Caught in Between

by Alison L. Perry

  I walked into the kitchen and noticed an envelope with my name on it. It was my mother’s handwriting. Picking it up, I turned it over, looking for any clues as to what may be inside. Finding nothing, I broke the seal and pulled out a thick packet of folded papers. Something else small fell out and clattered onto the table. I picked it up and smiled. It was my student ID card. I hurriedly opened the packet and saw that it was my Jefferson High School registration acknowledgment and my class schedule. I squealed and collapsed into the nearest chair, devouring the contents of the paperwork.

  To the parents of Ms. Sadie Marie Criswel,

  We are pleased to have Sadie join our Freshman class for the 2016–2017school year at Jefferson High School. Enclosed you will find her class schedule, along with a map of the school and surrounding campus.

  When she arrives for her first day of classes, please have her check in at the front office for a quick orientation meeting with the school Vice Principal, Mrs. Alice Shannon.

  Again, welcome to Jefferson High School, where your child’s learning and growth are our top priorities.

  Sincerely,

  Mr. Cambridge

  Principal, Jefferson High School

  I flipped to the second page and saw a list of my classes. I couldn’t contain my excitement. Algebra I, English I, Social Studies, World History, Biology, Computer Science, and Physical Education. I was finally going to be studying things that interested me! Things I had an aptitude for. I hugged that page to me as I glanced at the last paper. It was the promised map, showing both the inside of the school and the teacher and student parking lots. I grinned. Already, I felt more prepared for the first day than I ever had before University.

  I scooped everything into my arms and ran up the stairs to my room. Remembering everyone was asleep, I tried to be quiet. The first thing I did was put the packet and school ID into a sparkly pink folder from the huge stack of school supplies Mom had bought me. I carefully put the folder in my bag and stowed it away in the closet, where it would stay safe until Monday.

  I yawned. My new schedule had been weird at first, but I was finally syncing up to the rest of the world. The darkness outside no longer called to my inner clock. Instead, my bed was singing its siren song. I stripped my jeans off and fell into the cozy softness of my sheets with just my T-shirt on. Snuggling deep under the covers, I set the alarm on my phone to wake me at 6:00 a.m. I figured that was about the time I’d need to get up on school days to get ready and make it there on time, so I was getting used to it now.

  As I waited for sleep to overtake me, I thought about how easy it had been to transition to my new sleep schedule. I mean, it hadn’t been perfect. But considering that vampires were nocturnal creatures at their basic core, it hadn’t been the struggle I’d imagined, either. Kade’s theory played through my mind again. It made so much sense. What if I was some kind of experiment? Maybe that was why Pen had found me. To warn me? Congratulate me? A trickle of fear crawled up my neck. Threaten me?

  I clicked through the things I knew. The Nursery had fed me blood repeatedly, despite knowing each likely outcome. I didn’t look like the rest of my family. In fact, I didn’t look like any vampire at all, totally lacking the mysterious, hypnotic aura that was so central to a vampire’s arsenal. I was clumsy, compassionate, and totally sucked at controlling other people’s minds. The sun didn’t burn me and the Firsts were interested in me. None of it made sense. But it was all connected. That was the truth and there was no denying it any longer.

  Chapter 24 - Creepy and Cryptic is a Thing

  It was my last weekend of freedom before I was once again held in the clutches of academics. To my displeasure, it started with rain and thunder. I had planned to drive to the school and scope out the place, and maybe even take a walk in the park that was close to the campus, but the crappy weather destroyed that idea. So, I was in the living room instead, flipping through the humdrum of daytime television when the entire room lit up with a bright flash. One second later, the house shook with a terrifying boom of thunder. The hair on my arms stood up from the current of electricity in the air. Scared, I scrambled for a blanket to hide under when a second streak of lightning lit up the sky. This time, I heard the splintering of tree branches and some sort of explosion, right before the room was plunged into darkness.

  Holy shitballs, that hit close.

