Starstruck

Chapter 11b: Magnetic field (part 2)

CHAPTER 11

Magnetic field (part 2)

"No!" His denial was instant, but then, meeting my gaze, he gave a little shrug. "Okay, maybe on the first day of school, when I very first figured it out. I needed to make sure. But as soon as I started talking to you, I liked you. For yourself, not just because of . . . you know." He took my hand and looked at me pleadingly. "M, I really did want to tell you myself, but--"

"But after the way I freaked when you told me you were a Martian, you didn't want to risk me going off the deep end if you tried to tell me I was? At school?"

He shrugged and nodded, smiling sheepishly. "Sorta, yeah."

Hugely relieved, I squeezed his hand--something I could never have imagined myself doing just a couple of days earlier. "No, I get it. And I can't swear I wouldn't have. Gone off the deep end, I mean. It's . . . kind of a lot."

"Actually, you took it way better than I thought you would. Way better than I did, in fact."

"That's right--you said you didn't find out until a few years ago. So until then, you just thought you and your parents were like everyone else?"

"Pretty much. I mean, why would I think otherwise? But as I got older, I started overhearing conversations between them, and with my grandfather and others, and I started to think something weird was going on. So I started asking questions. They put me off for a while, but finally decided I was old enough to handle it."

"How old were you?"

"Almost eleven. And man, I was seriously freaked out when they told me. Locked myself in my room for two days, yelling that I didn't want to be raised by aliens. But finally I decided it was kind of cool. And now it just seems, well, normal."

I tried to imagine what he'd gone through, finding out such a thing when he was just ten years old. "I guess I have a little bit of an advantage, being older."

And having the kind of life where anything different, anything special, was bound to be an improvement. But I didn't say that part. It did make me wonder about something else, though.

"I still don't understand how you and your parents found me," I said. "I mean, Jewel is such a nowhere little town . . ." I trailed off, remembering something Rigel had told me during our very first conversation.

"Wait. Is that why you had to change schools every year? Looking for me?"

Rigel confirmed my guess with a nod. "Though I didn't know that was the reason until eighth grade."

"I'm surprised you don't resent the heck out of me."

"It's not like it's your fault."

I frowned, still skeptical, and he suddenly grinned. "Okay, I admit that before I met you I might have resented you a little. But definitely not now. Not even a little." His expression, his voice, his touch, forced me to believe him.

"As for the how," he continued, "my dad's a computer whiz. He'd been searching adoption records and stuff and was pretty sure you were in Indiana somewhere--which is why we were here. The lucky break came when Center North played Jewel at football last fall. I was the backup quarterback, had only been off the bench once before in a game, since I was a freshman. But Appleton wrenched his shoulder and the coach put me in while they iced it. And it was like I was supercharged, or something. Played way over my head."

"And you think it was because--"

"Had to be. I told my parents about it after the game and they figured you must have been there. So the next year I transferred to Jewel--and here you are."