‘I can’t believe,’ she said, giggling some more, ‘you’re in love with a high-school boy.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, aiming my own spoonful of ice cream at her. ‘Well, you’re the freak who believes in spirit transfers.’ The glob of ice cream landed on the wall. Barking, Cosabella raced excitedly to the other side of the kitchen to lick it up.
‘Takes someone who’s had one to know one,’ Lulu said, and hurled the cherry from the top of her split at me. It hit the huge plate-glass window behind me and slid slowly down it. Cosabella barked happily at it the whole way.
‘Gels,’ Katerina said. ‘Stop! I just clean in here! Keep this up, and no more massages.’
We cleaned up after ourselves, making sure the kitchen was sparkling when we were done.
Twenty-four
I found Christopher alone in the computer lab before first period the next morning.
I supposed I could have waited for lunch to bring my new laptop to him, but I knew I wouldn’t last that long. When you realize you need to make a connection with someone, you know you have to do it as soon as possible, or you’ll lose the courage to do it at all.
And this was the only way I could think to do it.
‘Um, hi,’ I said gently, careful not to startle him in the middle of whatever video game he was engrossed in (Madden NFL again, I saw a minute later).
He turned in his computer chair and stared. Lulu had dressed me again, though I was getting better at doing it myself. This time I was in skinny jeans, velvet flats, a maroon cropped velvet jacket, and so many necklaces I rattled when I walked. I had only just talked Lulu out of adding a beret. That, I felt, was taking things one step too far. I was a little bit proud of my independent fashion streak.
‘Hi,’ he said without smiling. He had on another short-sleeved polo shirt, this one grey. His hair was still wet at the back from his morning shower.
He looked so good I wanted to die.
‘I brought my computer,’ I said, pulling the white laptop from my Marc Jacobs tote. ‘You said yesterday you could set up my email account for me… is this a good time?’
Christopher glanced at the wall-clock. We had fifteen minutes until Public Speaking.
‘I guess so,’ he said, and held out his hand for the computer.
Hmmm. If he had ‘pushed his love’ for me ‘way, way down’, as Lulu had suggested, he had really pushed it down. Why couldn’t I summon up some of Lulu’s awesome aimless chatter and set him at his ease? She was so good at it, while I was as awkward at it as… well, a gawky teen tomboy whose brain had been stuck in a supermodel’s body.
I handed Christopher my laptop and went to sit in the chair beside his. He looked down at the gleaming — and obviously brand new — white computer without comment, opened it and began typing away.
I tried to remember what Lulu had told me. Have confidence and… what? Make a connection. Right.
Only how? What did Christopher and Nikki Howard have in common? Nothing. Except that they both went to Tribeca Alternative High School.
Oh… and Journeyquest. Right.
‘So what was your high score?’ I asked him. ‘On Journeyquest?’
‘Forty-eight,’ he said without elaboration.
This shocked me. I blurted, without thinking, ‘You’re a liar.’
He glanced at me, startled. ‘What?’
‘No way did you make it past level forty-six,’ I said, completely forgetting there wasn’t any way I could know this. ‘How did you make it past the Dragons of Pith?’ The dragons had incinerated our characters every time we’d approached them, no matter which direction we came from, barring us from making it past level forty-six. We’d searched the web for clues as to how to get past them, to no avail.
Christopher was staring at me. For the first time, he really seemed to be seeing me.
‘I used the Runes of Al-Cragen,’ he explained simply.
It was my turn to stare. ‘The runes? No kidding? Oh my God, I can’t believe I never thought of that. So you just threw them and—’
‘The dragons were powerless in their lair,’ Christopher said. He was really looking at me now. But not like he was actually seeing me, Em. More like he was wondering what was wrong with me, Nikki. Which made sense actually. Because what kind of lunatic would look at Nikki Howard and suspect Em Watts was inside her? ‘What was your character’s name? Your Journeyquest character? Maybe I’ve seen you online.’
And I realized I’d made a blunder. I couldn’t give him my online character’s name, because then he’d know it was me, Em.
But I couldn’t just make one up either, because it would be too easy for him to check.
‘Oh,’ I said breezily ‘I haven’t been online in ages. And I doubt you’d ever have seen me, I keep really weird hours. Besides, I don’t remember it.’ I tapped my head. ‘You know. The amnesia thing.’
He gave me a sceptical look and turned back to my computer screen. ‘Um, yeah,’ he said. ‘Sure.’
Then suddenly he turned and threw me a look that was like someone accidentally pouring a glass of cold water in my face.
‘But you remembered you played,’ he said.
I could have kicked myself.
‘Y-yeah, amnesia is weird that w-way’ I stammered. ‘Like, I remember some things. But not others. Like… ’
And then, just like that, I said it. I don’t know why. It was risky. It was probably foolish.
It was exactly the sort of thing, I realized, that Stark Enterprises had been using tracking software to find. This was why it had been installed on Nikki and Lulu’s computers in the first place. This was why Stark Enterprises had been so generous with my family with the free cellphones. To make sure we weren’t gabbing to the wrong people about my secret surgery.
But I wasn’t typing what I was about to say, or saying it into a Starkbrand cellphone.
‘… I remember you,’ I told him.
Suddenly my heart began to hammer. Yet I couldn’t seem to shut myself up. It was like my mouth was just running away with itself.
But Lulu had said to make a connection. This wasn’t the one I’d had in mind. But there it was.
‘From that day at the Stark Megastore grand opening,’ I went on.
Nothing happened. I waited. But no men in black suits burst the door down. No one with guns came busting through the ceiling panels.
We were safe.
Christopher just stared at me, his blue eyes — so different from Gabriel’s, more green around the edges, and rimmed with light brown lashes instead of dark — wide and incredulous.
I didn’t blame him. I didn’t know where I was going with this either.
Shut up, Em, my brain directed my mouth. Or Nikki’s mouth. Or whatever your name is now. Just shut up. Two million dollars. Two million dollars.
But it was no good. The damage was done.
‘You remember what happened that day?’ Christopher asked finally.
I looked down at my hands. My fingernails — which were fake, and still painted black — were perfect. Just like the rest of me. On the outside.
Too bad no one could see that on the inside, I was a big old mess.
‘I remember you,’ I said. ‘I remember how you came with your friend. The one who… died.’
When I said the word died, Christopher looked quickly away from me. His fingers were frozen on the keyboard of my laptop.
But it was too late to turn back. I could only move forward.
‘That must have been so awful,’ I said, my heart twisting for him. ‘I mean… not like you probably want to
