Chapter 19

"I liked Reginald," Nudge grimaced through a not so low whisper. I nudged (get it) her side and threw her a commanding scowl both of which Nudge seemed completely oblivious to as we sat in the presence of our new tutor. "He was smart and funny and I didn't even mind that he talked about football and well… this one's not even a boy. And look at those glasses. Somebody needs to tell her that Coke bottles went out with the eighties. Well, they were never really in, but still… couldn't they get us a tutor that at least had some style and didn't they-"

I turned to Fang with a sharp Help me look. He merely shoved his hands further into his pockets and averted his attention to some F-16's taking off outside the window.

The six of us had been hanging out in a large conference room at Nellis Air Force base for the past hour engaging in the not so wonderful world of mathematics. We were mostly at different levels, but closer than our age differences would dictate. Seeing as how we spent most of our natural born life on the run or in the air or well… school just didn't happen very often for us. Just didn't have much time to focus on the finer points of long division or Trigonometry. But we were natural born problem solvers so math for us was kind of a no-brainer.

So our new tutor, Candace Bell – seventeen year old braniac daughter of Colonel Sherman Bell – started us with Algebra. That was over a week ago. And while Nudge, Iggy, Fang, and I stared at letters for an hour each morning, Gazzy had rightfully regressed back to math before the alphabet attacked it and Angel – well, she'd moved on to Calculus.

"I like Candy," Gazzy whispered to Nudge. "She gave me two Snickers bars when I got a hundred on my homework."

"Dude? You did your homework?" Iggy gasped. Actually we all were slightly stunned – minus Angel – the mind reader who certainly already knew that.

"Yeah," Gazzy sighed. "I'm going to do my homework every night. I loooove Snickers." He propped his head onto an elbow, and stared dreamily at our new tutor who was at another table helping Angel or possibly Angel was helping her. Weird.

Nudge, Fang, and I exchanged Wha-at? stares. Angel stifled a giggle. Iggy just cleared his throat.

"How much longer do we have to do this?" Fang asked, closing a book in front of him. "I'm ready to fly."

Yeah," Iggy added, closing his book with a slight reluctance. "Bring on the Blue Angels."

I looked at Fang then shook my head at Iggy. I was about to open my mouth to protest his inane pronouncement, when our sweet-mannered tutor beat me to the punch.

"Wow, can you really fly that fast?" Candy asked as she sat down across from Iggy, at once re-opening his book. Iggy shot up in his seat, his white cheek bones donning two red saucers. "I saw them once… in Seattle. It was really cool but really loud. I think they can fly five hundred miles an hour. I heard you guys did air shows. Can you seriously fly faster than the Blue Angels?"

"Well… er… well, maybe not... uh…" Iggy was lucky to stammer that much out before Angel interjected.

"We're doing an air show tomorrow. You should come see it."

We all abruptly spun towards Angel – except for Iggy who still gaped at Candy.

"We are?" Nudge exclaimed gleefully.

"Yes!" Gazzy pumped his arm.

"Since when?" I snapped. Fang threw me a look that screamed No freaking way.

"Candace's father is going to brief us on it this afternoon, before they take us to Area 51," Angel explained.

"Area 51?!" Gazzy's scruffy blond hair was starting to stand up again.

"Uh-huh. But Gazzy, try not to get too disappointed. There aren't really any hidden aliens." Angel turned her lucid blue eyes to Fang and me. "And don't worry Fang. The air show is over restricted air space. For military personnel only. Well, except for Candace. She's going to be our special guest because she's the best tutor ever." Angel flashed Candy a genuine smile and then I marveled as her grin grew two sizes as she looked at Iggy. I thought for sure Iggy would have thrown Angel some subtle "brown-noser" comment, but he was still off in la-la land.

"That'd be great," Candy said, pushing up her glasses. "Oh wait… did you say tomorrow? What time tomorrow?"

"Ten. Which will give you lots of time before your movie starts."

And with that comment, Iggy's eyes snapped in Angel's direction, then just as quickly, fell to the floor.

Just so you know – I sometimes hated how Angel could read minds and splatter it out there tactlessly. I could just see Iggy's heart sink to his sneakers. And in case you haven't noticed, Iggy seemed to have a little crush on our seventeen year old tutor. As did Gazzy. Candy wasn't much to look at – kind of like a young librarian – brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail, hid her pasty white face behind super-size glasses, even wore a skirt and heels for our tutoring sessions. But she was probably one of the nicest people we've met besides my mom and Ella and seeing how Iggy really couldn't see what she looked like anyway – yeah – I guess I could understand the attraction. Personally, she could have looked like Medusa. I was just thrilled that she wasn't another hot busty red-head throwing herself at Fang.

But now Plain Jane apparently had a date. Way to go, Angel.

"Ooooh! What movie are you going to see?!" Nudge asked, then continued for what seemed like five minutes before Candy could answer. "I wish we could go see a movie. I feel like a prisoner… all cooped up… I mean we can go outside and all and fly and stuff, but we're not allowed to leave the base. And Vegas is so close and I can't even go and have my hair streaked. Do you know how long it's been since I had my nails painted? Professionally?" Nudge breathed a second to fan her freshly polished nails in front of her. "I wish we were still in LA. They had a Louis Vuitton store and a cute little place where they'd paint your nails and bring you pink lemonade in one of those cute little glasses with an umbrella and… And we'd still be working on our movie and… what movie did you say you were seeing?"

"I didn't," Candy said through a chuckle. "But I think my friends want to see that new Jim Carrey one that just came out." Her eyes fixed on Iggy. "Maybe you'd like to come."

"I wanna see it! Can we go, Max?"

Candy's gaze diverted to Gazzy. "You can all come if you want. I'll see if I can't get my dad to clear it."

Part of me just didn't think that was going to happen, but the ginormous grin on Iggy's face told me to keep my thoughts to myself.

"Oh, wow," Candy said, eyeing the clock on a side wall. "We ran over. I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to get us off topic."

"No problem," I said. I closed the Algebra book I'd been issued and frowned at the cover. Yeah, really. No problem.

"Wow, I gotta go," Candy said, springing to her feet, grabbing her bag. Iggy jumped up almost as soon as she did. Candy stopped at the door. "I'll…uh… I'll see you tomorrow morning, I guess."

We exchanged good-byes and Candy dashed out of the room like she was late for her own wedding. I don't think she was five feet out of the room when Gazzy exclaimed, "I love school!"

Angel giggled while Nudge flashed him a befuddled stare. I was about to whip out a thermometer and take his temperature when I noticed Fang stroll to the other side of the room and put an arm around Iggy's shoulder. Iggy hadn't moved his eyes off the door since Candy left.

"They just can't keep themselves off you, can they big guy?" Fang teased.

My heart smiled. Maybe a few weeks at an Air Force Base wouldn't be so bad after all.


A/N: Happy New Year! Yes - this is one of my resolutions - to finish what I've started. We'll see how long it lasts. Haha. Reviews please!