Airhead

‘That’ll be eleven fifty,’ he said to Katerina as he handed her the bag.

‘I’m not paying,’ Katerina said. ‘She’s paying.’ And she pointed at Lulu.

Lulu got up off the couch and, giving the sash to her fluffy robe a tug to tighten it, approached the delivery guy. I couldn’t say I noticed anything at all different about her, except that a beguiling smile had appeared on her elfin face.

But the delivery guy sure seemed to straighten up all of a sudden.

‘Well,’ Lulu said to him ‘hello there. Eleven fifty, you said? Hold on a second, my wallet is right here. Why, you’re all wet. Is it raining out there? Do you want a towel? Here, let me get you a towel. It’s getting cold out, isn’t it? I wouldn’t want you coming down with something. Then who would bring me my banana splits? I sure do love banana splits. Here, here’s a twenty. You can keep the change. And here’s a big fluffy towel. What’s your name?’

‘Roy,’ said the delivery guy in a dazed voice as he wiped off his face with the towel Lulu had handed him.

‘Roy?’ Lulu said, taking the towel back. ‘What a nice name. Is that Hungarian?’

‘I don’t know,’ the delivery guy said, still sounding dazed. ‘What’s your name?’

‘My name is Lulu,’ Lulu said. ‘That’s with two Ls and two Us.’

‘That’s a pretty name,’ Roy said. ‘Would you want to go out with me sometime?’

My jaw dropped.

‘Oh my goodness,’ Lulu said. ‘I’d love to! But only if my husband could come along.’

‘Your husband?’ Roy looked stu

‘Come on,’ the elevator attendant said in a bored voice, pulling Roy back on to the elevator. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Bye, Roy,’ Lulu said, waving. ‘Don’t catch a cold!’

The elevator doors closed on a still-stu

‘There!’ she cried. ‘See? I told you!’

I shook my head in wonder. I really couldn’t believe what I’d just witnessed.

‘That,’ I said, truly impressed, ‘was amazing. But how did you do that? You’re in a bathrobe! You weren’t even wearing anything low-cut or revealing.’

‘I was kind and friendly to him,’ Lulu said, shaking her head. ‘And I exuded confidence and charm. That’s what I was trying to tell you. Anyone can do it. It doesn’t matter how you look or what you’re wearing.’ She crossed the room to the kitchen island, where Katerina had opened the bag containing our banana splits. Lulu swung herself up on to one of the stools until she was sitting in front of one of the plastic containers.

‘I don’t think I could do it,’ I said, getting up from the couch and following her. ‘I don’t think I have that kind of confidence.’

‘Of course you can do it, Nikki,’ Lulu said, digging into her banana split with one of the plastic spoons the deli had provided. ‘You used to do it all the time, before the spirit transfer. Sometimes you did it for the wrong reasons, just to be mean, which was why I had to give you the speech about how with great power comes great responsibility and so on. So you can do it with this Christopher person too, easy. You just have to have confidence. And, like I said, you have to make a co

‘Fine,’ I said with a sigh. ‘I’ll try.’

Lulu giggled and flicked some ice cream at me. She missed, and Cosabella attacked the glob that landed on the floor.

‘Hey!’ I said, glaring at Lulu. ‘What was that for?’

‘I can’t believe,’ she said, giggling some more, ‘you’re in love with a high-school boy.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, aiming my own spoonful of ice cream at her. ‘Well, you’re the freak who believes in spirit transfers.’ The glob of ice cream landed on the wall. Barking, Cosabella raced excitedly to the other side of the kitchen to lick it up.

‘Takes someone who’s had one to know one,’ Lulu said, and hurled the cherry from the top of her split at me. It hit the huge plate-glass window behind me and slid slowly down it. Cosabella barked happily at it the whole way.

‘Gels,’ Katerina said. ‘Stop! I just clean in here! Keep this up, and no more massages.’

We cleaned up after ourselves, making sure the kitchen was sparkling when we were done.

Twenty-four

I found Christopher alone in the computer lab before first period the next morning.

I supposed I could have waited for lunch to bring my new laptop to him, but I knew I wouldn’t last that long. When you realize you need to make a co

And this was the only way I could think to do it.

‘Um, hi,’ I said gently, careful not to startle him in the middle of whatever video game he was engrossed in (Madden NFL again, I saw a minute later).

He turned in his computer chair and stared. Lulu had dressed me again, though I was getting better at doing it myself. This time I was in ski

‘Hi,’ he said without smiling. He had on another short-sleeved polo shirt, this one grey. His hair was still wet at the back from his morning shower.

He looked so good I wanted to die.

‘I brought my computer,’ I said, pulling the white laptop from my Marc Jacobs tote. ‘You said yesterday you could set up my email account for me… is this a good time?’

Christopher glanced at the wall-clock. We had fifteen minutes until Public Speaking.

‘I guess so,’ he said, and held out his hand for the computer.

Hmmm. If he had ‘pushed his love’ for me ‘way, way down’, as Lulu had suggested, he had really pushed it down. Why couldn’t I summon up some of Lulu’s awesome aimless chatter and set him at his ease? She was so good at it, while I was as awkward at it as… well, a gawky teen tomboy whose brain had been stuck in a supermodel’s body.

I handed Christopher my laptop and went to sit in the chair beside his. He looked down at the gleaming — and obviously brand new — white computer without comment, opened it and began typing away.

I tried to remember what Lulu had told me. Have confidence and… what? Make a co

Only how? What did Christopher and Nikki Howard have in common? Nothing. Except that they both went to Tribeca Alternative High School.

Oh… and Journeyquest. Right.

‘So what was your high score?’ I asked him. ‘On Journeyquest?’

‘Forty-eight,’ he said without elaboration.

This shocked me. I blurted, without thinking, ‘You’re a liar.’

He glanced at me, startled. ‘What?’

‘No way did you make it past level forty-six,’ I said, completely forgetting there wasn’t any way I could know this. ‘How did you make it past the Dragons of Pith?’ The dragons had incinerated our characters every time we’d approached them, no matter which direction we came from, barring us from making it past level forty-six. We’d searched the web for clues as to how to get past them, to no avail.

Christopher was staring at me. For the first time, he really seemed to be seeing me.

‘I used the Runes of Al-Cragen,’ he explained simply.

It was my turn to stare. ‘The runes? No kidding? Oh my God, I can’t believe I never thought of that. So you just threw them and—’

‘The dragons were powerless in their lair,’ Christopher said. He was really looking at me now. But not like he was actually seeing me, Em. More like he was wondering what was wrong with me, Nikki. Which made sense actually. Because what kind of lunatic would look at Nikki Howard and suspect Em Watts was inside her? ‘What was your character’s name? Your Journeyquest character? Maybe I’ve seen you online.’

And I realized I’d made a blunder. I couldn’t give him my online character’s name, because then he’d know it was me, Em.