Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) (14 page)

“The kind who gives me a ride to school,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“No worries.” I said, but I didn’t mean it. He could drive and before our car got totaled, Debra wouldn’t let me behind the wheel anyway. I envied his good looks, and the casual way he drove around with my girlfriend.

“Good,” she said, lacing her fingers between mine. “There’s no reason to be. I’m yours.”

My face got hot when she said that.
I’m yours.

I’d waited for someone to say something like that for my entire life.

We walked together to her first period class, Spanish. Afterward, I trucked down the hall and around the corner to Freshman English. While everyone else was goofing off, I daydreamed. I remember a time where my biggest concern wasn’t over getting shot or how many skyscrapers I could jump over.

All I had to do was stick it out the next week here. If I managed not to burn the school down, maybe I’d be allowed back at North High. Debra thought the way they kicked me out was illegal because my blackouts are on my IEP. She couldn’t afford a lawyer. No way was Ray getting involved. Anyway, I doubted Principal Rush would let that happen, and for the first time since last Friday, I was cool with it.   

Before math for me and Earth Science for Sasha, we held hands in the hallway. Asia approached us. Brown-skinned, with a weaved-in ponytail, she twisted her face at me, like she’d eaten a lemon or I’d farted and she smelled it first. “Hey.”

“Hey, girl.” Sasha paid her no mind.

“Hi,” I said shyly.

Her friend looked me up and down. “Watch your back, Jason. Selby’s not gonna like this.”

“She’s not Selby’s girl,” I said, pointing Asia to the necklace around Sasha’s neck. “She’s
mine.”

Asia’s eyes bulged at the sight of Sasha’s necklace.
“He,”
she said, pointing at my head. “He gave you
that?”

“He did,” she said with pride.

“Where’d you get something like that from, your momma’s jewelry box?”

Chafing at the mention of my mother, I told her the truth. “I made it.”

“Whatever.” Asia flipped her hand and walked off.

I thought Sasha might go after her, but she didn’t. Instead, she moved an inch away from my face. “Bell’s gonna ring,” Sasha said in a sing-song voice.

“Don’t care.” I drifted in and kissed her. If Welker caught us, he could sentence me to dungeon duty on demolition day and I would do it.

“Well,” she said, turning her back to me. She leaned against my chest. “Where can we go?”

The South Hall bathroom was not the place – Rhapsody was probably in there. The last time I’d ventured to the basement, I’d gotten shot, and Debra was still resting at home. “Your place?”

“Good. There’s something I want to show you.” She whipped around, gave me a quick kiss, and led me out of the side doors. 

I’d
never
been inside of a girl’s bedroom before. Hers was pink and white, with lacy curtains. If it wasn’t pink, it was white. Even the
walls
were pink. If Hello Kitty drank Pepto-Bismol and exploded there, well you get the picture.

I sat on the full-sized bed and kicked my legs back and forth. My heart beat so hard and fast I almost heard it inside of my body. Sasha disappeared behind the bathroom door, and I thought she might come out naked and ready to do numbers two
and
three on her list. Thankfully, she was fully-dressed, except she had taken her ponytail down and freed her hair. “I see you’ve made yourself comfortable,” she said, giggling and throwing a bed sheet over the railing.

Self-consciously I stood up, then sat back down. “I was. . .sitting.”

“It’s okay to sit.” Sasha padded over to the bed and joined me. We weren’t touching. I probably would have hopped through the ceiling if we did. “Something happened to me last night, Jason, something
weird.
I wanted to show it to you.”

Sasha led me by the hand to the brass post at the foot of the bed. “Me and Joyce – when she’s actually home – we argue a lot, about
everything
.” She gestured as she spoke. “I closed my door and locked it, and I got warm all of a sudden.”

The crystal twinkled on her neck. Nothing about where this was going gave me a good feeling. Leaving through her second-story window would be impulsive, even for me, especially when I can’t be killed.

That didn’t stop me from powering up. I turned to a convenient source of anger for me and braced myself for the worst. 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jason champion, sr. pays me a visit

Sasha lifted her shirt just below her lacy black bra, revealing a belly ring. “And before you ask,” she said with a smirk, “I won’t be staying this way.”

Her stomach ballooned out and spit a brown glob onto the carpet. I covered my mouth as the thing started defining itself – arms, legs, and hair. Sasha threw the sheet over it as it finished forming into. . .
her.
Side-by-side, she stood with herself – an identical twin! Everything, from the round eyes down to the full lips, was exactly the same.

“I can’t figure out how to replicate clothes, though,” said Original Sasha with regret.

“Thanks for that,” Clone Sasha snapped at her twin. She grabbed my hand and almost lost her sheet in the process. “Hey, Baby.”

“Heyyyy,” I said, stopping myself short. “Wait, is she
you
, or. . .”

“She’s my right-brained side,” said Original Sasha. “We share motor functions – breathing, and all the basics, but I’m the intellectual one.”

Sasha’s power is for her to split herself
in half?
There had to be something else, didn’t there? Each of our abilities carried a function – Selby’s speed, Rhapsody’s invisibility, and my strength. But what good would a clone of Sasha do?

The pink bed sheet dropped to the white carpet, as if another human being hadn’t been underneath it a minute ago. Original Sasha exhaled and leaned on the railing for support. I helped her back to the bed, where she lay back. “Again, you’re not getting both of us, for
any reason.”

“Really, it never crossed my mind.”

  She placed her hands on either side of her face. “It would’ve crossed Selby’s.”

It was the first time she’d mentioned Selby, in regards to dating him. “We’re different.”

