Kara's Cross

I walk up to the table where Maddie is waiting, placing my tray down and sit across from her.

“The spaghetti smells good and the garlic bread looks delicious.”

I had slept in a little this morning, so I was only able to grab an apple for breakfast and my stomach has been angry with me about it for the last hour.

“It sure does,” Maddie agrees as she opens her milk carton.

“The lunchroom will sure seem different without Shayna and her gang here.”

“Yeah,” Maddie agrees, looking around, “no more rushing to find the table farthest away from them, or continuously looking over our shoulder in case they are coming over.

“Other than that, though, it doesn’t feel any different today than any other day;” I remark as I spin the pasta around my fork, “I don’t think anyone even knows what happened last night. I am as invisible as always.”

“Yeah, me too,” Maddie nods, “except for Arabella, she keeps looking at us, well, you mostly, and not like she usually does either; it’s like she’s studying you, or something. Oh, and Logan looked at you a few times, too.”

I had noticed Logan glancing my way, but I have been going out of my way to avoid eye contact with Arabella. I don’t want to see the smug look on her face after turning us down for cheerleading. There is no way we weren’t good enough to make the team. She has too much power. It makes me angry to think about it. Why wasn’t I able to change her vote? I should stop dwelling or I’m going to explode.

“Are you sure Logan was looking at me?”

I know he was, but I want to hear what she thinks.

“Definitely,” Maddie grins, scanning the lunchroom, “He’s watching you from the lunch line right now. I’m pretty sure he likes you.”

I turn slightly and do my best to see where Logan is without letting on I am watching. He is almost through the line and continuously staring at me. This is so weird. He disappears from sight when he enters the room where the lunch counter is located.

“Maybe he just is amazed at how much of a freak show we really are,” I refocus my attention on Maddie, “you know, like how people just can’t help staring at car accidents?”

“I’m not a freak,” Maddie’s says, perturbed, “and neither are you, Kara. We have made a few friends and if it weren’t for Arabella, I’m pretty sure we’d be cheerleaders right now.”

“That’s definitely true.”

Maddie and I spin our heads toward the voice, startled. Logan is standing right in front of our table, tray in hand, talking to us.

“For the life of me, though,” he continues, “I can’t think of any reason you’d want to be cheerleaders, especially on the same squad with Arabella.”

I turn to Maddie. I’m not sure what’s happening right now. I don’t even know what to say.

“We didn’t know Arabella was on the squad,” Maddie defends, “we tried out so we could get involved in our school, you know, like they told us at orientation.”

“That chick’s bad news,” Logan declares, “you’re better off staying away from her whenever possible. I’m Logan, by the way. I don’t think we’ve ever officially met.”

“I’m Maddie,” she places her hand on her chest, before gesturing in my direction, “and this is Kara. Would you like to sit with us?”

I nod at Logan before giving Maddie a sideways glare. What is she doing? I don’t know how to act around a guy. The only boy I know is Mason and he obviously doesn’t count. I’ve been kind of trying to get his attention and failed miserably. Just one more thing in which I am a failure. I’m sure he thinks of me as another sister.

“Thanks,” he places his tray beside mine and plops down, “I was hoping you’d ask.”

It’s quiet for several moments. I look at Maddie who is putting all of her attention into finishing her milk and then look over at Logan who is staring back at me.

“If it makes you feel better,” Logan smiles, “I think you both were the best at the tryouts. You must have practiced quite a bit.”

“We did,” I agree with a nod, “our friend, Jackie, taught us the basics and we worked on it every day for two weeks.”

“It shows,” his eyebrows lower a bit as he continues, “the judges obviously thought so, too, two of them changed their minds and voted yes.”

“Yeah,” Maddie pipes in, “we thought they were all going to change their minds.”

“Really?” Logan raises an eyebrow, “even though you deserved it, I was surprised any of them changed their minds, being BFF’s with Arabella like they are. What made you think even one of them would switch their vote?”

