Priscilla the Great:
Bring the Pain
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Sybil Nelson on Smashwords
Priscilla the Great Bring the Pain
Copyright © 2012 Sybil Nelson
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Chapter 1
Here we go Again
I awoke tied to a table. My neck was killing me and I couldn't move any part of my body.
"Holy Ham and Cheese! Not again," I said as I struggled against the restraints. The more I moved the more pain I felt seeping through every pore of my body. What the heck was going on? I had super human strength, why couldn't I lift my body off this stupid table? I looked down and found the reason. There was a glowing inhibitor collar around my neck. I was powerless and at the mercy of whoever it was that had captured me.
I was so sick of getting kidnapped! Did this tendency to get taken by evil villains come with the territory? I mean, was there some super power guidebook that had an entire chapter about being kidnapped by the bad guy? If so, someone needed to send me a copy quick, fast, and in a hurry.
"Oh, good. You're awake. I thought I had already killed you. That would be no fun at all," a sickening British accent said.
"Xi, is that you?"
"Of course it is. What a silly question," she said stepping into my limited line of sight.
So much for mercy. Specimen Xi was the most insane and disturbed genetically enhanced superhuman created in a laboratory ever. Seriously, somebody must have shaken the test tube that girl was created in.
She probably stayed awake at night thinking up the most painful way to kill me. Looks like she might have figured it out.
"What do you want, Xi?"
"Well that, too, is a ridiculous question. You sure are not very bright today. What do you think I want?"
"You want me to die a painful death. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just do it already. I don't feel like having polite conversation."
"Tsk, tsk, Priscilla. Aren't we grumpy? Oh, that's right. You're having boyfriend trouble, aren't you?"
For a second I didn't know if she was talking about Marco or Kyle. Fortunately ... or unfortunately, she went on to clarify.
"You lie to Kyle for months, and then kiss Marco right in front of him. Then you get Marco killed. And going back to Kyle has proven harder than you expected hasn't it? Now he's keeping secrets from you."
How did she know all of this?
"Shut up, Xi. I did not get Marco killed. If anything, you did. He was trying to stop you and Colonel Selliwood. And about Kyle … just shut up about Kyle." There was nothing I could say to refute her there. Unfortunately, she was right about that part. I had to lie to Kyle for his own safety. I didn't want him to know that I was the daughter of a genetically enhanced super human and that evil villains were chasing my family all over the world. I underestimated Kyle and thought he would reject me if he knew I had super hearing, super strength and could shoot fire out of my fingers.
Marco was another specimen around my age and I didn't mean to, but I fell for him. He was like me and I thought we belonged together. Maybe we did belong together. I would never know for sure because now he was dead.
Xi didn't respond at first. She took a mirror out of her purse and ran her fingers through her waist length black hair with hot pink highlights.
"Believe it or not, I'm a little jealous of you," she said, snapping the compact shut. I was too shocked to actually respond with words. I kind of gave a confused grunt before she continued. "You've had two boys completely mad about you. I've never had a boyfriend."
"Wha ... huh?" Again, too shocked for real words.
"I don't mind telling you all this because I'm about to kill you anyway.” She hopped up on the table right next to my feet and crossed her legs. "I haven't even had my first kiss yet. Boys just aren't interested in me."
"That's because you're a psycho." I probably shouldn't have said that considering I was powerless to defend myself, but I couldn't help it. I mean, it was true. And what did it matter what I said? She was about to kill me anyway.
Xi glared at me. Then she looked away and shrugged. "You're probably right. But it doesn't matter. Even if I kissed a boy I probably wouldn't be able to feel a thing." Xi had no sense of touch. She was extremely hard to defeat in a fight because she never felt it when I burned her. And even if I burned her, she could regenerate her body parts so she just grew her flesh again. The last time I fought her, Marco and I cut off both her hands in order to get away. From the fresh coat of hot pink polish on her nails, I could see her hands had grown back nicely.
Xi looked sad. Suddenly, I felt the need to play psychologist. "Look, what are you? Twelve years old? You still have plenty of time. I didn't have my first kiss until my thirteenth birthday."
"And how was it? Did you see stars or the like?" Xi turned toward me excitedly and tucked her hair behind her ears like a child at a slumber party. I expected her to whip out a hairbrush and start singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
Yes, Xi was a psycho and yes she was currently trying to kill me, but I actually felt a little sorry for her. And thinking about my first kiss with Kyle brought up a whole bunch of warm fuzzy feelings. I couldn't help but talk about it. "I saw stars. I felt explosions. Thousands of butterflies danced in my stomach. I still get that feeling even when I just look at him."
"Wow," she said as she stared up at the ceiling with a wistful look in her eyes. "What about Marco? What was it like to kiss Marco?"
I wondered how she even knew about that. She probably read my mind. Almost all the specimens had some sort of telepathy. My mother could move things with her mind and my brother, Josh, could see the future. My father was a normal human. And though my five-year-old twin baby brothers hadn't developed any powers yet they were far from normal. Let's just say they liked to throw poop and blow their snot on unsuspecting targets.
"Marco only kissed me to protect me from Specimen Zero." That was partly true. Marco had the ability to convert his entire body to metal. Once in metal form he was pretty much invincible. He could stop a bullet at point blank range. Marco could also transfer his powers through an enzyme in his saliva. Thus the kiss.
