My lip curled.
“So, you guys hear that Coop’s party is back on for Friday night?” James took a swig of his water. “You guys are going, right?”
Heidi continued to build her cracker delights while I tried not to think about how weird it was to have such a normal conversation. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh, so you go and get an older girlfriend, and now you’re too cool for us and our childish high school parties,” teased James.
“Pretty much,” she replied.
I laughed. “At least you’re honest about it.”
“Speaking of being honest—” Zoe’s eyes narrowed. “What in the hell?”
I followed her gaze as James twisted in his seat, spying April and a handful of students. April was marching—legit marching—across the cafeteria, her blond ponytail swinging in a way that made me want to cut my hair. She was holding some kind of poster in her hands and had a handful of minions with her.
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” Zoe said, sighing.
My gaze flew to the table of Luxen, and I tensed. Connor, the dark-haired Luxen who’d been at the club when I went back to get my phone, was the first to notice April. His mouth moved and the rest of the Luxen looked up.
Heidi craned her neck to see over the table behind us as April grabbed a free chair and pulled it across the floor, creating a horrible screeching sound. She planted the chair in the middle of the cafeteria and then stepped up on it with the aid of one of the guy minions.
She held her hands up in the air and flipped her poster over. My mouth dropped open.
In the center of the poster was the typical alien face, the one with the pointy chin and big black eyes. The face was even colored green. Over it was the circle-backslash symbol.
“Holy crap,” muttered James.
A second later her minions lifted their signs. They were all the same.
“Are you kidding me?” I said, lowering my sandwich.
“I wish.” Zoe pressed her lips together
“Listen up, everyone!” April shouted, and it was like a switch was thrown. The cafeteria quieted, because, hello, there was a girl standing on a chair holding a “Just say no to aliens” sign. “We have the right to be safe in our schools and in our homes, and we don’t have that safety. But Colleen wasn’t safe here—not from them! Neither was Amanda!”
My gaze shot to the Luxen table, and I saw that Connor was still but his face was devoid of emotion.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to go to school with us. They’re not human. They’re aliens!” April continued.
“They shouldn’t be here!” shouted one of the guys standing with her. He rattled his sign as if that helped get the point across. “They don’t belong!”
Pink splashed across the face of one of the younger Luxen. She dipped her chin, letting her brown hair fall forward.
April’s eyes gleamed as she shook her arms. “No more Luxen! No more fear! Come on. Say it with me! No more Luxen! No more fear!”
Those with her picked up the chant. Someone behind us stood, yelling the same. I turned in my seat as Heidi cursed. “Where are the teachers? Jesus!”
“No more Luxen! No more fear!” The chants rose from several other tables. Students lumbered to their feet, climbing onto their seats. Their fists pumped the air, reminding me of those dancing at Foretoken.
Not everyone was chanting.
Others stayed quiet, exchanging awkward looks. I shifted toward Zoe. “This is so wrong.”
Zoe lips pursed. “I cannot believe I was ever nice to her.”
“You and me both.” Anxious energy rose from the pit of my stomach. I should do something. We needed do something. I looked away from Heidi’s pale face and shifted toward Zoe. “We need—”
“That’s enough! Everyone, get off the chairs and shut up!” Coach Saunders, the phys ed teacher, stalked down the middle of the cafeteria. “Right now.”
April’s chin jutted out stubbornly. “You can’t stop me. It’s my right to protest. That’s what being a human means.”
James slowly turned around. “I don’t think April knows what the whole right to protest thing means.”
“He can’t stop us,” April told those around her. “Come on! No more Luxen! No more fear! No—”
“Your right to protest doesn’t extend to the middle of cafeteria, Ms. Collins.” Coach Saunders snatched a poster out of a boy’s hand and tossed it aside. “Get down now and, all of you—every single one of you, get to Principle Newman’s office.”
A few of April’s minions stopped right then and there, but April kept shouting her lame chant until a female teacher showed up and practically yanked her right off the chair. That didn’t quiet April down. She was still yelling as she was escorted out of the cafeteria.
“Wow.” James slowly faced us. “Doesn’t she make you feel all warm and fuzzy?”