58
; It was cold out tonight, but the new Max didn’t even feel it. She edged back on her branch, pressing her spine against the rough bark of the tree trunk. The binoculars were heavy on their cord around her neck. Drawing her knees up, she hugged herself, feeling a warm tear escape her eye and roll down her cheek. She was watching the other Max all the time, watching and learning. But it was hard. It was painful.
“Oh, Max,” she whispered, seeing the other Max far away, through the window of Anne’s house. “I know just how you feel. You and I are always alone, no matter how many other people are around.”
59
At school the next morning, we were greeted by the sight of several large tour buses taking up practically the whole parking lot. I saw my new friend J.J., and she waved and came over to me as the rest of the flock melted into the crowd.
“This is a special treat,” J.J. said cheerfully. “A field trip.”
“Field trip?” I pictured us all out in the fields, tracking something.
“Yep, field trip. The whole school is off to the White House, home of our beloved leader. Which means no classes, no lectures, and probably no homework.”
I smiled at J.J. I liked her style. She wasn’t all stuck-up and stiff. Didn’t take things too seriously. Like, well, I did, for instance.
“All righty, then,” I said. “Field trip it is.”
“Our class is over here,” a girl’s voice said.
Iggy frowned. He was concentrating on sounds, listening for the scrape of Fang’s boot against the pavement. One second he’d been there, and the next, Iggy had been surrounded by a sea of voices he couldn’t sort through.
A hand gently touched his arm. “Our class is over here,” the voice said again, and he recognized it. This girl sat eight feet away from him, due northeast, in their classroom.
Iggy was embarrassed, standing there like a blind idiot, not knowing where to go.
“Our teacher changed direction on us with no warning,” the girl explained. He remembered her name was Tess.
“Oh,” Iggy muttered. He moved where she was subtly tugging him. “Thanks.”
“No prob,” Tess said easily. “You know, I was so relieved when they put you in our class. Now I won’t stick out so much.”
Because you’re a blind mutant freak? Iggy thought, confused.
“You know, tall for my age, like you. People always say, Oh, be glad about it—you can be a basketball player, or a model or something. But when you’re fourteen, a girl, and five ten, the whole thing pretty much sucks,” she finished. “But now I’m not alone. We match.”
Iggy laughed, and then he heard Fang’s step, felt Fang barely brush against his jacket, telling him where he was.
“Tess?” the teacher called.
“Got to go—room leader and all,” said Tess. “I’ll find you later, when we’re walking around, okay?”
“Okay,” said Iggy, feeling dazed. He heard Tess’s light step hurry away. What had just happened? He felt like he’d been hit by a truck.
“You’re slayin’ ’em, big guy,” said Fang.
“Of course, there’s far too much to see and do in Washington DC for us to cover everything today,” said one of the teachers, standing at the front of the bus. She raised her voice to be heard over the engine. “This morning we’ll tour the Capitol and see where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet. Then we’ll spend half an hour at the Vietnam Memorial, the Wall. After lunch, we’ll go to the White House.”
Angel’s seat buddy, Caralyn, oohed and looked excited.
“I can’t wait to see the White House,” Angel said, and Caralyn nodded.
“I wish we were going to the Museum of Natural History,” Caralyn said. “Have you been there?”
“Uh-uh.”