Rei laughs and absorbs my shove. "I have to be to aikido by four. Want to walk over to the store with me and I'll drive you home?"

"Sure. I'll meet you back here."

"Pink." Rei says forty-five minutes later as he comes up behind me.

"See?" I say without turning around. "Here's where I know you're full of c.r.a.p. They're black."

"There's Seth. Let's go ask him."

Seth looks p.i.s.sed! Even from fifteen feet away, I can see his barometer rising. Rei sees it, too.

"Hey, what's up?" Rei asks, all thoughts of Taylor's panties long forgotten. We both follow Seth's glare to a note taped to his locker. The letters on the note have been cut from various magazines and pasted together in a ransom-note style.

"Wow," I say to Seth, "this must be your lucky day. Guess your dad isn't gonna kill you after all."

Seth scowls at me as he crushes the note in his hands and flings it onto the mountain of trash that already exists in his locker. The entire row of lockers rattles as he slams his door shut.

"What idiot does c.r.a.p like this?" Seth demands to know.

"I think it's Taylor, but that's just my gut feeling."

"I bet Anna's right," Rei agrees and turns to Seth. "I'll skip aikido today and go to the falls with you."

"That's stupid! I can handle her myself."

"I want to go, Seth. I don't care if I miss cla.s.s." He glances at me to see if I'm going to call him on this most blatant of lies.

"I'll go," I offer. "I think an afternoon at the falls with Taylor and Seth would be very entertaining."

Seth gives me a filthy look. "I can handle her myself, thank you both very much."

We leave school and head to the parking lot together, listening to Seth vent about what a b.i.t.c.h he thinks Taylor is. Rei and I both know Seth's dad won't be that upset about the lost phone. What we don't know, though, is how well Seth will control his temper once he's face-to-face with Taylor. We exchange troubled looks behind his back.

"You're sure I can't go with you?" Rei asks as Seth opens his car door.

"Positive! And don't even think about just showing up," he warns us both. Rei and I stand there helplessly as he slams the car door, guns the engine, and peels out of the parking lot.

"Well, this sucks," Rei observes as he watches the dust settle in Seth's wake.

I sigh. "I know, but he's right. He should be able to handle this himself."

Rei looks unconvinced as we head toward Main Street. "I don't know. I keep thinking about that rumor when she first moved up here."

"Which one? There were dozens of rumors."

"Do you know Zack Gillespie?"

It takes me a few seconds to put the name with the face. "The guy with all the freckles from wrestling?"

"Yeah. His brother goes to the same college as the guy she accused of raping her. He says she lied about her age and swore to the guy she was on birth control pills. When she found out she was pregnant, she told her parents she was raped."

"But she wasn't."

"Well, technically, she was. She was fifteen. The legal age in New York is seventeen."

"Oh, right. And how old was he?"

"Twenty-one."

"Oh." I get it now. "So technically, his life is screwed."

"Completely. Her father knew a really good criminal lawyer who made sure this guy got kicked out of school and now he's a registered s.e.x offender."

"Ah! So we can hunt him down on an internet map and there'll be a little black s.e.x offender cloud over his house."

"Exactly."

"Hmm." I mull this over as we approach the intersection of Main Street and take a left, heading toward Rei's parents' store. "You know, I'm having a hard time mustering up any sympathy for either of them."

"I know. Me, too. But that's why guys shy away from her."

"See? And I always thought it was because she wore too much perfume. So you believe Zack?"

Rei thinks for a minute. "Yeah, I do. I'd better skip cla.s.s and meet Seth at the falls."

"I thought you were testing for your next level soon."

"I am."

"Then you really shouldn't skip. Besides, he'll kill you if you show up."

"So then he kills me. I just don't trust he can control his temper around her."

"Rei," I turn around and walk backward. "Go to cla.s.s. That's important. I'll go to the falls and make sure they both behave themselves. I have nothing else to do today."

"He'll just get mad if he sees you. I'd rather he's mad at me than you."

"He won't see me."

Rei looks at me for a long minute, then shakes his head. "No, that's not a good idea."

"Why?"

"Because it's the middle of the day, Anna. You can't just ... no, it's a bad idea."

"Okay, fine." I shrug, turn around, and keep walking. "You go to cla.s.s. Seth can figure out what to do about his phone. And I'll just go home."

"Now you're mad."

