Starseed (23 page)

“But I promise,” Jordyn continued. “When you realize who you truly are, open up to it, see the possibilities.” He swallowed. “You will see and know. Us together. Forever. Don’t you want that?”

He leaned toward her, kissed her cheek. “I know there will never be another you, anywhere in the universe.” He picked a blade of grass and twiddled it in his fingers. Then, “But all this is spoiling your special day. Look.”

He flicked his hand, and a silver bodysuit unrolled. The material compacted to an inch and then expanded like no other material she’d known.

“When you are ready, wear this,” Jordyn said. “And we will know that you are with us.”

Kaila accepted the gift.

“Now give me a gift,” he said, kissing her again.

An evening date at the football game should have been the cherry on top of a perfect dessert parfait of a day. But how can anyone predict catastrophe?

The Bush Crocodiles football team played the Covington Lions, their archrivals. Kaila sat next to Jordyn on the bleachers in the packed stadium.

Pia sat with Antonia; Melissa with Toby; and Viktor, Lucius, and Echidna sat in front of them, wearing sunglasses even though it was night. Mrs. Bourg had encouraged them to attend the football game, as it could prove socially educational. Kaila spied Mrs. Bourg sitting several rows up.

Kaila didn’t care. Nothing could spoil this wonderful day. Jordyn’s shoulder touched hers. The stadium lights illuminated the field and their light reflected in his huge eyes. Nothing, ever, could separate them. They were one. She had never in her life felt so happy.

After the party, she’d washed and blow-dried her hair and after leaving the house, ditched the hat. Freed of head coverings, she came closer to who she truly was. She heard the buzzing of the crowd’s minds, like a gargantuan hornet’s nest, but more so, she could feel Jordyn. A wordless, deep, joyous feeling of union.

Kaila spied the preps Brandy and Tara in their cheerleader outfits on the field. The football jocks suited up in the locker room. Douglas Lafarge and Phyllis Joiner had ventured out and sat behind Kaila and Jordyn, finding a place with those in their advanced physics class.

Kaila recalled how mean everyone had been to her calling her a poser; she had an inkling of how Phyllis felt being routinely taunted. She chatted with Phyllis, who actually cracked a smile below her bulging eyes. She had washed her hair—soft, dark blonde hair that didn’t look half bad.

Phyllis shyly shared a poem written on loose leaf she’d composed about her cat Millificent. Kaila praised the poem, knowing how much Phyllis loved her cat.

Douglas wore a Star Trek t-shirt with Dr. Bones’s picture that said, “Are you out of your
VULCAN MIND?
” He read Phyllis’s cat poem, sniffed, adjusted his thick glasses, and handed it back to Phyllis.

In Louisiana, football is obsession. Everyone in Bush, Louisiana had come to see Bush whoop Covington and everyone in Covington had come to see Covington whoop Bush. The energy in the stadium was palpable.

“What are they doing?” Echidna asked. She pointed a long finger at the cheerleaders, Brandy and Tara, dressed in red and white short skirts.

“Give me a B!” they shouted to the stadium.

“B!” answered the crowd.

“Give me a U!”

“U!” answered the crowd.

“Give me an S!”

“S!”

“Give me an H!”

“H!”

“And whattya got!” the cheerleaders sang.

Lucius groaned, holding his head in his hands. Viktor smoldered like a red toad, pissed that The Bourg insisted they come to the game.

“Stop being so miserable,” Kaila said, poking Lucius in his back. She couldn’t fathom anyone miserable when she was the happiest in her entire life.

“Misery is illusion,” Lucius said. “We feel nothing.”

“Could have fooled me,” Kaila taunted.

“Leave them alone,” Jordyn said, squeezing her hand.

“I don’t understand why we have to watch humans fight over a ball,” Lucius pondered.

“They are stupid,” Echidna said, pointing at the cheerleaders. “Why are they here?”

“They’re supposed to inspire you,” Kaila said.

“They inspire me to violence,” Echidna said, her head in her hands.

“They make me hungry,” Viktor said.

“Such false gaiety,” Lucius marveled.

“I don’t get it either,” Pia called. “Football sucks.” Antonia, beside her, smiled.

“But it is good we are together,” Antonia said. “I appreciate you.”

“Not all of you are bad,” Pia said.