Xi rolled her eyes. "You think I'm some sort of tosser? I saw the way he looked at you. He was totally smitten."
Once again, Xi was exactly right. He was ... smitten with me, or whatever. We'd always had a special connection to each other. I felt it the first time I saw him when I helped him and the other specimens escape the Selliwood Institute where they were created.
I thought back to that kiss with Marco. While it started out as just business, it kinda morphed into something more. It was amazing. Thinking about that kiss made me miss him even more.
Three months ago, Marco, Josh, Ryan, Ian and I traveled to the Arctic Circle and captured Colonel Selliwood. In his metal form, Marco was too dense to swim. He ended up sinking to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
"It doesn't matter. He's dead now." I turned my head away so she wouldn't see the tears glistening in my eyes.
"What if I told you he wasn't?"
I turned again and stared at her like we were in a poker game and she was claiming to have four aces. It was possible, but I didn't know whether to trust her or not. But considering my hand was like a bad hand in “Go Fish,” I had no choice but to believe her. Okay, that analogy got way out of control. Moving on.
"This conversation has gotten boring," she said, finally ending our staring match. "Let's get this over with, shall we?" She hopped off the table and grabbed a syringe off of a nearby desk. She squeezed a little bit of white liquid out of the top of it. "Don't worry," she said, walking toward me slowly with a sinister grin. "Okay, you might want to worry. In fact, go ahead and panic if you like. This is going to be extremely painful."
Xi's main goal in life was to cause other people pain since she couldn't feel pain herself. I knew whatever she had planned for me would be beyond anything I could ever imagine. I doubted if I would survive. My mind raced trying to figure out a way out of this. I couldn’t think of a single thing. Was this the end? Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone burst into the room.
"Kyle? What are you doing here?"
Chapter 2
Back to School
Two months earlier ...
Being back in River's Bend was a dream come true for me. I'd missed everyone so much. I mean, of course I missed Kyle and Tai. That was a given. But I couldn't believe how much I missed everyone else as well. The first time I saw Mr. Grayson, the town drunk, I actually gave him a hug.
The first day I was back, I literally wanted to run through the streets singing show tunes or something. But, of course, I couldn’t sing. In fact, I sing so badly that I probably would have been arrested for public indecency.
I even missed Polk Middle school. Yeah, I know right. Me, missing school. But I did. I know it sounds crazy, but I missed the constant fighting with the eighth graders. I never got to enjoy my Ice Cream Challenge win. I had totally become the first girl to claim victory and the first seventh grader to beat an eighth grader in the all out ice cream gorging we called the ICC. But I never got a chance to enjoy my winnings. There should have been a seat by the ice cream machine with my name on it.
I had to figure out a way to get my mom to let me go back to public school. The whole time we lived in Missouri, Dad wouldn't let any of us kids go to school. We had to learn at home. This home school thing was just not going to work for my social life.
No amount of begging my mother to let me go back to school worked. But one day, I finally figured out something that did.
"Mom, please let me go back to Polk Middle," I had asked for probably the fifteenth time that day.
"I'm not sure it's safe yet, Sweetie," she had said not even looking up from her Modern Science magazine. She was used to this routine. But she wasn't ready for this curve ball I was about to toss her way.
I rolled my eyes and gave a dramatic sigh. "You sound just like Dad, you know?"
My mother snapped her magazine shut and glared at me. "What did you say?"
"Witherall is dead and Selliwood is in jail," I said ignoring her question and letting the Dad comment marinate.
"I do not sound like that paranoid control freak you call a father." She stood and started pacing the living room.
Game. Set. Match.
The next day, my mother took me to re-enroll in Polk Middle.
"Hello, I'd like to enroll my daughter into seventh grade," my mother said to Mr. Owen, who was sitting at the front desk.
"Oh, um, I don't really know anything about that. Hic." Mr. Owen scratched his head. I swear I saw his brown hairpiece move two inches like it was trying to run away from his head.
"I'm actually the ... hic ... drama teacher. I'm covering for the office staff while they go to ... hic ... lunch."
I looked around. The office was completely empty. I wondered how Mr. Owen ended up drawing the short straw and having to miss lunch to babysit an empty office.
What are a hic drama teacher and a hic lunch? my mother asked me telepathically.
I almost burst out laughing. I forgot my mother had never met Mr. Owen so she didn't know about his affliction. In fact, my mother didn't know a lot of people in town. She had always been so busy fighting against Selliwood. I wondered if that would change now. Would she become the typical River's Bend mom and bring fresh baked cookies to the school play and coolers of Gatorade to the little league games?
Nothing. He's just got the hiccups. I explained to her.
"Oh. Well, should I wait?" she asked him.
"Yes, please, wait. Hic. Have a seat, Mrs. … hic. I'm sorry. I'm not sure what to call you anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I heard ... hic ... about the divorce. Will you still be going by Sumner ... hic ... or will you switch to your maiden name?"
For the first time ever and I do mean ever, I saw my mother get flustered in public. I don't think she had ever considered the name thing. She never had a name before she met my father. When she lived at the Institute she was just known as Specimen Q. When she fell in love with my father and they ran away together, he was the one that named her Quindolyn. Then they got married and she took his name. My father was like part of her identity. I didn't think she knew who she was without him.
