Every Soul a Star Read online

  “I don’t mind not looking,” I tell them. “Maybe we should just go back in. It could rain again any second.”

  “It’s all set now,” Ally says, ignoring my suggestion and pointing at the eyepiece. “Just don’t touch anything this time.”

  So having exhausted all other options, I close my left eye and let the rubber of the eyepiece cover my right eye, as instructed. And I look. The pockmarked face of the moon stares back at me, enormous and bright. It doesn’t look anything like it does hanging above us in the sky. It’s so beautiful and mysterious and powerful. This enormous rock controls so much of what happens on our planet. The tides, for one, and indirectly, the weather. I’m struck by the perfect way the universe fits together, like a big elaborate watch that keeps perfect time. Wait, why am I thinking about the tides and watches? What’s wrong with me? I step back from it like I’ve been burned. My head suddenly feels heavy and I know why I was so scared to look into the telescope. The thing that I’ve smothered since third grade has resurfaced.

  My inner geek has been released.

  That’s so not good.

  JACK

  6

  Bree stumbles back from the telescope and Ryan, who is the closest, steadies her. The rest of us crowd around. “Are you okay?” Ally asks, peering into Bree’s face.

  Bree nods slowly, but doesn’t focus on any of us. She seems in a total daze or shock or something.

  “Do you want to go back to your cabin?” Ryan asks. “We’ll walk you down.”

  She shakes her head.

  Melanie is standing next to me, so I whisper to her, “Is she going to be all right?”

  Melanie’s eyes are wide. She seems unsure what to do. Bree suddenly throws her head back and stares up at the moon, then back at the ground, then up again, almost like she’s calculating something in her head.

  “She’ll be fine,” Melanie says. “I think.”

  We continue to watch her for a minute, until she suddenly focuses on Ally and demands, “Where’s that nail polish you found?”

  “Guess she’s back to normal,” I joke.

  But she shakes her head. “I don’t want to paint my nails with it. I want to paint my flashlight.”

  Leaving the rest of us with our mouths hanging open, Melanie slips her arm through Bree’s and they head to the shed, followed by Ryan.

  A few minutes later, while Kenny is fiddling with the telescope, Ally says, “Jack, you told me you came here instead of going to school this summer. What did you mean by that?”

  I don’t really want to tell her, but I can’t see how to avoid answering. “When you fail a class, you have to make it up over the summer.”

  “What did you fail?”

  I can’t even look her in the eye. “Science,” I mumble.

  “Science?Mr. Silver failed you?”

  I nod, feeling like a total idiot. “And it’s not like I don’t think it’s interesting. I just like sitting in the back and drawing better. It was dumb of me. I could have passed. He gave me plenty of chances.” I can feel that familiar heaviness, that familiar disappointment in myself, start to settle in my chest.

  Ally puts her hand on my arm. The feel of it makes the heaviness lessen. “If you hadn’t failed that class,” she says softly, “you wouldn’t be on this hilltop right now. And neither would any of us. So I’m glad you sat in the back drawing.”

  I feel the ends of my lips curl into a smile. “Thanks, Ally. I guess I am too.”

  Kenny coughs, to remind us that he’s here, too. It’s starting to drizzle again, so the three of us pull on the cover and push the scope back to the shed. Bree is done with her flashlight and shows it off when we get inside.

  Kenny says, “We can make it down the hill before the rain picks up again. We won’t have to sleep up here.”

  We all look at each other. Nobody makes a move to leave.

  I’m the first to wake up the next morning. The sun is beaming through the small window. I have to get back to the campground to make sure no one from the tour needs anything, since somehow I doubt Mr. Daniels is going to do it. Kenny is starting to stir so I wait for him to open his eyes and then tell him where I’m going. He nods, and then closes his eyes again.

  I tip-toe out of the shed, which isn’t an easy thing to do when you’re my size. The sunlight has a crisp quality to it that I’ve never really seen before. It must not be much past dawn. I dig my watch out of my pants pocket. Six fifteen. We hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. It was pretty cramped with six people, and there was a lot of blanket stealing. Mostly we were talking though, telling stories, ghost and otherwise. Bree was still sort of out of it at first, but then she started talking about silly things she and her friends have done at the mall. Bree’s someone who never would have spoken to me at school. And I never would have spoken to her either. But she’s funny, and I don’t think she’s as confident as she wants people to believe. Up here everything’s different. Up here I’m different. Back home I’ve tried to do what Melanie said and just be myself. But the kids didn’t respect me like she said. They just ignore me. And that’s not the same thing. I know I need to let it wash over me more and not worry what people think about me. It’s so hard though.

  I head to my cabin to make sure no one left a note for me. As I pull open the front door I realize that the shades are drawn. I’m sure I didn’t leave them that way. I hear my mom’s voice saying you never want to walk in on an intruder, but it’s too late now. Enough light comes in behind me that I can see two people, one in each bed. On the floor at my feet is a crumpled t-shirt. I push it with my toe to get a better look: eclipse chasing: not for the weak.

  Right! I had promised those guys they could stay here if the storm came. I’m glad I left the door unlocked.

  I quickly scan the cabin and don’t see any notes or anything. I really want to change out of my pants, which are still damp, so I open the dresser drawer as quietly as I can and pull out the first pair of shorts my hand lands on. I’m about to make my exit when one of the guys wakes up and sees me.

  “Hey, dude,” he says, leaning up on his elbow. The cot creaks under his movement, but the other guy keeps snoring lightly.

  “Hey,” I reply.

  “Thanks for letting us crash here.”

  “No problem.” I turn to go again.

  “Wait a sec. You just getting in? Where did you sleep?”

  “Um, I was with some friends. We were trying to do this experiment thing and —”

  “Dude,” he says, holding up his hand, “you are a party animal,” and he turns back over.

  I hesitate. Should I tell him it was all in the name of science? Nah. It’ll be good practice in not letting it bother me what other people think. I close the door quietly behind me. It’s too early for breakfast, so I head to the Art House. Ever since I was in there with Ally I’ve wanted to go back. Once inside, I quickly pull off the stiff jeans and pull on the shorts. Walking slowly around the room, I carefully select a spot on the wall that seems the right size. Ally had said each person gets one square foot. You can fit a lot in that space. I didn’t know until this morning what I would paint. I go to the table and pick out the right paints. Black and brown, white, blue and silver.

  An hour later I drop my brush into the can of water. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. And not an alien head to be found.

  Stomach growling, I hurry down to the pavilion for breakfast. David and Pete are at the end of the line and I hesitate. I’ve been avoiding them the past few days, still embarrassed about not having the first-aid kit, I guess. But I get in line behind them and watch David pile eggs on a plate for both of them.

  “Jack!” Pete says, grabbing hold of my wrist. “Where’ve you been? Did you hear that storm last night? Daddy said thunder is the gods bowling! Can you believe that? Bowling!”

  “It must have been some game!” I say, smiling at Pete. I force myself to raise my head to David.

  “You doing okay?” David asks. “We heard about