CHAPTER TWENTY

Resemblance

“No. Our meetings are usually much more prosaic.” Jax laughed with a crazy edge to it as he recovered beside me. “Here, Jennifer.”

I opened my eyes. The guard from the meeting offered me a bottle of water. I accepted, gulping. My throat was parched. “Who were those people?”

Jax sat up against the hull and took a swig of water. “Mercenaries. Hired by rich people in the high-rises to steal our information.”

“What do they want to do with it?”

“They want the planets for their descendants.”

I wiped the water from my chin. “Why can’t everyone just live on Earth?”

“You’ve seen it. This planet won’t last much longer. When the end comes, it’s gonna be bad. Everyone wants to secure a future.” Jax capped his water bottle and stuck it in his pocket. Who knew ninja suits could hold so much?

“With so many people after you, how did you know to trust me?”

He rolled up his sleeves. There was a tattoo of a rose and a name scrawled in loopy letters: Sophie. Who was Sophie? It wasn’t a futuristic name. “Martha’s been our informant for many years.” Jax’s eyebrows twitched. “She would have made a good scout, except she decided too late and didn’t pass the cryo tests.”

“So she told me.”

Jax leapt up like we’d just had a picnic in the park and he was about to fetch the dog. “We have to get you home before your parents worry.”

“They’re not my parents.”

“I know.” Jax gave me a steady look as if to say he understood my pain, all in one glance. “Where do you live?”

I closed my eyes and recited the letters and numbers, glad I’d taken the time to memorize them.

“Good. Stay here. You’ll be home in no time.”

Jax walked to the front of the ship, and I sat by myself, wondering what the hell had just happened and what I’d gotten myself into. I’d met real people who shared my dream. At what risk? Part of me wanted to hole up in my room and watch those old videos for the rest of my life, and a more rebellious, adventurous part of me wanted onto that scout ship.

The hovercraft slowed and the hatch opened on the platform where the hoverbus usually dropped me off. Jax snuck back and offered me a hand, helping me off the ship. “I hope all this didn’t scare you away.”

I looked into his face, wondering how old he really was. Nineteen? Twenty? Old enough to be my older brother but not old enough to be my father. What was his story? Why did he risk so much?

“Nah. When you’ve been frozen, everything else is like a dream.”

He took his hand back and stepped into the hovercraft. “Or like a nightmare.”

He was so right, but I ignored it. Now wasn’t the time to whine. “Are you going to contact me about the next meeting?”

His eyes lit with surprise, as if he didn’t think I had what it took. “It will take us a while to recover from tonight, but yes, I’ll be in contact.”

“Thanks.” I turned and started walking. “Jennifer.”

I whirled around. “Yeah?”

“Thank you for saving my life.”

Me? The hero? More like he saved mine times ten.

Before I could respond, the hatch closed and the hovercraft drifted away. I walked back into the apartment feeling like I’d just been thrown into an episode of CSI.

The next day, I awoke to my miniscreen beeping like an oven with the timer going off. I rolled over and slapped the enter button, thinking it was some type of alarm. Maxim’s face flashed on. “Jenny? Are you okay?”

Damn! Why didn’t it tell me it was an incoming call? I shot up in bed. “Maxim? What time is it?”

“It’s ten. What? Did you party all night long?”

More like I ran for my life all night long, but if I told him that he’d never cover for me again. “No, I had trouble sleeping.”

“I wanted to check on you to make sure you were okay.”

I ran my hand through my hair and stuck chunks of tangles behind my ears, not even wanting to know how messy it must have looked.

“I’m fine. How are you?” Really? Is that all you can come up with?

Maxim rested his chin on his hand. He hadn’t shaved. A line of stubble added to his allure. He looked so hot that I had to look away and think about soyloaf to cool down.

“When are you going to tell me where you’re going?”

A knock came at my door and Len’s voice drifted in, “Jennifer, the last stack of soycakes is going cold.”

Saved by soycakes. Who would have thought?

“Coming, Len.” I shouted over my shoulder, then turned back to Maxim and shrugged. “You heard her, I can’t talk right now. I have

to go.”

“Is it a guy?” His voice dripped with jealousy.

I thought of Jax and his blue hair, nose rings and upturned mushroom nose. Totally not my type. “No. Definitely not.” Maxim had no right to be jealous. It wasn’t like I was his.

Maxim sighed. “All right. I’ll stop pestering you. I’m just glad to see you’re okay. I was worried about you all night.”

My cheeks warmed and I pulled my hair out from behind my ears to hide it. Maxim thinking about me all night made my body hot all over. Then Exara came to mind and his apartment with his entire family hanging on the line. Guilt eclipsed my hormones.

“Don’t worry about me, okay? I can take care of myself.” My words came out a little harsh and I wished I could take them back, but I had to push him away.

“Sure.” He blinked, looking away as if I’d slapped him. Emotion flooded his face and he swallowed it down. “Bye, Jenny.”