Of course, we had just found out that Mr. Witherall was her biological father, which meant he was my grandfather. Ew. Gross. I didn't even want to think about that. I wondered if my mother would take his name since she was not going to be a Sumner anymore. Quindolyn Witherall. Nope. No Way. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. I had to find a way to get her back together with my Dad.
Stupid small town. Why did everyone have to know everything about everyone? It would have been so nice to just pretend that my parents were still together and that Dad and the boys were away on business or something. But no way would an explanation like that work. Small town gossips were like bloodhounds. They could smell a divorce as soon as my mother and I returned to River's Bend alone. I wanted to stand on the roof of my house and yell to everyone in town that there would be no divorce. My parents were going to get back together. At least I hoped they would.
My mother drifted into a place inside her mind. On the outside, she looked normal but on the inside I could tell she was thinking about my father and fighting the urge to break down in tears.
"I've seen Priscilla ... hic ... around school for the past couple of years," Mr. Owen continued, not noticing my mother's discomfort. "but I haven't had the pleasure of having her in one of my ... hic...productions. How old are you Priscilla?"
"I turned thirteen this past December," I said guiding my mother into a seat.
"Wow. Thirteen. I have to say, Mrs. Sumner ... hic, you barely look old enough to have a thirteen-year-old daughter. You look like a ... hic ... teenager yourself."
"What do you mean? What do you know of the aging of my genes?" my mother said in a panic. "Mom, chill. He's just hitting on you," I said trying to calm her down.
Hitting on me? What does this mean? He's not even touching me, she asked me telepathically.
"I'll explain later," I said taking a closer look at Mr. Owen. Yeah, he was definitely hitting on my mother and I totally understood why. She was gorgeous. Imagine a redheaded Angelina Jolie. That about summed it up.
Mr. Owen wasn't too bad looking himself now that I took a good look at him. He was probably in his early forties and cute in a Matthew Perry kind of way. Well, Matthew Perry with a bad toupee. He totally had the looks to be a famous actor. And from what I heard, he had the opportunity as well. He was a Broadway actor right out of high school and well on his way to being discovered when he was struck with a debilitating disease. Hiccups. Now you might think that's not so bad. But for an actor it was devastating, especially when you have the hiccups nonstop for twenty-three years. Can you imagine being in the middle of The Phantom of the Opera and reaching for that high note and then … hiccupping? Well, Mr. Owen could. It happened to him.
I heard that at one point his rendition of Hamlet got him a nomination for a Tony award. That's a big deal apparently. But after the hiccups struck, he couldn't get a job anywhere. So then he was stuck teaching middle school drama. He didn't seem particularly upset about it. I know most people would be totally bitter that they had to give up their glitzy life in New York to live in a hole in the ground like River's Bend and teach bratty middle schoolers. But Mr. Owen seemed like he kind of enjoyed it. I wondered what would happen if he one day got cured. Would he give New York another chance? He didn't have to worry about that question though. After twenty-three years of trying every remedy in the book, nothing worked. Nothing. Mr. Owen was going to have hiccups for the rest of his life.
Cute or not, hiccups or not, Broadway or not, there was no way I was letting Mr. Owen put the moves on my mother. This was going to call for some super powered sabotage.
Chapter 3
The Tutor
I spent the first week back at school just catching up on the latest gossip. Of course my best friend Tai should have kept me up to date, but she was too busy actually doing work during school to really know what was going on with everyone. Besides, she was taking all eighth grade classes so she really didn't know what was up with the seventh graders most of the time. Like she had no idea that Helen and Manny had dated and broken up three times in the six months I had been gone. Not that their relationship was especially important or anything. It was just that three break ups in six months was well below their average. They must have been to couples’ counseling or something.
And I had no idea that Cali Crawford actually went blond for a month like her skanky sister who broke my older brother's heart. What in the world was she thinking? She totally didn't have the right coloring for that. Imagine Pocahontas going blond. Not to say that Cali is Native American or anything. She was just really tanned and had naturally long, rich dark hair. But I'm getting off track. What was I talking about?
Oh, yeah. While I got caught up on all the goings on at school, it was also time to get caught up on school work and stuff. Sure, I was supposed to be doing my home school assignments while we lived in Missouri but between saving the president's daughter, flying to the Arctic Circle and defeating Selliwood's underground base, I really didn't have much time to read Lord of the Flies or make models of the solar system.
Kyle took it upon himself to go over everything I'd missed while I was gone. Considering his grade point average was even lower than mine, it probably wasn't a good idea for him to be my tutor. But I don't think we were thinking with our brains when we came up with the arrangement.
Being around Kyle again was like being in the same place for the first time. It was exciting and new but comfortable and familiar all at once, if that makes any sense.
After the tragedy at the Arctic Circle, I found him signing autographs at a baseball game. He was the face of the new cereal Mini Frosted Funnel Cakes, so for some reason crazy nine-year-old girls would actually stand in line to get his autograph. It was crazy. It was like he was a pop star or something. The Justin Bieber of cereal. There was even a fan website dedicated to him. Whatever. Anyway, I cried my eyes out for hours and he just held me. Then we sat in that parking lot and I told him everything. And boy do I mean everything.
So he knew my secret. He knew about my powers and he didn't run away screaming. He accepted me for who I was, a freak who could shoot fire out of her fingers and lift a car with one hand. But he didn't treat me like a freak. He just treated me like I was the same old Priss. And when he looked at me with his sweet blue eyes, I didn't feel like a freak. I felt like a regular seventh grade girl who had the greatest boyfriend in the world.