"I'm not. I promise." I stop and hold out my pinkie finger out of habit, and he locks his pinkie finger and his eyes with mine. He's looking for a.s.surances that I'm not mad, and I'm not really, more annoyed. I release his finger and start walking again.

"Rei," I ask gently, because I know how he can get sometimes, "Remember when you used to think my trips were kind of cool?"

"Yeah, and I used to think my Power Rangers underwear were cool, too."

He says this with such a straight face, I crack up laughing. "But they were cool, especially when you wore that red cape with them." There, I got a little smile out of him. "You used to think what I did was magical," I remind him.

"It is, Anna. It's cool and you will always be that magical, mystical, Auracle girl who impresses the h.e.l.l out of me because I can't figure out how you do it."

"Really? I impress you? Wow! That's hard to do," I tease him.

"The point is, the more I learn about physics, the more I realize what you do is also really dangerous."

"How is it dangerous?" I ask. "When I'm out there, I'm all energy. There's nothing to hurt."

Rei's parents' store is about fifty feet away, landmarked by a red awning under the rustic wooden sign that says, Yumi's Market Organics ~ Reiki ~ Yoga He sees it and he takes my hand to stop me. "This is not textbook physics, Anna; this is metaphysics. And yes, there's plenty to hurt," he insists. "You tell me you can move through s.p.a.ce at light speed. What if you get sucked into a black hole? Nothing comes out of a black hole."

"G.o.d, Rei," I would laugh if he didn't look so serious, "what are the chances of that happening?"

"I don't know, but do you want to take the chance? And what if there was a fire in your house? You'd come back and find yourself cremated. What if your father came in your room while you were gone and you didn't come back in time?" His eyes leave mine for a flash second and travel up to the fine white scar near my hairline.

"I've already told you. If something bothers my body, I feel a tug right here," I point to my belly b.u.t.ton. "And I know you hate my father, but..."

"I don't hate him. I just don't trust him," he points out.

No, I'm pretty sure he hates him, and there are days when I hate him, too. But at the end of the day, he's still my father. Even though I barricade my bedroom door, I don't believe he would seriously hurt me on purpose.

Still ...

Rei brings up logical points. I know there are risks when I leave my body, but I don't see how it is any riskier than crossing the street. The cord that tethers me to my body is like an emergency switch, and I trust I'll feel that tug if I'm in any kind of danger.

I don't know if my ability to astrally project at will is a talent or if I'm just a freak, but I consider it a gift. How else would I get to visit so many places, some of which I couldn't get to even if I had a zillion dollars? And I love that rush, that feeling of euphoria that comes with traveling at the speed of light. I've been coming and going for so long, I can't imagine what my life would be like if I were stuck in this body with no means of escape. I'd probably go insane from claustrophobia. This is not something I want to do; it's something I need to do, but it's not a bad need ... not like my father needs to drink. This is different.

Isn't it?

"I'm sorry," I say, because I don't know what else to say. Knowing that Rei doesn't approve of my favorite hobby makes me sad, and I hate that every trip is peppered with guilt. He still has my hand in his, and he squeezes it before he lets go.

"You don't have to apologize for your father."

"I'm not. I'm just..." I look up at the signs on the windows that advertise so many good and healthy things within. I know Rei is only looking out for me, trying to protect me, just like he always does. I just feel that sometimes he's trying to protect me from ... me.

CHAPTER 7.

Rei would leap over tall buildings to get me to eat healthy stuff, so my brilliant plan to change the subject is to suggest we get some fruit salad from his parents' store. Yumi is at the cash register ringing up one of her infamous Bento boxes for a girl named Chelsea, who is in my chemistry cla.s.s. "Hey, you two!" she calls out to us in her singsong voice that's laced with only a trace of an accent.

Yumi's store is a gold mine. Not only is it an easy walk from the high school, but Yumi is a fantastic cook, she's very artistic, and she knows what kids like to eat. We like to eat food that is kawaii. Even I will eat raw fish as long as it's cute. Yumi makes these adorable Bento boxes where she shapes rice, chopped vegetables, nori, fish, all kinds of things, into adorable little animal faces. Who wouldn't want to eat a happy panda rice ball?

"That's three dollars and twenty-nine cents," Yumi tells Chelsea, "from five." Cha-ching!

Rei immediately heads around the counter and helps himself to a disposable but still environmentally safe bowl, then fills it with fruit salad.

