Starseed (2 page)

Kaila stood alone on the street corner waiting for the school bus. Lucy and Woofy tried to follow, but Mike held their collars. Everyone stood outside the house, watching her trudge down the long clam-shell road leading away from the house out to the rural road.

The Guidrys lived in a two-story American Greek Revival style manor, the family home since 1837. Elegant, with its white brick facade, stately columns, black shutters and two chimneys, the house showed signs of age. Still, the Guidry family held claim to the land—seven acres in Bush, Louisiana, replete with horse stables, duck pond, open fields, and piney woods.

Though it was a trek to the bus stop, Kaila was adamant that she go alone. There was no way she’d be seen at the bus stop with her family.

Her mother had made a comment about her being bull-headed and that high school wasn’t the fairytale she expected, that there were a lot of rough, mean people in the world.

Kaila had simply smiled; she had won the war and that’s what counted. Winning had even included cable
TV
, although by the time school started, she was sick of vicariously viewing other people’s lives.

It was August and though early morning, hot and humid. Below her t-shirt, sweat trickled down her side.

Kaila wore a long blonde wig that resembled her own hair, with the black Velostat plastic wrapped underneath in layers around her head. The false hair proved hotter than the hats, but it was the only way her mother would permit her to go to school. Since the dress code didn’t allow hats, the wig seemed a small concession to receive parole.

Except for tree frogs and crickets trilling in the bushes, it was quiet at the intersection. Then, she heard the shifting gears of the bus. Kaila hid her left hand in her jeans pocket.

The bus stopped and the door opened. The students stared as she walked down the aisle. She flopped into the first empty seat and peered around. There was a girl with jet-black hair and heavy eyeliner. Another girl with long brown hair, shimmering eye shadow, and pink lipstick, wore a hot pink blouse.

Kaila glanced down at her faded jeans and short-sleeve, navy t-shirt. Soon as she got to school, she’d apply the makeup she had stashed in her book bag.

When they arrived at Bush High, everyone seemed to know where to go. Outside, clusters of students chattered. They’d grown up together and knew each other.

Kaila clutched her schedule, damp in her moist hand. She glanced at her watch. 7:10. Bell didn’t ring till 7:30. She shifted from foot to foot, not knowing what to do.

Eyes followed as she went to the door. Locked. She guessed they’d unlock the doors when the bell rang. Now some people were pointing at her. Her former bravado vanished into a puff of smoke.

Please don’t do something stupid
,
she prayed. Her stomach hurt.

Kaila wandered along the brick school, past the noisy groups. She couldn’t just go up to someone and say, “Hi. I’m Kaila, what’s up?” She could hear their derisive laughter echoing in her mind.

But she couldn’t stand there alone like a dumbass, either. God, it was hot out here. Dark sweat stains formed under her arms. She could be a poster girl for using deodorant.

She scanned the schoolyard and saw more people glancing at her. She decided to move. Just walk like she knew what she was doing.

She ambled along the side of the immense school, looking down at the dandelions.

As she turned the corner to the rear of the school, she pressed herself against the brick wall. Although the rising sun shone bright and hot, it was at least a place of refuge.

Kaila reached into her book bag and retrieved the eye pencil and compact. She lined her eyes and painted on some lip gloss. Perspiration trickled down the front of her ear from the confining black plastic.

How would she bear this lame wig?

Looking up from her compact, she was startled to see six people a few yards in front of her. She hadn’t heard them approach.

They stood in one row and simultaneously swiveled their heads to consider her. They had huge, unsettling eyes. They wore silver metallic overalls that clung to their sinewy bodies, showing every curve and muscle. Both males and females harbored an androgynous quality.

One male advanced from the line toward her. He walked with martial-like authority. Staring with eyes that appeared large and gold in the sun, as he passed beneath an oak tree’s shade, they turned green as pools reflecting light from the sky. His eyes emitted a force so captivating that once they locked, she could not look away. Kaila’s heart surged, as if electrified. He literally stole her breath and her lips parted.

He was about her age, strangely handsome, with wide shoulders and spiky sandy-colored hair. He wore a black t-shirt below his silver overalls. The silver form-fitting material accentuated his well-defined chest. Despite his small nose and mouth, he resembled a Roman statue she’d glimpsed in a history book.

He reached out and took her left hand. Kaila winced. That was the last thing she wanted him to see. His touch held a strange current. As he considered her fingers, his eyes widened. She noticed that he, too, had only four fingers—three long fingers and a thumb. He leaned closer. Kaila inhaled something like the odor of cloves and ozone in the air before lightning. He stared deeper into her eyes. Intimidated, she tried to look away, yet found she could not.

In her mind, she’d been thrown from a cliff into space. She transformed into an eagle and flew with spread wings over canyons and rivers and rock, free to glide in the wind. He, too, had opened wings and glided through the canyon beside her high above the earth.

Then, the spell broke. He tapped her head while knitting his brows, a perplexed expression in his large golden eyes.

Before Kaila could react, he pushed two long fingers to the side of her face and then under the plastic.

Kaila’s cheeks grew warm.

“Why?” he asked. There was no mocking in his tone, only curiosity.

He lifted the plastic and exposed her real hair. She felt the cool of his long fingers on her warm, damp scalp. His huge eyes locked hers. She was again completely paralyzed.

