Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel Read Free Page B

hurling a lightning bolt into the air was supposed to do what – prove her a liar?”
    I didn’t really have a ready response to that, so I just lowered my eyes before softly mumbling, “It wasn’t lightning.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I said it wasn’t lightning. It was just a little electrical discharge.”
    Esper cocked her head to the side. “Really? You’re going to argue semantics with me?”
    “I’m just trying to keep the facts from getting exaggerated.”
    “Regardless, you can’t go around threatening to fry people because they say things you don’t like.”
    “I didn’t threaten anyone.”
    “There was an
implied
threat in what you did.”
    “No, what I did was release frustration so that I wouldn’t
have
to make a threat.”
    “However you characterize it, do you realize that you were about to get into a tussle over a boy?”
    “Jim’s not just some boy,” I rumbled, almost in anger.
    She sighed and put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder. “I know that, honey. So don’t you think that means he’s smart enough to avoid a honey trap like Vestibule?”
    “Not really. He’s kind of an idiot when it comes to women.”
    Esper laughed. “I forgot. He’s never really had a girlfriend before.”
    I snickered softly. “And he may not have one for much longer if wrangling with vamps like Vestibule is part of the deal.”
    Esper laughed again. “You can handle Vestibule – without sending ten thousand volts through her.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed, “but it sure would be a lot more fun.”
    Apparently convinced that I wasn’t likely to turn anyone into a human light bulb, Esper changed the subject, but stuck to a somewhat somber topic: proper car of my car.
    Basically, if I was going to be driving, she wanted me to understand that there was more to automobile maintenance than just putting gas in the tank. Therefore, she’d had me practically memorize the entire owner’s manual, and had started quizzing me on it about once per week. As a result, I could now quote the manufacturer’s recommended interval for having the oil changed, having a radiator flush-and-fill, and so on. And just to make sure I was taking ownership seriously, I even had to pay my own insurance. (Thankfully, I have a trust fund that I’m allowed to dip into for that purpose.)
    “In case you forgot,” I said, as Esper finished testing my knowledge on getting tune-ups, “they made us take auto mechanics during the previous school year at the Academy.” (Apparently it looks shabby when a cape’s super-duper-mobile breaks down and he has to call a tow truck because he doesn’t know anything about what’s under the hood.)
    “I haven’t forgotten,” she replied. “How can I, when you remind me every week when we have this discussion?”
    “Which begs the question of why we have to do this in the first place. I mean, I aced the class, and I’ve passed all of your little pop quizzes. Can’t we call a truce or something?”
    She seemed to ponder this for a moment. “Alright, how about this: a moratorium on any further examination by me – unless and until the car breaks down.”
    I frowned, thinking. “I’d say that the quizzing should only resume if the breakdown is the result of driver neglect rather than ordinary wear and tear.”
    One corner of Esper’s mouth slid up into a smile. “Deal,” she said, and we shook on it.
    Afterwards – since it appeared that we were both going to be in for the evening – we decided to watch a movie. Esper had been on call quite a bit recently, so it was nice to have her home for a minute and be able to hang out. (Like me, Esper didn’t have any relatives – at least none that I knew of – so we both enjoyed the occasions when we got to spend “family time” together.)
    As to the movie, we both have a thing for bad horror films. Atrocious acting, horrible special effects, rubber-suited monsters… The worse they are, the more we like them – mostly so we can laugh at how