Free Forgotten (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 3) by Brian Thompson

laugh. I knew nothing about my grandmother, except for some old holiday cards in her handwriting that I’d found buried in my closet. On each envelope was a twenty-five cent stamp. All of them were addressed to “Mrs. Anna Lee-Champion and Anna’s husband.” I never understood why until just now.
    He put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m parked in the lot. I’ll give you some time.”
    I remembered the radioactive aquamarine in my left hand. Waiting until Ray disappeared over the hill, I knelt down and wrapped my arms around the headstone, careful not to squeeze and crush it.
    Closing my eyes, I said everything I wanted to say without saying it out loud. I hate the difficulty of my life. The rage blackouts, even though I haven’t had one in a while. Being homeless instead of living in our beautiful, three-level home. With you. Fighting two-hundred-year-old, immortality-seeking sociopaths. The same immortality-seeking sociopaths whose radioactive stone slowly killed you and my girlfriend’s father.
    A part of that stone now rested in my left hand. My tears fell onto the smooth-faced rock. My loved ones are constantly being kidnapped or threatened. On a regular weekday night I’d be making out with Rhapsody or playing Xbox. Instead, I’m flying around the west coast hiding and coming up with survival plans on the spot. I’m tired of hiding. A part of me wants to give up, let them take as much blood as they want and do whatever with it. Give me advice, Mom. Anything, and I’ll do it.
    I released the headstone and punched a hole deep into the earth with my left hand. I pushed the aqua-marine down as far as I could. Courtney told me what it would do. Even I, Captain Obvious, could pick up breadcrumbs that obvious.
    How quickly would it happen? I stood and backed up from the gravesite. Reaching into my suit, I clutched the aquamarine on my necklace and prayed for it to happen. I wished, almost chanting it, that it would do for Anna Lee Champion what it did for Taylor.
    That my mother would come back from the dead.

 
    CHAPTER SIX
    rhapsody vs. sasha, round two
     
    Rhapsody rejoined me at the top of the grassy hill. Strange as it may sound, I introduced her to my mother. “Mom, this is my girlfriend Rhapsody. Rhapsody, my mom.”
    She nervously waved her hand at the copper-colored headstone. “Hey, Mrs. Champion.”
    Her awkward pause gave me a moment to ask a question that had been on my mind since ghosting onto the freeway. “What was that at the hospital?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it, Jason.”
    Rhapsody bit at her nails. That meant she really didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t good enough for me, but I dropped it for now. I led her to the parking lot, where Ray was leaning against the passenger side door of his silver Cougar XJ and making a phone call. The car looked better than ever. No one ever known I’d thrown it across a parking lot.
    Whoever he was speaking to, there was yelling and some cursing involved. When he saw us coming his way, though, he disconnected the call. “Rhapsody,” he said with a smile. “Hey, Champ, where’s Sasha Anderson?”
    He didn’t know we had recently broken up. While morganite and cheating on me with Selby was a short explanation, it wasn’t a story to tell your father.
    “Her parent’s beach house upstate,” I said. “We’re headed there now.” Ray’s eyebrows raised. “For the weekend? Joyce will be there?”
    The mention of Sasha’s mother made me recall the last time I’d seen Joyce. Passed out and lying on her stomach. He’d approve of that as a chaperone?
    “Uhh…no,” Rhapsody answered honestly.
    I crossed my arms, expecting some sort of parental backlash. Ray dug his hands in his pockets and bowed his head. “I see,” was all he said about it.
    It’s not like he could ground me from going. All he could do was disagree. He wasn’t my legal guardian and donating half of my chromosomes to my existence didn’t suddenly entitle him