The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5

by Stacy Claflin

  "So you said you need to study?" I asked. "I really need to read this book."

  "Right. Sorry." He pulled a book out of his backpack. "Don't let me disturb you."

  We read in silence for a while and then he said, "Brooke told me about the crows the other day. Are they really following you around?"

  I sighed. "I really don't want to talk about the crows, Stephen."

  "You can call me Steve."

  "Okay, Steve, I really don't want to talk about the crows."

  "I'm sure you don't, but I want to hear about them. It's not every day someone is being chased by ugly birds, you know."

  "You're definitely Brooke's brother," I said.

  "Yes, we are. So tell me about the crows."

  I sighed so that he would know what a pain he was being, and then I told him every detail about the crows, from their first visit at the lake to their show at the school earlier.

  Just like Brooke, he didn't seem weirded out by the whole thing. They both just seemed strangely concerned.

  "You must've been running pretty fast for the track manager to take notice," he said.

  I shrugged. "I was running for my life. I doubt that I could run like that for a competition."

  "You never know," he said.

  It was my turn to change the subject. "So what's your cousin like? Brooke has set us up for my homecoming dance, but I know nothing about him."

  "My cousin?" he asked, looking confused. "Oh. You mean Clifford. Right. Yeah. I almost forgot he was coming to visit."

  "His name is Clifford? I didn't even know that much."

  "He usually goes by Cliff. What do you want to know about him?" Steve asked.

  "I'd like to know anything at all. It'd be nice to know at least something about the guy, since I'm going to be spending an entire evening with him."

  "I wouldn't worry about it. You two will get along great."

  "How do you know?" I asked.

  "I, uh…I just know. Well, I better get going."

  "Okay," I said. "I need to get some more homework done before work anyway."

  The rest of the week was blissfully boring, and on Friday evening I was back in Brooke's bedroom. She was fitting the dress but had me blindfolded, because she didn't want me to see it until the day of the dance.

  "This is going to be perfect," she squeaked. "It already looks stunning, but when I add the finishing touches, no one will even compare."

  "Now I have to see it."

  "Don't even try. You get to see it next Saturday as a complete picture, after I've done your hair and makeup."

  "Didn't your parents give you dolls when you were little?" I asked.

  "That was the beginning of my love for dressing people up." she said. "Now that I'm designing clothes, I get to dress up real people and that's so much more fun."

  "At least I can provide you with entertainment," I said. "Can you get this dress off me? I want to take off the blindfold."

  "Sure, I have all that I need. Give me a minute."

  I gladly threw the blindfold on the floor when I was finally given permission. "When does your cousin come into town? Do I have to wait for the dance to see him too?"

  Her eyes twinkled. "Yes. This is going to be truly magical."

  My heart jumped when she said that and I started to get excited. "Will you tell me something about him?"

  "He looks like a movie star," she said. "He's smart like you, and you two will steal the show. Everyone will forget about the homecoming royalty."

  "Sounds like my mom will be proud to call me her daughter for once," I said. "She thinks my brains are wasted on a girl."

  "Don't worry about her," Brooke said.

  "Even if I were the top judge or attorney in the nation, she wouldn't care unless I was well dressed and in the spotlight," I said, getting upset. "She doesn't care about anything I do now. Even self-obsessed Natalie is impressed with my accomplishments. She told me as much the other day. My mom will never see it. I'm such a disappointment to her."

  "Hey, calm down, chica," she said. "I don't want any more broken light bulbs."

  I stopped myself. "You're probably right."

  "Probably? I've seen it myself," she said. "If you keep going, I'm going to have another mess to clean."

  "How can someone treat their own child like that?" I asked, unable to think about anything else. "If I took care of someone as a baby, I would never be able to treat them like this. Something is seriously wrong with her."

  "Not really. She didn't have that time to bond with you."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, confused.

  "What does what mean?" she asked, looking equally confused.

  "Oh crap." I said. Brooke's mouth hadn't moved when she 'said' that. I'd heard her voice clearly, but her lips hadn't budged.

  "What does what mean?" she insisted.

  "Nothing," I said, too quickly.

  "It's definitely something."

  "Obviously it's nothing, because you didn't say anything," I said. "I thought that you said something, but I'm just hearing things."

  "What did you hear exactly?" Brooke asked. I thought I saw her eyes flicker to a different color.

  I shook my head to clear it. "I thought you said something about my mom, but it doesn't matter because you obviously didn't."

  She jumped up. "I'll be right back." She ran out of the bedroom.

  I sighed. I had finally scared her off with my weirdness. Crows and exploding light bulbs were one thing, but hearing voices was too much.

  "Steve, it's happening faster than I thought," Brooke said.

  "What's going on now?" Steve asked.

  "She heard my thoughts. It's progressing even faster than we thought."

  "Do you think that we'll be able to wait until the dance?"

  "I hope so, though Cliff will be here in a couple of days. We'll ask him what he thinks. He'll know what to do," Brooke said.

  "It wouldn't be the end of the world if we have to tell her before the dance, Brooke."

