Fathom L. Standage (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

hand but left it open for me to follow.

“Be careful,” said Uther before I walked outside. “Last time we sent someone there, Linnaeus had people watching the house. In fact, Olivia, you should probably just stay behi—”

“Oh, come on, Uther,” said Samantha. “No one has been back to that house in so long. Linnaeus won’t be watching it. And Olivia needs her shampoo.” She and Seidon exchanged another discreet glance. Was she trying to get back at me for our argument yesterday?

“Then tell Calder where it is,” said Uther, as though this were obvious. “He can get it.”

Sam clicked her tongue. “Nope. She needs to go get it.”

“Why?”

“Okay, fine, it’s tampons,” said Samantha. “She needs tampons.”

My mouth dropped open in mortification. My entire head burned. “Samantha! I do not need—”

“Enough,” Uther interrupted, hands over ears. “You need to get out of this house that badly, go ahead.”

I covered my hot face. Samantha sniggered nonstop, with Seidon asking “What? What’s so funny?” over and over. I went outside and slammed the door behind me, then folded my arms across my chest and walked toward the car where Calder waited.

Thank the heavens he didn’t hear what Samantha said.

I got into the car’s front passenger seat without a word. The silence continued as Calder reversed out of the driveway, but it was a different silence than the last time we were in the car together. Instead of being cold and indifferent, Calder seemed calmer—more pensive than hostile. I looked down at his hand on the gearshift. My eyes traced the veins and muscles in his lean forearm.

“Is it hard for you to drive American cars?” I asked. Calder shook his head.

“It’s easy to get used to. The gear patterns are the same.”

He didn’t say anything else. I looked out the window.

“Hey, uh. I just wanted to…” I hesitated and the seconds kept passing.

“What?”

“Just wanted to say I’m sorry about the other night.”

He smiled grimly and laughed through his nose. “No, you’re not.”

“No, really, I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I just…”

“Stop.”

I looked at him.

“Stop?”

“Stop apologizing. It’s getting on my nerves.”

My anger rose again. “Well, you know what? I take it back, then.”

“Fine.”

“Now you’re getting on my nerves.”

“You didn’t have to come with me.”

“I know.” I said it, then wished I could have thought of something more intelligent. He was going to think I wanted to come with him. Like I tried to come. “Samantha was just being annoying.”

He went quiet for a while.

“I’m glad I got the truth.”

“That I’m not a mermaid?” I asked incredulously. “It’s not like I lied on purpose. I just didn’t know that you…didn’t know. I thought everyone knew.”

He glanced at me for a second and I looked away. Did we just have a civil conversation? Amazing.

“You’re talking as if this is your fault,” he said.

“Isn’t it? I was the one in the stupid costume.”

“Yeah but...” He trailed off as he looked at me. Wow, his eyes.

“If it makes you feel any better, Natasha didn’t know either,” I said. He shrugged one shoulder.

“Maybe a little.”

I looked out the window and watched the passing hills for a moment. “How far is it to La Jolla?”

“About fifteen or twenty more minutes.”

“You seem to know your way around pretty well.”

“I’ve been here a couple times. And we study maps a lot when we go on a task.”

“A task? Is that what you call it?” I smiled. “Sounds a little underrated.”

“We like to keep a low profile.”

“Understandable.”

The conversation continued in an easy rhythm that grew easier with every passing minute. Soon, we arrived at my aunt’s house. He pulled up slowly, looking in all directions before stopping in front of the house next door.

“Wait here until I tell you it’s clear,” he said. He got out, scanned the area again, searched the bushes in front of the house, then walked through the gate in the backyard. A minute or so later, he came back and waved me out. I got out of the car. Calder checked the mail while I ran in to grab the shampoo Samantha claimed I needed—there was no way I was going to admit she’d been lying. Eternally grateful again that Calder hadn’t heard the part about the tampons, I grabbed whatever bottle sat in the shower and cringed. Store-brand dandruff shampoo. Not happening. Instead, I went to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic grocery bag to hold the mail.

“Where’s the shampoo?” he asked after I came out and locked the door.

“I, uh, couldn’t find it. Got the mail?” Thank goodness we had a real reason to come.

“Yep.” He handed me a stack. “We should’ve had Uther stop the mail. We forget stuff like that sometimes.”

I put the mail in the grocery bag, got in the car, and looked through the envelopes and ads as we drove to the store. A postcard from my aunt came up.

“My aunt is in France.” I smiled as I read through the postcard. “Glad she’s having fun.”

“So that house belongs to your aunt?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“I thought Samantha lived there.”

I laughed. “No. We’ve been housesitting. Not very good at it, are we?”

He laughed. A small, but real laugh. I never thought something so simple could be so attractive. I wanted to make him do it again.

“Can I ask you something else?” I said. He glanced between me and the road.

“What?”

“Could you tell me more about the testing you did? On the mermaid blood? I’ve been dying to know.”

He smiled. “You know anything about biochemistry?”

“Not much, but it looked fascinating.”

He began explaining, first about how he could figure out blood type, then how he tried to isolate different proteins and DNA.

“I don’t have enough equipment to do everything I’d like, but I have enough to help Eamon,” he said.

“That’s so cool! Is mermaid blood anything like human blood?”

“That’s what I’d like to know more about.” He turned the car off. We had arrived at the grocery store and I didn’t notice.

“Maybe someday you will.”

He lifted one shoulder. “Maybe.” He half-smiled and got out