Every Soul a Star (16 page)

Bree grabs the brush and places it carefully on her dresser top. “I never said she wasn’t pretty.”

“But I don’t like Ryan in that way,” I tell her, feeling my cheeks heating up. No one’s ever talked about me being pretty before. I never give my appearance any thought. Why would I?

“It doesn’t matter,” Bree says. “You still want him to want you.”

“I do? Why?”

But before Bree can reply, Kenny asks, “Can we get on with it please? I have chores to do.”

“On with what?” Melanie asks.

Before Kenny can say more, Bree says, “Kenny volunteered to show you how to pan for gold this morning.”

Melanie looks surprised. “He did?”

Bree nods and turns Melanie around to face her. I take that second to whisper to Kenny that Melanie doesn’t want to move back, so he’ll have to keep her occupied for a while so she doesn’t foil our plans.

He gets to his feet. “C’mon, Melanie, I’ll show you how to fill the stream with gold nuggets. It’s gonna be your job soon anyway.”

I don’t make a move to get up. My stomach has a knot in it that hurts more than brushing my hair did. How am I going to survive in a real school if I can’t even brush my hair? If I can’t understand the simple rules of boy/girl relationships? I simply can’t go, that’s all. I jump to my feet. “Okay, let’s get started.”

Bree nods, and leads the way out of the cabin. She clearly isn’t going to mention running off last night, so neither am I.

The first thing we do is sneak behind her parents’ cabin. Beeping and printer noises drift out the window screens. I point to where the electricity enters the cabin. All it takes is a little yank, and everything inside goes quit. Bree and I run around to the front and casually walk by. Bree’s dad runs down the front steps. “Ally! I’m so glad you’re here. Our power just went out.”

I know I’m supposed to say something, but I’m suddenly nervous about lying. I don’t have much experience with it. We agreed that I’d do most of the talking with her parents, and she’d talk to mine. That way it would look less obvious. Bree pinches my arm and I force myself to say, “Oh, yes, that happens all the time around here. Especially in the winter months. And in the summer. And I guess in spring and fall, too.”

We walk closer to the house. Bree says innocently, “I hope you didn’t lose any data.” We follow him back inside where Bree’s mom is running around the room, testing all the outlets. “We’re going to have to start all over,” Bree’s mom says helplessly.

“It usually comes back on after a few minutes,” I assure her. “Usually. But sometimes we have to get someone out here to fix the line and that can take a few days. Or if it’s in the winter, a few weeks since the roads can get impassable.”

We leave them open-mouthed, and run back to the other cabin to get the shoe box and the bug book. We slip back in and sit casually on one of the beds while they tinker with their machines, trying to get them to work again. When their backs are turned, I empty the box on the floor, then push it under the bed.

Two minutes later, Bree’s mom screams! She jumps up, slapping her hands on her legs and arms. She points down at a bug about a half-inch big. Bree and I calmly walk over to look at it. Bree gives a little shudder, but only I notice it. “Let me see,” I say, lifting the book off the bed. I open it up and pretend to be looking for something. Bree’s mom leans in and then grimaces when she sees all the drawings of bugs. “Kenny or I always make sure to have this book with us,” I explain. “That way we can tell if a bug is poisonous or not.”

Her mom’s eyes open wide. “Are there a lot of poisonous bugs around here?”

Wondering how far I dare take this, I say, “Well, besides the occasional scorpion, we’ll sometimes get fire ants and black widows. You’ll wanna watch out for the brown recluse spiders too. Oh, they’re
really
nasty. They’ll turn your whole leg gangrene.”

Bree’s mom is now pale. Her dad says, “I thought scorpions and fire ants were warm-weather creatures.”

I shrug. “Must be the gulf stream that brings ’em.” I have no idea what that means, but I heard someone say it once. He seems to buy it though.

“C’mon, Ally,” Bree says. “Let’s go join Kenny and Mel at the stream.”

“Speaking of the stream,” I say to Bree’s parents. “You’re gonna find some way to block that off, right? I mean, if you have a child who sleepwalks, a stream is very dangerous. Kids can drown in an inch of water, you know.” Bree had supplied me that last fact.

Her parents look at each other.

I continue, on a roll now. “Actually, there are tons of dangers here for someone walking around in the middle of the night. Bears and fallen logs and beehives and —”

“Enough,” Bree’s dad says. “We get the picture. We’ll figure something out.”

