by Aileen Erin
“Got it. Starvation-chic is not my look.” I grabbed an old Nora Roberts book and settled down in my window bench to escape for a bit. The predictability of her books drew me in quickly. There was nothing more certain in life than the ending of a good romance novel.
A few chapters in, Mom yelled that they were leaving. I watched them get into the car and disappear around the curve in the road.
Alone at last. I’d been feeling antsy since we got here, and it’d only gotten worse. For me there were only two things that would quiet my mind, dancing and running. I’d already gone for my morning jog, and had been waiting for a chance to blast some music.
I clicked on last week’s BBC One Essential Mix, turned the volume up as loud as I could stand it, and started dancing around my room.
Axel walked in without knocking and turned off the music. “Are you trying to make everyone in the state deaf?”
Or not. “Who said you could come in here?”
“I did. We’re parentless!” He hammed it up with some cheering, and then collapsed on my bed.
“That’s hardly cause for celebration.” I rolled my eyes. “Come on. I’ve been listening to what everyone else wants to for days now. Can I just—”
“No.”
I kicked his shin.
“Ow. Don’t be so violent.” He rubbed his shin. “It’s your last night before starting a brand new school year.”
I groaned. “Not you too. Can we please drop the whole ‘school starts tomorrow’ talk? I’d like to live in denial for a little while longer.”
“One thing, try not to bite the head off of the first friendly person you meet. Promise me.”
I crossed my arms and gave him my best tough-girl look. “Dude. I’m not a bitch. I’ll be as friendly as people are to me.”
“Riiiiight.” I went to kick his shin again, but he hopped out of the way. “Let’s go for a drive. We can scout out a pizza place.”
“Fine, but I get to pick the toppings.”
“No way. You picked last time.”
I grabbed a pair of gloves and my flip-flops. “Yeah, but you like to experiment with nasty combinations. The fact that you actually picked pineapple and anchovy means that you should be banned for life in the topping-picking department.”
“I still think the combo of sweet and salty could’ve been a good thing. It was nearly genius.”
“Near genius doesn’t count.” I shoved him. “Moron.”
He clutched his chest. “I’m hurt by your name calling.”
“Good.” I grinned. “Your ego could stand to lose a few pounds.”
“What’s wrong with knowing that I’m awesome?” He messed up my hair.
***
When we were on the way back with the pizza, a strange sensation tingled through my body. It was like a weight had settled over me. This intense sense of foreboding mixed in my blood making me cold.
By the time we got home, it was dark. Axel went into the house, but I lingered outside for a minute, sitting on the porch swing as I tried to figure out what was making me feel that way. I knew that staying outside after dark was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help myself.
Goosebumps ran up and down my arms. The full moon hung low and yellow. The crazies would be out tonight, or so Mom always said when it looked like that. I smiled. I was outside, so she had a point.
I hadn’t even realized that there had been noise outside until it was suddenly gone. The cicadas song cut off. The owls stopped hooting. There was no rustling of the leaves. Everything was still. A healthy dose of fear pumped through my veins.
A wolf crashed out from the woods. Then three more. They were playing, not really noticing I was there as they rolled around on the ground and pawed at each other. I probably should’ve been scared, but in that moment, I wasn’t. They were on the other side of the driveway, and I felt safe on the porch. I relaxed in the swing as I watched them. One of them bit another one’s tail, making the bitee yelp. I laughed.
One of them suddenly stopped playing and looked straight at me.
Dumb. I was so unbelievably dumb. These weren’t wolves in a cage. These wolves could actually come over here and eat me.
I thought about darting inside. It probably would’ve been the smarter choice, but I didn’t want to spook them by moving.
One of them came closer to the porch.
I stood up, torn between going down the stairs to pet it and rushing inside. I wasn’t stupid, but the way it was moving—with its head down and tongue out—it looked more curious than dangerous.
