TWENTY NINE

What did I get for saving the day and solving the mission? A promotion up the ranks of U.E.? An all expenses paid trip to Hawaii? One lousy day of vacation? No. I got to go to school.

Didn’t I deserve a vacation? I had been manhandled, kidnapped, almost fed to the sharks, and had succeeded in getting all of the information that the U.E. needed and what was my reward? School.

I was back in the teal locker lined halls before lunchtime. The U.E. promised that I would get a whole week’s break from missions, though I noticed they didn’t say anything about a break from training.

Emma found me walking down the hall on the way to the cafeteria.

“Hey, where have you been?” She said falling into step beside me, looking adorable and well rested.

“Appointment.” Not entirely a lie. Didn’t those secret agent types in movies always say things like “I have an appointment with destiny” when they go off on their missions?

“You missed an absolutely fascinating history class.”

“Really?” I opened the cafeteria door.

“No.” Emma smiled.

“Hey, I have to buy my lunch. I’ll see you over at the table.”

“You’re buying lunch? Is there something you aren’t telling me? I thought that your mom says that cafeteria food will kill you.”

“She does say that. But I’m feeling lucky today.” I got into line. The smell from the food at the front of the line did not make me want the line to move any faster. I could see why this stuff could kill you. The smell alone was going to do me in.

I watched Emma make her way over to our usual table. She pretended not to know, but male eyes followed her when she went past. I knew that she was making mental notes on who was looking at her and who had potential. She cracked me up.

I picked up a tray and set it down on the metal shelf. Once I was up to the food I looked at my options: tater tots, sauerkraut, a strange looking meat like substance, and something fruit jello-like. I scooped a heap of tater tots on to my plate and made my way to the cash register.

I couldn’t believe that people paid to eat this stuff.

I went and sat down across from Emma.

“Nice,” she said, holding her wonderful looking turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread.

“I’m thrilled. I don’t suppose your mom packed an extra cookie?”

“She may have.”

I felt someone standing next to me and looked up. Chuck.

“Hey, Emma.”

“Chuck.” Emma actually blushed.

He turned to me. “Got your monologue ready for tomorrow?”

I looked at him blankly.

“For the auditions? Veteran’s Day? The Tempest? Does any of this ring a bell?” Chuck was talking to me, but grinning at Emma.

“Thanks for reminding me. I completely forgot about it. I guess I’ll just pick one of the ones that I’ve worked on in class. I don’t have any high hopes that I’ll get a big role or really any role at all.”

“Katie, you really are a pretty good actor. One of these days you are going to be the star.”

“That’s OK I don’t need to do that. Ever.” I took a deep breath.

“I think that she’s repressing it,” Emma said looking up at Chuck. “Her inner drama queen is going to come bursting out any day now.”

Chuck laughed. “See you tomorrow, Katie. Auditions are here this time, right after school. Don’t forget.”

He turned and walked away.

“Come on, don’t you think that Chuck’s kind of cute?” Emma said, when he was out of earshot.

“So you’re serious about this branching out business? Dating out of the mold?”

“I had a really good time on Saturday.”

“Maybe,” I said. “Actually, I’ve kind of been thinking the same thing–about breaking out of the mold. Maybe I could go out with a guy who isn’t a rebel hippie guitar player.”

“Really? You mean someone clean? I am so in. Finally, we could double date!”

“Gee and I thought that we didn’t double date because I never got asked out on dates. I had no idea it was a hygiene issue.”

“Don’t worry about getting asked out. You are a hot ticket item now,” Emma said.

“Oh yeah?” I said picking at my tater tots.

“Yes, I think that our little Katie has blossomed. Last week alone you were asked out on two dates and there is this universal law that like attracts like.” Emma nodded wisely and took a sip of her juice box. “I saw it on Oprah.”

“Really?”

“It’s like when you find really great shoes when you had finally given up looking for them and suddenly you find great shoes everywhere. It’s like the world of great shoes has opened up for you and they flow right into your life. Just like with you and boys.”

“I’m not saying I need to have a guy in my life. But if a good one happened along, that might be OK.”

“Of course you don’t need a guy in your life. But if you did have a guy in your life, are you thinking that you are open to dating any guy or are you looking in a new particular direction?”

“I don’t know yet. I need to think about that.”

“Because Jaisen Bax is watching you across the cafeteria,” Emma said.

I turned around and Jaisen Bax was watching me. I wished that I could explain to Emma that there was no chance in this universe that Jaisen Bax was interested in me like that. That he was watching me because he was my partner as a secret agent, my superior officer really, and he was probably wondering if my head still hurt from getting bashed over the head the way that his did. I waved at him. He smiled and waved back.

“I don’t think so, Em.”

“We’ll see.”

***

I walked home, my bike never having made it to school what with my having “spent the night at Cora’s house” and the U.E. dropping me off and all. Gave me time to think. I had to pick a monologue when I got home and go to bed very very early. I didn’t have to go for training today and I was going to try to slip a nap in before my parents got home. A U.E. medic had checked my head and it was OK to sleep now.

All of the events of the past week were whirling through my head as I made my way through the suburbs between the school and my house. I passed neat little yards–some with children’s toys sprawled across them, some with a few flowers, most with just very short clipped grass. My mind more closely resembled the yards with toys sprawled across them. I had done so much so fast I couldn’t put it in any recognizable pattern. Images of drama club, whale watching, being kidnapped all swirled around in my mind.

