“It doesn’t matter what either of our mothers named us,” he said with an ironic laugh. “Trust me.”
“Hamilton!” yelled Coach Tar, clutching her clipboard and marching toward them with her eyes wide. “Are youon fire?!”
Helen looked at where Coach was pointing and realized that the ground all around her was seared and black. The exit door looked like something out of a Dali painting.
Luckily, Lucas was a fantastic liar. As a bevy of teachers came rushing to their aid, he explained that there had been some kind of electrical sparking from above the door, suggesting that perhaps the exit sign had shorted. He and Helen had run outside to stomp out the sparks that had drifted onto the grass. As he wove his story, Helen could hear how honest he sounded, how convincing. She nodded every time he looked at her, knowing that she needed to keep her mouth shut or she’d ruin the whole thing. Since the fire was obviously electrical and the only possible source was the exit sign, the story was believed.
Helen and Lucas insisted they were uninjured, but as a precaution they were told to go to the nurse’s office for a quick checkup. Just before Lucas led her away, Helen spotted Zach staring at them from the crowd, his eyes frightened and resentful. He knew they’d caused the fire. Helen touched Lucas’s shoulder and pointed Zach out, and Lucas nodded, understanding her meaning perfectly.
“So much for letting it blow over,” she murmured ruefully.
“We’ll discuss it tonight with my family. Cassie will know what to do,” he whispered, taking her sooty hand in one of his and texting his cousins with the other as they walked down the hall to the nurse.
Mrs. Crane checked them over, shook her head in wonder, and declared them both perfectly well enough to go home, or even back to practice if they wanted, though she gave both of them a nonsensical lecture about hanging around under electrical death traps.
Then she looked at Helen’s necklace and smiled sweetly. “I’ve always loved butterflies,” she murmured, lightly touching Helen’s charm, before shooing them both out of her office in her stern but kindly way.
Helen and Lucas beat everyone else back to the Delos compound, deciding once they arrived that they were entitled to a few moments of relaxation before they began what Helen had started thinking of as her superhero lessons. They stopped in the kitchen to get Helen another bottle of water and then went for a little fly.
“Jase and Hector will call when they’re home from practice. We’ve still got about another hour or so,” Lucas said confidently when they touched down in the dunes. They walked down to the half-damp sand that was flat and firm and perfect for a stroll.
“We’re supposed to have our first track meet next weekend,” Helen said suddenly, biting her lip with worry. “I don’t know if Coach’ll let me run after missing so many practices.”
“Yeah, about that,” Lucas said, sighing heavily and making her stop and face him. “You need to quit track.”
Helen stared at him for a moment. “Quit track? Are you nuts? How else am I going to get a scholarship?”
“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Lucas said, shaking his head.
“Doesn’t matter? Lucas, this is mylifeyou’re talking about.”
“Exactly. You’ve been attacked, how many times now? We still don’t know who those women are. And I don’t think you realize just how big a threat Creon is even with me standing right next to you, let alone when you go running off by yourself across the island. This is yourlifewe’re talking about, not just an athletic scholarship,” he said evenly, calmly. “I want you to quit. For now, anyway.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” she replied, completely deadpan.
“I’m not. Quit track. Until we figure out how to deal with Creon, it’s too dangerous.”
“What if I just walked up to you and told you to quit football?” she asked sarcastically.
“Done,” he said, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. “I told you once, and I meant it, that I’d never ask you to do something that I wouldn’t do myself. We’re in this together.”
“You’re... That’s... I can’t believe you’re putting this on me!” she yelled, pointing a finger at him childishly. She stomped around in a circle, kicking at the sand and trying to figure out why she was so upset.
“I’m not putting it on you! It’s on both of us! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” he urged, raising his voice in frustration.
“I’ve always felt stuck on this island, and I always thought track would be my one way to get off of it. Now you’re telling me to give up on all of my plans like it’s the easiest thing in the world!”
“It’s easier than dying!” he shouted at her, but there was a humorous lilt creeping into his voice and a smile tugging at his lips. “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but you canfly. You’re not going to bestuckanywhere again!”
Helen didn’t want to laugh. In fact, she was working very hard to give him a penetrating glare, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep a straight face. She made a horrible noise, a huge piggy-sounding snort, and that made Lucas double up and laugh so hard he had to put his hands on his knees to brace himself. As Helen covered her face and really let herself laugh, she felt Lucas put his arms around her.
They held on to each other, each of them propping the other up. That’s when Helen started to understand how things really worked between her and Lucas. They had to do this together, had to share fifty-fifty the huge burdens that had been placed on them, or they would be crushed.
Lucas turned his lips toward her cheek as he ran his hand up her spine and began to stroke the back of her neck. She felt the muscles across his shoulders tense and he suddenly pushed a knee between her thighs. Helen gasped and tried to decide if she should pull him down on top of her likeshewanted, or push him away likehewanted, but she didn’t get the chance to do either. As quickly as he had changed, he switched back. He pulled away from her with a sad smile, and then jumped into the air.
“You know, you don’t need to run track to get into a good school. You’re going to kill it on your SATs,” he said breezily, but with the faintest bit of a quiver still lingering in his voice.
“That’s what Hergie thinks, too,” Helen said. She still felt a bit dazed and shaky. She joined him in the sky and continued her thought when she finally had one. “I just didn’t want to be that girl, you know? The girl who does whatever her boyfriend tells her to do because she wants someone else to make all the tough decisions for her.”
