by Jamie Ayres
Punching his shoulder, I shouted, “Nate! Remember what Dr. Judy said? Don’t tempt the demons like that.”
“Fine, fine.”
I stared at him, not in the least bit amused but unable to stay upset with him for even a second.
“Well, I should go to my own room for the remainder of the evening or the party timeline will move up considerably.” He shifted his body off the bed and gathered his things, pausing at the door. “I don’t know if I’ve told you lately, but I love you.”
Closing my eyes so he wouldn’t see the tears forming again, I nodded yes.
“Even so, I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I muttered, and I opened my eyes just in time to see him walking through my wall—something I didn’t think I’d ever get used to.
I glanced at the clock on my desk. 11:58 p.m. Earth time. A week ago, we were entering Dr. Judy’s office for the last time as her patients; now we were her interns.
Time didn’t matter, since I didn’t need sleep anymore. I still doubted my qualifications for my new position, but the good news was pulling an all-nighter to prepare would be a piece of cake now. I opened up the folder labeled ‘Role Playing’ on the tab and studied the character I needed to portray for Grace’s limbo. We got to keep our same names, same personalities. The alternative timeline would take place in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and I wondered if that’s where Dr. Judy made her home on Earth or if her family had since moved. At nine years old, I had visited Ashville with my parents on vacation, and I thought Black Mountain was nearby. The town certainly sounded familiar. I skimmed over some notes on the area, but this induced boredom after five minutes. Then my gaze landed on the cover story for Nate and me, my eyes bugging when I read the part about us pretending to be twin siblings.
What the heck?
The typed document stated that since the community was a small town with only about two thousand people, two teenagers from different families moving there at the same time would seem too contrived. We needed to work together though, so pretending to be siblings equaled the best solution.
Based on our recent make out session, I wished some acting classes had been part of our spirit guide training. No way would I be able to pull off this one.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
—Oscar Wilde
ate and I headed through the nearly empty hallway of Charles D. Owen High School together, bags over our shoulders, inhaling the scent of bleach, pine sol, and fresh paint. My shoes made quick scuffs on the tile as we found our way to the classroom using a map Ash had given us. I hadn’t felt terror like this since Conner died. Today, just like that fateful day on the sailboat last April, someone’s life was in my hands. More than life actually, her very soul! And just as no amount of boating safety classes could’ve prepared me for that lightning strike, no amount of spirit guide sessions with Ruth could’ve truly prepared me for what lay ahead.
But turning back now wasn’t an option, so I rubbed my arms to get rid of the goose bumps and plowed ahead.
Grace was registered for two classes this summer: Algebra II and Biology. Nate and I enrolled in both with her, although we posed as incoming seniors wanting to get used to our new school before the fall semester started. At least playing a goody-goody was right up my alley.
The atmosphere in 13-A was a hive of activity, sounding like a frenzied mob at Discount Mart at the stroke of midnight on Black Friday. Students swooped in with traveling coffee mugs in hand, their phones buzzing with early morning text messages as the teacher shouted at them to put their stuff away. I slid into an old fashioned school desk and hung my backpack on the chair. Nate and I both sat next to each other in the back row to keep an eye out for Grace. As the teacher reached my seat, I took the syllabus with cold fingers, wishing I’d spent every moment studying for my real assignment instead of making out with Nate. The late bell blared, and still Grace didn’t show. I listened to the teacher give announcements and watched Nate gaze out the window, a look of concern on his face. Quietly, I tore a piece of paper from my composition book and scrawled, ‘What do we do now?’
I handed him the note when the teacher turned his back to write something on the whiteboard, the steady clicking of the wall clock making me anxious.
Nate read my note, then nodded out the window, and I saw her. Grace perched on the edge of a bench in the courtyard, wearing an oversized T-shirt and sweatpants, despite the heat. Her complexion was pale and not in a flattering way. Some sunlight would do her good, but if she cared at all about her future, she’d be in class right now.
