Page 94 of By the Orchid and the Owl
Lander was looking at me as if he were constipated.
“There. Oh, no. It’s more maroon, isn’t it?”
I grabbed one of my curls and brought it up in front of my face. Indeed, it was now the color of some kind of ripe berry, glistening as if it had never been blonde.
“Shouldn’t this be easier for you?” I asked unashamedly. “I mean, you can change your own appearance, and you can turn a kettle into flowers.”
“I actually changed the flowers into a kettle and then back into flowers,” Lander said, his face contorting again as he focused on my hair. “But that’s beside the point, I guess. Changing another living human’s appearance is harder than changing yourself or an inanimate object—or plants,” he added quickly when I opened my mouth to argue that last point.
I closed it again. From the corner of my eye, I could see my hair was orange now. I planted my hands on my hips and surveyed him fully.
“You said you’ve been avoiding me because I’ve been with Emelle. Why?” I felt the frustration bubble up in my chest. “Why don’t you want to talk to Emelle, Lander? Are you with Quinn again?”
“What? No!” The instructor up front called out another color, and Lander went to work trying to get each of my strands to morph into purple. “Quinn basically wanted to explain why I’d never been a good boyfriend. I think she was looking for some grand apology where I’d be groveling on my knees begging for her forgiveness, but I told her to screw right off. Then I went to find Emelle afterward, but she had some other guy’s tongue in her mouth. AndthenI found the orchids I gave her just smashed on the ground, so I figured—”
“Oh, no.” I clapped a hand to my mouth. “Land, that wasme. Melle was so upset about how you just disappeared with Quinn that she handed me the orchids, and I threw them overboard because you were both gone and they weredead.”
Lander’s face became pinched.
“What? Of course the orchids were dead. I picked them.” Understanding dawned on his face right after he said that, though. “Oh… oh, like you heard them take their dying breath… in your hands?”
“Yes.” Although, come to think of it, maybe I should have buried them.
“By the feather and the fang, that’s morbid,” Lander muttered. “Next time I’ll get her a potted plant.”
“There won’t be a next time if you refuse to talk things through, Land. She was only kissing that guy because she thought you were breaking her heart.”
Not that Emelle had said as much. I was only guessing that part, because apparently neither of my best friends could fathom the concept of communication.
Mean, I chided myself. That was mean. I sighed as I picked up a lock of puke-green hair and let it fall back over my shoulder.
“We’ve just missed you, Lander.”
“Well, I’ve missed you, too.” His face had fallen into serious contemplation. “And I’m sorry. I guess I just… oh, I don’t know.”
No. I decided I’d hold him to higher standards than that.
“You don’t knowwhat,Lander?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lander. That. Is. Not. An. Answer.”
He recoiled and frowned at me. “Since when did you get so assertive?”
Since I started exploding with power that could get me killed. Since I found out my mother came from outside this wretched dome and my father stole me from her. Since the moment I felt like something was out there, something bigger, lurking and waiting for me to find it again. As if I’d held something in my hand and let it slip through my fingers like water.
But I didn’t say any of that, of course. I just shrugged.
“Maybe you should try it. Tell me. Tell me what you claim you don’t know.”
As everyone else around us shifted colors, their hair and skin and clothes morphing into magentas and pastels and neon colors so bright, it hurt my eyes, Lander stopped to stare at me, his mouth partway open.
“I don’t know that I’ve got a big crush on Emelle. I don’t know that it scares me because I’m afraid she’ll hurt me like Quinn did. I don’t know that when I saw her kissing another guy, I felt like she was already hurting me before we even began.”
“Now give ‘em an extra finger!” the instructor called from up front, clapping his hands. Lander jolted from his reverie and screwed up his face again.
The next second, a nub sprouted between my index finger and thumb.