A slight panic envelopes me as I direct my attention to Maddie. She isn’t going to give anything away, is she? She told me I could trust her. Logan’s already asking too many questions. Please, Maddie, don’t say too much.

“Like you said,” she points at Logan, “we were the best out there. We thought it would override their hatred of us.”

Nice one, Maddie.

“Well,” Logan laughs to himself, “at least no one can say you’re not optimistic.”

We all eat our lunch for a little while without talking. Logan is turning out to be alright, not as weird as I was thinking he would be. I wonder if he just wanted to ask about the tryouts or if he’s going to start hanging out.

“Hey,” Logan breaks the silence after finishing his fries, “what are you doing today after school?”

“We don’t have any plans, yet,” Maddie answers, smiling at me, “why?”

“They’re supposed to be getting some new Cons in at the shoe store,” excitement in his voice, “I’m going to check them out, maybe get some pizza. You should go, too; we could hang out for a few hours.”

I am not so sure. I’ll have to lie to my dad. He won’t let me go if he knows a boy will be there until he gets to know him, unless it’s Mason; my dad really likes him. Plus, how much fun could we have watching someone look at shoes? I guess I could ask Dad for some shopping money.

I glance in Maddie’s direction to gauge her opinion. She is looking at me eagerly with a big smile on her face, her eyes practically screaming for me to say yes.

“We’ll have to double check, Logan,” I begin, trying to sound unimpressed, “but it might work out. Maybe we’ll see you there.”

Logan is quick to hide his disappointment. I guess I could have been more excited. Even Maddie is looking at me as if I’m crazy. I’ll tell him it sounds like a lot of fun.

The lunch bell rings before I can say anything. We all get up to bring our trays to the return in silence.

Logan gets a little ahead of us.

“See you both in English,” he promises, waving as he turns left down the hallway, “I’ve got to stop by

We both wave and walk together toward class.

“We’re on our way, Kara,” Maddie gives me an excited smile.

“What do you mean?”

“The first days of school sucked,” Maddie looks at me and I nod, “so we came up with our plan.”

“Yeah,” I wait for her to continue, not sure of her point, “and so far our plan has been a complete failure.”

“I thought so, too,” she pauses, “but now I think it’s actually working, just not the way we were thinking it would.”

What could she possibly be thinking?

“Operation Bookworm was a bust, we were not even close to making the volleyball team, and obviously cheerleading isn’t meant to be,” I glance her way with raised eyebrows, “as far as I can tell, we are O-and-three. I don’t see it working, Maddie.”

“C’mon, Kara,” she cocks her head and smiles at me, “the goal wasn’t the activities; it was to get friends and become popular. At volleyball, we met Jackie, Lauren and Katie. They’re our friends. Only Arabella and her pack were mean, everyone else treated us nicely. Now, we’ve met Logan. He seems nice. I would really like to get to know him better.”

I look over and see Maddie grinning and staring blankly ahead.

“You like him, don’t you?” I gasp, “No wonder you were so eager to say yes to the mall.”

“I don’t even know him,” she shakes her head, “how could I like him?”

“You’re right,” I concede, “I guess I was wrong.”

Maddie looks toward the ground and takes a breath. Apparently, she is relieved I dropped the subject.

We reach our classroom and head to our seats.

“Do you think your parents will let you go tomorrow, Maddie?”

“Yeah, as long as I bring Mason along,” she rolls her eyes, “they usually want us to stay together. I hope he doesn’t mind. Aren’t you more worried about your dad saying yes?”

Finding out Mason is going definitely increases my interest. Maddie’s right, though. If my dad suspects anyone besides the three of us are going, he won’t let me go at all.

“I’ll just tell him we want to do a little shopping and get some mall pizza. As long as we do that, I won’t be lying at all.”

“I hope you’re right,” Maddie sounds doubtful, “I really want to go. Besides, this is part of our plan anyway, hanging out at the mall.”

