BEING JAMIE BAKER

Chapter 12

Eight o'clock Saturday morning I was up in my room—yes, watching cartoons if you must know—when Ryan's voice suddenly caught my attention. Wherever it was coming from, it wasn't that far from my house. "That's great, Mom," he was saying.

I turned off my TV and tried to concentrate on his conversation. Invasion of privacy? Maybe. My moral compass usually points pretty north, but I do have my moments of weakness, and let's face it, a teenage girl spying on her crush is not exactly front-page news. I can't help it if I'm better at it than most. Besides, I was curious as to why he was in my neighborhood.

I could hear his mother's voice coming through the receiver of his cell phone. "Well, w

e wanted to come home and take you to lunch to celebrate, but we're going to be a little longer than we thought. I'm sorry, Ry, but it looks like you'll be on your own today."

"That's okay. I actually have plans for the rest of the day. Well, hopefully. I haven't asked her yet, but I took the day off work."

"Something I should be worried about?" his mother teased.

"Only if I get caught, in which case the police will fill you in, I'm sure."

Ryan laughing with his mom had to be the cutest thing I'd ever heard. What a momma's boy. It's no wonder he got along so well with my parents. "Actually, Mom," he said, becoming excited, "remember that girl I was telling you about, Jamie?"

Wait, what?

I was at my window now, trying to see if I could spot him driving down my street. I couldn't.

"Oh, honey!" his mom gushed with sudden excitement. "She's finally letting you take her out? Ry, I'm so proud of you! You see? I told you no girl could resist you."

"Oh sure!" I laughed out loud to myself. "Throw gas on the flames, why don't you?"

It's no wonder he has such a giant ego.

"Well, actually," Ryan said, "she hasn't agreed to a date yet, but I've got a plan that I think will work. I'm headed over to her house right now."

"Good for you, honey. Good luck."

"Thanks, Mom. Have fun with Gene, and tell him congratulations for me."

Ryan was on his way to my house? Not good. If he showed up, acting like we were friends now, my father would have a conniption. Especially if he realized that Ryan knows about me. I had to cut Ryan off before he could reach the front door. I ran downstairs, but then I saw my reflection in the china cabinet and headed back to my room.

I know I could break a lot of world records if I wanted to, but even for moving at superspeed, I took the world's fastest shower, brushed my teeth, and threw on the first thing I could find. I came flying down the stairs, but my parents are all too familiar with that faint breeze rushing past them.

"Jamielynn, you get back here right now and tell me where you're going, young lady!" my mom called out to the thin air, knowing I could still hear her.

"Sorry, Mom." I was out of breath because I was slightly panicked, not because I was tired. "I was just going to go for a run. I've been cooped up too much, and I need to get some of this energy out. You want me to bring back a souvenir from somewhere?"

You should see our refrigerator. I'm not sure if having so many magnets is really healthy, but I can't help picking them up from the random places I stop at when I'm bored. I like the look my mom always gives me when I come home with one and she realizes that I was just in Nebraska or wherever.

"Jamie, sweetheart." Oh great. She was in one of those lecturing moods. Not exactly the best time when Ryan was going to show up any second. "I don't think going for a run is what you need. Why don't you try to find where all the kids are hanging out? Isn't there a school football game to watch or something?"

"The football games are on Friday nights here," I answered dryly.

"Oh. Well, there has to be something going on. Jamie, when your father and I said you needed to get out more, we didn't mean running around the country all by yourself. You should use all this energy to be with kids your age. You need to be social."

"Okay, fine. I'll go see what Ryan's up to."

"Jamie."

I could tell my mom wanted to say yes, but I suppose I couldn't blame her for worrying.

Just then I heard Ryan's truck pull up to the curb of my house, and I nearly had a heart attack.

"All right, fine," I said, not having any more time to argue. "I'll go out and look for a job. Will that make you happy?"

My mother's face lit up with a glimpse of hope that actually made me feel very guilty all the sudden. "Very!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "But you can't get a job wearing that. Go put on something nice."

I frowned down at the jeans and T-shirt I'd pulled off my floor in my haste to stop Ryan. I disappeared so fast that I was standing in front of my mom again in a businesslike skirt and jacket before she could even shake her head. "Better?"

"Beautiful," my mom said. "Good luck, honey. You won't regret this, I promise!" She was calling out to the air again because I was already gone.

