Death Weeps Part 6

Mia strolled to the red and white checkered tablecloth of the picnic table and pressed tanned thighs against it. "Hey guys. Am I too late?"

"No!" Bry jumped up so fast he hit his head on a low joist for the upper deck. He winced and grabbed the sore spot.

"Mia can kiss it and make it better, Weller," Jonesy smirked and Mia frowned.

Mia turned her gaze to Jonesy and said, "You need a napkin, Jonesy."

I was always shocked to see how red Jonesy's skin could get, as dark as it was.

Tiff smirked, she was all about everyone's discomfort. Of course, she was immune.

"Not on your life young lady!" Gramps said from behind her and she grinned. Mia was a senior this year and Bry had graduated but he still hadn't found a girl he liked better. But that d.a.m.n Christi kept him from asking Mia out. They were different chicks. Once bitten, twice shy, Gramps said. Bry just didn't want to take the chance.

"What's your poison?" Gramps asked and her brow furrowed.

"What do ya want to drink?" I translated.

"Oh! Do you have diet?"

"No!" the other girls said in unison.

She looked at them with a question but always polite she responded, "Whatever pop you have is terrific, thanks."

Gramps put more pop on the picnic table and Mia grabbed a dog and a root beer.

"Okay," Mia began, "I'm here. Tell me what all the big deal news is about."

She looked at everyone's faces and I looked around for Gramps. "The adults aren't here yet..."

"I'm an adult," Bry said.

"So's Carson, smart one," Tiff said, clarifying that number didn't equal maturity.

"His name's like a swear word," Jade said, shaking her head in distaste.

John put up his palm. "Okay guys, can it." He put his palm out to Randi, continue.

She took a deep breath, the suntan oil on her skin gave it a slight sheen in the bright shade of the covered deck. Alex put a strong arm around her, his size overwhelming hers.

She began telling us what was going on, when she was done, there was a stunned silence.

"It was really accidental, actually," she said, spreading her hands away from her body. "One minute, I was in realm, the next... I was somewhere else."

Sophie shrugged. "It's okay, you finally got to your acquisition point."

"Weren't you listening Sophie?" Tiff asked with a trace of condescension.

Sophie narrowed her eyes on Tiff.

Uh-oh.

"No... it's not exactly an acquisition point. It's more like an acquisition world."

A tear escaped her eye and Alex glowered, Defense against Tears impossible, and she angrily swiped it. "My mom's p.i.s.sed. It was fine when I was just Astral Projection. Now..." she shrugged and Alex put her fallen hair behind her shoulder, staring momentarily at the smooth bareness of it. He swallowed and I smiled a little at his obvious Distraction that was Randi.

"Anyway," she went on. "Now that I can float around to different places..."

"What is this place?" John asked reasonably.

Yeah, that.

"I don't know but it's here... somehow. But not."

"Please explain," John said.

Jonesy shoved a bunch of neon orange Cheetos in his mouth and said, "Yeah, tell us about cool s.h.i.t we can explore later."

"How old are you Jones?" Sophie asked, irritated.

He smiled, his teeth an orange glaze and said, "Older than you sweet thing."

"Yeah, by like, what... a week?" Tiff said, her mouth in a sneer of superiority.

"Still am."

"Okay, we're off track again," John reminded.

"Right!" Jonesy said, stabbing an orange fingertip in the air, no napkin in sight. He sucked the orange gunk off his fingers and I got the crooked mouth.

John and Alex sighed, both turning their attention to Randi.

"So," she went on, blithely ignoring the Cheeto Event. "When I didn't come back from my acquisition point in time, they sent in a level five."

"Wow, those are the big d.a.m.n guns!" Sophie said, aqua eyes wide.

Randi nodded, solemn. "Then they called in my mom and they stuck me with the juice."

"Awful, huh?" Sophie asked.

Randi nodded. "Terrible, I puked and everything, my head felt like someone had taken a sledge to it." She looked at all of us again.

"When I came out and I tried to tell them what I'd seen, they couldn't match up with any recorded or known acquisitions."

"Let me get this straight," I began, clasping my hands in front of me, "you went somewhere no one's ever gone and you know it's another world how?"

She gulped, nervous. "It's what I saw there that made me know," she stated in a conspirator's whisper.

