Read The Prisoner of Cell 25 for Free Online Page B

met him at my locker. He sits in front of me in biology.”
    “The know-it-all kid.”
    I nodded. “He’s my best friend.”
    “Does he have powers?”
    “No. But he knows a lot about science and electricity. He’s really smart. Like mad scientist smart. His mother told me when he was only six years old, their DVD player broke. Before his father could take it in for repair, Ostin had taken it apart and fixed it.”
    “He’s not too smart socially,” Taylor observed.
    “That’s a different kind of smart.”
    “But can he keep a secret? Because no one can know about this.”
    “He’s kept my secret since I told him.”
    “How long ago was that?”
    “Almost three years. Besides, who is he going to tell? I’m his only friend.”
    Taylor didn’t look completely convinced but she nodded anyway.
    “All right, he can be in our club.”
    “We’ll need to come up with a name,” I said. “Every club has a name.”
    “You’re right. How about . . . the Power Team.”
    I frowned. “No, too boring. How about, the Electric Eels.”
    “Yuck,” she said. “Have you ever seen one of those? They look like fat snakes with acne. Besides, shocking people is your thing. You could call yourself Eel Man.”
    I didn’t really care for the name, though I did like that she referred to me as a man. “And you could call yourself the Human Reset Button.”
    She shook her head. “Let’s just stick with our real names.”
    “Okay. Besides, we don’t have to come up with something right now. Ostin’s good at this kind of thing. He’ll have some good ideas.”
    We sat a moment in silence.
    Taylor stood. “Would you like some more lemonade?”
    “No, I’m good.”
    She looked at the clock above the television set and groaned. “My mom will be home in another half hour. You better go. My parents are kind of strict. I’m not allowed to have boys over when they’re not here.”
    I stood. “I need to get home anyway.”
    She walked me to the door. “Thanks for coming over.”
    “You’re welcome. When should we get together again?” I tried not to sound too eager. “For our club.”
    “When’s good for you?”
    “How about tomorrow night?”
    “I can’t, there’s a basketball game. Aren’t you going?”
    “Right. I forgot.” The truth was, I hadn’t ever gone to a school game. 
    “How could you forget? It’s the regional championship.”
    “I’ve just had a lot going on lately.”
    “How about Saturday?”
    “Saturday’s good during the day. But at night my mom and I are going to dinner for my birthday.”
    “Saturday’s your birthday?”
    I nodded. “But we’re really celebrating on Monday, since my mom has to work all day Saturday.”
    Taylor said, “My birthday is Sunday.”
    “Really? That’s a coincidence.”
    Her brow furrowed. “Maybe it’s not. We were born on nearly the same day and we both have electrical powers. Think about it. Maybe it had something to do with the stars being in alignment or something.”
    It may sound strange, but I had never considered why I had electrical powers any more than I had wondered about where my Tourette’s had come from. “If that’s the case then there would be tens of thousands of people like us,” I said.
    Taylor shrugged. “Maybe there are.”
    “I doubt it,” I said. “Or we would have at least heard of a few of them. I mean, someone pops a zit and it ends up on the Internet.”
    “You’re right.” She thought some more. “Were you born here?”
    I shook my head. “I was born in Pasadena, California. How about you?”
    “I don’t know. I was adopted.”
    Now I understood why Taylor looked so different from the rest of her family. “So, we’ll get together Saturday?” I asked.
    “Sure. But first I need to make sure my parents don’t have plans.
    They’ve been on my back lately for being gone too much. I’ll let you know.”
    “Great.”
    She opened the door for me. “Bye, Michael.”
    “See ya,