For some reason, being optimistic wasn’t helping. My heart raced as I watched Mr. Davis.
Suddenly I felt Grandpa’s hand cover mine. I looked at him and he winked. A reassuring smile lit his bright gray eyes, and I calmed almost instantly.
“Under date of birth on your registration form,” Mr. Davis said, “you wrote ‘not applicable.’ Care to explain?”
My calm evaporated. He knew. Mr. Davis knew. I could tell by his expression, the knowing arch of his brows, the confident line of his pursed lips.
“Actually,” Jared said with a disinterested shrug, “I didn’t think I would be here long enough to have to explain.”
“And why wouldn’t you be?”
I cleared my throat. “Um, Mr. Davis, didn’t I just explain that?”
“You did,” he said, fixated on Jared.
The sheriff walked around the desk and leaned against it, looking at my grandfather. Then, in a strategy that caused panic to attack my insides, he repeated everything I’d just told him. Word for word. Syllable for tainted syllable. I cringed. Cowered. Tried to crawl into myself. My grandparents were right there, listening to every lie that had come out of my blasphemous mouth. Party over. I was going down and the landing would be hard.
Hysteria took hold as I sat stiff-backed in the chair beside my grandfather. I wondered if I would get time in the big house for lying to a sheriff.
“She said he’s staying with you.” The sheriff raised his brows at Grandpa. “Is this true, Bill?”
Without the slightest hesitation—without even a microsecond of pause—he answered, “Of course it is. Do you think my granddaughter would lie to you, Dewayne?”
“Well, no.” He almost stuttered in disbelief.
“He’s going to stay in the apartment behind the store as soon as we get it cleaned out. We’ll both feel better with him close by, right, sweetheart?” He turned to Grandma in question.
She tossed him an exasperated glower. “I still think he should just use the empty room upstairs. That old apartment is drafty.”
“Now, hon. We talked about this. He’s a young man and he needs his privacy.”
“I know. I just worry.”
I sat dumbfounded. If either the principal or the sheriff had bothered looking my way, they would’ve realized just how much baloney they were being fed. Did I say I should become an actor? If anyone should be in Hollywood, it was my grandparents.
After rehinging my jaw, I turned to Jared and mouthed, Did you do that?
He shook his head, curiosity lining his face. I could have kissed my grandparents, showered them with love and affection and thanked them for all their wonderful wonderfulness. But that would draw unwanted attention from the authorities nearby.
And I’d have enough explaining to do when I got home as it was. For the moment, however, I chose not to think about it. I would face that obstacle when the time came.
Instead, I rejoiced in the fact that I had the coolest grandparents on planet Earth.
And I breathed.
NEWS FLASH
“I can’t believe you got away with that.”
I turned my attention to Brooklyn as we sat down at our usual lunch table, a slight dread crawling up the back of my neck. “Wasn’t it cool?” I said, wondering if I would still think that when I got home.
“Grandma and Grandpa are like … like…”
“I know.” I definitely had the picks of the litter. Even though I’d have to do some serious explaining later.
But all things considered, the day was progressing rather well. We ditched the reporter, managed not to get arrested, and I found out that I would have two—count them, two—classes with one Mr. Jared Kovach. A smile crept across my face as I watched him wolf down his lunch. He had done the same at breakfast. Poor guy. Having never eaten in his life, he must have been starving.
“Our guardian angel has a certain myopic enthusiasm when it comes to food,” Brooklyn said in observation.
Jared spoke up between bites. “I had no idea food would taste this good.”
The rest of us stared down at our trays for a good long while, doubt and a bizarre sense of denial pinching our faces.
Glitch snapped out of it first.
“So,” he said, “you only have those three laws? Are they similar to commandments? ’Cause we have, like, ten.”
“Can you still do that transparent thing?” Brooklyn asked Jared, joining in on the inquisition. “Like when Cameron shot you in the chest repeatedly. Which was very rude, if you think about it.”
“I would love to see the transparency thing too.” Glitch waited expectantly for him to become transparent right there in the middle of the cafeteria.
“Wow,” I said to him, pretending to be struck with wonder, “for someone who didn’t believe me yesterday, you’ve sure come a long way.”
“Oh, I believed you. Kind of. So can you?” he asked Jared again.
“I don’t know. Part of me is human now, I think.”
Cameron scoffed aloud.
Though I’d somehow hoped the rivalry between Jared and Cameron had softened, the tension seemed as strong as ever. They continued to shoot each other threatening looks, constantly bounced taunts back and forth. It grew more tiresome with each black scowl that passed between them.
Jared pasted on a humorless grin. “You disagree? That I’m part human now?” he asked.
Cameron leaned in, his voice menacing, as though begging Jared to throw the first punch. “Just gonna join the gang? Become one of us?”