I knew from reading about role playing that because all of this existed just for Grace, we could simply get up and walk out of class without even so much as a hall pass, so Nate held the door open for me, and we left. We found Grace flipping through a trashy magazine, tears streaming down her face.
“Is everything all right?” Nate asked when we approached her.
She jumped like a scared cat, then looked at us for a long moment. Her hazel eyes held golden flecks that were mesmerizing to look at. Finally, she broke down in sobs, cradling the magazine to her chest with her sickly pale arms. If we looked up emotional wreck in the dictionary, Grace’s picture would be next to the definition. At least I had managed to keep myself mostly together during my Limbo state. I struggled, but nothing like this. The only thing that wasn’t completely wrecked was her shiny, chestnut colored hair. Even in a messy bun, I could tell she had very long locks. As I sat there staring, no supernatural ideas on what to do flooded my mind, but of course Nate looked as calm as all get out. He dropped down on the bench next to her and hugged her as she continued to quake.
After a moment, she tried to regain her composure, but putting her mind at ease proved a losing battle. I tried to recall something, anything, from the Angel Code of Conduct to help her, but I came up empty again. Out of options, I simply handed her a tissue from the pack I kept in my bag.
“I’m not… usually… like this.” She blew her nose a few times.
I handed her another Kleenex. “It’s okay. What happened? I mean, you don’t have to tell us, but we’re here if you feel like talking.”
She shook her head slowly, sadly. “I wanted Red Velvet Cake.”
Nate raised his eyebrows at me.
I cleared my throat. “Um, wanted Red Velvet Cake for what?”
“For my eighteenth birthday last Friday. Mom used to make that cake every year for my birthday. It’s the little things I miss most about her, and my homemade birthday cake is one of them.”
I paused, clasping my hands behind my back, thinking about what to say. “So your mom is…?”
“Deceased,” Grace finished for me. Of course, I knew this, but she didn’t know we knew.
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Nate said, patting her back lightly. “When did she pass?”
“Three years ago. She was a drunk. One night, on my fifteenth birthday, she drank too much and never woke up again and—” she broke off, turning her face away.
“And what?” I asked, wanting desperately to know what her next thought was, still reeling from the knowledge that Dr. Judy used to be an alcoholic.
But the momentary heart-to-heart between all of us snapped.
Fast as a cougar-strike, Grace jumped up. “What do you care? Who are you anyway?”
“Who am I?” I asked, trying to search for an answer, because I didn’t quite know anymore. “I’m a girl, like you, who suffered loss. But when I didn’t think I could get out of bed one more day, I had friends, and my b-brother, to help me.” I stumbled on the brother part when looking at Nate, almost calling him my boyfriend. “And it looks like you could use some friends now.”
Grace didn’t respond. She picked a leaf off a nearby Red Oak tree and shredded it to pieces.
“You want to get out of here?” Usually, I didn’t think skipping school was a good idea. I’d gotten the perfect attendance award every year until Conner died. But tod
ay, ditching classes seemed like the right plan.
“And go where?” Her gaze bounced from me to Nate to the surrounding area. “This is Black Mountain. You drive five miles and you end up right where you started. Not exactly a lot to do here. Besides, I don’t even know you.”
She stood, digging in her purse, looking for something. I assumed she searched for her keys, anxious to get away from me.
“All the more reason we should hang out today. My brother and I are new in town. We could use a friend as much as you.”
Grace backed up a step. “I never said I needed a friend. I said I needed cake.”
“You know, I saw a shop called Hey Hey Cupcake on the way to school. We should go there and get you a red velvet cupcake.” Even I could hear the desperation in my voice, but I crossed my fingers, hoping she’d say yes.
She smiled. “They do have really good cupcakes.” Finally, she found her car keys in one of the front pockets of her purse. “But I’m driving. Dad would kill me if he knew I got into a stranger’s car. Besides, you scare me.”