"Okay, three out of five," Kyle said, balling up another sheet of paper. Actually, it might have been our algebra assignment that he was crumpling but neither of us really cared. He had already missed his first two shots into the trashcan yet he wouldn't accept defeat.
I crossed my arms confidently. "Fine, three out of five. Hey, make it four out of seven. It won't matter. You've never beaten me at anything."
"That's not true!" he protested.
"Uh, yeah, it is."
"Is one of your super powers a Swiss cheese memory?"
"Ha, ha."
"So I guess you don't remember the water basketball match at Spencer's house last Labor Day."
Of course I remembered that day. That was the day I discovered my powers. I was stuck in Cali Crawford's bathroom accidently setting things on fire. I was totally freaked out. Right before then Kyle had made the winning shot in our water basketball match, but there was a reason for that. Back then I had a super huge crush on Spencer Callahan. Anyway, he took his shirt off and totally distracted me, allowing Kyle to take the game.
"Okay, so you beat me at water basketball. That's one thing in, what, thirteen years."
"Last July 12th, Willie's Sweet Shop. I stuffed 21 tootsie rolls in my mouth. You could only fit 19."
I tried to think back to that day. I vaguely remembered something about a tootsie roll stuffing contest.
"How do you remember stuff like that?"
"Every moment with you is kind of unforgettable." Kyle blushed as he quickly turned away from me. "What I mean is ... um ... you're so annoying that ... I ... um..."
"Whatever, Kyle. I know what you mean." I kissed him on the cheek and then punched him in the arm. "Fine, I will admit that you occasionally beat me, but you're not going to beat me at this."
Kyle got a determined look on his face. I knew he meant business. We might be stuck in his basement for the rest of the night until he made more baskets into the trashcan. Or I finally let him win.
Kyle raised his arms and sailed the balled up piece of paper across the room. It went in.
"So you got one. Big deal. Not gonna happen … ” I cut my sentence short as soon as the second piece of trash landed in.
"One more and I win," he said. "What were the stakes again?"
I rolled my eyes. He knew exactly what they were. He just wanted me to say it. "If you win, I'll wear your freaking Mini Frosted Funnel Cakes shirt to school tomorrow." Kyle had been bugging me for a week to wear a T-shirt that was basically a huge picture of his face that started at the neck and went down to the navel. It was awful and embarrassing, which was exactly why he wanted me to wear it.
Kyle grinned. "Darn right you will." He raised his arms and shot the paper. It went into the air in a perfect arch. It was definitely going in. I couldn't let that happen. There was no way I was wearing that shirt. I pointed my index finger and sent a stream of fire to disintegrate it in mid air.
"You cheater," Kyle screamed.
"What?" I said innocently.
"Oh, you're going down."
Kyle picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder as he tickled me. Wow, Kyle had gotten pretty strong in the six months I had been away. Did he start working out?
Kyle tossed me on the couch and continued his tickling assault. Of course, I was ten times stronger than him. I could have pushed him off of me and sent him through the roof of the basement with one swift kick if I wanted him to stop. But who says I wanted him to stop?
"I better stop," Kyle said as he suddenly froze. He stared into my eyes. He was so close to me I could smell the watermelon Jolly Rancher he had just finished.
"Why?" I asked, touching his stomach through his polo shirt. Oh my, he had six pack abs. When did that happen?
"What if I kiss you and you accidently set me on fire?"
I rolled my eyes. "That's not gonna happen, Kyle. I have complete control over my powers. I've had them for like eight months. And besides, we've kissed before, remember?" The last time we kissed was after my thirteenth birthday party last December. After that, we'd tried again on our movie date but got interrupted by Marco. Great, now I was thinking about Marco.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded. Yes I was sure I wouldn't set him on fire, but I wasn't sure I could kiss him while thinking of Marco. This would be our first kiss since I came back. We had decided to take it slow.
Kyle closed his eyes and leaned in when suddenly I started buzzing.
"What was that?" he yelled, hopping off me like I had suddenly turned into an electric fence.
"Relax. It's just my hair bow."
"What?" That explanation didn’t make him feel any better.
I took the rhinestone butterfly clip out of my hair and held it up for him. "It's Tai's latest invention. It's a communication device." I pressed a couple of buttons on it and set it down on the coffee table. "Any second a hologram of Tai should appear." Only Tai didn't appear. Instead ...
"Oh snap, Priss! Is that the President?"
Chapter 4
Orders from the President
Kyle was pretty freaked out to see the President's holographic form projecting in his basement. He stood then bowed, then sat and saluted. He didn't know what he was doing.
"At ease," President Gonzalez said with a smile.
"Yes, Mr. President," Kyle said as he awkwardly stuffed his hands in his pocket. Something kind of hard to do when you're sitting.
"Mr. President, we weren't expecting you," I said, wracking my brain to try to figure out why he would be calling. I mean, after Tai came up with the hologram barrette thingy, I just gave his daughter Elizabeth one just because I knew she'd think it was cool. Elizabeth was the fifteen-year-old daughter of the President. After I rescued her from a kidnapping, we hit it off pretty quickly and became instant friends. Later, when I needed help covering up the Arctic Circle episode and putting Selliwood in jail, she called in a favor from her dad.
