Natalia
It’s after ten o’clock when there’s a knock on the front door. I’m sitting in the living room with my mom, eating the remains of a frozen chocolate cake (we got home from the mall kind of late, and then we had to wait for the cake to defrost).
After the weirdness of bumping into Raine and her friends, it was comforting to spend time with my mom, watching reality shows and eating dessert. In fact, it was almost enough to make me forget about all the drama that’s been going on at school. I say almost, because when the doorbell rings, my first thought is Raine.
“I’ll get it,” I say quickly, dropping my fork and wiping the chocolate off my face with a napkin.
“Who is it?” my mom asks, a nervous look flicking across her face, probably because she’s thinking about Derek.
“I don’t know,” I say, rolling my eyes as I walk toward the door. “I haven’t answered it yet.”
I look out the dining room window, expecting to see a sliver of Raine’s long blonde hair and snotty expression. But instead, it’s Cam. Cam. My heart stops when I see him. He’s wearing his baseball hat, backwards, the same way he was when we kissed. My stomach does a somersault.
“Well, who is it?” my mom asks, coming up behind me and peering over my shoulder.
But I can’t talk. So she goes and opens the door. “Brody!” she says, “So nice to finally meet you! Of course, it’s a little late for a visit, but …”
Oh, Jesus. “Mom, this isn’t Brody,” I say, coming up behind her and looking at Cam. He at least has the sense to look embarrassed.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Moore,” he says, “I tried to call, but Natalia wasn’t answering her cell.”
“It’s dead,” I explain. “I was charging it up in my room.”
“Well,” my mom says, and then there’s an awkward silence that goes on a little too long until I realize my mom’s waiting for me to introduce her to Cam.
“I’m Cam,” Cam says, figuring it out a split second before I do. “It’s really nice to meet you.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, shaking my head. “Mom, this is Cam, Cam, this is my mom.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too, Cam,” my mom says. “Would you like to come inside? We’re just finishing up some chocolate cake.”
Leave it to my mom to ask Cam inside at ten o’clock at night, instead of doing what any normal mother would do, which is send Cam on his way with a stern warning not to bother her daughter this late at night ever again.
“Cam can’t stay,” I say firmly. “Can you, Cam?”
“Natalia,” my mom says, giving me a weird look. “Don’t be rude. Cam’s a guest.”
“It’s okay,” he says without missing a beat. “Natalia’s right, I can’t stay. I just had a question about some homework.”
“Let me just grab my jacket,” I say, “And then I’ll walk you back to your car.” I pull my jacket off the hook by the door, hoping he gets the point about me walking him to his car. What the hell is he doing here anyway?
“Well,” my mom says, “Again, it was nice to meet you, Cam.” I can tell that she likes him already, which isn’t surprising. With his clean-cut good looks and backwards baseball hat, he looks like the All-American boy next door. And after Derek and his neck tattoo, my mom probably figures I’m safe with Cam. I wonder what she’d think if she knew he kissed me and then blew me off, if she knew he was lying about having to talk to me about homework since the only class we have together is study hall.
“You too, Mrs. Moore,” he says, giving her this really big, charming smile. Ugh.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as soon as my mom’s out of earshot.
“Are you going to come out?” he asks.
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“I’m sure your mom doesn’t want the door open, letting all the heat out.”
“The heat’s not on,” I tell him. “It’s October.”
“Oh, so it’s one of those houses,” he says, nodding like he has me all figured out.
“One of what houses?”
“The kind of houses that don’t turn their heat on until the middle of December.”
He nods. “That’s very green of you, Natalia.”
I start to shut the door on him, but he puts his hand out and stops it. “Hey, hey, hey,” he says, “Look, I’m sorry.” His face turns serious. “I really need to talk to you.”
I sigh and step out onto the porch, closing the front door behind me. I’m acting like I can’t stand the fact that he’s here, but inside, I’m excited. My heart is beating fast, and I can’t stop looking at the curve of his lips and remembering how it felt to kiss him.
He starts walking across the lawn toward his car, and I follow him, but make sure to say, “Just so you know, I’m not going anywhere with you. So if you want to talk, talk.”
He turns around. “Chill,” he says, “We can sit in the car, okay? I just want some privacy.”
“Fine,” I say, shrugging, like the thought of being alone with him in a dark car is no big deal.
When we’re inside, me settled into the passenger seat, him on the driver’s side, he turns the key in the ignition, puts the heat on, and turns the radio on at a low volume. He takes a deep breath and then leans his head back against the seat. He doesn’t say anything for a few moments, and so I open the door.