Before I could do anything, another wolf jumped out of the woods. It was beautiful, mostly white with patches of gray sprinkled along its face and back. The coloring seemed much more regal than the shades of brown the others were. It slid to a stop in between me and the approaching brown wolf, snarling.
Shit. That one was pissed and was more likely to eat me. I should’ve gone inside.
The new wolf stared down each of the others, and they started to whine and rolled over, exposing their stomachs. It had to be the alpha of the bunch. It howled and the others scrambled up, fleeing back into the woods.
The alpha turned to me.
My heart pounded. I stepped back into the front door until the doorknob of the screen door dug into my back. The wolf sat down on the ground to watch me.
Something about it seemed familiar. I couldn’t quite place it, but the face and its eyes just had this quality like I knew I’d seen it somewhere before. But I knew I hadn’t.
“Tess!” Axel swung the front door open. “You’re eating or what? The pizza’s getting cold.”
I turned away from the wolf for a second, and when I looked back, it was gone.
My breath came in short gasps as I looked back to Axel and then to the drive again.
“You okay?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I moved out of the way so Axel could open the screen door. He grabbed my gloved hand and pulled me inside.
“Come on,” he said softly. “You need to eat.”
I let him pull me inside. The whole exchange with the wolves went by so quickly that I wondered if it had actually happened. For the second time since I’d arrived in Texas, I was questioning my sanity.
Yet another thing to add to the weird and new category.
***
The next morning I must’ve changed a million times. I finally settled on casual. My favorite band T-shirt—a vintage Orb from their album Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld—plus jeans, chucks, and black loose-knit gloves with deep purple accents. It didn’t look like I was trying too hard. Even if no one else my age knew who The Orb was, the design was cool.
Mom and Dad were in the kitchen when I got downstairs. I did a spin. “What do you think?”
“Beautiful,” Mom said. She was still in her pink fluffy robe, with the belt knotted at her waist.
“That’s not helpful. You have to say that. You’re my mother.” I looked down at my T-shirt. “Too weird? I might not need any extra help in that area.”
Mom laughed. “You have to be who you are.”
Dad was already in his full suit. His hair was still a little damp from the shower. “Except let’s not take off the gloves today. Okay, princess?”
“John!” Mom was about to dig into Dad again.
“It’s too early in the morning for contradicting parents. Be yourself. Don’t be yourself. My head hurts already. Someone get me my AM medicine quickstyle.”
Dad opened the fridge and handed me an icy cold Diet Coke.
I popped the top and took a long chug. “Okay. Brain function returning. So which one of you lucky parental units is going to drive me to school?”
They shared a look. “Neither,” Mom said.
I set down my Diet Coke. “Well, if you think I’m going to go wake up Axel, then you’re going to be disappointed. I don’t feel like getting slugged.”
“He’s not driving you either,” Dad said.
“Are you guys high? I
can’t walk to school from here. It’d take me all day.” No way. “Please don’t tell me I have to catch the bus for my first day of senior year. Even you two wouldn’t be that cruel.” It wasn’t that I had anything against taking the bus, per se, but for me it presented all kinds of problems. The goal was to minimize the number of visions I got per day, not add to them.
They just stood there smiling. Waiting for me to realize something.
Holy shit.
My only defense for being so dense was that it was before eight AM. Anything before ten AM and I’m lucky if I can speak my native language coherently.
I ran out the front door. A new black VW Tiguan sat in the driveway with the other cars. “Nice.” Any car would’ve been amazing, but they’d picked the exact one I’d been lusting after.
Dad stepped out onto the porch and handed me the keys. “Have a good day, princess.”
I shocked him by giving him a big hug. Then ran inside and did the same to Mom.
“Thanks, guys. Way to start my year off in style.”
Dad wrapped an arm around Mom as she stepped outside to wave good-bye. “We try,” he said. “Now go, or you’ll be late.”
Once inside, I took a deep breath and inhaled the lovely new leather scent. The car was a classic black on black. And it was perfect. I set up my iPhone to link to it, and once I had the navi going and my music playing, I headed for school.
