Free Dead Rules by Randy Russell Page A

thought, if she rested her face on his chest, she would be warmed to her toes.
    â€œDidn’t Davis tell you?” Mars asked. “Risers are cold. Something happens to your body when you come here from the Planet. You’re two or three degrees colder, Jana. You’ll adjust.”
    There was a natural kindness in his voice as he spoke. She hadn’t expected it. And he had used her first name for the first time.
    â€œDo I feel cold to you?” Jana asked. She didn’t like the idea that she was cold to touch. The thought made her seem more dead than ever.
    â€œAbsolutely frigid.” Mars grinned. He took his hands back and let hers fall to her side. “Really, not much at all. You’ll get used to it. The first few days, everything is sort of heightened, magnified. I doubt Davis even notices anymore.”
    Jana wondered if Michael would think she felt cold.
    â€œI better go now,” Mars said. He hoisted himself onto the railing.
    â€œWhat was the third thing?” Jana asked quickly. “You said three things. One was Wyatt’s knife trick. The other was you wanted to know my hometown.”
    â€œTomorrow, you’re going to a funeral.”
    â€œI am?” Jana was trying to see his face as he raised his arms over his head and teetered briefly on the railing before catching his balance.
    â€œTake me with you,” he said. “You get to take someone.”
    She watched his faded jeans disappear over her head.
    â€œIt doesn’t have to be your roommate,” Mars continued. “I’ll help you talk to your boyfriend. I’ll help you understand everything . . . and . . .”
    He had pulled himself above the top of the second-floor fire-escape balcony and was making his way over the railing to the third floor.
    â€œAnd?” Jana called after him.
    â€œAnd put your skirt back on,” Mars called down to her.

Chapter Nine
    JANA SHIVERED.
    Her skirt was a puddle of plaid encircling her feet.
    Sometime during the conversation, she had let go of her unbuttoned school skirt and it had dropped to her ankles. Jana had been talking to the hunkiest Slider in school while standing in her school blouse, underwear, and socks. And nothing else. Without even noticing.
    This balcony scene wasn’t anything like Romeo and Juliet’s.
    Jana jerked her skirt back into place, clamped the waist closed in her fist, and rushed inside the dorm. Mars hadn’t said a thing when her skirt fell. Whenever that was. Jana couldn’t decide if Mars was the nicest guy she’d ever met. Or truly evil.
    She knew, for one thing, that Wyatt’s cutting himself wasn’t just a trick. It was real blood that pumped from his sliced-open flesh. It looked like blood and smelled like blood.
    â€œThis is from Mars,” Wyatt had said.
    There was more to being a Slider than she understood just yet. And there was more to Mars than just being a Slider. He was warmer than the others. She was sure of it.
    Beatrice and Christie were in her dorm room when Jana returned.
    They sat on Arva’s bed. Both girls wore loose cotton pajamas with small stenciled designs in light red and light blue colors. Arva stood by her desk in her cut-down prom dress.
    â€œSo?” Beatrice finally said.
    She stared at Jana who looked back, puzzled.
    â€œWhat happened?” Christie asked. “Did he kiss you? Did you kiss him?”
    â€œNo,” Jana said. “It wasn’t a date or anything.”
    â€œClose enough,” Beatrice said.
    â€œToo close,” Arva chimed in, disapproving as always. She brought Jana a bottled water from an open case tucked under the computer table.
    â€œWell, he did hold my hand,” Jana confessed, accepting the water from Arva. “And it was very, very warm.”
    â€œThen what?” Christie wanted to know every last detail.
    â€œThen my skirt fell off.”
    â€œIt’s too early to tell her