Chapter 22: Masquerade
Hallam House
Bellwood, California
October 23rd, 1999
4:48 pm
"You're beautiful."
Every thought, every worry that made Gwen feel sick all day, even the feel of the too heavy gym bag that she was clutching in her hand and carried all the way from home, they all vanished at the hushed sound of those two words and the sight of the too-wide eyes of the boy that was staring at her from the other side of the front door.
Her lips came back to life first and they twitched up as she watched him stand there half hiding behind the door he was still clutching. She couldn't help it. Not when he looked so cute standing there in his little red polo shirt and black dress pants that went with his olive skin and chocolate brown eyes perfectly. Then the twitching turned into a grin that she barely hid behind her hand in time as she tried to find the words…
Words she didn't even get close to before the boy's mother found them for her. "Elias!" Mrs. Hallam shouted as she came dashing out behind the boy. Her face was already twisted with annoyance as she wiped her hands on the apron she was wearing over her white dress. "I said I'd get it! What did I tell you about opening the - ?" The woman started and it didn't matter that she had an accent. Mom talk sounded the same in any language.
Only company would have stopped Gwen's mom, and Gwen was sure that was the only reason why Michelle's stopped and clamped her mouth shut as the woman looked up from the boy and met her eyes. Stopped for a whole microsecond before her frown turned into a full-on scowl as she reached for her son. "What did you say to her, you little gremlin?!"
"N-nothing!" Elias squeaked out as he twisted away from her hands, but he didn't take his eyes off of Gwen for even a second and his smile didn't fade at all. "And it's not a stranger! It's Gwen!"
The words and the feeling behind them were just too much. Gwen's hands could hold back her grin and even her giggle, but not her coo. "He said I was beautiful!" The words were as sweet as pudding as they slipped out of her mouth.
Sweet even as the boy turned ashen and his stare horrified. It stayed that way even as he spun around and ran right by his mother for the stairs at the end of the hall as his howled - "'Chelle said she only spoke French!" - filled the house.
That and Mrs. Hallam shouting his name again even as he vanished up the stairs. For a moment Gwen was sure this was turning into a chase, but the woman only took a step back into the house before she caught herself and took a breath. "Mama always swore that they'd be less of a handful after they got out of diapers!"
Gwen's grin got so much bigger with those whispered words. If the woman was her mother she never would have dared, but she wasn't and Michelle's always seemed so much cooler, even if she only ever really talked to her a few times when she needed a ride to school. "Leave him alone! He was adorable!"
"Please. My children stopped being - " The woman scoffed even as she finally smiled and pushed her long hair back over her shoulder in a move that Gwen saw at least once a day. Then she took another breath and her dark eyes shot right back to Gwen with a look she saw almost as often. "Michelle didn't tell me that you knew Arabic, too!"
The woman's smile turned into a grin just as Gwen's died and the blood rushed from her face. Her stupid bug brains! She never even noticed the faint taste that Grandpa said was a warning that the things were working and that he swore was different for every language. At least it was for him, she never noticed anything. Except maybe a hint of something like a Fig Newton now that she was thinking about it. Not that it mattered now. Her mind raced and for all the talk about her being the smartest person in her school she still couldn't come up with anything better than a shrug and a stammered, "My Grandpa - He was stationed in Saudi Arabia for a while and - and it seemed like it would be cool if I knew some, too."
The excuse was so weak. The glomp it got wasn't. "You darling girl!" The woman laughed as her hug knocked Gwen back a step. Then the woman called out over her shoulder, "Gwendolyn's mother is lucky that she has a child who wants to know more about the world!" Those words filled the house, too, but the next was so much softer and came with a laugh. "Even if your grandfather does sound like a scamp if those are the words he knows!"
"Mrs. Hallam!" Gwen squeaked out into the woman's shoulder.
"Oh, that's right!" The woman said as she sprang away even as Gwen tried to make herself relax. "Michelle warned me that you don't like…!" Those words didn't help even as they trailed off. Neither did the way the woman looked at her, like the idea of not liking people grabbing her was as weird as not liking air. And maybe it was. Then even that went away as Mrs. Hallam's face fell. "Not that I can blame you. Not after yesterday."
There was so much venom in that. Enough that Gwen would have staggered under it even if they didn't bring back everything. She let her head fall as she squeezed the straps of her bag until her knuckles turned white and her words tripped on her tongue as she stammered out "Mrs. Hallam, I - I'm sorry about that. It was - "
"Sorry?"
That one word said so much. Enough that Gwen missed the hug just because it was so easy to see where Michelle learned how, and that made saying what she had to so much harder. "Mrs. Hallam… I didn't… I'm not… Mrs. Coldwell was right, I - "
"Hush! The school should be giving you a medal, not - " Mrs. Hallam said as Gwen found herself trapped in a hug again. "I've already told your mother that we'd be there with you on Monday. If that woman thinks she can raise her hand against you for doing what she should have done years ago!"
Gwen just stared up as the woman in front of her spat out that word. Mrs. Hallam was so much like Michelle in all the way that just started with the smile that they both always seemed to wear that the scowl that marred the woman's face now just seemed wrong. Almost as wrong as the words she growled out. "Even Jonathan swore he'd be there, and that he'd nuke the school from orbit if they tried to suspend you! He can do it, too."
"No, he can't." The words were as automatic as Gwen's eye roll, and as much of a joke. She thought so anyway.
So she wasn't ready at all when Mrs. Hallam grabbed her shoulders and pulled her out of the hug. Gwen took another step back when she looked up at a face twisted in a fury and eyes burning in a challenge as she had a finger wagged in her face. "My husband is a powerful man!" The woman snapped, her accent suddenly thick. "He can do things that you wouldn't believe!"
Gwen's eyes went wide again as words tumbled out of her mouth. "I didn't - ! I'm sor - !"
That was as far as she got before the woman started giggling. "Habibi was right!" The woman squealed, her whole face glowing even as she poked the tip of Gwen's nose. "Teasing you is fun! It's a good thing my husband is tied up at the base or he'd have you blushing like this all the time! He's horrible!"
"Mr. Hallam isn't here?" Gwen asked, surprised and suddenly very relieved. She knew Mr. Hallam was busy and with what because the base was the biggest thing in Bellwood. One that was getting worked on around the clock if her uncle's grumbling meant anything, and one that was getting things approved faster than anything her daddy had seen if his did. Both of them marveled at it even as they complained, but it was the army and Grandpa always said they lived by hurry up and wait so it couldn't last forever.
Or maybe they were just moving the waiting part around because Mrs. Hallam sighed and got the same look mom did when Daddy had a big case and disappeared at the office. A look that stayed even as the woman brushed a hand at Gwen's hair. "He wanted to meet you, too, Gwendolyn, and thank you for what you did but - " Her face clouded up a bit more and then she shook it off, "- but that's enough of that! Michelle's up in her room, first door on the right, and I have pizza that needs ordering!"
Gwen shot a look at the hall even as she said, "Pizza?" They'd been planning tonight for weeks and Michelle just wished for pizza even as she moaned about how the woman in front of her insisted on cooking a proper meal. One from the Old Country and the idea made Michelle pull on her braid and stare at her feet even though Gwen didn't know why. Not after she'd told her friend just some of the things that Grandpa cooked.
Not that Michelle ever believed her. No one ever did until they survived one of his meals. That was something else Gwen was working on.
If he was ever home.
Home like Michelle was, and that thought was just more ash in her mouth as she felt a hand take hers and pulled her into the house. She heard the woman sigh and wave even before she turned and saw all the boxes that filled the living room. "I was going to cook, but the Army finally found more of our stuff and they just had to drop it off this morning."
Gwen blinked as she tried to take it all in. There were boxes on the couch and love seat and maybe half looked like they'd been opened and dug through. It looked like there was enough work for a month, much less a day and she grabbed onto it as the lifeline it was. "If you're busy, then we can do this another weekend…" She said the words, but she didn't know how bitter they would taste until she did.
"Nonsense!" Mrs. Hallam said as she waved her hand and actually looked offended. "I just got all my spices back today so I can cook you a real dinner next time, but you'll survive on pizza for one night, I'm sure. Just do me one favor and go get my daughter. She's the one who insisted we started going through the boxes today and she disappeared a half an hour ago!" The words were playful, but the look that came with them wasn't.
It wasn't angry - maybe a little worried because that was when Gwen should have been over - but Gwen hugged her bag to her chest anyway. "I know, but there was traffic and I had to get a shower after gymnastics and - "
"And you had to put your face on," the woman said with a nod as the worry melted out of her. "Don't worry, Honey. You just started. You're a natural at it, too, I can tell. You'll get the timing down soon, I'm sure."
Gwen blinked at the words she'd only ever heard her mom and mormor use before and wished that was why she was late even as the woman gave her a little shove. It sent her plodding down the hall just like she'd trundled down the sidewalk outside as she thought the same thoughts that she'd been thinking since yesterday. That she should just go home so she could pretend she still had a friend for one more day.