Her brain rushed with memories—riding the horses, watching TV with Mom and Nan, fishing with Mike, grilling sausage and chicken with Paw Paw, throwing a Frisbee for Lucy, feeding the ducks stale bread in the pond. He peeked through a window into her mind.

The bell rang. He removed his fingers from under the black plastic.

The others stood silently, like silver statues with big, seeing eyes. Kaila stared back, speechless.

“You. Please. No worry,” he said in a mechanical foreign voice. “Go in this door.” He pointed a long slender finger. “Down the hall, turn right, and homeroom there. I see you again.”

Then, he turned.

“Wait,” Kaila stammered. “What’s your name?”

“I am called Jordyn Stryker.” He looked at her as if absorbing her essence, his eyes like the suns of a forgotten planet. His gaze felt warm and all encompassing. Her heart skipped a beat.

“I’m Kaila.”

He nodded, then rejoined his group. They walked in a straight line toward the modular units in the field, the rising sun glinting on their silver overalls.

Kaila was so shaken she couldn’t move. She had never in her life been so blown away meeting a person, ever. Who was he? The strange outfits they wore could have been something out of an old black-and-white science fiction show and their eyes, the last time she’d seen eyes like those were on department store mannequins—huge, round, and nowhere near normal. Though hot and trembling, the hairs on her arms stood up. She swallowed, realizing her body confirmed her intuition that he had just swept onto the stage of her life theater and that his role would prove life changing. The bell rang again. She straightened her wig, trying to calm her breath and mind. She hurried into the school, raced down the hall, and found her homeroom just as Jordyn Stryker foretold.

“These students were raised in hard circumstances, without mothers and fathers and the luxuries you enjoy, so they appear different,” the principal continued. “I ask you to make them feel welcome as we try to assimilate them into society.”

Jordyn must be one of them, Kaila thought. That must be why they seemed so strange.

She was desperate to find out more. Mustering courage, she whispered to the girl next to her. “Hey. You ever heard of this cult thing? I haven’t.”

The girl raised her eyebrow. “Where’ve you been? It was all over the news for weeks.”

Kaila shut up. Where had she been? Probably playing with her dogs and horses in La La Land. Rebuked and self-conscious, she tucked her left hand beneath the bottom of her t-shirt.

In second period English, someone tugged Kaila’s wig. Kaila slapped her hand on her head to secure the wig and turned around.

“Nice hair.” Dark bangs slanting across the girl’s forehead covered one eye.

“Thanks,” Kaila said, hoping that it wasn’t obvious her hair was a wig. So far, no one but Jordyn had seemed to notice.

“I had long hair but cut it off,” the girl said. “Too much work.”

“Well, I got a big head. Someone once called me an egghead, and the hair hides it. So that’s my deal,” Kaila said. “It really sucks being called an egghead, ya know?”

At once she blushed. Why did she blurt something so juvenile?

The girl smiled. With relief, Kaila realized it was okay.

“I’m Melissa. You?”

“Kaila.”

“I saw you get on the bus this morning,” Melissa said.

“Really? I didn’t see you.”

“Cause I was in the back. You’re new here, huh?

“Yeah. First day.”

“I can tell.”

“How?”

“Girl, your eyes are as big as saucers.”

Kaila digested this. Was it so obvious?

“Just kidding. Didn’t see you here last year. Where were you before this?”

“Home schooled.”

“Hmph, don’t know what’s worse—stuck at home or in this hell.”

Kaila smiled at Melissa and Melissa smiled back. Melissa’s left eye didn’t focus straight at her. It turned inward like a cross eye. Melissa lowered her gaze. Kaila realized that she must be self-conscious about her eye, just as Kaila was about her left hand. It was probably why Melissa wore her bangs in her face. Kaila panged with empathy, knowing what it was like to feel different and weird.

“Hey,” Kaila said. “I like your hair. It’s sassy.”

Melissa looked back at Kaila and this time didn’t avert her gaze.

The bell rang and the teacher, Mr. Foret, who had curly black hair, black-rimmed glasses, and a faded plaid shirt, handed out the semester’s reading assignments. The class groaned.

“Silence!” he shouted.

Someone threw a paper football that hit him on the side of his face. Everyone tittered as Mr. Foret’s face reddened. Another paper football sailed by and hit the board.

“Stop,” he said with little conviction.

A guy next to Kaila with hair to his shoulders slumped over his desk, sleeping.

A paper football hit Kaila’s head.

“Score!”

She turned around. Two big guys sat in the back, laughing. They had wide shoulders and puckered their lips at her with mock kisses. She then noticed a girl with long strawberry hair and a headband staring at her, a cold, withering look.

Kaila turned and focused on the teacher, as stale and spineless as he was.
Oh my god
, she thought,
who are these people?

Melissa pressed a note under her arm.

Welcome to the Bush Zoo. Meet me in the cafeteria by smoothies at lunch. I’ll give you the full freak tour.

Kaila smiled gratefully at Melissa. Thank goodness, she wouldn’t have to hide alone at lunch.

“Because I don’t want to be a whale,” Melissa replied after Kaila asked why all she ordered for lunch was a smoothie and chips.