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emotionless or a sociopath or something. She just had to grow up tough.
    Her dad left her mom when she was little, and her mom hasn ’ t exactly been stable since. Her mom is like crazy beautiful. She could be a model. She ’ s almost six feet tall with perfect bronze skin, eyes like molten copper, and ebony hair that screams shampoo commercial. But being abandoned with a young kid has kind of made her flighty.
    I wonder how my abandonment will affect Alice. Will she devolve into an even less social person? Will she branch out and try to make new friends?
    I really hope she does. I hope she takes Melinda with her. They’ve both sort of lived in my shadow. I don ’ t say that to be unkind. I know they’re more than that. They ’ re both amazing. I just hope, now that I ’ m leaving, they find their own popularity.
    “Well, maybe you should make something happen,” Alice suggests lightly.
    “What?” I ask. I’ve totally forgotten whatever it was we were talking about.
    “With?” Melinda half asks.
    “ Kai! ” I shout, proud to have remembered our previous topic of conversation. “ Right. Ummm . I think not. He ’ s like in high school and . . .” I trail off. I have no real reasons. Well, none I can explain.
    He ’ s an alien, mutant freak. Although, I don ’ t think that’s a valid argument if I ’ m one too. He ’ s living on his own. Again, I ’ m about to be in the same situation. He might get killed by some crazy alien government agents. I suppose you could argue the same for me.
    “As if high school boys never hit on you,” Alice replies flatly.
    “We’re almost in eighth grade,” Melinda chimes in.
    I roll my eyes.
    As we walk into the building, I notice there are several adults here I don ’ t recognize. Adults in dark suits. Like secret agents.
    “What ’ s with the feds?” Alice asks, chuckling darkly.
    “I hope nothing’s wrong,” Melinda frets.
    I grab their hands and drag them down a side hall as quickly as I can. “We need to go,” I say.
    “What’s going on?” Melinda squeaks.
    I notice one of the men is following us, holding what appears to be an iPod. Oh. My. God. I need to find Tanner. Now! I do the first thing I can think of. I pull the fire alarm. Then the chaos begins.

Chapter 6
    Armed and Dangerous
    –TANNER–
    So, Frederick was telling me about Chucky’s new lab partner, Sammy. If it were Frederick or me, Sammy would be some jock who would spend his time trying to see how far he could pull our underwear over our heads. Or worse yet, some pimply-faced eighth grader that’s even more of a loser than we are.
    “She is so hot,” Frederick says. “She was wearing this tight tank top. Like you could totally see her bra, and these tiny shorts. Seriously, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”
    So not fair.
    “What can I say? They like me,” Chucky beams.
    Just then, we hear the bell ring. When we turn to go into the school, we realize it ’ s not the bell because somebody’s yelling, “Fire!”
    People start screaming and running away from the building. We’ve just started running when somebody grabs me from behind.
    “Hey!” I yell.
    Frederick and Chucky stop and look back at me just as two creepy guys come up behind them.
    “I’ve got him,” I hear from behind. The two others nod in my direction as they grab Frederick and Chucky. I have no idea what ’ s going on. My friends both have their eyes open so wide I swear they looked like they saw Freddy Krueger coming after them.
    “We were leaving, okay?” I say to the guy.
    “Shut up! Stop squirming,” he grumbles as he turns me around.
    What? Why is he so mad at me? Through the chaos, I see Ryland and her friends running toward me. Ryland ’ s yelling something at me. I can ’ t make out what she ’ s saying when . . . she does it again.
    Right in front of everyone, she totally vanishes.
    I feel a sudden tug then the guy holding me is gone and Ryland is yelling at me. I have no idea