“But enough about me,” says Mom. I see her turn serious. “Serena, Bob and I really think you ought to call at least your dad. Just let him know that you’re safe. If we were your parents, we would want to know. He must be going crazy by now.”
Serena doesn’t look convinced. Her dad must have really hurt her. Not that it isn’t creepy that he’s dating some girl barely older than Serena, but he is still her dad. “You could at least send him an e-mail,” I say.
“I’ll think about it,” she says. Which means no in Serena-speak.
I take Serena with me to meet Cameron at a park (I should say the park, since there’s only one) since we don’t want to be the scary older kids hanging out at the elementary school during the day. Besides which, it’s hard to concentrate when there might be a bunch of kids around anyway.
We get there first and I spread out a blanket for us to sit on while we wait for Cameron.
“So, who is this guy again?” Serena is wearing a big floppy hat (which is definitely not eighties, so I’m not exactly sure what she’s going for there), and I can barely see her eyes.
“He’s another vampire. He looks like he’s our age, but I’m not actually sure how old he is. He’s local, but he’s traveled. He’s not like the other kids around here.”
“Uh-huh. Is he cute?”
“Well …”
“Ah. So he’s that cute. And why didn’t I hear about him before? A little George competition?”
“There’s nothing to tell. He’s just helping me out with some mad vampire skills is all. And I’d be happy to tell George all about him if I could get in touch with him. Apparently, he’s busy with all the Brazilian beach babes or something.”
“No word at all, huh?”
“Nope. Right now I’d be happy with half a word.” Honestly, I think I’ve skimmed right over the worrying part to just being stomping mad at him. Even though I haven’t technically known George for that long, I really didn’t think he’d leave me hanging like this. It’s been months with no word at all. Not a peep. Not even half a peep. Not even an eep. I didn’t even get a text message saying “nice knowing you.” How crappy is that?
“So this hot vampire guy is teaching you some stuff, huh? What kind of stuff?” I swear I think she’s wiggling her eyebrows at me under that hat.
“He’s teaching me some Jedi mind tricks. Like mind-control stuff. I’ve been wanting to use it on this girl at school.”
“Cool. Which one? Have I met her yet?”
“No, but you’ll know her when you see her.” I see Cameron pull up and wave to him. “Now,” I whisper to Serena, “behave.”
“What?” she says, really loudly. “You want me to BEHAVE? Is that what you said?” Gah, she’s such a goober! Where’s a pillow when you need one? I might have to start carrying one now that she’s here. I stand up and pull Serena up with me so she can meet him all properlike. Though, on second thought, maybe we should have stayed sitting. The tutu isn’t quite as obvious that way. But if he’s the kind of guy who freaks out over a little thing like a tutu on my BFF, I really don’t need to be hanging with him anyway. Even if he is the only vampire teenish guy around.
“Hi,” says Cameron when he reaches us. “You brought a friend?” He doesn’t look totally surprised, but I imagine he’s probably already heard a bunch of rumors. Hopefully not the really bad ones. He doesn’t seem to notice the tutu at all. Or at least he’s too polite to stare at it.
“Cameron, this is my best friend Serena. She’s staying with us. She’s going to start the intro class with Ivetta this coming week.”
“Ah,” he says and shakes her hand. Serena goes a little giggly, which means she’s noticed his piercing blue eyes and überfineness. Well, it is hard to miss. I really need to introduce her to some other vampires so she realizes that we’re not all total hotties. Not that I’m a total hottie or anything. But I’m not bad now. Though she has seen Uncle Mortie. It’s easy to forget he’s a vampire though. He’s just crazy weird Uncle Mortie.
“Nice to meet you,” Serena finally manages to say.
“You too,” he says. “You must be the owner of the black VW Bug?”
“The Death Beetle! Yep, that’s me!” She giggles again. Hmmm, I’ll have to ask her later. Maybe I’m not the only one attracted by the whole manly man smell Cameron has going on. Not that I’m attracted. Just, you know, he smells really good.
