09. Change of Pace


"What the he-eck happened?" Iggy asked, looking at me -- yep, actually looking at me.

I was glad he could see, but it was a little weird.

"You don't wanna know," I sighed. God, this no flying thing sucked. Let it be known that public transportation really frowns upon two 14-year-olds on their own. But we still looked mature for our age, so since they couldn't prove that Fang and I weren't 18, it had worked out. But it seemed like five lifetimes before we'd arrived at Iggy's house, the one we'd nearly lost him in, back in reality. We had lied and said we were friends from school (yes, I get the irony) and his mom had let us in. She seemed nice, but then, she had last time, too, and it turned out she thought of her son as a way to make money.

But I digress.

That was Iggy's "hello" when we walked in. Gazzy grinned at me, and Angel gave me a big hug. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I hugged Angel back, thinking about how much I had missed these kids. How could I ever choose a normal life over this?

When Angel went to hug Fang, I sat down in a desk chair and asked, "So what's your story? How'd you guys end up together?"

"We go to the same school," Gazzy explained, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. "Me and Angel saw Iggy as we were walking home."

"Where do you guys 'live'?" I really made the quotes around "live," by the way.

"Orphanage," said Angel. She was trying to be strong, I could tell, but something in her huge blue eyes made me uneasy. "Our parents were neg--negilent?"

"Negligent?" I asked, and it was all I could do to not clench my hands into fists. Even normalcy wouldn't save my baby from being miserable.

"We were gonna go straight to Iggy's house, but Mrs. Miller -- she owns the orphanage -- wouldn't let us go. But we're fast, and we got away." Gazzy grinned, looking pleased with himself.

I imagined a sour-looking white-haired old lady waving a cane and trying to catch up with Gazzy and Angel, and stifled a laugh.

"So why are we here?" Iggy asked impatiently.

Right. The million-dollar question. Well, I was only gonna give 'em some of the truth. If I thought Fang teased me badly, I shuddered to think how Iggy would react to my "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" moment.

"It's one of my tests," I lied skillfully, feeling Fang's eyes on me but not looking at him. "Have you seen that news broadcast?"

"My 'mom' did," said Iggy bitterly, also using air quotes. "I saw a bit of it."

"Does that have anything to do with your test?" asked Angel.

"Only everything," I said. This time I did meet Fang's eyes, and he gave me a look that said, Only because you made it that way. Well. I'm nothing if not a fantastic liar.

"So we're going to Connecticut?" asked Gazzy.

"The one and only," I said, fluffing his hair. He was so cute -- clean, with clothes that had actually been washed. Angel's curls were bouncy, and her shorts and shirt looked adorable. And Iggy could see. I looked around the room and spotted a pair of glasses on his desk and snorted.

He followed my gaze and rolled his eyes. "I've been wearing contacts," he said coolly, and I almost cracked up. But I didn't. Sensitivity is very important to me.

Kudos if you caught the sarcasm there. Of course, we were all cracking up, me and the Gasman in the lead.

A minute later there was a knock at the door. "James? Could you keep it down in there? I'm trying to read."

Iggy groaned loudly, sounding exactly like a normal 14-year-old boy. Not that I know many of those. "Fine!" he yelled back.

"Hormones getting to you?" I joked. He ignored me, so I went back into leader-mode. "Okay! We have a plan once more! First, we seriously need to find Nudge. Anyone have any idea how?"

Nobody did. Three hours later Angel was asleep on Iggy's bed, Iggy and Gazzy were back on the gaming website, and I was pretty tired myself.

"I guess we should just stay here tonight," I said to Fang, hoping Iggy's mom wouldn't notice.

He nodded. "Yeah. And then?"

I sighed. "I don't have a clue where to start. I haven't heard from the Voice since we were in -- since we were at my mom's house," I finished awkwardly.

"Don't you think," Fang began slowly, "that it's almost too weird for you to still be hearing from the Voice? We are -- supposedly -- completely normal. It doesn't fit."

I frowned, processing. "What are you getting at? You think this is a trap?"

"It could be. Which makes me think: I think we should just go to Connecticut."

"But we have to find Nudge! Don't you think --"

"If this isn't a trap, we'll get out of it, be sent back to reality -- which includes Nudge. And even if it's not, how the heck do you expect to find her?"

I concur. He made sense.

"You're right," I said, hating the sound of it. "We'll leave here in the morning."

I just hoped that would be enough.


When I woke up, I realized that we under the watchful eyes of parents, something we all were unfamiliar with. It made me think of Mom and Ella, who were probably freaked. I tried not to.

Wasn't this a school day? Maybe we could pull this off.

"Iggy? One question, and you have to answer me honestly. Does your mom have to come in and wake you up in the morning?"

"I have an alarm clock."

"We gotta get out of here," I said, half-joking, "before we're caught. Iggy, get in the bed. Look like you've been sleeping there all night."

He did, though not very willingly, I might add -- boys -- and the rest of us climbed skillfully out the window. Sometimes I was surprised how much we weren't different, even being normal. Acting on impulse, I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell, just like I had done when we were living with Anne.

"Hello," I said brightly when the door opened. "We're friends from school. Is... James home?"

"I'm sure he's not awake yet," said Mrs. Griffiths, rolling her eyes (that reminded me of Iggy). "Would you like to come in?"

We stepped inside and sat down at the table. A box of muffins was out, and I realized I hadn't eaten in forever. Mrs. Griffiths must have noticed this, because she asked, "Would you like something to eat?"

We ended up eating pretty much all of the food she'd put out, and I saw her eyes widen. However, it didn't really matter. Nothing mattered except getting to Connecticut, and we needed fuel for that.

Finally Iggy walked out, and after he had eaten his fill too, we left.

"How are we getting to Connecticut?" Angel asked me as we walked down the sidewalk. I planned to walk us just out of Mrs. Griffiths' line of sight, then turn.

"Considering our current state, we're just going to have to use public transportation."

As you can guess, that was a huge success.