I hesitate. “It’s probably not as awesome as you’d think.”
She stabs at her lasagna. “This coming from the boy who plays video games 24/7?”
Instinctively I say, “I do not.”
“Actually, you’re right,” my mother replies. “You don’t. Not since you’ve started dating Delilah.”
This conversation has suddenly taken a turn for the worse.
“You two seem glued at the hip,” she prompts.
“She’s all right,” I say.
“All right?” my mother repeats. “Spoken with such intense passion.”
“She’s amazing,” I correct myself, but then I realize I can’t really go on and on about Delilah, a girl I don’t really know. In fact, there’s only one girl in my life I’d describe as amazing. “She’s fierce—she won’t back down from anything. And she’s totally her own person. She won’t take no for an answer, and she doesn’t care what other people think about her.” Just saying these things makes me wish Jules were here.
I find my mother staring at me. “I’m glad you have someone like that. Someone who’ll take care of you.”
“Why?” I joke. “Are you planning to be abducted by aliens anytime soon?”
My mother tosses me a smile. “My starship leaves tomorrow at noon,” she says.
It starts the moment I get on the bus.
Immediately I duck my head and move toward a seat in the back, where nobody will notice me. But before I can make it there, a half-dozen people are calling my name or high-fiving me as I walk down the aisle.
“Hey, Edgar,” calls a kid in a polka-dotted bow tie. He points to the seat beside him.
“Uh, thanks.” I slide in, realizing two things at once: I’m super popular here, and these people expect me to know who they are.
“I had the craziest dream last night,” the boy says. “I was in a production ofPeter Panthat was being performed in my grandmother’s driveway, and I felt the urge to run, so I raced into the woods, but after a few minutes, I was starving because of all the exercise, and I looked down and realized my hands were made of cake. So I ate them. And I said to myself, ‘James,nowwhat are you gonna do? You don’t have any hands.’ ”
James,I note.
“That’s messed up,” I say. And then I add, “Were they chocolate or vanilla?”
“Devil’s food all the way,” James says, grinning.
The bus screeches to a halt in front of the high school. This, at least, looks like every other public school on the planet. Pacing in front of a massive oak tree with gnarled arms is Jules, decked out again in head-to-toe black.
Maybe being in the real world isn’t so bad after all.
I say goodbye to James and walk toward her immediately. “You’re the sexiest ninja I’ve ever seen,” I say.
“First, ninjas are naturally sexy. Second, I’m not sexy. Not to you. You know who’s sexy?Delilah.”
Another kid walks up, snaking an arm around Jules—myJules. “Feeling better?” he asks.
Jules goes beet-red. “Chris,” she says, stepping away. “We’re in public.”
“So? It’s been like a week since I’ve seen you.”
She smiles. “Try three days.”
I’m going to punch him. I’ve never punched anyone before in my life, but this feels like the time to do it.
I feel a tap on my back just as my fist curls at my side. Delilah stares at me and then at Chris and Jules. “Hey,” she says, then belatedly adds, “honey.”