I nodded. Technically, the license I’d obtained a few months ago didn’t count since the test happened during my Limbo timeline, and Nate had never gotten his back after the accident either. And I didn’t blame her for being scared of me. Truth was, I think I would’ve bolted by now. Grace had no reason to trust us. Not yet anyway.
We headed to the parking lot together. No campus security stopped us from leaving, not that I was surprised. None of this was real.
As she drove down the highway, All Apologies by Nirvana blared from her stereo.
“Wow, George Lucas called. He wants his sound system back.”
“Excuse me?”
“Olga is a huge Star Wars geek,” Nate informed her from the back seat. “I’ll apologize now for all her references.”
I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him like a good sister would. “I just meant you have a really nice stereo for an older car.”
“The stereo is a recent upgrade, a birthday present from my dad. Music is the only thing I care about these days.”
“Well, here’s a fun twist for your viewing pleasure.” Nate leaned forward, resting a forearm on each of our headrests. “I was the lead vocalist and guitarist for an indie rock band when we lived in Michigan.”
Grace raised an eyebrow. “You don’t say? What was the name of your band?”
“Cantankerous Monkey Squad.”
She snorted. “That’s a pretty ridiculous name.”
“That was Conner for ya.” My stomach clenched painfully at my unexpected use of his name. I tried to hide my pain, but Grace didn’t seem to miss much.
“Ex-boyfriend?”
I nodded in agreement because she was a stranger who didn’t know any better and because the idea of Conner as my boyfriend made the pain go away a little bit. Then, I remembered Nate. He had slumped back down in his seat.
After a few seconds of silence, except for Kurt Cobain’s lyrics about screwing everything up, I couldn’t take the heavy anymore. “This song is kind of depressing. Do you mind changing it?”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Fine. Here, take the wheel.”
“What? I can’t take the wheel! That’s the first rule Mom told me when she taught me how to drive. The driver always keeps both hands on the wheel. Two and ten o’clock.”
“Well, my mom wasn’t around to teach me how to drive. Taking my hands off the wheel now.”
I shrieked as she let go and then opened her center console. “I know I have the new Coldplay CD in here somewhere. Is that upbeat enough for our seven minute drive?”
Trying to keep my hand steady, I gave a tight nod.
“You look terrified. Are you always this high-strung?”
Was Grace teasing me already? Maybe this was a good sign. Friends tease each other.
“You know, the rule isn’t two and ten o’clock anymore.” Nate’s voice was carefree again, apparently over my Conner comment.
“What?”
“My Driver’s Ed instructor told me they changed the hands thing to nine and three o’clock after the invention of the air bag.”
“Good job, Mr. Know-It-All. You want a prize?”
“Hey, I just didn’t want you giving our own kids the wrong information one day.”
Grace, having already loaded the Coldplay disc, took the wheel back, but abruptly jerked it to the side at Nate’s comment. “I thought you guys were brother and sister?”
I gave Nate an incredulous stare.
“Um, we are. I didn’t mean kids we’d have together… just the kids we’ll have one day with our spouses.”
Grace nodded, seeming to buy the cover up. “Right. I’m never having kids.”
“Why not?” I asked, although I already felt certain of her answer.
“Well, first of all, every child deserves a grandma to spoil them, and mine won’t have one. You know what? Bump all of that, every child deserves a mother to love them. I can’t even love myself.”
I tried to search for some wisdom I’d read in my eighteen years of life to help her, but I came up empty.
“It’s not who you are that holds you back.” Nate’s words startled me out of my thoughts, making me jump a little. “It’s who you think you are not.”
Grace laughed as she pulled up to the cupcake shop and parked. “Who are you? Some modern day Confucius or something?”
Now I laughed. “You have no idea.”
“It’s from the last book I read, Seeds of Greatness by Denis Waitley. I can loan it to you if you want. The book is full of good stuff, if you don’t mind all my highlights and notes in the margins. I’ve probably read the book forty times by now.”