“Oh yeah,” I laugh, “Operation Just Chillin’ is on deck.”

**********

“You think he’s here yet?” I ask Maddie as I look around the food court. “Did he say where he was going to be?”

“He said he was going shoe shopping,” she begins, stopping in front of the directory, “but there are ten shoe stores here. I have no idea which one he meant.”

“Well,” Mason begins as he walks away, “while you two figure things out, I’m going to the arcade. Come get me when you are about to eat.”

That’s a bummer. I guess we won’t be seeing much of Mason.

“Do you want to shop for a while and look for Logan later?”

“We can look around,” Maddie says studying the directory, “I don’t have any money, though, so I can’t buy anything.”

I had forgotten Maddie probably wouldn’t have money. My dad gave me ten dollars for supper and twenty-five for a new shirt.

“Do you have some money for supper?”

“Mason and I are going to eat when we get home.”

I don’t really need any new clothes. My dad will understand.

“My dad gave me extra money for you both if you needed it,” I lie, “he said you have to try the mall pizza. It’s his favorite. He’ll be disappointed if you don’t.”

Maddie looks at me for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders.

“I wouldn’t want to disappoint your dad,” she grins, “pizza sounds good. Where did you want to shop first, Kara?”

“Wherever you want to go, Maddie, I wasn’t planning to buy anything either. I just wanted to window shop.”

We decide to walk around and if we see an interesting store, we will go in. There are quite a few students from our school here. Most of them don’t pay any attention to us, but a few nod in our direction. We walk around in a store which has some cool clothes and we decide when we are rich we will spend a fortune there.

As we leave the store, I see Logan across the corridor. I wave to him and notice Maddie is doing the same.

“Hi, Kara. Hi, Maddie,” he calls out as he approaches, “I finally found you. I was beginning to think you weren’t coming. It’s good to see you again.”

“Good to see you, too,” I reply, “how was shoe shopping?”

“It was great,” he answers enthusiastically, lifting his pant leg a little to show his neon orange shoes, “they had my color and size and even gave me a discount.”

“Cool,” Maddie adds quickly, “I really like the shoelaces.”

“Yeah,” Logan agrees, looking happily down at his shoes, “you can never have too much orange.”

“So,” I begin, changing the subject, “did you want to walk around some more, or should we go get some pizza?”

“Maddie,” Logan turns toward her, “don’t you want to wait for us in the café court, while I talk to Kara for a while?”

Maddie nods.

“Kara,” she puts her hand on my arm, “I want to wait for you in the café court so Logan can talk to you for a while.”

What is she doing? Why does she want to wait by herself? Why is she doing exactly what Logan suggested?

“Maddie?” I question. “You don’t have to sit and wait. You can walk with us.”

“No,” her reply is quick and sure, “I really want to wait for you both while you go talk. I’ll be fine. I’ll see you when you are ready to eat.”

I watch her walk away before facing Logan, who looks unsure and rather uncomfortable. I must have missed something. Is she trying to set us up together?

“That was strange,” I mention, “I wonder why she wanted to go off by herself?”

“There was nothing strange about it,” his voice sounds matter of fact, “I told her to go and she did. It’s just like what you can do.”

Oh, no. Does he think he knows what I am able to do? How is that possible? Maddie wouldn’t have talked to him, would she? I must not understand what he is trying to say. There is no way he can know about me; I’ve tried to be careful.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I try to sound as confused as I really am, “I can’t make people do anything.”

“Don’t worry, Kara,” he reassures, “I’m on your side here. I’m not going to tell anyone about your secret. Besides, I can do the same thing, so, really, I’m trusting in you just as much.”

Is this possible? Does he know what I can do? Is he able to do the same thing? This all feels like a practical joke.

“Did Maddie tell you I am bossy or something and help you come up with this?”

