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“But wait a second,” says Jack, the Lev-ish kid. “Why would he let himself be taken without turning the rest of you in too? I mean, you guys are a big catch—he could probably cut himself a deal or something.”
Grace grins way too broadly, and Connor knows what she’s about to say. Now he wishes she’d never started this story.
“Because,” says Grace, “Camus Comprix is in love with Risa!”
She lets her words hang in the air. Connor reflexively glances to Risa, but she won’t meet his eye.
“But I don’t get it,” says another kid. “That whole media thing about them being a couple was fake, I thought.”
Grace’s grin doesn’t slip an inch. “Not to Cam . . .”
It’s Risa who finally puts an end to it. “Grace, enough. Okay?”
Grace deflates a bit, realizing that her moment in the spotlight is over. “Anyway,” she says, without any of her previous dramatic flair, “that’s what happened. Cam got caught, and we didn’t.”
“Wow,” says Jack, “who’d have thought the rewind would be some sort of hero?”
“Hero?”
They all turn to see Beau, who was elsewhere in the basement, pretending not to listen, but apparently he had. “How many dozens of kids like us did it take to make one of him? There’s nothing ‘heroic’ about him.”
And Connor can’t help but say, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
Beau gives Connor a nod, finally finding himself and the Akron AWOL on common ground.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING IS A PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT
DON’T BE FOOLED BY MEASURE F!
Supporters of the so-called Prevention Initiative claim that it’s all about the protection of at-risk children—but read the fine print! Measure F allows the Juvenile Authority to identify and track incorrigible children for the purpose of unwinding them as soon as they turn thirteen—which will be legal once the Parental Override bill becomes law.
Measure G, on the other hand, funds the Juvenile Authority by giving cash incentives for the capture of AWOLs—who have already proven themselves to be menaces to society.
No on F! Yes on G! Make the sensible choice!
Paid for by the Alliance for an AWOL-Free Nation
* * *
Later that evening, as everyone settles in for the night, Connor lays his bedroll next to Risa’s in the same semiprivate nook where Risa slept their first time here. It’s away from the other kids, and Connor shifts a tall bookcase to make it even more private. Risa watches him create their secluded nest, and doesn’t bat an eye. Connor takes a deep breath of anticipation. This could well be the night where the stars of their relationship finally align. He’s certainly imagined it long enough. He wonders if she has too. Connor tentatively lies down beside her. “Just like old times,” he says.
“Yes, but the last time we were here, we were only pretending to be a couple to keep Roland’s hands off of me.”
He reaches out then, gently caressing her cheek with Roland’s fingers. “And yet his hand is still all over you.”
“Not all over,” she says playfully. Then she rolls away, but grabs the offending arm as she does, wrapping it around herself like a blanket, and pulling them into a tight spoon position, his chest to her back. The moment is electric, and they both know that anything is possible between them now. There’s nothing to hold them back. Except this:
“I can’t stop thinking about Cam,” Risa says. “The way he sacrificed himself for us.”
Connor’s grafted arm pulls her tighter. He wishes it could be his own arm, but he’s facing the wrong way for that. “Cam is the last thing on my mind.”
“But after what he did for us, I feel like we need to . . . honor him somehow.”
“I am,” Connor says, smirking, although she can’t see. “In fact, I’m saluting him right now—can’t you tell?”
“Ha-ha.”