"You want chopsticks or a fork?" he asks me.

"Surprise me," I tell him.

He grins and reaches for the chopsticks.

We have successfully changed the subject. During the ride home, Rei plugs his iPod into the car speakers and we crank up the volume. Yumi does make the best fruit salad. While Rei drives, I chopstick up chunks of pineapple and honeydew and feed them to him because those are his favorites.

"I'll call you tonight," he tells me when he drops me off in my driveway.

"Okay, thanks. Have fun in cla.s.s."

My father is on his recliner, collecting dust. The bottle is down about six inches, which means that he's still fairly sober by my standards, but I know better than to tickle the dragon. I slip past him, unnoticed, grab a can of soda from the fridge, and lock myself in my bedroom. It's three-thirty. I'm pretty sure the note said she'd meet him at four o'clock.

I didn't tell Rei I wouldn't go. There were no promises requested and no promises offered. He just didn't think it was a good idea. Okay, so maybe he said it was a bad idea. But still ...

I change into a pair of gym shorts and my favorite black T-shirt, the one with the puddle bunny on it, and I pull out the hair tie that holds my ponytail. My door is locked, and I push the desk chair up under the k.n.o.b. My alarm clock is set just loud enough to remind me that I need to return before my mom gets home from her business trip, but not so loud it would draw my father's attention. The entire conversation with Rei has sucked away the joy that usually accompanies me on my trips. I punch at my pillow to get it just right, and shimmy around until I'm comfortable. There's a water stain on my ceiling that's shaped like a turtle. I stare at it for a while to relax.

Within about ten minutes, the tingle has spread from my bare toes up through my legs and into my back. As soon as I hear a slight buzzing sound, I know I'm ready. I feel myself detaching, releasing, lifting, and I'm free, floating over my body. If anyone ever walked in on me, it looks like I'm peacefully sleeping. Before I leave, I check around my house: the stove is off, and my father is in his usual catatonic state. Rei's just got me paranoid, I remind myself. Everything will be fine. It's time to see what Taylor's up to.

Scientists claim that the fastest thing in the universe is light, which travels at about 186,282 miles per second. I've never clocked myself, but I know I'm faster. All I really have to do is think of a place and I'm there. The waterfalls are still rushing wild with spring runoff, so loud it sounds like a supersonic jet is flying ten feet over my head. n.o.body's here except the trees and the bushes, which have stood patiently, year after year, glowing in their own soft blue aura.

I backtrack down both trails until I find Taylor parading down the path in strappy gold sandals with sparkly faux gemstones. Well, at least she's smart enough to leave her high heels at home. In order to avoid the last dregs of mud from ruining her shoes, she walks along the edge of the trail, through long gra.s.s intermingled with patches of shiny green leaves. Part of me would like to materialize and tell her to get the h.e.l.l out of the poison ivy, but it's too late for that now.

I can only see someone's aura when I'm out of my body, so I've never seen Taylor's colors before. I've always pictured her to be a powerful, confident red, like a chili pepper, but instead, she is surrounded by a murky hot dog pink. Other than her aura, she does look very pretty. She's wearing a full skirt in a kaleidoscope of colors that catches the breeze and flutters just below her knees as she walks, and a gauzy black blouse fastened by a dozen silver b.u.t.tons up the front. Her fingernails are so long they have to be fake, and they're painted with shiny gold polish.

Peeking out from beneath those golden fingernails, I spy Seth's phone.

As soon as she steps onto the ledge, it's apparent she's not here on a sightseeing tour. She ignores the falls, concentrating on where she should sit for maximum exposure. She considers both paths that merge onto the ledge, one from the right and one from the left, and chooses dead center to sit down, a spot that's easily facing both paths. Alternating between several provocative poses, she settles for one where her legs are tucked to the side and she's leaning back on one hand, her hair draped over her shoulder. She tucks the phone under her skirt, out of sight, then slips her sandals off and tosses them to the side, making sure her golden toenails are peeking out from under the skirt.

It sounds like a wild animal is stampeding down the path, crushing dead leaves and snapping twigs under its heavy hooves. Taylor c.o.c.ks her head, listening, rearranging her face into a wide, innocent smile. I wait to see if it's a bear or a moose, but no, it's only Seth, surrounded by the color of boiled lobster.

"I figured it was you," he snarls.

"Hi..."