  I had the blanket wrapped around me as I shook with nerves. Fortunately for me, I had inherited the superior eyesight all vampires enjoyed, so I could still see the room. That wasn’t what was making me so nervous. I didn’t like the current I could still feel in the air. It was making my insides quiver, not to mention leaving an unsettling, prickly feeling along my skin. Wondering if the lightning bolt had hit one of our trees, I inched over to the window to look out and assess the damage. I peeked through the blinds and screamed. A pair of black eyes with red and gold markings stared back at me.

  I staggered backward, still screaming. A small piece of my mind told me to shut up, but I was too startled to listen to it. I just kept screaming like a banshee out of hell, until a figure walked into the room and lifted a hand. With that small movement, my mouth snapped shut, and a wave of calm flowed over me.

  “Hush, child. You’ll wake the Gods with that hollering.”

  It was Pen.

  “Pen!” I gasped out. Half scared my heart would literally leap out of my body from the fright, I’d clutched the blanket to my chest. I dropped it and gaped at her.

  “Calm yourself. It is just a storm. But, your neighbors will have some cleaning up to do, I’m afraid.”

  I was still rooted to the floor, staring at her. Questions flew through my head. Why had she been looking in my window? How did she get through the door?

  Pen made a slight shift, leaning harder on a cane I’d just noticed she held in one hand, and immediately I realized my mistake.

  “I’m so sorry for my rudeness. Would you like to sit down? Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea, perhaps?” Please don’t ask for blood! Please, please!

  “Thank you, Sadie. I should like a cup of tea. I’ll make myself comfortable while you fetch it.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll be right back.”

  I shot out of the room and into the kitchen. Where did we keep the tea kettle? I flung cabinet doors open and closed, searching everywhere for the damned thing, making a huge racket in the process. The whole time I searched, questions raced through me. Why is she here? How does she know where I live? Why is she in my living room? I was so flustered my hands were still shaking and I silently screamed at myself for behaving like a scared lunatic.

  I finally found the kettle buried behind some pots and pans in a rarely used cabinet by the refrigerator. Tapping my foot, I filled it with water and set it on the stove over high heat. I took a deep breath, smoothed my hair, and forced myself to walk calmly back into the living room.

  “I have the water on and it should be ready in just a few minutes.” Proud that my voice didn’t shake once, I sat down on a chair facing the couch where Pen had planted herself.

  I wanted to say something to break the awkward silence filling the room, but I had no clue where to start. Fortunately, she took care of it.

  “So, I suppose there are all kinds of questions you want to ask me.” She arched a penciled-in eyebrow and I ducked my head slightly.

  “Well, yes ma’am—”

  “I told you to call me Pen,” she interrupted.

  “Pen. Yes, I guess I do have some questions.”

  She stared at me and when it became apparent she was waiting for me to ask something, I continued.

  “How do you know me? My name? And where I live?”

  “It is my job to know all the vampires living in my realm. Along with that comes knowing where each family resides, what they do, and other things of that nature.” Her eyes were mesmerizing and that’s what I focused on as she talked.

  “But, why… why did you come find me at the mall that day?”

&n
bsp; “To be honest, child, I had heard about your expulsion from University. It’s a rare occurrence, and it piqued my interest. I wanted to see for myself who this vampire is who could not cut it at Holstein’s school.”

  I blushed at her words. The way she said it didn’t make me sound good at all. I heard the tea kettle whistling from the kitchen and rose from my seat to go get it.

  “Another minute, Sadie. The tea will keep a bit longer.” She paused. “I did not mean for that last part to come out as harshly as it did. I could see on your face that my words pricked you. They were not meant to.”

  Confused, I nodded. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “I remembered your name from The Nursery and I was curious. I find my curiosity has been satisfied.” She thumped her cane on the floor twice. “I’ll have that tea, now.”