I sat up straight and scooted away from Kyle as if we had just been caught making out by our parents. I mean this was the President. He was like the parent of the country. He was the parent of all parents.
"I know. I'm sorry for the intrusion, but your country needs you, Priscilla," President Gonzalez said.
Is it weird that I got tingles of excitement on my neck? I mean those are the words that the super cool super agent hears in the movies. I was now that super cool super agent and I had super powers too. This was awesome. This was so freaking awesome.
"Anything you need, Mr. President," I said, so excited I was about to burst like a fruit flavored candy sitting out in the sun.
"Is it okay for me to speak freely?" he asked nodding toward Kyle.
I nodded. "Yeah, he's cool. He knows everything."
"All right." President Gonzalez opened a file and then said, "First of all, Colonel Selliwood's trial is scheduled to begin June 17th. I would like for you and your family to be in attendance."
"Do you want me to testify?" I asked as the tingles of excitement started to morph into tingles of nervousness. I had never had to testify in court before. What if I couldn't do it? What if I got too scared and choked? How weird. I had no problem fighting in hand-to-hand combat. I was totally confident about that. But testifying in a courtroom made me nervous.
"No, we don't want you to testify. In fact, we would prefer it if no one knew about you and your family at all." He looked over at Kyle again.
"Don't worry," Kyle said quickly. "No one else knows besides Tai and me and I'm real good at keeping secrets. Like I never told anyone that the reason she wore a hat for two weeks in the third grade was because she tried to dye her hair blond and it turned green."
I glared at him.
"I mean," Kyle said as his face turned red, "I guess I never told anyone until now." He looked down at his hands. I elbowed him in the side and he fell off the couch. I sometimes forgot how strong I was.
"Anyway," I said looking back at the President. "I'm positive no one else will ever find out."
President Gonzalez nodded. "Okay. In any case, we would like you there for security purposes. There are still a number of specimens out there and we are afraid one or more of them may try to come to Colonel Selliwood's defense."
"No problem. I'll be there. But why not ask my mother?"
"Your mother has been compromised once," he said referring to the fact that my mother had been under Selliwood's control and had even tried to kill me. He activated the microchip in her brain and turned her into a killing machine against her will. The chip was surgically removed and there was no way it would happen again, but I didn't think explaining that to the president was going to help. "That brings me to my second request. If possible, I need you to locate all the remaining specimens around the world. I'd like to know who is a threat and who is not."
I scratched my head in thought. How in the world was I supposed to find all the specimens? I knew where some of the good ones were. Like Ian was still in New Zealand. Katya, Will, Peter, and Ryan were in Missouri. Marco was dead. My heart clinched a little. I didn't want to think about Marco.
I had no idea how to find the rest of the good guys let alone how to find the evil ones like Specimen Xi and Specimen Zero.
"Sure, Mr. President. I'll get right on it."
"Excellent. Let me know if you need anything," he said, closing his file and preparing to end the conversation.
"Okay. And please tell Elizabeth I said hello."
"Will do."
The President disappeared and I grabbed my clip and tied my hair out of my face.
"Okay, where were we?" Kyle said like two seconds later. He hopped back onto the couch and tried to start tickling me again.
I grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back. "Kyle, not now. Didn't you hear the President? I have work to do."
"You don't have to start right now. We were having fun," he said once I released him.
I stood up and threw on my sweater. "We can have fun later. I gotta go talk to Tai."
Kyle sat back and slouched in the couch and crossed his arms.
"You wanna come?" I asked when I noticed the dejected look on his face. Since he knew everything about me, I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to fill him in on the details of a mission, especially since he looked so bummed that I was leaving.
"Nah, I got homework to do," he said.
Now I knew he was upset. Kyle Montgomery didn’t choose homework over anything.
For some reason, I felt bad for leaving him alone in his basement. I could tell he really wanted to spend time with me. But I had just gotten orders from the President of the United States. I didn't have time to play tickle fight with my boyfriend. But maybe I should have. Maybe that was the girlfriendly thing to do.
***
Five minutes later, I burst through Tai's front door. No need to knock. This was my second home.
"Hey Mr. and Mrs. Houston," I said as I pounded the shag carpeted steps up to Tai's bedroom. Tai's adoptive parents were really, really old and hadn't redecorated their house since like Lava lamps were cool.
"Hey Tai, guess what," I said rushing into her room without even knocking.
"What?" She didn't take her eyes off her computer.
"This holographic barrette thing really works."
"Well, of course it does," she said scrunching her face up in confusion.
"Well excuse me if I'm a little surprised that a holographic phone created by a twelve-year-old actually works." I plopped down on her perfectly neat yellow bed and kicked off my shoes. I lay down on her pillow and took a quick look at the new picture on her nightstand. It was of her and Spencer. He was kissing her on the cheek while stretching his arm out to hold the camera and click the picture. It was adorable. They looked so cute together with Tai's smooth dark skin contrasting against Spencer's tan surfer boy looking complexion. Spencer, my former crush, looked so happy. Tai looked indifferent. In fact, she looked a little annoyed, like he was interrupting her math homework. I had to remember to ask her about that later.
"I'll be thirteen next month!" Tai said referring to my twelve-year-old comment. She clicked a few keys on her computer then turned around to face me. "So what's up? Did Elizabeth call you or something?"
