Natural Selection (3 page)

“
Wha…” I mumbled, blushing
at the slurred voice before swallowing and trying again. “What
happened?” That sounded better, but my voice was weak and strained
like I had spent too much time screaming.

‘
Shhhh. It’s ok. I’ll
explain later. You need to rest now.”

We sat for a few minutes—him murmuring
and rubbing my arms, me trying to figure out what was going on. I
studied his face from beneath my lashes, the concern in his eyes
obvious. I concentrated on trying to twitch a finger or wiggle a
toe. My heart raced in fear as I wondered how long until someone
else came to help. Was I dying? Why couldn’t I even wiggle my toes?
“Seriously, Nate, what the hell happened? Shouldn’t you take me to
the nurse? I should probably go to the hospital.”

“
Trust me, you don’t want
anyone here to know about this, Lia. If you wanna call your mom and
have her come get you, that’s fine, but you can’t tell anyone at
school about this. I’m so sorry. I thought I had it under better
control. I just got kind of emotional, and it’s harder to control
when I get emotional…” He trailed off, looking at the ground
miserably. He tore the head off a blade of grass and tossed it
before looking back up at me sheepishly. “I promise I didn’t do it
on purpose, Lia.”

“
Whoa, wait. You haven’t
called my mom or anything? What…” I trailed off, unsure how to
finish the thought. I wasn’t good with confrontation. When I get
angry my tongue seems to get tied in knots and embarrass me. It’s
very hard to make a valid point in an argument while stammering.
“What did you do to me, Nate? And why exactly can’t I go to the
hospital?”

“
Well, more or less, you
just got struck by lightning.”

“
Wait, what?” My brain
stopped processing for a prolonged moment unable to wrap around
that one. How the hell had that happened? “So basically I was
filled 1.21 jiggawatts? Can I travel through time now?”

Nate shook his head with a
crooked grin. “You haven’t gone
Back to
the Future,
McFly.”

“
Ok, seriously, how
did
it happen?” I felt
something close to panic welling inside me. This was crazy, right?
I couldn’t really move, and he was telling me he somehow generated
enough electricity to render my nervous system useless? On the
freak-out meter—I was burying the needle in the red.

“
I don’t really know how it
happens, but sometimes when I get excited I get this… charge, I
guess.”

“
Electrifying!” I snapped a
little hysterically. I wasn’t sure if this was my standard brand of
sarcasm meets smart ass or my brain attempting to deal with
something that should be dismissed. I should have been calling him
crazy and running away, right? Oh wait, I could barely move my
legs! “Seriously, Nate, this isn’t right. I think maybe we should
call my mom. Like, now. Or better yet—an ambulance.”

“
Will you give me five more
minutes? If I don’t have you on the mend by then, I promise to call
anyone you want me to.”

I stared at him for a long minute,
trying to radiate all my fear and panic. He merely pleaded me with
his eyes, and somehow I caved, nodding. I knew it was crazy, stupid
even, but part of me said I should stick it out.

He didn’t speak. He slowly untied and
removed my shoes, then my socks. Holding my left foot in his lap,
he rubbed in small circles starting at my toes and slowly moving up
my leg. Once he got to my lower thigh he dropped the leg with an
awkward clearing of his throat and started on the other. As his
strangely gritty fingers gently kneaded my flesh, there was a
strange tingling. At first I thought it was more of the weird
electricity he generated, I considered pulling away. Then I
realized this tingling was more of an awareness of his touch, a
feeling I didn’t want to analyze. But whether I wanted to
acknowledge it or not, something was different between Nate and
me.

Thankfully, I didn’t have time to
dwell on it before my skin prickled with pins and needles as
sensation returned. I clumsily climbed to my feet with Nate’s help.
After some uncoordinated shuffling, I was able to move on my own. I
pulled away from him uncertain what to think.

“
I’m so sorry, Lia. I
didn’t realize you were so close.” Close?
He
hugged
me
! How much closer could I be? “I
think you should stay away from me for your own safety.” Nate said,
meeting my eyes for the first time in this whole ordeal. I loved
his eyes. They were a warm brown, like sunlit honey, with a vibrant
yellow-green ring around his pupils. A girl could lose herself in
those eyes. I gave myself a mental shake, refusing to allow a gooey
moment with the boy who just about killed me a short time ago.
Besides, I didn’t want to be
that
girl—the one pining away for some guy who never
even noticed her.

I glanced at my watch, though it felt
like we’d been out here for ages, it had only been about fifteen
minutes. But I was late for my algebra class. Of course it wouldn’t
break my heart to miss that class all together, but good girls,
like me, don’t skip class. Since we’d rushed so hastily from class,
we were both still in our gym uniforms. I seriously contemplated
calling it a day and seeing if my Mom would come get me, but I had
some classes in the afternoon I was really looking forward to.
Besides, I wanted to be lab partners in Biology with my friend
Mariah, and if I didn’t show up, the teacher could pair her up with
someone else.

“
We should go get dressed.
How much trouble do you think we’ll be in?” I asked as I started
toward the school doors.

“
Not as much as we would be
in without these puppies,” he said, pulling a pad of hall passes
out of his pocket and gesturing to them like Vanna
White.

“
Do I even want to know how
you got those?”

“
A good thief never reveals
his sources.”

“
Too bad you aren’t a very
good one. You’re not even on par with a juvenile
delinquent.”

“
Oh, you will eat those
words, Miss Hoffman. I’ll give it to you from both barrels until
you quiver with awe at my skillz.”