This roused a low chuckle from Grace. “Okay, sure.” She turned her attention toward me as we strode through the front doors while two blonde haired ladies greeted us from behind the counter. “Do you like cupcakes?”
“Are you kidding?” Nate gasped. “Olga lives on sugar. She tried to convince her boss at the bookstore where she worked in Grand Haven to pay her in candy instead of cash.”
I shoved him sideways. “I did not! Although, that’s actually not a bad idea.”
“What can I get for you?” the lady asked, peering at us over the bakery case.
“The biggest red velvet cupcake for my friend the birthday girl here, and I’ll have… Mmm,” I murmured, viewing the display. “What’s the 24-karat cake?”
“Five pounds of carrots and cinnamon frosted with cream cheese, no nuts and no raisins. Would you like me to cut you a slice?”
“Sounds just novel enough to be fabulous! Make sure you cut the slice big enough that it could count for my daily serving of vegetables.”
Nate elbowed Grace. “See what I mean?”
I batted my eyelashes at him. “Can you pretty please get the Black Mountain Cup-uccino cupcake so I can try some?”
“She means eat most of it,” he told the lady. “But go ahead and box one of those up, and a Bonita Margarita, too.”
“Will this be for here or to go?”
“To go, please.”
“Where are we going?” Grace and I both asked at the same time.
“Jinx!” she called. “You owe me a coke.”
“Will you settle for me buying our cupcakes?”
“That’ll work too.” Grace smiled warmly, and I could see the Dr. Judy in her. Then, she turned back to Nate. “So, where am I taking us next?”
He shrugged. “You tell me. I’m new here and despite the smallness of Black Mountain, you have to admit the town is beautiful. There has to be at least one cool place where we can go hang for a while.”
Grace slowly flipped through a catering menu, stroking the glossy pages as if lost in thought. “Robert Lake Park at Montreat College is nearby. Mom and I used to picnic there all the time.”
“Is the park free?” Nate asked, emptying his wallet since he wouldn’t let me pay for the cupcakes. With the added three coffees he’d ordered, the twe
nty bucks he’d found stuffed inside his spirit guide back pack last night was almost gone.
I still had my twenty, so I waved the bill in front of his face, but he shooed my money away.
Grace cocked her head to the side.
Oops. We’d have to get better about not flirting with each other in front of her, or she may think this was turning into a Star Wars flick. Luke and Leia kissing still made me want to puke in my mouth every time I watched that scene.
“All the parks are free around here,” Grace said in a quiet voice. “And Montreat is actually open past seven.”
“Bonus,” said Nate, holding the door open for us as we said our thanks to the cupcake ladies. “We can go wild and crazy then.”
Another seven minute drive was all it took for us to reach our next destination. The wilderness of the park was breathtaking. Winding paths circled narrow streams all around us. Perfectly crooked branches sprouted from regal trees taller than I’d ever seen before. I lifted my face, letting the sunlight dance across my skin through the shadows. Bees hummed in and out of the flowering plants and a pair of pigeons greedily fought over some seed hanging in a birdfeeder. I inhaled the minty smell of shrubbery while following Grace, smiling at the sound of my feet sliding through the leaves. She led us to the top of some rocks above one of the shallow rocky mountain streams winding throughout the park. On our way up, she tripped among the bundles of craggy roots, but luckily, Nate caught her before she fell. I shoved the curly hair out of my eyes, ignoring a pang of unnecessary jealousy. Still, I mentally checked out her style as if she was potential competition. She had an edge to her. Her black sweatpants were paired with a loose gray T-shirt that, interestingly enough, had a white lightning bolt down the middle of it. The leopard print Converse sneakers looked brand new, not broken in enough for hiking up hills.
Once we completed the trek, we dipped our feet into the cool water while munching on our cupcakes and chatting amicably. “So, what brings you two to summer school?” Grace asked, balling up her cupcake wrapper and stuffing the trash inside her empty coffee cup.