Fusion by Imogen Rose

closed my eyes, and waited for mom to come home.
    ~
    “Wake up!” Ella shouted. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and sat up.
    “You forgot to take off your makeup before you went to bed,” Ella observed. “Do you want me to get you the makeup remover?”
    “Ugh. I must have fallen asleep. I’ll jump in the shower.”
    “Okay, but you better hurry, or we’ll be late for school. You’re driving me, right?”
    “Am I? Where’s Mom?”
    “Having a cup of coffee, but she said that her head hurts, so she’s going back to bed once we leave for school.”
    “All right. Head on down, I’ll hurry.”
    Breakfast would have been a somber affair had it not been for Ella entertaining us with her stories. Mom kept massaging her temples and looked ready to collapse. David silently ate his breakfast, carefully avoiding engaging me in conversation, probably scared that I would start pumping him for information again. I listened to Ella and Alexa chit-chat.
    “Mom, where’s Bruno?” I asked, suddenly noticing that he was absent.
    “Still sleeping. We got in late last night.”
    “You don’t look well—what’s wrong?”
    “Migraine. Bad one. Very inconvenient. I need to get back to work. If you’re okay dropping off Ella and Alexa, I’ll go lay down for a couple of hours.”
    “Yeah, no problem. What’s Alexa going to do while Ella’s in class?”
    “Rupert arranged for her to be Ella’s classroom assistant. Don’t ask me how. For all I know, the teacher is a Wanderer as well.”
    I nodded. “Mom, I need to talk to you. Will you be home after school?”
    “No, but you can come to my office.”
    “Great.” I turned to Ella. “Ready?”
    “Yup, let’s go.” She grabbed Alexa’s hand and pulled her toward the front door. I followed them with David at my heels.
    “Are you coming with?” I still needed to have a chat with David.
    “Yes. I go where you go.” He smiled.
    It was so nice to see him let down his guard for a moment. Instinctively, I hugged him.
    He squeezed me back, but then he flinched, taking a step backward, while still holding on to me.
    Crap. I had totally forgotten that he could read my thoughts when he touched me. I wondered what I had inadvertently shared.
    “Let’s talk once we’ve driven Ella and Alexa to school,” he said.
    Once again, my sister’s talent for maintaining a conversation all on her own saved us from an uncomfortably silent ride. As soon as we’d dropped off the girls, David asked me to pull my car over.
    “I’m gonna be late for school if I do that.”
    “It’ll be fine. You obviously have some questions and some very stupid plans, so let’s talk.”
    “Stupid? What do you know about them?” I fumed.
    “Just what I saw when I touched you. Don’t try to deny it.”
    I wanted to smack him one but resisted. Instead, I smiled. “Why don’t you tell me about Ariele first? Is there another one?”
    “Why would you think that?”
    “For obvious reasons. If there is more than one of me, same could be true for her. She came through the Portal as well. So?”
    “To be honest, I don’t know exactly.”
    “Exactly? If Ariele was
A
’s best buddy, how would you not know? Don’t they hang out?”
    “Turn the Jeep around, and drive to my place. I want to show you something.”
    I did what he asked. “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “
A
told me that Ariele moved to California, to Mountain View. That’s pretty much what Ariele has told us before—that her mother was offered a job in California and that they moved. Obviously,
A
has no idea that Ariele and her family were then taken through the Portal.”
    “She doesn’t actually live in New Jersey now? But surely she kept in touch with
A
?”
    He pointed to his driveway, which I’d almost driven past. We pulled up to his house, and he waved at me to come inside. When we stepped into the empty house, he led me to his study. He walked over to a tall metal filing cabinet and unlocked it,