The screen went blank and my heart sank like the Titanic. Why did I feel so jilted? He cared about me, even called me, and yet the whole conversation felt empty. Like a promise he couldn’t keep.

Another knock on my door startled me out of my sad haze. “Jennifer, are you coming?” Pell kicked the door impatiently with her little foot.

“No. I’m not hungry.” I slumped on my bed. “Tell your mom to put them in the fridge. I’ll eat later.”

“Mom!” Pell scampered down the hallway toward the kitchen.

Sure, I felt guilty bailing on them for breakfast, but after the conversation with Maxim, I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed.

Like the last few nights, I turned to my videos to take away the pain. Popping the next one in, I waited for the screen to flash on and curled up on my bed.

Angela laughed and waved at the camera. She wore a graduation robe in the deep navy-blue of Ridgewood Prep, with a gold cord tied to her cap for being on the honor roll. “Hi, Jenny! I can’t believe so much time has passed and I haven’t made a video for you.” She stuck out her lower lip. “I feel so guilty. I haven’t forgotten about you. Not at all.”

Angela turned the camera toward a newly planted tree in the rows leading up to Ridgewood. “The senior class got together, raised some money, and planted this in your memory.”

Great. A tree. That helps me so much. I rolled my eyes. Where was this tree now? Buried by skyscrapers? Still, the thought of everyone getting together to plant it in my honor gave me chills.

At the base of the tree, she focused the camera on a golden plaque. Jenny Streetwater 1995-. The other date was left blank.

Usually a memorial had two dates, which made it seem so unresolved. I wondered how long the tree stood and how many students passed by it saying my name.

Angela held up her left hand, the leaves rustling above her fingers. “Every time I walk by it, I think of you.”

The diamond on her left hand glittered in the sunlight. No. It can’t be. I leaned over to get a better look, but Angela brought the camera back to her face. “There’s something else I have to tell you.” She bit her lip and gazed up at the sky, smiling at a delicious secret. “Something big.”

I sat up on the edge of my bed, hugging my miniscreen in my lap. There were no comforting stuffed teddy bears to hug in the future.

She flashed the ring. A princess cut with two sapphires on each side. “Chad asked me to marry him. I know it’s so soon after graduation, and we have college coming up. We’re both going to USM. After we graduate…well, you know what.”

I bolted up on my feet and pressed pause. Angela’s smiling face stared back at me, frozen in time. It wasn’t her perfect white teeth that caught my attention. I traced a lock of her curly dark hair. The same color as… My chest tightened. I needed to find C-7.

Running from my room in my PJs, I bumped into Len.

“So, you’re up for those soycakes after all?”

“Um…sure.” I could have agreed to eat soycakes for every meal for the rest of my life. Anything to get her out of the way. I pushed by her and into the kitchen where C-7 loaded the dishwasher.

“Good morning, Jennifer. I trust you slept well.”

“I need you to do a search for me.”

C-7 scanned the living room, and I wrapped my hands around his arm. The metal felt cold and hard under my fingers. I whispered, “Please. There’s something I need to know.”

He checked the hallway, but Len had gone back to her room. Valex and Pell sat on the couch playing Pixie Swap. His head buzzed as he glanced down at my hands on his arm. “Very well. Give me your search parameters.”

I nodded, trying to find the courage to say what I suspected. “I need to know who Maxim Fairweller’s ancestors are, from my generation in two-thousand-twelve. Is it anyone from Ridgewood Prep?”

C-7 blinked, and his head buzzed like a computer during a really big download. “Affirmative.”

My heart jumped to my throat and thought I was going to be

sick. “Who?”

“There are several strands of the family tree, but one leads directly to two students attending the same years as you.”

It was too much of a coincidence to be made up. I knew the names before he said them.

C-7 stared at me, and although his eyes should have been cold, a spark of compassion glowed there. “Chad Foster and Angela Buffet.”

I fell back against the wall fridge and slumped to the floor.

“Jennifer, are you okay?”

“No.” I’d kissed a descendant of the boy I used to like and my best friend. Combined. How screwed up was that?

C-7 put a cold hand on my forehead. “Your temperature is two degrees above normal. Should I call for Valex and Len?”

“No, no, no.” They’d ask me what I was upset about, and I couldn’t talk to anyone about this. It was just plain too weird. “I’m fine. I just need to go back to my room and rest.”

As I stumbled away, gripping the wall for support, I realized why I felt such a connection to Maxim. He had everything I liked about Angela inside him, along with Chad’s hotness. The thought of kissing him made me excited and squirmy at the same time. Was it like kissing my best friend?

My head ached just thinking about it. I pulled the disc adapter out of my wallscreen and sank back into bed, cursing myself for watching another window to the past.

Those videos were like a game of roulette. Every other one shot me in the foot. Or more like the heart.