Among the Imposters

Nineteen

The moon was out.

It had been so long since Luke had seen the night sky that he’d forgotten how mystical it could look. The moon was full tonight, a beautiful orb hovering low over the woods. Luke also recognized the same pinpricks of starlight he’d been used to seeing back home. But the stars seemed dimmer here, overshadowed by a glow on the horizon beyond the woods. Luke puzzled over that glow— it was in the wrong part of the sky to be the sunset What else was that bright?

Luke remembered that Jen’s dad had said the school was near a city Could a city have lights that bright, that shone this far?

“I don’t know anything,” Luke whispered to himself. He’d thought that coming out of hiding would expose him to the world, teach him everything. But being at Hendricks seemed like just another way to hide.

A light flashed in the woods just then, and Luke realized he didn’t have time to hesitate. He’d planned to creep across the lawn, but the moonlight was so bright, he worried about being seen. He decided to take his chances with running.

Nobody yelled. Nobody hissed, “Get away from here!”

Luke reached the edge of the woods and hid behind a tree. Then he cautiously moved up to the next tree. And the next one. The light swung erratically, just ahead.

Luke wished he’d taken the time to explore the woods, to get his bearings. He was terrified of walking straight into a tree, stepping in some big hole or tripping over a stump. He banged his shin and had to bite his lip to keep from crying out. He stepped in something squishy and almost fell. He wondered if he was traveling in circles.

Then he heard voices. a — hate nature—”

‘Yeah, well, you find a better place to meet—”

Luke crept closer. And closer. A strangely familiar voice was giving a long explanation: “—it’s just your fear of the outdoors cropping up again. You’ve got to overcome it, you know?”

“Easy for you to say,” someone else grumbled.

Luke was close enough now to see the backs of several heads. He dared to edge up to the next tree and peek out. Eight boys were sitting in a semicircle around a small, dim, portable lantern. Suddenly another light flashed on the other side of the group of boys. A twig cracked. Luke ducked back behind the tree.

“So what’s with the emergency meeting?”

It was a girl’s voice.

Luke inhaled sharply.

Jen…

It wasn’t Jen, of course. When Luke dared to look out again, he saw a tall, scrawny girl with two pale, thin braids hanging on either side of her face. Jen had been shorter, more muscular, her brown hair cut short as a boy’s. But just to hear a girl’s voice again made Luke feel strange. It kept him from doing any of the crazy things he’d half-planned: leaping from behind the tree and screaming accusations, pretending to be a ghost haunting the woods, finding some way to exact revenge.

All he could do now was listen.

“Sorry to disturb the princesses of Harlow,” a male voice was answering mockingly.

Luke knew he knew that voice. He peered out. Yes. Of course.

Jackal boy.

“It’s the new kid,” jackal boy was saying. “He’s acting weird.”

I should have known jackal boy was involved, Luke thought. He probably planned the whole thing, led the charge on my garden. … He glowered. Then he realized what jackal boy had said. “The new kid”? As far as Luke knew, there was only one new kid at Hendricks: himself They were talking about him.

“Weird?” the girl’s voice replied. “He’s a boy, right? Isn’t weirdness just kind of required?”

There were giggles. Luke squinted into the darkness. He thought there were three or four other girls beside the girl with braids.

“Quit being such an exnay,” jackal boy said. “Exnay and proud of it,” the girl retorted. Luke listened harder, as though that would help him make sense of their words. Who would be proud of being an “exnay”? If he’d learned anything at Hendricks, it was that “exnay” was one of the worst insults you could hurl at anybody.

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t see you announcing it anywhere but in the dark, in the woods, when nobody’s around,” jackal boy taunted.

“So you’re admitting you’re nobody?” the girl said.

One of the boys beside jackal boy made a frustrated grunt “Why do we bother talking to them?” he asked.

Luke saw jackal boy dig his elbow into the other boy’s ribs.

“I’ll be noble and ignore that,” jackal boy said loftily to the girl. “Naturally, we don’t expect you to offer us any assistance in this matter. But we thought it was in everybody’s best interest to keep you informed.”