“Great car. Very classic.” Serena looks like she might fall into a total fit of giggles (or maybe just swoon).
I decide I’d better save her. “So I was telling Serena you’ve been helping me learn how to do mind control. But I mostly suck at it.”
“You know,” he says, looking from me to Serena and back again, “if you’re okay with it, Serena, Mina could use you. It would be great practice for her. No offense, but it’s much easier to control humans than vampires.”
“Sure!” Ha, I think she’d agree to let me perform scientific experiments on her if Cameron asked. Seriously, if that pheromone stuff is a skill you can learn, I so want to learn it. Though I don’t want to smell all manly man. Not really girly girl either, since that conjures up images of puffy pink clouds. Maybe womanly woman? What would that smell like?
Cameron has me sit across from Serena and stare into her eyes. It takes us three tries before we can do it without laughing. I’m sure he thinks we’re total dorks. Okay, so we are total dorks. It works for us.
The fourth time, I stare deep into Serena’s eyes and successfully clear my mind. I find the center (which sounds all new agey, but trust me, it actually isn’t if you’re a vampire … there’s something to it) and concentrate. I open up and say, “Serena, pick up your glass and drink.”
I see Serena’s eyes go kind of unfocused and she actually does it. She picks up her glass and takes a drink. Then she takes another. And another.
“Oops,” says Cameron. “You need to give her more direction or she’ll just keep drinking.”
“Oh!” Good thing I didn’t tell her to do something else. This could be kind of dangerous, couldn’t it? “Serena, stop drinking. Put your glass down.” I look at Cameron. “Um, what now?”
“Well, why don’t you test and see how powerful your hold is? That’s just water, right? Tell her she drank really sour lemonade. Then after your suggestions wear off, ask her if she remembers what she drank.”
I clear my throat and try to keep my mind all centered. It’s a little hard. I admit it. I can be a little flighty sometimes. “Serena, you just drank some really sour lemonade.” She immediately makes a puckered up sour face and a gagging sound. Which of course makes me crack up and I look away for a few seconds. Cameron pokes me and points to Serena, who’s acting like she’s starting to wake up.
“Keep concentrating or she’ll come out of it. Your hold isn’t that strong.”
So I do the whole mind-clearing thing again and try not to think about the sour face. I finally get all centered again and kind of hold Serena in place with my eyes.
“Hey, how long do suggestions hold, anyway?” I ask out of the corner of my mouth. The one he gave Mr. Benoit was definitely long term, though I’m not anywhere near as in control as he was.
“Well, the better you are, the longer they can hold. Since you’re new to this, I’d probably say no more than a day or two for actual commands. The memory, though, should stick around forever. She’ll always think she drank some sour lemonade.” He looks at Serena who is still making a puckered up face, and laughs. “You did pretty well this time. I think you’re starting to get the hang of it.”
“It’s a lot easier on Serena than on you.” I shrug. “So do you think I’m ready for something more challenging? I mean making water into sour lemonade is cool and all, but I don’t see much practical application, if you know what I mean.”
Cameron nods. “Just remember: it matters what kind of suggestion you make. If you try to get someone to do something completely opposite to their nature, they’ll resist you. You migh
t not be ready for that yet. Trying to get them to do something that they’d either normally do or would do without much encouragement is much easier.”
Hmmm. Okay. Serena might hate me for this, but I have to try. It’s for her own good.
“Serena, when we get home, you will use our phone and call your dad. Tell him that you are okay and doing well. Do not tell him who you are with or what you are doing here. Talk to him normally, but don’t give him any identifying information about where you are.” I hope that covers it. Our number is unlisted (as recommended by the VRA), so he shouldn’t be able to trace it in any way. I think that’ll be safe. I hope.
Serena frowns and shakes her head, but her eyes at least remain unfocused. I look at Cameron and he shrugs. “I don’t think it took,” I say. I try it again and get the same reaction.
