Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy (7 page)

His teacher stepped in. "Perhaps, Simon, you would like to show us how the volcano erupts." She looked pointedly at the bottle of vinegar in his hand.

Given a task to do, his awkwardness disappeared, and he puffed with self importance again.

"Now I am going to show you the awesome power of the volcano," he exclaimed theatrically. He climbed on to a chair - no mean feat considering his bulk and his obvious state of unfitness. Holding up the vinegar bottle, he waved his hand in a flourish at the top of the volcano.

"Observe!"

The audience waited with admirable patience. This was the fourth volcano they'd had to witness 'erupting' in one evening. Even the 'awesome power of nature' grew tedious when you had to watch it repeatedly.

Simon took the cap off the vinegar and tipped the bottle awkwardly over the mouth of the volcano. Presumably, as with most volcano models I'd seen before, there would be an open bottle hidden inside the top of the volcano. In the bottle, baking soda, water and detergent would react with the vinegar, which had been stained red with food coloring for a more authentic look, and thus produce the 'eruption'. Simon teetered on the chair, spilling half the bottle of vinegar down the side of the model. Eventually he managed to get some of the liquid into the opening. It began to froth immediately, but instead of spewing up and over the sides as the other volcanoes had done, it shot up into the air, arching over in a high pressured torrent, and hit Simon full in the face. He spluttered and snorted, and as he tried to get away from the squirting pink froth, he fell off the chair, landing with a thump in an inelegant heap on the floor. The volcano continued to 'erupt', its aim uncannily directed at Simon. He rolled left and right, and the torrent of bubbling froth coming from the volcano seemed to follow him until he was covered from head to toe in pink ooze. He turned on his hands and knees, desperately trying to get out of reach of the flow of 'lava', but his feet slipped in the puddle around him and he fell on to his belly, his breath escaping in a 'woomph' sound as the weight of his bulk winded him.

The volcano ceased erupting, and the flustered teacher came forward to help him up, trying unsuccessfully not to slip in the muck. The entire spectacle had really only lasted a few seconds, but it had seemed to last forever. The reaction of the audience was mixed: some adults were concerned, but many were trying not to laugh, their lips pressed together in an attempt not to smile, some hands flew up to faces to cover snickers. All the kids in the room were laughing hysterically, except for Michael, whose face was ashen. I was surprised - I would have thought, after being bullied for so long by Simon, Michael would have reveled in Simon's downfall, but he didn't look happy at all.

A man, who was apparently Simon's father, was laughing as hard as the kids at his son's misfortune. Any wonder his kid had turned out to be a bully. Simon blinked hard and tried to wipe the pink froth from his face. For a moment it looked as if he'd burst into tears. Instead his expression creased into a spectacle of rage and he let forth with a torrent of expletives, directing them at his insensitive father, who only laughed harder, dragged him up out of the mess by the back of his shirt, and led him out of the auditorium, leaving a trail of volcano lava footprints behind.

The principal quickly arranged for the mess on the floor to be cleaned up, and the science fair continued on uneventfully. Simon never returned to his volcano - I presumed his father had taken him home for a much needed shower. I almost felt sorry for him, but then I remembered the nasty taunts he'd aimed at Michael and Michael's obvious distress earlier in the week when we'd pressed him about doing a project on volcanoes. Simon had it coming to him. I remembered Aric's voice in my head - 'karma'. He'd said he had it all in hand. Had he fixed the volcano so it would spew all over Simon? I couldn't think how, or when he'd had a chance to do it. The volcano, which was in plain sight at all times in the middle of the room, had begun to keel over early in the evening, and Simon had tried to fix it. Perhaps, in his attempt to bend the top back upright again, he'd accidentally pushed the bottle containing the baking soda over so it was aimed sideways. If that were the case, karma had indeed come back to get him.

At the end of the evening we helped Michael disassemble his display. He pulled the swag of balloons apart and handed them out to the smaller kids attending the event. He seemed happy it was over, but he cast an occasional worried glance at Simon's abandoned disastrous display.

"You did great tonight." Uncle Tom ruffled his hair. "And I actually learned something! You know you explained it really well if an old man like me could understand it."

