Flame (Fireborn) by Mari Arden Read Free Book Online Page B

can't
contain the sudden pounding in my heart.
    For never was a story of more woe
    Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
    I'm not invisible.
    He's seen me.

Chapter 4
    When I leave Mr.
Bernard's class the hallway is crowded. School staff monitors traffic
flow in full force. A teacher is standing every few feet calling out
students, giving reminders, and trying as hard as the students not to
stare at the reporters, bodyguards and government officials that have
suddenly descended on Morrison High School.
    Snap, snap, snap.
    Everywhere I look
people are taking pictures. Some carry small cameras, and others are
pulling out their camera phones snapping pictures of things like the
chair Rhys had sat on and the pencil he'd left behind. Earlier a
bodyguard had come to get him five minutes before the dismissal bell
rang. We all pretended we hadn't noticed him leaving, but the second
he shut the door I heard a collective sigh like nervous tension being
released.
    I walk to my locker to
exchange a book. Everywhere people are whispering and it sounds like
the chirping of birds. I hear Rhys's name, but I also hear another
name. Lenora. She's the other alien at our school. I overhear some
pompous jock joke overly loud about what other "parts" of
her might "glow".
    I roll my eyes in
disgust. Really?
    Opening my locker, I
search for my calculus book.
    Snap, snap, snap.
    Are those sounds going
to be the only sounds I hear all day?
    Snap, snap, snap.
    Apparently so.
    "Uhm." A
throat is cleared.
    Snap, snap, snap.
    Seriously, that
clicking's going to haunt me in my sleep!
    "Please excuse
me." The voice has a strange accent to it.
    I freeze.
    "Please excuse me.
Would you mind helping me with my locker?" His voice is formal
and polite.
    For a second I tell
myself Rhys isn't talking to me. How had he even seen me? When no one
answers him, I turn around.
    Rhys is standing less
than a foot away. His broad shoulders fill my vision, but not enough
that I don't notice the half circle crowd that's suddenly gathered
around us. People are pretending not to stare, but I can feel their
curiosity. Why is he talking to her?
    It takes a few seconds,
but I manage an answer. "Sure. What do you need help with?"
    He gestures to the
combination lock on the locker near mine. "I have the correct
numbers. I keep turning it, but nothing's happening."
    "It can be kind of
a nuisance."
    "New sense?"
He pronounces it slowly.
    "Like annoying."
    He smiles. "Yes,
it is."
    He hands me a crumpled
piece of paper, and I take it. Our hands brush against each other. I
notice his skin is rough and hard. Leathery. Unable to stop myself, I
take a peek. His palms have calluses.
    He notices my stare and
says, "We had a rough landing coming through your atmosphere."
I'd heard about that. Each move they've made since contacting Earth
four months earlier has been recorded and analyzed by every media
outlet in the world. Even the late night talk shows have joined in-
putting their own spin on stories, of course.
    What do smart
blondes and UFO's have in common? You always hear about them but
never see them! Well folks, it looks like we'll be seeing our first
smart blonde today…
    What do you call an
overweight Saguinox? An extra cholesterol!
    When Jay Leno got wind
of their problems with landing, he'd said: what do you call a
spaceship with a faulty air conditioning unit? Come on, what do you
think? A frying saucer!
    It wasn't a faulty air
conditioner, but facts don't matter in entertainment.
    "I did hear about
that. Apparently debris from your deflector got into the engine and
caught fire?"
    He looks amused. "Our
deflector was fine. It's a lot less complicated than that. We
miscalculated the heat levels in the mesosphere, and one of our main
engines burned."
    "Oh."
    Snap.
    We try to ignore it.
    Turning my back to the
crowd, I clasp his lock, preparing to show him what to do. "Turn
it three times to the right then you stop at twenty three. Turn to
the left… and right again, stopping at nine."