Free Tattoo #1: Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Page B

"That's okay," the girl said immediately. "I don't really need an explanation" Zo grunted, eyes still on the television, a not-so-subtle warning to Annabelle to refrain from ever pulling the mind mojo on the rest of us. "Why don't you sit down?" Annabelle asked the girl. "Then we'll talk. You'll have to excuse Zo's manners. She was raised by a group of indigenous swamp wallabies and is at times uncomfortable conversing with civilized humans" Now that we'd gotten Annabelle talking, she wasn't showing any signs of stopping, and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing at her completely bizarre insult. It sounded so adult and intel- ligent and Annabelle. Zo sat up. A-belle finally had her attention. The blond girl plopped herself down on the couch, following Annabelle's "request" to a T, and I touched the tattoo on my back, wondering if the big voice people had anything to say about her. Nothing. "Look, it's like this--" Zo started to say, but then she interrupted herself. "Swamp wallabies?" Annabelle arched her eyebrows and stared back at her cousin, her face completely serious. "Your heritage is nothing to be ashamed of, Zo," she said. Without giving Zo a chance to respond, she turned to the girl. "Why don't you tell us your name?" "I'm Amber," the girl said. Her voice was cute and way peppier than any fifteen(ish)-year-old's voice should have been. With her white-blond hair pulled into a high, wet ponytail, she looked like an Amber. "And what are you doing here, Amber?" Annabelle asked. "I'm here with my mom," Amber said, rolling her eyes. "She's here for some retreat thing, and she brought me with her. She thinks it's good for me" "You didn't want to come," Annabelle said softly. "Because of the circle" Amber's eyes widened and then she scowled. "Don't tell me you're with them," she said. "I can't take any more freaks right now" "Freaks?" I asked. "I don't want to talk about it," the girl said. Delia, Zo, and I looked at Annabelle, waiting for her to convince the girl that she did in fact want to talk about it, but Annabelle remained silent. "What were you doing out on the balcony?" Zo asked. "Do you remember what happened?" "I was just watching them ...the other kids my age here," the girl replied. "And then all of a sudden, you were all there, and I was surrounded by fire and then the fire turned into honey and ...I'm going insane, aren't I?" The girl paused. "Ohmigod," she said. "You're not even real, are you? I'm halluci- nating. I told my mom coming here would traumatize me, and it did" "We're real," I told her. "Trust me" The girl looked at me suspiciously, and without another word, she reached out and poked Zo. "You want to lose that finger?" Zo asked. The girl shook her head. "Then don't poke me again" "Ahem" Annabelle cleared her throat, and Zo shut her mouth. "Do you remember anything after watching the others?" Annabelle asked softly. "Think back. You were humming, and then you were looking at something" The girl bit her bottom lip. "I was just thinking about what it would have been like, you know, if things had gone differently" A look came over Amber's face, and I wondered if she was starting to become suspicious of the little mind meld Annabelle was working on her. "I said I didn't want to talk about it" I thought about the words Annabelle had muttered on the elevator. About the girl having broken a circle; about the others (the people playing volleyball?) being mad at her. About wishing things could be like they were. So how had she gone from thinking and wishing to being lassoed by a bunch of freaky smoke tenta- cles? I met Delia's eyes, and I knew that she was thinking pretty much the same thing, minus the visual of the freaky smoke tentacles. I leaned forward and sat my chin on my hands, waiting for someone to break the silence. "Sweet tattoo," Amber said, her eyes on my back. Self-conscious, I pulled my shirt back down over it, only to have it ride back up again. "Is it real?" Amber asked. "No," I