Chapter 4

"I hate Mondays," Kendra said when they were all in the car, driving to school.

"Me too," Alyssa agreed. Everyone else echoed that opinion. Clara yawned hugely. "Why are you so tired today, Clara?"

"I was up late all weekend. Planning stuff, you know."

"Ah," Alyssa nodded. "I know how that is. I've been totally into planning stuff lately."

"Oh yeah," Emmi said happily. "So have I. How 'bout you, Kendra? Christian?"

"Lotsa research, not much planning," Kendra said vaguely.

"I'm just going with it," Christian said.

"Going with what?" Andrew asked. Everyone started laughing as they pulled up into school. Before Andrew could ask again everyone was out of the car and heading to their 1st period.

"We get out of half of our classes today," Clara said. "For grad practice you know."

"Going with what?" Andrew asked again, refusing to be deterred.

"Nothing, nothing." The bell rang. "See you soon!" Clara dashed off to class.

How the heck did she do that?

Three classes later, all the seniors gathered excitedly on the Thomas Valley football field to practice their freedom ceremony night.

Andrew listened closely to the crowds for his friends.

"Can't wait to go to Yale…"

"Beach time, dude!"

"Freedom!"

"SQUIRREL!" "No, get back here!" "Crap, they had chocolate."

There they were. Andrew headed that way.

"So-is-everyone-all-ready?" Alyssa asked at high speed.

"Wait-there-he-is." Kendra stopped bouncing up and down long enough to say.

"He can't hear us."Emmi said in her 'no duh' voice.

"Yeah, he probably can actually." Clara giggled.

"Yeah…" Christian said distractedly.

Andrew finally reached them. "Hey guys, what's happening?"

A teacher with a megaphone suddenly started talking. "All A's lineup with Mr. Forrest! All B's with Mrs. Leanza…"

"Bye Drew-de-drew," Kendra and Alyssa sing-songed. Andrew scowled but walked towards the Spanish teacher organizing the B's.

The practice dragged on for a long time. But that was probably because there was some huge secret all his friends were hiding from him. Finally, though, they were in Kendra's car driving to her house for a hang out thing they had been planning.

Andrew and Christian headed straight for the kitchen.

"Trust them to find the pizza boxes first," Kendra said sarcastically. "I sometimes swear they're part animal."

Which was a fact that would never be confirmed on Andrew's part.

Soon all the pizza was gone. Except for one slice.

All the girls looked at each other briefly and then settled back to watch the show.

"Wrestle you for it," Andrew said.

"You're on."

"Five on Christian," Emmi whispered to Clara.

"You're on."

"This should last, what, five minutes tops?" Kendra commented to Alyssa.

"It's for food. I'll give it three minutes due to motive."

The boys heard these comments but didn't really register them. They were getting ready to take each other down. Or, rather, Christian was getting ready to take Andrew down. Andrew was deciding whether to let Christian win or not. He tried to keep their matches about fifty-fifty since he had to hide his inhuman strength. But it was the last piece of pizza…

Wham! Christian had nearly knocked Andrew over!

Whoa, guess he just caught me off guard… Andrew shook it off and, unthinkingly, went at it with all his strength.

But, somehow, Christian didn't go down.

Actually, Christian was close to taking Andrew down.

The girls couldn't believe how long this was taking. It had been nearly twenty minutes.

"How is this possible?" Clara muttered. She could tell that Andrew was using his inhuman advantage and that Christian was actually a match for him. But Christian was human! How was that possible?

Out of the corner of her eye, Clara saw Alyssa and Kendra were exchanging looks, almost looking like they were communicating telepathically. They seemed to be arguing.

What are we missing here? Clara wondered. Christian's suddenly super strong. He's been distracted for the past two months or so, too… And now the 'twins' are arguing, something that never happens, what's changed here?

"Hey, Clara," Emmi nudged her, bringing Clara back to the here-and-now. "I think we should break up the fight and just tell Andrew the news. This is way too much trouble for one piece of pizza."

"Good idea. Hey, Alyssa, Kennie, it's time."

"How're we going to pull them out of this?" Alyssa asked.

"Throw something at them?" Kendra suggested.

Emmi shook her head and then shouted, "I'm eating the pizza!"

"WHAT?" Both boys froze.

"Christian, it's time," Clara said.

"Oh. But we still don't know who gets the pizza."

"Then we can flip a coin later, c'mon."

"Are you guys finally going to tell me what you guys have been keeping from me?" Andrew asked.

"Yep," Kendra and Alyssa said. They followed Emmi into the kitchen.

"This," Emmi said, holding up a piece of paper, "will explain everything." She tossed it to Andrew.

Andrew glanced at it. "A plane ticket?" He skimmed. "You guys are giving me a round trip plane ticket to Charles de Gaulle airport? For… three months?"

"We're giving you your plane ticket," Clara corrected him. "Charles de Gaulle airport is fourteen-ish miles from Paris."

It suddenly clicked. "No way."

"Yes way, dude," Christian laughed. Then he started cracking up and pointed at the girls.

All the girls were bouncing up and down singing, "WE'RE GOING TO FRANCE! WE'RE GOING TO FRANCE!"