"No, even cooler," I said standing and walking over to her desk. "The President," I said dramatically. I grabbed a brush off her desk, turned her around and started brushing her hair. Yeah, it's kind of weird, but it was our little ritual. We had been obsessed with hair care since the third grade, a.k.a the era of unfortunate hair. Since Tai was the only black person in town, no one knew how to control her thick hair, except me.
"Really," she said as her eyes expanded. "What did he want?"
"He needs my help for security at Selliwood's trial and he wants me to find all the missing specimens."
"Holy Ham and Cheese! It's like you're some sort of super spy or something."
"I know, right!" I said as I started French braiding her hair. "That's exactly what I thought. But I need my sidekick. I need your help."
Tai got that know-it-all grin on her face that I was so familiar with. I could see it in the reflection of her mirror in front of her desk. She got that grin whenever she was feeling really good about herself because she knew something I didn't. Yeah, that grin came up pretty often.
"What's up?" I asked. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. Not yet anyway. But I think I know exactly how to find all the specimens."
"Already? How?"
"Just finish my hair and I'll show you."
I quickly finished the braid and went to grab a scrunchie.
"Wait, not that one," she yelled. "That's a prototype."
"Okay." Whatever. I didn't even know what a prototype meant. I reached for another one and put it in her hair.
"Now, I'm not positive it will work completely. It's just a little something I've been thinking about ever since we got back from the Arctic Circle last month." She stood up, went to a file cabinet, and pulled out a box. "These are the microchips we took out of your mother, Will, Peter, Ryan, Katya, and Ian," she said holding the box in front of my face.
"Ew, gross," I said, holding in a gag. "Those were in their brains. Nasty." I gave a little gross shiver as Tai took the box away and placed it on her desk. "How did you even get those?"
She shrugged. "I just asked the doctor. No one else wanted them." She put the box on her desk right next to her prototype of a scrunchie or whatever. "I also have a bunch of flash drives taken from the computers at Arctic base. Just copies of the stuff the President didn't need for his case against Selliwood. Anyway, I should be able to use the information in these chips and maybe even the flash drives to build a kind of tracking device that can pick up similar chips."
"Really? You can do that?" I sat down on her bed and just stared at her in amazement. How did that big old brain of hers fit in a normal sized head?
"I think so. The only problem is I'm not sure I'll be able to make it strong enough. We may need to ask the President for permission to bounce a signal off of a satellite or something."
"Awesome." I stood up and started pacing her bedroom. "If we can locate all the specimens before the trial, then there shouldn't be any surprises. Well, except for one wild card."
We looked at each other and in unison said, "Specimen Xi."
Specimen Xi didn't have a microchip in her brain anymore. I had watched as she cut her own head open and took it out herself. Right after she killed Dr. Witherall. Oddly enough, that was right after I learned that Dr. Witherall was actually my biological grandfather. So Xi had killed a member of my family. Sure Dr. Witherall used to be one of my mortal enemies, but he really tried to help me toward the end. I wonder what it would have been like to get to know him as a grandfather. Now I'd never know.
"We have no way of finding her," Tai said staring at the microchips.
I shook my head. "I have a feeling she'll find us."
Chapter 5
Tai's Flying Lesson
About 2:30 in the morning, I hopped out of bed. I couldn't sleep. I had too many things on my mind. I actually had a mission from the President. The President of the United States. This was so much more important than when the president of the Girl's Scouts gave me a mission to deliver the cookies to the Parent Teacher Association meeting. It wasn't my fault that the playground was on the way so I took a slight detour and made myself dizzy on the merry go round for a cool half hour. And it wasn't my fault that I parked my wagon full of cookies on top of an anthill. Okay, so maybe that was my fault. Anyway, the president wasn't too happy when I wobbled into the meeting and gave all the parents and teachers ant filled cookies.
Anyway, I hoped I wouldn't disappoint the real president. I knew with Tai's help I could get this done. But I also knew that Tai needed a little bit of training. Sure, she was good with the technological aspects but I might need her to do more than that. No, I wasn't going to teach her kickboxing or anything. But I did have a plan for her.
I peeked down the street and noticed that her light was still on. She wasn't sleeping either. I wondered what she was up to.
I whipped off my nightclothes and threw on something more appropriate for a "Training Tai" mission, jeans and my green Girl Power T-shirt. Then I headed on down the street to my best friend's house.
"What are you doing here?" she asked as she opened up her window. She looked past me for a second. "Did you just scale the wall?"
"Yeah, no biggie." I fell headfirst into her room after my foot slipped on her windowsill. I did a somersault to the middle of her floor, trying to make it look like I did it on purpose. "I couldn't sleep," I said, sitting cross-legged on her floor.
"Me neither," she said stuffing a magazine into a drawer.
"Whacha readin’?" I asked just trying to make conversation a little. It was only 2:30 in the morning. We had plenty of time for my plan.
"Oh, just this really awesome article about antimatter."
"Antimatter?"
"Yes, it dissolves living matter."
"What so awesome about it?"
"Well antimatter has existed for a while, but what's cool about this is that now they think they've found a way to dissolve living matter and then reassemble it in another location."
"That is pretty cool," I said nodding even though I barely heard or understood what she just said. "But do you know what will be cooler?"
She shrugged.
"Teaching you to fly the jet."
Tai's eyes expanded. "Seriously? You want me to fly the jet? Why?"
