Part 18 (1/2)
The target rings are lined up in the middle of the field. Each one has a different teacher's picture taped at the bull's-eye. Most of the arrows are horribly off, if they make it to the rings at all. There are only seven guys on the archery team, and they take great pride in teaching everyone else. I'm okay at it, but I've never gotten a bull's-eye. Ryan, having taken archery since he was in junior high, is the captain of the team.
I take a seat near the bin of arrows.
Thalia giddily unzips the oversized purple backpack my mom gave her this morning. She pulls out a finely crafted bow and a set of arrows. I know this is a terrible idea. I would never, ever bring weapons to school. But Kurt insisted we have to always be prepared.
”That is a beauty,” Ryan says. His blue eyes are practically sticking out of his head when he sees the arrows. ”You guys are certified, right?” And I quickly say yes before it becomes an issue.
”Our father was an expert archer,” Kurt says. He holds the bra.s.s bow, which looks light as a feather as he weighs it against his palms. ”He made this for me.”
Thalia doesn't join them and instead stays sitting between me and Layla. ”You're not going to try?” I ask.
”I find that it might hurt Ryan's human ego if I were to best him.” She leans back on her palms. Even knowing what she is, she is a wondrous sight. Her hair is free and flowing around her face with a life of its own. She crosses her legs and wiggles her ankles so that the glitter of her slippers catches the stadium lights. I wonder if she misses her fins. I've only changed a few times, and already something deep inside me is urging me to find a river, or even a bathtub, and sink in.
”I very much miss Atticus,” Thalia sighs. ”But I like it here. Don't tell Kurt.”
”He looks like he's having more fun than he'd like to admit,” Layla says. I follow her eyes to where Kurt is taking aim.
”Kurtomathetis wouldn't know how to have fun if it were pulling on his fishtails.”
I laugh hard at that. I bet Kurt can hear what we've said, because when he lets his arrow go, it misses Princ.i.p.al Quinn's picture and hits the outer ring.
Ryan gets a bull's-eye on the picture of Mr. Van Oppen. Thalia shrieks and claps her hands. The other guys go, one by one. Some of them get close, but none of them are as accurate.
Jerry throws his arms up, letting the school's bow and arrow fall to the ground. ”This is whack! I'm going to check on the freshman lunch period, if you know what I mean.”
”Yeah, all your little boyfriends are waiting,” Angelo calls out after him, and is answered by Jerry's middle finger. Bertie isn't too far behind Jerry after he fails for the umpteenth time at getting his arrow to go anywhere other than the gra.s.s.
”Know what?” Layla goes, pus.h.i.+ng herself up, her arm brus.h.i.+ng against mine and sending pinp.r.i.c.ks down my spine. ”I'm gonna go play with sharp objects too.” She runs up to Kurt, who shows her how to stand, his hand carefully guiding her hands into position. He whispers something to her, and she smiles. She lets go and hits Ms. Pippen right at the center of her third eye. Layla jumps up and down and throws her arms around Kurt's neck.
”She's lovely, you know.” Thalia nods at her.
”Who?”
”You know who. Layla. Duh?”
”Yeah, well.” I grab a handful of the fake gra.s.s and pull hard on it. ”This whole Maddy thing isn't going to make me look like Champion of the Year in her eyes.”
”If I've learned anything by watching human interaction, it's that they're always angry at the person they feel they love. It's easier to feel anger than love. Love makes people sick. Anger just consumes you so you think you're not feeling anything.”
”What about mermaid love?”
”Mer-kin, maybe all immortals, don't necessarily fall in love. Forever is awfully long, and the oceans are vast. You never know who will, how do you say, rock your boat?”
”Maybe that's why I have the reputation of being a man-s.l.u.t.”
”Surely, it has nothing to do with the fact that you're also a sixteen-year-old foot-fin.”
She cups her hands around her mouth and hollers when Ryan gets another bull's-eye. He drops his bow and arrow. He runs over to us, gets down on his knees, and kisses Thalia on her sweet full mouth. At first she's surprised. h.e.l.l, I'm surprised. So is everyone who's looking at them from the bleachers. A camera flash goes off somewhere. Layla giggles behind her hands, and some of the guys whistle with their fingers. All except for Kurt, who shakes his head disapprovingly.
Thalia rests her hands around Ryan's face, bringing him in, and neither of them seems to notice the crowds. I want to look away, but it's not like anyone's been kissing me lately. I glance at Layla to see if maybe she's looking at me, but her face is tilted to the sky, where a gray patch of clouds is floating over us. When I relax my eyes, the clouds look like grizzly bears. I shut my eyes to get Elias's face out of my head.
Just then Ryan stumbles out of their kiss. ”Cool. Okay. Good.” He jogs back to the targets with a new strut.
”Tristan.” Thalia bites her bottom lip. ”Will you make me a promise?”
”What is it?”
”Will you let me stay? If you're king? Would you let me stay here like Aunt Maia did? I could never ask anyone else.”
A king keeps his promises, my grandfather told me. I guess I should be careful of the promises I make.
A fat drop of rain hits me right in the eye. The knot in my stomach that started in homeroom is growing with the darkening gray clouds. I point at the sky. ”I thought that wasn't supposed to happen anymore.”
She stands with her hands over her eyes like visors. ”It isn't. Something is wrong.” She breathes in long and deep. ”Do you smell it?”
I smell damp air. Mist rises around us. Clouds roll in front of the sun, and everything inside me turns. Just like before the first storm, the first wave.
Angelo is the first to run past me, yelling something about his hair and how he'll see us losers back in the lunchroom. Ryan holds out his hands and cries out with excitement. It's something that comes from deep inside him, as if he's waking up for the first time.
The sky turns black, the wind pus.h.i.+ng the clouds fast across the sky. The only light comes from the stadium lights and the lightning cracking open the sky. Car alarms go off all along the block. For a moment, it feels like the earth is shaking around us, but it's actually the metal fence around the field that's shaking.
I grab Layla by the shoulders. ”Please go inside. Please.”
”What's wrong? What's happening?”
Thalia's glamour is fading slightly, or maybe she's just green with sickness as her yellow-green eyes widen at what they see. She points at the other end of the field. ”There!”
Three of the ugliest creatures I've ever seen are ripping the fence open. Damp air mingles with the scent of sea sludge, like a manhole just threw them up into the street. The tallest one has the head of a hammerhead shark on the body of a human. Yellow eyes glow on either side of his head. His gills open at the touch of rain, and a smile like crushed gla.s.s grins right at me. Beside him is a creature that is blue from head to webbed feet. His elbows end in long red spikes, and his mouth opens to rows of canines. The smallest one of the three is round with the head of a blowfish whose cheeks constantly puff in and out.
Kurt takes aim with his arrow and shoots before I can even blink. The creatures are fast, and Kurt only grazes the blue one in the arm. They jump high and scatter around us.
”Layla, please do as I say!” I fumble to unzip my backpack for my dagger.
”No!” Kurt shouts over me.
”What do you mean no?”
”They'll follow her. Chase her. They're fast, whatever they are.”
”You mean you don't know?”
The round one shows himself in front of us. He breathes hard and puffs his body out. s.h.i.+t.
”Get behind the targets!”
I pull Layla down, s.h.i.+elding her with my body behind the wooden target. The needles. .h.i.t like darts into the wood.
”Lord Sea, stay down,” Kurt says. ”Thalia, aim!”
She reaches for a bow, stands quickly, and lets the arrow fly.