Starstruck

Chapter 9c: Eccentricities (part 3)

CHAPTER 9

Eccentricities (part 3)

I was relieved that Aunt Theresa was too busy grading papers when I got home to grill me about what I'd done after school. Being vague in a message was one thing, but lying to her face if she asked a direct question was something else, and I doubted I could do it. To stay on her good side--which I sometimes wondered if she even had--I set the table and made the salad for dinner without being asked. Then, for good measure, I asked if she had any laundry she wanted me to throw in with the load of my own stuff I was doing.

"Aren't you little Miss Helpful tonight?" she said, making me worry that I'd overdone it. But then she added, "It's good to see you're developing a sense of responsibility, Marsha."

That caused me a pang of guilt for being less than totally honest--but not a big enough pang that I felt a need to confess. Especially after what she'd said about Rigel the other night.

I waited until after I'd loaded the dinner dishes into the dishwasher to say casually, "Brianna asked if I could ride to the football game with her tomorrow afternoon." Which was perfectly true. "It's at Springdale."

"I suppose this sudden interest in football is because of that boy," she said, as I'd known she would. "You never went to an away game last year."

Rather than admit or deny anything, I just shrugged, not quite meeting her eye.

"Oh, let the girl go to the game, Theresa," Uncle Louie said. "First you worry because she isn't popular at school, and now you worry because a popular boy might like her. Give the kid a break."

It surprised me a little that Aunt Theresa worried about me at all--or that she ever talked to Uncle Louie about me. I'd always kind of assumed she forgot I existed if I wasn't in the same room with her. I waited for her answer, trying not to show how nervous I was.

"Fine," she said after a suspenseful two or three seconds. "You can go. Just . . . be careful."

I almost asked what she thought I might do, but caught myself before I accidentally antagonized her into changing her mind. "I will." I kept my voice meek and respectful. "Thanks." I sent a grateful glance at Uncle Louie and he winked at me.

Now came the tricky part. I'd rehearsed my words all through dinner so I wouldn't have to lie--at least, in the most technical sense.

"They plan to leave early, so it would probably be easier if I just got off the bus there instead of coming home."

She sniffed the way she did when she didn't approve of something but didn't want to discuss it. "Just come straight back after the game. No hanging about with that quarterback and his friends."

I nodded, rather than risk saying something that could be used against me later, then escaped to my room.

I'd done it. I'd cleared the way so I could go over to Rigel's after school tomorrow, then ride to the game with him and his parents. The only touchy thing left would be explaining to Bri tomorrow. Maybe an e-mail would be easier--and more discreet.

Unfortunately, that meant asking to use Uncle Louie's computer, since they refused to buy me a laptop or tablet because of my static thing. Between that and the phone issue, it sometimes felt like a conspiracy to keep me from ever communicating with my friends privately.

I poked my head into the living room, where Uncle Louie was watching some reality show and Aunt Theresa was doing cross-stitch. "Is it okay if I use the computer to look up some stuff for a paper? I'll be careful," I added before my aunt could say it, like she always did.

They both nodded without really looking at me. I went into the tiny formal parlor that Uncle Louie used as his office and logged into my e-mail. I cleared out the spam-I hardly ever got any real e-mail, since my friends knew I couldn't check it often-then typed a quick message to Bri.

From: AstroGrrl

To: JagFanB

Subject: Tomorrow

B-please don't hate me, but R asked if I'd ride to the game with him and his folks and I said I would. I'll def see you there, tho! Sit together?

-TTYL, M

I hit send and started to close the browser, but then paused. I had said I needed to look stuff up, and it might look suspicious if I was done so fast. Which meant this was a perfect chance . . .

I opened Google and typed "Mars" and "new discoveries." Clicking on the first couple of pages of headlines--out of nearly eighty thousand hits--didn't reveal anything I didn't already know, so I tried "Martians on Earth." That netted me less than 700 hits, including a Wikipedia article. But when I read it, it was all about fictional Martians, not real ones. All of the hits on the first few Google pages also dealt mainly with fiction--books, movies, comics, stuff like that. I found a couple of conspiracy-type blogs, but when I opened them, neither dealt with human Martians.

I was typing in "human Martians" when I heard someone coming. I immediately closed the window and emptied the cache, then quit from the browser just as Aunt Theresa came in.

"Still researching, Marsha? It's late."

"Just finished," I said. I stood up and was surprised to find I was stiff--and even more surprised to glance at the clock on the computer and see that it was almost midnight. I'd been Googling for close to two hours!

She shook her head at me as I picked up the notebook I'd brought to back up my cover story. "Doesn't anyone use the library anymore?"

I shrugged. "Online is quicker." Plus, no library would have the kind of info I really wanted to find.

I said a quick good night and headed back to my room, feeling guilty again--both for deceiving her about Rigel and for trying to check up on Rigel's story behind his back. He had promised to tell me more tomorrow. If I trusted him as I claimed to, that should be good enough.

Shouldn't it?

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