Magian High (14 page)

In chemistry, I had a hard time focusing on the differences between Rhodium and Ruthenium because I was trying to eavesdrop on Amity and her lab partners.

“Look,” said Noah.  “I know you miss your girlfriend, but can you get your head in the game over here?”

“Huh?  I’m sorry, what are we doing?”

“Looking at these pictures of jewelry and trying to decide if they’re plated with the Rho-thing or the
Ru-thing.”

I focused my eyes on the pictures we were to analyze.  “They look like gold and silver to me.”

Jason gave a frustrated groan.  “It’s the coating
over
the gold or silver.”

I blin
ked and then grabbed up my textbook, thumbing through the index.  After flipping a few pages, I said, “Ruthenium is going to look like pewter, whatever that is, and Rhodium is going to be glossy.”

“Oh, then that’s easy
.  Pewter is silvery,” said Noah, suddenly getting down to business and checking off boxes beside each picture.  Jason kept nodding and grunting, so I returned my attention back over to the girls.

“Max
Aldridge?
  Are you kidding?  The guy is so
cute!
” said one of her lab partners, all breathy.

“Uh, yeah,” said Amity.  “Anyway, he’s one of the leaders.”

“Oh, that’ll go to his head,” giggled the other girl.

“So should I tell him you guys are interested?”

“Yo, Kincaid, over here,” said Noah, calling me back.  Within five minutes, I’d proven my worth to them by figuring out some of the more particular details on the worksheet.  It was interesting to find out a little drop of something could be so expensive, but make such a difference in how a piece turned out.

Like investing that love and the magical energy that went with it.

***

At lunch, Amity and I told Hadley and Elizabeth the news while we squeezed ourselves into the last free corner of the cafeteria.

“Ooh, this is
way
better than prom committee!” said Elizabeth.

Hadley clapped like a little girl.  “Isn’t it?  Can we have matching outfits to promote unity?”  Elizabeth kicked him
under the table.  “Ow!  What?”

“Not going there,” said Elizabeth.  She turned to Amity.  “So which
Wiser guy are you going to get?  Anyone we know?”

Amity
lowered her voice.  “We need to pick someone who thinks like we do so we don’t have to fight them all the time on the direction of the club.”

“You sound as bad as Mrs. Bagler
,” said Hadley.  “Controlling the opposition.”

I kicked Hadley under the table.

“Ow! 
What?
  ‘Think like we do’!  Aren’t we trying to open our minds here?”

“Open minds in the right direction,” said Amity
, her face registering the irony of her statement with a sheepish grin.

Hadley gave the crazy sign and glanced at me.  I couldn’t help thinking he had a point.  “So
, is there anyone who would be inclined to go along with our overall plan without taking over?”

Amity bit her lip.  “There is one guy…Claudio Lorenzo—”

“Sounds like a fashion designer,” snickered Hadley.  “And don’t kick me!” he said, pulling his knees up so they almost touched his chin.  “You were thinking it, too.”

I laughed, nudging him backwards.  He actually toppled backwards onto the floor with a crash.  Nearby students turned, mid-chew, and stared at him before turning back to their own conversations.

“Don’t all rush to help,” mumbled Hadley, dusting himself off and sitting back down.  “So what’s the scoop with Claudio?”

Amity looked a little nervous.  “Well, he’s a total
genius at anything engineering, and he speaks about three languages.”  I let out a low whistle.  Amity shifted.  “I’m pretty sure I can work him well enough.  He kind of had a crush on me last year.”

Hadley stuffed a roll into his mouth to keep from grinning and looked at me. 
“How big of a crush?”

“Um, you know…He’d send me…little things.  Put stuff in my locker.”

“How’d he get in your locker?” I asked.

“I told you…Engineer.”

“Destined for a life of crime,” said Hadley, through the dough in his mouth.

I had to ask.  “What kinds of ‘little things’? 
Are you talking about love notes?  Or diamond rings coated with Rhodium?”

Amity laughed.  “Hey, you
were
paying attention in class today!”

“Don’t change the subject,” I said.

“Don’t worry.  We can use the crush to our advantage without hurting his feelings,” she said with a business-like tone that made my skin crawl.  “What we need to do is make sure Max doesn’t pick a complete idiot.”

“Like your lab partners?”

“Sara’s not so bad,” she shrugged.  “Where is Max, anyway?”

