I'm With Cupid (10 page)

Marcus had never let anyone from school into his house, not even Pradeep. But for some reason, he needed Lena to see what things in his life were really like. He needed her to understand it all. If she still wanted to be friends with him after that, then he'd know that he really could trust her.

He opened the front door of his house and took a deep breath before going inside. As Lena trailed after him, he tried to see the living room through her eyes.

The space was stuffed full of gym equipment and trophies. Everywhere you looked, his sister's face was staring back at you. There was even a cardboard cutout of Ann-Marie propped up next to the fireplace, one that his dad had made last year to help cheer her on at a state meet.

“See?” he said softly, not looking at Lena. “I told you my house is a mess.”

“Wow, these are all about your sister?” she asked, looking at the slew of newspaper clippings that his dad had tacked up on the walls.

“Yeah. She's kind of a big deal around here, in case you can't tell. She was always good at everything, but the past couple of years, it's all my dad can think about. When he's not coaching the high school hockey team, he spends every second training with her. Most of the time, it's like I don't exist. I mean, there aren't even any pictures of me anymore! My room's the only place in the whole house that's not full of track stuff. Except for the basement, but that's crammed with garbage for my mom's junk sculptures.” He laughed bitterly. “I live with a bunch of crazy people.”

He'd never said any of this aloud to anyone before. It felt strange but good somehow, like he was airing out a room that had been locked up for years.

“Is this why you don't let anyone come over?” Lena asked.

“Would you invite people to your house if it looked like this?”

“Probably not,” she admitted, and he was actually glad to hear her be honest. He'd been afraid she'd try to tell him it wasn't that bad, but it
was
bad. There was no hiding it. He could see Lena crinkling her nose at the trash smell wafting from the basement.

“Do you still want to hang out in here?” he asked. “Isn't it better to be out in the rain?”

But Lena didn't seem to be listening. Instead, she walked from trophy to trophy, reading the inscriptions on the bottom. “That must be hard,” she said finally. “Everywhere you look, you're reminded of your sister's accomplishments.”

Marcus nodded. That's exactly how it felt. “And that I'll never be as good as her.”

“You'll never
be
her,” Lena corrected, “but that's good. Families should have variety. It's the most normal thing in the world. We would have never evolved without it.” She turned to him. “Can I see your room?”

“Um, sure,” he said, leading her down the hallway. It was weird to bring a girl into his room, but everything these days was weird. “I don't know how you can be so logical all the time. Don't things ever bother you?”

Lena blinked at him. “What? Of course things bother me.”

“But you're so okay with everything. I mean, even this whole power-swapping mess. I've been freaking out the past few days, but you keep going along like everything's fine.”

“Marcus,” she said as she leaned against his desk, “didn't I just tell you that I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks after my mom left? I don't think that means things don't bother me.”

Marcus perched on the edge of his bed, glad he'd remembered to make it that morning. “But what about since then? Do you ever get really angry or really upset?”

She seemed to think this over for a minute. “Not really. I guess there's no point.”

Marcus shook his head. “Point or not, how can you not feel that stuff? All I do is feel things, even if I don't want to. I mean, I cried when my turtle died a few weeks ago!”

He couldn't believe he'd admitted that to someone, especially to the girl he liked. But Lena didn't judge him. Instead she smiled and said, “That must have been some turtle.”

“He was the best. He could read.” Marcus laughed at the incredulous look on her face. “I'm serious! He would chew up the newspapers I gave him and leave whole articles intact. I think those were the ones he liked.”

“That sounds like Professor,” Lena said. “My dog only barks when people on TV speak French. I'm convinced he can understand them.”

“You believe in that kind of thing? I would think you'd be looking for some scientific explanation.”

“There probably is one, but I'm starting to think that I don't always have to know what that is.” She went over to Marcus's model collection. “What's this?”

“Oh, um, nothing. Just a hobby.”

She picked up the lunar module and smiled. He waited for her to make fun of his collection like some of Pradeep's friends had when he'd brought in an old rocket ship to show them during gym class last year, but all she said was, “My dad would love this. He's totally into space stuff.”

And that was it. She didn't tease him or tell him he was wasting his time. She simply accepted this as another thing about him and kept examining his collection.