“Bad?” Antonia looked puzzled.

The crowd stood and roared as the players trotted onto the field.

“Hey, birthday girl,” Jordyn whispered in Kaila’s ear. “You want us to make Bush win?”

“No interference,” Kaila said.

He nuzzled her ear with his lips. The stadium receded. She wanted to kiss him again so badly, adored the feel of him next to her, his hand in hers. The crowd’s roar matched her hunger for him.

The game was close. With each touchdown, tension mounted. Derek Mendoza, the quarterback, threw perfect passes. Wade Stoops, defensive lineman, held Covington back. The stadium cheered.

Kaila glanced at Melissa and Toby, oblivious to the game and entranced with the other.

“You’re so smart,” Melissa said.

“You are so . . . creative,” Toby said, the stadium lights reflecting on his bald head. “You have imagination. Through your mind, you travel the span of the universe.”

Melissa gazed at Toby with her lazy eye. It was as if a light surrounded the two. They bought popcorn and hotdogs.

Kaila smiled, seeing mustard on Toby’s small lips as they shared taking bites of the hot dog. They were so cute!

She spied Mrs. Bourg above, observing like a vulture. But Kaila didn’t care. Nothing could spoil this perfect night.

Or so she thought.

When you’re with someone you love, time passes quickly. Hours seem like minutes. At the end of the fourth quarter, the score was tied. Everyone screamed and shook the stadium with stomping feet.

Then, in the last seconds, Derek Mendoza threw a long pass. Phyllis was gazing reverently down at the field. Kaila remembered how she crushed on Derek.

What a pass.
Kaila heard Phyllis’s thoughts.
God, you are so hot.
Phyllis propped her chin on folded hands, her gaze not following the ball, but Derek.

The receiver caught the ball and ran the length of the field for a touchdown. The stadium exploded. The scoreboard lighted with red blinking “
TOUCHDOWN!
”

“Guess they didn’t need help,” Jordyn said, leaning over to kiss Kaila. His warm mouth molded her lips to his.

It was a custom at Bush High that after a winning game, the football players and cheerleaders went on the public address system and made announcements.

“We are so proud of our team!” Brandy Powell’s high voice echoed over the stadium. Everyone cheered.

“Our team is the
winner!
” Tara’s deeper voice echoed over the stadium.

Kaila barely heard them. Jordyn kissed her hand. Shivers ran up her spine.

Then Derek’s voice echoed on the loudspeaker. “We played a great game,” he self-congratulated. “But there is one thing that spoiled my night.”

The stadium quieted.

“Hey, Phyllis Joiner,” Derek called, his voice resounding in the night air. “I heard you have a huge crush on my ass. But hear this: I would never, ever, in a thousand years be seen with a bug-eyed dork bitch like you. You’re a loser. Hear me,
loser.
No guy would ever want a freak like you. So quit your pining and die.”

It was as if the hybrids put a time freeze on the stadium. But they hadn’t. Kaila, and everyone in the stadium, turned toward Phyllis Joiner.

Her blue eyes bulged as usual; her mouth hung open.

Then, hot waves of Phyllis’s deepest shame telepathically permeated Kaila. Kaila’s eyes stung with scalding tears. She felt like an elevator whose cable had snapped. She was descending to the center of the earth, merging with its molten core.

“Block her,” Jordyn said to Kaila.

But as Phyllis began to weep, so did Kaila. She’d never felt this hurt, this betrayed, this embarrassed. She was sinking, losing herself in the wave of Phyllis’s all-encompassing hurt.

Worse, Viktor, Lucius,
and
Echidna climbed up and surrounded Phyllis. They leaned over Phyllis who lowered her head and unleashed the thousand tears that had accumulated through a lifetime.

Echidna leaned close to Phyllis and inhaled. She closed her eyes and moaned.

Viktor leaned closer, his incisors visible.

Lucius bobbed and swayed behind sunglasses as if he were high on heroin at a blues concert.

Echidna moaned louder in the crescendo of ecstasy.

Priscilla Snowden appeared from nowhere, her beautiful face white as her hair. “Get away, predators!”

“Get lost, bitch,” Viktor hissed, his eyes hooded.

Echidna licked her tiny lips, satiated.