“Probably chasing Lindsey,” I said, craning my neck to scan the room.  I rose slightly in my seat, leaning my knee on the bench. 
The rain outside meant a packed cafeteria, but despite that, it didn’t seem crazy inside.  Kids were actually talking and laughing.  There didn’t seem to be any loners, which was new.  A thought occurred to me, and I swiveled back down.  “Hey, how are the Mages taking the no magic rule?  I mean, that you’ve seen?  I saw a couple of tardies because they couldn’t Flash Jump to class, but other than that…”

“They’re looking a bit humbler, I’d say,” said Amity smugly.  “
They can’t use their magic to impress people anymore.”

“My magic never impressed you,” I said.

She looked at me coyly.  “What do you mean?  You lit a flame in chemistry, and I haven’t been the same since.”

***

By the time I got to Study Hall, I’d seen more evidence of what Amity meant.  The Mages, in general, weren’t looking quite so much like they owned the place, but instead of jumping all over them and making them feel stupid, the Wisers and Corporals seemed sympathetic and reached out to them.  I heard people talking about regular teen stuff across the old school lines, asking about TV shows and gaming boards and the latest concerts to come through town.  I thought taking the magic away seemed like such a big thing, but in the classrooms, it wasn’t needed most of the time anyway.  It had been this invisible
I’ve-got-something-you-don’t-have
thing, and now it was gone.  I thought this might put the Wisers at an advantage, but the Corporals were smart, too, in a different way.  Mrs. Bagler might have been trying to bust up the morale at Magian, but except for the lingering concern about the kids who had been hospitalized, things had actually settled into a better brand of normal than we’d ever seen.

“I found my girl,” said Max, sitting down next to me before the bell rang.

“Lindsey?”

“No, my other girl.”

“You collect girls, huh?”

“For the committee, idiot.
  Her name’s Kameko—and get this: she used to be a Wiser, but didn’t study hard enough, so they booted her over to Corporal.  As if that’s where the stupid people go.”

I looked at him steadily for a minute.  “You do know that’s the stereotype, right?  Smart kids go to Wiser
, dumb kids to Corporal.”

Max actually laughed.  “You got it all wrong.  Brainy kids at Wiser, sure
, but then it’s physical giants at Corporal, and then…you know.  Mages are stuck at Magian.” 
That’s
a new spin on things
.
  “Anyway, this Kameko chick is brilliant, and she can almost do a four-minute mile.  Can you believe it?  She’s like lightning.”

“Okay, that’s cool,” I said, trying to fathom running that fast.  “And is she interested in the Unity Team?”

“Yeah, she’s got all kinds of ideas,” he said.

The bell rang and Mr. Whittle came in, shutting the door behind him. 
“To your seats, everyone.”  He took roll, and then looked up.  “Kincaid and Max, have you got news for me?”

We slid out of our seats and came up front.  “Elizabeth Delmore,” I said.

“An obvious choice,” said Whittle with a smile.  “Max?  You find anyone?”

“
Kameko…I forgot her last name, sorry.”

Mr. Whittle’s eyebrows arched in surprise. 
“The track star?  Kameko Takahashi.”

I couldn’t help chuckling.  “She must’ve hated kindergarten, writing a name that long!”

“Have you heard from Amity about her suggestion?” asked Mr. Whittle.

I shrugged.  “Some guy
with a name like a perfume designer, I think.”

“Claudio Lorenzo?
” offered Whittle.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Mr. Whittle’s smile doubled in size.  “Oh
ho!
  El
Romantico!
  That ought to be interesting!  Good choice, though.  He’s a very personable young man, and very popular with the ladies.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, suddenly feeling sick.

Max looked at me and shook his head.  “Dude, you’re in trouble now.  That guy could single-handedly sap all the magic out of every Mage girl in the school.”

“
El Romantico
, Amity?  You could have told me that part.”

“
That’s
what’s bugging you?”  She’d followed me home after school, and I’d been too mad to talk.  When we got to my room, I threw my backpack on the bed.

“Even Max
and Whittle knew about him!”

“Knew about what?” she said, tossing her hands
in the air.  “The guy has an accent and can say stuff in French.  Girls swoon.  He’s not even that cute.”

“What does he say in French?”

“How should
I
know?  I speak Russian.  He could be reciting the days of the week for all I know.”

“You speak
Russian?”

“
Da!
”

“What do you mean, ‘
duh’?  How was I supposed to know that?”

