Airhead Omnibus by Cabot Meg

Author:Cabot Meg [Cabot Meg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

“JUST KEEP YOUR GAZE STRAIGHT AHEAD, don’t look into the light.”

That’s what Dr. Higgins told me as I sat on the examination table in front of her. She was flashing a beam from a penlight into my eyes. I guess she wanted to see if Nikki’s brain had come loose or something after my huge and embarrassing tumble on the catwalk at the Stark Angel dress rehearsal.

“Honestly,” I told her, doing as she asked and looking straight ahead, “I’m fine.”

“Shhh,” she said. “Don’t talk.”

I’d been assuring everyone that I was fine—except for my wounded dignity (and backside)—but everyone had just shushed me. I guess they all thought no one could take that hard a tumble and not be hurt. Alessandro was the one who’d insisted I be checked out by a medical professional.

And of course, when the Stark security town car stopped and I found myself in the Stark Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery, I wasn’t surprised. I was right back where I’d started. Well, sort of.

“Are you experiencing any double vision?” she wanted to know. Dr. Higgins was all business. Apparently she, and not Dr. Holcombe, who’d been part of the team that performed my brain transplant, was the one on call tonight. “Headache? Nausea?”

“No,” I said. “No, and no. I told you. I just slipped. On this.” I held up the object I’d slipped on, which I’d found a few seconds after I’d sat up. A bunch of feathers, wadded together and tossed onto the runway. They’d clearly been ripped from a set of Stark Angel wings.

It wasn’t hard to guess who they’d belonged to, either. The last Angel to walk out onto the stage before me, and the one who had a particular grudge against me: Veronica.

The first face I’d seen hovering above mine after I’d landed was Gabriel’s, his blue eyes filled with concern. Gabriel Luna’s blue eyes, I’d noted. Not the eyes I’d been fantasizing about seeing, Christopher Maloney’s.

“Nikki? Are you all right?” Gabriel had wanted to know, putting an arm around me—as best he could with the tangle of wings behind me.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I’d assured him. “I just slipped on something—there was something on the runway…”

And I’d looked to make sure I was right, and there it was. Thank God. It wasn’t just me and my utter inability to be fierce in six-inch heels.

I’d made out like it must have been an accident. Alessandro’s face had darkened when he saw what Gabriel was holding up—because he’d seized the clump of feathers from me, and turned to face the director with indignation. That’s when Alessandro began to swear in a steady stream, primarily at the costume mistresses, for not gluing the feathers down hard enough.

I hadn’t corrected him. I don’t know why. I knew Veronica had done it, and on purpose—You better watch your back. More like right in front of you—but I’d had other important things to worry about.

Like the fact that I’d known I was going to end up here, at the institute.

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