That wasn't too much to ask for, was it?
It must have been, because she didn't even get close to the steps before she heard the feet racing back down and Michelle called out, "Mama! Elias is freaking out about something in his room and he better knock it off before Gwen - You're here!" After that Michelle proved that her mom may have taught her the basics, but she was the master of hugs as she gave Gwen one that sent them both down to the floor with a laugh. "Why didn't you tell me she was here?"
"Don't break the poor girl now, habibi!" Her mother called out from somewhere. "She's a hero!"
Hero. As if. Gwen tried to keep the wince off her face, but it didn't work. "Don't blame me for that! Mom's been calling you that all day and I can't take her anywhere!" Michelle faked a grumble as she got up and looked Gwen over before she held out her hand. "And she hugged you, too, didn't she? I knew she would! See? That's why I've been giving you so many! I had to get you ready for - Are you okay?"
Gwen blinked and made herself smile at the babble. Babble that she didn't even know had stopped until she felt a hand squeeze hers even as she looked away from the chocolate eyes that were studying her so close and looked so worried. "Yeah. I'm just…"
"Mad I didn't give you the tour," Michelle broke in as Gwen trailed off. "This is my house. I don't have a clue for how long, but it's good enough for now," she said, puffed up and more than a little proud as she waved at the walls. Walls that didn't have any of the pictures or the paintings that filled the walls at home. It didn't have the glow that Gwen saw sometimes either, but she didn't notice any of that until the girl said, "I know it doesn't look like much, but all the good stuff is still packed up in the living room and - " she stopped then and lit up as she jumped to her feet and pulled Gwen up to hers, "- and you're here to help now! Come on, tonight was always going to be good, but if the manifest is right we can make it amazing! We just gotta find the right box."
"What?" Gwen asked as she was pulled right back down the hall and the sound of the other girl giggling somehow made one of her own slip out as they raced into the mess of the living room. A mess that Gwen looked at, her mind racing even before she saw the numbers stamped on the side of each one. "If you have the manifest then I'm sure that - "
"What fun would that be?" Michelle scoffed as she let Gwen's hand go so she could grab up a box. "Just pick one and go!"
"But - " Gwen stammered. "But what am I looking for?!"
"Trust me," Michelle preened with a gleam in her eyes that would have made any cat jealous even as she tore open her box. "You'll know it when you see it."
"I hate you," Gwen grumbled even as she knelt down.
"No, you don't," Michelle called back with a laugh. One that got even louder as she peeked in her box. "Hey. Matthew! I found Jurassic Park!"
Gwen whipped her head around at the squeal that got from somewhere upstairs…
The squeal and the sound of little feet racing down the stairs made Gwen grin and her eyes mist up all at the same time as she watched Michelle's youngest brother charge across the room on tiny legs. She watched until she couldn't, until she just had to pull open her own box and suck in a breath before she forgot all about being a lady as the room got blurry around her.
She hoped for the treasure even as she listened to the two giggle next to her, but the only things she saw were pots and pans. The next one was silverware and the third…
She blinked at all the pictures inside. No wonder it was so heavy, the thing was as packed full as hers would have been if she ever had to help her parents move, but most of them were wrapped up in newspapers with words she couldn't read as much as she wished she could. Only the one on top was different. That one was done in bubble wrap that just screamed how important it was even If she couldn't see the gold frame through the plastic. "Is this it?" She asked, even though she didn't have a clue how it would make tonight any better.
"I'm on a treasure hunt, Matthew, I can't - " Michelle started with another laugh as she pushed her brother away before her head twisted around. "What?"
Gwen tried to hold up the framed photo she found, but she just looked at Michelle and her brother and set it down on top of the box instead. Matthew was as dressed up as his brother and somehow even cuter. Then she finally really looked at her friend and saw the fancy purple dress that she was wearing and the tights that matched and had dragons flying up the sides of them. All of it was as wrong for just hanging out as her mom's dress was. She was even wearing pumps.
Sunday clothes, Grandpa would have called them. The kind that would have made her mother and her Mormor hum with approval and the last ones she expected to see on Michelle today. Clothes that made her jeans look tacky and her shirt - she pulled the sleeve of her shirt over her hand and worried at the hem with her fingers as she wished she'd worn anything else, anything but her midnight blue one that had the white outline of a cat outracing an explosion. "You're all so dressed up."
The words were a murmur. They weren't even that. And they didn't matter. Not as much as the words she was waiting for. The ones that were making her feel sick.
"That's what you've been worried about?" Michelle asked with another giggle as she waved her hand. "Mama always makes us dress up for company, Crazy! But this is a sleepover and you're the guest. You could have come by ready for bed and she wouldn't have cared." Gwen blanked as she tried to imagine that, or what her mother would say if she tried it. That was how she missed the other girl leaning in close with a grin as she whispered, "I was hoping you would. Then I could have gotten changed quicker! Besides, today was karate, right? I bet you look every bit as cute in those white pajamas as Daniel-san did."
"Today wasn't - And they're not pajamas!" Gwen almost shouted as she gave the other girl a shove. Not a hard one, not like the ones she gave her Doofus. It barely rocked her back. It would have been so much easier to sound mad if the other girl wasn't giggling up a storm. "They're called gi!"
"They're called cute!" Michelle laughed.
This time Gwen couldn't help smiling back even as she looked down. "Sometimes." Sometimes they were. Especially when the kids Matthew's age wore them, and almost when she saw her Doofus. Almost, but the word didn't fit how she felt the first time she saw him in them. Nothing did, not that she had much time to think about it after weeks of worrying if he'd even show up and then everything that happened after.
She just knew she couldn't take her eyes off of him as he stood there looking as good as she knew he would in his -
"And all those boys in their pajamas," Michelle's whisper destroyed that thought even as she covered her little brother's ears. Ears that only stayed covered for long enough for her to add, "So sexy!" before he shook her off even as she giggled.
"Michelle!" Gwen squeaked as the words mixed with her thought and made her face burn as that idea tore through her.
Hands that Michelle grabbed for and pulled at even as she kept laughing. "Nuh-uh! I knew I could make you blush and you're not taking this away from me now! Matthew! Matthew, get her!"
The hold was simple and there were a dozen ways that Gwen could have broken it even if the little boy hadn't jumped on her back and wrapped his hands around her neck first. Not that he would have stopped her. He didn't do anything but make breathing a little harder as he hugged her tight and giggled right against the back of her neck.
He hugged her tight enough that a laugh slipped right out of her. Tears almost did, too, but somehow she held those in even as Michelle pulled her hands away from her face.
Gwen wouldn't have even tried getting away after that if fighting wasn't a part of the game, and she only did enough to shake the boy on her back a little and even less to get away from the girl in front of her, but it was still enough that she heard his foot find a box and something hit the ground.
Something heavy. Something she knew even before Michelle and Matthew both gasped and let her go. Gwen felt horrible even before her friend scooped up the fancy gold frame and gave her little brother a look. "Get out of here, Pipsqueak. I'll take care of it."
The boy's lip quivered as he nodded and raced for the hall. "I'm so sorry," Gwen whispered like that would help. "It's all my fault! I should have put it away better when I - " She tried to say as Michelle's hands pulled at the plastic and Gwen started to push herself up even though the glass looked okay even as more words fell out of her mouth. "I'll tell your mom that and - "
"So you can get the credit? I don't think so! She likes you enough already, Crazy Girl, and she's been going spare looking for this."
"What?" Gwen gasped out as she finally looked at the photograph in the frame and not just for what she might have broken. She expected a wedding photo or one of the family. Not… She blinked and then she blinked again, but the picture didn't change. "Michelle… Why do you have a framed picture of that guy from M*A*S*H?"
Framed in something that would have been more at home in her Morfar's house, not here. The gold with the same kind of designs carved into it that she'd seen on Mrs. Hallam's dress and all for a photograph she wouldn't have glanced at if she saw it anywhere else until she saw the autograph. It took her a blink to read what was written on it, not that the words made any more sense. To Nadia, my favorite girl from the old country. Jamie Farr.
"Mom…" Michelle made a face as she stood up and hugged the frame tight like she was trying to make it disappear. "Mom's crazy about him. He's her favorite actor."
"Klinger," Gwen deadpanned. "Klinger is her favorite - "
Michelle shrugged and didn't meet her eyes. She just shuffled her feet and tugged at her braid with her free hand before she gave Gwen's shirt a look. "When she moved here it was her Cat's Meow, and it was because of him." If she stopped there, Gwen would have understood, but she didn't. Her shoulders slumped as she let out a sigh and gave the picture another look and a sad smile. "Mom swears that he looks just like her favorite cousin, except Adi was so much crazier and more fun. According to her anyway. But he didn't wear dresses, so I don't know how that adds up."
