Chapter fourteen

B y the next morning Maddy had nearly convinced herself

it had all been a dream. Not just the previous night, but the

whole thing. Jackson Godspeed entering the diner. Coming

into school. Flying. She sat up in bed and looked around the

room. The window was shut and locked, as it had been the

previous night, and her hoodie and jeans were still lying

over the chair back right where she had left them before

bed. She got up, grabbed her uniform off the floor, and

fished a pair of shorts and a tank top from her dresser for

school. Outside her window palm trees swayed in a hot autumn

wind. It was going to be a beautiful day.

It wasn’t until halfway through the morning shift that

Maddy had it proved she hadn’t dreamt the whole thing.

Kevin switched on the TV, and there it was. A breaking story

on ANN that even had Jamie Campbell frazzled. Wearing a

pantsuit and the usual caked-on makeup, she announced,

“In an unprecedented development, we’re hearing

unconfirmed reports that Jackson Godspeed was spotted

flying over Angel City last night and that he wasn’t alone.”

Maddy froze where she was standing with a plate of

pancakes in her hand. The room seemed to shrink as she

listened.

“Rumors of a mystery girl have been spreading

across the Internet like wildfire all morning, easily becoming

the number-one trending topic on Twitter and the most

common search on Google. But who is she? Where is she? If

you’re watching right now, mystery girl, you might as well

come forward. The entire world is looking for you.”

Maddy didn’t even realize the dish had slipped from

between her fingers until she heard it smash on the linoleum.

She gasped. Someone in one of the booths started

clapping. Kevin came around from the counter and eyed

her, concerned.

“What happened?”

“I’m sorry, Kevin. I just totally lost my balance.” His

expression turned to frustration, but he said nothing, and

returned to the kitchen. Maddy got down on her knees and

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began gathering up pieces of the syrupy, broken plate. Mystery

girl?

The TV continued squawking. “Stay tuned for more

on Jacks’s mysterious midnight flight that has tongues

wagging worldwide.”

Maddy spent the rest of the shift in a sustained panic.

She was so used to being invisible, she even liked being invisible

most of the time. Could they really have been seen?

Of course they could have, she thought. They had gone all

over the city last night. Yet she had never planned on anyone

finding out—Kevin especially—but really anyone at all.

What did this mean for tonight? And how had she ever

agreed to go out with Jacks again in the first place? She felt

a wave of nausea in her stomach as she realized she had just

invited the prying eyes of Angel City—and probably the entire

world—into her quiet, uneventful life.

When she got to school, Gwen was nearly

hyperventilating.

“OMG. Look!” she commanded as she showed Maddy

the Johnny Vuitton blog on her Berry. It read in all caps:

“JACKS FLIES OVER CITY WITH MYSTERY

GIRL!!!”

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A fuzzy picture taken from a rooftop security camera

accompanied the article. It showed an Angel, in flight, holding

on to a girl in a hoodie. Maddy’s breath caught in her

throat.

Gwen was ecstatic. “I know you don’t, like, really

know or care about this stuff, but this is so huge!”

“Really?” Maddy asked, attempting to disguise her

shock as mild curiosity. “What’s the big deal?” She squeezed

a book into her locker and tried to look as unconcerned as

possible.

“Two people, one pair of wings,” Gwen said

scandalously.

“Meaning...?”

“Meaning she might not even be an Angel.” Gwen

rolled the words around on her tongue as if tasting it.

“Oh, um, interesting...” Maddy stammered.

“I know, right? I mean, a human and an Angel? Dating?

Sure, there might be rumors every now and then, but

never anything actual. This is, like, maybe the biggest moment

of my entire life! That means I have a shot!”

“But they don’t know who the girl is?” Maddy asked,

fishing as discreetly as possible. Gwen frowned.

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“No. And of course, his publicist is denying

everything, but can you believe this week? First Jackson

Godspeed comes into your uncle’s diner, now he’s flying

around with some girl...” Maddy could almost see Gwen’s

train of thought connecting the dots and moved quickly to

derail it.

“I don’t believe it,” Maddy said as casually as possible.

“I’ve seen the pictures of him and Vivian Holycross. Like

anyone else would even stand a chance.”

“Oh, I know,” Gwen squealed, suddenly distracted by

the thought of her idol, “she is so gorgeous.” Maddy let out a

breath and managed a smile. Gwen hadn’t caught on. And if

Gwen hadn’t caught on, no one else had either.

They neared the commons area and saw the group of

guys from earlier in the week: Kyle, Tyler, Simon, and

Ethan, along with some other students. The boys were sitting

around a table, while others stood around them. Tyler

was moving his hands around as he talked, apparently in a

heated conversation.

“You’re just, like, jealous,” a blond girl in black leggings

and Uggs said to him as Gwen and Maddy

approached.

