"Nita?"
Her head jerked up again. This time there was some subdued laughter from the kids around her. "Uh," she said, "sorry... what was the question?"
"Gettysburg," said Mr. Neary. "Got a date?"
"Yeah, but he'll have to stand on a box to reach," said a voice in the back of the room, just loud enough for Nita to hear, and for the kids around her to snicker at.
"July first through July third, eighteen sixty-three," Nita said, and blushed again, but more in annoyance this time. There were a number of guys in her classes who thought it weird or funny that Nita hung around with a boy younger than she was, and Ricky Chan was the tallest and handsomest of them. His dark good looks annoyed her almost as much as his attitude, and Nita couldn't think which satisfied her more: the fact that everyone around her knew she thought he was intellectually challenged—which drove Ricky nuts— or that if he ever really annoyed her, she could at any
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moment grab him by his expensive black leather jacket and dump it, and him, into one of several capacious pockets of otherspace that numerous alien species were presently using as a garbage dump.
Except that wizards don't do that kind of thing.
But boy, wouldn 't it be fun to do it just once!
Mr. Neary turned his attention elsewhere, and Nita went on taking notes. That class, and the rest of the day, passed without further event; and when the last bell rang at three-thirty and she went out into the parking lot, Nita saw Kit loitering by the chain-link fence near the main gate.
Nita headed for the gate, ignoring the voices behind her, even the loudest one: "Hey, Miss WAH-Neetz, where'd you send away for those legs?"
"Yeah, nice butt, nice face... shame about the giant bulging brain!"
The usual laughter from behind ensued. Nita began to regret her belief that changing out of jeans was going to make the slightest difference to her life at school.
Do you want to, or should I?
Want to what? Nita asked silently. We're supposed to be above this kind of thing.
Kit's expression, as she caught up with him, was neutral. There are species who would love these guys, he said. As a condiment.
She made a face as they walked up to the corner together, turning out of sight and out of range of the guys behind them. "Yeah," she said, "I was thinking about that. Among other things. Such as that I'm a complete idiot."
Kit waved the sentiment away.
"No," Nita said, "I mean it. You're not supposed to make this easier for me." "Oh," Kit said. "Okay, suffer away."
She glared at him. Then when Kit turned an expression on her of idiot expectancy, like someone waiting to see a really good pratfall, she managed to produce a smile—yet another one that to her surprise didn't feel somehow illegal. "You won't even let me do that right," Nita said.
"My sister won't let me do it, either," Kit said. "I don't see why you should get to." He lowered his voice. "Now, what the heck have you been doing that you're sound asleep at eight o'clock?"
All the things she'd been intending to say when this subject came up now went out of her head. "My mother has a brain tumor," Nita said.
Kit stopped short. "What?"
She told him, fighting to keep her face from crumpling toward tears as she did so. She'd meant to keep walking while she told him, but she found it impossible. Everything came out in a rush that paradoxically seemed to take her entire attention. Kit just stood there staring at Nita until she ran down.
"Oh, my God," he said in a strangled voice.
"Hey, lookit, he's not wasting any time," said a voice from down the street behind them. Other voices laughed. "Yeah, where's the box for him to stand on?" said one. The laughter increased.
Kit frowned. The laughter suddenly broke off in what sounded like a number of simultaneous coughing fits.
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"Kit! "Nita said.
Kit didn't stop frowning, just took Nita discreetly by the elbow and started to walk. "If they're gonna sneak out behind the bleachers in the field at lunchtime and smoke," he said, "it's not all my fault if it starts catching up with them. Come on— Neets, why didn't you tell me?"
"I just did," she said, confused.
"I mean, when you found out!" «Uh—"
"God, you weren't kidding; you are an idiot! Why didn't you call me? Even if you were mad at me!" "I wasn't mad at you! I mean—"
"Then, why didn't you—"
"I didn't want to call you just because I needed you!"
Then Nita stopped. Earlier that had seemed to make some kind of sense. Now it seemed inexpressibly stupid.
"You're right," she said then. "I've been having a complete brain holiday. Sorry, sorry—"
"No," Kit said. They turned the next corner, into Kit's street, and he shook his head, looking more furious than before. "They didn't tell me. They didn't even tell me. I'm gonna—"
"Who?"
"Tom and Carl. I'm gonna—"
"Gonna what}" Nita said, exasperated. "They're our Seniors. They couldn't tell you anything. It was private stuff; you know that has to be kept confidential, and they can't even deal with it at all unless it affects a wizardry. They didn't tell me what you were doing, either. So forget it."
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Kit was silent as they walked down the street. Finally he said, "What're we going to do?"
We.
Nita held out her arm to show him the charm bracelet. Kit looked at it, seeing what was under the semblance. "That's what I heard you making. How'd you get it done so fast?"
Fear, Nita thought. "You need it for the practice universes," she said, "and I don't have much time. They operate tomorrow, or Thursday at the latest. That's the best time to do the wizardry, when she's not awake —"
"You're going to need someone to backstop you," Kit said.
That thought had been on Nita's mind. Strange, though, how she now felt some resistance to the idea. "Look, if I can just—"
"Neets." Kit stopped, looked at her. "This is your mom. You can't take chances. You're gonna have to spend almost all your free time in those other universes, and you're gonna be wrecked. And I bet Tom and Carl told Dairine to butt out, didn't they?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Well?"
"Yeah, of course.. .yeah." What was I going to do, tell him I don't want his help? What's the matter with me? "Thanks."
Suddenly Nita felt more tired than she'd been even in school. "Look, we're going to the hospital to see her as soon as I get home. You want to come to the hospital with us?"
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Kit looked stricken. "I can't today. We have to go clothes shopping; can you believe it? Dad says we absolutely have to. But you'll go tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, we go every day. Dad goes a couple of times."
"So I'll go with you then. It'll give me time to read up on what you've been doing." They stopped outside Kit's house. "As long as it's okay with you," he said suddenly.
"Huh? Yeah," Nita said.
"Okay. You going to go straight off and practice when you get back?" "Yeah, I have to."
"All right. Just call me when you get back in, okay? Don't forget." He punched her in the arm. "Ow! I won't forget."
"Then tell your mom I'll see her tomorrow."
And Kit headed up the driveway and vanished into the house.
Nita let out a long breath of something that was not precisely relief, and went home.
Her dad was hanging up the phone in the kitchen. He looked unhappy. "Daddy," Nita said, "are you okay?"
Dairine came around the corner as her dad got his jacket off one of the dining-room chairs. "Yes," he said, "but I could be happier. That was Dr. Kashiwabara. She says they're going to have to reschedule Mom's surgery for Friday or Saturday. One of the specialists they need—the doctor who does the imaging—had
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some kind of emergency and had to fly to Los Angeles." He sighed. "He'll be back in a day, they said, but I'm not wild about the idea of your mother being operated on by someone who might be jetlagged."