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was supposed to be
    27
    Shannon Hale
    a joke. But speaking those words made me feel them, believe
    them. I missed him, as if he were Luther or my family, someone
    I cared for who was far away.
    He held my gaze, and his smile tipped up, full of sugges-
    tion. He said quietly, “I miss you too.”
    When faced with danger, our bodies experience the Pri-
    mary Threat Response. Muscles contract, ready for flight or
    fight. Blood drains from extremities, making feet and hands feel
    cold, and from less-essential systems like the stomach, causing
    that butterflies sensation. The blood swarms into the head and
    organs, creating heat (and sweat). Heart pumps faster, blood
    pressure rises, and breathing turns rapid. All this to prepare the
    body for possible injury.
    But there was no saber-toothed tiger, crouched and hissing.
    Just Wilder, smiling. I tried to smile back as if my heart weren’t
    thumping and my breaths weren’t shallow gasps.
    Had he noticed that I watched him in the cafeteria? Had
    he guessed that I reread his file? That some nights when I closed
    my eyes, I saw his?
    I’d thought I wanted to live free of my mundane little cage,
    but the world outside was feeling more and more hazardous.
    “Why did you keep my folder?” I asked.
    “Because I noticed you, Peligrosa . And I liked it.”
    Actually my nickname is la Peligrosa , or “Danger Girl.”
    Peligrosa just means “dangerous.” But I didn’t correct him.
    I left Wilder to go kick some butt in our fireteam’s fourth
    mission.
    “Cry havoc!” Jacques shouted as we charged into a room
    featuring a model spacecraft. I got to wear a harness that simu-
    lated the weightlessness of space and pretend-fix a satellite.
    28
    Dangerous
    After that was aerospace engineering and the day wrapped
    up with medical exams. The doctors put us through the same
    physicals and brain scans and so on that they did on actual as-
    tronauts.
    Only late that night in bed, when it was so quiet my
    thoughts were louder than my breathing, did I allow my mind
    to return to Wilder.
    1. He kept my folder.
    2. He remembered my nickname (more or less).
    3. He noticed me.
    I wanted to list these things, examine them under a mi-
    croscope, order them into their proper family, genus, and spe-
    cies. Understand them. Were Wilder and I friends? Did I have
    a crush? Did he?
    I rejected the temptation to daydream about Wilder, and
    so I was completely unprepared.
    29
    C h a p t e r 5
    The night before Howell would announce the winning
    fireteam, I was lying in bed awake when our dorm door opened
    and a paper airplane flew through the crack. “Maisie Dan-
    ger Brown” was written across the top in thick black marker. I
    picked it off of the floor and unfolded it.
    Peligrosa,
    I hear there’s a comet tonight. Come out and play?
    W.
    Curse the curiosity of the scientific mind, but I went out.
    In the hall, Wilder was reading notices on a bulletin board,
    his hands in his pockets. When I examined him objectively, he
    didn’t have the kind of face you’d see on a magazine cover, yet
    his confidence made him seem especially attractive. I told my-
    self I was unaffected.
    “You rang?” I said.
    He turned, taking in my T-shirt and sweats. He’d changed
    into jeans and a gray shirt. It was nice not to be glaring orange
    at each other.
    “What good is a comet overhead when no one admires it?”
    He inclined his head upward toward the roof.
    I’d been complaining about missing the comet earlier to
    Mi-sun, but I shook my head. “If we’re caught, they might send
    us home early.”
    “They’re not going to kick out a sweepstakes winner. Bad
    publicity. That’s why I want you with me, Danger Girl.”
    Dangerous
    “I don’t know if your logic is sound,” I said, though I took
    two steps toward him.
    When I was twelve, Dad had showed me scans and charts,
    proof that a teenager’s brain is underdeveloped. We’re missing
    connections and parts adults have that help them analyze situa-
    tions