Amity broke into a snorting giggle. 
“
Da
, not
duh
.  It’s yes in Russian, and…Oh Kincaid, don’t go getting all insecure on me.  I hate that.”

“He had a crush on you,” I said, more weakly than I’d hoped.

“Does that mean
I
had a crush on
him
?” she asked.  “Honestly, if I’d wanted him, he’d be mine right now, but I didn’t.”  She pulled me to her and rubbed her nose against mine. I could smell her breath.  Fruity.  The room got quiet and I felt as if time stood still, being this close.

“I’m sorry I overreacted,” I whispered
, letting my fingers slide from her shoulders to her hands.

“I’m sorry you overreacted, too,” she smiled
, clasping my hands.

“Don’t spoil the moment,” I said, giving her a heavy-lidded look.  Our noses still touched.  “It’s not every day I
want to kiss a Cyclops.”

“You mean a Greek goddess,” she purred.

“No, you look like you only have one eye when we’re at this angle.”

“Then close your eye.”

I did.  And she kissed me.  And I knew she wasn’t thinking about Clorenzo.

***

Our first Unity Team meeting wasn’t until Friday, but Whittle asked us to work with our own school partner to come up with a “Talking Point”, by which he meant something we wanted the other groups to know about us so that we could promote better mutual understanding.

“How about,
‘We’re totally normal except we can shoot fire from our fingers and fly?’
” I said, resting my forehead on the cafeteria table to hide my frustration.

“Oh, come on!  We’ve got to do better than that!” complained Elizabeth.

“Oh,
you
come on, Elizabeth.  This is all so dumb.”

Elizabeth
cracked up.  “You’ve got mustard on your face now.”

“I hear it’s really good for the skin,” teased Hadley.

“Don’t make me burn you,” I said dryly, wiping my face with the back of my hand.

“You missed a spot,” he said, dotting a finger’s worth of ketchup onto my cheek.

Elizabeth slapped his hand so I didn’t have to, and I grabbed a paper napkin to scrub everything off.  That’s when Amity finally showed up with her Wiser counterpart.  Tall and Italian-looking with a runner’s build.  I thought he overplayed the swagger a bit, but I noticed girls in the next table taking a keen interest in the label on his jeans.

Amity slid onto the bench
next to me.  “Everybody, this is Claudio Lorenzo.  Claudio, this is everybody: Elizabeth, Hadley and my boyfriend, Kincaid.  They’re on the Unity Team, too.”

Clorenzo—
I don’t care what his real name is—gave me what I think was meant to be an intimidating,
Bask-in-my-supreme-coolness
look, but I already had a buzz from how Amity had introduced me, so it didn’t work.  “Nice to meet you.  Have a seat.”  I gestured across the table to the space beside Hadley, but instead he stuffed himself in on the other side of Amity.  She glanced at me, her face hidden from his, and crossed her eyes.  I managed to keep a smooth expression and leaned around Amity’s shoulder to address him.  “So, are you two having any luck coming up with your ‘Talking Point’?”

Amity rolled her eyes.  “What a dumb assignment.”

“That’s what Kincaid said!” gasped Elizabeth.

Clorenzo muttered something in what I assume was French because he sounded like he had some egg caught in the back of his throat, and then he translated.  “Not so.  It is good for us to evaluate what makes us unique as a people, so that we can learn what
motifs we bring together in the harmony of our friendship.”

Hadley and I
looked at each other as if to say,
Is this guy for real?
  The thick accent was like from the movies…and the words were so... Amity squeezed my knee with her hand to warn me not to laugh, but I could tell right away Clorenzo was going to be a source of humor for me and Hadley when the girls weren’t around.

Speaking of which, Elizabeth fell almost immediately captive.  “Exactly what
I
thought!” she said, resting her chin on her hands and watching Clorenzo intently.  “So have you come up with anything?”

Clorenzo turned his attention to Elizabeth in a way that made Hadley squirm.  “I believe those students who have been raised
with the scholastic influence of the former Wiser district display remarkable mental capacity, of course, but even more importantly, we possess a gift for persistence.”  He turned his gaze back to Amity.  “We do not give up easily on the things we desire, whether they be knowledge, acquisitions, or other noble aims.”  This time, I squirmed.  At least until I felt Amity pressing closer to me.

“Yep, smart and persistent,” said Amity, looking at Elizabeth and Hadley.  “That’s us.  Now the question is how to put that to good use in the unity department.”

