Starcrossed

turned off and Helen plopped onto the floor like a half-baked soufflé.
    “I feel awful,” she told him, a bewildered look on her face.
    “Are you . . . grounded yet?” he asked her, practically vibrating with worry.
    Helen looked at the floor and giggled insanely as the electricity running around her body tickled her brain.
    “Nope. Linoleum,” she said, slapping the palm of her hand against the nonconductive floor. Her vision swam in static. “You were r.r.right. I should have learned to u.u.use this.” She had to get rid of the energy, stat.
    “Luk.k.k. Run.n.n,” she said, her jaw jittering uncontrollably with energy as her bolt demanded to be released. She had held it too long.
    Lucas wouldn’t leave her, and Helen knew she could kill him if she didn’t do this right. She racked her lightning-filled brain and luckily remembered fourth-grade science class. Desperate to rid herself of the monster she had summoned, she slid on her knees to the exit door at the end of the hall and rammed her shoulder against it.
    As soon as she came in contact with the metal release bar that ran across the middle of the door it glowed orange with heat and started melting. She barely moved fast enough to open it before the whole door turned into a solid block of smoldering metal. Tumbling down the short flight of steps and crawling outside on her knees, she threw herself forward onto her hands. With a welcome sigh she discharged her bolt into the one place that it would be safely dismantled—the ground.
    After a few seconds she felt herself get pulled up from the forgiving earth and carried away.
    “Are you injured?” Lucas asked anxiously.
    “Just wicked tired,” she sighed, a little surprised at herself for using the word wicked . She was too weary to care. “Really, put me down,” she demanded when he didn’t respond. He stopped and balanced her on her feet. She rubbed her tongue across her teeth and then sucked at the roof of her mouth.
    “Wow, I’m thirsty! And I think I know why! It’s like lightning, right? So that means I’m generating the electic—I mean, erlecic—I mean, the bolt—by ripping apart the water in my body! That makes total sense,” she said, hearing herself sound like a cheerleader who had suddenly figured out how her pom-poms were made.
    “Helen? You’re scaring me. Here, sit, please. Do you need something?” Lucas asked, making her look him in the eye. She still seemed to be throwing off sparks.
    “I do need something,” she said, struggling to control her diction and her fuzzy brain as best she could. “I need to tell you what’s going on, so that you and I don’t accidentally kill each other over a dumb misunderstanding, and I need you to promise me that if I tell you, you’re not going to beat anyone up.”
    “I don’t think I like this deal,” he said dubiously.
    “Tough.”
    He nodded his agreement. She looked around for a moment and then decided to sit down on the top step of the outside stairs before she fell down.
    “Zach was the one who saw me chasing Creon. He dropped some pretty threatening hints in class the other day, about me and about you and how abnormally fast and strong we all are. Now he keeps trying to talk to me alone and I think he might be trying to blackmail me or something. I’ve been dodging him for as long as I can because . . .”
    “The longer you wait, the more likely it is that the whole thing turns into a big fish story and no one believes him, anyway,” Lucas finished for her with a knowing nod.
    “Right. You are so smart,” Helen marveled.
    “And your brain is fried,” Lucas said, smiling at her indulgently. The smile fell away. “Because of me. I’m such an idiot,” he mumbled, looking down at his twisting hands.
    “Correction, you’re a jealous idiot, and that has to change right now,” Helen replied seriously, still feeling light-headed, but fighting her way through it. “You have no reason to be jealous. I told you that I don’t want anyone but you. I never have.”
    “You’ve lived your whole life on this island, you don’t know what ‘anyone’ means yet,” he sighed. “And you have no idea how . . . Attractive isn’t the right word. It doesn’t fully describe the effect you have on men. On me. Look, I’m not a jealous person, Helen, really. All the other girls I’ve dated . . .” Lucas broke off, took a breath, and regrouped his thoughts before starting again.
    “You know, I never believed