"You sound like my mother," he said, banging on the flippers.
"Well, maybe you should listen to her."
"Why, so she can tell me not to see Luna? Has my mom been talking to you?"
"She doesn't approve?" I asked, curious.
"What do you think?"
"Your mother is right this time. Luna isn't your type. You need a girl with a tiara, not a tattoo."
"But do I really? Luna dresses like you and you've been trying to convince me for years that you are not a mutant. Did you ever think it wasn't your clothes that led people to think you were a freak?"
"So what do you see in her?" I interrogated.
"She's the new girl, beautiful and mysterious. Kind of what you liked in Alexander."
"That's completely different. I like Alexander because he is unlike anyone I've ever met and exactly like me. But Luna isn't your type. She's too goth."
"Just like someone we know…"
"You'd risk your popularity for her?" I whispered with a twinge of jealousy.
I hated to admit it, but deep down I did wonder what Trevor saw in Luna that he didn't see in me.
"Are you kidding? I'll be even more popular for scoring the new goth girl rather than the old one."
It was as if he had just driven a stake into my heart.
"She and Jagger now hang out with me all the time," he continued in my face.
"They watch me at practice and games. I'm more popular than ever—a king of both the insiders and the outsiders."
"I'm telling you, your mother is right this time," I tried to warn.
"Well, was my mother right about Alexander and his family?" he asked, referring to the rampant rumors spread throughout Dullsville that the Sterlings were vampires.
"She thought they were weird just because they were different."
"So did you," I argued.
"She said they were vampires," he continued, hitting the ball again. "Had the whole town believing they were. Especially you."
"You were the one who made up and spread those rumors. But in this case, maybe you should believe it."
"That Luna is a vampire?"
I paused.
The restaurant went quiet.
Trevor let the pinball bounce against the bumpers and drop through the flippers.
Just then I felt someone behind me. I turned around.
Jagger, in a ripped white Bauhaus T-shirt and black jeans, and Luna in a black and pink minidress and pink fishnets, stood before me, glaring. She was beautiful. She looked like a gothic pixie fairy girl, with skinny pale arms dangling black rubber bracelets, her long cotton white hair flowing over her shoulders and bright blue eyes sparkling. Both stood in front of me like they were ready to extract me from the diner.
"What are you doing here?" she charged.
Suddenly, like a gothic Superman, Alexander appeared by my side. As Luna leaned in to me, Alexander bravely stepped between us.
"Good-bye, Monster Girl," Trevor said, taking Luna's hand. "C'mon, Jagger."
Jagger gave Alexander a deathly stare, then followed the odd couple toward the tables where the soccer snobs were eating.
I leaned against the pinball machine as Trevor sat at the head of the table with Luna and Jagger on either side. The soccer snobs inched away as if the Romanian siblings had rabies. The players continued to avoid eye contact and kept the conversation to themselves.
"We have to get to the treehouse," Alexander whispered. "While Jagger and Luna are still here."
Alexander and I quickly returned to our table to find our order had just arrived.
"What was that about?" Matt asked.
"We have to go," I said, grabbing my purse.
"But we just got our food!" my best friend argued.
"Becky and I can't drink four shakes," Matt said.
I glanced back at Trevor. The star player was shining in his spotlight, back from a cold to save the team. A girl on one side, his new friend on the other. It disgusted me.
"We really have to go—," I repeated.
"Just because Trevor and those guys are over there?" Becky asked.
"Yes," I said, "but not for the reason you think. I'll have to explain it later. Trust me."
Alexander placed a twenty and a ten on the table. "Please, it's on me."
"Our lucky night—we can order burgers now," Becky joked.
I laughed and gave my best friend a quick hug.
While all eyes were glued to Dixie as she took Jagger and Luna's order, Alexander and I snuck out of the diner, past Jagger's hearse, and into the Mercedes.
"We better hurry," I said as we bolted through Henry's backyard.