Gwen sprung up to her feet and just stared at the man who was wearing a bright pink flamingo outfit and tried to imagine two of him before she heard the important word. "Was?"
That got another nod and her friend's voice caught as she brushed her fingers over the frame. "He was in the army, too, except he liked it better or he didn't want to get out as bad. I don't know. He was serving when things fell apart and - and he's why my grandparents finally left, why we're here. Mama was just fourteen and sometimes I think - I think that if he was still here, we wouldn't be."
There weren't any words for that. Magic or otherwise. Just a hug that didn't seem like it could ever last long enough.
"You would be," Michelle's mom whispered from behind them when the other girl finally pulled away. Gwen turned and saw the boy holding her hand. The boy she looked at until he nodded and disappeared again, and then she reached out for the photograph, but her words were for Michelle. "I don't know how but you would be, God willing. You might be a couple of years older and maybe you would have gotten your nose from my side of the family instead of your father's, but you would be."
"Mama!" Michelle gasped as her hand went from her eyes to her button of a nose. "Don't even joke!"
Gwen grinned at the idea and couldn't help adding, "Why not? You would have been so cute!" Even as she looked at the photograph and the woman and felt something itch at the back of her head. Something that made her shuffle her feet for a second as she wondered...
"Cute?! You could have used it for a runway like my cousin Leyla's!" The horror and betrayal in the other girl's voice almost made Gwen take the words back, she would have if the girl's mother didn't start laughing. A laugh that was only caught by a knock at the door.
"Come on, you two," Mrs. Hallam said as she shook her head and hugged the frame close to her heart. "Dinner's ready!"
- o - o - o - o - o -
The pizza wasn't the least bit healthy and for once it didn't matter. Not when the show across the table was so good. " - and that's why it's called a Triceratops and it's my favorite!"
Gwen grinned at the little boy who was sitting across from her and the toy dinosaur he was clutching even as he ate. "He's mine, too," Gwen whispered and lit up as the boy did.
"Mama!" Elias huffed from the seat next to his little brother with a tone and a look that Gwen knew so well. "Matthew's boring Gwen! Make him stop!"
"Make them both stop, please!" Michelle added from the seat next to hers with the warm annoyance that always came when she was dealing with her brothers. "You don't have to listen to the gremlins, Crazy!"
"You three are going to make her glad she's an only child," Mrs. Hallam sighed and somehow Gwen didn't wince at the words like she would have weeks ago. She didn't even let her smile melt, but she couldn't help reaching out and squeezing the hand she knew would be there. She didn't even realize it wasn't the one she was looking for until it sank in that it was too soft and delicate and that Michelle was watching her with so many questions hiding in her dark eyes.
"Whatever," Elias muttered as he glared down at his pizza for a whole heartbeat before that look melted away and his eyes came back up. Eyes that were almost shy as he looked at her for the first time since the whole thing at the door. "'Chell's been saying how you went all Xena on those jerks yesterday. Is it true? Did you make 'em cry for hurting her?"
Gwen sucked in a breath as every eye found her. The boys' wide and awed, their mother fierce and Michelle's…She couldn't meet her friend's eyes long enough to tell. "All those years of karate finally paid off."
"For you and my daughter, maybe," Mrs. Hallam said with a warning in her voice as she looked across the table at her son. "But now my sons are pestering me for classes, too, even though they were supposed to stay in their room last night!" Both boys looked at that, but neither of them looked even the least bit sorry. Especially not Elias, who kept glancing at Gwen and his eyes got bigger each time even as his mother sighed. "I'm almost tempted to let them sign up, but six days a week?"
Gwen blinked at that and the save hidden in it. "It's not six!"
"It's not?" Michelle asked even as she squeezed her hand. "Every time I've tried to have you over after school you've said - "
"I know, but it's only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays! I alternate it with gymnastics and then I have my clubs and tutoring after school and Sundays are for studying and - and I always wanted to come over, but..." This time Gwen didn't blink from the looks she got, but she felt her shoulders sag because she knew she could be doing more. Even with all the nights she went out heroing, there were so many when they didn't. Nights that she could be…
Gwen didn't know. She just didn't want to hear the words she knew were coming as Mrs. Hallam stood up and circled the table before she leaned down and pressed a kiss into her hair. "You do too much," the woman murmured and her voice was barely any louder when she poked her daughter's shoulder even if her tone was completely different. "And you don't do enough!"
"Hey! I'm trying to keep Crazy Girl here from living up to her name and that's a full-time job!"
Gwen heard the argument start next to her, but she just sat there and blinked at the blur that filled her eyes. Grandpa told her that a few times, and so had Aunt Sandra and the Doofus, but the Doofus thought that doing anything but heroing or playing video games with him was a waste of time and Aunt Sandra…
She was so much better around her mom now, but still...
Michelle's mom wasn't family or a teacher. They barely even met before today and if she thought - "I do too much?"
"Way too much," Michelle answered for her mother, and the girl reached out and took her hand like Gwen was a fawn ready to bolt. "You need fun."
Gwen knew she should say something, that if Ben said that she'd - She didn't know. She barely got to see him either since school started. If it wasn't for the heroing and karate she didn't think she ever would. It was just what she used to want, but after last night…
The idea of spending another night with him - not so they could save the world or study or play video games - but a night where they could just talk, where she could just dance while he played his guitar again sounded so nice. She didn't even know he could and he must have been practicing for years because he was good. He was better than good. And the girl next to her…
Gwen blinked again because she didn't know her any better. They'd been friends for almost two months and they'd talked about Europe and Bellwood and school and books and tv, but there was still so much that she didn't know. "I don't - What do you do for fun?"
Michelle's face just glowed as she looked up. "Mama! Can we - ?" The words just got a wave and she squealed like a maniac as she bounced to her feet and pulled Gwen to hers. "Come on!"
She didn't let go either as she all but ran into the living room and the boxes there and Gwen told herself that she ran, too, so she didn't get dragged. Some part of her whispered that she could just let go. The part that she ignored as she laughed and asked, "Unpacking's fun?"
"It is if you find the right box!" Michelle called over her shoulder as she scooped one up and dashed off again, this time for the stairs. "I never thought I'd say this, I don't blame you for doing so much. This town is boring!"
"Boring?" Gwen gasped as she tried her best to sound offended even though Bellwood was.
"Yeah!" Michelle nodded and slowed her mad dash just a little. "There was always something to do at the old base, and not just protesting. Mama ran the place as much as the Colonel does now because our old General's wife wasn't up to it and she was next in line. She was always visiting someone, or someone is coming by and I'm usually stuck babysitting one way or the other, but still…"
There was a sigh then. A long one and a look at the wall. "No one plays outside here and that's all we did back in Germany! There was so much soccer, and when there wasn't… God, it took me two hours and I got hit with like four water balloons when I went out looking for Elias on that last day."
Gwen gave her friend a look and waited for the fit that any of the other girls in her class would have had at the thought, and the one that she faked more often than not when Ben did the same thing to her before she got her revenge, but it never came. The girl just grinned and Gwen had to know. "Why?"
"The war, duh," Michelle teased as she started up the steps again. "We were always playing war. The only thing that ever really changed was whether we were throwing water balloons or snowballs. It was so much fun!" Michelle stopped then and turned so she could give Gwen a look that ended with a smirk and a squeezed hand. "I wish you were there, Crazy. You'd be dangerous. I can tell."
Two years ago Gwen would have grinned back without a care because it wasn't real. She still did now, but now she had to force herself just a little as she said, "Whose side would I be on?"
"Mine, of course," Michelle said with a wave of her hand. "But besides that, it was us vs commies or Nazis or terrorists. It didn't really matter. Not unless someone called out people vs aliens. No one wants to be aliens. Unless we did it, then those pitiful humans wouldn't stand a chance!"
The cackle that those words got made Gwen's eyes fall to the box Michelle was carrying as her hand went to her hip. "If you have water pistols in there…"
"Oh, I wish!" Michelle sighed as she charged across the room for her bed and jumped on it. "but those are in one of the boxes that mom says the army lost. This is so much better!" The last words were a squeal as she pulled open the box and reached for something inside. Something that got Gwen a look and a slapped hand when she leaned in, too. "No peeking!"
"Fine!" Gwen said with a huff that she didn't feel as she sat back and finally looked around. The room looked almost like hers, except everything was flipped and in the wrong spots and there was a lot more purple on the bed and over the window.
There were bookcases, too, but nowhere near as many books. No, they were packed with stuff like her curio case was at home. Stuff like snow globes that showed off cities like Paris and Rome and more she didn't recognize any more than she did the bands in the posters on the wall. She didn't recognize the words either or know why the one hanging over her bed - the huge one with a boy with messy brown hair - made her feel flushed as he stared at her.
The dresser was safer. It was covered in bags of chips and bowls and cups with a whole bottle of soda waiting there. Enough that it took her a second to even see the small TV with a VCR built-in that was in the middle of the mess. A TV that Michelle raced to as she pulled a stack of tapes out of the box. "You're going to love this!"