  I put my hands over my ears—as if that would silence voices coming from my head—and tried not to listen to the craziness. Either something very strange was going on, or I was losing my mind.

  I didn't like either option.

  ***

  At home the next morning, I was searching for answers. I started with old family picture albums. I couldn't recall having seen any pictures of myself before I was around three years old. I spent a couple of hours going through every photo in the albums, and didn't find a single baby picture of me.

  There were plenty of Natalie as a baby, but none of me with her during that time. Natalie was born when I was about 11 months old so it didn't make sense that there would be no pictures of me until I was three years old.

  I found my mom on her laptop. "Why are there no pictures of me as a baby?"

  "What? Not this again. Alexis, we've been over this. There was a flood in the house that we were living in before we moved here. We lost a lot of things, including your baby album."

  "That still doesn't explain why I'm not in any of Natalie's baby pictures. When people have two kids they usually get lots of pictures of the kids together."

  She sighed. "We've gone over this too. You were scared to death of the camera flash, and any time that we brought out it out you burst into tears. I didn't want a bunch of pictures of you crying."

  "I don't buy it anymore," I retorted. "Just tell me the truth: was I adopted? Or am I your stepchild?"

  She laughed. "Where do you get this stuff? Of course you're not adopted or my stepchild."

  "Could've fooled me." I walked out, determined to find out what was really going on.

  I sat at the table in the back yard to do some homework, but I had a difficult time concentrating. When I had finally settled in and started to focus on my book, I heard footsteps behind me.

  "Do you think that you were really adopted?" Natalie sat across from me.

  "I don't know," I said. "Nothing adds up."


  "Why wouldn't they tell you?"

  "Who knows? Maybe they're afraid I'll want to find my real parents, or it could've been an illegal adoption."

  "Or maybe your real parents are secret agents so our parents can't tell you." Her eyes were wide.

  "Maybe they just found me on the side of the road and didn't want to turn me in," I said. I tried to hide a smile.

  "You could be an alien in disguise."

  "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

  "It would explain a lot," she said. Like how you read my mind last weekend.

  I tried to hide my surprise and disappointment. I couldn't ask her if she had just thought that, because either way she answered, I would look like a freak.

  FOUR

  "I can't wait to see you all dressed up," Amanda said. We were eating pizza in a booth in the back of the restaurant. "It will be like the before and after of one of those makeover shows."

  "Where are we going to eat before the dance?" I was trying to change the subject.

  "We're going to that new, fancy French place. So make sure he's not poor." Amanda winked.

  "I'll be sure to mention that to Brooke."

  "Isn't it driving you nuts that you can't even talk to him first? He's not my date and I'm going crazy with curiosity."

  I shrugged. "I'll find out soon enough. Besides, isn't that the point of a blind date?"

  She sighed. "You're so not normal."

  "You like a good mystery, right?" I asked, changing the subject again.

  "You know I do. Why?"

  "I have a real life mystery, but it needs to be kept between us."

  "If anyone can keep a secret, it's me," she said. "What's your mystery?"

  "I think I was adopted."

  Her eyes widened. "Are you serious? Because of the favoritism?"

  "That's part of it," I said. "But that's not the strange part."

  After I had finished explaining the stories of the supposed flood and my camera fear, she said, "My aunt works at the court house and has access to all of Delphic Cove's old records. If I tell her that I have a school project, she'll let me look! They have all kinds of stuff down there that isn't online. I took a class last year and was able to get all kinds of access. Anything over twelve years old is down in that basement."

  "You can't get in there, Amanda. Have you heard of privacy laws protecting that stuff?"

  "You mean like the HIPPA thing?"

  "That's for medical records," I said. "But other records have privacy laws too."

  "You know how it is. Typical small town—big city rules don't apply. Someday they might. You know, like, if the state or feds ever come in and find out how things are run. That's not too likely. Nothing exciting ever happens here."

  ***

  When I got home, Natalie grabbed me. "We've got to talk."

  We went to her room and she closed the door.

  "What's going on?" I demanded

  She spoke fast and I struggled to keep up. "Mom's sticking to the flood story, which I don't buy either 'cause there's like no way you'd not be in any of my baby pictures. For real, what siblings aren't in each other's pictures?"

  "That can't be all that you have," I said. "Why bring me in here to tell me that?"

  "I got her to dig out the birth certificates. I think yours is fake."

  "What?" I asked. "How would you know that?"

  "It was different from mine. Also, yours was made here in Washington and we didn't move to Delphic Cove until after the flood—if there really was one."

  "Did you ask Mom about that?"

  "She says your original one was lost in the flood too."

  "That's convenient. Why would they have brought all of your stuff and none of mine? It just doesn't add up. Unless of course they hated me even then and were glad to let it all drown."

  ***

  Tanner came up to me at my locker. "Have you thought about joining the team?"

  "Not really."

  "Think about it, okay?" he asked. "You could probably get a college scholarship if you run like that all season."

