Holiday and Sky were moving to the front of the room. "Lunch is ready," Sky said. "Let's let the new people start first. And then we'l jump into introductions."
Introductions? The thought of having to talk to the group had butterflies nosediving in her stomach. Kylie saw Derek turn and look at her as if wondering if she wanted to get in line together. She kind of liked the idea of standing beside him, instead of standing alone.
"I have to go, Trey," she said.
"But Kylie-"
She hung up. She hadn't done it to be mean, but the idea that he might feel a bit rejected didn't bother her too much. Payback could be hel . Derek stood up and waved her over. Yup, Derek was tal er than Trey. Moving Derek's way, Kylie tried not to flinch when Del a joined them, and the three of them walked to the line together.
Del a ended up behind Goth Girl from their bus and they started talking.
Derek turned and focused on Kylie.
"Boyfriend?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"The phone cal ?"
"Oh." She shook her head. "Ex." Instantly she remembered how several of the other kids had looked at her when Del a had asked what she was. She leaned closer to Derek. "Could you hear me on the phone?" She lowered her voice. "Could everyone hear me?"
"I couldn't. It was just ... your body language." He seemed to note how she looked out in the crowd. "But yes, some of the others have super hearing."
"But not you?" She hoped he would tel her what she wanted to know. That he'd tel her what he was.
"Not me," he said, and they moved a few steps forward. His arm brushed up against hers and for a second, she didn't know if she wanted to back away or lean closer. The fact that he wasn't cold seemed to make closer an option. When her arm met his again, something so comforting spread through her.
"So what are you?" she asked, and then bit her tongue. It wasn't fair for her to be asking questions that she herself didn't want to answer. "That's okay, you don't have to answer that."
She looked away, embarrassed, and listened to the chatter of the crowd. Unlike earlier, when silence had reigned, now if she tried real y hard, she might convince herself that she was in a room fil ed with regular teens.
And that's when Kylie knew that she'd stopped trying to deny it.
Laughter along with a few of the more feminine squeals fil ed her ears. She should have found the "regular" thought comforting, but she couldn't push away the truth. The truth was none of these people were regular or normal.
Not even her.
That thought shot a wave of panic into her stomach and she wondered how in the hel she would manage to eat anything now.
"I'm half Fae." Derek's voice came close to her ear. The tickle of his breath sent flutters to her stomach. Not the kind that stemmed from fear, but something different. Pushing that aside, she tried to concentrate on what he said.
Fae? The synonym search in her brain started spinning through files until she recal ed reading once that Fae was French for fairy. Her mind started spitting out data. Holiday was fairy. Holiday had said Kylie might be fairy. She turned and met his green eyes. In a voice so low it barely came out a whisper she asked, "Do you ... do you see ghosts?"
"Ghosts?" His eyes widened as if the question were unbelievable. But duh, how could that seem crazy when ... when ...
Her train of thought came to an abrupt halt when Kylie felt someone behind her. Her heart raced to a fast song and she feared it would be Soldier Dude. But the cold, the one she'd suddenly realized always came when he was near, didn't seem to be present. She watched Derek's gaze rise over her shoulder. He nodded.
She turned her head and her breath caught when she found herself staring into the light blue eyes of Lucas Parker.
"I think you lost this." His voice reminded her of a radio announcer-deep with a rumbling quality that made it unique-memorable. A quality that made him sound older than he appeared.
Aware that she stared, she jerked her gaze to his hands where he held out her Coach bil fold that her grandmother had splurged to get her last Christmas.
Immediately, Kylie looked back at the table where she'd left her purse. It sat on top just as she'd left it. How had he gotten her bil fold?
She took her wal et from his hands and fought the temptation to make sure her mom's credit card was stil tucked safely inside. Her mom would be so pissed if she lost it.
Torn between doing the social y acceptable thing of saying thank you or questioning him on how he'd gotten his feline-murdering hands on her possession, her mind spun. Then because she mostly always did the social y acceptable thing, the two simple words, "thank you," formed on her tongue, but she couldn't spit them out.
She couldn't help wondering if he remembered her. She couldn't help noticing how his blue eyes seemed to look inside her, just as they had al those years ago. They hadn't been friends, but neighbors for a very short time. He hadn't even been in her grade. But they had to walk the same three blocks home from school every day, and she could remember that walk being the best part of her day. From the first time she'd seen him riding his bike on her street, he had fascinated her in a mysterious kind of way.
And just like that, she remembered with clarity the last time she'd seen him. The sense of fascination shattered, leaving in its place a cold wind of fear.
She'd been sitting on a swing with her new kitten in her hands-the kitten her parents had given her because Socks had come up missing. Lucas's head had popped over the fence, and his blue eyes met hers. The kitten had hissed and scratched her, trying to run for cover. The boy stared and then said, Be sure to take the kitten in the house at night. Or what happened to your other cat will happen to it. She'd run to her mother crying. That night her dad and mom had gone to talk to Lucas's parents. Her parents hadn't told her what happened, but she recal ed her daddy looking angry when they'd returned from the visit. Not that it mattered, because the next day Lucas Parker and his parents were gone.
"You're welcome," Lucas said, his deep rumble now slightly laced with sarcasm. Then he turned and walked away. Oh, great. Al she needed was to start making enemies of one of the humans-are-on-the food-chain gang-especial y one she knew was capable of doing despicable things. But face it, being nice to Lucas Parker was going to be hard. After al , he had kil ed her cat and threatened to do the same to her kitten.
Chapter Eleven
During lunch, the introductions proved to be as embarrassing as Kylie thought they would be. Everyone had said their name and "what" they were, but when her time came, she'd only offered her name. The silence in the room had felt suffocating in the seconds afterward. Holiday had jumped in and explained that the origin of Kylie's powers was stil being deciphered and that her "close-mindedness" was not intentional, but a product of her gifts.