“This is no joke, Kara,” he looks into my eyes, “I’m trying to tell you I have the same ability you do. I can make people do what I want. I’ve been watching you, and I am positive you can do it, too. Your blackouts and stomach problems were the first things I noticed, and I began keeping an eye on you. For a long time, I didn’t see any other signs and I thought I might have been wrong, but I became sure at the cheerleader tryouts.”

He knows a lot about it. Could Maddie have told him?

“I don’t see what the tryouts have to do with anything,” I argue, “Maddie and I didn’t make the squad. If I could make people do what I wanted, wouldn’t we be on the team?”

“You almost were, though,” he grins, “when you told them they wanted you on the squad and Maddie asked for a revote, I saw the way you were acting and how sick you seemed to get right after asking. That’s when I knew.”

“But, it didn’t work,” my curiosity is overriding my sensibility, “shouldn’t we have been voted on the squad, then?”

“Yeah,” he nods, losing a bit of his grin, “except Arabella can also do what we do.”

What? This is all starting to seem very surreal.

“I realized she was like us earlier in the year,” he continues, “but I didn’t discover we couldn’t influence each other until I told her to shut up in Mrs. Olson’s class.”

Several memories from the year begin racing through my mind. The blank stare Dani had after Logan had talked to her in Mrs. Olson’s class. The way the volleyball coach suddenly took Arabella’s side when the ball hit me during tryouts. The intrigued look she had on her face when I tried to change her cheerleading vote. It all makes sense.

My thoughts race ahead to the end of cheerleading tryouts when Shayna and her gang had us cornered in the back hallway. For some inexplicable reason, the girls had suddenly stopped attacking us and decided to confess. I recall hearing a voice telling them what to do, but being too relieved to try to find out who it was. I did see someone as Maddie was helping me out of the hallway. It was Logan.

“It was you!”

I can’t hold back my emotion. I am as shocked as I am confused. A few minutes ago, I was sure I was the only one in the world with this power and now there are at least three and, apparently, all of them are better at using it than me.

“What are you talking about?” Logan’s face looks puzzled, “I just told you what I did in Mrs. Olson’s class.”

“No,” I shake my head, “I’m talking about the night of the tryouts. You were the one who made Shayna stop hitting us, weren’t you?”

He stops walking and turns to face me.

“After Maddie carried you out of the gym, I decided to come down and make sure you were okay. It took me a while to figure out which way you had gone.” Logan’s face becomes serious, his smile disappearing. “By the time I found you, Shayna and her gang were already there. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.”

“You stopped them before they really hurt us,” I reassure him, “neither one of us was badly hurt.”

I fall silent. There’s a good chance I owe Logan my life. At the very least, he kept me from being severely injured. Am I supposed to thank him? Do I treat him differently? This must be what Maddie felt when I helped her on the first day of school.

“Thank you, Logan,” I fumble over the words, not sure how grateful I should be, “I owe you, big time.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he shrugs his shoulders, “I’m sure you would have done the same for me. People like us have to stick together, right?”

I nod. Did he only come to my aid because I have powers? It was, after all, the only reason he was paying attention to us at all on the night of tryouts.

“How come you don’t get hurt when you use your powers?” I ask, changing the subject.

“It hurts me, there’s no doubt about it,” he corrects, “I couldn’t even stand up after the incident at tryouts; I was sure I was going to throw up all over myself.”

I recall the body I saw curled up in a ball as Maddie was helping me outside. It must have been Logan. Since I discovered my power, I have felt so alone, like everyone is right in calling me a freak. It’s hard to process the knowledge of others like me, who can understand what it’s like to have and use this power.

“You don’t seem to be in pain now?” I say like a question.

“I’ve got a slight headache and a bit of queasiness,” he begins, “but I’m pretty much used to it, so it doesn’t bother me. Plus, as I’m sure you’ve found out, the more people affected, the stronger the after effects.”

“Yeah,” I agree, “but if I would have done what you did, I am sure I would have blacked out, or worse. I barely stayed conscious when I changed the vote of the cheerleaders, and that was only a little change on two people.”