Chapter Five
The school was made up of two four-story buildings in an L-shape. The parking lot faced a football field with full-on stadium style seating and lights. Another smaller field backed up to it, but didn’t have as nice of a scoreboard or the seating. This place wasn’t messing around when it came to football.
I slid down from the car and grabbed my backpack. If my life were a movie, everyone would’ve noticed me walking through the parking lot and stared. Good thing I lived in real life, and was blissfully ignored. I even moved through my first few periods managing not to speak to anyone. But as I doodled over the fourth syllabus of the day, something tapped against my back.
I glanced behind me.
The girl with long fire-red hair had been in my last class, too. She passed me a note, and I slid it under my textbook as the teacher looked my way. As soon as she turned, I opened the carefully folded note.
Hot pink ink gleamed off the paper. Not my favorite choice in pen color, but who was I to judge. “Are you really from LA?”
I wrote a quick reply asking her how she knew, and twisted my arm to place the note on her desk without looking back.
A second later, the tap came again. “Small town. Word gets around. Plus, Mrs. Kelly—the front office lady—has a big mouth. That’s so cool!” The exclamation point was dotted with a heart. “Let’s talk at lunch.”
This was probably a bad idea. Psychometrics—people who got visions from touch—didn’t make good friends. I didn’t need to take my gloves off to know that we probably weren’t going to hit it off. Still, if I wanted friends, I had to keep an open mind.
The redhead appeared by my side before the shrilling bell had time to end. “I’m Rosalyn.” She was wearing a short frilly skirt and tank top. Her bright smile faltered as she took in my T-shirt. Maybe I should’ve gone with something less obscure, more Beiber-esque. I snorted before I could stop it.
She didn’t look amused. I cleared my throat and her gaze met mine. Her smile returned, but this time didn’t reach her eyes.
“Hi. I’m Tessa.” I loaded my arms with books just in case she had the urge to shake hands.
Her smile dimmed again. Shit. I should be smiling, too. I smiled, and she looked at me funny. I almost laughed at the awkwardness of the situation.
“Okay, well, I need to grab my lunch. Meet me here.” She strode off without waiting for a response.
Christ. This was going well. I made my way to my locker. It took me a couple of tries to get the combination right, but finally, the lock clicked. I shoved my books inside and grabbed the brown sack lunch Mom had packed for me.
Rosalyn was waiting for me when I got back to the door of our last class. She was holding a similar brown bag, and I said a silent thank you to Mom for being awesome.
“It’s a good thing you brought yours, too,” she said as we walked toward the cafeteria. “The food here is gross. No one eats it unless they’re desperate.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, but she didn’t notice.
She eyed my bag as if she could see through the paper. “What did you bring? Tofu? Sushi?”
Guess she had some ideas about what a proper Angelino should eat. “A turkey sandwich and some chips.”
“Oh.” Her mouth pressed into a firm line as she studied me from head to toe.
I nearly walked away right then. Mom and Dad were kind of right this morning. I couldn’t change who I was, even though I needed to hide my visions. I was a walking contradiction—equal parts wanting to fly my freak flag with pride and bury it in a deep dark hole.
“What’s up with the gloves? Are you a germaphobe or what?”
And there it was. This was why I didn’t talk to people. I needed a lie. A good one. Just my luck I was possibly the worst liar ever. “I guess it’s hard to stay current with fashion here.”
I held my breath, hoping she’d buy it. My cheeks weren’t heating, my usual “tell.” That was something at least.
“Ugh.” She stuck out her bottom lip. “We never get any of the new trends till they’re already over. I’ve got to get out of here.”
I couldn’t believe she bought it. If everyone here started to wear gloves because of this, I was going to laugh. Hard.
Rosalyn walked up to a round table that was almost full and sat down. Taking my cue, I slid into the chair next to her. Everyone stopped what they were doing, some in mid-chew, to gawk at me. One might think being a pariah at my old school would give me the ability to deal with these kinds of situations, but they never got any easier. I wanted to slouch, but didn’t dare. Showing weakness only made things worse.
