Melinda Metz - The Wild One

The phone rang again. That would be Liz, Isabel thought. Her last baby-sitter.

The beep went off. "Hi, Isabel, this is Liz."

Isabel shook her head, disgusted.

"I just had a question about… a math problem. I know you're a math whiz, so could you call me?" Liz said.

Liz was going to be valedictorian, and she couldn't think up a better story than that? She needed to take a remedial lying class or something. Yeah, Isabel was good in math. But she was a junior, and Liz was a senior. Besides that, Max, boy genius, lived in the same house. If Liz really wanted help, she would just ask him.

The next time that phone rings, I'm throwing it out the window, Isabel decided.

Max glanced over at his dad. His eyes had almost glazed over. His father needed a movie with a good explosion every few minutes to keep him awake.

He checked out his mom. She seemed pretty into the movie. Max knew Isabel would be loving it, too. She was the only reason he had broken down and rented the dumb movie.

And now he was stuck watching this movie about a girl who falls in love with a guy who's really an angel. It was pretty stupid. When Nicolas Cage told Meg Ryan he was a messenger from God, she was just kind of like, "Okay, fine."

Nobody real would react like that. When he'd told Liz that he was an alien, she had totally freaked out. Well, first she'd just thought he was messing with her. Then she had freaked out.

Max wondered if Liz would like this movie. He didn't think he'd mind it so much if he was watching it with Liz snuggled up next to him. Get serious, he told himself. You'd watch the Barney movie and love it if it meant getting close to Liz.

He grabbed a handful of popcorn. He decided to time himself, to see how long he could go without thinking about Liz. If he could start stretching out the amounts of time by a few seconds, maybe someday he would regain his sanity. He checked his watch. Okay, go, he told himself.

He tuned back in to the movie. Some guy was explaining to Nicolas Cage that he could be with Meg Ryan if he was willing to give up all his angel powers.

Would I do that for Liz? Max thought. Would I give up my power, which would probably mean giving up any chance of ever seeing my home planet? Would I-

Max checked his watch. Three seconds. He'd gone three seconds without thinking of Liz.

He sighed. Try going for four this time, he told himself.

Then he heard it-the sound of a motorcycle roaring up to the house. He jumped up and hurried to the front window.

Just in time to see Isabel run across the front lawn and climb up behind Nikolas.

Isabel fastened the diamond tennis bracelet around her wrist. "What do you think?" she asked Nikolas.

"It's fine. Are you done yet?" he answered.

It was obvious Nikolas didn't appreciate the joys of shopping, even when they had the entire mall to themselves. Isabel loved it. No matter how bad she was feeling, shopping always made her feel better. And strolling from shop to shop, taking anything she wanted, made her feel like the queen of the world.

Well, she wasn't exactly taking anything. More like borrowing. She planned to leave the stuff in the mall when she was done playing.

She studied the bracelet. "It's a little too quiet, I think. A little too upscale suburban mom's special anniversary present." Isabel pulled off the bracelet and tossed it on the counter. She wondered where they kept the really good stuff.

Aha. There was a safe underneath the register. "Nikolas, open, please."

Nikolas gave a little growl in his throat, but he used his power to pop open the safe. "You could do this yourself if you bothered to work at it," he told her.

Isabel reached into the safe and pulled out three velvet bags. She opened the first one. "This is more like it," she said. She slipped the pearl chain around her neck. The heart-shaped ruby pendant fell just above her breasts. It would look so perfect with a low-cut evening gown, like they wore at the Oscars. She was going to have to get her one of those.

"One more minute and I'm out of here," Nikolas warned her.

Isabel shot a quick glance at him, evaluating. No, he wasn't serious. He wasn't going anywhere.

She opened the next bag and gave a little sigh of happiness. She'd always thought she should have a tiara. She gently placed the circlet of glittering diamond-studded silver leaves on her head.

"Just one more," she told Nikolas. She greedily tore open the last bag. It was the biggest diamond ring she had ever seen. A rock with a capital R . "That is too tacky," she pronounced. "It looks like something you'd get out of a bubble gum machine."

"So can we go?" Nikolas asked.

"Yes, we can go." She dropped the ring back in its sack and tossed the sack back in the safe.

"Let's hit the food court," Nikolas said.

"Okay, it's upstairs." Isabel grabbed Nikolas's hand and headed toward the escalator. She kept taking little peeks at herself in the store windows. Mmm-hmm. She was definitely born to wear jewels. She could get very used to this.

The sound of their footsteps on the metal escalator stairs sent a bunch of little shivers down her spine. She still wasn't used to how quiet the mall was. She'd never been here when there weren't crowds of people-shopping, strolling, eating, talking, flirting people.

"You're sure that security guard won't wake up while we're still here?" she asked.

"Does the word gutless mean anything to you?" Nikolas answered.

Isabel could hear that tone in his voice. That tone that meant in another second he was going to be seriously pissed. But she had to ask one more question.

"He's going to be okay, though, right?" Isabel said. "I mean, he will wake up eventually? 'Cause Max said Liz would have had to have surgery if he hadn't been there."

She hated the hesitant sound she heard in her own voice. Sometimes when she was with Nikolas, she didn't even feel like herself. She was still way too worried about what he thought about her, if he liked her, if he would keep coming around. All that garbage that she used to think other girls were pathetic for feeling.

"I am going to say this to you one more time," he said, his voice harsh. "I squeezed Liz a little harder than I meant to because I was so mad at Max. Now drop it, all right?"

It wasn't a question. Isabel knew if she didn't drop it, Nikolas would leave her standing there.

"Can we stop at the drugstore?" Isabel asked, ignoring the fact that Nikolas hadn't exactly answered her question about whether the guard would be okay or not.

"Yeah, all right." He didn't sound happy about it, but he popped the lock on the double glass doors and led the way inside. As soon as he used his powers to break the lenses of the security cameras Isabel dragged him to the back of the store, where there was one of those old photo booths. She slid onto the little stool and pulled Nikolas down next to her.

"You are going to owe me big time for this," he said.

"Do you have quarters?" Isabel asked.

Nikolas snorted. "I don't need quarters. Now smile pretty, and let's get this over with."

"Wait!" Isabel exclaimed. "I'll be right back." She squeezed past Nikolas and ran over to the stationery aisle. She grabbed a big pad of drawing paper and a box of crayons and rushed back to the booth. She climbed back inside and sat on Nikolas's lap, then jerked the curtain shut.

"Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea," he said, pulling her tighter against him.

Isabel flipped open the pad and selected a bright red crayon from the box. She wrote the words Hi, Stacey in big letters. She added a few exclamation marks. "Okay, now I'm ready," she told Nikolas.

Nikolas started the camera, and Isabel leaned close and licked the side of his face, just to give Stacey something to really think about when she saw the picture. Well, that, and because Nikolas tasted good.