapped her bare neck. “Yeah, it'd be good to have an emerald again.”

Something told me I shouldn’t have asked. “What happened to the one I gave you?”

“He
took it,” she blurted out.

He
being Selby, who had taken something else that did not belong to him. Yet another reason for me to destroy him. I would've given her the heliodor from my necklace, but breaking the chain meant the other prisms would fall off. Plus, if we got into a fight, she’d be useless with a gold prism. Along with making its wearer sterile and slowing the aging process, for some unexplainable reason it prohibits violent use of our powers.

“And the Collective has the source crystals hidden somewhere,” I said to myself, cursing under my breath.

We were stuck.

Rhapsody snapped her fingers. “I almost forgot. They might be in your storage unit. Some men from your church loaded it up before the sheriff came. It’s the middle of the day, Cap, so we don’t even have to sneak in! We’ll get a key, look around, and be out. Easy.”

“Unless it’s full,” Sasha said, her hand stroking her chin. Then you won’t be able to ghost in and get them out.”

I’d rip the doors off if I had to. How dangerous could a storage unit facility be anyway? It was in a seedy part of town, but I’m practically invincible. “Whatever. However.” My stomach rumbled. “We’ll get them. Let’s hurry up and then get something to eat.”

Sasha stared down at her feet. “You two should go to the unit.” She paused. “I need to handle ‘Corky’ and her mess. I'll be done by the time you two finish and you can scoop me up.”

“Corky” was the nickname Joyce’s friends came up with because she liked to drink too much wine.

Rhapsody shifted her stance. “She threw up, Sasha. Joyce is a grown woman. She’ll sober up and deal with the crusty carpet herself. Leave her be. You belong with us.”

I looked over at my not-so-sure-about-this girlfriend and took the hint. “She’s right. We need you.”

It was true – she was smarter that the both of us put together. Or at least my half of that combination.

Our little pep talk gave Sasha new life. She even smiled. “I guess you’re right. Okay.”

She bounced back into the house and returned with a pink wallet and some keys on a ring. “I’ve got a little cash here, like three hundred bucks. Credit cards, car keys...umm…for wherever we’re going.”

With her high IQ and the money she’d lifted we’d be able to find a hideout spot with no problem.  From there we could figure out where to go and what to do next.

Running a hand through her hair, Rhapsody sounded surprised at Sasha’s theft. “Three hundred bucks is ‘a little cash’ to you? Man, Sasha, I mean what if Joyce calls…”

“Please,” she said interrupting. “She never notices anything. I’ve been forging her name and swiping her credit cards for years. She just pays off the bills, drinks a few highball glasses of brandy and eventually passes out. It’s no wonder my dad left her.”

That sounded even sadder to hear out loud. “All right then,” I said. “We’ll make it quick.”

Sasha put her arm around me and suddenly withdrew it, sensing the awkwardness. Touching for us used to be natural, almost second nature. “Can’t we take Joyce’s car instead?” she asked me. “I can drive it.”

I pushed past the discomfort and I wrapped my arm around her tiny midsection.

“Flying’s faster. Anyway, it’s almost rush hour and we’ve seen enough cops for a while.”

Rhapsody pretended to be okay with my having my arm around my ex and edged close to me. She put a hand on my chest and kissed my cheek. “Ready?”

I held her just a bit tighter than I did Sasha. “Yeah.”

Before we hit the air Rhapsody placed her hand over the heliodor on my neck. She used its radiation to make the three of us invisible. Together, the three of took off for the storage facility downtown. Though I could breathe fine at supersonic speed, I flew slowly enough so the girls wouldn’t have trouble doing it. Why not? We wouldn’t be detected anyway.

We landed on the sidewalk in front of the business, reappeared and walked as if we had always been there. Nobody honked a horn or pointed. The passersby ignored us, too. It was a shady part of the business district, so people tended to mind their business. No trees or anything green, save for sprouts of weeds, shot up between cracks in the concrete. We passed a wing joint and guys covered head to toe in red, hanging out in front of one of the two liquor stores on the block. Thank God none of us wore blue. With gang activity, the rates for the unit must be extremely low. I doubt even the Collective would look for us here.

Pushing open the storage facility’s glass office door framed with iron bars, I led the girls inside. Both of them stuck close behind me for protection. A small chime jangled when the door slammed shut. The lobby was empty and no one waited in line in front of a box fortress of bulletproof glass.

The clerk at the counter, an older Indian man with a slight build, graying black hair and bifocal glasses, had his head buried in an invoice. He noticed us when a text came through on Sasha’s phone.

“May I be of some assistance to you?” he asked through the scratched glass.

I approached him alone while Sasha checked her phone. It was difficult to understand some of his words, so I guessed what he said. “My name is Jason Champion,” I said through the speaking holes of the glass. “Debra Brown is my stepmother. She has a storage area here.”

The name tag on his brightly-colored orange vest read “Nil.” Nil nodded yes. “How can I help you?”

I understood that sentence. “She’s in the hospital, so I can’t get the key from her.”

“Yes, yes.” Nil tapped his fingers and repeated, “How can I help
you?”

I took a slow breath. Rhapsody rubbed her hand across my back to help calm me down. Wasn’t it clear? “My stuff is in there, too. Will you let me in so I can get some of it?”