Logan looks thoughtful for a while. Realizing we have been standing in one place talking for several minutes, I point over to a set of benches across from a pet store. We walk over and sit down facing a huge aquarium full of multi-colored goldfish.

“Well...” he begins hesitantly, as if still in thought, “how often do you use your ability?”

“Umm,” I think for a couple of seconds, “I’m pretty sure the last time I did it was the sixth time. Why?”

“That’s probably it,” he smiles, “I usually use my power four or five times a day. I think my body is adjusting the more I do it. How can you use it so little?”

“Well, the pain is always a pretty good reason for me,” I admit, “plus, most of the time it seems wrong to make people do what I want. Not to mention, my father has kept me home-schooled.”

“Unless you’re trying to get on the cheerleading squad,” Logan raises an eyebrow as he grins.

A wave of guilt sweeps over me, before turning into irritation.

“We were never going to get a fair tryout,” I argue, “we deserved to make the team.”

Logan’s eyes widen as he puts his hands out in front of him.

“I was just giving you a hard time, Kara,” he laughs, “I believe you should be using your power much more often. How do you think I got my new shoes at the employee discount rate?”

I spin around to face Logan. I am shocked and amazed at the same time.

“If you did that, why didn’t you just tell the clerk to give you the shoes for free?”

“I do have some guidelines, you know,” Logan responds defensively, “I try to use my powers in ways people won’t be greatly affected and I won’t be noticed. If I make the clerk give me the shoes free, her boss will fire her. Plus, if it started getting around I was the guy who always got free stuff, people would start to notice. I do what I want, but I’m smart about it.”

It still doesn’t sound right.

“Here, let me show you,” Logan grabs my hand and pulls me up off the bench. “We’ll get some candy.”

We hurry over to the Sugar Factory and look around. Excitement rushes through my body. I feel like I am about to do something dangerous. My conscious is setting off small alarms of guilt in my head, but surprisingly, they’re not too hard to ignore. I’m glad Maddie isn’t with us right now. Logan said no one will even notice what we’re doing and it won’t affect the store workers at all.

“Sir,” Logan signals an older boy behind the counter, “could we get a pound of these chocolates?”

“Certainly,” the man rushes over and fills a plastic bag, “would you like anything else?”

Logan smiles at me.

“We’d probably become loyal customers if you gave us a good deal,” Logan shifts his gaze to directly face the store employee, “you should give us two pounds for the price of one.”

The man adds several more scoops of chocolates to the bag before tying it shut.

“Do either of you need anything else tonight?”

Logan turns to look at me and nods, signaling me with his eyes.

I quickly look around, adrenaline rushing through me. I see a box of my favorite fruit taffy candy by the register. I look up at the clerk and focus on my words.

“Those taffy candies are two for one, right?”

My head begins pounding, but much less severely than any other time. I am not sure if it’s because this is only a little request of only one person, or if it’s the adrenaline, or if it is a combination of both, but it is definitely not as bad as I was expecting.

“Yes,” the clerk confirms, grabbing the box, “would you like some?”

I can’t do it. My stomach is churning and I’m sure it is not from using my power. This is too much like stealing. My headache intensifies. This was a bad idea.

“No, thank you,” waving my hand over the box, “I was just wondering.”

Logan looks at me with what must be disappointment, then looks back at the store clerk.

“I’ll take four, though,” Logan holds out his hand, “that’s too good of a deal to pass up.”

The store clerk hands Logan four of the candies and the bag of chocolates, then rings up the total. Logan hands the man the money and receives his change before we turn to leave the store. As we walk back toward the food court, Logan opens his bag and pops a couple pieces of chocolate into his mouth.

“Stores like that get their candy in bulk, you know,” Logan informs between bites, “even at the discount we just received, they still made money.”

“Yeah, but they use the money to pay the people who work there.”

“Kara,” Logan begins in a calming tone, “that’s why I have my guidelines. The candy store only gave us the candy for about four dollars less than we would have paid. Their total sales for the week and especially the month won’t even notice the difference.”