“This is great!” she said after a minute, spotting the moon ship on his worktable. “Are you putting it together?”

“I'm trying to fix it. There's one piece I still can't find, but I think I might be able to take it out of one of my other models. I wouldn't normally do that, but I want to get this done for my…” Marcus trailed off. He couldn't tell her about Grandpa, not yet.

As if she could read his mind, at that moment, Lena spotted Grandpa Joe's dating book on his desk. “What's this?”

“Nothing!” Marcus jumped up to grab it, but Lena was already flipping through.

“Why is a bunch of this stuff highlighted?
Always
bring
a
girl
flowers? Always pay her a compliment.
” She chuckled. “This is hilarious! And what are all these notes written in the margins?”

“It's nothing, okay?” he said, finally managing to snatch it away from her. “Just a book my grandpa gave me before he got sick.” How much had she seen? Would she realize that the scribbles in the margins were about him trying to get her to notice him?

Lena's smile faded. “Is your grandpa okay?”

Marcus slammed the book shut. He might have been able to confide in Lena about the cat and his weird family, but if he told her about Grandpa Joe, he was afraid she'd launch into her scientific explanations about life and death. He couldn't deal with that. All he wanted, suddenly, was to be left alone.

“He's fine. Sorry, but you should probably go. I have homework I need to do.”

“But—”

He marched out into the hall. “Thanks for coming over. I'll see you at school tomorrow, if my dad lets me out of the house. He said I looked too pathetic to go anywhere today.”

“Marcus, I'm sorry,” Lena said, trailing after him as he marched toward the front door. “I shouldn't have touched your stuff.”

“It's okay.” Suddenly he felt bad about practically shoving her out the door. “I'll see you tomorrow, okay?”

She nodded and let herself out, leaving Marcus standing alone in the cluttered hallway.

As Lena pedaled home from Marcus's house, she tried to figure out what she'd done wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have touched the dating book, but why did Marcus care so much about that old thing? She was pretty sure it was the one she'd seen him with at Connie Reynolds's party the other night.

She was also pretty sure she'd seen her own name scrawled in the margins. But why would Marcus have written about her in an old book on dating?

Were her friends right? Did Marcus like her after all? The thought sent her stomach fluttering so much that Lena wondered if she'd accidentally swallowed a bug. Then again, guys who liked you didn't usually kick you out of their houses.

When she got home, Lena was surprised to see her dad's car sitting in the driveway again. Since when did he take two afternoons off in a row?

She opened the door to the smell of burning. “What's going on?” she cried over the loud music blaring through the house.

“I'm making dinner!” he said as smoke billowed up from a frying pan.

Lena rushed over and turned off the burner. There were charred bits of something in the pan that might have once been pieces of chicken.

Dad chuckled as he fanned the air with a dish towel. “I guess I'm a little rusty. It's been a while since I cooked.”

Lena swallowed. Years ago, before her mom left, she and her parents had spent weekend afternoons cooking together. Her mom had had Lena peel vegetables while she and Dad had chopped and seasoned things. On those days, the dark cloud that seemed to always hang over Mom's head would disappear, at least for a few hours.

“What's the occasion?” Lena asked.

Her dad gave her a sad smile. “It was supposed to be dinner for Marguerite, but she canceled. She said we'd reschedule, but to be honest…I'm not sure she wants to see me again.”

“What? But things seemed fine yesterday.” Was it possible the spark had faded and that things would finally go back to normal?

Dad shrugged. “I thought they were. But when she called today, she sounded different. She claimed she was sick, but I suspect that was an excuse to get out of seeing me again.” He laughed, but Lena could hear the sadness underneath it.

“Where's Professor?” she asked, realizing the dog hadn't greeted her at the door with his usual unappealing gift.

“Oh, he's staring out the window as always. There's a squirrel in the yard that seems to have taken a fancy to him. They've been making eyes at each other all afternoon.”

Her dad chuckled, but Lena's stomach went cold. As she approached the back door, sure enough, there was Professor with his nose pressed up against the glass. And on the other side, looking equally intent, was a small gray squirrel. Their gazes were locked like they couldn't bear to look away from each other.

Oh no.

“Professor?” Lena asked softly, but his ears didn't even move at the sound of his name.