"What?" Gwen asked as her hand found her hip because she'd heard that before.
"Karaoke!" Michelle grinned at her as she spun around on one foot and laughed. "It's been so long since I had a sleepover and mom let me go all out! We're going to have so much fun, but we have to get ready!" She stopped and hurried to the other side of the bed and disappeared behind it.
When she came back up there was a tackle box in her hands. One as big as the one Grandpa had and was covered in enough warning and pirate stickers that it might as well have been called Tennyson bait. Gwen's fingers itched for it as Michelle dropped it onto her purple covers. "And that?"
"My makeup case!" Michelle crowed as she opened it. Carefully, too, because it was packed full, but it didn't look anything like the stuff Gwen saw in her mom's room. All the stuff on top was too bright and full of sparkles. "It started as my Halloween stuff and I wish you could have seen the haunted house we put together last year! The Colonel and Mama go nuts and they were going to try to top it this year before we moved. Now he's going to be in Washington and I have to help with the demons, unless…"
The look that Gwen got at those words, the look that made her feel so sick as she shuffled her feet and said, "I… I already promised my cousin that I'd - "
Michelle made such a face at that as she dropped onto her bed and shoved her hand through her hair and undid her braid. "You're babysitting, too?"
Gwen didn't know why she nodded because she wasn't even if it did feel like it sometimes, but the Doofus spent the last few weeks going on about how they were going to do even better this year than they did last when she'd dressed up in a suit. A real one so she could look like she'd walked out of a silly movie that was still the closest thing that they'd ever seen to the Plumbers on TV and pretended that she was chasing whichever him he turned into. Fourarms and XLR8 and Blitzwolfer wowed so many people and they didn't even have Big Chill last year.
Hopefully, they wouldn't have to fight that thing in the pumpkin patch either.
For just a moment she imagined doing it right, with two Men in Black, but it was her night. Hers and her Doofus's. That was the only reason she said, "Yeah," as she watched the long hair fall through her friend's fingers and the guilt twisted her stomach just a little bit more.
The sigh Michelle made didn't help at all. Neither did the way she shrugged and grinned."That's okay. We'll still get to use all of this tonight. We're gonna sing our hearts out and look like stars while we do it, so dig in! You can use anything you want."
Michelle looked so happy even as she started digging through the box as Gwen just stared and wished she could just disappear. Especially when the girl stopped and gave her a look. "What's wrong?"
Gwen would have given anything if she could just teleport away, but for all the mana she felt around her she didn't know the words for that if they even existed. Just the words that slipped out as the other girl kept staring. "I don't… Mom doesn't let me wear makeup. I don't..."
She could conjure tornadoes and lightning and make the ocean dance to her whims, but she didn't have a clue about any of this. She was the only one in her class that didn't, too. She knew she was because they always had their compacts out now or were putting on lipstick when they were in the bathroom and she was the only one who didn't. She didn't have to be a genius or a sorceress to know what their looks meant, either.
What a baby.
She waited to hear those words again, but they never came and that was almost worse. They were almost as bad as the shocked, "You don't? But I've seen all the pictures of your award shows!"
"That's different. Mom takes care of it before meets and recitals," Gwen squirmed as she admitted that, and she couldn't say that she was usually too nervous as she sat there and tried so hard not to look at it to pay any attention to what was going on her face. Not when she was going through her routine in her head and making herself smile because perfect people didn't get nervous or screw up. Not in front of Natalie Tennyson.
Neither did heroes. It was the only good thing about being a sidekick. The Shrimp might tease her a little, but he never got that look when things got really bad.
Just the thought of sitting in that chair made Gwen wrap her arms around her middle and she jumped when she brushed against the bruise just above her elbow on her right arm. It was the only mark she'd gotten from the fight yesterday after Flint grabbed her and shoved her away. It was hidden under her sleeve, but having anything of his on her made her shudder. Mana faded it even though it was only a few hours old, but the sickly green and yellow was even worse. It was bad enough that she - "I can use concealer. Mom taught me how to do that when I started karate because - "
Because ladies didn't get bruises. The concealer helped, but long sleeves and jeans or tights were just so much easier that she only really used it when she got hit in the face at practice or heroing or that one time when her gymnastics class just went wrong. It felt like Marci was right there as she admitted that because the room went that quiet after she trailed off. It was even worse when she finally looked up and saw the smirk on Michelle's face.
It was the same smirk that she'd seen on Marci's so many times, and just thinking that name made Gwen feel sick and guilty and ashamed again. They even let out the same delighted squeal. The only thing different was the words as Michelle bounced up. "That's great! I thought I'd be ancient before I taught anyone!"
"What?" Gwen gasped out as Michelle dashed over to her desk and dragged the chair over. A chair she dropped into with a cackle as she pulled the makeup kit closer. "Who taught you?"
"Mom did some," Michelle admitted as she pulled out bottles and held them up against Gwen's face until she grinned. "But the best thing about being an army brat is that it's like having a hundred big sisters! They taught me everything about makeup and music and boys and - " some heat filled her olive cheeks at that, but she recovered with a laugh as she grabbed a jar of something and a big puffy brush out of the tackle box. "So sit still and let the master work! Now, this is called foundation and the color is so wrong for your skin tone if we were doing this for real, but we're rock stars tonight and it's perfect! Watch, you just want to blend it in and - "
It almost felt like magic, and for the first time ever Gwen understood the dazed look that her doofus got every time they started in on a new kind of math as brushes and colors and words all blurred by. Paying attention should have been the hardest part, but it wasn't.
"I swear that if you don't stop grinning I'm going to make you look like a clown on purpose!" Michelle warned as she wagged a brush with a tiny tip that was covered in an electric blue powder at Gwen's nose.
"Sorry," Gwen said even though she wasn't.
"I can tell," Michelle said with a sigh as she leaned in and Gwen tried, but she couldn't help it. Neither could Michelle, who threw her head back and a hand over her eyes. "I can't work like this." The sigh and the move were both so theatrical that the girl didn't even get the words out before she started giggling.
Gwen felt the same giggle build up inside of her and her hands went to her painted lips as it almost burst out of her. Almost, until she saw the heel of her friend's palm and the angry red scrapes there. Then she just felt sick as she grabbed for it, and caught herself just before she called up the healing light. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, that." Michelle turned her hand and her eyes got a little wider as she dropped it and hid it in her lap as she drew her knees up. Knees that were hidden under tights for the first time ever. "Don't worry about that. It barely even hurts today. I bet Sean and Flint feel a lot worse!"
The words didn't matter. It didn't make the scrape any better or the tights go away or hide the egg-shaped knot Gwen knew was hiding in her friend's hair. The knot that she kept ice on for the whole ride home yesterday. Gwen knew all of that, but seeing it again made her stomach twist one more time. One time too many. Her stomach squeezed the words out that she'd been holding in since the museum. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"What?" Michelle asked as her head shot up and her eyes went wide. Almost as wide as they were yesterday when Sean…
When he…
Gwen hugged herself tight and it didn't help. She could have done so much. The magic was right there and she just stood there as he yanked up her friend's skirt in front of everyone and laughed. "Why are you being so nice to me after yesterday? I - I know that…"
Michelle's smile melted away like Gwen knew it would. "What are you talking about, Crazy Girl?" She leaned forward as she asked that and her hand went to the strand of hair that fell in her face.
Gwen shook her head as she backed up. "Yesterday, when…" She didn't even know. Everything after the bathroom was a blur of questions and shouting and people stomping from Ms. Adams and Mrs. Coldwell and her parents and Michelle's and Sean and Flint's. There was so much from everyone but the only person who should have been yelling but never did. The one person who just sat by her on the bus and kept talking the whole drive home and she held her hand even as Gwen stared out the window and waited...
And the one person who would be screaming at her in a second. Gwen knew Michelle would be as she wiped at her eyes, but she didn't let that stop her. "It - Yesterday was all my fault! I should have… Sean and Flint would have left you alone if you weren't - "
Flint and Marci. She knew it was all Marci the second she saw Olivia's camera flash and Marci only cared about Michelle because she talked to her. "It was all my fault," Gwen whispered because she should have known. Marci warned her enough. She warned everyone and Gwen knew it. She should have done more than just stand there until it was too late. She should have done more than just take it out on Marci and the rest. Maybe her Doofus was right and they deserved it, but if she'd been a real hero…
If she hadn't been so greedy. If she had just warned the girl next to her off like she should have...
"I didn't know you wanted to see under my skirt so bad, Crazy, " Michelle her voice cracking as she grabbed the hem of her dress and tugged it down as Gwen squirmed and waited, but it was what she said next that made Gwen's head shoot up, "You could have just asked."
"I - " Gwen felt her face burn at the idea that anyone thought that she'd humiliate anyone like that. "What?!"