That’s probably true. No one will notice a little here and there. It’s not as if everyone has this power. It still feels wrong.

“We should go back and meet Maddie now,” I change the subject, “she’s been waiting for us long enough.”

“Sounds good.”

Logan continues snacking from his bag of chocolates as we walk in silence. We reach the food court and I see Maddie sitting at a table by herself, looking bored. I wave in her direction, hoping to catch her attention. She waves back, sitting up in her chair.

“Hey, Maddie,” I greet her as we approach the table, “I hope you’re hungry, the mall pizza’s not going to eat itself.”

“I’m starving,” she gets up and walks around the table to stand beside me.

“Thanks for waiting,” I give her my best apologetic face, “I hope you weren’t too bored.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Logan adds, “Maddie and I bought some candy for you and Mason for your trouble.”

“Wow, thanks guys,” Maddie smiles, looking at the candy Logan is handing her, “these taffy candies are my favorite. You didn’t have to buy them.”

“It’s no problem,” Logan smiles, “we got a really good deal.”

Logan begins laughing to himself as he looks at me. Maddie turns toward me as well.

“He’s right,” I nod, giving Logan a sly grin, “it was practically a steal.”

Logan pretends to have had his pride wounded, but continues laughing all the same. Maddie is looking slightly confused. I’m not sure whether Logan wants me to or not, but I’ll explain everything to her later. He never told me not to tell her.

“We should go get Mason,” I begin walking toward the arcade, “he’s got to be out of money by now.”

“He usually just watches people play,” Maddie corrects, “our parents think video games are a waste of money.”

“I heard they give out free tokens sometimes,” Logan offers, “I could ask about it, if you wanted.”

I shoot Logan a frown.

“Maybe another time, Logan,” I try to give him my best parental glare, “we need to start eating before we have to go home.”

After grabbing Mason, the three of us wait in line for pizza. Logan decides he wants Chinese food, so he walks across the court and waits in line. After a few minutes, we all meet up at a table with our meals.

“This is so good,” Mason exclaims between large bites, “your dad was right, Kara, this is probably the best pizza ever made.”

“Well,” Maddie shakes her head, “it is really good, but I think the pizza Mom makes is better.”

“We get that, like, once a year, Maddie. We usually have those frozen pizzas”

“This sweet and sour chicken is really good, too,” Logan adds, “the cashier gave me some sample dishes so you all could try it, too.”

Logan hands a little cup to each of us. I look at him questioningly.

“It was their idea, honest,” he whispers to me, shrugging his shoulders, then giving me a big smile, “besides, if I would have asked, the samples would have been much bigger.”

I frown at him, crumpling up my napkin and throwing it at him. He catches it.

“I can definitely get you a bunch of these, if you want,” Logan offers, tossing the napkin back at me.

I am laughing before I realize it and Logan starts laughing, too. Mason and Maddie stop their conversation and stare at us. I stop laughing and take a drink of my soda.

“Maddie was telling me they give free tokens away in the arcade sometimes,” Mason directs his gaze toward Logan, “is that true?”

Logan looks at me with a brief smile before answering.

“It’s true, alright,” he nods, “it’s happened to me a couple of times. I’ll go in with you when we’re done eating, if there’s any time left.”

Mason’s eyes widen and he practically forces the rest of his pizza into his mouth before slurping down the remains of his drink. Logan is equally eager to finish his meal. Within a minute, the two of them are throwing their trash away and walking to the arcade.

“Don’t forget to be ready to go by 7 o’clock, Mason,” Maddie calls after him.

Mason turns and gives a quick nod and wave before entering the arcade.

“Omigosh, he was excited,” Maddie giggles, “I haven’t seen him so anxious since the Christmas he asked for a remote controlled helicopter. I hope Logan is right about the tokens.”

“I have a feeling he’s right,” I lower my voice before continuing, “because there’s something about Logan I need to tell you.”