Lena's mind raced. Had she accidentally zapped Professor and not realized it? But that was impossible. She hadn't touched him since she'd realized her powers were on the fritz. Except… She thought back to when her dad and Marguerite had left the house yesterday, and she'd sat staring out the window after them for a long time. Had Professor come over to be petted? She couldn't remember, but it was exactly the kind of thing he would have done. And in her distracted state of mind, she very well could have touched him without realizing it.

And now here he was, drooling over a squirrel not because he wanted to eat it but because he wanted to have little half-dog/half-squirrel babies with it. Great.

“I'm sorry, boy,” Lena said, but he ignored her and gave a little whine as he pawed at the glass. The squirrel did the same on the other side. Two star-crossed lovers straight out of
Romeo
and
Juliet
. When she'd read the play in school, Lena had found the whole story ridiculous, but it was nothing compared to what was happening before her eyes.

Lena sighed and slid open the glass door. The moment it was open, Professor bounded outside and touched his nose to the squirrel's. Lena could practically feel the sparks flying between them, even if she couldn't see them at that moment. Then the two creatures started running around the yard together in a way that Lena could only describe as “frolicking.” Ew.

She sighed again and went back to helping her dad clean up the kitchen. As she watched him absently scrubbing the burnt pan, her vision shifted, and she could see the gray aura surrounding him again. This time, she knew the loneliness was her fault. If she hadn't zapped him in the first place, her dad wouldn't be so bummed about getting ditched.

“Dad, I'm sorry about this whole Marguerite thing,” Lena said. Then she spotted something in the gray haze, a hint of a spark buzzing around him. The love jolt wasn't completely gone, at least not on his side. Maybe he needed to go see Marguerite and rekindle it a little.

Lena blinked. She couldn't believe she was thinking of encouraging her dad to keep this whole mess going, but the sadness was so thick around him now when only yesterday it had seemed like it was gone. If there was a chance he really could be happy with Marguerite, she couldn't keep it from happening, could she?

“Dad, I know what we should do. If Marguerite's sick, we should bring her some soup. Then she'll remember how awesome you are.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah, we can stop at that soup place on Main Street.”

He gave her a long look. “And you want to come too? I can't tell you how happy I am that you're so understanding about all of this, Chipmunk. I know since your mom's been gone, things have been hard…on both of us. I didn't want to rush into anything in case you weren't all right with it.”

“I know. But it's okay. Really.”

Something in her voice must have sounded convincing because her dad grabbed his car keys. “Where's Professor?” he asked.

“Oh, um, I think he'll be happier out in the yard while we're gone,” she said, heading for the car.

After they'd picked up some chicken noodle soup, they drove to Marguerite's town house. Dad parked the car and then called Marguerite to let her know they were outside her door.

“We thought we'd surprise you with some soup. Maybe we could all watch a movie?” He listened for a minute. “Lena's with me. That's okay, right?”

Lena realized that her coming along might not have been the best way to get these two to rekindle things, but what if seeing each other wasn't enough? What if Marguerite needed another zap? Lena knew she shouldn't risk it—especially after what Eddie had told her about their swapped powers affecting other people's assignments—but if she had a chance to see her dad happy again, she had to take it. She would worry about the balance of the universe once her dad was okay.

Finally, Dad hung up. “It took some convincing,” he told Lena, “but we're in!”

As they headed up the walkway, Lena got her energy ready to go just in case. She walked behind her dad so he wouldn't notice her fingers glowing.

The minute Marguerite opened the door, Lena could see that the spark inside her was totally gone. No wonder she hadn't wanted to see Dad again. But one more zap would fix that.

Before Marguerite could even say hello, Lena ducked around her dad and brushed the woman's arm with her fingers. Then she stepped back and waited.

The transformation happened immediately. Marguerite's face went from hesitant to overjoyed.

“I can't believe you did this!” she cried, taking the soup from Dad's hands.

“It was my pleasure,” he said, his eyes suddenly dreamy.

As the two of them stood chatting and laughing in the doorway, it was clear they'd forgotten all about Lena. That was fine with her. They were happy. That was all that mattered. And she had to admit that seeing them that way made her wish, just for a minute, that she could have someone to laugh with too.

Lena shook that thought out of her head and decided to sneak away before either of them noticed. Then she started on the long walk home.