"Well, I figure I might need you to do more than push calculator buttons one day. I mean, the only ones who can fly it are me, my mom, and Josh. I'm not speaking to Josh so he's of no use to me. And my mother is going through a divorce; what if she gets too emotional to help me —"
"Your mother? Emotional?" Tai asked remembering the old Quinn who never got flustered or showed any emotion whatsoever. She hadn't seen the latest Quinn who cried at night when she thought no one could hear. She must have forgotten I had super hearing. I could hear everything.
"You'd be surprised. Anyway, if your plan to find the other specimens really works, we may be working alone a lot. I might definitely need you to take control of the jet.”
Tai was silent for a moment. I could see the wheels turning in her head. She must have realized that it made complete practical sense for her to learn to fly the jet as well because she didn't come up with an immediate reply. Tai always had an answer for everything. And when she didn't, it made her very uncomfortable. I remember the first time I told her I could shoot fire out of my fingers. She thought I was exaggerating and was sure that my rising body temperature was something connected to my hormones, kinda like a hot flash in menopause. When I assured her that I wasn't exaggerating and that I shot actual flames from my fingers, she researched medical phenomena for days to see if she could find anything. She was rather disappointed when she didn't. What could I say? I was one of a kind.
Anyway, when she couldn't think of another logical way out of learning to fly the jet, she said, "I see your point. Let's do this."
***
After showing her how to make the jet visible using my mother's utility belt, I was pretty confident about Tai's ability to catch on to flying. I mean she was a genius, right? This should be easy for her. And she learned how to control the utility belt pretty quickly. But things went downhill after that.
Tai sat down in the pilot's seat and I stood behind her like a boxing coach trying to hype up a fighter.
"Okay, so actually flying the jet is basically like playing a video game," I said.
Tai whipped out a notebook and wrote that down.
"... like a video game. Got it."
"What are you doing?" I asked, looking at the notebook.
"I'm taking notes. I like to take notes when I learn new things so I can reference them before I go to sleep at night. Your brain can assimilate more material if you use a learning process that involves sleep. There have been several studies."
I rolled my eyes. Schoolwork was the last thing I wanted to think about before I went to bed at night. She could be so weird sometimes.
"So, what type of video game?" she asked with her pen ready to write down anything I said.
"What do you mean? What kind of question is that?" I asked.
"I mean is it like Pac-Man or —"
"Pac-Man? Is it like Pac-Man? How in the world would flying a jet be like Pac-Man? Who even plays Pac-Man anymore?"
"I thought you meant metaphorically."
I rolled my eyes again. "You've known me for four years. Do I ever mean anything metaphorically? Do you think I even know what metaphorically means?"
"Good point. But I don't even know what games kids play nowadays."
I put my hand on my forehead and shook my head. How are we even friends? I thought.
"Look, just pretend like you're playing Street Mania."
"But I've never played Street Mania."
Once again, how were we friends?
"Never mind. Just fly." I started the take off procedure then wrapped her hands around the controls. "Pull up," I said sitting in the co-pilot's chair. I thought I'd be able to trust her with at least that much. The jet was parked in a clearing in the woods right outside of River's Bend. If we wanted to get to open sky, we had to pull the jet straight up over the trees and then take off. Easy, right? Wrong. Tai brought the controls up too sharply and we almost did a back flip in the jet.
"Ahhh!" I screamed as I quickly transferred control over to the co-pilot's seat. "What are you doing?" After a few seconds I got the jet level above the trees.
"Sorry, I didn’t realize how sensitive the controls were," she said. She took out her notepad and started writing again. I wanted to smack that thing away from her.
"Look, Tai, you're not going to learn how to fly by taking notes. You have to get the feel of her."
She started to write again, but I gave her a death glare and she reluctantly put the pad and pen down.
"Okay, what do I do," she said grabbing the controls again.
I took a deep breath. "You're exactly right. This jet is very sensitive so let's start simple. Just move her side to side. Be gentle like ... like ... " I struggled to think of an analogy she would understand. "Oh, like remember when you had to thing on the little glass thing before you put it under the microscope last week?"
"Oh, you mean the rabbit heart tissue for my immunohistochemistry project."
"Yeah, that," I said scratching my head. I had no idea what she was talking about. I just decided to fake it and run with it. "Remember how gentle you had to be so it wouldn't tear? Do that."
Tai gently moved the jet from side to side. She was getting the hang of it.
"Okay, now press this button and move her forward."
Surprisingly, we didn't die during the next hour of flying lesson. There were a couple of close calls, like when Tai almost dumped us into the Alleghany River, but for the most part she was pretty good. I wasn’t saying she would ever be a part of the Blue Angles or anything, but her flying skills would definitely come in handy ... and a lot sooner than I thought.
Chapter 6
The New PE Teacher
I so loved being back in school. Every day something else came up to remind me of why I’d missed it so much. Take for example, Little League. Perhaps the greatest thing since sliced bread. I had come back just in time to make the team. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to play fairly with my powers, but Tai assured me she'd be on the sideline of every game keeping track of the stats to make sure I appeared normal. So now all I had to do was keep the fire in my fingers and avoid picking up and tossing an umpire after a bad call.
"Where's Coach Green?" I asked as I pitched the ball to Manny on the field right before practice. He was the only person who I would let catch for me. The only other catcher on the team was Belly Boob Billy. The nickname was a long story. Let's just say his outie belly button was a little too out for comfort. Anyway, Belly Boob Billy was a little too distracting so I preferred Manny Lopez. I called him and asked him to meet me early to toss a few balls. It had been a while since I pitched so I thought I needed to warm up for a little practice.