Michael's face was beaming. "It was Aric who explained it all. I couldn't have done it without his help."

Aric shrugged off the compliment. "You did all the hard work, buddy, and your speech was excellent."

I shoved the last of the stars into a plastic bag. "He's right," I agreed, "you explained it really well. I wish my science teacher would explain things as simply as you did - I might actually understand and get a decent grade if she did."

Michael blushed and preened at the same time. "Well, it was Aric who explained it to me."

Aunt Janet, who had gone to find Luke, arrived back at the table. Luke had scored two of the balloons and was holding them under each armpit, his arms sticking out as though he were about to flap them and fly away.

"Are we ready to go home then?" Uncle Tom asked.

"Can I go home with you, Aric?" Michael asked. The expression in his face was now akin to hero worship.

"If it's okay with your folks."

It was decided Michael, Aric and I would stay and pack up the last of the display while Uncle Tom took Aunt Janet and Luke home. I heard Aunt Janet telling off Luke after he burst one of the balloons on his way out, frightening an old lady who'd been standing near the door.

While Michael was taking the plastic bowl away to tip the water out, I helped pull the posters down from the notice board. I was still wondering about Aric's role in Simon's downfall.

He looked down at me with a mischievous smile, his eyes sparkling.

"No, I didn't touch the volcano," he said. He pulled out the last of the thumbtacks and began to roll up a poster.

I looked at him open mouthed for a second. "Did I say you did?"

He laughed. "No, but that's what you were thinking."

I shrugged and rolled up another poster. "Well, yeah, it did cross my mind." The poster sprung out from its tight roll as soon as I let it go, and Aric handed me a rubber band. I rerolled the poster and snapped the rubber band around it.

"So the lava just happened to spew sideways and hit Simon in the face?"

I supposed, even if Aric had somehow found some time to tamper with the volcano, he had no way of knowing which side Simon would be standing anyway, so it would have been a fifty-fifty chance Simon would be standing in the right place.

"Like I said," Aric replied, "karma." He shoved the last of the posters in another bag, and gathered the rest of the bags together. "Ready to go?"

I picked up the backpack I'd brought from school, and as I turned to go, a puzzling thought came to me. I was sure I'd only heard the word 'karma' in my head at the playground. In Aric's voice. I'd imagined it - he hadn't said it out loud. I turned to confront him, but he was frowning, his attention directed at the doorway.

"Michael should be back by now," he said, dumping the bags. He took off at a fast pace across the auditorium and I followed after him. Michael had only been gone five minutes, surely not long enough to have found somewhere to tip the soapy water and returned to the auditorium, but there was a tense urgency to Aric's stride which was worrying and I was beginning to worry about Michael myself.

I had to jog to keep up with Aric as I followed him through the school's mostly empty hallways. He made a beeline to the boys' bathroom. As he shoved the door open, I hesitated, not sure whether I should follow into the male's precinct. Through the open door I spotted Michael struggling on the floor, being dragged toward the urinals by Simon. I charged in angrily after Aric.

"Let him go." Aric's voice was calm and authoritative, his self control was impressive - I wanted to deck the bully.

A range of emotions flickered expressively across Simon's face. Surprise, defiance, uncertainty, then fear. He let go of Michael's shirt, and pushed him away with a sneer, then stood, stretching up to his full height to face Aric warily. Even though the kid was much bigger than his classmates, Aric was easily a foot and a half taller than him and I was pretty sure Simon, even if he was as dumb as a brick, realized he could never take Aric on.

Michael scrambled to his feet and skirted around the room, giving Simon a wide berth, until he was standing awkwardly beside Aric. He looked back and forth between Aric, who was staring silently at his opponent, and Simon, who's ruddy face, now clean of volcano ooze, was growing paler, his eyes widening.

"Er, Aric, it's okay," Michael tried to intercede. "Me and Simon were just... um, mucking around." His voice trailed off as Simon's expression grew more stricken.

"I think Simon would like to apologize to you, Michael." Aric's tone was almost conversational. His eyes never left Simon's face.

