Майкл Салливан - Deep Magic. Fourth Collection

I didn’t answer, just waved a hand. He wouldn’t understand. I barely understood, and it was my problem . My eyes wandered toward the four-legged alien sitting peacefully under a tree. Luke, observant for once, noticed and growled. “What, is that thing bothering you? Join the club. I hope these dog-freaks clear out soon; they give me the creeps. It’s probably going to attack somebody any—”

“Her,” I interrupted, spork handle digging into my palm. Luke stared at me, eyebrows way up on his forehead. Fortunately, I didn’t have to explain myself, because right then a group of cocky-looking students rounded the bend and headed straight for Vasa.

Wait, did I say “fortunately”? I take that back.

Silence fell over the courtyard, everyone sensing the mood; somebody had finally decided to act on the faint hostility that permeated our campus. My entire body clenched as I joined the crowd of heads turning to watch. Ben was with them, that idiot. And no campus police in sight. Vasa was on her own.

The leader of the group pointed an accusing finger at Vasa, at her mountain of food, at the poster still fluttering on the wall nearby. Not a sound reached our ears beyond the indecipherable ranting of the student. I held my breath, watching as Vasa replied to whatever he’d said, calmly. Always calmly. Nothing phased this girl—not hostility, not attention, not danger, not anything.

I wished I were like her. I wished I were anyone but me. I wished I weren’t too afraid to stand up.

I stood up so fast my chair toppled. “Come on, guys.” My friends gawked as I stuffed books into my backpack. Luke spluttered something, but I guess the look on my face made him think twice, because he shut up. Carla and Feb followed me across the wet courtyard without question. We made it to the edge of the concrete before I slowed and took a long look back toward my dorm. Considered. It wasn’t too late . . .

Vasa was patiently listening to the mob leader rant. “—may have to tolerate you being here, but we shouldn’t have to watch your disgusting alien habits,” he snarled. Guy had the scruffiest mop of black hair I’d ever seen. “You’re turning us off our food with your daily gorge-fest!”

Vasa looked down at her overloaded tray full of half-eaten food. “My met’abolism is ex’tremely fast, so I h’ave to eat larger quan’tities than you h’umans.” She hadn’t seen me, but Ben had, and man, I really must have had some look on my face. He sank back through the mob like a rock in a bathtub.

“So that makes you better than us, huh?” Scruffy challenged. “We’re onto you aliens. You think you can just waltz onto our planet, delude our governments, and then you’ll take all our resources like the parasites you are!” There was a coarse cheer of agreement from the lackeys, except Ben, who was searching for an escape route. Scruffy grew bolder and raised his voice for the whole courtyard to hear, glorying in the attention like a puffed peacock. “I say it’s time we made it clear to this freak that some of us Earthlings don’t buy its innocent—”

“Her.”

Everyone stared at me—and I mean everyone —as my last shred of obscurity evaporated. I resisted the urge to bolt for the nearest door while Scruffy goggled at me, his bubble thoroughly popped. “What?”

Too late to back down now. Steeling myself, I pointed at Vasa, and the pet peeve that had been building up steam for two months boiled over. “ She is a her. Any half-witted moron with eyes in his head can tell that she is a girl, so will everyone quit calling her an ‘it’? ” I snapped.

“You idiot, what are you—” Luke’s anxious mutter cut off when I reached back and punched him in the shoulder. Silence and warm drizzle reigned for a solid minute. The jerks seriously didn’t know what to do with me, which was sort of what I’d banked all my hopes on. That, and the 911 call dialed into my smartphone.

Scruffy shook his head finally, and a slow sneer spread across his face. “Are you going to do something if I don’t, alien lover?” He leaned closer to me, way too close . . . and my life flashed before my eyes. What was I doing ? They’d be watching me now, researching me, eventually they’d figure it all out, Goodbye, normal life—

“Would you l’ike us to?”

Scruffy and I stared at each other in confusion. The voice had been Vasa’s, but it sounded . . . higher than I remembered. Like, in terms of elevation. Scruffy glanced up, and I swear his face turned snow white. I turned around and choked, because Vasa had reared up on her back legs and now loomed over us from ten feet up. Those big forelegs of hers lay folded across her lower chest like a club bouncer, and her humanish arms sat akimbo on her waist. It was like being stared down by a giant alien bear and your very displeased mother at the same time.

“Please leave,” she said calmly. So very calmly. “And don’t b’other us ag’ain.”

When I turned back, the posse was gone. Except Ben. He just stood there, utterly petrified.

“Thanks,” I told my new giant alien double-jointed dog/cat/bear friend. My hands wouldn’t quit trembling, but I didn’t care. I’d never felt this light. “Sorry you had to deal with those jerks.”

Vasa rehinged her spine and settled back into normal centaur position. Her eyes were clouded as she stared in the direction of the fleeing thugs. “It’s al’right. B’etter this little blow-up than a b’igger sh’ne later.” She gave me a significant look. “People often f’ear sh’at they d’o not underst’and. But it is n’ice to have people st’and beside you.”

Truer words were never spoken. I grinned sheepishly at her subtlety. “I’m Elliot, by the way.” Then I remembered that we still had eyes on us and turned to my own slack-jawed posse. “Close your mouths before flies buzz in, guys. Vasa, this is Luke, that’s Carla, February but we call her Feb, and the soon-to-be-reformed moron over there is Ben.” Ben kept staring back and forth between me and Vasa like an oscillating fan. “Guys, this is Vasa.” I grinned stupidly, while she bent in a very ladylike bow.

A sound reached my ears, and I noticed a few people I didn’t recognize standing up by the tables. They were clapping . I looked back to see Carla smiling nervously at Vasa, and Feb giving me two big thumbs-up. Apparently, Vasa had been right; not everyone was so against her presence here. Luke, of course, just stood there staring at me with this wide-eyed expression that screamed, “Who are you and what have you done with my roommate?” A perfect example of why I was going to continue keeping certain blue secrets to myself.

I’m not dumb. Everything my family, my people, had worked to hide was in danger, danger that would only grow the longer I held the attention of our astroxenophobic classmates. I’d have plenty of problems coming because of this little stunt. But at least none of those problems would involve me ignoring someone else’s just to avoid mine.

It’s amazing how much peace you can get out of a revelation like that.

As I went to poke Ben out of his stupor, another dumb idea occurred to me. And since I was already on a roll . . . “Uh, by the way, do you guys mind if I invite someone extra to our Friday movie night?” I gave my five baffled friends a lopsided grin. “I hear she’s been wanting to see The Chronicles of Narnia. ”

The centaur smiled.