Life Catcher

Chapter Eighteen: Screech: Take 2

18.

We arrive at the movies at about what humans call the midnight hour, whatever that is. Amy wasn't too excited about me going out with his numskull of a brother, but Mrs. Sage went all out and bought me a "sexy outfit" as Luke calls it. He never let go of my hand until I went into the changing room.

I take my time trying on my deep blue slims and brown tank top that is all the rage at his school. I miraculously hide my wings. It somehow disappeared when I took off my shirt, and reappeared when I wanted to stretch them out. Cool. Oh, and apparently Sam and Luke go to the same school.

Speaking of Sam, he even came along on our little "date" to make sure me and Luke "behaved". More like make sure to kick Luke's butt if he even touches me affectionately. I feel so protected.

Anyways, I come out of the changing room and Luke gasps.

"That's a keeper," he says and smiles.

Mrs. Sage claps excitedly. "Oh! You look amazing! All you need is a belt around that shirt and a hat. Oh! You should get your ears pierced!"

That sounds painful.

"Mom, please. It's only one night," complains Amy who is leaning with her arms crossed against a shelf.

"Ugh, I know! I'm sorry. Here, use this belt," Mrs. Sage says and grabs a black belt from a nearby shelf. She wraps it around my slim waist and tightens it a bit too tight. I cough.

"I'm sorry Cleo," she says and losens it a little.

Amy, solemnly, fixes my hair into a braided ponytail. Luke comes up and feels my hair.

"Wow. You have the softest hair in the world. How do you do it?"

I shrug.

Amy leaves a bang out that covers my left eye. I'll have to get used to that cause I blow it out of my face every once in a while. Sam surveys my body the whole time.

When she finishes we head out to the car and drive to the movies. And I thought driving in a car was scary during the day. I would totally scream my head off if I weren't playing mute.

The car turns into a place that's in front of the biggest building I've ever seen. A bright pink and green sign reads "Cinema 8" and I pick my brain to try and figure out what that means. I come up blank. Hopefully Amy's crazy mother knew what she was talking about when she said a HUGE screen.

Me and Luke get out of the car and Sam shifts in the car eager to go with us. I look at him and he sighs.

"Okay, you two love birds have fun. Now don't stuff yourselves! Oh and I'll be back at exactly 1:30 okay?" Says Sage

I nod.

"Yes ma'am," says Luke and smiles wickedly at Sam. Sam glares at him and Luke takes my hand.

They drive off and Luke lets out a breathe.

"Finally. . .some alone time," Luke says and I try my best not to look at him. So much for rule number one.

We walk up to a stall that reads "Ticket Booth" above. We get two tickets for "Alive", a movie about two people falling and love and going through a struggle. Yada yada yada. You get the point. Somehow they included zombie's in the midst though.

We walk inside and we're surrounded by at least sixty people. Amy told me this movie is a big hit and all that jazz.

"OMG! Is that you Luke?" squeals a female voice and a girl with blonde hair runs up to us and hugs Luke. Two girls trail behind her. One with brown hair and the other blonde.

My eyes droop. Great, more people.

"Hey Natalie. I see you're here late. Ah! And if it isn't Sasha and Emilee!," Luke says and wraps his left arm around my waist and pulls me close to him. If Sam were here he would kick the "ever-loving daylight" out of Luke, as Blade would say.

"So. . .whom is this?" Natalie asks emphasizing "whom" and the others giggle. This Natalie chick freaks me out for some reason. Like a creepy de ja vu. As a mater a fact she looks familiar. I've seen her before-

"This is Cleo Feathers. As you can tell we're tight," he says and they laugh. I smile the best smile I have, which I never do, and it seems to satisfy Luke and the others.

"She's a mute beauty from Egypt. She came camping out with her. . .friend Sam and wandered from his parents. So my sis took them in. So she's all mine until we find Sam's parents," says Luke rather haughtily. Natalie looks at me with hidden maliciousness. He leans toward me and kisses my neck. Pervert is the word that pops up in my head but I have no idea where it came from and what it means.

I'm really tempted to slap him, but I'm the sweet inoccent Egyptian girl who doesn't know right from wrong. I look around and see a bunch of people chattering and walking and eating their. . .puffy yellow stuff. Whatever that is. I hear a cough behind me and someone bumps into my shoulder as they pass me. I look to see who did it and see a mocha skined boy. He's wearing a perfect white shirt and navy blue jeans. I barely catch the grey boots he's wearing.

He walks up to the "Snack" booth and gets "popcorn". Don't ask me how I heard him from this distance but I just did. He turns around and leans against the counter. He's pretty attractive and familiarly tall.

We make eye contact and I notice he has silver eyes and he doesn't look happy. The shape of his head. . .it's just like. . .

I tap on Luke's shoulder and point at the snack stand. He nods and gives me a "five dollar bill" and continues to flirt with the others. Natalie eyes me suspiciously as I leave. I casually walk up to the stand and order a popcorn, aware of the kid with silver eyes next to me.

I glance at him and he smiles.

I clear my throught. "I'm guessing you ditched Kai."

He looks at me and I study him.

"Don't tell me you killed her like you said you would."

He coughs and turns to the lady at the stand.

"I'll take a water," he says to the lady and I know it's him.

"You planning to kick my butt?" I say without looking at him so that Luke doesn't think I'm interacting with another boy.

"Too many people," he mumbles and I smile.

"You have to get me outta here," I whisper desperately. "I can't take anymore of this."

"Why should I cupid? It's not like you're gonna die," he teases.

"I will if my hunch on Natalie being Screech is true."

He does a quick 360 to look at Natalie. "I'm gonna have to agree with your hunch."

"So what do we do?"

"Okay here's our plan: I'll 'accidentally' spill my water on you. You lickety-split yourself to the bathroom to clean up. There should be an air vent above the. . .," he looks in the bathrooms direction,". . .third stall to the left. Go into it and keep going strait. Don't take any turns, just crawl. Okay?"

I look at him ridiculously. "Do you have to pour your water on me-?"

He trips over. . .nothing and his water spills all over me. I glare at him.

"Oops. . .," he says and I know deep inside he's laughing his head off.

So I "lickety-split" to the bathroom with Luke on my tail. Winter Blade trips him, on "accident", and Luke falls on his face. I would laugh if my shirt wasn't filled with ice and water. I make a trail of water and leap into the bathroom. I spread my wings out freaking all the teens out. I swear, they screamed so loud, they would make Screech's screech seem like a whisper. I flew into the third stall and broke through the vent. And I crawled like I've never crawled before.

That's when I hear a screech, and not the screech of a teenager.

This is the real deal.