Wild Cards. Джордж Р. Р. Мартин

      Around them, the kids cheered, hooted, and whistled. Boys shouted obscene suggestions. “Get away from him!” Lara yelled.

      Still in the clinch, Jade Blossom spoke in a whisper: “Listen, turd brain, I’m making you the hottest hunk around. If you won’t try to use your dick, I might as well rip it off your body myself. Just tell everybody you’re leaving me, if your IQ is any higher than room temperature!” She increased her density, certain she would need it.

      “Hey! I’ve got an IQ of a hundred and forty!”

      Jade Blossom put her palms on his shoulders and shoved, using her greater weight to send him staggering backward to Marissa.

      The crowd of kids, some of them more tipsy than ever, cheered.

      “All right, then!” Jade Blossom shouted, with a melodramatic expression of horror. “Take your joker girl, you like her so much!”

      Marissa’s rigid mouth dropped open in surprise. Her shocked eyes stared out of her otherwise rigid, blocky white features.

      The kids quieted, curious to see what would happen next.

      Lara stared with them. When Rustbelt started toward Cesar, Lara gestured for him to stay back and he stopped.

      Across the room, the security guards returned with the Amazing Bubbles, her platinum hair distinctive in the press of the crowd.

      Jade Blossom knew she did not have much time before Bubbles stepped up to confront her. She watched Cesar’s expression change from incomprehension to realization, but had no idea what he would do. Suppressing a laugh, Jade Blossom wailed, “Cesar! At least finish our date! Don’t leeeave me!”

      The crowd broke into laughter and hoots of derision at Jade Blossom but encouragement for Cesar.

      “The bitch is hot for ya, Cesar!” One boy’s voice carried over the general din.

      Cesar glanced around at the other kids, astonished.

      Marissa, looking mortified, took a few steps back.

      The two security guards had advanced, but Bubbles was following them slowly, watching Jade Blossom without hurrying. She glanced over to Cesar and Marissa.

      Jade Blossom glared at Cesar, thinking, C’mon, idiot, work with me. “Finish our date, Cesar!”

      “What for?” Cesar asked, with a tentative smile.

      “You’re not leaving me for her, are you?” Jade Blossom wailed in an embarrassing display of overacting.

      This time even Marissa’s hard facial features seemed amused.

      “You won’t leave me for that joker, will you?” Jade Blossom pleaded.

      “Now wait right there!” Lara edged around Rustbelt and stomped toward Cesar. “Cesar, you just get away from her!”

      “Which her?” Cesar asked, with a hint of humor.

      “Not me!” Jade Blossom whined, fighting down a laugh.

      The other kids guffawed, enjoying the awkward moment.

      Even Bubbles smiled with reluctant amusement.

      Lara swiveled to Marissa. “Back off, you mutant!”

      Cesar stepped in front of his mother.

      Jade Blossom shifted her density to aluminum.

      “Uh, Mom? Go upstairs, okay?” Cesar said.

      “Are you talking back to me?” Lara shrieked. She eyed Marissa, looking over Cesar’s shoulder. “Get away from him!”

      “It’s about the music,” said Cesar.

      “Don’t you talk to me like that!”

      Just as Lara reached for the front of Cesar’s shirt, Jade Blossom leaned down, grabbed Lara’s petite form below her butt, and hoisted her up on one shoulder. “No!” Jade Blossom shouted, just for the fun of it.

      “You put me down!” Lara yelled.

      Jade Blossom carried Lara, whose short arms and legs were kicking and punching, with her typical long strides, heading out of the ballroom.

      “Don’t worry, Mrs. Chao,” Marissa called playfully. “I’m a lady and a lady doesn’t blow and tell!”

      “Psycho mutant bitch!” Lara yelled, still hanging over Jade Blossom’s shoulder.

      Jade Blossom strode out the front door of the hotel and saw the protesters turning toward her in surprise. Darkness had fallen, but she stopped in the light from the hotel. “Got a present for ya!” She leaned forward, set Lara on her feet, and made a catwalk turn that swirled her gown around her legs. Then she hurried back into the ballroom.

      The room had changed in the moments since she had left. The crowd had parted in the middle, where Bubbles stood flanked by the two security guards. Rustbelt stood behind them with other parents and staff members.

      “Whoa, now, fellas,” said Rusty. He seemed trapped by the close quarters, reluctant to move forward for fear of hurting someone. “Maybe this ain’t such a good idea.”

      Cesar and Marissa, stiff with alarm, remained close to the ruins of the piano. They made a distinctive pair in his too-tight suit and tie and her green dress hanging from her sharp edges and angles.

      Jade Blossom looked from Cesar and Marissa to Bubbles. She knew perfectly well that Bubbles’ ace was far more powerful than her own and decided to enjoy herself while she could.

      In the silence, Rusty clapped one hand to his head, with a loud clang. “Aww, Judas Priest, what now?”

      Jade Blossom spotted Ethan standing with Elaine against one wall. “Give the bill to my studio rep.” She took a catwalk pose with one hand on her hip. “After all, I was forced to be here!”

      “Why are you still here?” Bubbles asked, stepping up face-to-face with Jade Blossom. “Again with the making me sad-like. Except now you’ve really stepped over the line. You know I am going to have to kick your ass in front of all these people. And that’s just embarrassing for both of us. And so much YouTube action is going to ensue. You’re really set on full self-destruct mode, aren’t you?”

      “Maybe I’m just dense.” Jade Blossom smiled at her little joke. “You expect me to care what you say? You’re denser than I am. Come on, bubble-girl, join me. We’ll make it a two-bitch fashion show.”

      “Seriously, you have a problem, Jade Blossom,” Bubbles said. “You can’t bear who you are. I pity you, I really do. No snark at all. Well, for now.”

      That stung. “I don’t need your pity, or you, or anyone else!”

      “If it weren’t for the kids, I’d feel sorry for you.”

      “I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself on my account.” Jade Blossom started raising her density. Yet somewhere inside her, fourteen-year-old Haley Mok desperately ached for someone to like her. Jade Blossom forced away the feeling.

      “Please don’t fight,” said Cesar.

      “Take your girl out of here,” said Jade Blossom. She raised her voice, adding a desperate tone. “You like her better than me, fine! Take her!” She put one hand over her eyes, as though she was on the verge of tears, and winked at Cesar.

      Finally catching a clue, the kid with the slowest 140 IQ that Jade Blossom had ever seen took Marissa’s arm and they walked away through the crowd of kids.

      “Is this really the person you want to be?” Bubbles asked. “For your whole life?”

      “I’m just myself!” Jade Blossom heard her voice waver and hated the moment of showing weakness. Like everyone, she knew her looks would go someday. Sometimes she wondered if she should end the hollowness inside her using a hard, brittle density in a high fall.