Audrey turned on her heel, and Mia had to run to keep up with her as Audrey walked quickly to the gymnasium.
Murphy fell in line beside Mia.
Audrey looked back at Mia annoyed. “I’m going to the gym. You don’t have to follow me.”
“I’m just doing as ordered,” Mia replied. “Audrey, don’t you recognize me?” she asked.
“No, should I?”
“I thought we had met before.”
“I’d remember that hair. It really is different. I’m surprised that you’re allowed it, unless it’s natural.”
“It’s natural. I tried dyeing it…”
Audrey stopped and turned around. “Your mother lets you dye your hair?”
“No, but it didn’t stop me from trying.”
“My mother helped me straighten my hair once. It lasted two weeks, and some of it fell out.”
“Ouch.”
“Thank goodness it was on school break or I’d be in Sister Bonaventure’s office doing penance for the sin of vanity.”
“Audrey, Sister Mary Margaret doesn’t want to see you. I lied.”
“What! Oh, that’s a relief,” Audrey said, putting her hand on her chest. “I left my cigarettes in my gym locker.”
“You smoke?”
“Just started. All my friends do. So why did you lie?”
“I needed to talk to you privately.”
“Okay, privacy… Where can we find privacy? I got it. The science block is empty this hour.”
Mia followed Audrey down another hall, and as they walked, the students thinned out. They turned another corner, and the hall was empty. Audrey tried the first door and found it locked. She took a hairpin out of her hair and jammed it in the lock and opened the door. She put the hairpin back and ushered the impressed Mia into the classroom.
Audrey pulled down the shade to cover the window in the door before putting on the lights. “I’ve got library this hour. They don’t take attendance,” she explained. “Okay, out with it.”
Mia pulled out the picture of the candle from her pocket and handed it to Audrey. “Do you have this on you?”
“No.”
“Do you have one at home?”
“Yes, a scented one. I don’t want my room smelling of cigarettes.”
“But it doesn’t look like this one?”
“No. Why are you asking me this?”
“It’s important. Next question, if someone could grant you a wish with no strings attached, what would the wish be?”
Audrey narrowed her eyes. “I’d like to have natural blonde hair. Not like yours. I wish to have long, silky, straight blonde hair.”
“You wouldn’t want to be, let’s say, sixteen forever?”
“Are you out of your flipping mind!” Audrey exclaimed. “This is torture! Pimples, periods, gym class, pimples… Did I mention pimples?” Audrey asked.
“Yes, twice.”
“Why would anyone want to be sixteen again?”
“A thirty-six-year-old.”
“Not a sane one. Take my aunt Cathy for example. She’s my mother’s youngest sister. She has a house, a husband, and a dear little baby. She’s thirty-six and has it all. I’d rather be her. So maybe I’d wish to be a married lady with a dear little baby and a husband who dotes on me.”
Mia smiled. “I thought so, but I had to ask.”
“You’re a strange creature. You don’t really belong here, do you?”
“Just visiting.”
“Why are you asking me these questions?”
“Because of all the girls in this school, I knew you’d tell me the truth.”
“You’re not going to tell on me about the cigarettes, are you?”
“No.”
“But you do want to lecture me on cancer and stuff?”
“No. I’ll just mention that dear little babies shouldn’t be raised in smoke-filled homes like I am.”
“You’re lying.”
“No really, my mother is a chain-smoker. It’s why I’m so underweight and scrawny. I’m a lot older than I look.”
“I see the truth in your eyes. I’m not promising anything, but I’ll consider it next time the girls and I light up.”
“It’s all I can ask. I’d like to ask one more question,” Mia said as she watched Murphy mime that danger was approaching.
“Go ahead.”
“What’s the quickest way out of the school from here?”
“Why?”
“I sense the footsteps of nuns headed this way!”
“The window!” Audrey said, pointing as she turned out the light and plastered herself to the wall beside the door.
Mia ran for the window just as the door opened.
The two nuns who had checked on a student whom they hadn’t seen before in the office came bursting in to see said student climbing out the window.
“Stop right there, young woman!” the elder of the two called.
Mia ignored her and dove outside, landing in a shrub.
Audrey slipped quietly out the door as the two women’s attention was on the little blonde.
Mia ran around the building, following Murphy. Wyatt’s car wasn’t parked out front, so the two of them legged it down the street and didn’t stop until they felt they had evaded the nuns, one of whom had followed Mia out the window.
“Jesus, I didn’t think those penguins could move so fast,” Mia said, panting. She bent over trying to catch her breath.
Murphy pulled her upright to show her that the super nun had made the corner and had a priest with her.
“I have a bad feeling that’s Sister Mary Margaret, the gym teacher,” Mia said, remembering to turn left so as to not circle back to the school. “Where the fuck are my superhuman genes?” Mia gasped as she ducked into an alley.
“What’s the matter, the cops chasing you?” a familiar Japanese young man asked.
“Worse, the church. Yann?” Mia questioned, trying hard not to touch the soon-to-be notorious hacker’s face.
“Do I know you?” Yann asked before he pushed her behind a pile of pallets and hissed, “Stay down.”
Mia heard the pursuers stop at the entrance to the alley.
“Young man!” Sister Mary Margaret called.
“You talking to me?” Yann asked, patting his chest.
“Have you seen a little blonde girl?”
“Blondes don’t
