Inheritance

much, but now she understood what they meant. The idea of strangers thinking about her love life made her skin crawl. She knew what people said online; she had seen it. It made her want to hide in a hole.

Reese became aware of the fact that she was standing in the middle of the school lobby holding David’s hand, and her face heated up. Whispers whirled around them, but she couldn’t make out what anyone was saying.

I have to go to my locker, she thought.

I’ll go with you.

They headed across the lobby together. The emotions of the gathered students hovered in the background of her consciousness like fog waiting at the top of a hill. As long as she focused on her connection with David, she could keep the fog at bay. By the time she and David crossed the whole expanse of the lobby, her friends were gathered together: Madison with an excited smile on her face; Bri looking self-conscious; Robbie dressed extra goth for the first day of school; Julian with an ironic grin as he saw her clutching David’s hand. As they crowded around her and welcomed her back, she thought: I can do this.

They were walking down the hall toward the lockers when Reese saw a familiar man standing outside the door to Mr. Chapman’s old classroom, talking to the assistant principal. It was Alex Hernandez, the CASS liaison who had been at the meeting with Charles Lovick. She couldn’t tell if he saw her or not; he didn’t look away from his conversation with the assistant principal.

Keep going, David thought.

She passed Hernandez and tried to focus on her friends, who were teasing her about her most recent television appearance, but she couldn’t help wondering if Hernandez was taking over Mr. Chapman’s class. Lovick hadn’t specified. Mr. Chapman had taught Principles of Democracy—the required social studies class for seniors— in addition to coaching the debate team. Obviously, the school district had to hire someone to replace him.

As she reached her assigned locker, she turned back to look down the hallway. Hernandez was still there, but this time he was looking directly at her. She glanced away quickly. The idea of him replacing Coach Chapman filled her with frustrated rage. She knew he had nothing to do with Mr. Chapman’s death, but it felt linked. If Mr. Chapman hadn’t died, she and David might not have crashed onto Area 51, and none of this stuff with the Imria and the government and CASS would have happened.

“Hey,” Madison said. “What’s going on, Reese? You’re like in a different world or something. We have to get to class.”

David looked grim. I saw him too, he told Reese.

“Sorry,” Reese said to Madison. She pulled the slip of paper on which she had scribbled her new locker combination out of her pocket and turned to the lock, trying to ignore the feeling that Hernandez was watching her.

* * *

After school, Julian was waiting for Reese at her locker. “Did you hear what happened?” he asked excitedly.

“No, what?”

“Sophia Curtis issued a statement saying that her show was reined in by network censors.”

“Really?” Reese opened her locker and began to load her backpack. “That’s—wow, when did that happen?”

“Like five minutes ago.” He leaned toward her, arms crossed, and said in a low voice, “So you should totally come on Bin 42 now and tell your story. You need to, you know?”

She hesitated. “I’m not sure.”

“Why not?” As the student next to her moved out of the way, Julian slid in so that he was only a foot away. “You don’t have to talk about Amber, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said.

“I’m not worried about that. Besides, I’m with David now.”

His expression went blank. “Yeah. You are.”

“Look, that’s got nothing to do with this. There are other things in play.”

“Like what?” Julian asked in an intense whisper. “The public deserves to know the truth.”

She zipped up her backpack and looked around. The hallway was scattered with students, some of them casting curious glances in their direction. She didn’t want to talk about this in earshot of her classmates, but more important, she could see Mr. Chapman’s classroom door at the end of the hall. Alex Hernandez had indeed taken over Principles of Democracy. He had acted as if he didn’t know Reese and David during class, but she was sure it was only a matter of time before he asked them for information. “I don’t think we should talk about this here,” she said to Julian.

“Fine. Come out back with me.”

“Right now?”

“What else are you doing, waiting for your boyfriend?” Julian made a face at her.

She rolled her eyes. David had soccer practice; she was not waiting for him. “Okay.” She pulled on her backpack and closed her locker. “But my dad’s picking me up soon. I can’t talk for long.”

“Your dad’s still around, huh?” Julian said as they walked down the hall toward the central courtyard.

“Yeah.”

“How long’s he going to be here?”

“I don’t know. They won’t say.”

He gave her a concerned glance. “Are you all right with that?”

“No, but it’s not like they’re asking me.” She noticed several girls watching her as she and Julian passed. “What are they looking at?” she whispered once they turned the corner.

“They’re checking out their competition.”

“Competition for what?”

“Madison’s right. You can be so clueless. You just took David off the market.”

“That sounds extremely crass. He’s not a piece of meat.”

“I never said I was polite,” Julian quipped, and pushed open the doors to the courtyard.

It was a cool afternoon, with gray clouds covering the sky. They headed across the brick courtyard toward the athletic fields and the rickety bleachers near the concrete wall that marked the edge of school property.

“You and David should come over and I can interview you for Bin 42,” Julian said. “We won’t have to deal with network censors or commercial breaks, and you can tell the whole story, with all the details. Speaking of which, when are you going to give me that recording you made of your meeting with that Lovick guy?”

“I’m holding on to it for now.” She hadn’t told Julian the details about the meeting because Lovick had warned them not to speak about it, and the Blue Base guard blocking the door had turned Lovick’s warning into a threat. “And you don’t understand. It’s not as simple as you think. There was a Defense Department guy there when Sophia Curtis interviewed us. He wouldn’t let us talk about Area 51 or Blue Base or anything like that. In fact, you remember that document about the birds I took from Blue Base? This guy found it—we had left it in the living room like a bunch of idiots—and he took it. So I don’t even have that anymore. If you start posting the quote unquote truth, they will come after you and Bin 42.”

“What are they going to do? You have freedom of speech—it’s your First Amendment right.”

“Yeah, and they have freedom of the government to do whatever they want to restrict it.” She shoved her hands into her pockets as they crossed the empty soccer field. The team hadn’t arrived for practice yet.

“That’s not true,” Julian objected. “They can’t shut you up, and if they try, you have every right to—”

“They did shut me up!”

Julian gave her a suspicious look. “What are you not telling me? What happened at that meeting? You’ve never rolled over like this before.”

She scowled at the grass and didn’t answer at first. She wanted to tell Julian everything. She didn’t want to be cowed by Charles Lovick and his secret organization, but if she and David were really going to lie to them, it was better if nobody else knew about it.

“Reese? Come on, you can tell me.” Julian ducked beneath the bleachers, where the ground was littered with cigarettes, and dropped his backpack on a relatively clean patch of dirt. “You can trust me,” he assured her. A few cinder blocks had been dragged beneath the bleachers to create stools, and he sat down and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to her.