Kylie nodded, even though doing it made her pulse race. Helen placed a hand on each side of Kylie's head. Kylie watched the girl close her eyes. Her smooth forehead wrinkled and her mouth tightened in concentration. Kylie stood there staring and hoped no one stumbled upon them. She could hear the rumors now. Kylie and Helen were making out behind the trees. Right.
Several seconds ticked by, and with each increment of time, Kylie felt more awkward. She was about to cal it quits when her head began tingling. The tingles turned to heat. Al at once, a comforting warmth radiated from Helen's palms.
"I'm doing it." Excitement rang in Helen's voice. "It's working."
The heat from Helen's hands eased inside Kylie's head. Kylie continued to stare at Helen, trying to read her expression. What was the girl seeing? Should Kylie be cal ing her mom and having her go out and start shopping for wigs? No way was Kylie walking around bald. Slowly, the hold Helen had on her head lessened. The fairy dropped her hands to her sides. After two deep breaths, she opened her eyes.
"And?" Kylie blurted out. "Do I have a tumor? Do I?"
Chapter Twenty-three
"Hey, where have you been?" Miranda asked as Kylie dropped down on the bench beside her and Del a in the dining hal fifteen minutes later.
"Talking to Helen." Kylie brushed a strand of blond hair behind her ear, her nerves stil jumpy.
"Who's Helen?" Del a held her glass of "juice"-that's what Kylie had decided to think of it as-to her mouth.
"Helen Jones." Kylie motioned to the quiet girl who had just sat down at another lunch table. While Kylie had invited Helen to join them, she'd declined, saying she'd promised to sit at the fairy table today.
Kylie watched Helen sit next to Derek and lean in to whisper something in his ear. Kylie didn't need super hearing to know Helen had shared the no-tumor verdict. As if to prove Kylie right, Derek met Kylie's gaze and smiled.
Kylie returned the gesture. While she was comforted that Helen hadn't seen any black dots in her brain as she'd spotted in her sister's, the answer moved Kylie closer to accepting that she was ... wel , not al human. And that was not comforting at al . Del a leaned forward and whispered, "How did your interrogation go? Did you find out what they suspected you of?"
"What interrogation?" Miranda's eyes grew round.
Kylie looked around at the crowd. "I'l tel y'al later."
Miranda nodded. "Oh, did you hear we're getting a computer? They're putting one in every cabin."
"Cool," Kylie said, only half listening. Instead her mind chewed on the possibility of insanity explaining her odd brain pattern. For sure, there'd been times she felt crazy-these last few weeks topping the list.
"You'd better get your lunch before they stop serving," Del a said.
Kylie noticed that several of the campers were already stacking their trays and leaving. The tumor scan had taken longer than Kylie had thought.
"Yeah." Kylie stood up.
"Oh," Miranda said. "Perry was trying to find you earlier."
Kylie frowned and leaned down. "What did he want?"
"Maybe for you to check his sex again." Del a snickered.
Kylie groaned.
Miranda chuckled and then got serious. "I think it was to apologize. He told me that he even tried to get away from you, that you were the one to bring him inside."
Kylie recal ed that the kitten, aka Perry in disguise, did try to resist when she brought him in. As he did when she pried his hind legs apart. "He stil shouldn't have been peeking in our windows."
"True," Miranda said. "But at least he's wil ing to apologize. It takes a big person to do that."
"Or a little twerp who's afraid I'l tel Holiday on him," Kylie said.
"She has a point," Del a said.
Kylie walked to the lunch pickup window. The elf who had driven the bus stood behind the counter-al three feet of her, the tip of her head barely hitting the countertop. She cocked her head back and looked at Kylie, her brows twitching. "Have we figured out what you are yet?" The elf slid a food tray at Kylie.
"Not yet," Kylie muttered, not liking the fact that everyone at the camp knew about her identity crisis.
"Does your friend need anything to eat?" the little woman asked, frowning.
"What friend?"
The cold brushed down Kylie's right side-his presence as noticeable and as welcome as a paper cut. "You can see him, too?" A wisp of steam left her lips with the words.
"Nah, just feel him. Don't like it, either." The elf backed away from the counter.
Go away. Go away. Closing her eyes, Kylie wil ed Soldier Dude to leave. When the chil faded as quickly as it had come, she wondered if it was real y as easy as just wishing him away. One more thing she needed to talk to Holiday about. Nevertheless, the smal victory offered Kylie a tiny sense of control. Real tiny.
Picking up her tray, she went back to join Miranda and Del a. Admittedly, she didn't search the room for any guys wearing army garb. Why look for trouble?
"Bad day?" Miranda asked when Kylie dropped her tray rather discontentedly on the table.
"Bad month." Kylie picked up the sandwich and sniffed. "I hate tuna." She felt her throat tighten and swal owed the knot of emotion, swearing she wouldn't cry.
"You like peanut butter and jel y?" Miranda asked.
"Yeah." Kylie looked at Miranda, thinking she was offering to swap. Instead, she was holding out her pinky and waving it at Kylie's sandwich. The sandwich in Kylie's hand moved. Kylie looked at it, and her mouth fel open. Peanut butter and red jam oozed over the crusty edges of the bread. "Holy crap." Kylie dropped the sandwich back on the tray.
"Wow." Del a leaned over. "Can you zap me up a second glass of blood? Oh, make it O negative. I hear that's the best."
Miranda made a face. "I do not do blood."
"Why am I not surprised?" Del a huffed.
Kylie shut out al talk of blood and shifted her gaze from her transformed sandwich back to the sandwich transformer. "I thought you said you couldn't do magic?"
Miranda made a funny face. "That's hardly enough to cal magic. I've been replacing my lunch with peanut butter and jel y sandwiches since I was two. My mom tried force-feeding me liverwurst. Who in God's name eats that stuff?"
"I'd bet I would love it now," Del a said.
Kylie's stomach growled and she pul ed back the bread to give the sandwich a quick check. "Is it ... safe to eat?"
"You think I'd poison you?" Miranda asked, clearly offended.