He'd always thought he went for blue eyes, like Maria's and Isabel's. But Cameron's brown eyes were pretty amazing. For one thing, they weren't just brown. Or at least not all the same shade of brown.
Michael leaned closer, so close, he could feel Cameron's breath against his face. Her eyes weren't plain brown at all. Right around the pupil there was a little ring of dark chocolatey brown, with sort of an uneven edge. Then most of her eye was a lighter sort of caramel brown, with a really, really thin ring of the dark brown around it.
"Has it been a minute yet?" Cameron asked.
Michael wasn't sure. All he knew was that even if it had been twice that long, he wasn't ready to move away. He moved a fraction nearer, the distance between them practically nonexistent now.
And she pulled away. Jerked away was more like it.
"That was definitely a minute," Cameron said, her voice all shaky. "My turn. Do you ever wish you weren't an alien? Truth or dare."
Michael stared at her. He couldn't believe she was tackling this "forbidden" topic.
"It seemed like we'd decided not to talk about our assorted freakishness," Cameron hurried to say. "I don't even know why I asked that question. I'll give you a different one."
"No, it's too late. You already asked it." Michael had never talked much to humans about that part of himself. It's not like he thought Maria, or Liz, or Alex would get all weird about it. He just never felt like it, that's all.
But why shouldn't he answer Cameron's questions? As she said, they were both freaks. So he should be able to tell her anything, right?
Adam clicked off the TV. It was fake, and he hated fake. His whole pathetic life had been fake-from believing that the sun was only something in storybooks to believing Valenti was his father.
He checked the watch that Alex had given him. Almost an hour before school got out. Almost an hour until he would be allowed to go out into the real world. Allowed. Max, Isabel, and the others didn't carry machine guns, but they still wanted to be his guards. Don't go outside unless one of us is with you, Adam. Don't talk to anyone but us, Adam.
They gave him a TV, a CD player, and real books instead of those picture books Valenti had made him read. But was he supposed to get all excited over a bunch of fake stuff? Should he be happy in his little shed world, kept away from everything real?
He wanted real. He wanted a girl-a girl as pretty as Liz-spinning around on the grass, her head flung back, her arms open wide, her long hair swirling around her. He wanted his own toes in that same grass. He wanted his fingers touching her face.
The more he thought, the antsier he became. Why wait any longer for the real world when he could get a taste of it-right now? He stood up and rushed over to the shed door. He grabbed the handle and froze. Could he really just walk out?
The thought felt shocking. Revolutionary. Miraculous.
Adam flung open the door. Sunny blue sky filled with heaps of fluffy clouds exploded above him. He started to feel a little dizzy, and he wobbled on his feet. He thought about putting on his sunglasses to take the edge off. But no. This was real. This was what he wanted. Straight-up reality.
He crossed the lawn to the back gate, hurried through and slammed it behind him, then headed to the sidewalk and made a left. He had no real plan, but he vaguely remembered that left would take him to the center of town.
As he walked, he was bombarded with new sensations, his knowledge of the real world expanding with every step. He'd seen pictures of ginkgo trees, but now he discovered the sharp, sour smell of the fleshy yellow seeds and the feel of veins in the scalloped leaves. He'd seen cars on TV, but for the first time he smelled the exhaust and felt the little whoosh of air when one passed close by.
He could practically feel his brain growing. He had the feeling that he was becoming more real as his experience of the real world increased.
Turning onto North Main Street, Adam saw a whole row of the fast-food places he'd seen advertised on TV He could eat anything he wanted, anytime he wanted. That was, if he had any money.
He stopped at the corner, listening to the clicking sound as the streetlight changed. Another new thing. When the little walking pedestrian lit up, he crossed the street. He felt like giggling. It was so hard to believe he was really up here. He couldn't decide whether to look in the store windows, at the other people on the street, or at some more cars, so he kept turning his head back and forth, trying to watch everything at once.
Then he spotted a sign in the pawn shop window that said Live Alien Inside, and that captured his attention. What was this? Max had made it very clear that Adam could never tell anyone that he was from another planet. He'd said that's the reason Valenti had kept Adam in the compound.
Adam cautiously stepped into the store, scanning the narrow aisles. He saw a woman behind the counter. Was she the alien? Was he even allowed to ask that?
"Can I help you with something?" she called.
Adam slowly approached her. "Uh, I saw that sign in the window."
She grinned. "And you wanted to see the alien. Be right back." She turned around and ducked through the curtain behind her. A moment later she reappeared, carrying a spider monkey. At least it looked exactly like the spider monkeys he'd seen in the big book of animals he'd had in the compound. "His name is Scooter," she said.
"That's an alien?" Adam asked.
"No, it's just a joke. You know, to get people into the place. Everyone knows aliens look like this." She patted a green plastic head next to the cash register.
The thing looked evil, skeletal with huge almond-shaped eyes. "I have a friend who was abducted," the woman continued, "and I have to put this thing away every time she comes in. She says the guys who took her looked exactly like this." She reached below the counter and pulled out a rifle. "All I have to say is, if they try to come after me, they're going to get quite a welcome."
Adam backed up a few steps, then he turned around and made for the door. He took huge gulps of the fresh air as he hurried down the street. Reality had just taken a very strange turn.
Was that how most humans saw aliens? As horrible things that were going to come and get them? Things they had to shoot on sight? Was it true? Were there aliens like that?
The questions bubbled in his brain. He checked his watch. He looked up and noticed that place, that eating place where Liz worked. Liz should be at work.
He picked up his pace as he continued down the street, going faster and faster until he was running. He'd feel better when he saw Liz. She could explain how humans really felt about aliens.
But that wasn't the only reason he wanted to see her. There was something about Liz. He wasn't sure what to call it. When he was around her, he felt one hundred percent real.
"Have you seen Adam?" Max demanded.
"He wasn't in the shed?" Liz cried. She dropped the sponge she'd been using to wipe down the cafe's counter.
"Would I be asking if you'd-" Max stopped himself. "No, I just came from there. Was he in the shed before school? When's the last time you saw him?"
"I brought some breakfast to him this morning. And I told him you would be there as soon as you could," Liz answered.
What was he thinking, leaving Adam alone? It was only his second day out of the compound. Third, if you counted the first night. Two, three, it didn't matter. Adam was like a little kid. Max wouldn't have left a little kid by himself.