She propped herself up on her elbows and slowly rose to a sitting position. “That’s why I like you. You’re not sex-crazy, like every other guy I know.”

Was that a good thing? “If sex-crazy isn’t your thing, why’d you send me that note?” I asked her.

“I wanted you to like me. I didn’t know you’re not like that. Most guys are.”

“I’ve got bigger problems,” I told her.

She faced me. “What do you see when you look at yourself?”

Hanging from the wall opposite of us was a floor length mirror. One could only imagine the amount of time Sasha spent beautifying herself in front of it.

I stood up and presented myself to it. My blue jeans appeared to be more wrinkled than I had originally thought when I put them on this morning. All my Raiders shirts were dirty, so I wore a knitted blue shirt that hung on my shoulders. My fade haircut needed a shape-up. No matter how I positioned my head, it always seemed like it was at an angle. My smile was crooked.

Sasha stepped behind me and pushed her palm into the small of my back to make me stand straight up. I filled out the shirt a little more. “This is what
I
see in you,” she said, kissing the side of my neck.  

I wanted to view myself as she did, but wasn’t sure how to do it. All I saw was a skinny black kid from the suburbs standing in front of his girlfriend.

“What’s that?” I asked, my eyebrows raised.

She smiled and whispered one word into my ear.
“Potential.”

After a lengthy kissing session, we left the house and I carried us back to school. Call it bad aim or whatever, but our jump ended on the baseball fields of Reject High, about an inch from crashing into the backstop cage. Concentrating with ADHD is bad enough without worrying about dropping your girlfriend. 

From the field, we walked back to the closest entrance to the school and waited there for the bell to ring outside.

“The way you do that, it’s
amazing.”
She picked at the sides of my shirt. “You’ve got a little dust, here.”  

I pulled her into a kiss, which lasted until the time for class changes. We separated in the hallways, promising to meet again outside of my US History class.

As usual, our teacher handed us worksheets and expected us to finish them by the end of the period, which I easily did. Afterwards, I met Sasha in Art class. All throughout the period, she was extra affectionate and drew this crazy good still-life sketch in charcoal.

As she wiped the dust from her hands on a white rag, I snuck up beside her easel. Suddenly it hit me what was wrong. It was more than obvious what had happened. “You
split!
”

Clone Sasha held a finger up to her lips. “Shh. . .”

Like anyone would believe she was a clone, anyway. “Where’s Sasha?”

She grinned. “I
am
Sasha. The fun half of her, at least.”

I shook my head. “I
meant
Original
Sasha.”

Clone Sasha stroked my face. “Just having a little fun, that’s all.”

Was I the only one not playing with my abilities? Selby sped through the girls’ locker room. I bet he copped a quick feel on someone, too. And Rhapsody – I’d bet she’s eavesdropped on more than one private conversation. I’m the
only one
not experimenting with my powers. I’d have to fix that today, and I knew
exactly
what I wanted to do – something I always thought about doing.

Snatching the plastic hall pass from the wall, I entered the hallway and jogged to the nearest exit, which emptied into the parking lot. As soon as I was outside, I spun in the direction of I-48 and stirred up everything that came to mind to power up. Backing up to the building, I inhaled and lifted my eyes.

“Jason!”
Rhapsody yelled from a distance, startling me. “What are you doing?”

“Having a little fun,” I said, echoing Clone Sasha. “No worries. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She ran up next to me and I waited, thinking she might be along for the ride. Now next to me, Rhapsody held my arm with her hand. “Don’t. Whatever you’re going to do, it’s not worth it.”

“Come with, or let go.”

Without a word, Rhapsody released me and turned her back. Before I lost nerve, I sprinted to the outer edge of the parking lot and took off.

In a snap, I landed near my father’s law office complex building. Next to it was a three-level parking garage. Finding Ray’s Cougar wouldn’t be too hard – his spot was probably reserved. Instead of going in near the attendant’s booth, I snuck into the bottom level by climbing a railing. Sure enough, the old man’s car was parked on the first level.

I stood at its back bumper, feeling my anger spike. My first punch caved in the trunk. My heart skipped a beat. The next hit sent my fist through the trunk flooring. I smashed both taillights, barely touching them, and yanked the muffler off, tossing it aside like a used napkin into the bushes behind me.

This drew the attention of the security guard. He ran towards me yelling, “Stop!”

I knelt down and wrapped my arms around the sides of the car. Lifting it a foot off of the ground, I threw it at him. The thing clunked in front of the guard, sending him diving for cover just long enough for me to take off again.

In seconds, I was back at the Reject High lot. Trashing Ray’s sports car had felt
great
. They’d call and alert him of the vandalism. Knowing him, he’d send Julia to handle it, and she’d flip out over the damage. Both of them would. At least I didn’t yank the tablet computers out of the seats, though I’d thought about it. 

Then, a horrible thing happened.

Tears filled my eyes. I’d become like
him,
doing whatever I wanted to someone weaker than I was. He’d fix the damage with his money. Even if he found out I did it, he wouldn’t punish me or demand that I pay him back. He just didn’t care that much.

I collapsed to my knees and cried horribly, sniffling in shallow breaths. A girl’s hand touched my right shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Rhapsody squatted in front of me, like she’d been waiting for this.   

Unable to answer, I bit my lip to stop whimpering. “Why doesn’t he. . .want me?”

She placed her hand under my armpit and helped me to my feet. “He doesn’t deserve you. That’s why. C’mon, lunch is soon. It’s chicken fingers!”

At this point, a halfway edible lunch would do me some good. I cleared my face with the bottom of my shirt. If I had to cry in front of anyone at Reject High, it might as well be Rhapsody and not Sasha.