Immortal City

and out of step with the world. But that, she told herself, was nothing new.

After the final bell buzzed, Maddy pulled her hood over her hair and walked quickly home. She didn’t bother going inside but hurried across the yard and down the small hill to the office door of Kevin’s Diner, where she changed into her waitress’s uniform. Since Tracy had scheduled the night off, Maddy would be spending the rest of her day working the evening shift.

“How was school, Maddy?” Kevin called from the kitchen as Maddy threw her backpack in the office, pinned on her name tag, and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

“You know, uneventful,” she replied, trying to sound as convincing as she could.

“Really? Classes were okay?”

“Yup,” she said, coming into the kitchen and smiling vaguely. She hated to lie, especially to Kevin, but she couldn’t see any way around it. She wasn’t going to tell him about what happened. Being a freak at school she was willing to accept, but she didn’t want to be one at home too. She grabbed her notepad and pen and swung into the dining room before Kevin could ask anything else.

After about an hour, Gwen, Gwen’s friend Jessica, and Samantha Cellato came in. Jessica and Samantha were both juniors, and Sam had been in the biology lab for Maddy’s little performance with Mrs. Neilson. Maddy put them in a booth in the rear, and they all ordered the hamburger dinner. They had, undoubtedly, come in to talk over the incident at school.

“You made the Lunch Special,” Gwen said as Maddy arrived with their Diet Cokes. Of course, Gwen wasn’t talking about food. The Lunch Special was the gossip blog of Angel City High, where a junior named Blake Chambers dished on the goings-on of the school. Gwen held out the Berry for Maddy to read.

The screen featured a blowup of Maddy’s hideous junior-year picture and the headline

“MADDY MONTGOMERY ATTEMPTS TO TORCH BIO LAB.” She read Blake’s words aloud.

“‘Dear Maddy, thank you, on behalf of the student body, for trying to set fire to the school. It would be an improvement, no doubt. Next time, though, please wait until the fire starts before beating up Mrs. Neilson for giving you an A—.’” Maddy winced. Jessica giggled.

“Did you get in trouble?” Sam asked, her eyes wide.

“Lunch detention tomorrow,” Maddy said. “I don’t really care. It will give me time to work on my applications.”

“Well, I mean, but how did you know?” Jessica asked as she plopped a straw in her Diet Coke and took a deep pull. Gwen looked at Maddy, her face sincere.

“Did. . it. . have to do with what happens?” she asked quietly.

“Happens?” Samantha asked avidly.

“Nothing,” Maddy snapped, glaring at Gwen. “It’s nothing. I’ll be right back with those hamburger dinners.”

Maddy left the table, annoyed and a little embarrassed.

Gwen lowered her voice.

“Maddy has this thing. She. . sees things sometimes.”

“What!?” Jessica gasped, her eyes lighting up.

“Shut up, Jessica!” Gwen hissed, but not before Uncle Kevin peered inquisitively out from around the fryer. Gwen gave him a wave. Kevin waved back.

“Not all the time,” Gwen whispered, “just sometimes, she’ll start to see things that don’t really make sense. But they’re usually bad—”

“Three hamburger dinners,” Maddy interrupted as she returned from the kitchen with a tray of food. Samantha and Jessica just stared at her. Maddy stared back.

“What?”

“You, like, see things? Like what?” Samantha asked.

Maddy shot daggers at her best friend, who shrank down in the booth.

“Not really,” Maddy said, shrugging, “I guess I’m just a little weird. That’s not exactly news.” She set down the plates and a bottle of ketchup. “It’s just one of those things, like being double-jointed or something.”

“Like being double-jointed?!” Jessica blurted incredulously. “You’re like Wonder Woman or something!” A few other customers turned to look. Maddy felt her face going red. Uncle Kevin came around from behind the counter and approached the table.

“How’s everything going over here?” he asked with a friendly smile.

“Really good, Uncle Kevin,” Gwen offered. “Just having girl talk.” Gwen had taken to calling him Uncle Kevin, just like Maddy, something Kevin liked.

“Oh, okay, sorry to interrupt,” Kevin said, hovering awkwardly. “Dessert is on the house. You girls come by anytime.”

“Thank you!” the girls chorused.

“Would you shut it, Jessica!” Gwen scolded after Kevin walked away. “God, you’re hopeless.” Maddy waited till her uncle was well out of earshot, then crouched down by her friends.

“Listen, if you guys don’t mind, please don’t say anything about it? Kevin doesn’t know what happened and I’d rather it stay that way. Please?”

The three girls nodded. “Sure,” Gwen said, seeming to feel bad about the whole thing. “It’s our secret.”

Relieved, Maddy stood up as the crackling Magnavox filled the silence that had overtaken the table.

“Stay tuned as our life and style correspondent Jamie Campbell will be at the Halo Magazine party later tonight for an exclusive interview with the one and only Jackson Godspeed. She’ll continue reporting on his every move as he prepares for his upcoming Commissioning! Plus more on the absence of bad-boy Angel Theodore Godson from a special gala charity event today. Has his latest divorce already caused ripples in the social world of the Angels?”

“OMG!” Gwen squeaked, turning her attention to the TV. “Jackson Godspeed’s Commissioning!”

“His what?” Maddy asked, craning her neck around to see. Was that what the girl on Angel Boulevard had been talking about?

“Commissioning, duh,” Jessica said, shoveling a fist-ful of fries in her mouth. Maddy gave her a blank look.

“Youngest Guardian ever? First Protections? First save?

What city have you been living in?”

“See, everybody but you knows this week is his Commissioning,” Gwen explained, “which means a bunch of parties and events, and then all the Angels dress up and get together and there’s a ceremony where they announce his Protections. And it could be me!”

“If your parents had a crapload of money, which they don’t,” Jessica said snidely through a mouthful of fries.

“They don’t need a bunch of money,” Gwen huffed. “I have the NAS Protection Lottery.” Every month Gwen put most of her allowance into the lottery in the hopes of winning a Guardian for life. On top of their regular protection-for-pay services, it was a big moneymaker for the NAS although five percent of the proceeds went to fund development in Africa and Asia, where only a few disgustingly wealthy political leaders had Guardians.

“You and everybody else!”

“And don’t forget about the NAS charity,” Gwen countered, undeterred. “They raffle off one free Guardian each year.”

“What are odds of winning that?” Samantha asked.

“About one in six billion,” Jessica said.

“Or I could go on. .” Gwen said. As if on cue, from the TV in the corner blared a promo for the season finale of American Protection, a show in which contestants competed against each other in seemingly arbitrary contests, with the viewers voting who stayed and who went. The ultimate prize was winning the services of a Guardian for ten years and a cash prize of a million dollars.

“Last season sixty-two million of you tuned in to see who YOU chose to be America’s next Protection. You made Sarah the world’s new Protection sweetheart! ”

Maddy turned to look. She’d been studying for her AP finals in the spring and had never gone over to Gwen’s to watch with her. On-screen flashed footage of a girl and a boy standing next to each other on a huge stage before