"So much fun to tease," Michelle said through a sniffle filled giggle before she moved. Only XLR8 moved faster, and only Snare-Oh could hug tighter. Tight enough that Gwen just wanted to shove her away, but Michelle wouldn't let her. She only hugged her tighter as her voice broke. "You didn't make those jerks do anything and you really are crazy if you think that I'm mad at you."
"You should be!" Gwen shouted as she gave up on pushing away and just buried her face in the other girl's shoulder. "On Monday… On Monday just yell at me and everyone will know - They'll know that we're not friends anymore and they'll leave you alone."
The other girl sucked in a breath as she pulled away and there wasn't anything kind in her voice when she said, "I can't believe you! It's just some bruises! What kind of person do you think I am? You're my friend. You kicked jackass butt for me! And you're an idiot if you think I'd let anyone tell me who I can be friends with, even you!"
That name came with a poke to Gwen's shoulder that was so much harder than anything Mrs. Hallam even threatened with today and the words were nonsense, but Gwen laughed anyway. A disgusting tear-filled laugh. "Even me? I think that I - "
"Nope," Michelle cut her off as she pulled Gwen close again and sniffed even as she laughed. "Nope. Not even you. I'd pester you until you gave up and admitted we were!"
"Why?"
"Because you're crazy!" Michelle declared. "You're crazy and you need someone sane in your life and it might as well be me."
Gwen tried to think of something to say to that, but she couldn't. She just let her face sink into the girl's shoulder because this wasn't anything like her last sleepover. "Promise?"
"Always," Michelle whispered back, her voice catching even as Gwen felt arms around her again. Gwen just sank into it. She almost lost herself in it, but not quite. Not enough that she missed the sound of shoes at the door and the feel of Michelle shaking her head before they went away, but she did miss it when the girl pulled away and led her to her bed. Gwen sat without a thought and took the tissue with even less as Michelle sat down next to her and pulled her into another hug. "Feel better?"
Gwen just sat there sniffling and felt empty. After the last day, it was all she had left after she spent four hours staring out the bus window as she watched for the Rustbucket or the black and blue blur of XLR8 so they could put her where monsters go. Where she'd still think that she belonged if her Doofus wasn't so him and wonderful, but this?
There wasn't anything that Ben could have said that would have helped with this, because he wasn't the one who got hurt because of her, but Michelle cared just as much. If either of them had any sense…
But they didn't. Somehow she'd found the only two people in the whole world that were even weirder than magic and aliens. Gwen tried to figure out how, but she was too tired. Tired enough that she just nodded into the other girl's shoulder and the strap that covered it.
"Good," Michelle said with another squeeze before her hands slipped away. Gwen sucked in a breath because she thought the hug was over and then a hand smacked her butt hard. Hard enough that Gwen's shocked squeak filled the room as she sprang away and gawked, but Michelle's was so much louder as she wagged her finger just like her mom had. "Don't even! That's what you get for holding that in all day! You're my best friend and if you do it again I'll - !"
"I am?" Gwen wished that she could blame the way she said that on the shock, but she couldn't. Not even as she rubbed the ache that was still there.
Michelle's eyes went wide and she ducked her head and a hand went to her hair. "Well… yeah. I mean, if you want me to be. You have your pick now." Gwen stared at that. She stared until the other girl looked up and rolled her eyes. "I knew you didn't notice! I should have - " she started before she sighed and pushed her hair back. "Every girl in our class sat around us on the bus ride home yesterday! The boys were all stuck in the back, but I think most of them wanted to sit next to you, too. You're going to have your choice of friends on Monday. You don't need to settle for me anymore…"
"What?" Gwen asked as she blinked because none of that made sense. "Why? What are you - ?"
"Because you were awesome?" Michelle scoffed before Gwen could finish asking and kicked her heels against her mattress. "God, Crazy, I've only been here two months and even I knew that those two jerks had it coming! You kicked their butts and - and everyone wanted to be just like you yesterday. I know I did."
Those words were so soft, but they made Gwen duck her head anyway. Duck her head even as she reached out and smacked her friend's knee. "It wasn't all me. I wasn't the one who broke Sean's nose."
That brought a smile to the girl's face as she reached up and touched the bump on the back of her head, a smile so big and proud that not even her wince took it away. "I did!"
"Which means - My choice?" Gwen asked and swallowed hard even as she found Michelle's hand and tried to forget the other girl who she said the same thing once. The one with ocean blue eyes that looked so scared yesterday, but were once as warm as the chocolate ones she was looking into now. If it happened again...
And her best friend? Some part of her was glad that Ben wasn't here to hear that. She could almost see him fuming about it, but really, he wasn't. Wasn't her best friend, wasn't even her friend. He was her Doofus and that was something else entirely. She didn't know what, but it didn't compare. It couldn't. She didn't have the words for her cousin, but she did for the girl sitting next to her as she squeezed the hand she was holding. "Then they're all out of luck. I already have the best."
"Good," Michelle said with a surprised and delighted sniffle as she squeezed back. "But you so owe me!" Gwen didn't say a word as the girl let go and dove for her makeup box. "Don't look at me like that! After you just smeared all my hard work? You so do and I've been dying to play with your hair since the first time I saw you."
Gwen went pale as the other girl cackled and dug for something. Some part of her screamed in alarm and told her to run, but she didn't. It wasn't what heroes did.
Or best friends.
- o - o - o - o - o -
Best friends probably didn't take pictures of each other while they were asleep either, but Gwen's fingers itched at her phone as she stared at the girl who was cuddling against her anyway.
The television was still on and still playing Michelle's last surprise for her, the best of Cat's Meow tape that she'd found somewhere. It was even playing her favorite episode and Gwen knew that she should be watching that, but she stared at the other girl instead as Michelle sighed in her sleep and almost sucked in the long lock of hair that was hanging by her mouth. Hair that was still dusted red with chalk, even if the streaks were ruined now that Michelle let it out of its braid before she fell asleep. It looked so puffy and wavy as it ran down her friend's back.
Her best friend.
Gwen wanted to giggle at the thought even as she yawned and brushed at her own hair. At least they'd both already changed into their pajamas, but she knew she should get up and wash the chalk out and the makeup off. She knew she should just like she knew that she should clean up the ice cream bowls at the foot of the bed and pick up the hair brushes that they used as microphones hours ago and just tossed somewhere on the floor when they were done.
She should do all that and more before she fell asleep, too. There was always so much more that she had to do, but she just laid there and watched the other girl drool on her pillow instead and smiled because this was perfect. Mess and all.
Almost.
But one promise that she knew would keep sleep away until she kept it. That thought made her reach for the phone she had next to her all night. The phone she must have done something to because it never buzzed and it should have. She should have checked it, too, but every time she reached for it Michelle found something new for them to do and she already teased Gwen enough about having a boyfriend.
As if...
But now? Now Gwen grabbed her phone with a grin even as she dreaded the long line of messages that she knew were waiting. Messages that were probably even more worried than yesterday's. Worried enough that she was amazed that she hadn't seen a dinosaur or an alien bug in the window and she'd been watching. Watching like she watched the screen as she flipped it open and bit her lip.
And saw the same messages she had last night.
Gwen frowned and sat up as her thumbs flew. What's with the silent treatment, Doofus? I said that I'd answer your texts, but you actually have to send them! The words were a dare that the boy would never refuse. Not ever.
Until now.
Her heart sped up and the little clock at the top of the screen rolled over without a single buzz of a message. Nothing on her screen changed until her fingers flew again. Ben? I swear that if you've been kidnapped I'm going to laugh my butt off.
The words were a joke. One that he deserved after all the ridiculous ideas he'd had over the last few months. Ideas that always ended with her tied up somewhere because she came over here. The who was never the same, and she didn't know that they'd fought so many women over the last year and a half until he listed them all off as they raced across rooftops or spared or had smoothies. Listed them and all the ways that they could be the girl Gwen was sitting next to, but it was so hard imaging evil drooling onto a pillow.
Or being as cool.
And it wasn't like she didn't check. She checked in all the ways she could. Checked to make sure she wasn't an android or hiding behind a spell and Grandpa just laughed when Ben asked him to check, so the text Gwen sent was so deserved. But it made her stomach tight anyway because her Doofus was kidnapped so many more times than she ever had, and she remembered each and every one. All the times he disappeared, all the hours she spent frantic as she looked for him with their grandfather.
And she didn't know where the man was now, except he wasn't here. He wasn't where he should be any more than Ben was. But there was only one of them she could help, and she should have helped so much faster if she'd just been paying attention.
Just like her cousin should have been on the other end of the line. Come on, Ben! The joke is right there! Make fun of my butt! And when he didn't…
Somehow Gwen didn't wake Michelle up as she slipped out of the bed. Somehow she didn't trip over anything as she made her way through the mess they'd left on the floor as she made her way to the door and the hall beyond. The hall that was dark except for the soft glow coming up the stairs. As dark as the spot where Ben's responses should have been.
