Wonderfall (or, The Girl with the Rabbit Tattoo)

Chapter 12 | Phos

The sun had only been up for a couple of hours, but the temperature was already soaring. I could see the heat shimmering off the white stone of the Midway, the waves distorting the barbed tooth of the island a few hundred yards out. It was still early enough that the shopkeepers were up and readying their stores, but not so early that any of the candidates had finished their testing, though I figured most were up in The Lists—exactly where I should have been.

It wasn't a tough decision. There wasn't a world in which I could imagine living where I would choose hours in The Lists to spending a few unsupervised moments with a mysterious and beautiful girl in the forest, even if she was blunt. Plus, I figured that even if I didn't show for a test and failed, it wouldn't send me to the bottom of the scoreboard.

What had given me some trouble, was the decision about what flavor phos to bring Mia, and seeing as I only had grape left in my apartment, I knew I was going to have to do more to impress the girl in the woods.

Grabbing my pack and opting for my standard issue navy shorts and pale blue shirt so as not to stand out against the other candidates, I rushed out the door. Moments later, I paced down the Midway, pack in hand, filled with every flavor of phos I could find in the stores.

Pausing at the end of the bridge, I stared up the hill. Candidates were spilling out of The Lists, and many were heading my direction. Scooting off the side of the bridge, I stepped into the trees, hopeful if Hayley was heading my way, she hadn't seen me. I had sent her another message late about being sorry I hadn't caught up with her on the Midway. I knew that wouldn't be enough to keep her from giving me trouble if she actually saw me. The girl was smart—a dodge with a holo was one thing. Dodging her in person was quite another. And every time I thought about the girl with the green eyes I got a shiver, the feeling within me growing that I was making a horrible mistake by keeping her at a distance, especially when just days before I would have given almost anything for us to be more than just friends.

I turned into the woods, trying to distance myself from my worries. I pushed down the broken path through the trees, a nervous excitement grew in my chest, making my lungs tingle. And I felt the perspiration already starting on my brow, dripping down my neck, no breeze through the trees to keep the air cool around my skin.

I hardly stopped at the outpost, ducking quickly through the crack in the glass, bolting across the grass and into the trees. Pushing through the shrubs, I made it to the small clearing in the trees.

"You don't listen so well, Bo."

I heard her voice before I saw her. Mia appeared out of the shadows. I smiled and then realizing I wasn't sure I heard her properly, I cocked my head. "Did you call me Bo?"

"Yeah, it's a nickname we have for city people," she said, through a simple smile that lit in her brown eyes. She had on the same dark pants as the day before, but probably owing to the heat, she had on a green T-shirt that I couldn't help but notice fit her well. Her hair was pulled back and braided with a strip of leather. Crossing her arms, she stepped forward, taking a moment to look at me from head to toe. "And why didn't you wear something that's less ... that?" she added, twirling her finger at me.

I still didn't understand what Bo meant, but I was learning quickly that Mia's answers seemed to come with even more questions. I looked down at myself, holding out my arms. I blended in with the candidates in Wonder, and who did she think we were going to run into anyway? More questions. Fewer answer. "I did," I said helplessly.

"No, you didn't. I could see you walking through the city."

I shook my head, not only surprised that she had seen me from what had to have been hundreds of yards away, but that she could have picked me out of the other candidates who were wearing the same thing.