“She’s definitely resisting it. I don’t think you’ve got a good enough hold.” He leans over and peers into Serena’s unblinking eyes. “Part of the problem might be that it’s harder when a subject knows you’re trying to make them do something. People naturally resist. We can’t help it. It’s in our nature, human or vampire.”
“She’s pretty stubborn normally.” Like a mule, that girl.
Cameron turns back to me. “Do you really want her to make that phone call?”
“I think so, yeah.” Did Serena just flinch? “Hey, she can’t hear our conversation, can she? She won’t remember this part, will she?” I scoot back a little. If she comes out of it right now and knows what we’re talking about, she’s totally going to wallop me.
“No, she’s still under, just resisting. Here, let me show you a trick I picked up.” He nods at me and I move over so he’s sitting right in front of Serena. He leans over and, weirdly enough, I can feel when Serena’s focus switches to his control. Wow, he’s fast.
Then he reaches over and tickles her. She starts squirming and giggling, but then subsides and looks even more unfocused as Cameron continues to look deep in her eyes. And she’s definitely out of it because if she weren’t, she’d be blushing bright red at being so close to him.
“What was that for?” I whisper.
“Distraction. I just needed some kind of outward stimulus to distract the part of her mind that was resisting to get her further under my control.”
He repeats the command to Serena to call her dad, and this time she repeats it back and just sits there. Looks like it took that time.
“Does it have to be a physical distraction?” Dad’s not really all that ticklish and I don’t know if Kacie is or not, but I don’t really have any desire to touch her.
“No, it can be anything really. You just have to divert their focus.” He sits back and smiles at me. “That’s it,” he says. “She’ll come out of it completely in probably about five or ten minutes.”
“After she makes the phone call, she won’t remember why she made it, right?” I hope not. She’d kill me.
“She shouldn’t.”
Good. I do feel a little guilty about it, but I have to say I agree with Mom and Dad on this one. Family is family. Well, her dad is anyway. I can’t imagine how he must be feeling right now. Her mom? Pfffft. She can suffer.
“If she doesn’t mind, you should keep working on her for practice. But don’t overdo it. You don’t want her to wind up with big memory gaps or anything like that. If you mess around too much, it can be bad.”
“Gotcha.”
Hey, I bet this is like what the Vampire Goon Squad does to people. They must just be really, really good at it to wipe out memories. I wonder if this is what Linda is learning how to do now? Scary.
“So …” Cameron says. “I probably shouldn’t ask, but how did the whole Serena situation happen?”
I look at him close. “You won’t tell The Council or anything, right?”
“The Carters aren’t exactly on The Council’s best side.” Hmmm, interesting. Understandable though. I mean, join the club.
“Well, Serena has been my best friend for forever. When The Council back home made me go through the whole class stuff and decide whether or not I wanted to turn, it was driving me crazy not to tell her. So, one day, I kind of caved. She’s known about the whole thing since just a little before I turned.”
“And she’s decided she wants to turn now? She came all the way from California to here to do it?”
“Yeah, her home situation got a little dicey …” I don’t really want to say more than that. It’s really Serena’s business and not anyone else’s.
“I’m assuming she’s not actually a drugged out alcoholic.” He grins at me.
I groan. “Oh, no, you heard all that too, huh? It’s awful.”
“Small towns,” he says. “When I first got back there were rumors that I was the long-lost illegitimate son of the mayor.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you got off pretty easy. The strangest thing I heard about you was that you used to model but had to quit because you weren’t tall enough.”
“Really?” Whoa. That’s actually a flattering rumor. So totally untrue since I think the whole modeling thing is just a really surreal way to live. I mean, how weird would it be to know that there are pictures of you everywhere and guys drooling all over them? Not that I’m all that droolworthy or anything. And never being able to eat. Well, before being a vampire made that a moot point. Hmm. I wonder how many models are vampires? A lot of them are really pale … and a bunch of them live in New York … but I guess it would break the whole no-photo rule. Unless they used shape-shifting before their photo shoots. Huh. That could explain a lot.
“So I guess that’s not true then?” Cameron asks.
