vie for entry into their class, pressed through the door like a bullet.
“Nice of you to join your fellow seniors,” Mr. Miter said.
Study hall or not, an adult presided over what would become a melee. In Wyatt’s case, the coolest, most hip teacher had taken on the responsibility for his senior class.
Wyatt meandered to his desk at the front of the room while Stuart bumped and boogied to his. Behind Wyatt, thirty of his fellow classmates sat, stood, leaned or otherwise engaged with each other. The colors of varsity baseball suited three. Shorts and T-shirts had become more prevalent as the days grew warmer with spring engaged in an early heat wave. Pops from forbidden gum rang out; pencils tapped steadily to unknown beats. Wyatt steeled himself for the onslaught.
He turned to the class. “Ok, guys, let me have it.” Wyatt held his hands outstretched as if to catch a basketball.
The entire class began a monotonous drone at various decibels about homework, the dance, curfews, sports and other topics thrown out all at once.
“Whoa! Who said, and I quote, ‘new girl is an alien’, end quote.” He prided himself in his ability to parse overlapping conversations and reach the real meat, but missed that one.
“Uh-uh. I heard it.” He raised his voice and silenced the entire room. “Whoever said it, fess up.” Wyatt mirrored the position of authority he’d seen his teachers take when they sought vital information.
“Julie did,” two seniors said in tandem.
“Julz?” Wyatt cocked his head in her direction.
In a posture that belied her position as head cheerleader, Julie stood. “I heard from my Dad, who heard from some guy in town.” Her gum popped between her teeth. “The family she’s living with is made up of these sort of amorphous creatures from Mars or somethin’.”
The entire class burst into loud guffaws but not Wyatt. He glared at Stuart, who coughed under his breath while the rest of the class continued their outburst.
The rap of a hand against the desk behind him signaled that they’d gotten too loud.
Wyatt pulled his arms across his chest. “Are you shitting me, Julz?”
“Watch the language, Wyatt,” Mr. Miter said.
“My Dad said it, so it has to be true.” Julie popped her knuckles along with her gum, fluttered her lashes and mirrored Wyatt’s stance.
Where her Dad had gotten that idea and why he’d passed it on to his most blonde daughter made no sense.
“Julz. Seriously. Think about it.” Wyatt gave her a second.
She slid back into her seat, laid her head on her hands.
“No further comments about our school’s guest. Wyatt spread his arms wide with a firm and complete stop at shoulder width. “What else you got?”
The din started anew.
“Lily!” Charley screeched.
Breathless, Lily appeared in the doorway to the bathroom. Charley sat on the raspberry mat, back against the ceramic claw-foot tub. She wrapped her arms around knees pulled tight to her chest as Lily scanned the room.
“What?”
“I have a zit.” Charley’s groan accompanied a drop of her forehead to her knees.
“Oh. My. God. You screamed bloody murder because you have a zit? You’re a teenager!” She motioned throughout the air with her hands, held them palm up, chest high.
Charley popped her head up. “I know… but I’m not really a teenager.”
“You are when you take the body of one.” Lily moved her hands to her hips. “Earth to Charley; come in Charley.” She pointed an accusatory finger in Charley’s direction. “You know that better than any of us.”
Charley puffed out her lip like a small child prepared to compound her unhappiness with tears if she had to. She blew out a deep breath and let her chin fall to her knees again, catching her reflection in the silver knob of the cabinet door.
Lily tapped her foot against the rosewood floor. “He’s gonna be here in ten minutes.”
Charley raised an eyebrow as she turned. “Don’t think I don’t know that already.”
Lily didn’t respond. Instead, she disappeared, leaving Charley to deal with her teenage self on her own.
“Meanie.” She rose to her feet to face the wrath of the mirror. Would it tell her anything new? Face set, she leaned over the counter, prepared to do battle.
“Ahem.” James coughed as he took Lily’s spot at the door minutes later.
Charley shifted toward him, raising an eyebrow before she turned back to her activities.
“Ah, Lily told me to tell you to… to ah… get it in gear and move it.” He cringed as Charley shot him one of her well tested don’t-try-me looks.
Cael appeared from behind James’s shoulder. “Aw, Charley. C’mon. Don’t be like that.” He’d hidden himself well despite his height.
Unlike many of their previous nights, Cael seemed refreshed and relaxed, but he still hadn’t learned the one primary rule in life: don’t mess with Mother Nature or Charley with a pimple.
She skewered him with a stare. “We can all be many things, but girls, you cannot. Well… one of you anyway.” With one finger, she pointed to the door. Both slunk away in silence.
She’d said casual to Wyatt, but she herself dressed in a honey-colored silk infused with translucent raw threads. She’d been careful to select her attire for both her age and color. Over the weeks, she’d grown fond of the golden hair and milky skin and considered it a permanent addition to her virtual collection.
Nerves danced along her skin, causing the hairs to stand on end. Unable to keep her eye color solid, she pressed both hands against the cool granite countertop and breathed in the sweet, still humid air. She held it a few beats, let it seep between nearly closed lips. A second time. A third. She repeated until a firmer calm took hold. A check of her eye color revealed the blue she’d chosen, proving she had control again.
She froze when the bells chimed.
“Here goes nothin’.” Charley sauntered to the stair landing. With one hand on the banister and a foot in midair, she waited. Voices wafted up the stairs as the faces-to-names game played through-first with those he’d know from Mira’s stories as Jack and Carter and then Leena.
Wyatt smiled as Charley began her descent. When Stuart appeared, she stopped. Surprise warred with her role as hostess.
From behind them, Lily mouthed, “What do I do?” with a few frantic hand gestures. Charley opened her eyes wide but left Lily to find the answer-which she would, Charley had no doubt.
“This house rocks!” Wyatt said as she leveled with him.
Behind him, Stuart murmured his usual “Mmm, Mmm.”
“Hey.” Stuart’s tone came through as one of worry rather than interest.
James and Cael towered over Wyatt but met Stuart nearly eye to eye. Despite their relative ages, their transformations into teenagers had not been as well executed as they thought. Side by side with Wyatt and Stuart, she’d put James and Cael in their mid-twenties, not the eighteen and nineteen-year-old boys they sought to imitate.
Wyatt leaned to her ear. “Stu was kinda bummed ’bout us spending all our time together, so I invited him. I hope that’s okay.”
Stuart and Wyatt couldn’t have been more different. Shaggy hair hung below Stuart’s ears. His jeans hung low on skinny hips, though he took care not to let the hems drag. Wyatt must have insisted on the button-down shirt as Charley’d only seen Stuart in a T.
She offered a quick nod, taking Wyatt by the hand. “Stuart? Would you like a tour?” She’d include them both if it meant she’d have more time with ‘the boy’, as she’d referred to him at school.
She understood the value of friendship, of family, and knew enough about their history to recognize the need to
