Page 48

That night I helped Allie with her homework when I got home and did my own, while feeling the clock tick.

Literally. Every minute the number on the microwave’s clock changed, I could feel it.

I couldn’t feel that yesterday—was I getting more sensitive? Was my condition getting worse? Or, better? What the hell was wrong with me, anyways?

I went for the bathroom quickly— “Do you have diarrhea?” my sister asked, loud enough that someone three trailers over could hear—and hid inside. I pulled my shirt up and twisted to look at my back again, and sure enough the marks were still there—and they were even brighter than they had been. How could that be? I reached back and touched them, and now they were all raised, like old scars suddenly erupting. It was so strange. I was so strange.

Now that I could use my phone—I sat on the toilet and typed in ‘Things that happen to you after you get hit by lightning’, and saw the images it pulled up. People—just like me! I thumbed through each of their stories, and every single one of them had been hit by lightning—the marks were called Lichtenberg Figures, I wasn’t alone, oh my God!

But—none of their stories were like mine, entirely. The only website that said anything about gaining powers was onein Russian that my phone translated into halting English. It specifically mentioned exceptional math abilities? So I sat there and tried to do something crazy, like calculate Pi out—and got stuck at 3.14 because yeah, no.

“Jessie—” my sister started on the other side of the door.

I looked at myself in the mirror one last time. I was weird in an entirely not weird way, except for the one way in which I was.

“I’m hungry,” Allie whined.

“Okay, okay,” I said, shoving my shirt down and going back outside.

We made dinner together again—me far more carefully than her—in time for my mom to emerge from her room with a yawn.

Between the clock-feeling and my eyeballs, I knew I had just an hour left before Liam came over. I wasn’t sure how entirely grounded I was now, since she’d given me my phone back and we’d ended last night in hugs. She’d already had three beers since waking up, so right now was probably as good as any time to ask.

“Uh, Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a study group for chemistry class tonight.”

“You do great in that class—don’t you?” her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember.

“Yeah. But only because I study. Not everyone’s as smart as I am—and some other kids need my help.”

“Other kids like who?”

“Um. Liam.”

She double-blinked. “Liam…Lewis?”

“Yeah.”

“Colton and Taylor’s brother? Like Lewis-Lewis?”

“Yeah. How do you know them?”

“Everyone in town knows the team—and his brothers—” She made a low whistling sound. “If any of them had been in school when I was there, y’all might have had a different dad.”

“What?” My voice rose in volume and broke as I visibly cringed. The thought of my mom with our current dad was bad enough.

“I’m teasing, sheesh.”

I decided to double-down in that case. “Well, if I don’t help him study, he might not pass.”

“Oh, you can go,” she cut me off. “When is it?”

“Seven.”

“You’d better get ready then.”