The New Kid. Temple Mathews

were you doing spying on me?”

      “The question is, what were you doing in your basement that you didn’t want anybody to see? And what is that thing?” She pointed to the boltdriver, which had fallen out of Will’s pocket.

      “It looks like some kind of taser or something. Are you a hood?”

      “It’s just a . . . prop. Sometimes I make videos.” Will hastily shoved the boltdriver back into his pocket.

      “Uh-huh.” Her tone said she didn’t buy it. “And that goopy stuff you were putting on your arm?”

      Will couldn’t answer immediately; he had to think about this. He decided that sometimes the best defense was a good offense.

      “I should turn you in for being a peeping Tom,” he said. He started walking back toward his house but stopped at her next words.

      “Fine, do that. And I’ll tell everyone I know about your secret little mad scientist laboratory in your basement.”

      A voice suddenly blurted from the hedge, “What secret mad scientist laboratory?”

      Both Will and Natalie jumped at the sound but relaxed as Rudy emerged from the shadows, crawling out of the hedge, brushing debris off himself.

      “What are you doing here?” demanded Will. This was not good. Things were quickly getting out of control.

      “What’s it look like? I’m snooping, eavesdropping, detecting.”

      “Well, you can cease and desist now, and depart,” said Will.

      “No way, José!” said Rudy. “I have as much right to know what’s going on here as she does.”

      Will looked to Natalie for help.

      “He’s not mine,” she said, then added, “So what’s it gonna be, you show-and-tell, or we tell and then you show?”

      He would have to make some kind of concession or he’d never get rid of them. He thought quickly. “What do you want?”

      “Well, for starters, you could slop some of that magic goop on this,” she said, holding up her elbow. Her long-sleeved T had torn and her elbow was bleeding.

      “Magic goop? Cool! Oh, she’s bleeding, I think I’m gonna faint.”

      “Please do,” said Will. “That would definitely be your best move.”

      “Nobody’s fainting and nobody’s leaving, not until you share, cowboy,” said Natalie.

      Will looked around at the trees, which were gently swaying in the night wind. The area looked secure, at least for now. And he couldn’t risk Natalie following through on her threat. These two seemed relatively harmless and he didn’t have to really show them much, just enough to get them off his back. Part of him wanted to show them, wanted to let them in on his secrets. He couldn’t, of course, but surely them seeing a few things wouldn’t hurt. He’d take them down and put on a little dog-and-pony show and be done with it. Shaking his head, he motioned for Natalie and Rudy to follow.

      “All right, come with me.”

      Entering Will’s house they ran smack into April, whose face lit up with delight. Rudy’s jaw dropped. This woman was so retro, she looked like June Cleaver from that old black-and-white show Leave It to Beaver. She wasn’t wearing pearls or anything, but she did have on a cotton dress and the way she smiled made him think of old-fashioned moms, not modern ones like his own mom, who wore workout clothes most of the time. Rudy smiled right back at Will’s mom as she spoke.

      “I see you’ve already made friends. How wonderful. I’m April, Will’s mother, and that’s Gerald.”

      Gerald was in the adjacent room, wearing the world’s ugliest mismatched terry cloth shorts and shirt outfit, complete with ketchup stains. He was glued to the TV, watching the golf channel and chugging his homemade beer, and didn’t even bother grunting in their direction. He did, however, treat them to one of his fire-cracker farts, which delighted Rudy to no end.

      “I’m Natalie,” said Natalie, hiding her wound and extending her other hand, which April took. She was about to go on when Rudy butted in.

      “I’m Rudy, and your son, Will, I mean, he really stepped up to the plate and saved my butt today, let me tell you!”

      “Oh, he helped you with your schoolwork?” asked April.

      “No, I was practically in the jaws of death when he—”

      Will saw Gerald’s head bob up like he couldn’t wait to hear what a screw-up Will had been on his first day as the New Kid. Will cut Rudy off.

      “Yeah, Mom, schoolwork, something like that. Listen, I’m gonna show them my darkroom real quick and then they’re gonna leave.”

      “I can bring you some—”

      “We don’t need any milk and cookies,” said Will.

      Rudy frowned.

      “We don’t?”

      They clomped down the basement stairs and then Will led them through his maze of black plastic and into his secret chamber where they were visibly impressed. Rudy let out a low whistle.

      “Something tells me this isn’t just some science project. Whoa, your computers, your database, it’s all so . . . massive!” Rudy marveled at the bank of flat panel LCD displays and the whirring servers and modems twinkling with dozens of lights. “Hey, that’s Demon Hunter! But what version is it? I haven’t seen this one yet!” Rudy was just about jumping out of his skin with excitement as he stared at a game loop going on one of Will’s monitors.

      “It’s an old version,” he said.

      “No way, I have them all and I haven’t seen that one.” Then Rudy’s eyes went way wide with shock. “Six hundred and forty-two kills? Are you KIDDING me?”

      “It’s just a glitch in the program.”

      “I WANT that glitch, dude! How’d you do it? Come on, tell me!”

      Sometimes not saying anything at all was the best way to deal with inquiring minds and Will just simply dumped the subject, ignoring Rudy and turning his attention to Natalie.

      “Let’s have a look at that arm.” He touched Natalie’s hand gently, without thinking, and they both blushed. He ignored that and focused on her injury. Her wound was minor, just a scrape, and he knew he would have to do a little sleight of hand here so she wouldn’t freak out watching the rapid healing process. He applied some of the ointment and then looked into her eyes and asked her to do the same.

      “Who do you think you are, Count Dracula? Why should I look in your eyes?”

      “Because I want to check your pupils, this is very important.”

      “You can be one very intense guy, you know that?” she said.

      “I get that a lot. The eyes? Look into my eyes?”

      Natalie obeyed him and they locked eyes. It was instinct for any animal, including the human animal, to want to examine its wounds; and Will just had to keep her distracted long enough to put a bandage over the already healing scrape. Once he’d succeeded, it finally occurred to him the position he’d put himself in. He was standing right in front of Natalie, their faces close together, as he held lightly onto her arm. His face burned again. They quickly looked away from each other.

      “Keep it totally covered and don’t take the bandage off for at least three days.”

      Will was so distracted he didn’t even notice Rudy picking up the boltdriver that he had set down on the workbench earlier. KABLAM! The shot rang out like a thunderbolt, which of course it was, albeit a mini one. All three of them stared at the smoking hole in the wall.

      “Give me that!” Will snatched