I tugged on Ryan's arm just before he had the chance to knock on the door. If I weren't so paranoid about my parents seeing him there, I would have enjoyed the confused look on his face as he realized I'd just appeared out of thin air and was dragging him off my porch. The only words he seemed capable of spitting out were "What the—"

"I'll explain in a minute," I grumbled. "Just get us out of here before my parents see you."

Ryan frowned but obeyed, obviously happy that even though I was making him leave, at least I was going with him.

"Good morning?" he finally said, very unsure of himself for once in his life as he rounded the corner, putting my house out of sight behind us.

"I'm sorry." I sighed. "It's just that I heard you pull up, and I didn't want my dad to have an aneurism if you mentioned something about knowing my secret."

"They don't know about your powers?"

"Oh, no. They know about me. They don't know that you know. I would have told them, except my father sort of banned me from ever speaking to you again."

"What? But I thought your parents liked me." I don't know what was cuter, the surprise in his voice, or the wounded look on his face. "Your dad told me to come back anytime. You're mom actually hugged me."

That confession made me cringe. "Yeah, she gets a little excited sometimes—sorry about that. But it's not you. They just freaked after I mentioned the accident and you helping me out with the cops. They're afraid you're going to figure me out and expose me to the world. My dad went into his usual secret-government-lab-testing rant."

"But I don't want anyone to take you away any more than he does."

"He's a great dad. It's his job to be overprotective."

Ryan's face slowly straightened out of its frown. "I guess if you were mine, I'd be crazy overprotective too." He sighed and then smiled at me. "I'd probably be worse, judging by how I felt when that reporter showed up."

I couldn't believe my heart was fluttering over that, but it was, and even worse, I liked the feeling. "That was quite a punch you threw." I laughed, trying not to let myself blush.

"Yeah, I was quite impressed myself."

"I'm not surprised—you're always impressed with yourself."

Ryan laughed but didn't deny the accusation. "I've never really been a fighter, but I'll admit I wanted to kill that guy."

Ryan wasn't the only one. I wanted to put Carter six feet under too. The only difference between me and Ryan is that I could have. All too easily. My power scares me, but sometimes the feelings that come with that power are a lot scarier. I can almost understand how supervillains get the way they are, because it's so hard not to want to use your power to hurt someone when they're hurting you first. Of course my conscience always gets the better of me, but if I had to deal with guys like Carter all the time, forever and ever, eventually I'd crack.

I shuddered at my train of thought, and when Ryan questioned it, I quickly changed the subject. "Where are we going?"

Ryan grinned, successfully distracted. "I hope you didn't have any plans today."

"No, but you obviously do. Would you mind filling me in?"

"Practice."

"No offense, Ryan, but I'm not exactly excited by the idea of watching you and Mike smear each other into the ground for hours."

"Not me—you. You're going to learn how to control your power."

"And how do you suggest I do that?"

"Practice," he said again. "Haven't you seen Smallville?"

"Everyone's seen Smallville," I said, not amused that he was now comparing my life to a TV series about a fictional town full of freaks.

"Every time Clark gets a new ability, he practices. It never takes him very long, so if you're as much like Superman as you claim, then I bet we could be making out by next week."

I gave him a sideways glance, but he just laughed. "You know you want to."

"This plan is right up there with your plan for getting to take Becky to homecoming."

"Hey! Technically, that plan worked."

I was annoyed to high heaven that he was right about that. "Okay, Einstein, then do you have a strategy for this game plan?"

"Interesting choice of words," Ryan said, and then intentionally changed the subject. "You look so hot, by the way. Very Lois Lane."

"Oh, shut up!"

"Sorry, it's just a little ironic, considering what we're about to do."

"And that would be?"

"A surprise."

Ryan wouldn't tell me his plan any more than he would tell me where we were going. Of course it wasn't really a mystery when he turned off I-80 toward Tahoe City. I wondered why he was taking me to Lake Tahoe, but I have to admit, after that dream I had about the Grand Canyon, I wasn't exactly opposed to being alone with him in the wilderness.

We wound through the mountains, and there was nothing but forest to see out the windows until suddenly we were pulling up to a big log house with a huge veranda that wrapped all the way around the side. I couldn't help but stare at the beautiful structure. It seemed to be hidden so perfectly from the world that I felt like Ryan and I were the last two people on earth. Again, not complaining.

"You like it?" Ryan asked, seeing the smile on my face.

"It's hard to believe that something so beautiful can be so close to Sacramento. It looks like a jigsaw puzzle."

"Close. It was featured in a wall calendar once." Ryan chuck