Bree’s mom jumps and shrieks again as another bug crosses her path. I hold out the book. “Would you like to borrow this?”

She shakes her head repeatedly. I shrug and tuck it under my arm. Bree tells them she’ll see them later, and we walk out of the cabin. Bree stays in front while I go around and plug the electrical socket back in. I hear Bree’s dad say, “We’re back on!”

We walk quickly back toward the main house. When we’re far enough away Bree stops and hugs me. “You were great! You should be an actress someday! Forget about finding comets!”

I laugh. It feels good to laugh again. And this time when Bree stops hugging me I don’t stand quite as stiff. I’m getting used to being hugged by virtual strangers.

“You really had me convinced with all that stuff. Like it would really take a few weeks to get the power back on. Classic!”

“Um, I wasn’t kidding about that one.”

A look of panic flits across Bree’s face.

“But don’t worry, you can still dry your hair. We have a generator in the main house and in the kitchen at the pavilion.”

“And the roads? You really get trapped here for weeks?”

I nod, realizing how it must sound to an outsider. “But it doesn’t feel that way, honest. And there’s usually really good seeing on winter nights, so we don’t mind.”

“There’s usually
what
?”

I forgot she’s a total astronomy newbie. “Good seeing. That’s the expression for when the air is really still. It means you can see the stars better. If it’s poor seeing, that means the air is hazy and it can be hard to focus your telescope on planets and stuff.”

Bree sighs. “Our plan REALLY better work.”

We’re almost at the office now, and I can hear both of my parents in there, which is what we were hoping for. “Okay, you ready?”

She nods.

We plant ourselves on the top stair of the porch in front of the office, the same place I first saw Bree. Loud enough to be heard clearly through the open door, Bree says, “So do you think you’ll go out for softball, or gymnastics?”

“Isn’t all that expensive? Like uniforms and stuff?”

“Oh yes! It’s all very expensive, but so is living in the ’burbs. My parents had to take out a second mortgage just to pay for all our activities.”

Neither of us knew what a second mortgage was, but Bree said she saw it on a commercial about people needing money.

Inside, my parents have stopped talking. “But don’t worry,” Bree continues, a little louder. “Your parents won’t be worrying too much about money. They’ll have a lot bigger things to worry about.”

“Like what?” I ask, hoping my voice doesn’t sound rehearsed.

“Like drugs of course! The drug problem in middle schools today is rampant! You’ll be lucky to make it down the hall on your first day without someone asking if you want to buy. And Kenny, holy cow! The elementary schools are even worse!”

“Wow!” I say. “That’s terrible!”

“And if you can manage to stay away from the drugs, you’ll have to worry about the gangs. Every school has them, and they always pounce on the new kids. How do you feel about tattoos?”

“Tattoos?”

“Sure! All the kids have to get them. Melanie and I have two each. Our parents don’t know of course, because they’re dangerous. You could actually die from the dirty needles. But if you don’t get them, no one will let you in their clique. You don’t want to sit alone in the huge cafeteria every day, do you?”

I shake my head. Bree nudges me with her knee. “No, I do not!” I exclaim.

My parents bang through the door. They look upset. “Oh,” I say, pretending to be surprised. “I didn’t know you were in there.” We’d pretty much reached the end of our banter anyway.

“Bree, do you know where your parents are?” my mom says. “We’d like to have a talk with them.”

Bree can’t hide her smile. “Last I saw them they were in their cabin, working. I honestly don’t know how they’re going to keep this place going since they’re working all the time. Wouldn’t surprise me if they had to close it down.”

“Close it down?” my father repeats. “But they can’t do that. It’s in our agreement.”

This girl is good! We hadn’t even practiced that last part.

Without another word, my parents stalk off toward the cabins. When they round the bend, Bree and I jump up and I’m the one to hug
her
this time. “You were brilliant!”

“Thank you, thank you very much,” Bree says, bowing and curtsying. Her long hair shimmers like the stream does when the sun hits it. Maybe she’s right and I should put some effort—any effort—into how I look.

“You were kidding though, right? About all the drugs and tattoos and stuff?”

She laughs. “Yes, I promise.”

That’s
a relief! I don’t think I’d be very good with needles.

