Shifters (Shifters series Book 1) (8 page)

Chapter 11

We Get Famous—Not in a Good Way

–TANNER–

Kai has some kind of an idea and tells me to come with him. We walk toward an ATM across the street leaving the others behind. I have no idea what we’re doing. He says his Apt didn
’
t come until he Shifted, but his dad told him about some Shifters who would show signs before they Shifted.

“They’re the ones with the greatest powers,” he says looking at me funny.

Now, I’m curious. “What do you think my Apt is?”

“I
’
m not totally sure, but I know it’ll be strong.”

“Yeah, but you said you wanted to try something. What do you think it is?” Please just tell me already. If I have some special Apt, I want to know.

Before we get too close to the machine, he says, “Okay . . . this is going to sound weird, but I need to hold your hand.”

Uh . . . yeah, that
’
s weird.

“You
’
ll have to trust me. My dad taught me how to spread my Shadow.”

So I let him grab my hand, and my skin kind of tingles where we’re touching. This is totally awkward. We walk up to the machine, and somehow, I can feel the built-in camera going straight through me. Well . . . I can
’
t feel it exactly. It
’
s really impossible to describe, but I know I
’
m hidden from it.

At first, the machine starts to fritz. Kai tells me to concentrate and visualize the inner workings of the machine.

“You got this,” he encourages.

I stare at it, and I can actually see the switches and electronic workings. I tell it what I want it to do, and the switches start working. They’re doing what I
’
m telling them. The money begins spilling out. I look up at him, amazed.

Kai’s just smiling when he says, “That
’
s what I thought. You
’
re an Operator.”

We gather up the money and head back to the group. Everyone is amazed and asking how I did it. Even Alice looks impressed.

We get back in the van and head toward the center of town. It
’
s finally time to eat.

“Okay, food first,” Kai says. “Then we need some supplies.”

Kai parks the van on the small town street and points out the little group of places to eat.

“Just to be safe, I think we should break up and eat at separate places, so no one recognizes us,” Kai suggests.

We all nod in agreement, and he hands some bills to Ryland and me. Me, Frederick, and Chucky head to the KFC while the girls go the opposite way. Kai runs across the street to the Subway.

“That was so cool,” Frederick says.

“Yeah, what was Kai telling you?” Chucky asks.

“He just told me to picture what I wanted it to do,” I say excitedly. “He said he thinks I
’
m an Operator.”

“
An Operator?
” Frederick asks.

“I think it means I can control things. Well . . . electronic things anyway,” I explain.

“That is wicked cool!” Chucky says, as we run toward the KFC door.

We get our food and begin to scarf it down. I’m so hungry! We go through a whole bucket of chicken, an entire potato salad container, and probably half the store
’
s supply of soda.

“Check it out,” Frederick says with his mouth full of rolls. “Those girls are totally checking us out.”

“Us?” Chucky says as he turns around to look. “That can
’
t be right.”

I look over at them, and they are talking quietly to each other, glancing over at us, and pointing. I have a strange feeling about this.

They all get up and start pushing one of them to the front of the group. She turns around and says, “Okay! I will then, cowards.”

The group of girls walk right up to our table. We sit there like statues, not knowing what to do. We aren’t exactly the boys that girls come up to. This is not a normal situation. Normally, girls pretend like they’re waiting for someone, to avoid us sitting next to them. But these girls are giggling and coming right up to us? Nope. This is definitely not normal.

The lead girl says, “I was just talking to my friends . . .”

Both Frederick and Chucky are sitting there with food still in their mouths. They have totally forgotten how to chew. I mean, the girls
are
cute. It
’
s shocking they
’
re talking to us.

The lead girl is blonde with shoulder length wavy hair and huge brown doe eyes. She
’
s wearing a pink miniskirt and matching white t-shirt. Despite that, she
’
s wearing tennis shoes. It
’
s a look that most girls couldn
’
t pull off, but she manages.

“. . . and we kind of made a little bet,” she says, biting her lip nervously.

Come on, guys, chew
, I send telepathically to my friends. That would be a cool Apt.

“You see . . . I kind of think you look like . . . I know you
’
re probably not . . . but it would be really cool if you were . . .” she continues, acting nervous and shy.

Guys. You look like idiots with food hanging out like that.
Spit it out or swallow it.

“Are you Tanner Ascunse?” she finally finishes. “You know, from the news?”

I have no idea what to do. I just kind of stare at them.

She looks disappointed and apologizes, “I
’
m sorry. I mean . . . what would famous people be doing here? Sorry to . . . um . . . bother you,” she says as all of their expressions dim. They turn to walk away.

Frederick immediately spits out his food and jumps up, “He is! I mean we are . . . from the news. This is Tanner!”

The girls turn around and their expressions light up. They start jumping up and down and clapping their hands excitedly.

“I can
’
t believe it!” the shorter brunette with a freckled nose exclaims.

“Are you his friends?” the third girl pipes up.

“Can we get our picture with you? I mean . . . nobody will believe us,” the lead girl pleads.

They pull out their phones and take several pictures with us. Frederick and Chucky introduce themselves. The girls sit with us and ask us all kinds of questions. When we’re done eating, we walk outside where they ask us if they can hug us. Uh, yeah! And each girl kisses us on the cheek.

As they leave, they’re skipping and jumping like they just had the best time of their lives. We’re left staring at them.

“What just happened?” Frederick asks.

“Oh man . . . that was awesome!” Chucky says.

This has been an amazing day so far. I have an Apt—a really cool one—and some girls just treated us like we were rock stars or something. I can
’
t wait to tell my sister she
’
s not the only cool kid in the family anymore.