“Okay,” I say, “Well, it was nice to see you, but – ”
“No, wait.” He reaches over me and pulls the door shut, and I turn around, and his face is right there and oh my God I want to kiss him. “I’m just trying to collect my thoughts.”
“Yeah, well, collect them fast,” I say. “Or better yet, do you want some help?
Let me try. You never meant to hurt me, you hope we can be friends, you really like Raine, you hope I won’t tell her what happened because she’s a good person and blah blah blah.”
“Blah blah blah?” he asks, looking confused.
“Yeah, you know, blah blah blah.”
“What does blah blah blah mean?”
“It just means… that you’ll insert some guy stuff, like doublespeak, that will just start fading into the background and become useless, and is pretty much just to make yourself feel better for acting like a shit.”
“Well, you’re wrong,” he says, “That’s not what I was going to say.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.” He reaches over and takes my hand. “I really like you.”
I tear my hand away. “No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
I’m trying to keep the I-don’t-care façade up, but it starts to slowly crumble.
“Then why have you been ignoring me? Why didn’t you take care of things with Raine and Brody like you said you would?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you yesterday in the parking lot,” he says. “At first, I just wanted to wait to talk to you. I got to school, and you were talking Raine, and I didn’t want to screw things up if you guys were really becoming friends. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to say anything yet. And then me and Brody made up, and he’s been my friend forever, and so I started feeling guilty. But now…now …” He takes a deep breath, and grips the steering wheel. “I think there’s something weird going on with Raine.” He turns and looks at me, the numbers on the digital clock illuminating his face.
“I think…I think Raine might want to hurt you. Or me.”
A finger of fear creeps through my stomach. “Like she wants to beat me up?”
“No, not exactly.” He shakes his head. “It’s like she has this… this power over people.” He tells me about how his friend Aiden heard Raine and her friends messing around with red wine vinegar and calling it Camerade. He tells me how she showed up at his house the other night, how every time he leaves her, he feels sick and weak, how he thinks that’s why he fainted that day at her house.
“So what does any of this have to do with me?” I ask, starting to think that maybe Cam’s fl
ipped his shit. Leave it to me to fall for the guy who’s a little off. I can never just find a nice, normal guy. They all have to be bat shit crazy.
“Well, I was over there,” he says, “Just now, at Raine’s. I … I parked my car, and went into the backyard. Raine was there with Becca and Teri, and they didn’t know I was listening.”
“And?”
“And I heard them talking about something that happened tonight, how it was just the beginning, how they were going to crush you like a gnat.”
The fear moves from my stomach to my spine, giving me a chill. “Look, “I say,
“just because you were creeping around your girlfriend’s house – which, by the way, is wrong on many different levels – and heard some stuck-up girls talking about how they don’t like me doesn’t mean they have powers.”
But then I think about tonight, about running into the Triad, about how I tripped.
At the time, I just thought it was because I was so nervous and flustered. But now I wonder if it was something more.
“You haven’t noticed anything?” he asks.
“Well,” I say reluctantly, “The lights did go out at the spa yesterday. And I ran into the Triad at the mall tonight, and then I tripped on the escalator.”
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I tell him, “I’m fine.” I pull up the bottom of my jeans and show him my scraped knee.
He winces. “Did it hurt?”
“Not really.” I pull the leg of my pants back down. “Look, if they’re into some kind of craziness, like voodoo or something – ”
“Voodoo?”
“Yeah, you know, voodoo?”
“Like sticking pins into dolls and stuff?” He looks horrified.
“Yeah. Or, like, buying crystals and putting spells on people.” His face goes white. “Oh, God,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Please, Cam, don’t tell me you believe in any of that stuff.”
“Of course not,” he says, but he’s obviously lying.
“Good, because it’s just something girls do when they’re bored. Like when you’d have sleepovers and play with your mom’s Ouija board.”
“You played with your mom’s Ouija board?”
“Well, no, my mom doesn’t have a Ouija board. I meant more ‘mom’ in the sense of the abstract.”
“I don’t know,” he says, not looking convinced. “It didn’t seem like that kind of thing. I mean, she made a light bulb shatter. With her eyes.”
I look at him skeptically. “Are you sure? It couldn’t have just been a trick?
Something she was doing to freak out Becca and Teri?”
“I don’t think so.” He sighs. “I just think we should be careful,” he says. And then he hesitates. “And I’m not sure, but I think Brody might have something to do with all of this, too.”
“Brody doesn’t,” I say, shaking my head. “Brody’s a good guy.”