Somehow she waited until she got the bathroom door closed behind her before she reached for the speed dial with a shaking hand because he never missed a chance to say something about her butt. When he wasn't trying to zap it anyway.
Zap it like she almost did her phone. She saw the pink glow start around her hands and she forced it back down with a shudder even as she let her finger hover over the screen for the alarm they've never used before she jammed it down on the one. "Please. Please. Please," she whispered as it rang and images of him tied up somewhere again ran through her head because that was the only way he was ever this quiet. Him all alone…
That was almost enough. Enough to call Grandpa and go hero on her own because she wasn't going to wait.
Not even for the ringing she heard right outside the half-opened window. She spun around and opened her mouth to scream when she saw the dark thing waiting right outside. It lunged at her even as she dropped her phone and brought her hand up as pink light filled the bathroom.
It lunged right through the window and clawed hands caught hers as Big Chill grinned at her and said, "Gotcha."
"You jerk!" Gwen hissed, slapping him over and over again the second she got her hands free. She slapped him even though it didn't matter. Not with the exoskeleton he had that was almost like chainmail, only better. She would have yelled if all the windows weren't all cracked open. Even the one she spun back to. The one covered with a screen that was just like the one she had at home and she could pop off blindfolded by now and she was so tempted to do just that. And maybe she would have, but she gave him a second look so he'd pay. "Hate you."
"That's no way to talk to your hero," Ben said and he almost sounded hurt as his wings drooped behind him. "Not when I'm just here so I could save you."
"Save me from what?!"
Ben just shrugged his wings at that before he drew them tight around him so that they wrapped around him like a cloak, which she knew he thought made him look so cool. "I dunno. You were the one freaking!"
"Was not!" Gwen hissed right back. Her voice wasn't anywhere near as raspy and intimidating as his was in this body, but she could still make it work. Especially when she couldn't scream like she wanted. She could still glare, though. Glare as she put a hand on her hip so he'd know she was serious. "And what did you think I'd do when you don't say anything all day?"
Ben stopped dead in his tracks at that and stared back. Gwen knew it wasn't because he felt bad because it was him. It wasn't because of her frown either. Not when he stood a little straighter and not as the antenna at the top of his head twitched and she knew what that meant. Maybe Ben couldn't make a face in this form, but there were still things that gave him away. Things like what he was doing now, and the chuffing sound Wildmutt made, and the way XLR8's tail moved when he was pleased with himself.
And he so was right now, even if she didn't know why. "Didn't know you cared, Dweeb."
"As if." Somehow Gwen swallowed down her scream at that, but she couldn't keep the mana from flaring around her hands as she shoved one through her hair because he was driving her crazy. Especially when he took a half step back and sucked in a breath like he'd never seen magic before. "I'm not going to zap you, Doofus," she murmured even if he did deserve it.
Especially when he let out a strangled, "What happened to your face?"
"What?" She asked before she remembered. Before her face burned under her makeup and she squeaked out a - "Nothing!" - as her eyes shot to the mirror behind him because he wasn't supposed to see her like this.
Maybe - maybe it would have been okay when Michelle was done, when Gwen looked like she did in the Polaroid that was hanging on the mirror in her best friend's room. But that was hours ago and she couldn't imagine what she looked like now. Except Ben could see her, too. He could see her even as she forced the mana away and the room went dark.
Dark for her, but Big Chill didn't need the help. Not in this body. Not with the thousand lenses of his compact eyes picking up every bit of the faint city light that was coming through the window behind him. She would have given anything if she could hide, but she couldn't. So she stomped her foot instead. "I think it looks good!"
Like that would ever stop him.
Except Ben didn't, which so wasn't him. Neither was the way he lifted his hand and reached for her with a hand that ended in claws that she'd seen tear through steel and stone. She should have shoved him away before he got anywhere near her face, but she didn't.
No, Gwen just sucked in a breath and stared into his eyes - eyes that were somehow still green and still his even in this body as the magic started to burn around her again. Burn just bright enough that she could see herself reflected over and over again in all the lenses of his eyes as he brushed the tip of a claw through her hair and traced the electric blue streak her best friend chalked into it hours ago. Traced it and whispered, "I didn't know you could look so cool…"
A sound slipped out of her when he said that. One that was too breathy to be a laugh even as her magic flared and made her tingle. He flinched away like he got burned when she made that noise. "Cool?" She asked as her face flushed and she looked at anything but him even as she reached up and touched the same spot he did. "Are you feeling okay, Doofus? 'Cause you're acting weird."
"Am not!" Big Chill rasped, his antenna dancing even as he turned away and made a move for the window he just dove through. "Shut up!"
"Are too!" Gwen said, her nose even as she grabbed his arm because he wasn't getting away that easy! "First You didn't text me all day and you never go that long without bugging me, and then you flew all the way here even before I called and - "
"Don't flatter yourself. I just wanted to look at the stars and someone has to keep an eye on things while you go Punk Dweeb."
And she didn't pay attention to any of that. Not as she hid a gasp behind her hands because she knew. "You said you wouldn't go hero without me, Ben!" She couldn't keep the hurt out of her voice either. "You promised!"
"I didn't!"
"Yeah, right, Ben! Then why are you Big Chill?"
"Because - " Ben started and his wings actually spread wide like he was going to disappear, but he caught himself even as he reached up and rubbed the back of his head with a clawed hand. Caught himself, but he still didn't look at her, even as he said, "Because you're kidnap bait! And - and because the sky was right there and I needed to think."
"You?" she teased because that was what they did. Except usually he shot an insult right back. He didn't shake his head, he turned so he disappeared behind his wings. That wiped her smirk away quicker than any spell and filled her voice with worry as she asked, "About what?"
And then he jumped away just as she touched him. Jumped and hissed instead of giving her a shove. "Stuff! Nothing! Never mind!" He said as he shoved himself into the corner of the bathroom in such a panic that she knew he was telling the truth because he couldn't lie this well.
And because sometimes she sat on her roof and did the same thing.
That was what made her pad her way across the tile as her hurt melted away. "Come on, Doofus. If you can't talk to your sidekick, who can you talk to?" She said the words as softly as she could because he looked so ready to bolt and it was because of her, because she didn't give him a chance even though he'd never broken their promise.
Not like she had once. That was what made her say the one thing she never did. The one thing she couldn't imagine saying a few years ago, but after everything they'd been through, after yesterday…
"I'm sorry I jumped down your throat." They were words Gwen knew she'd pay for when his head shot up and he looked right at her and it didn't matter. Not when he took a breath…
One that vanished as someone knocked on the door. "Are you in there, Crazy Girl?" Michelle asked, her words broken by a yawn as the knob started to turn. "The party's not over yet! I just need to get some water on my face first."
The knob she never locked in her mad dash. "B -" Gwen started, but he was moving before she even finished his name. She felt his arms and wings wrap around her and then the world was like a roller coaster as the floor just disappeared under her.
Only phasing was better than anything at Adrenaland as they fell down the world's biggest hill. The one that could go on forever, but it didn't. Her whole body tingled as they passed through tile and wood and exploded into the garage under them. Somehow she didn't let out the excited shriek that she always did as they dropped, but she couldn't help the hug she gave him the second she felt concrete under her bare feet again.
And Ben just stood there and took it instead of shoving her away like he should have. Like he always did. He didn't even tease her about it and when she looked up to see if he was still breathing…
Gwen saw him looking down at her, still and frozen all the way up to his antenna as his wings twitched around them both. "This is where you start screaming, Ben," she teased as she took in a breath that smelled of old paper and cinnamon and the furthest thing from him as possible, but it was still somehow him and she didn't pull away.
It was as far away as the strangled - "See you tomorrow?" - that he let out.
She blinked at those words. Blinked as she let him slip away because they hurt and she didn't know why even though they'd already gotten lucky once. And because she should say no. She knew she should. She had so much work waiting for her at home. All the homework she should have done last night and today and another belt test coming up so she could get the green one she'd been working for for so long. But he had one for his orange belt and a math test next week and he still snuck out.
He still had fun.
"Like I'd make you go three days without a smoothie, Doofus." He didn't say a word at that. He just gave her a jerky nod as he turned for the far wall without a goodbye or an insult, and she just stared because being quiet so wasn't him. "If you stop being weird!" She hissed at his back as he disappeared.
Then she looked all around the garage, which was crowded with boxes and a minivan as she waited for him to come bursting out of a wall or the floor for one last scare, but he didn't. "So weird."
Gwen stared after him for she didn't know how long before she remembered the girl who was waiting for their party. Weaving around the van and finding the door inside was a piece of cake compared to walking away, but Ben was always weird and he'd probably forget all about it by tomorrow. Not even the lock slowed her down much. She didn't even need a spell, just a hairpin and a Grandpa who would teach them anything for a laugh.