The girl sat down, and the other girls followed her lead.

“So inform us.”

“The new boy—” jackal boy started.

“Has he got a name?” the girl interrupted.

“He’s registered as Lee Grant,” jackal boy said.

Luke noticed how he said that. “Registered as.. “ Not, “His name is. .“ Did jackal boy suspect?

“I looked him up,” jackal boy continued. “His dad’s in charge of National Gas and Electric. Filthy rich. And he’s switched schools a lot”

“That could fit,” the girl said.

“But he doesn’t seem like he has autism or any of the other disorders. I don’t think he’s even agoraphobic.”

Luke didn’t even try to puzzle out the unfamiliar words. Jackal boy was still talking.

“Trey over there saw him coming in from outside this afternoon.”

“He was outside?” the girl asked. She sounded amazed, maybe even impressed. “Out here? In the woods? During the day?”

“Don’t know,” jackal boy said. Luke felt almost triumphant at the note of misery in the boy’s voice. But Luke was confused. Had jackal boy and his friends destroyed the garden without even knowing it belonged to Luke? Or was jackal boy lying?

“They didn’t see him until he was back inside,” jackal boy continued. “He — you know — he doesn’t like looking right at the door.”

“Great guard system you got going there,” the girl said.

“Shut up, Nina!” one of the boys yelled. Luke guessed it was They.

“Don’t call me that!” the girl — Nina? — yelled back. Why would she have a name she didn’t want to be called?

And then Luke understood. He, too, had a name he hated. He hated it because it was fake. And so was hers.

“Nina” was another former shadow child. She had to be.

Luke looked with new eyes at the group sitting in front of him in the dark woods. They must all be illegal third children using false identities. Luke’s heart gave a jump. At last, he’d found others like him. He’d found a place to belong.

Luke started to move out from behind the tree, to reveal himself Finally he’d found other kids to talk to about how hard it was pretending to be someone else. Finally he’d found other kids who would know how tough it was to come out of hiding. Finally he’d found other kids he could trust, as he’d trusted Jen. They could grieve for Jen with him.

Then he remembered: He was almost certain these were the ones who’d destroyed his garden.

Luke stayed put

“All right, all right,” jackal boy was saying. “Calm down. The point is, this kid, this ‘Lee,’ doesn’t fit any of the profiles.”

“Did you give him the test?” Nina asked.

“Um, well, there was a little problem—” jackal boy said hesitantly.

“Go ahead and say it!” They burst out furiously. “I flubbed the whole thing! I don’t know why you make me guard that spot!”

“Because you’re the bravest one,” jackal boy said. Luke recognized that tone: It was the same sort of wheedling voice that Luke’s brothers had used on him when they wanted him to do something unpleasant, like clean out the hog pen or spread manure on the garden.

Trey turned and faced Nina directly. “I left the door open, but I couldn’t stand to be that close to it. I walked down the hall. Just for a minute! When I got back, this Lee kid was nowhere in sight”.

Left the door open.. . Suddenly Luke understood. That first time he’d noticed the door, when it was ajar, it had been a test set up by jackal boy’s gang.

But what were they testing him for?

“Maybe he went outside then, too,” Nina said.

All the boys seemed to be shaking their heads in disbelief.

“I waited for three hours,” Trey said. “I stared at that door the whole time, honest. Nobody’d stay out that long.”

Why not? Luke wondered.

“So is he one of us or not?” Nina asked.

The question seemed to hang in the dark woods. Luke wanted to know the answer, too.

“Who knows?” jackal boy said. “The problem is, he’s getting bold. Weird, like I said. We’re scared he’s going to get the rest of us in trouble. Blow our cover. This afternoon, he just stared back at They like he didn’t care what Trey saw, or what Trey did. He was—”

“Defiant,” Trey said.

Even Luke could see the baffled look jackal boy gave Trey.

“Sorry!” They said. ‘All I had to do when I was hiding was read, remember? I didn’t have a TV like the rest of you. I learned too many big words. ‘Defiant’ means, um— he was defying me, he was—”

“Offering a challenge,” Luke said aloud.

And then he stepped out from behind the tree.