"Lucas?" Miranda's eyes widened. "That's what I came to tel you. He's missing. The FRU have been looking everywhere for him."
"I know," Kylie said.
"How do you know?" Del a asked, popping into the bedroom.
The kitten let out a pathetic meow. Kylie took the scared feline from Miranda. "Holiday and Burnett came here looking for Lucas earlier today."
"Was he here?" Miranda asked.
"No, he'd already left." Kylie hesitated. "What do they think he did?"
"Beats me," Miranda answered.
Kylie hugged the kitten closer.
"Whatever it is, it must be pretty bad," Del a said. "They even brought human cops out to talk to Holiday. He's up to his eyebal s in trouble."
* * *
After Del a and Miranda left, Kylie sat in the living room floor playing with Socks, when Helen knocked on her door.
"Hey," Kylie said, and asked her to come inside.
"I heard you weren't feeling wel ."
"It's nothing," Kylie said, wondering if Helen had come to offer her healing powers. And then she noticed something amiss in the girl's posture, as if the girl wanted to say something but couldn't spit it out. At first Kylie almost worried she'd had second thoughts about Kylie having a brain tumor.
"What's wrong?" Kylie asked.
"It's stupid, real y." Helen said. "But ... I needed some advice."
"From me?" Kylie asked.
Helen nodded. "You see, I kind of like Jonathon, but I don't think he knows I like him. And I've never been good at things with guys. I was hoping maybe you could ... you know, tel me how to do it."
"Me?" Kylie said, and almost laughed. "Seriously, I'm not the person to come to with this."
Helen looked disappointed. "But I've never even had a boyfriend. And I don't know anyone else I could ask."
Kylie stared at Helen and remembered the girl had gone the extra mile to help her. "I've only had one real boyfriend. And because I'm not ... flirty, I just went for honesty."
"Like what kind of honesty?" Helen asked. "Because I don't see myself as flirty either."
Kylie shrugged. "It sounds dorky, but I just asked him if he had a girlfriend. When he said no and asked why, I just said that I was sort of thinking that I liked him. I mean, I know so many girls who do the whole flipping hair, giggly thing, and maybe that works best. Then again, honesty worked for me once. Maybe it wil work with Jonathon."
And maybe Kylie thought, if she could just figure out what she felt, maybe she would give honesty a try again.
* * *
The next few days were something of a blur. And not a good blur, either. Kylie and Holiday weren't getting anywhere with the meditation. Del a and Miranda's bickering was at an al -time high. Trey was cal ing and leaving long messages on Kylie's phone. Kylie couldn't stop thinking about Lucas. Oh, and her dad had cal ed her mom and told her that he hadn't visited Kylie the last week and that Kylie wasn't answering any of his e-mails or phone cal s.
Her mom gave her hel for it, too.
"You lied to me," her mom had accused.
"No, I just let you believe he came."
"Same thing. And ... and ... you can't get mad at your dad," she insisted.
"Why?" Kylie asked. "You're always mad at him."
Then her mom got her panties in a wad because Kylie's dad insisted on coming out this weekend. At first, Mom had said she wouldn't come. Now she was back to being furious, and saying she was coming and that they were just going to take shifts visiting. Guess who she expected to take care of al the scheduling?
Right. Mom expected Kylie to do it.
The only positive thing happening was that Soldier Dude hadn't returned. Kylie wanted to believe he was gone for good. Holiday wasn't convinced, though. Then again, Holiday wasn't in the best of moods lately. When Kylie asked what was going on, Holiday just shook her head and said it would work itself out.
Kylie had also asked Holiday about Lucas. The camp leader let out a big sigh of frustration and said she couldn't talk about that. Kylie had to bite her tongue to keep from tel ing Holiday that trust was a two-way street. It would be nice if Holiday wouldn't be so secretive. The tension Kylie saw in Holiday seemed even more pronounced in Sky, which struck Kylie as odd. Because so far, the werewolf leader seemed immune to the frustration brought on by the FRU's constant visits. Kylie got the impression that Holiday and Sky were having problems. If that wasn't bad enough, the tension from the two leaders seemed to be having a bad influence on everyone else. There had been another fight, this one between a witch and a fairy.
"Told you witches and fairies don't get along," Miranda had said the day she, Kylie, and Del a stumbled upon the fight being broken up by Holiday.
"What are you going to do if I discover I'm part fairy?" Kylie asked Miranda.
"Damn," Del a said. "Did you just say what I think you said?"
"What?" Kylie asked, clueless.
"Are you final y admitting that you're not al human?"
With everything else going on, Kylie hadn't given the whole human or not human issue a lot of thought. And strangely enough, it didn't even seem to matter anymore. Okay, that wasn't true. She stil wanted to know, but if she did find out she was supernatural it wasn't the end of the world. As a matter of fact, it was the idea that she might not be "special" that seemed to bother her more.
"So?" Miranda asked her.
"I am whatever I am," Kylie said.
Miranda started to say something and Del a held up her hand. "Shh."
Kylie and Miranda paused and listened. Al Kylie could hear was the background noise from the wildlife park.
"What do you hear?" Kylie asked, almost worried Chan had returned.
"The animals," Del a said. "They are seriously pissed."
"At what?" Miranda asked.
"Like I would know," Del a said. "But I've never heard them so ... angry."
Right then, Helen came up beside Kylie and leaned in to whisper, "It worked. I asked if he had a girlfriend and it was just like you said happened to you. He asked me why and I told him I was thinking I might like him. And now, we're going to go on a picnic tomorrow, just to get to know each other better. Thanks."
Kylie gave Helen's arm a squeeze. "That's great. Come by before the date and Miranda can fix your makeup. Won't you, Miranda?" Kylie looked over at her friend.
"I'd love to," Miranda said.
"Thanks," Helen said, and ran off.