Fusion by Imogen Rose Page B

looked at the canvas again. Sheesh. I had turned Gertrude into a human.
    I shrugged. “Whatevs. What’s next? We’re in the same classes as usual, right?”
    “Yes, on to math.”
    Math class was no problem at all. I seemed to be able to hop right in. I looked down at the illegible scribbles in my notebook. I hated that. What a mess! I’d have to get new notebooks.
    The day went by without any drama. I merged into the regular routine. Lunch, however, was a bit awkward. I’d made an ass of myself at the last lunch, so the girls were slightly standoffish with me when I first got there. Ali helped to smooth things over by diverting everyone’s attention to the next cheer meet. I wanted to hop into the conversation but decided to take things slow the way Mom had suggested. Plus, I didn’t want anyone jumping down my throat. To these girls, I had been absent from cheering for a whole year. Normally, that would have meant the end, but Ali was one of my best friends, and she was now the captain, so I was pretty sure I’d have no problem rejoining the team.
    “Hey!” Ariele slid down beside me.
    All the girls turned to watch us. I had been so unfriendly to her during the last lunch. I smiled widely at her. “Hey.”
    “How are you coping with classes?” she whispered as the girls resumed their cheer talk.
    “Fine, no problems. Well, apart from trying to read the atrocious handwriting.”
    Ariele snickered. “Yeah,
A’
s penmanship is like a toddler’s. Kellan can help you with that, though. He seems to be an expert at figuring out what those scribbles mean.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Good to know. Apparently, I’ve got a physics project due, and I thought I found my”—I finger quoted—“
notes
. I’ve got no idea what I am doing.”
    “You’re doing that project about time travel with Kellan. He’s your partner, didn’t he tell you?”
    “No, he didn’t tell me that we were supposed to do it together. That’s strange. He’s been like working on it nonstop.”
    “I guess he wanted to give you some time to get back into it. Where is he anyway?”
    “The hockey team took off to travel to a one-day tournament. I’m going to catch up with him later.”
    She nodded. “Hey, did you get a chance to talk to David?”
    “Yeah, and I’ll tell you, but not here. Let’s finish up and head to the restroom.”
    Once we were alone in the restroom, I told her what David had shared with me.
    “I’m dead?” she asked.
    “Well, like I said, no one knows. But you are famous in a way, so you can’t just show up in the other dimension. The press will be all over you.”
    She frowned and fidgeted with her hair. “Maybe, but I am still going,” she said firmly.
    I guess I couldn’t argue with that. We’d just have to make sure to keep a low profile.
    “Did you talk to your mom?”
    “I’m going to right after school.”
    “Can I come with?”
    I thought about it for a minute, weighing the pros and cons. The major pro would be that Ariele could back me up with the background—about knowing the other Arizona. However, Mom would shut me down if I didn’t approach this in just the right way, and that would be easier to do on my own. “I think it might be better if I go on my own, at first anyway. You know, to test the waters.”
    She nodded. “Yeah, I can see that might be easier. No point in getting her back up.”
    “Exactly. I’ll call you later?”
    “Sure. Hey, Arizona? You might want to ask her about your dad.”
    “Huh?”
    “About Dillard.”

M uch as she felt a certain calm staring at the blank screen of her computer monitor, it was time to start going through the hundreds of email messages Olivia knew waited out in cyberspace… starting with the one that she’d read just before her car accident. She opened it up again.
    I am not an idiot. Did you really think this would work? Send me the authentic one. Now. I have Arizona, and Dillard is on his way. Raj Sen
    She re-read the last part of the