Free The Trials of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell Page B

bed, take a deep breath, and try not to picture the floor crumbling beneath me, now that I can’t actually see it. It’s pitch black in here, and this is my first time in the attic, let alone in my new room, so I have a little trouble finding the door at first. But then my hand smacks into the knob, and I open it to find Amelia standing in the hallway with a flashlight.
    “What?” I ask, trying not to wince as the wind rattles the whole attic and my legs kind of turn to liquid.
    The beam from her flashlight falls directly on the crotch of my pajamas, which are green flannel and have pictures of holly sprigs, reindeer, and snowflakes all over them, except for the crotch, where it says, Do not open until X-mas! Believe it or not, my grandma got me these last Christmas. I’m sad because it hasn’t even been a year and I’m already growing out of them. Mom’s right—I have gotten taller.
    Amelia’s cheeks turn pink, and she hurries to point her flashlight somewhere else. She decides on my face. I squint in the brightness and hold my hand out to block the light.
    “Oh, good,” she says, sounding relieved that she’s not in a horror movie after all and isn’t the last person left alive. “You’re up.” She fidgets, shifting her weight from foot to foot and making the floor creak. She scratches her nose with her free hand and points her flashlight at my shins, where the legs of my pajamas come up a little high. “The power went out.”
    “I noticed.” And my fingers still burn a little from the wall socket exploding on me. Not that the power going out was my fault or anything. All I did was plug in my cell phone—how was I supposed to know the attic had such crappy wiring?
    “I thought you might want some company. Because it’s kind of spooky up here when it storms, and now that the power’s out ...” She swallows. “It’s scary enough for me, and I’m not afraid of ... you know. Being up high.”
    I raise an eyebrow at her, pretending the idea of me being even the least bit terrified of heights is news to me. “It’s almost midnight. Shouldn’t you be in bed? I know you need an awful lot of beauty sleep.”
    She glares at me. “I can’t sleep.” She points her flashlight at my face again, then realizes what she’s doing and focuses it on the wall. She twists the end of it, playing with the amount of light it gives out. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t be able to sleep, either. So, do you want to play Capes and Robbers with me? It’s a board game. We always play it when the power goes out. It’s kind of a family tradition.”
    “Wow. That sounds so fun . Let me guess, you want me to be the robber?”
    “Well, you can’t play with just capes. But we could watch a movie instead. My laptop has enough battery power left.” She gestures to it, tucked under her other arm.
    It wasn’t there a second ago, so she must have used her power to summon it to her. It’s bright pink and kind of stands out, even in the dark, and was an early sixteenth-birthday present from Gordon and Helen. Her birthday isn’t until late October, which is still almost two months away, but they wanted to give her something for starting Heroesworth. All I got for my birthday was this lousy X , and getting shoved off a building, though I don’t think that counts. I didn’t get anything for starting at Heroesworth, either, though Helen did leave some informational pamphlets on the dangers of teen sex lying around for me to find. Because she’s thoughtful like that.
    “Or we could, you know, hang out. Just until the lights come back on.” Her flashlight flickers, like it might go out, and she sucks in her breath. “ Please? ”
    “I don’t know. I mean, here you are, the same person who claims she knew about that fake bomb trick in Intro to Heroism, yet didn’t have the decency to warn me about it. That doesn’t really sound like anybody I want to spend time with. At least, not at the reasonable discount I would have