Our eyes met as we both grinned, and
we stood with just an open door between our bodies. For a brief
moment, I let myself imagine his heart fluttered as much as mine.
In that moment, I could picture us holding hands and sharing an ice
cream sundae. Then my more realistic side surfaced reminding me of
my mixed feelings. Not that long ago, I would have run away, if I
could have moved, yet here I stood entertaining impossible
fantasies. I cleared my throat and awkwardly said goodbye before
heading into the girl’s locker room.

I pulled out my regular clothes, and
began to peel off my uniform. That’s when I noticed the smears of
dirt on my arms. I remembered the coolness in my hand and on my
arms as Nate rubbed them, and how I felt a surge of energy at the
touch of his slightly gritty fingers. A quick glance down at my
legs showed more smears there. So it wasn’t some weird connection.
It was something in the dirt. I mentally tossed ideas around as I
scrubbed the worst of the dirt off, and dressed quickly. I brushed
and recaptured my hair in its elastic band, then swiped on some
Chapstick before grabbing my books and reluctantly headed to math
class.

By the time I got there, I had missed
nearly half of it, but Nate’s forged note said I’d been in the
nurse’s office. The teacher, Mr. Orson, looked like the music
teacher from The Simpsons, bald on top with long white hair and
beady eyes. Trying not to giggle imagining him in a grey sweater
and bow tie, I grabbed an open desk near the window and tried to
pretend I had a clue what he was talking about.

I DIDN’T THINK the day would ever be
done. My afternoon should have been fun with a home economics class
right after lunch, and a creative writing course rounding out the
day. Biology actually seemed interesting to me, which surprised me.
And Mariah was so grateful to see me, I felt bad for considering
leaving. Apparently, her first day of high school wasn’t going so
well. But my mind wasn’t focusing as I kept pondering my strange
morning.

Xander was already in his car when I
got there. I climbed in and buckled up before he peeled out of the
parking lot, with an unnecessary squeal of tires that left him
grinning ear to ear. I rolled my eyes but held my tongue. On the
ride home he chattered away about the antics of our fellow
students, but I only half listened, my mind still
churning.

As I walked into the house, I dumped
my backpack on the bottom step and headed straight into the
kitchen, barely noticing when Xander slammed the door behind
himself. I rummaged in the fridge for something to eat, settling on
a chicken leg from last weekend’s dinner. I gave it a test sniff
and it seemed ok, so I threw it into the microwave. Xander snagged
a bag of Doritos off the microwave and plopped in a chair at the
breakfast bar to eat them. I poured us each a glass of Coke while
my snack nuked, then grabbed the chicken. Not bothering with a
plate, I ate it out of the Tupperware, flinching as the hot meat
burnt my fingers.

“
So how did your first day
go?” he asked around a mouthful of chips.

“
A little shocking,” I
said, smiling a little. I don’t know why, but I knew I couldn’t
tell him what had happened with Nate today. I spent the bulk of my
time trying to figure it out—I don’t think I heard a word my
algebra teacher said. What practical use would I ever have for
polynomials and non-linear equations anyway? So what if I’d have to
tell Mr. Foxworthy that I was not smarter than a fifth grader! But
aside from radioactive materials buried in the school courtyard
contaminating the soil, or salmonella in the chicken nuggets
causing a shared delusion, I was coming up nil.

Xander gave me a funny look, and I
tried to derail his train of thought. The day had been pretty
average after algebra. I had nothing to distract my brother from
what I wasn’t willing to share. If I told him the truth, I knew he
would freak out. Xander had always been very protective of me. I
decided to use half-truths and let him lead himself
astray.

“
There’s this guy—I’ve
known him for a while now but there’s never been anything between
us. Today, when I was around him, there was something… different. I
don’t know how else to describe it. He kind of scares me, but I
can’t stop thinking about him. How do I know if I’m feeling
something real, or if I’m just getting a stupid crush?”

Xander was quiet. One side of his face
quirked like it does when he’s really thinking about something. It
might seem odd for me to talk to my brother like this, but he and I
had always been very close. Nathanial was the only thing I didn’t
feel I could talk to him about. Xander hadn’t taken too kindly to
his six year old sister announcing she was going to marry his best
friend, and ever since, he had done everything in his power to keep
me and Nate apart—to the point that Nate rarely came to our house.
It had gotten worse this past summer, since Nate got back from
summer camp. It was some sort of military “make your boy a man”
kind of camp. He came home a different person—all hard and muscular
and manly. He caused quite the stir among the girls at school, and
a couple of them had already set their sights on him. As if I
needed another reason to keep a lid on my feelings, there was no
way I could compete with that.

“
Well,” Xander said,
rubbing his chin with his forefinger, “is he dangerous?”

My forehead tightened, and I cocked my
head in confusion and surprise. I don’t know what I expected him to
say, and I had no idea how to answer that. Was he dangerous? Had
today been a fluke, or was Nate some sort of threat to the girls of
Lincoln? But my mom always trusted him, and she was usually a good
judge of character. “No, not really. I don’t think he’d hurt me on
purpose, at least. But he is capable of seriously hurting
someone”

Xander gave me a big grin. “Well then
it’s a no-brainer, girly. You should stay as far away from him as
possible. I don’t want a criminal record, and it will be
unavoidable if he hurts you.” He stood up and walked around the
island to where I stood and put his hand on my arm. “The only guy a
girl can trust is her daddy—and her big brother, of
course.”