  Flummoxed, I walked into the kitchen to gather the tea supplies on a tray. I found Mom’s VIP tea set and carefully laid everything out. As an afterthought, I put a slim vase in the middle and stuck one of the freshly cut roses from our backyard into it. Satisfied at the arrangement, I carefully walked back into the living room with the tray balanced in my hands.

  The room was empty. As quietly as she had entered our house, she’d left it. I hadn’t been able to ask any of the other million questions I had for her. And she left without her tea. What the hell? Just what in the ever-lovin’ hell is up with that woman? I stomped back into the kitchen and tossed the tray on the counter, not even caring if anything broke.

  ***

  As much as I wanted to tell my parents what had happened, a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach convinced me to keep quiet. So, instead, I called Kade and we discussed the entire incident at length.

  “It’s puzzling,” he admitted.

  “Puzzling? That’s all you have to say about it? How about mind-blowing, earth-shattering, and oh, I know, creepy! It is definitely creepy. You can’t disagree with me on that point. First, she’s skulking around my windows and after that, she somehow gets in through a locked door. And just leaves again, without a word. Creepy, I say!"

  “No, you’re right. She does have the creep factor.”

  Mildly vindicated that he agreed with me, I pressed on. “And what did she mean, she was curious and now it’s been satisfied. How cryptic is that?” We’d already analyzed the whole conversation once, but I couldn’t help bringing that part up again.

  “Sadie, I agree with you one hundred percent. She’s cryptic and creepy and completely weird. I just don’t have any magic answers right now.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, “I know. I’m just wigged. I’ll get over it.”

  “I’m not saying you have to get over it. I mean, she is sort of stalking you, and even though the First Families are the founders of our species and aren’t necessarily anyone to be afraid of, she’s definitely behaving strangely.” He answered my next question in his seemingly psychic way. “I still say you go forward with your plan.”

  “I was planning to. I’m glad you agree, though. I’m nervous. Hell-uh nervous, but I think it’s going to be good. It has to be good. I have to make it work. There just aren’t any alternatives.”

  “Hey, are you trying to convince me or yourself? Because I’m a go. You have my full confidence.”

  “Um, Kade? You do remember that I’m still a klutz, still socially awkward, and this kind of thing is still enough to make you an outcast in the human world, too, right?”

  “It’s good to see you’re going into this with a positive attitude,” he teased. I rolled my eyes.

  “Just being real. But, point taken. I’ll work on my positivity training.” I couldn’t keep the smile out of my voice.

  “Good. Now, I gotta get some sleep. But I’ll call tonight before you head to bed.”

  “Okay. Sleep tight, Kade. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

  Chapter 25 - Hello Jefferson High

  Sunday night was here before I knew it. The reality that I’d be at my new school in a little less than twelve hours hit me like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, I was doing the Flight of the Bumblebee around my room, picking things up and putting them back down like a deranged person. I couldn’t make up my mind about what outfit to wear, what to do with my hair, what school supplies to take. The entire weight of being sixteen and in high school was crashing onto my head like one of those anvils you see in cartoons.

  A knock on my door halted the insanity. I opened it, wearing two different shirts around my neck, a pair of slim jeans, and two different boots on my feet, with a third dangling from my hand.

  Molly took it all in without batting an eye.

  “May I come in?” Back in the days of our unrelenting friendship, she would never have asked. But, things were so different now.

  I stepped back in silent invitation. She strolled in, her eyes raking over the mess I’d been making.

  “Trying to come up with an outfit for tomorrow?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to make a lousy first impression.”

  “Sadie, if you just be you, you’ll make a great first impression.”

  Her words shocked me. I hadn’t been expecting this. I hadn’t known what to expect, but encouragement—real encouragement—hadn’t been part of it.

  She continued. “That’s the best part of this whole thing, right? You get to just be the real you, and you won’t stand out. If you do stand out, it’ll be in a good way. Like the hot new girl in school everyone whispers about.”

  “I’m not hot.”