  "I don't think that Harvard offers track scholarships," I told him. "They're going to be far more interested in my perfect GPA."

  "I don't know much about Harvard, but I do know schools like people to be well rounded," he said. "If you're only about grades and test scores, they'll be more interested in someone who has the grades and the extracurriculars too."

  That stopped me in my tracks. "You know, Tanner. You're right."

  "So you'll try out for the track team?"

  "I'll think about it. I need to get through this weekend before I start thinking about sports though."

  "You're going to the dance?" he asked, looking surprised.

  "Yes. I'm sure I'll see you there."

  "Who's your date?"

  "He's from out of town."

  "I'll look out for you then," he said. "You'll think about the track team, right?"

  I wanted to throw a book at him. "I told you I would."

  "Okay, okay. I still can't get over how fast you are. You've been hiding some mad skills."

  Emma walked in between the two of us. "Alexis, is Tanner bothering you?"

  "No, he was just leaving."

  "Just think about it." He walked off.

  "What was that all about?" she asked. "Why was Tanner talking to you?"

  "He wants me to join the track team."

  "Have you been holding out on us, Lexi? I never knew you could run."

  "I decided that I need to be more well-rounded," I told her, pretending that it was my idea. "I can't just be all about brains and grades. I need to outshine my sister, right?"

  "Oh, I get it now," she winked. "At least it sounds like you have some serious running skills if Tanner wants you on the team. He's picky about who he accepts."

  ***

  That afternoon, the crows were waiting for me again. They were flying in a large circle over the parking lot. I wasn't sure if they had noticed me or not, and I decided to look for someone to walk to my car with me. It was worth a try.

  I walked back into the school, looking for someone who might be about to walk out there or who might need a ride home. I knew that several other clubs would be letting out soon too.

  Some guy was heading toward the main doors. I walked a little behind him, happy to see the crows fly off and scatter. I knew that they weren't gone for good, but at least they were gone for the moment.

  I drove to Amanda's place to talk about what she'd discovered at the court house. I knew there had to be at least something good, because otherwise she could have told me at school.

  "Luckily, my aunt didn't question what I was looking for," Amanda said. "She just let me in and let me get to work. At first I didn't find anything on your family. There's nothing on any of you before you were three."

  "That backs up their story about our moving here after the old house flooded," I said.

  "Yeah, but then it gets weird," she said. "Right after you guys showed up, your dad put in a hospital request for your birth certificate and then a social security number request for you. It was like you had no identity before coming to Delphic Cove."

  Chills ran down my spine. "Did you find anything else?"

  She was quiet for a moment. "I did find more. But first I have to ask if you really want to know what I found."

  "How could I not? I'm on a mission to find out about my past."

  She sighed. "Okay. Well, some relative of yours that wasn't named needed bone marrow. Your parents, sister, and you were all tested to see if any of you were matches. None of you were, but you know that I took that genetics class—I saw right away that you are not related to your family."

  "I knew it."

  "But that's not all. All the documentation shows they've been claiming you to be a fully natural child. Most adopted kids do have birth certificates with their adopted parents' names on it, but there's always documentation of the adoption."

  "They obvious
ly want everyone to believe I'm not adopted." I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.

  I quit playing detective for the rest of the week and allowed the information to sink in. I hadn't said a word to Natalie, even though I'd promised to tell her as soon as I found anything out. In a way, it seemed as if saying it out loud would make everything feel more real.

  In order to get my mind off of my questions, I began researching crows.

  After reading past the information about their high intelligence and other normal facts, I learned that for centuries, it was believed that crows are associated with death. People used to believe that if crows followed someone, it was an omen of impending death. These things could be indicating my impending death? My heart sank. Why had I gone in search of this to begin with?

  I decided then and there to stop playing detective. On top of everything else, now the crows could be a sign that I was about to die. It was time to focus on the dance and my handsome date.

  I was thrilled when Saturday arrived and it was time for Brooke to get me ready for the dance. She wanted me to come over a full five hours before it was time to leave for dinner.

  When I arrived, Brooke said, "Steve and Cliff are out for a while, so you won't see Cliff before you're beautified."

  "Oh. That's why you need five hours," I said, finally understanding.

  She laughed. "There's a lot to do—and I spent hours yesterday getting ready for my dance last night."

  When we got to her room, all the mirrors and windows were covered with dark paper. "You really don't want me to see myself before you're finished, do you?" I asked.

  "That's right," she said. "You won't be able to capture a reflection of yourself until I show you what you look like in a full length mirror."

  She started by taking me into the bathroom (the mirrors were covered there too, of course) and she washed my hair in the sink.

  "You know, I did take a shower this morning."

  "Trust me, my shampoo and conditioner will make your hair gorgeous. You're going to beg me to take it home."

  While my hair was still damp, she put in a wide array of different sized curlers all over my head. It felt strange, tugging and pulling in all directions. I probably looked like an alien, not that I would know with the mirrors covered. Then she sprayed something all over my hair that smelled like honey and flowers, and then covered it with some kind of bag.