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“Jealous?” His eyes bulged with incredulity. “We don’t

even know where these things really came from, who they

are, what they want from us. Yet the Angels take everybody’s

money, and all anybody wants to talk about, read

about, is this ”—he pointed to his iPhone, which had a shadowy

picture of Jackson flying with the “mystery

girl”—“while we have real news, real problems that need to

be dealt with. They’re just here to help themselves!” Panic

shot through Maddy as she saw the picture. Tyler’s voice

raised high with anger as he continued speaking.

“Ugh,” Gwen said under her breath to Maddy. “Tyler’s

just trying to be cool by being all anti-Angel.”

“Hey, Tyler, relax,” Kyle said, putting his hand on

Tyler’s shoulder. Tyler shrugged it off, his face turning red

in anger.

“They can’t save everyone, you know that, everybody

knows that,” the girl in leggings said. “But they can save

some people, and you wouldn’t want them to do that? Just

let everyone die? They’re doing their best. And you never

know, it could be you who gets saved.”

“How? The lottery?” he scoffed. “Anyway, I’d rather

they let me die.” Tyler said this last bit dramatically, and a

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couple students laughed and clapped slowly. His eyes shot

out angrily toward them.

Ethan stood up from the table. “Come on, let’s go.

This is getting too heated.”

“No, I’ll go. Freak,” the girl said to Tyler, flipping her

hair and walking away with her friends. The crowd of spectators

dispersed.

“Dude, that was awesome,” Simon said, eyes lighting

up from behind his glasses as he pushed his long hair away

from his face. “Way to stick it to them, bro!”

Kyle saw Maddy and Gwen. “Hi, Gwen. Hi, Maddy,”

he said, smiling. Kyle was giving Maddy that look again. But

he couldn’t be, Gwen was right there!

“Hi,” Maddy said, looking away from him quickly. She

caught Ethan’s eye, and she immediately flashed back to

their conversation at the diner and how now she was out flying

with Angels. Gwen was about to say something to him,

but Maddy jerked her arm, pulling her down the hall. “Gotta

go,” Maddy blurted.

“Ow!” Gwen said as Maddy pulled her along.

“Sorry, I, uh, just don’t want to be late.”

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“That was so weird. It’s like, hello, you live in Angel

City?” Gwen said, looking back at Tyler and the commons.

“This is where the Angels are, Tyler. Get used to it. He’s just

trying to show off.”

“Definitely,” Maddy said, trying to forget the fact that

a picture of her and Jackson Godspeed had been the center

of the whole debate. Just a few days earlier she would’ve

probably taken Tyler’s side. But now that she had met Jackson,

she felt... different. There were lots of details people

didn’t know about the Angels, but maybe they weren’t necessarily

bad things. Just stuff they wanted to keep private.

The girls made their way down the hall. The conversation

turned to Homecoming and who had already been

asked from their classes. Gwen reminded her that Ethan

“was still single.” Maddy relaxed a bit now that the topic had

turned away from Angels and, specifically, Jackson. Maybe

it really wasn’t something to get worked up about. She even

started to feel a mischievous sort of pleasure about the

whole thing when her phone squawked in her backpack.

“What was that?” Gwen asked, crinkling her nose.

Maddy fished out her ancient phone and flipped it open. It

was a text message.

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From Jacks.

It simply said, See you at 8.

Maddy’s mouth went dry.

Gwen leaned in to look. “That thing gets texts messages?”

Maddy whipped the phone away and held it on the

other side of her body.

“It’s not a text,” she blurted. “I mean it is. But it’s

nothing.”

“OMG, is it a boy?” Gwen probed with eager eyes.

“No! Okay, yes. Could you just leave me alone?”

Gwen looked shell-shocked. The very idea of not sharing

boy information was a fundamental violation in Gwen’s

mind.

“I’m, like, your best friend!”

“It’s just...” Maddy’s mind raced. “It was a wrong

number.” It was a terrible lie. Gwen’s eyes flashed with

suspicion.

“You’re acting strange. What’s going on, Maddy?”

“Wrong number, Gwen, honest, I swear. Just seemed

like it was from a guy. Not a... girl wrong number. Guys

are stupid like that, right?”

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Gwen flipped her blond hair, annoyed and suspicious.

“... Right.”

The bell rang.

“See you later,” Gwen huffed, and disappeared down

the hall.

Maddy focused on taking steady, controlled breaths.

When Gwen was safely out of sight, she pulled the phone

out of her pocket and read the text again. Could she back

out? Yes, she thought, she could. Like a complete coward.

And worst of all, then she would be proving him right.

About her. And all that “living life” nonsense. She wondered

where he would be taking her, and what they would be doing,

and if she would know how to act. And what was she

going to wear? Not her jeans and hoodie, and all that pretty

much left was her waitress uniform. She couldn’t borrow

anything from Gwen without raising even more suspicion,

so she didn’t even consider it. There was one other option,

something she hadn’t thought about in a long time.

Maddy sighed. Gwen was right. She was acting

strange.

She looked at Jacks’s text and simply texted back:

Okay.

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Дата добавления: 2015-11-14