  “Maybe not by vampire standards. But, Sadie, you’re not ugly either. You’re far from it. And I’ve seen the local high school students. Trust me, you’ll be a hot commodity in that group. You won’t know what to do with all the dates you’ll be asked on.”

  “Uh… yeah.” I thought about what she said. Maybe I was pretty enough by human standards to stand out in a good way. The more I thought about it, the more I liked that idea. Not that I’d ever act on it. I had Kade and he was the only one I wanted. But to be seen as pretty, well, what girl didn’t want that?

  “What are you doing here, Molly?” The words came out before I could stop them.

  She picked up my stuffed unicorn, Mr. Sparkles, and hugged him to her as she sat down on the bed. “I don’t like the way our friendship ended. I never wanted it to end, but it feels like we’ve been heading down two separate paths since the first day of University. I tried to act like it didn’t bother me, but Sadie, it did. It still does.”

  I sat down heavily on the bed next to her. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”

  She didn’t look at me but kept staring straight ahead at my One Direction poster. “I don’t want your moving to human school to come between us anymore. I want you back.”

  I turned my head toward her. “You’re serious?”

  “Yes. I’m serious. As a heart attack.” I smiled at the phrase we thought we were so cool using as kids.

  “I… I’d like that, Molly. I truly would. But, do you think it could work?”

  “You’re making it work with Kade, aren’t you?”

  This time my mouth actually dropped open. “How do you know about me and Kade?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I’ve known you since we were tiny wee ones waiting for our families to pick us out. You think you can hide a relationship like that from me?” She gave me a look. “I haven’t told anyone else. I promise.”

  Something in her tone convinced me she was telling the truth.

  “Thank you. For not telling anyone. And for still believing in us.” I reached an arm around her and gave her a tight side hug. In a strange twist from the normal dynamic between us, she put her head on my shoulder, leaning on me for support. We sat like that for a while, not talking. Not needing to.

  ***

  I sat in my car in the parking lot of Jefferson High School. I was early. The bell wouldn’t ring for another twenty minutes. The map of the school lay on the passenger seat, but I’d already memorized it. There was only one main build
ing to contend with. It had three stories, but it was all set in a block formation, with each wing housing a particular subject. Getting around inside wouldn’t be that hard once I found my locker and could plan my routes. The outside was plain but pretty. Perfectly spaced trees lined the front path from the parking lot to the building. The lettering above the main entrance was in the school colors of red and gold: Jefferson High School, Home of the Hornets.

  I glanced down at my clothes, still debating if I had the right look going on. Too late to change, Sade. I took a sip of coffee from my travel mug and tried to settle down. The more students who arrived, the better I felt about blending in. Most of the girls were dressed similarly to me. And the guys all had a relaxed, laid-back look that was appealing in a nonsexy way.

  Downing three blood capsules with another swig of coffee, an unfamiliar calm settled over me. I decided it was time. I didn’t think my meeting with the vice principal would take that long, but I wanted to have some kind of time buffer, just in case.

  I opened the door and put one boot on the ground. I still hesitated a little when stepping into the sunlight. A lifetime of being told I’d burst into flames was hard to shake in a mere few days. But I drew in a deep breath and stood up, my hands resting lightly on the open car door. The wind ruffled my hair and the crispness of the changing seasons wrapped around me. Reaching in for my bag, I hung it over my shoulder and slammed the car door shut behind me.

  With a smile on my face and a newfound bravery stiffening my spine, I strolled up the main sidewalk to the front doors, and without a backward glance, I swung them open, stepped over the threshold, and walked into my new life.

  Sneak Peek: Between Lies (Book 2)

  An unfamiliar smell flooded my nose as I walked through the front doors of Jefferson High School. It was a combination of paper, cleaning spray, and stale lunches. Disgusting. I wrinkled my nose and tried to ignore it as I searched the hallway for the main office. My registration paperwork said I would meet with the vice-principal before classes, and I didn’t want to be late.