Free Fearless: No. 2 - Sam (Fearless) by Francine Pascal Page B

it.
    She stopped abruptly and rapped on the glass. Ed looked up and smiled. It was a guarded smile. She was in a position to know the difference.
    Her friends were already several steps ahead, but they had stopped now and were waiting for her. "Go ahead," she called, waving them on. "I'll meet you there in, like, five minutes." When they paused, she gestured again, less patiently. "Go. I swear I'll be there in a couple of minutes."
    Once her friends started walking again, Heather stepped into Ozzie's and was embraced by the thick smell of coffee. "Hey, Ed," she said, sitting down in the empty chair across from him.
    "Hey," he said back. "What's going on?"
    "Nothing. Just, you know, shopping with the girlfriends."
    Ed nodded.
    "You're waiting for someone?" Heather asked. Before he had a chance to answer, she said, "Let me guess. Gaia Moore, right?"
    He looked uncomfortable. "No, not really."
    "Oh, come on."
    "What?" Ed said defensively. "Sometimes she comes by here after school and we have coffee. Sometimes I have coffee by myself."
    Heather put her index finger on a drop of coffee that had spilled on the table. She spread the liquid in a widening circle. "You guys have gotten to be good friends, it seems like."
    "Yeah."
    Heather laughed at a memory, pretending it was impulsive. "Did you hear about her classic line in Rupert's class today?"
    Though still guarded, Ed now looked interested in spite of himself. "No. What?"
    "Rupert asked her why she wasn't paying attention, and Gaia said, and this is an exact quote, 'I was thinking about sex. I was thinking about having sex.' " Heather laughed again. "What a freak. People were mimicking her all afternoon. I'm surprised you missed it."
    Ed waited for her to finish without even a smile. What had happened to the guy's sense of humor?
    Heather needed a way in. She needed to make Ed talk to her. She sat back in her chair and rolled a piece of her hair between her finger and thumb.
    "I've heard Gaia's stoking a major crush," she said, tossing a dart into the winds.
    Ed remained wary. "Oh, yeah?"
    "So says the rumor mill," Heather said provocatively. She took a calculated risk with a second dart. "Word is, the crush is on you. Tannie got a look at her notebook in precal. . . ."
    Bull's-eye. Ed's cheeks flushed. He met her eyes with poorly masked excitement and curiosity.
    On the one hand, Heather was pleased that her instincts served her so well. On the other hand, it pissed her off that Ed was obviously falling victim to Gaia, too. Had Gaia Moore been put on earth to punish her?
    Ed crumpled an empty sugar packet tightly between his fingers. "I don't know about that," he mumbled. Guarded as he was, he did want to talk. "I think it's more about sex."
    Heather yawned. Once she got started, it was genuine. "What do you mean?"
    "Oh, I don't know." Ed seemed to wave a thought away. "She wants to lose her virginity. I guess if she's telling Ms. Rupert's class about it, it's not a big secret."
    Heather looked in her purse, ostensibly for lip balm. "And who's the lucky guy?" she said suggestively.
    "She hasn't said. It's a mystery."
    "Aha." In near perfect detail, Heather's mind called up the image of Gaia and Sam sitting together on that bench in the park. Heather was starting to get an unpleasant feeling about this.
    Heather located the tube of Chap Stick and ran it over her lips. "It's not a mystery to me," she said confidently.
    "What do you mean?" Ed asked tentatively, crushing the bit of paper in his palm.
    "It's obvious," Heather said, getting up from the table, "that the lucky guy is you."
    It was a mean thing to say since Heather didn't believe it, but when she saw the naked hope and pleasure in Ed's eyes, her anger took over and she told herself he deserved it.

IMPOSSIBLE
    Stupid, moron, shit-head CJ was sticking his stupid gun in her face again.

THE VIGILANTE
    EVER SINCE SHE'D WOKEN FROM THAT dream, Gaia was so distracted, she could hardly remember to breathe regularly or feed