Getting back upstairs though...
Gwen heard the voices and saw the light that both spilled out from the kitchen and across the hall the moment she opened the door . She couldn't make out the word, but her hackles rose because Michelle's mom's tone just screamed worry and anger even as she fought to keep her voice down.
And she wasn't alone.
There was a man in the room with her. His voice wasn't loud at all, but it still filled the house and made the hair on the back of Gwen's neck stand straight up because she'd never heard it before.
She didn't make a sound as she crept down the hall just in case and her mind raced over all the times she'd seen this as she went out heroing, the women who were too scared to even scream, much less fight and the men who proved that they were monsters even if they were human and didn't have any ray guns or bug friends.
The voices got clearer and clearer as she crept closer, the words a mix of English and the olive taste that she knew was Arabic now that were all mixed together. " - n't do this! What's wrong with you?"
"I - " the man started before he let out a hiss of pain that stole his voice away and made Gwen hurry the last few feet. She almost reached for her phone before she realized she left it on the bathroom floor because Ben had to prove he was a freak!
"Good!" Mrs. Hallam said as Gwen peeked around the archway that separated the hall from the kitchen with her heart pounding in her ears, the woman's voice almost a growl. "I hope it does hurt! It's what you deserve!"
She saw the woman standing in front of a man by the counter. The man had his shirt and undershirt both off as Mrs. Hallam finished unwrapping a bandage from around his left arm and shoulder. A man who was almost as tall as her Grandpa and towered over Mrs. Hallam even as she slapped at his chest. A barrel of a chest, too. One that looked too strong for a man who looked a good decade older than the woman she liked so much already. At least a decade, there was gray in the temples of his short cut blond hair. Gwen stared, some part of her working out all the ways she could end this without using a single spell and the rest not caring before she even saw his pants and the weird grey and white pattern that was all over it.
The same pattern she saw when soldiers came to her school so they could talk about the base that they were building at the edge of town, and she sucked in a breath even before the man caught the woman's wrist and pulled her close for a kiss. "Nadia…" He sighed when Mrs. Hallam turned away and he only caught her cheek.
He was Michelle's dad. He had to be. Gwen closed her eyes and made her hands relax because she'd been so stupid. She relaxed, but Mrs. Hallam didn't. "No, Jonathan. No kisses for you. The doctor said you had to take it easy until this healed! Running a forklift all day isn't what he meant!"
Gwen opened her eyes just in time to see the woman poke her husband's chest. Not over his heart, not like she did when Ben needed a good one, but on the right side before the woman turned and reached for the wipes and the fresh bandages that were waiting on the counter. Bandages that Gwen wondered at until the woman moved and she saw Michelle's dad's bare chest. The sight made her clap both hands over her mouth so she could catch her gasp. She knew the man was hurt. Michelle let it slip sometimes, but the way she waved it off as she said it…
She thought it was like the time she twisted her ankle, that her dad was wearing a sling or had a cast at the worst, but it wasn't. The skin from the left half of his chest all the way to his elbow was covered in angry red scars and pockmarks, some of them barely pinpricks and some that looked like craters as big as quarters, and the skin in between was shiny. She'd seen skin like that before, when she was little and there was a boy in her class who had been in a fire. No wonder his left arm looked smaller than his right when he pushed off the counter and turned away from his wife.
The marks looked angrier than he sounded, but there was some of it as he rubbed his face with his right hand. "I just wanted to do something that made sense for a change. The brass can demote me again if they don't like it and as for you - " he started as he reached out.
"Jonathan!" Mrs. Hallam gasped as his hand disappeared behind her back and she jumped. Jumped and spun around again as she slapped away that hand.
"I'm fine, Nadia," Somehow he smiled as he said that even as he shifted his left arm again. Not just smile, but grin as he wrapped right around his wife and pulled her close, one hand going so low that Mrs. Hallam let out a little squeak even as Gwen spun around and pressed her back against the hall wall, her face burning as she heard the same kissing noise that haunted her house every time her parents thought that they were alone just because she was upstairs and studying, "and you can't talk to me like this anymore. I'm a full Colonel now."
"Not yet, you're not!" The woman said, her voice thick with her accent but the words still in English even as she flushed and pushed away from him. "The last time I checked birds have two wings and you don't! Now stay here. I'm going to go get your sling and we'll see if you can listen to the doctor for one night, you stubborn ass!" Those last two words were thick with dates and Gwen almost giggled until she heard the woman storming into the hall.
Gwen pressed as close to the wall as she could and it still wasn't enough. Not if the woman paid any attention, but she didn't. She just raced up the stairs, her hands wiping away silent tears. Then she was gone. Gwen knew she should follow, that she should just go back to bed before she got caught or Michelle woke up, but she was a Tennyson and she couldn't help peeking again.
Mr. Hallam was still there, but he was turned enough that she couldn't see his burns anymore as he leaned against the counter with his head down. It didn't matter, she'd seen enough. Enough that she knew that they had to hurt even if he didn't show any sign and enough that she wondered if her mana would help and how she could do it without him knowing.
But none of her bruises ever looked like that. There had to be magic that would help, she couldn't imagine that there wasn't, but there wasn't anything about healing in her spellbook and she didn't know why. Not even her journal talked about it much and when it did…
The woman who wrote it was so frustrated that she almost put her pen through the page.
Gwen knew just how she felt as she stood there with her thoughts racing when Mr. Hallam pushed himself up and turned towards the fridge and her. Her eyes went wide as she shoved herself back behind the wall, not that it helped. "You must be Gwen," he said as second later, and she swore she heard something like a laugh. "Or the burglars in this town are very casual. Nadia thought you were all asleep."
A laugh and something else. Something that was lost in a hiss of pain that made her spin back as he pulled his shirt back on, or tried to. "You're going to hurt yourself!" She said as she hurried across the kitchen so she could help.
But Mr. Hallam waved her off. "It looks worse than it feels," he said. The words were the worst lie, but it didn't take the smile from his face even if he was gritting his teeth. He was doing it for her, she realized. And because he was a boy and boys were dumb like that.
"Michelle…" Gwen started and stopped as she stared and tried to find her courage and her hands ached to do something instead of just stand there as she stared at all the scars that looked so much worse close up. "She didn't tell me that it was so…"
"She doesn't know," Mr. Hallam - the Colonel - said with one last gasp as the shirt slipped off his back and hit the floor. A shirt he glared at even as she hurried over and grabbed it up for him. A shirt he took and stared at before he finally dropped it on the counter and turned his attention on her. "None of the kids do and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell her. I don't want her worrying."
The words were soft, but there wasn't any hiding the edge in them that she'd heard from her Grandpa only a few times. It made her stomach ache even as it almost forced a nod from her as she stared up at his face. What was one more secret? She was already hiding so much, but those were all hers. Hers and her Doofus's and Grandpa's and she wrapped her arms around her middle to keep them there as she murmured, "She's my friend."
Keeping this in felt wrong. As wrong as seeing the man wince and she didn't know what to do. One more, just one more. What did it matter?
She didn't know.
"I'm glad she is, too, but I could make it an order if it would make you feel better. Or classify it. I have the paperwork around here somewhere," Mr. Hallam said as he patted his pockets with his good hand in another show. A show that ended as she nodded and he leaned back against the counter with a sigh as he shifted his arm and some of the tension left his face. Enough that he gave her a real smile when he opened his eyes again, even if it was rueful. "This isn't the way I wanted to meet you, Gwen. Michelle's told me so much about you. She went on and on about you even before yesterday, and after that..." He took another breath and gave her a look that was so worried and commanding all at the same time. A look that didn't go away even as he smiled again. "I see I missed dinner and karaoke tonight."
"It was so much fun," Gwen said with a laugh that had as much to do with relief as the fact that it was. "She's a great singer."
"I know," her dad sighed as he leaned against the sink. Somehow he managed to look relaxed and commanding all at the same time. She looked like Grandpa did in the split second between vacation and heroing. "I don't get to hear her enough, but I know. She's even better on the violin if you can believe it. She'll blow you away when she plays Chaconne. Or she will once we figure out where they sent the thing. What about you?"
"I'm fantastic!" Gwen declared because she was. Ben was just jealous when she sang road songs with Grandpa and Michelle…
She must have been good. Michelle had her hands over her mouth the whole time Gwen sang into a hairbrush and there were tears in her eyes before the song was over.
"I bet," Mr. Hallam said as he kept looking at her before he shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, I just don't see it."
"See what?"
The look he gave her was so serious that Gwen almost backed away. Almost, but now that she was looking she could see so much of Michelle in him. In his nose and chin and the set of his mouth. "The girl my daughter was talking about last night. The one who - "
"I did, too!" Gwen snapped back even if it was a tease. There wasn't a thing about yesterday she was proud of. Not a thing. Not scaring Marci and the harpies, not hurting Flint's back or the ugly black bruise she left on Sean's chin. The one that would have him drinking out of a straw even though she didn't break anything because she was that good. She wasn't proud of anything she did, but she worked so hard so she knew what she was doing. "I could show you just how I dealt with Sean and - "
Mr. Hallam held up a hand before she could finish. "No, not that. I can tell from how you're standing there that you could do that. Your teacher is good, too. No, I'm talking about how you made a bus full of twelve-year-olds sit down and be quiet."