I was glad to see the familiar door of my home in front of me. I unlocked it and went up the carpeted stairs and directly into my bed.

The feel of a hand touching my back jolted me out of a deep sleep. It was still light out–my parents weren’t due home yet. What was someone doing in my bedroom?

Within seconds the intruder was pinned to the ground.

I opened my eyes all the way. “Paul?”

He chuckled deep in his chest. “Hello to you too.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Currently, I’m getting the life crushed out of me by my little sister.”

I released his arms and rubbed my eyes. Paul’s hair had grown and he didn’t look like he’d shaved in a week.

He was shaggy. Just like the guy at Schliesman’s.

“When did you get into town?”

“Last Thursday.”

“I seem to remember you telling me, when you called me in the middle of a date last Thursday, that you were sitting in your dorm room worrying about your baby sister.”

“Well it just so happens I was hanging out in San Martin worrying about my baby sister.

Who I saw at a drugstore in the middle of her date.”

“So?”

“So, I thought it was my duty to give your date a good talking to.”

“Why would you do that?”

Paul sighed. “Because it was a little bit suspicious finding you at the drugstore. And in some sort of weird disguise too–what was up with the hat and glasses? I assumed you were buying…” He gave me a look.

“What?” All innocence because I’d forgotten just how dirty Paul’s mind was.

He just kept looking at me. “Never mind. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, obviously I have nothing to worry about.”

Finally, it got through. “Condoms? Paul!”

He shrugged.

“It was our first date!”

“Exactly. Your date isn’t from around here. Maybe they do things differently in Lapland or wherever he’s from. I didn’t want your inexperience taken advantage of.”

No wonder Jaisen had never told me what Paul had said to him on the phone! I was horrified.

“Paul, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Chicago? Going to classes, that sort of thing.” I let him up from his pinned position.

He sat up on his elbows. “What were you doing sleeping in the middle of the afternoon anyway? Don’t you have chores to do?”

“I wasn’t sleeping. I was just…meditating.”

“Mom never would have let us get away with that.”

I rolled my eyes and flopped back on the bed, wide-awake now. “Out with it. You didn’t just come to home to harass me. What’s going on?”

“First, I would like to say I’m not asking for help.”

“Of course not.”

He sat down on the bed next to me, rubbing his chest where my knee had been. “Jeez, you’ve got great reflexes.”

“Just like you didn’t ask Michael for help.”

“That was different, he owes me. Where did you get that springing rolling type move–are you still studying at the dojo?”

I decided to ignore this. “Why does Michael owe you? This whole secrecy thing is driving me nuts. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“OK.” Paul crossed his legs and put his palms together. “How about we make a little trade?”

“That’s starting to sound a little more enticing. What sort of trade?”

“You can’t tell ANYONE I told you this–no one, not even Michael.”

“I happen to be great at keeping secrets.” I stretched out on the bed next to him, my feet hanging off the end.

“This isn’t like keeping Emma’s hair care products a secret. Michael really doesn’t want anyone to know.”

I tried to hold in a laugh. He had no idea. “Yeah, all right, more important than Emma’s hair. Got it.”

“Michael isn’t going into plastic surgery.”

“What?” I sat up. This wasn’t what I expected at all.

“Hold it down–you don’t need to broadcast it to the neighborhood.”

“Can you just repeat that last bit, I think I might have misheard you.”

“Michael isn’t going into plastic surgery. Do NOT tell mom. Swear, Katie.”

“I swear. God, I thought it was something else, like a secret showgirl wife or something.

Michael is way more messed up than I ever imagined. What about the stories?”

“Borrowed.”

“His mentor?”

“Somebody at the hospital. Michael’s hardly said two words to the guy.”

“Who goes to such lengths?”

“Someone with a secret.”

“Uh, yeah.” I crossed my legs too and leaned my elbows forward. “What is Michael going into that he doesn’t want Mom to know?”

“I don’t know.”

“He won’t tell you?”

“No, I just don’t remember. Something ology maybe?”

“Don’t tell me gynecology. No way.” The thought of Michael looking at women’s private parts flashed through my head and I did my best to repress it. God, I hoped it was something else.

“I don’t think so.”

“But it’s worse than plastic surgery?”

“Obviously Michael thinks so. So…will you tell mom about my ‘A’?”

“I guess.”

“There’s more.”

I made a face. “Yeah, I kind of figured you hadn’t come all of the way to California to coerce me into telling Mom you got an ‘A’.”

“My audition for a new reality show was accepted. I was in the area doing final interviews. I made it. I’m going to be on a reality TV show.” He beamed at me.

“What about school?”

“Don’t worry, I’m finishing the semester. Then I’m taking the next semester off.”

“Mom is totally going to freak. Especially after hearing about your ‘A’. If you flunked out that would be one thing, but she’s going to go on and on about your wasted potential.”

“That’s why I told her I got a ‘D’, but you convinced me I need to come clean and let it all out in the open.”

“You mean, I need to come clean for you.”

He ruffled my hair. “That’s my sis. Taking one for the team.”

Why was I always the one taking one for the team?