Everything happened too fast. The blood drained from Kaila’s brain. She felt Phyllis sinking as she wept. Sinking down into the earth and into a grave where she would never return.

Jordyn shouted, “Erect a shield on your mind, Kaila. Block her out!”

“I can’t,” Kaila sobbed.

“Block!” Jordyn shouted, shaking her.
“Block her out.”

Priscilla Snowden wrapped her arms protectively around Phyllis.

Phyllis was oblivious. In shock, her bulging eyes stared unseeing. Her head lowered as tears rained.

“I care, darling,” Priscilla said, pressing her cheek against Phyllis’s. “Hold on, don’t give up, lift up.”

But too late.

When Kaila realized Phyllis had surrendered, she gasped. This was the darkest abyss, a place of shame and loss with no hope.

Phyllis reached into her pocket and pulled out a gun. She held it to her temple and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed through the stadium.

Then her brains were all over Priscilla Snowden. Her body slumped in Priscilla’s lap.

Again a freeze time moment.

Priscilla lifted her face to the night sky. Her beautiful blue eyes filled with tears. “Please, please, help them,” she wept, cradling Phyllis’s inert body.

Kaila’s knees buckled as she traveled into darkness. She could still feel Phyllis crying. This was a hurt beyond death, a hurt staining the fabric of Phyllis’s soul. Phyllis hovered in a dark place, a place of shadows. There were other shadow creatures there yet she was alone. It was the vastness of the night sky but dark as the deepest dungeon. And all she could do was weep with the loneliness of eternity.

“Kaila!” Jordyn’s voice echoed above the darkness.

Kaila sobbed, lost. She wanted to lie down and curl into a ball.

“Kaila, please come up,” Jordyn said, bear-hugging her. “Come up!”

She opened her eyes and buried her head on his shoulder.

Priscilla collapsed on Phyllis’s corpse. Priscilla’s strength and light weakened, like rain on a lit candle.

Then, security guards clamored with flashlights, shining on the blood spatters on Priscilla’s white pants and Phyllis’s blasted dead skull.

Kaila sensed Priscilla’s waning strength, same as in the yoga class.

“I have to go,” Priscilla said gasping. “I have no more.” Her face went white as snowy egret feathers. As the crowd thickened, trying to get a look at the dead student, she disappeared.

Kaila knew then, that she had to go to another place, that the longer the time she spent on Earth, the more her strength dissipated.

And no wonder.

All this while Jordyn held her.

“I hate this place too,” Kaila said, sobbing.

“Don’t hate, Kaila,” Jordyn whispered.

“But I do. I understand why Phyllis felt so alone.” Kaila withdrew from Jordyn. “This is a terrible place. An awful place. Everyone is cruel and vicious! We’re surrounded by haters everywhere.”

Viktor, Echidna, and Lucius hovered nearby.

“Get away from me! It’s her pain, not mine.”

But they leaned their heads near, their eyes large, feeding.

“Hear me clearly,” Kaila said. “You will never feed on my pain again.”

She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand and narrowed her eyes. “Because I will never feel pain again. From now on, I will no longer be part of the human race.”

Dimly, she saw that Jordyn, Viktor, Lucius, Echidna, Toby, and Antonia understood. She felt them encompassing her, taking her.

“I submit to you,” Kaila said. “Take me.”

“No!” Pia cried. “Don’t go with them!”

“It’s done,” Kaila spat. “And Pia. Don’t blame me. If you had this choice, wouldn’t you go?”

“Don’t go,” Melissa begged. “You said you’d help us.”

“We can be friends,” Kaila said. “But I will never again align with the human race. I turn my back; I spit on them.”

Viktor stared with rapt interest.

“We will protect you,” Jordyn whispered. “We are one, now, forever.”

“Hereafter,” Kaila said to the hive. “I want nothing more to do with this world. You have my total allegiance.”

“What are you wearing?” her mother asked as Kaila came to breakfast.

“Oh, no, not joining that cult are you?” Nan asked, spooning scrambled eggs and grits on her plate.

Kaila had donned the silver bodysuit. She liked the material. You could ball it up to an inch in your pocket, then make it expand to a full outfit by shaking it. It didn’t wrinkle or tear, and it repelled liquids and stains. It showed off her curves, her ripe breasts, her slender waist and long legs. Plus, it was the most comfortable thing she’d ever worn.