The Summer I Became a Nerd - By Leah Rae Miller Page 0,37
Stay-at-home moms are robbing banks. Upstanding business men have been caught shoplifting makeup. The drunk tank at the police station has become so full of old ladies they had to empty the public swimming pool to make room for more wasted grandmothers. The insanity is escalating. Rumors are circulating amongst the paranormal community that one of our own is responsible.
As we walk away to let a guy with a sign on his back that reads “I’m a Centaur” hear the information, I ask Logan, “Okay, so what do we do now?”
“We mingle, we chitchat, we try to find out what other people know. Looks like it’s going to be a good old-fashioned whodunnit this summer.”
“Well, if we already know that’s it’s one of us doing this stuff…” I look up at Logan. One of his eyebrows raises, and the corner of his mouth quirks up. “Um, wouldn’t we try to find out who can control humans like that? Make humans do things they wouldn’t want to do.”
“Wait, let me see your character sheet.” I hand it to him. “I thought so. You have a nice level of Race Knowledge. I guess you spent a lot of those two hundred years in the library while you were stuck in your parents’ castle. Let’s go talk to Torrak and see if we can find out some more.”
We pull Torrak aside, and Logan nudges me. “Go on, ask him.”
“Okay, um, I have this Race Knowledge thing and—”
“Well done.” Torrak leans in close to whisper, “You would know certain races have the ability to control humans’ actions. You would also know dark fairies are one of these races, and they have a tendency to enjoy chaos and pranks.”
My eyes go wide. “Okay, thanks.”
Torrak nods and goes back to his clan.
Logan throws his arm around my shoulders and squeezes. “Good job. I bet we know more than anyone else. Knowledge is power, right? Let’s get a soda.”
We move over to the refreshment table. There are chips and dip, cookies, and candy. There’s also an array of sodas, all caffeinated. These people are going to be wired by night’s end if this is all there is to snack on.
“Hi, Logan,” a silky voice says from behind us. Logan’s hand, which is in the middle of pouring his soda into a cup of ice, jerks, sloshing brown liquid onto my open-toed shoes.
“Oh crap. Sorry, Mad, I mean, Laowyn.” He rips off a paper towel from the roll on the foldout table and tries to clean off my shoes.
“Logan?” the voice says again, and I turn. It’s her, the dark fairy that’s been giving me the willies all night. The second we make eye contact, the corner of her top lip twitches like she’s fighting the urge to growl.
“Hey, Kelsey, how’s it going?” Logan says.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” She puts a hand on his forearm. “Alone?”
Now I feel my own growl creep up in my throat.
Logan steps away from her. “We’re in the middle of game here. Can’t it wait?”
“No,” she says, her tone impatient. “It’ll just take a second, I promise. It’s important.”
He lets out a long sigh and turns to me. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Sure,” I say in my it’s-not-okay-but-I’m-going-to-say-it-is-anyway voice.
Her jet black bob swishes and her wings smack me in the face when she turns to go to the other side of the house with Logan in tow. I pretend my eyes are girlifying lasers and concentrate on her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t turn into a Barbie look-alike, but I imagine what her reaction would be anyway: Terror, horror, and ultimately, running away screaming.
“What’d she want?” Dan says as he walks up.
“To talk. Alone.”
“Poor Logan. He has the worst luck with girls,” he says. “I guess we all can’t be as discerning as myself.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I am single by choice, not because no girl will have me.” He points a finger at me like he’s making a very valid statement.
I give him a long blank stare, but he doesn’t get the hint. “I meant, what do you mean about Logan having the worst luck with girls?”
“Well, that girl”—he nods in the direction Logan and Kelsey just went—“kind of drug him through the mud, then broke his heart. She bossed him around all the freaking time, put him down, told him he needed to get out of the comic shop and start a band or something like that. She just wanted him to do it because her roommate at