Elizabeth, still gawking at Clorenzo, said, “Don’t give up until you get it.  Unity, I mean.”

Amity faced me, again avoiding
Clorenzo’s line of sight.  “Do Max and Kameko know we’re meeting on the third floor?  Whittle said the room right next to the lounge.”

“Up in the forbidden zone,” said Hadley, admiring.  “Aren’t you
so cool?”

“Like an iceberg,” said Amity, standing up abruptly. 
“C’mon, Kincaid.  Let’s go make sure they got the message.  See you guys later.”

“I shall look forward to seventh period,” said Cl
orenzo, watching us move away, looking slightly confused by the sudden turn of events.

I realized I’d forgotten my lunch tray and reached back over him to pick it up.  “Excuse me.  She’d make me forget my own head.”  I winked at Hadley who caught on.

“Yeah, she really drains his brain.  They’re so in love, y’know.”  In classic Hadley manner, he leaned on his elbows and began a ridiculous interview.  “So, Claudio, do you find girls make
you
stupid?”

I had to hide my face in Amity’s back to
muffle my laughter.  When we got out to the hall, I said, “Okay, I promise I’ll never be even remotely jealous of Clorenzo again.”

“Claudio.”

“But I like Clorenzo better.  It sounds like a sore throat remedy.”

“Yes, it does,” she agreed.  “But let’s not call him that to his face?”

“Deal.”

“Max and
Kameko already know, by the way.”

“Oh?  So what are we doing?”

“Let’s go try to catch Flinckey.  It’s been a while.”

“Won’t Flinckey be at lunch, too?”

“It’s worth a shot.  Plus, I couldn’t stay next to Claudio too much longer.  His cologne almost knocked me out,” said Amity.

A wheezing laugh took over my body, and I was still shaking a little by the time we got the main office.

“Is he all right?” asked the secretary, actually looking up from her monitor for once.

Amity
explained that we’d seen something funny, and I did my best to keep my laughter below the decibel limits.  Others in the area raised eyebrows or grinned curiously, but we made it to Flinckey’s office and—by some miracle—found her eating a bowl of microwave chow mien at her desk.  “You’re here!” I gasped, releasing the last of my mirth.

Miss Flinckey glanced up without moving so she wouldn’t spill her spoonful.  “Yes, and so are you!” she smiled.

“Miss Flinckey!”  Amity sidled past me in the doorway and carefully hugged the old woman from behind.

Miss Flinckey gave up on eating and set her bowl down.  “Well, it’s good to see you, too!  Did you kids need something?”

Amity flopped down in the hard plastic chair beside Flinckey’s desk, and I stayed leaning in the door sill.  “Nah, we just wanted to check in on you.  How’s it going?”

Flinckey’s face warmed up, and again I saw glimpses of the beauty she must have been forty years ago.  “I’m all right.  I hear you two are
on the new Unity Team.”

“We have to get used to the adult world of meetings, meetings, meetings,” said Amity cheerfully.

“Yes,” said Miss Flinckey, keeping her eyes fixed on Amity.  “The adult world has so many intriguing adventures, doesn’t it?”

Were they speaking in code?
I wondered.

“Is there a party I’m missing?”  Mr. Whittle tapped my shoulder and I shifted to let him enter.

“Oh no, Ron.  Nothing exciting like that,” said Miss Flinckey.

“We’re talking about how fun it is to have meetings,” I said.

Mr. Whittle pointed at Amity and I with one finger each.  “I will see you fine folks seventh period on the third floor!”

“We’ll be there,” said Amity.

The bell rang.  “Ooops, time to go!” said Mr. Whittle, and he sped into his office.

“
Remember, kids,” said Miss Flinckey thoughtfully.  “It’s what happens
between
the meetings that matters most, for good or bad.  Meetings are just for show.”

“Uh, thanks,” I said.

Amity and I walked out.  “She’s a wise old woman,” said Amity fondly.  Her head tilted to one side in thought.  “Hmm.  She’s right you know.”

“About shows?
  I’m sure Clorenzo will put on a good one.  It ought to be fun.”

She punched my arm playfully.  “Just keep working on the
real
unity plan in between meetings.”

“Oh.”  I affected my best Clorenzo accent and opened the door for her.  “I shall extend my very best efforts to be productive in the interim until I may again gaze upon your—”

She punched me a little harder, and we parted ways, both smirking all the way to our lockers.