"We're, uh, decorating all the football players' houses. You know, as a surprise to… give our guys a boost before the next game." Maria held up her crocheted bag, glad it was her biggest one. "We have crepe paper and everything. Rah, rah!"
Kyle crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not on the football team," he informed her.
"Uh, uh, uh…" Maria swallowed hard, trying to shove her heart back into place.
"Really? This is all my fault!" Liz cried. "I always think of you as on the team. I guess because you're so big and strong. Well, we better go find the right house." She grabbed Maria by the arm and pulled her past Kyle. They raced out the front door and didn't stop running until they rounded the corner at the end of Kyle's block.
"Did you actually look at Kyle Valenti and say, 'You're so big and strong'?" Maria gasped.
"Sickening, isn't it?" Liz answered. "At least we got a look at Valenti's office."
"And found nothing." Maria sighed. "At least I didn't."
"Me neither," Liz said. "I hope the others are having more luck than we are."
Max shot a look at Adam. Was he cute? Max took another fast glance. It's not like he had to watch the road that carefully. It was straight, and flat, and pretty much empty, with the desert stretching out on both sides.
But no matter how often he took one of his fast peeks, Max just couldn't decide. Was Adam cute? Well, what he meant was, would girls think Adam was cute? It was a hard call. There were some things, like kittens or fuzzy ducklings, that were pretty much no-brainers. Definitely cute.
But Adam. Max was pretty clueless, although he had heard Maria saying that Adam's eyes were the most amazing shade of green. And eyes, they were important to girls, right?
Even if Maria thinks he's cute, that doesn't mean Liz thinks he's cute, Max told himself. And even if Liz does think he's cute, that doesn't mean anything. I mean, admit it, you think other girls besides Liz are cute. Like Maria. Be honest, you think Maria is walking, giggling cuteness.
But Liz. Whoa. Liz was so beautiful, it practically made him dizzy every time he saw her. She affected him the way no other girl ever did or ever would. And that's what he wanted Liz to feel about him. And that's most assuredly what he didn't want her to feel about Adam. Not like she did. Or at least he was pretty sure she didn't. But if Adam was cute, she might.
Wasn't there some study about how when a woman looked at a man and found him attractive, her pupils dilated? Maybe that's how he could tell if-
If Michael or Alex could hear what you're thinking, they would rag on you for the rest of your days, Max told himself.
"I guess we're far enough away from town for our practice session," Max said. He pulled the Jeep off the highway and drove another mile or so into the desert.
Adam was being awfully quiet. Max wondered what he'd been thinking about during the drive. Was he thinking about Liz? Was-
Max told himself to shut up and pulled the Jeep to a stop.
"Do you have a headache?" Adam asked. "You keep rubbing your head."
Max hadn't even realized he'd been doing it. It wasn't that he had a headache exactly, but there was this constant pressure behind his eyes. He thought it was from trying to block all the sensations and knowledge from the collective consciousness. It's not that he didn't want to learn everything he could about his heritage. But when he let himself experience the consciousness, it was all-consuming. And he couldn't afford the distraction right now. Later, after Michael was safe, there would be plenty of time to give himself over to it.
"I'm okay," he told Adam. "Any ideas on what we should try first? We're looking for anything that will give us more firepower when we break Michael out."
He didn't say "if." There was no "if" in this situation. In two days the group was going in, and Michael was coming out with them.
"Dr. Doyle, the guy who did most of the tests on me, had me try to explode things once," Adam said. "The biggest thing I ever managed was a grape. But together…"
"Let's try it. So when you blew up the grape, did you just push the molecules apart or what?" Max asked.
"I… I don't know," Adam answered. "I never really think about how I'm doing something-I just do it. Somehow it just comes out."
"Whoa. I've never experienced it like that," Max said, feeling a stab of envy. "Maybe it's because I've spent most of my life trying not to use any power if I didn't have to, and you grew up pushed to find out all the ways you could use yours."
"You didn't use your powers because you were afraid of scaring people, right?" Adam asked.
He's already figured out that's not the only reason, Max realized. Adam had been out of the compound for less than a week, and he'd already seen enough to teach him that humans, at least some humans, would want him dead if they knew the truth about him. Max could hear that knowledge in Adam's voice.
Adam was waiting for an answer.
"We don't use our powers in front of people partly because it would scare them. But also because when they do get scared, they can lash out. There are definitely people out there who would hurt you, Adam, just because you're different."
Adam nodded, his face somber. In that moment he looked like such a little boy. It was hard for Max to believe he'd actually been obsessing about whether Liz could possibly go for him.
"So what should we try and blow up?" Max asked. He and Adam would have to have a much longer discussion about humans later, but now they needed to get some training time in.
"Cactus?" Adam asked, nodding toward one about fifty feet away.
"Okay." Max reached out and touched Adam's arm. Instant connection. The only problem was, the images from Adam filled his vision. He couldn't even see the cactus.
Max tried to block the images, the way he'd been doing with the stuff from the collective consciousness. The images from Adam slowed, then faded. Max stared at the cactus.
"Ready?" he heard Adam ask.
"One second," he answered. He still wasn't sure how to do this. Adam said he just did it, but Max needed a method.
Maybe you don't, he told himself. Just stop thinking so much.
"On three," he told Adam. He could feel something growing between him and Adam, a force being generated. "One. Two. Three."
Max let the force loose, trying to aim it at the cactus. A second later he felt something wet against his cheek. He reached up and pulled away a hunk of mushy cactus. It had exploded so fast, he hadn't even seen it happen. Lucky he didn't get hit by a spiny chunk.
"That was cool!" Adam cried.
"Yeah, that could come in very handy at the compound," Max answered.
Adam's happy smile faded. "Let's try something else," Max said quickly.
"One time Dr. Doyle wanted me to set something on fire with my power. We could work on that. I couldn't do it, but there were things I couldn't do by myself that I could do with Michael," Adam answered.
"I'll go put a ball of paper on the ground." Max started to get out of the Jeep.
"Why don't we try that rock over there?" Adam asked.
"A rock? Rocks aren't exactly flammable," Max said. "But sure, let's go for it." They could always try something easier later. Adam grabbed Max's wrist, starting the connection.
Max let the feeling of power build up until he could feel it practically screaming to get out. "Okay, on three. One, two, three." He set the power free, and an instant later the rock began to smoke.
Come on, come on, Max thought. He let more power build, preparing for a second blast.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a little brown rabbit hop over to a piece of the cactus remains and take a nibble. Then it hopped toward the rock.
"Adam, be careful. We don't want to hit the-"
Max felt the power zing free. Then he heard the rabbit give a scream.
Max ripped his hand away from Adam. "Stop!" he shouted. "You're going to kill it!"
The rabbit's back legs jerked frantically, as if it were trying to run but couldn't. "No! Adam, look what you're doing! You've got to pull the power back!"