Scene 7

He was wearing another Metallica t-shirt, although this one was in much better shape than the one from the other day. His hair was sticking up at odd angles all over his head as if he'd run his fingers through his hair instead of combing it. She didn't see any bruises from the mishap with the car, though, so that was good. There were dark circles under his eyes, but there was a definite glint of mischief in the eyes themselves, and for some reason Thea felt like he was reading her thoughts and laughing at her.

He got up from his chair, shoved a book at her and began firing off instructions as he let her toward the front steps.

"Okay, save the questions for another time. If you hadn't taken so long to get here, we would have had more time for discussion. As it is, you'll be lucky to get back to school before all hell breaks loose. You have to go back, and you have to stay calm. Read the book I gave you." She looked down at the cover, "Astronomy for Dummies."

"Don't let anyone else read what's inside. If they find out you've got it, things will go to shit in a heartbeat." He stopped and turned to face her at the front gate of his house. "Okay, now listen to me. You have to go back to school. Baumgarten was pretty freaked out by the shriveled hand thing, so she hasn't gone to check on you yet. Go to Mr. Wiggins's office and tell him you were sick. Hang on a minute." He went inside the front door of his house and let it slam. It was one of those screen doors with a spring, so it slammed four times instead of one and made Thea jump each time.

This kid was definitely some kind of freak. How could he know what she imagined about Mrs. Baumgarten's hand? And why was he waiting for her. And what was with the creepy little remote control car, and all the black Metallica t-shirts? She needed to leave, now. But she couldn't seem to make her feet move. If she admitted it to herself, she was more than a little curious about this boy, whose name she didn't even know! And he was the first semi-friendly face she'd seen since moving to this horrid little town.

The prospect of a friend outweighed his weirdness for the time being, so she waited. He came out with a small spray bottle in his hand.

"Open up," he said, all business. Thea hesitated.

"Oh, come on. You know I'm not going to hurt you, so open up and listen to me, okay?" She opened her mouth and he sprayed something awful into her mouth. It smelled like, vomit! She coughed and sputtered for a minute and she could have sworn she heard a chuckle.

"Don't breathe on me. You reek. It's perfect, Wiggins won't know what hit him. He'll believe anything you say just to get you to shut up!" Thea finally caught her breath found her tongue.

"Wait a freaking minute here! Who are you? What are you talking about? Why do I need to go back to school? Why aren't you in school? What do you know about Mrs. Baumgarten's hand? How do you know about it? What's this book for?" She ran out of breath just then, and with the pause, the boy answered.

"I'm Josh. I'm talking about what you have to do to stay safe. You have to go back to school and stay calm or they will find out. We'll talk about 'they' later. I'm homeschooled. I know about Mrs. Baumgarten's hand because I was there. I'll tell you how later. The book is for you to read to teach you how to stay calm, because if you don't, you'll do something big that I can't cover, and they will know and things will get worse for you than they already are. Now, go back to school. Tell Wiggins that you got into trouble and then you got sick and that you've spent the last two hours in the bathroom puking your socks up and can you call your mom to come pick you up. Got it? Good. Now run, Thea. Come see me next Wednesday after school. Don't forget, you have to stay calm. Don't let them get to you. Read the book and do what it says, okay?"

Thea turned and ran back toward the school. She ran through yards in the general direction of the school, and although she hadn't realized it before, she was only a few blocks away. She stopped and caught her breath, then went into the school through a side entrance. She ran to the bathroom in the front hall of the school just as the bell rang. In the principal's office, she asked the secretary if she could see Mr. Wiggins. The secretary [name?] seemed unable to speak, but pointed to the principal's office and nodded. Thea remembered her breath then, having grown used to it as she was running full speed and panting on her way back to school.

She covered her mouth with a mumbled, "Sorry," and knocked on the principal's office door.

"Mr. Wiggins, I'm sorry to bother you, but I've been sick and need to go home. Can I call my mom?" Thea watched in fascination as the smell wafted over to Mr. Wiggins's nostrils, and almost laughed out loud as he tried to stop breathing and look pleasant and sympathetic at the same time.

"Oh, I should tell you that I got into trouble in Mrs. Baumgarten's class for smoking in the bathroom when I didn't, and she said that I would have detention and zeroes in all her classes today. I have never smoked, Mr. Wiggins! I wasn't feeling well, and when she yelled at me, I got really upset, and it made me--"

"Yes, yes, uh, Thea dear. I will assure Mrs. Baumgarten that you were indeed sick and not smoking in the bathroom." He turned and opened his window. "Does it seem stuffy in here to you? Ahem. You go on out to the pay phone and call your mom, kiddo." He reached into his pocket and fished out a couple of quarters. "Here's the money to make your call, you just run on out there, and then you can wait for her on the bench out there, okay?"

"Oh, thank you for talking to Mrs. Baumgarten for me, Mr. Wiggins. I'll go call my mom now."

Thea managed to keep a straight face until she rounded the corner from the offices, then she burst out laughing. She definitely owed Josh a big favor.