"You mean no one told you?" he said tossing the ball back to me. "No more Coach Green."
"Really? Why?" I asked.
Manny shrugged as I threw him a fastball.
"We got a new coach," Manny said as I noticed a few other players being dropped off by their parents. "Her name is Coach Austin. She also teaches a couple of classes at school."
"She? We have a female little league coach? Awesome. I won't be the only girl around here anymore."
Manny shook his head. "You won't think it's so awesome when you meet her."
"Why not?"
"Because she is super mean. She hates everybody. Well, everyone except one person."
"One person? Who?"
"Check it out," Manny said, nodding toward the road. I turned to see two people on a motorcycle. I didn't know anyone in River's Bend owned a motorcycle. Wait a minute. No one in River's Bend did own one. This had to be the new coach. And who was riding with her?
The passenger kind of looked like Kyle but that wasn't possible. Why would he be riding a motorcycle with a teacher?
Coach Austin pulled up to the field and took off her helmet. She shook her long chestnut brown hair out until it hung gently to the middle of her white leather jacket. It was like a scene out of a movie.
Then her passenger took off his helmet. Whoa, wait, what was going on here? It was Kyle.
"Why is Kyle riding on her motorcycle?" I asked. I was so distracted that I missed Manny tossing the ball to me. It rolled into the outfield.
"Beats me," Manny said whipping off his mask and coming to stand next to me. "But he's definitely her favorite. He's always on her motorcycle. I wouldn't be surprised if she let him drive it on his own. Just watch the way she treats him. It's weird."
And watch I did. She beamed a smile at him as she took his helmet and secured it to the motorcycle. Then she put her arm around him and led him toward the pitcher's mound where I was standing.
"Who are you?" Coach Austin asked when she was standing right in front of me. There was no hi, hello, or anything. And there definitely wasn't any smile. I guess she spent that on Kyle.
I stared into her cold hazel eyes suddenly a little nervous. She was really pretty and really young. I bet this was her first job out of college. She might have been young for a PE teacher but she was too old for a middle school student, especially my boyfriend. Why was she riding around with my boyfriend? "I ... I'm Priss. I'm your pitcher."
"No you're not," she said matter-of-factly. "The season started two weeks ago and I have no idea who you are." She took a piece of paper out of her pocket. "Okay, kids, new line up. Kyle is batting first. Ethan is second —"
"No really. I'm the pitcher. I pitch for the River's Bend Bulldogs every year. I left town for a few months, but now I'm back. I'm ready to pitch, Coach."
Coach Austin acted like she didn't even hear me as she kept reading off the line-up.
I stared at Kyle for a little help. How could he just stand there and not say anything? What was he thinking? He was probably just happy he got top batting order.
"Uh, Shanie, Priss always pitches for us. She's the best," Kyle said, winking at me.
Uh, Shanie? Shanie? Why in the world was he calling her by her first name. Oh Manny was right. This was all just too weird.
"Isn't Brian our pitcher?" Coach Austin asked.
"It's Brandon," Brandon said walking past us toward the dugout. "And Priss is better," he called out over his shoulder."
Coach Shanie Austin shrugged. "If you say so." She looked me up and down with a raised eyebrow. "What's your batting average?"
"482."
"And your ERA?"
"1.7"
She seemed a little surprised at my numbers. I had pretty good stats for a little leaguer, especially a girl. I'm sure she recognized this.
"Fine, you're batting fifth." She turned to Kyle. "You okay to practice? You're not tired or anything?"
"I'm good," Kyle said
Shanie Austin reached out and squeezed his shoulders. "You feel a little tight. Make sure you loosen up. I don't want you pulling a muscle."
I glanced at Manny. "Told you," he mouthed as he raised his eyebrows.
Coach Austin went to the dugout with Kyle a step behind her. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back toward me.
"What is up with her?" I asked.
Kyle looked at me confused. "What do you mean?"
"What do you mean what do I mean? I mean, why is she so nice to you? Why were you riding on her motorcycle? Why is she feeling up your shoulders?"
Kyle shrugged. "I guess she likes me."
"Ya think?"
A smile spread across Kyle's adorably pink lips. "Why do you care? Are you jealous?"
"No, of course not," I said crossing my arms.
"You're really cute when you're jealous." Kyle leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. Then he turned and headed toward the dugout.
"I'm not jealous. I just think it's weird!" I called out after him.
Turning to Manny, I said, "How long has this been going on?"
"Since she got here two months ago I guess," Manny said with shrug. "At first all the boys signed up for her electives in school because, well, look at her. She's hot. The first week she was here she had a class full of boys for Yoga. Yoga! But then we all realized she only had eyes for Kyle. Most of the time she doesn't even talk to anyone else. She doesn't even know we exist."
Two months ago, huh. No wonder I didn't know anything about her. Two months ago I was still living in Missouri and Kyle and I weren't talking. He was so jealous of Marco that he broke up with me. Now I guessed it was my turn to be jealous. Maybe he was doing this on purpose to make me jealous.
I stuck my glove under my arm and headed to the bleachers where Tai was sitting with her laptop and notepad. She was getting ready to study the stats and trends of the game to make sure I didn't stand out too much when I played.