Lucy’s eyes were ringed with shadows. She’d been too keyed up for more than a couple hours of sleep. She’d needed to arrive at school before Ravi so she risked riding Marie Curie and, miraculously, arrived without incident.
The hallways were freshly mopped, the tang of Lysol in the air, and she skidded a few times over the linoleum on her way to the physics lab. The door to the classroom had already been unlocked by the janitor and she turned the handle gingerly, as if expecting an ax murderer to jump out from behind the blackboard.
She rooted around her bag, jangling the keychain at the bottom. In any other situation she wouldn’t even consider breaking into a teacher’s office. But needs must.
Thank you, Mrs. Brandon.
Lucy flipped through her house keys, garage keys, spare key to Claudia’s house for emergencies …
No science-office key.
Weird.
She couldn’t remember taking it off her Death Star keychain. Not that Lucy hadn’t been distracted lately. Dammit. She should have double-checked before she left home. Her eyes cut to the wall clock: 7:55 A.M. No time to go back now.
Arms at her sides, Lucy stood sentry-straight, counting the seconds.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Ravi ambled in a few minutes later, head bopping to whatever was blasting from his earbuds. He had his phone in one hand, a thermos in the other. Stubble was scattered along his jaw. She liked the scruffiness.
Lock down those hormones. Lucy had to stop thinking there was anything cute about him. He had lied to her—to everyone at Eaton High. She ignored the voice reminding her that she was no better.
His eyes lifted from the screen. When he recognized her, he grinned in an endearing way.
No, not endearing. Ingratiating. Weaselly.
“Morning,” he said, taking out the earbuds. He gestured at her [Fe]male T-shirt, chuckling. “I like it. Apropos.”
Fe was the chemical symbol for iron and it seemed appropriate to Lucy that all females were inherently iron men.
When she didn’t laugh or smile, Ravi furrowed his brow.
“Did we have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Okay.” His face gave nothing away. Hooking an ankle around one of the stools that lined the rows of desks, he took a seat. Lucy remained standing.
“What did you want to talk about?” he asked, and took a sip from his thermos, totally relaxed. He had no idea what was coming.
Now or never.
“I want to talk about what you’re really doing at Eaton High.”
The thermos slipped from his grasp but he caught it again with quicksilver reflexes. Lucy had been hoping for shock, indignation, recrimination. What she got was eerie composure. Ravi set the thermos on the desktop and met her disbelieving gaze.
“You’re not going to tell me I’m wrong? That you’re not a liar?” She attempted to copy his emotionless façade but incredulity saturated her voice.
He tipped forward, took her hand deliberately, and interlaced their fingers. Lucy should have resisted. She didn’t. The moment their skin made contact she felt like she was flying.
“The only thing I lied to you about was my name,” he said, his voice strained.
“What about your Ph.D.?”
He glanced down, setting the thermos on the desk. “And my Ph.D.—it was on tessellation, though.” Looking up again, he said, “Everything else was one hundred percent me.”
“How do you expect me to believe that?”
“Because you feel it. I know you do.”
His eyes pulled her in like a homing beacon.
“I don’t know what I feel,” she protested.
Ravi reached toward her. “Lucy, believe me when I say I’m here to help.” He glanced toward the door, then swept his gaze across the windows as if he were doing reconnaissance. “We can’t speak openly here.”
She snorted. “You think Eaton High is bugged?”
His demeanor said he did. “Meet me later.”
“So you can make me disappear? Or whatever you Area 54 types do?” Lucy may have watched more space operas than spy thrillers, but she knew this scenario didn’t typically end well for the unsuspecting schoolgirl.
Forcing a laugh, Ravi said, “You’re not an alien, Lucinda.”
She hated how much she liked the way he said her full name.
“But you know what I am,” she countered.
“Meet me and I’ll explain.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Like where no one can hear me scream?”
“Anywhere you want,” he said. Then he added a caveat, “Somewhere outside and private would be better.”
Meeting a guy with a secret identity somewhere secluded was mind-crushingly stupid.
But what choice did she have?
“After school. There’s a popular hiking trail. Bear Mountain. I’m going to let my friend know where I’ll be,” she told him as imperiously as possible. “If I go missing, people will know.”
Darkness passed over Ravi’s face and he took a labored breath.
“I would never hurt you, Lucinda.”
“That remains to be seen. Three fifteen P.M., sharp. If you’re late, I walk.”
Chin high, Lucy strutted from the physics lab hoping he didn’t notice the trembling of her lips.