Helen wanted was to tell Lucas and make an issue out of it. After the whole “Hector tried to drown me and ruined my phone in the process” incident, Lucas had happily beat the stuffing out of his cousin in the newly finished arena, and an hour later a toothless Hector had given Helen a new phone that she was pretty sure had enough computing power to put a satellite into orbit.
But Zach was making it impossible for Helen to protect him. The more he kept trying to corner her, the more suspicious Lucas became, until the inevitable happened. After school on Wednesday as Lucas walked with Helen to track practice, he saw Zach wandering around nearby. When Zach saw Lucas he changed direction and went to the boys’ locker room, but not before his suspicious behavior was noticed.
“Is Zach after you?” Lucas asked with wide eyes.
“Oh, not really. He wants to talk to me about something, I think,” Helen said as if it wasn’t important. She shut her mouth before she could say too much.
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Lucas said with a sneer, his blue eyes turning nearly black as he sensed her untruth. “Is there any reason for Zach to think that you might be single?”
“No! Wait, what?” Helen stammered, not understanding Lucas’s anger.
“Did you tell him that you and I weren’t really a couple because I won’t . . .” he trailed off, and ripped a hand through his hair as he paced around in a circle. “What are you telling people about us?” The outline of his body began to smear as he scattered the light around him in agitation.
“I haven’t told anyone anything!” Helen said, her voice pitching up to an unnaturally high register.
“Are you trying to make me jealous or are you just so frustrated that you’re already looking for someone else? Someone who’ll give in to you?” He was so angry Helen could barely see him as he began to blur himself out, but she was angry, too.
“I am NOT looking for anyone else!” she howled at him.
Lucas took an involuntary step back as he stared at the halo of pale blue light crackling around Helen’s head and hands. Her lightning didn’t seem to respond to Lucas’s light control, and as the distortions he created were thrown back by Helen’s metallic glow he was forced to shade his eyes.
“Oh, boy,” she tittered nervously. She felt like she was going over the top peak on a roller coaster—and she was just about to drop down.
She threw an arm out to the side to steady herself. Lucas took a step forward to grab on to her, but wisely stopped himself before he touched her and got electrocuted. Then the blue light went out like a switch had been turned off and Helen plopped onto the floor like a half-baked soufflé.
“I feel awful,” she told him, a bewildered look on her face.
“Are you . . . grounded yet?” he asked her, practically vibrating with worry.
Helen looked at the floor and giggled insanely as the electricity running around her body tickled her brain.
“Nope. Linoleum,” she said, slapping the palm of her hand against the nonconductive floor. Her vision swam in static. “You were r.r.right. I should have learned to u.u.use this.” She had to get rid of the energy, stat.
“Luk.k.k. Run.n.n,” she said, her jaw jittering uncontrollably with energy as her bolt demanded to be released. She had held it too long.
Lucas wouldn’t leave her, and Helen knew she could kill him if she didn’t do this right. She racked her lightning-filled brain and luckily remembered fourth-grade science class. Desperate to rid herself of the monster she had summoned, she slid on her knees to the exit door at the end of the hall and rammed her shoulder against it.
As soon as she came in contact with the metal release bar that ran across the middle of the door it glowed orange with heat and started melting. She barely moved fast enough to open it before the whole door turned into a solid block of smoldering metal. Tumbling down the short flight of steps and crawling outside on her knees, she threw herself forward onto her hands. With a welcome sigh she discharged her bolt into the one place that it would be safely dismantled—the ground.
After a few seconds she felt herself get pulled up from the forgiving earth and carried away.
“Are you injured?” Lucas asked anxiously.
“Just wicked tired,” she sighed, a little surprised at herself for using