–RYLAND–

We head toward this Denny
’
s that looks like it
’
s about 60 years old, like everything else in this pathetic town. I can’t even imagine the torture these kids face growing up here. It
’
s awful.

But I have a hankering for pancakes, and I know this will hit the spot. There
’
s something about chocolate chip pancakes that makes all the stresses of the world evaporate like cherry popsicles on a hot summer day. Cool simile, right? I
’
m such a poet.

The other thing I like about Denny
’
s is they have free Wi-Fi. At least, normal Denny
’
s do. I hope this one does. I was smart enough to bring my laptop to school with me yesterday.

Anyway, so we snag a corner booth by the restrooms, trying to be incognito. This is not hard to do considering the restaurant is abysmally empty.

Alice and Melinda go to freshen up as I power on and find an outlet for my cord. The young, too-thin, blonde waitress glares daggers at me as she puts ice waters on the table. I try not to let that get to me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice some familiar figures on the old television screen in the corner of the dingy diner. With a start, I realize those are Chucky
’s parents.
“We just want our little Chucky back,” his mother weeps.

“He couldn
’
t possibly have done what they say and neither could Tanner,” his father adds angrily. “
I don’
t care what the feds say; those kids are some of the sweetest kids I know.”

There is a scuffling sound, and the camera goes black for a moment. Suddenly, they’re at my house. I feel tears spring into my eyes as I recognize the small, shaking figure: Peanut.

“Please,” her lip wobbles slightly. “I just want my brother Tanner and sister Ryland to come home.”

I feel like I
’
m breaking into a thousand tiny shards—like I
’
m shattering so absolutely I can never be made whole again. I feel like the weight of the world is crushing me utterly. There’s no end to the darkness of these people.

Then, my relatively logical brain kicks in. Never, in her short life, has Peanut called Tanner by his full name. She always calls him Tan Man. Always.

I begin to shake as the realization of what this means sinks in. Someone, and I think I know who, is force-feeding Peanut these lines. They’re trying to guilt trip us into coming home.

And when Chucky
’
s dad tried to tell everyone we were innocent, they shut him up. The screen went dark when he didn
’
t do what they expected. I feel a surge of pride at that.

I think my parents would have done the same thing. That
’
s why they would never put them on camera. That
’
s why they would choose Peanut, the weakest. They were trying to choose someone who would be easy to manipulate. But she wasn
’
t. She was brilliant.

I always knew Peanut was smarter than your average six year old. I mean, she just basically told us, in code, that they’re being watched, held even.

I’m so proud of her that I’m beaming.

Then it dawns on me. My family is being held hostage. By people who want me dead. Who would kill them, too.

Alice and Melinda finally emerge, giggling, from the bathroom right as the waitress comes over to take our order. “I think your friend is like bipolar or something,” she says flatly in her nasally voice.

“What?” Melinda asks, befuddled.

“She was like crying, then grinning, and now she
’
s gripping the table like she
’
s going to be shot or something. Maybe you should like,” she breathes for the first time since she started talking, “take her to a counselor or something.”

Alice balks at the rude tone of our waitress, takes in the television screen, then turns on her. “You know what? We
’
ll be leaving.” Alice grabs her bag, then intentionally spills her water all over the floor. Alice can be kind of passive-aggressive sometimes. I think that
’
s the only way she can show emotion, with her mom and all.

The waitress scrunches up her hawk-like nose and says something awful under her breath, but I hardly notice. I
’
m in such a daze. I can
’
t believe they have my family.

Alice pulls me down the street. Melinda follows meekly behind, her stomach growling louder and louder. Alice finally shoves us into the same Subway Kai entered earlier and orders us all turkey club sandwiches with olives, pickles, and mayonnaise on Italian bread. Just like we always order.

Somehow, that makes me cry. Maybe I am bipolar. Maybe that
’
s a Shifter thing. Although, Kai doesn
’
t appear to be. Maybe it
’
s a girl Shifter thing.

Maybe I
’
m just going crazy.

Melinda digs into her sandwich like it
’
s the greatest thing she’s ever eaten. Alice chews slowly, watching me sob and stare at my sandwich like it
’
s my long lost child.

I finally stifle my sobs into tiny sniffles and notice the teenagers behind the counter at the Subway are staring at me, probably because I’m crying about getting my sandwich. Or possibly because I
’
m a murder suspect or fugitive or whatever. I’ll be the one that gets us caught and killed if I don
’
t pull it together.

One of the two roughly sixteen-year-old acne-encrusted boys walks over with a hand behind his back. He pulls it out to reveal a chocolate chip cookie.

“Hey,” he says meekly. “You
’
re . . . ummm . . . you
’
re,” he stammers.

The other boy interjects from behind the counter, “You
’
re way too pretty to cry. Have a cookie.”

The normalcy of a teenage boy hitting on a teenage girl finally sobers me up. “Thanks,” I say meekly, trying to smile.

When I take the cookie from him, the boy beams like he has accomplished some herculean task. I can
’
t help but smile a little. How often does this boy get to be anyone
’
s hero at Subway? Probably never. He
’
s actually sort of cute when he smiles.

We finish our sandwiches before leaving to find Kai and the other boys. Hopefully, they’ll know what we should do. I haven’t managed to tell Alice and Melinda what I think’s happening back at home.

I finally see Kai ducked around the corner of some old building on Main Street. He keeps peering around the corner at some kid. We run over to him right as Tanner and the guys appear on the other side of him.

I open my mouth, but he shushes us. He’s watching some kid play around on his iPod. “What?” I say.

“Shh!” he hisses again.

“So, the kid has an iPod? Big deal.”

“Look at what he
’s doing.
”

I glance around the corner to see the kid is playing some game. “
I don’
t get it,” I say.

“That
’
s not just any random game,” he says.