by Dima Zales
No thank you. I would much rather have spent my time pushing through classes so I could get those A's and eventually get into a prestigious school that could earn me the career of my dreams.
Everyone saw me as boring—myself included if I was honest.
I realized that Amanda was still talking about the dance while I was daydreaming about my future career. I tried to focus on what she was saying, because it was obviously important to her.
"We're going to talk our dates into renting a limo and going to dinner before the school. Want to go with us?" She nodded her head, clearly trying to get me to agree.
"That could be fun," I said. "I need to talk with Brooke first and see what's going on with her cousin. I don't want to set any plans just yet."
"Okay, just make sure that you talk to her soon."
The bell rang, and we all went our separate ways.
The afternoon breezed by as I went through my classes and to CSI club. Once the meeting was over, the halls were nearly empty since everyone else had already gone home or was practicing their sports.
As I walked to my car in the parking lot, I heard the familiar whirring noise overhead and my heart sank.
I looked up. Sure enough, there was a flock (I didn't even want to think of the other name for a group of crows—a murder!) flying in the air. This time there were even more than before.
They were between my car and me. I would have to risk running directly underneath them to get to my car.
I had to decide what to do–-and fast. I ran toward the school, and away from my car as quickly as I could. I had a bad feeling about going back into the school, so at the last second, I darted away from the doors and ran around the school to the back side where the sports fields were.
Once I got near the football field, I dared to look behind me to see if the crows were still chasing me. I couldn't see any. They must not have wanted the attention from all the people around.
I leaned against a pole to catch my breath and calm my nerves.
"Where's the fire?" came a voice.
I looked up and saw a senior named Tanner Monroe standing near me. He was popular, and I braced myself for what he might say next. I was sure that he was going to make fun of me because he was known for being a jerk.
"There's no fire." I didn't owe him an explanation.
"I can't believe how fast you were running," he said, actually sounding impressed.
"Yeah, that's why they call it running, because it's fast."
"No, seriously," he said. "Our girls' track team could use you this year. All of our fastest runners graduated last year. You're faster than the ones left. By a long shot."
"I don't have much of an interest in sports," I told him.
"You're Natalie's sister, aren't you?" he asked.
"I have a name. It's Alexis."
"You should think about the track team, Alexis. You might even be the fastest in the school."
"I'm more of a brain than a jock," I said. "I wouldn't want my grades to suffer."
"If you're so smart, you should know that exercise is good for the mind." He grinned.
"Of course I know that. I also know that being involved in a sport takes a lot of time. I see how much time Natalie spends with volleyball."
"She does a lot more than just practice volleyball."
I raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying?"
"Obviously you and your sister aren't that close."
"You must be a brain surgeon to figure out that one."
He gave me a funny look. "I have to get back to football. Let me know if you want to try out for the track team. I'm one of the team managers."
"I'll keep that in mind," I said.
He turned around and jogged to the football field. I walked past the building and peeked around the corner to see if the nasty crows were waiting for me.
They were.
I walked the whole way around to the other side of the school, and saw the crows were still waiting for me on the other side of the building. I got my car key ready and ran as fast as I could to my car. By the time they saw me and had made their way to me, I was already locked inside my car. I peeled out of the parking lot.
I had time before my shift at the deli, so I decided to go to the library. When I had settled into a chair, someone sat down in the chair next to me. "Hi Lexi."
It was Stephen, Brooke's brother. "Stephen, what are you doing here? All the way across town, I mean. I wasn't trying to imply that you shouldn't be at the library."
He laughed. "It's great to see you too." He fake-punched my arm. "I was at the sports store down the road and decided to get some homework done and wait out the traffic."
"Makes sense."
"What are you studying?" He peeked over my shoulder at the book.
"Honors Lit. We have to read a book a week. It can be a bit much, but it's good prep for college," I said.
"What are you going to major in? I bet you already have it figured out."
I smiled. "I want to do something to do with justice."
"The justice field, huh?" he asked. "That's amazing."
"Why?" I asked.
"Oh. I…uh, it just seems…uh… Hey, your school has that CSI Club, right? Are you part of that?"
"Yeah. It's my favorite part of school. The science behind solving the crimes is phenomenal. I think I'd really love being a part of that. Last year we got to go on a walk through with some real CSI's and it was even better than I'd thought," I said, practically gushing.
"Is it like the TV show?" Stephen asked.
"That's what everyone asks. It's not full of such melodrama, but it's exciting because of how they are able to take seemingly insignificant clues to prove someone's innocence or guilt."
"That's interesting. Not that I could do it, but I'm glad that there are people like you who want to."
"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 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 formal, 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 even
ing 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 she finally gave me 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."
"Will we be able to wait until the formal?"
"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 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 albums. I couldn't recall having seen any photos 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 one of me as a baby.
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 photos 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 take photos 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 memories 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 a 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.
4
"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 types 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 so fast I struggled to keep up. "Mom's sticking to the flood story, which I don't buy either because 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."