Gwen blinked and felt lost. After everything that happened, she'd almost forgotten about that. She never would have if they'd just listened to Mrs. Rogers the first two times, and the spell wasn't even anything much. "It wasn't - "
"Please. Do you have any idea how much the Pentagon spends looking for people who can do that? I know drill sergeants who would kill to say that they did what you did," the man looked at her again, a look that was so proud that Gwen ducked her head and she still saw him nod. "We could use a talent like that in the - "
"She's not here so she can get recruited, Colonel," Michelle spat out from the hallway. Gwen spun and saw her best friend stood there in the archway in her purple silk shorts and the lime green tank top with the sequined heart, a heart hidden behind her crossed arms and a green that looked all the brighter against her ashen face. Ashen even with the smeared makeup that she let Gwen put on her for practice and refused to wipe away. It looked silly before, but now her face was so ashen that the dark smudges under her eyes just made them look so much bigger as she marched across the kitchen and shoved Gwen's flip phone back into her hand. And she never stopped glaring at her father as she did.
Who looked so much more tired as he stared back as he turned so he could hide his arm and grab for his shirt at the same time. "Michelle, I was just - "
"I know what you were just!" Michelle snapped back, her voice high and shaking, as she stormed forward and grabbed Gwen's free hand and pulled her away. She didn't let go either, even though her father didn't say another word and neither did she. Not even when she raced down the hall and dragged Gwen behind her. Not until they were halfway up the steps and ran past her mom.
"Michelle!"
"I have a guest!" Michelle screamed back at the woman with words that tasted of dates that were too old and bitter, but she didn't stop. Not until they were back in her room. That was when she finally let go, that was when she just threw herself onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow.
Gwen stood there at the door rubbing the marks that were left on her wrist as her stomach twisted because she didn't know what she should do. She heard words drift up the stairs, but there weren't any shouts, and only one of the doors upstairs opened as Michelle's baby brother peeked out. Matthew's dark eyes were wide and scared as he stood there in Elmo pajamas until Elias was behind him, staring out over his head as he put his hand on his brother's shoulder. His eyes weren't scared at all, they were tired in a way that didn't have anything to do with just waking up as he stared at her.
There was a question in them, and a worry that made Gwen swallow even as she nodded. She waited until he pulled Matthew back and closed their door before she did the same with Michelle's and turned back.
Turned back to the girl who hadn't moved at all except for the shaking of her shoulders. The girl who didn't seem at all like the one Gwen knew. The one who always had a smile and a hug and couldn't stop talking. She was still talking. Gwen could hear the words that were so soft even before they were muffled by her friend's pillow and body and broken by sobs. " - it, Michelle! Stop it! You have to - have to be - "
Whispered words that Gwen didn't understand and couldn't imagine the girl wanted anyone else to know. That almost made her stop, almost made her turn away. Almost, then she took the last couple of steps and sat down. Michelle jumped when the mattress did, and again as Gwen's hand found her shoulder, but she didn't scramble away. "Are you okay?"
Michelle just laughed at that. Laughed a laugh that was wet and broken and miserable before she whispered, "I didn't know… He always - You must think I'm crazy."
"That's why we're friends, isn't it?" Gwen said her tone as soft as her joke as she squeezed the phone in her left hand and wished her doofus was here. He was always so much better with people than she was. He would know what to say and make them both laugh even now.
Somehow Michelle giggled anyway as she reached over her shoulder and squeezed Gwen's right, but she didn't look up. "You don't know what it's like, sitting here everyday waiting - wondering if this is it every time someone knocks on the front door and - and why didn't he just tell me?"
"He didn't want you worrying." It sounded just as dumb when Gwen said it as when he did, but it didn't matter. "Boys are weird no matter how old they get." Michelle let out a bitter little laugh that made Gwen wish she could give the girl a hug, but she couldn't. Not without letting go of her hand and she'd never because ladies didn't. Neither did best friends. It had been years since Gwen had one, but she knew that. So she let the phone go and snuggled in close. "What can I do?"
"Promise me..." Michelle said and the taste went away, but she didn't sound any calmer. "Promise me you won't let him talk you into - "
"Okay," Gwen agreed without giving it a second thought before her friend could even finish. It was the easiest promise she ever made. "I wear enough uniforms already anyway."
That time there wasn't any question about Michelle's laughing. "Tell me about it." She turned her head. Not much. Just enough that Gwen could see her bloodshot eyes and the wet spots on the pillow. "God, I barely even know you a - and I…" her face disappeared again. There weren't any more tears, but her back went so stiff as she laid there and shook her head before she buried it again. "God. I can't believe I let you see me like this! Go on, let me have it. I know you want to."
"Okay," Gwen said as she took a breath. "How dare you worry about your father. Bad Michelle."
"That's the best you've got?" Michelle giggled again into her pillow at that, the sound wet and messy. "You suck at this!"
"I know," Gwen murmured as she got as close as she could even though she knew she didn't, but the girl wasn't her Doofus or Marci and she didn't know what else she could say. "So you better ask for something else, because it's not going to get any better."
"Just…" Michelle said with a little shake of her head. "Just talk. Please."
"Okay. About what?" The question was dangerous, so dangerous because she didn't think she had it in her to keep any more secrets. Not tonight.
"I don't know. Just tell me something you haven't told me or anyone. Tell me anything!"
It was right there. Everything Gwen should say. Everything she wanted to. Everything she needed to. The heroing, the magic and the watch. She'd had an alien in the house, and her best friend didn't even know. An alien with her Doofus inside it, but it was still an alien. It was all there, all on the tip of her tongue. Everything she'd had to hide for a year and it was right there, just like the long hair Gwen was stroking with her left hand.
It was right there and Gwen choked. "I hate my hair."
"What?! Why?!" Michelle gasped as she pulled her head out of the pillow and turned and stared, her eyes still wet and red and shocked. "It's beautiful!"
"I've had this style for years and it's - it's - " Gwen said, still sick and lost because this wasn't what she wanted to say, but it was still so true that it hurt. She pushed her hand through her bangs as the word practical rang through her head, "It's boring. No one - " No one gave it a second look. If it wasn't for the color she knew no one would give it - give her - a first. She looked at her friend's hair as it fell down her back in long curly waves. Hair that everyone noticed, even her Doofus and he never paid attention to anything. "I wish I had hair as cool as yours."
"This bird's nest?" Michelle snorted and sniffled. "And this is a good day! You should see it when it gets humid! Why do you think I always braid it or put it in ponytails? And you want it? You really are Crazy!"
"Maybe," Gwen said as she hung her head. She must be. Who else would hero with their cousin and lie to their best friend?
"We can find you a new style, but…" Michelle said, her voice still teary, even as she poked at her with an elbow as she teased. "Tell me what it's like being you."
"Its…" Gwen started and stopped as she tried to put it all into words and she couldn't. Her brain just crashed. "I don't know. Being insane is just exhausting sometimes. All the time - but… " she just shrugged. There was so much she wanted to say and couldn't, and so much she didn't even have the words for.
"No, I mean… What's it like being normal! What's it like always knowing where you'll wake up next week? What's it like having more family around than just your parents?" Michelle sighed even as she snuggled closer. "I know you don't have a brother or a sister, so tell me - tell me about that cousin you're always grumbling about! I don't even know any of mine. Is he as big a pest as my goblins?"
"My Ben's so much worse, at least your brothers are cute!" Gwen laughed despite herself as she sank back down onto the bed. "But I thought you wanted to hear about something normal?" There was so much she couldn't say, but stories about her Ben? She could talk about him all night and never even get close to the hero stuff. "God, that Doofus has been such a pain in my butt since he was born. And he's always getting me into trouble. There was this time when we were helping his mom in her garden and he decided that we should look for treasure..."
Gwen's face was almost as red by the time she was done as it was black from the mud back then, but it was worth it when she heard Michelle giggle. So did it again and again as the one story turned into two and then three, but each one got softer. So did Gwen's words as her eyes got heavier until she finally sank until she sank down into the borrowed pillow and closed them.
And the last thing Gwen felt was someone pull a blanket up over her before they kissed her cheek and murmured, "You crazy thing." Then they snuggled in close and there was just the warmth and snores after that.
Snores that almost sounded like her Ben's laugh as he picked Kenny up and put him on his shoulders so they could both chase her, the two waiting for her in her dreams like they always did.
Author's Note
The inspiration for this chapter is from CMYK's Masquerade. I can't post a link, but its a great song and its easy to find on youtube.
