Dess's gaze scanned Bibxby High's cafeteria anxiously. She leaned toward Melissa and asked, "Have you sensed him yet?"
Melissa gave Dess a crippling look and said, her patience wearing thin, "For the thousandth time, no."
"Thousandth? You know I only asked you three times."
"It was only sarca-," Melissa sighed, "Never mind. Polymaths," she muttered, adjusting the volume on her CD player to its maximum.
"Are you sure he goes to this school Dess?" Jessica asked, ripping off a piece of Jonathan's sandwich. She grimaced at the uncanny taste of apple sauce mixed with peanut butter and Jonathan grinned.
"That's what he told me."
"You sure you weren't, I don't know, hallucinating maybe?" Rex suggested.
"Rex has a point Dess. You went through a pretty scary experience. It's possible you made James up."
"What do you mean I made him up? If James wasn't there, I'd be digested darkling chow right now."
Jessica shrugged. "We'll just have to see I guess."
As Dess adjusted the anklet of bottlecaps and washers around her boot, Dess watched the time on her radio clock. 11:59. She sighed and stood up. As the soft glow of blue light permeated her bedroom, Dess pulled open her window and climbed out onto the roof and into the silent void. Her gaze scanned the horizon, searching for any of the other Midnighters, especially one particular person…Why hadn't she seen him in school today? Why hadn't Melissa sensed him? Had she really made him up? Dess always thought her mind worked like clockwork, but apparently, it may have a few loose springs to it. She scaled down the side of her house using a ladder she had propped up there. At the second to last rung, she released both her feet, falling onto the pavement with a soft thud. She turned around and gasped. "Hey," James said.
"Don't scare me like that," Dess cried, barely catching her breath.
"Sorry. I couldn't wait to see you."
"Then why didn't I see you in school today?" Dess demanded. Realizing how harsh her tone sounded, she turned away from him and began walking.
"It's not that easy to find one person out of all the students at Bixby," James reasoned.
"You're right. It's just-," Dess turned around again, "My friends started saying that I was crazy and I only made you up-,"
"Hey," James said, suddenly closing the distance between them, "I'm very real."
Dess looked up at him, her eyes searching his face. His eyes crinkled at the edges as his face split into a small smile. "Hit me," she said.
A look of confusion suddenly spread across his face. "What?"
"Hit me," Dess repeated.
"Why?"
"You can say that you're real, but for all I know, you could be, well, not real." James nodded and lifted his hand, placing it against Dess's cheek, where it felt warm and soothing.
"See?" he said softly. "Real."
"Dess!" a distant voice suddenly called. Dess left her monetary lapse into a reverie and reluctantly turned around. Jonathan landed a few feet in front of her, with Jessica in tow, who was quickly smoothing her windswept hair. "Is that James?" Jonathan asked.
"Oh, yeah. James, this is Jonathan and Jessica," Dess said distantly, still unable to completely disentangle herself from her trance.
"Hey," James said, clapping his hand against Jonathan's arm and shaking Jessica's hand. Jessica gave Dess a discreet look of approval.
"Melissa and Rex are gonna be here any hour or so," Jonathan said.
Dess raised an eyebrow. "We only have one hour. Even less."
"I know, but they decided they wanted to bike the way here. I think they wanted some privacy."
"So there is something going on between them?" Dess asked.
"Well, they've been touching each other a lot more lately," Jessica said. She made a face. "Did that sound a little wrong to you?"
"Just a little," Jonathan replied, looking slightly sick.
"Oh!" Jessica suddenly exclaimed, a grin spreading across her features. "Look." She pulled a metallic blue flashlight from her back pocket. "I came prepared." She pulled the switch up and the device's mouth suddenly emitted a dense beam of bright, yellow light. James suddenly staggered backward, recoiling. "James?" Dess asked nervously, placing a hand on his back. Jessica had cut off the ray of light, but James didn't recover.
"That was really bright," he said when he stood up again.
"Yeah it was. Try not to aim directly into the eyes Jess," Dess told her.
"There are some people whose skin pigments are ultrasensitive under light, and your skin is pretty fair so I think you might have that condition," Jessica said.
"Maybe," James said distractedly, inspecting his arms as though expecting to see some damage done to his skin.
"Maybe its just a midnighters symptom, like the one I have. Sun's totally killer on my eyes," Dess said. At the sound of the whir of rotating pedals, Dess shifted her gaze onto the street. Rex and Melissa parked their bicycles in front of Jonathan and Melissa.
"This James?" Rex demanded. Dess nodded.
Melissa took off her sunglasses and her eyes narrowed. "You!" she said to James.