Natural Selection Read Free Page B

sounding shy.
    “Why maybe?” I softened my tone. “I thought you were totally into him.”
    “I am, but…” Anxiety twisted through her voice. I scooted a little closer. Her hair still smelled like strawberries. “I don’t want to get my hopes up,” she whispered.
    I suddenly felt sorry for her. “Oh, Morgan. Why don’t you just ask him out?”
    She tensed up. “I can’t do that.”
    “Why not?” I asked, and felt her recoil from me slightly.
    “Girls don’t do that. And besides, what if he doesn’t really like me that way? What if he just wanted to make out with me and—and…” She trailed off, but I knew what she was afraid of.
What if he just wanted to make out with her for the hell of it?
    “Then he’s a jerk,” I said.
    She sighed. I wanted to comfort her, but I was afraid to touch her. “He’s not a jerk,” she objected.
    “Then ask him out,” I said, meaning it for the first time. Maybe if she did it, and he said no, she’d finally get over him. “And girls can do whatever they want.”
    She didn’t say anything for a second, just lay there a couple of inches away from me, breathing. “I’ll think about it,” she said finally. “Not everybody’s as confident as you, you know.”
    It was a weird, backhanded compliment—a cross between flattery and accusation—and I didn’t know what to say.
Thanks
? Or maybe:
I’m sorry. I’m sorry you don’t see yourself as the girl I see, a girl who deserves someone way better than Zach Montgomery.
    “I’m gonna go,” Morgan whispered. “Before they catch me.”
    She slithered out of my tent, leaving me lying there on my side, facing the empty space where she had been a moment before.

7
Kurra
    The trail to the temple is steep but smooth, with rounded rocks marking the edge. It’s old and well maintained, reminding me that the Imria of Isi Na have been walking this ritual path for millennia. Tiny lights mark the edges of the trail. They’re attached to slender stalks planted in the ground about every ten feet, making it look as if Christmas lights have been strung up the mountainside.
    Christmas. It’s jarring to think about that human holiday here, so far away from their God, their religions. I take a deep breath of night air and smell the spicy scent of the conifer trees around us, mingled with the fragrance of night-blooming
inda
. Isi Na is famous for
inda
perfume; Ama even brings it back to Earth with her in a little glass bottle, and every time I smell it I think of this place.
    Nasha walks a few feet ahead of me. She stops as the trail makes a sharp right turn and says, “Look.” She points to the left, where the shoulders of the mountain part to reveal a distant view of the ocean. Something sparkles down there. It must be the lights of the nearest floating city, Sakai’uru. Above us, the stars glitter like a city in the sky. The pattern of them sometimes still surprises me. I can’t see the Big Dipper here, or Orion’s Belt. I’m in a totally different part of the universe, and all of a sudden I miss Earth with a deep, startling ache.
    “Are you all right?” Nasha asks, taking a step toward me.
    I guess it showed on my face. Ama says I have to be careful about letting my feelings show so much, at least back on Earth, where I’m supposed to be keeping a lot of secrets. “I just miss Earth,” I tell her.
    She doesn’t respond, and I wonder what she’s thinking. Does she even believe me? Or does she think I’m saying it to show how special I am?
Earthsider.
I’m a little disappointed by her silence. I guess I hoped Nasha would be different tonight. That she would be friendlier.
    We continue up the trail. In the distance the moon rises. It’s a little bigger than Earth’s moon and sheds a bit more light. Soon the mountainside will turn silver. About two-thirds of the way up we come to an overlook that gives us another view of the ocean. Up here the wind is cool and the air is thin, and I pull my hood over my head