I laugh. He’s kidding me, right? “No, definitely not true. But thanks.”
“Could have been true,” he says. “You never know.”
Wow, maybe he really wasn’t kidding. I’ve never been called model quality before. Well, at least not to my face. Once again I’m glad that I can’t blush.
“So, how was the whole family reunion with John and Wayne?” I ask. “Everyone roll out the red carpet? Was the fatted calf trotted out?” We’d heard secondhand from Eugenie that while we were in New Orleans, two handsome strangers had swooped into town and were staying at Lowell’s. From the way Eugenie said his name, I’m guessing Lowell must have tried his drunk-dude tricks on the human side of the population too. And that the Carter brothers were total hotties. She seriously fanned herself.
Cameron drops the smile. “Why, did Dr. Jonas ask?” Whoa. I think the temperature must have just dropped about five degrees from his change in attitude.
Yeesh, I know Dr. Musty is a little annoying. Okay, a lot annoying. I hear something new nearly every day from Dad about his wonderful (read: incredibly nosy) techniques. But still weird. Cameron should know by now that I’m not the kind of person who would spy for Dr. Musty.
“I was just asking. I’m not exactly buddy-buddy with the doc. If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t be stuck in Cartville.”
Cameron shrugs. “I really need to go, actually. I’m supposed to meet Wayne about something.” He gets up to go without any more ado.
“Um, okay. Thanks again for the lesson.” I wind up saying “see you later” to his back.
That was a little weird.
Actually more than a little weird.
Now I’m totally wondering what exactly John and Wayne are trying to hide from the good doctor that’s got Cameron so tied up in knots.
25
Serena doesn’t snap out of it until we’re on the way back to my house. All of a sudden, it’s like the fog has lifted and her eyes come back in focus.
“Hey …,” she says. “Where’d Cameron go? How’d we get here?” She stops walking and looks around. I can see it dawn on her. “Wow, so your mind-control thing really works, huh?” She punches me on the arm. “You better not have made me do anything stupid! You didn’t make me, like, stand on my head or anything, did you?”
I laugh. “No, goober, I just h
ad you get up and dance and sing that old Britney song you like so much.”
“You didn’t!” She stops dead in her tracks. “Not in front of that hot guy! No-o-o-o-o!”
I practically pee my pants laughing, but I finally get out a no that she believes. I would never do that to her. Best friends should never (and I mean never) embarrass each other in front of a guy, even if neither one of them is interested in him. Or in front of a girl either, I guess. Other girls can actually be worse, come to think of it.
We’re still laughing when we get in the house. Mom has disappeared somewhere. (Probably bringing some cookies over to Eugenie. She really has been trying to be neighborly and besides, Eugenie’s better than watching the news.) I watch Serena to see if she’ll actually act on the suggestion Cameron planted or not.
She pauses for a second as we go through the door and then stops. “Mina,” she says, “can I use your phone for a minute?”
“Sure,” I say and get it for her. I hold my breath.
She holds it for a minute and looks at it, then starts dialing. It’s actually going to work.
“Hi, Dad?” Serena’s face looks a little blank, but other than that she looks okay. “Yes, it’s me. I just wanted you to know that I’m okay. Everything’s fine.” She listens for a while as he talks. She’s holding the phone so close to her ear (and it’s a crappy phone provided by the VRA) that I can’t hear what he’s saying other than a word or two that don’t mean anything on their own. Hopefully he’s not reading her the complete riot act. “No, I’m not coming home right now. I’m staying with a friend.” She listens some more. “No, I can’t tell you where.” That kicks off a long tirade on her dad’s side. Serena sighs. “No, I can’t. But yes, I’ll call you again.” Another small pause. “Okay. I love you too.” She hangs up and hands me back the phone.
“That wasn’t too bad, was it?”
“No, I guess not. Hey, do you mind if I use your computer? I want to check my e-mail.”
“Sure, it’s a piece of junk. But my junk is your junk.”
Still Sucks to Be Me: More All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire Page 14