He opened a rickety tan filing cabinet, pulled out a contract, and placed it on the counter. It was written in blue pen in Debra’s handwriting. At the bottom, I read my name and Aunt Dee’s as people who could access its contents.

Nil clicked his tongue. “Current identification please?”

I patted my front left shorts pocket, where I kept my bus pass, house keys, and Adderall. I didn’t forget that I’d torched my North High ID once they’d kicked me out. I just hoped the crystals on my neck had time-bending powers or something to make this go easier.

Then I remembered – I had a scarlet emerald! I held up my hand and froze Nil.

“Nice, Cap,” Rhapsody said, admiring my handiwork. “Didn’t know you could do that.”

“I’ve got this. It’s number thirty-four,” I said to the girls. “You should feel the radiation from them. Don’t take too long, this isn’t as easy as it looks.”

Rhapsody used the radiation from my necklace to ghost her and Sasha through the glass barricade. They took off running for the storage units.

While they were gone, I made sure to concentrate on Nil, allowing him enough control to keep breathing. That alone started a throbbing, burning headache at the back of my skull. If I thought about freezing him too hard, his entire system might shut down and he’d die.

It must be hard for someone without ADHD to do mind control. Staying focused, for me, was like continuous advanced calculus problems, and I suck at math. A fly buzzed around the room. I noticed the faded spots of paint on the wall. The telephone rang. Everything tried to distract me. Soon, my head felt like metal bars had been pounded through it. Trails of sweat dribbled down my face into my eyes.

When I wiped them off and blinked my control over Nil broke. He took a deep breath. “Do you have your ID or…say, where did those girls go?”

Instead of answering, I put Nil on pause again.

Turning my back to him, I saw a couple of cops through the front door. They were loitering, not doing much of anything. We didn’t need the extra attention. I tried not to panic.
How can I get Rhapsody and Sasha to move faster?
I knew my way around Aunt Dee’s junk with everything spread out. Clumped together, it might be impossible for any of us to find what we wanted. That’s why I sent them. I’d have gotten frustrated and started breaking things apart.

My attention shifted back to Nil. I must have lost control for a second, because he was in a different position.

Half bent over, his left forearm was reaching for something underneath the counter. Under his right hand was the trigger of a sawed-off shotgun.

He’d called the cops with a silent alarm.

The bell on the inside of the door clanged. I released Nil from my control.

“No sir,” I said before he could ask the same question for the third time. Heels clicked on the parquet floor behind me and stopped a foot or so away. “I don’t have my school ID yet.”

The policemen spoke to each other in low tones. They couldn't prove I had done anything wrong – all I had done was ask a few questions about a storage unit with my name on it. I hoped if they said anything to me I wouldn't have to explain or respond. Courtney was right. When we were back on the road she'd told me, “Mind control takes a lot of concentration.” She was right. It was exhausting. I couldn't do it anymore. My head throbbed incessantly, and my stomach cramped from hunger.

Nil straightened his posture at the sight of us. He massaged his temples, trying to figure out what had happened that would make him draw his gun. His black and gray eyebrows raised. “What was I saying...no ID?” He placed his firearm back underneath the counter. “Well, why not? School has been in session for weeks, no?”

I had to think fast. “We don’t get ID’s like that. It’ll be at least until mid-September.”

“Do you have last year’s? Anything will do.”

“Nope, not on me. Just my name.”

Nil shrugged. “Sorry. There’s no letting you access it without an ID or key.”

The cops were still behind me. No matter if I did something right or wrong, I still did not trust them. I could almost hear them breathing. Neither said anything to me. They mumbled in hushed tones to each other, and Nil still appeared to be confused. He looked over my shoulder. “Next in line,” he said, waving me aside. “What can I do for you?”

I stepped to my far left and avoided showing my face without looking suspicious. I’d have checked my cell phone, but I didn’t have one anymore, and my bus pass wasn’t that interesting. Trying to leave might be a mistake.
They could recognize me. Am I paranoid? Maybe I should just power up, bolt and dare them to stop me.
My brain was worn out, but I could try using the scarlet emerald again. I’d freeze them all.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to try. Right when I was about to risk it, Rhapsody and Sasha appeared long enough for me to see them and the flash of crystals in Rhapsody’s hands. At the same time, one of the policeman put a firm hand on my shoulder. I had the urge to toss him, but his radio crackled with a “10-80” at an intersection about ten miles away. The dispatcher called all units. It must be bad.

The officers hurried outside. I left behind them in time to see the two squad cars speed off with sirens blaring and a cloud of black smoke in the distance. Sasha and Rhapsody met me at the front, their pockets full with scarlet emeralds and goshenite.

“No luck, Cap,” Rhapsody said. “We used all of the emeralds last time.”

“We'll find you both one,” I told Sasha. I didn't say anything more about it. “Last time” was when we tried to save her father with emeralds, which had worked for a short time before he slipped back into a coma. He had since died.

“Until then, I'll just make do with these.” Sasha patted her pocket. It might suit her better. Mind manipulation was definitely not my thing, but it could be hers if she practiced at it a little more. She pointed in the direction of the fire. “What’s going on? Should we check it out?”