We unconsciously leaned forward to capture her words.

"I was in some dome thing." She made some motions with her hands that made a vaguely arched shape. I instantly thought of McDonald's. I grabbed another hot dog and a fresh pop. I opened the tab with a loud snap and took a swig.

"And there was a huge door that was all metal, never seen anything like it. There was an old-fashioned faucet thingy and when I explored there were people that looked..."

"Looked how?" Mia asked.

"Different. Way different." Randi said. "They were wearing clothes I'd never seen before, really old..."

I had a sudden inspiration. "Like Clyde?"

Randi scrunched up her face in thought, making her nose pucker in an appealing way that Alex noticed, he smiled a little, a fugue of attraction had descended on him and he was in some kind of stupor. Tiff noticed, throwing a glare his way that he completely missed.

"Kinda. But Clyde looks... newer somehow."

"Okay, describe the wardrobe," John said.

Randi did, in great detail.

"Huh. Sounds like turn of the last century to me."

"How would you know, Terran?" Bry asked, not unkindly.

John raised his brows, the brainiac faced off with the caveman. Nice.

"I've taken advanced United States and World History. I also took a summer course on Medieval Customs and Diction."

We stared and he smiled, explaining more, "It's interesting how people lived before us... as a point of fact..."

"Shut up, Terran, keep that creepy s.h.i.t to yourself. It's isn't relevant, pal," Jonesy said, yawning, a Halloween mouth of chocolate and orange opened and closed.

Disgusting. The chicks leaned away.

"You never know, Mark... when a person may need to know something other than when the next UFC fight is, or pizza night at the Hart's or what the hottest 'babe' at KPH was wearing the day before yesterday..."

"Can it Archer, that's the important stuff you're listing, even with your smart a.s.s mouth, don't dis the basics."

Sophie made a low noise in the back of her throat and Jonesy turned to look at her. She stared back with wide, innocent eyes.

"So Chen is having ten kinds of cows because her daughter is the first... what? World-hopper?" Tiff asked in her delicate way.

Randi nodded, unfazed. "They had to come up with a name and everything. And, as usual, a new ability has to be reported to the government."

Effing wonderful, the Graysheets knowing anything other than what brand of toilet paper I wiped my a.s.s with was totally not on the To Do List.

Randi saw our faces and nodded. "Don't worry Caleb, I'm sorta in your situation. My mom has a position in the biggest paranormal high school in the state. They're not going to take off and experiment on me."

The guys let an uneasy silence roll out.

She studied our expressions, hers becoming more somber as the silence continued. "Are they?" she asked quietly.

"I'll kick their a.s.ses if they touch you," Alex said, brushing a stray black hair behind her ear, lifted by the light breeze that had come up.

She smiled like a fool and said, "I know."

Jonesy scoffed, "Listen, that's romantic and all that happy c.r.a.p but it's not gonna cut it if they send out the dogs."

"Hey?" Jade asked in Randi's direction. She swiveled to look at Jade, her face in the crook of Alex's arm.

"What'd they name your ability?"

Randi paused, "Dimensional."

"No kidding?" John said, instantly stoked.

"What?" I turned to him.

"You know what this means?"

Obviously not. "Kinda," I replied out loud.

"Parallel worlds," John said excitedly, nearly rubbing his hands together in glee.

"See," Jonesy swept his hand toward John, "Terran's on board."

"For what?" I asked with growing suspicion.

"A field trip, Hart," Jonesy said, looking at me like I was slightly r.e.t.a.r.ded.

"We're not entirely sure what's there, Mark, what the ramifications are..."

"Ram-i-fi-cations!" Jonesy said, guffawing.

"Ram!" Alex said and they roared together.

Archer frowned and Mia said casually, c.o.c.king a brow,"Still pervy."

Alex stopped laughing and looked at Randi, who had her arms folded, glaring at him. "Are we... nearly all of us, seventeen? Juniors-in-high-school?"

"I'm a senior," Mia said, raising her hand.

"I've graduated," Bry said.

Jonesy had quieted down to a chuckle but looked at Weller. "Admit it, Weller, it was kinda funny."

Bry looked at Mia and got the crooked mouth.

Nice.

"Ugh!" Sophie said and all the guys cracked up as Gramps came walking up.