“What are you guys up to?” a familiar voice asks. I turn to see Ryan, followed a few feet behind by that boy Jack from the pavilion last night.

Ryan is talking to me, but looking at Bree. I’m not surprised. “Bree, this is my friend Ryan, he comes up here every summer for a few weeks.”

Bree holds out her hand like she’s a grown-up. Ryan eagerly shakes it. I wait for Ryan to introduce Jack, but he’s too smitten with Bree. I glance over at Jack, expecting to find him looking at Bree too, but instead he’s looking at
me.
When he catches my eye he looks away and kicks at the dirt with his shoe. I don’t have much practice identifying teenage boy behavior, but I think that means he’s shy. Having grown up welcoming new people to the campground all the time, I’ve never been shy before. But now I find myself unsure what to say. Finally Bree asks, “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh,” Ryan says, finally tearing his eyes away from Bree. “Sorry. This is Jack. He’s here with an eclipse tour.”

Jack takes a step forward, and we all say hi. I find my voice and say, “That’s cool that you’re here for the eclipse. Are you excited?”

He opens his mouth to answer, but then seems unsure what to say. After a pause he says, “I guess so. Honestly, I’m not sure. It’s a long story.”

“Oh.” We stand there awkwardly for a minute until Bree suggests we get lunch.

“Great idea!” Ryan says. Without another glance at me and Jack, he lopes his arm casually around Bree’s shoulders and they set off for the pavilion. Jack and I follow. His arm, needless to say, stays by his side. To break the ice I ask, “So what’s the long story?”

He hesitates, then says, “Well, it was either come here or go to summer school.”

I’m about to ask what summer school is when Kenny and Melanie come running up to us. “Ally! Ryan!” Kenny says, not trying to contain his excitement. “We got an e-mail from the SETI people!”

Ryan stops short. “Already? Did you open it?”

Kenny shakes his head. “I was waiting for you guys. C’mon!”

I turn to Jack, “Wanna come?”

“Sure,” he says.

We take off running down the road, dust kicking up behind us.

“Ally?” Jack asks as we pass the pavilion, which is filling up with lunch people.

“Yeah?”

“What’s a SETI?”

I laugh. “It stands for Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. It tracks radio signals from outer space.”

“Oh,” he says.

Newbies are fun. The little red-haired twins and their parents cross in front of us. The twins stop and they wave at Jack. He stops and gives them high fives before catching back up with us. How does he know everyone already? This guy gets around!

Kenny has our work unit up on the screen. The colors are rising and falling like they always do. The task bar reads 97 percent.

“So the work unit hasn’t even uploaded to SETI yet?” I say.

Kenny shakes his head. “Probably a few more hours to go.”

“So how can they be e-mailing us already if they haven’t even reviewed our signal?”

“I don’t know,” Kenny says.

Bree turns to Jack. “Do you have the slightest idea what they’re talking about?”

Jack shakes his head. “I haven’t understood most of what anyone’s said since I stepped on the bus.”

Ryan says, “Can we read it already? The suspense is killing me here.”

Kenny clicks over to the e-mail screen and says, “You read it, Ally.”

I take a deep breath, and then click it open. “‘Dear SETI@home Friend,’” I read.

“SETI@home Friend? Not very personal,” Ryan mutters.

I continue. “‘Over the past few days we’ve been made aware of irregular signal patterns by many people reviewing work units from the Libra region. If you are receiving this e-mail, it means your work unit was one of the affected ones.’”

I don’t like where this is heading. My voice gets softer as I keep reading. “‘We are aware of a ground-based radio frequency that has been causing interference in the signal. When we receive your complete unit, we will alert you if the signal was caused by anything other than this interference. Thank you for being a part of our team.’”

“Well,” Ryan says. “That’s that. I figured it was too good to be true.”

Kenny and I don’t reply. Besides insuring that my parents would stay here, finding a real signal would have meant that even if I did have to leave, even if I had to go to a school with a thousand other kids, I would have done something really special. Kenny, too.

“C’mon, guys,” Ryan says. “Let’s go eat.”

He and Bree head out. Kenny says, “Are you gonna be all right?”

I nod. “You should go.”

Melanie follows him out the door, leaving me and Jack. Jack sits down in the chair next to me. He waits for me to say something.