Two Schools Out - Forever

115

He had them. Ari took a bite of his ice cream bar, feeling the thin chocolate crunch between his teeth.

He'd seen them go into Splash Mountain. Now he was sitting on a bench at the exit, waiting for them to come out. It had taken a long time to find them in this place. He couldn't fly here, and he couldn't unleash a huge crowd of Erasers to sweep the joint. Too much commotion.

But now he had them. They would be out any minute. He had radioed six backup teams, which were less than five minutes away. Ari smiled. The sun was shining, the weather was great, he was eating ice cream, and all his dreams were about to come true.

A small crowd of people momentarily passed between him and the ride's exit, and Ari moved so he could see around them. He knew that people were staring at him. He looked different. Even different from other Erasers. He wasn't as-seamless. He didn't look as human as the rest of them did when they weren't morphed. He kind of looked morphy all the time. He hadn't seen his plain real face in-a long time.

"I know who you are."

Ari almost jumped-he hadn't noticed the boy slide onto the bench next to him.

He frowned down at the small, open face. "What?" he growled. This was when the little boy would get scared and probably turn and run. It always happened.

The boy smiled. "I know who you are," he said, pointing at Ari happily.

Ari just snarled at him.

The boy wiggled with excitement. "You're Wolverine!"

Ari stared at him.

"You look awesome, dude," said the boy. "You're totally my favorite. You're the strongest one of all of them and the coolest too. I wish I was like you."

Ari almost gagged. No one had ever, ever said anything like that to him. His whole life, he'd been the dregs in everyone's coffee pot. When he was really little, he'd idolized the bird kids and they'd ignored him. He'd loved Max, and she'd barely known he was alive. It would have been great when they disappeared, except his father had disappeared too. Ari still tasted ashes when he remembered realizing that his own father had chosen them over him. Ari had been left behind, with strangers.

Then they'd started augmenting him. At first Ari had been glad-he would be an Eraser, be one of them. But he wasn't. He was too different, too patchworky. The others had all been made Erasers as infants, as embryos. When they were human they looked really human. When they were wolves they looked really wolfy. Not Ari. He was stuck in a partially morphed state, never all human and still less than wolf. He looked weird. Ugly. He didn't fit in anywhere.

"You're, like, a total celebrity," the boy chattered on. "I mean, who cares about SpongeBob SquarePants? I'm sitting here with Wolverine!"

Ari gave him a tentative smile. It didn't matter that the kid had mistaken him for somebody else. This kid thought he was cool. He wanted to be like Ari. He was impressed.

It felt so good. It felt amazing.

"Gosh, could I have your autograph?" the kid went on, starting to look for a piece of paper. "My mom wanted me to get Goofy's autograph. Like, I'm so sure. Goofy! But you-here, can you sign my shirt?"

He held out a black marker and pulled on his T-shirt to make it taut.

Ari hesitated.

The boy looked uncertain. "I mean-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bug you. I know you're famous, and I'm just a little kid." His face fell.

"No, that's okay, kid. Hope your mom doesn't mind," Ari growled. He took the marker in one pawlike hand and signed "Wolverine" with a flourish.

The kid looked awed and thrilled. "Gosh, thanks, mister. I'll never wash this shirt again. You're the best. I can't wait till I get back to school and tell everyone I met Wolverine and he signed my shirt! This is the best day of my life!"

Ari's throat ached and his nose twitched. He swiped one hand across his eyes. "No prob. You better get on back to your folks."

"Okay. Thanks again! You rock!" The boy pumped a fist into the air and ran off.

Ari sat for a moment, dazed with emotion. Suddenly he straightened. The flock! Max! Where were they? His eyes raked the trickle of people passing through the exit. The bird kids were nowhere to be seen. Six minutes had gone by-they must have come out. He'd missed them!

For God's sake! That dumb little kid!

You need to stay focused, Ari, said his Voice. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Ari strode off to meet his backup teams, which were now in sight. Yeah, he knew he needed to stay focused. He was all business.

But inside, part of him still smiled and held on tight to that warm, wanted feeling.