"It's okay, he doesn't need..."

I felt for Michael. No doubt he was thinking ahead to the confrontation he'd have with Simon once Aric wasn't around.

"Oh, but he wants to," Aric interrupted. "You see, he's had a bit of an epiphany. He realizes that if he doesn't apologize to you, and if he's less than pleasant to you in the future, you might take it upon yourself to let everyone in the school know a few things."

Michael threw a confused look between Simon and Aric. "I don't know any..."

"You know," Aric prompted, his voice smooth, but with a hint of steel, "embarrassing stuff, like how Simon still wets the..."

"Sorry!" The word erupted out of Simon like a giant belch. His pudgy white face reddened and he backed up, only to come up against the wall. He stood awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Aric shrugged, the tension disappearing from his body. He smiled down at Michael who was eyeing both of them in confusion.

"Well, I'm glad we could sort this out. Simon's so keen to be mates now, he's even going to clean up that mess for you." He gestured toward the urinal. The green plastic bowl, squashed out of shape, had been thrown into the steel trough. "You may as well throw that out Simon, and you owe Michael's mom a new bowl."

Simon's head bobbed vigorously, and he quickly retrieved the bowl, holding the dripping object gingerly between two fingers.

Michael's eyes were just about popping out of his head. Simon, cowed and obedient, was apparently a rare sight.

Aric, clapped his hands together, a signal the situation was dealt with.

"Right, well, ready to head home then?" His charming smile was aimed at the two of us. We were standing, speechless, still unsure how he'd managed to defuse the situation so easily, with so few words.

I nodded, still lost for words, and we headed out the door, leaving Simon alone in the bathroom, holding the crumpled bowl.

* * * * *

The next day I found Aric waiting in front of his truck outside my school. He waved to me and I veered away from the school bus line.

"Thought I might try and talk you into having something to eat with me? I hear you have a particular penchant for the greasy delights of that fine Josie's establishment..."

I shuddered dramatically. "Yuck! - who told you that?"

He opened the car door for me and I climbed in. "They actually do a decent pie and milkshake, but you have to make sure you've had your tetanus shots before you step inside the door," I said.

"I think I can risk it."

Josie's was at the other end of town. We made small talk on the short drive, but my mind was still on the night before. I'd never had a chance on the way home, with Michael chatting animatedly in between us in the truck, to ask how he'd come to know Simon's secret.

"That was pretty impressive, what you did last night," I finally said.

Aric waited for a kid on a bike to move across the driveway, then he turned the steering wheel, edging into the car park at Josie's. He didn't offer any further comment.

"So how did you know?" I asked bluntly.

He switched off the engine. "About Simon wetting the bed?"

"Yeah."

He shrugged and unbuckled his seat belt. "Kids like that always have some deep dark secret. I hit on his. They're always secretly scared of something." He opened the car door. "Come on, I'm starving!"

We sat in the same booth I'd been sitting in when I'd first caught sight of him. I showed him the most hygienic choices on the menu, and he ordered for us, sending the waitress into a fit of giggles and blushes.

"Do you always do that?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"Make women, well, you know." I picked up the salt shaker and ran my fingers over the glass facets of the cheap container. "Make woman... go all gooey over you."

He chuckled and held out his hands. "Only the straight ones!"

"Well, that's obvious," I joked, "but maybe you underestimate yourself. If you can charm even the likes of Aunt Janet, then maybe you could turn the gay ones to the other side as well."

"Are you saying you suspect your aunt is gay?"

"No! I'm saying she doesn't like anyone much. But she likes you. I think she has the hots for you."

"Maybe. To tell you the truth, I'm used to it and don't notice it anymore."

If anyone else had said that it would have sounded conceited, but Aric made it seem like he thought it was an unremarkable fact of life his charm and good looks had an astonishingly captivating affect on any female. I supposed if charisma and good looks came naturally, you'd get used to it, even take it for granted. Aric obviously learned to live with it, and I was impressed he never seemed to use his charm to take advantage of anyone.

I considered asking him if he had anyone 'special' he'd charmed, but he changed the subject.