“So good that he came to my house, threatening me and telling me I shouldn’t bring you to Raine’s party? And besides, how do you know what Brody’s like? You’ve spent, like, what, a day with him?” There’s a sharpness in his voice.
“I spent all afternoon with him, thank you very much.”
“This afternoon? Wow, you don’t waste any time.”
“Says the guy who never even broke up with his girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Does she know that?”
“Natalia…”
I’m looking out the window, and when he says my name, I turn back toward him.
It’s a mistake. His eyes are pleading, and even in the darkness, I can see the look of longing on his face.
“I can’t,” I say, turning away as he starts to move closer to me. “I just… I can’t.”
He nods, like he knows. I go to open the door and as I’m getting out he says,
“Natalia, just… we have to be careful, okay?”
I nod. “Okay.”
“And I don’t think you should tell Brody I was here. I don’t trust him.”
I think about it, and after a second, I nod again. “Okay.”
I slam the door shut and head up the driveway to my house, my mind swirling with the things Cam told me. Can it be true? That the Triad have some kind of powers or something? Cam told me not to trust Brody. But how do I know I can trust Cam?
Chapter Two
Campbell
It’s the beginning of second period and it feels like forever until school gets out.
Ms. Robbins is telling us something about pi and prime numbers. Whatever it is, I’m barely listening, she’s droning on and on like one of those phone voices in the Charlie Brown cartoons.
Instead, I’m thinking about Natalia. Replaying our conversation from last night.
How she said she’d spent all afternoon with Brody, and it seemed like maybe they’d even had fun together. But how is that even possible? I know Brody and he’s about the furthest thing from a good conversationalist.
I mean, it should piss me off that he skated on football practice when I went even though I could barely move. But what really gets under my skin is picturing him and Natalia with each other.
Talking. Laughing. Kissing even.
I can feel my face getting red and my pulse starting to race a little. I need to take a walk or something.
I raise my hand and Ms. Robbins smiles. “Yes, Mr. Elliot? You have something to add?”
“Ah…no. Just need a bathroom pass.”
Her face falls. It must be hard teaching a boring class where most of the students are either pretending to stay awake and listen or not even bothering to pretend.
She gives me the pass and I head out of the classroom. Sometimes it’s fun to wander the halls, just hear the sounds of my own feet echoing through the corridors. I put my hand out and let my pass slap against the lockers as I walk by, and it makes a machine gun like sound.
It’s funny, I think, how much weird crap is probably hidden in these school lockers. Candy. Magazines. Drugs. Booze. Weapons. Private notes. You could learn a lot about people if you could see into their lockers.
And then it hits me. I can see—or at least, I can break into—their lockers if I want. Specifically Raine’s locker. Maybe there’s some clue in there about what those crazy chicks are up to.
It’s perfect, I realize. Nobody is around and I’m just a few feet away. I look both ways again, just to make sure.
This is crazy. You could get in BIG trouble.
Nobody will even notice, though, I tell myself. Most people don’t even know whose locker this is, anyway. As long as Raine or the Triad doesn’t show up. I’m golden.
I quickly walk to Raine’s locker and put my ear against the cold, hard metal.
Then I place my right hand on the lock and slowly start to turn it. When I hear the first click, I spin it the other direction until I hear the next. And then again, until I hear the final click. BOOM.
38-27-14.
The locker opens. I check the hallway again. Nothing. Everyone’s in class, hard at work. Still, I need to be fast here because if I get caught now it will probably be an automatic suspension, I might even have to miss some football games.
For a brief moment it flashes though my mind that Raine could somehow know that I’ve been in her locker. After all, I have no idea what her powers consist of—maybe she can sense things? Maybe she can read minds?
What if the next time I talk to her she can tell that I’ve been snooping and spying on her?
Whatever. I can’t get slowed down with this kind of second-guessing. I’m here, I’m standing in front of her open locker.
There’s a dark, slick coat hanging on the right hook. A purse at the bottom of the locker stuffed with all kinds of junk. I bend down and quickly rifle through it, but it’s mostly makeup and hair ties and empty lipstick containers. A few tampons.
Just what the hell do I think I’m going to find? A gun?
I don’t know. Something. A clue.
I stand up and rummage through the top cubby. Some books, a notebook.
I pull the notebook out and quickly flip through it. Mostly empty but some doodles of her name spelled with little curly cues and shit all over the place. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But just as I’m about to close the locker and walk away I notice a glimmer from the back of the cubby hole. I reach in and grab what feels like a necklace.
Just as I’m taking it out, I hear voices and footsteps that sound perilously close.
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