“You didn’t think it was going to be easy, did you?” Grace said from the middle of the table, her glow shifting wildly through the spectrum before she shot straight up like a reverse falling star and slipped right out through the high skylights. We appeared to be alone, but I’d bet she was watching.
No one said anything, and I looked from Barnabas to Nakita, who was ignoring me, her expression grim. “I’m going to get a shake,” I said suddenly, not at all hungry of course but needing the excuse to get away from them for a moment. “You guys want anything?”
I didn’t wait for an answer, and standing up, I almost ran into a chair someone had left out. Catching my balance against it, I stopped short and carefully set it under a table, trying to make it look like I’d meant to do it. Striding over to the restaurants, I swear I thought I heard Grace giggle.
I’d ditched school with high expectations, but now I was feeling totally inadequate. It wasn’t an unfamiliar emotion, but this was the first time someone’s life was in the balance. Picking a restaurant without a line, I set my hands on the counter and stared up at the menu, not really seeing it. I had the cash my dad had given me for lunch, not that I ever ate lunch anymore. Crap, I had to text him that I might be late after school today.
“You going to read it, or order from it?” said a voice right in front of me, and I jerked, bringing my attention down to find a guy about my age in a lame-looking apron with a chicken on it, boldly stating, THE CHICKEN COOP, ONE GOOD CLUCK. A paper hat tried to contain his sandy blond hair, but failed. He had a nice face, and he smiled as he saw my embarrassment. His name tag said ace. My thoughts zinged to Josh, and I felt a moment of guilt that he had been left at school.
“Uh, can I have a vanilla shake? Small,” I said, since I wasn’t really going to drink it, and he beeped it up.
“Anything for your friends?”
I turned to see Nakita with one hand on her purse, watching me with a lost look on her face. Barnabas had his head thrown back, staring at the ceiling as if he were bored. At least they weren’t fighting. “You’ve been watching me?” I asked, tilting my head to look coy. Stupid, but coy.
Ace plucked a cup a size larger than I’d ordered and smiled. “Nice move with the chair. Almost looked like you meant to do that.”
I rolled my eyes, cursing Grace for leaving it there for me. “Yeah,” I said, shifting from foot to foot, terribly conscious of my hair. I hadn’t seen anyone here with purple hair except for the pierced goddess working at Hot Topic.
Ace was silent, his back to me as he filled up the cup. There was only one other guy working in the back room, cleaning the ovens. It was too early for lunch. “So, when does school start for you?” I asked, needing to say something.
Ace turned around, eyeing me slyly as he snapped a top on the shake. “Tomorrow. I wasn’t even supposed to be here this morning, and then they called. Man, I could’ve killed my mom.” He slid the drink to me. “I had my day already planned. Surfing the web and eating cheese puffs. That’s the last time I let my mom get the phone and answer for me.”
“I work part-time at a flower shop, and I hate it when my dad does that.”
Ace adjusted his hat, grimacing. “If I’m at work, she knows where I am,” he said sourly. “She’s always checking up on me like I’m a kid. She works at the hospital, so she sees everything that comes in through the emergency room and thinks I’m going to get in an accident.”
My mind flitted back to waking up in my local morgue, dead from a car crash. My heart began thumping. I didn’t think it was the memory of me dying, though. A tingling was rising through my aura as a thought evolved in my mind. His mom works at the hospital? Can it be this easy? Maybe that’s what Barnabas meant about my instincts being good. “I hear you,” I said, glancing at Barnabas and Nakita, but they were staring at me, oblivious.
“So now everything I want to do today, I do tomorrow,” Ace said, shrugging.
I jerked myself back from my thoughts. “You said you have school tomorrow.”
“I said school starts tomorrow. I didn’t say I was going to be there.”
Ooh, a little rebel, are we? I took a straw, tearing it open and jamming it into the shake. “You ditching your first day of school?” I asked, pretending to take a sip of my shake.
“Something like that,” he said, smiling right back. “I got more important stuff to do.”
“Like what?” I said, smiling like the cool girls at my old school had taught me before I ditched them.
Ace laughed, flattered on some level. “Music. Shoe and me, we get music.”
He tossed his attention briefly to the black-haired guy in the back, and I felt a drop of disappointment. “You’re in a band?” I asked. Crap, it had been nothing after all.
“No, not make it. We get it. Before it’s released.”
The stress he’d put on his words pulled me back. “You lift it?” I asked, eyes widening. If he could hack a music site, a hospital computer would be nothing.
Excited, I edged forward. The move was not lost on Ace, and he leaned across the counter, hitting the sale button and closing the drawer almost before it had opened. “Last week,” he whispered, his eyes glinting, “Shoe got into a major record label’s site and lifted a track of Coldplay’s music not out until next spring.”
I shivered, my aura seeming to chime. He could break into secure sites. “Really? Can I hear it?”
Ace drew back, slyly standing behind the counter as if he were king of the world. “Shoe and I don’t let anyone listen. Not until we’re done. I gotta put the cover art on the disc. Then you can buy it.”
My breath huffed out of me. Feigning disbelief, I cocked my hip. “Okay, I get it,” I said in a bored tone. “Whatever.”
But Ace laughed. “You don’t believe me?” Turning to the back, he shouted, “Shoe! Tell her the name of Coldplay’s newest album.”
The boy in the back pulled himself out of the oven he had been cleaning. There was grease smudged on his shoulder and he looked mad. “What the hell is wrong with you, Ace?” he exclaimed. “You’re going to get us caught!”
“Dude!” Ace said, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Cool your stick, man. She’s not going to say anything.”
Shoe threw the rag he’d been using at Ace, but it fell far short. “You don’t even know who she is!” he yelled, and a side door to the kitchen banged open and a short man wearing a shirt a size too small for him came out. Manager. I could tell even before I saw his lame brown shoes with the tiny brown laces.
“Mitch, we got a problem here?” he asked, and Shoe turned to him, still ticked.
“No!” he shouted. Taking the oven cleaner, he sprayed it wildly on the front of the next oven.
“Chill, dude!” Ace said. “It’s not a big deal!” He was almost laughing, and it only made Shoe angrier, his motions becoming fast and erratic.
The manager saw it, too, and he came closer. “Relax,” the man said, trying to look as if he were in charge. “I’ve put up with your temper all summer.”
Shoe turned. “Yeah? Well, I quit!” he shouted, slamming the oven cleaner down. “I don’t need this crap!”
“No, you’re fired!” the man said, and Ace started to laugh, looking at the food court to see who was watching. “Clock out, and don’t come back. I’ll mail you your last check! And don’t bother asking for a reference.”
“You can keep your lousy money,” Shoe muttered, and I watched in alarm as Shoe took off his apron and threw it down in disgust. Turning to Ace, who clearly thought it was all a big joke, Shoe said, “You’re a freaking loser, Ace. You know that? You’re so stupid you can’t even keep your mouth shut. We’re done. Got it? You’re on your own.”