“This is Tessa,” Rosalyn said. “She’s from LA.”
I counted eight other people besides Rosalyn sitting around the Formica. Two of the guys had on blue and white jerseys. Hiding my abilities from one person, hard. From nine? This could very easily be a disaster of epic proportions.
“Is that Tokidoki?” The girl to the right of me asked as she pointed to my bag. Her brown hair was done in some elaborate braid that would’ve taken me hours to attempt even though my hair was long enough to try it. I was jealous for a split second and then realized she must’ve gotten up at the butt-crack of dawn to get ready, a feat I would never dare to try myself.
“Cool hair.”
She grinned. “Thanks.”
I tapped my messenger bag. “Yep. I have kind of an obsession with Tokidoki.”
“Jealous! My dad won’t get me one. Says a teenager doesn’t need such an expensive backpack. But I found my Harajuku Lovers one on eBay for a sweet deal.” She rummaged around in it and pulled out a copy of Us Weekly. “Have you ever met any stars?” She flipped through pages, stopping on a picture of my favorite Scotsman.
I flashed back to the party before we left LA. The look on his face when he stared at me was something I wished I could erase from my mind. I could’ve probably impressed the group by saying that he’d been one of Dad’s clients, but that would’ve required a bunch of explaining and would probably come off as bragging. Not a good option.
I took a closer look at the photo. “That’s Larchmont Village, one of my favorite streets in LA.” I shrugged. “You see them every once in a while. I mean they’re normal people. Just like us.” I quoted the magazine’s tag line, but got a bunch of empty stares as I glanced around the still silent table. I quickly re-thought my no-bragging approach. “My dad had a lot of stars as his clients, including him.” I tapped the picture. “Plus, there were tons in my neighborhood—Bel Air.”
“No way!” Fancy Braid Girl said.
&nbs
p; “Isn’t that where the Fresh Prince lived?” the boy across the table asked. His dimples winked at me as he spoke.
“Yep.” He was cute, but nowhere near Dastien’s level of hotness. Perfect. I was obsessing over a boy I didn’t even really know. That made me officially ridiculous.
Fancy Braid Girl grabbed the corner of my T-shirt. “Who’s this? I’m Lindsay, by the way.” She cocked her head, waiting for me to answer.
It took me a second to realize she was talking about my shirt. “Um…The Orb is one of my favorite groups.”
“It’s really soft. Has to be printed on something better than American Apparel for sure. Lemme check.” She reached toward me, but I leaned away. “Don’t freak. I’m just checking the label.”
Her fingers brushed against the back of my neck.
“Oh, Lindsay. You’re so soft,” Dimple Boy said. His voice was muffled as his lips moved along her neck.
Ew, gross!
The seatbelt dug into Lindsay’s back. She was giddy as his wet lips pressed against hers.
I banged my elbow on the table, jolting me back to the lunchroom.
“Yup. Printed on Splendid,” Lindsay said.
I looked around as I rubbed my elbow, but no one seemed to notice anything weird. At least I hadn’t said anything to give away the vision.
“Her jeans are J Brand,” Rosalyn said. “I bet she has good stuff stashed in her closet. She’ll be a good addition.”
I slowly inhaled and exhaled to let the aftershocks of the vision fade from my body, before trying to speak. They were going to be sorely disappointed if they thought they were going to raid my clothes. I’d never be able to wear anything they borrowed again, and shopping really wasn’t my thing. “I don’t really pay much attention to brands, but I like to do screen printing. Splendid’s shirts are my favorite to work with.”
Lindsay made a face at that, but then Dimple Boy asked a question. From then on it was a solid twenty-five minutes of being barraged with a million and one questions about LA. By the time the bell rang, my palms were sweating. I itched to take off my gloves and let my skin breathe, but that was so not an option.