After weaving around parked cars for a couple blocks, Rissa swung into the drive of a small tan house with dark brown shutters. It was only a one story. Amy swung her door open, Rissa just popped over hers. I scooted to Amy’s side and slid out. My bike was sitting in the grass by the drive. Apparently Kevin had been here and left already. Another girl I’d seen in the gym this morning was warming up at the hoop hanging off the garage. Rissa waltzed over toward her.
I couldn’t believe I was here. It was so strange seeing the cool girls right in front of me in their natural habitat instead of at school. And I’d actually been invited. I’d never cared before but, somehow, today it felt different. The urge to fit in welled up and nearly overwhelmed me, scaring me with its sudden grip on my emotions. I’d never fit anywhere before, with any humans, but I’d had an excuse, knowing I wasn’t one of them. Now I wasn’t fitting very well with my own kind either. I needed to choose who my own kind were. And right now, between Starren being so controlling, Wade being a murderer, and the Council ordering Wade’s hits, the humans seemed like a better fit for me. Which meant I actually needed to start trying, to stop the pretending that I was going to be part of the fae someday.
I still had to work with Starren and Wade to get that chance at a normal life, but I was also going to do real human stuff, like play basketball. “Can I use your phone? Mine got smashed yesterday.”
“Sure.” Amy pulled a new iPhone out of her pocket. So not fair. “How did you smash your phone?”
I’m sure I looked like an idiot, but no immediate answer came to mind. “Ah, I fell on it?”
“Okay, well glad you didn’t get hurt. Just sit mine with my gym bag when you’re done and come on over.” She walked toward the other girls and tossed her bag on the ground out of ball range.
I dialed the Inza’s number. No answer. Shoot, it was Wednesday. Dan was still at work and Nina had a meeting at church. And shoot again. I’d totally forgotten I was grounded. But this could work. The beep for the answering machine sounded. “Nina, it’s Trisha. Just calling to tell you I went to play basketball with some friends. I know technically I’m grounded, but you really wanted me to make friends and I’m trying. I should be home before you are, but if not, don’t worry. Bye.” I hit the end button. Hopefully Nina and Dan were just so glad I was out with friends that they wouldn’t say anything.
After sitting the phone carefully on the bag, I headed toward the basketball hoop.
“Trisha, this is Addison,” Amy said, nodding toward an African-American girl in a red and blue school colors t-shirt.
“Hey.” She was smiling at me and it actually looked real. Girls my age did not smile at me. What was going on? Maybe I should be legitly worried.
“Hey,” I answered, giving her my best smile back.
“Amy,” a woman called from the porch. I looked that way. She looked a lot like Amy, just without the black/blond hair. “Are you girls coming in to eat?”
“Any of you hungry?” Amy asked us. I waited until Addison said yes, then I nodded. “Coming,” Amy called back to her mom.
I followed the girls in. They were talking about some new store at the mall I’d never heard of. When I’d first moved in, Nina had tried to take me to the mall for weeks. She finally gave up about two months into my stay. But who wanted to go shopping with their mom, foster or otherwise? Maybe I’d go if these girls asked me. Maybe.
The entranceway of the house was filled with pictures. So many family pictures. Nina had started a collection of us, but it was only a year old, not seventeen or eighteen like this one was. Amy, her mom, a guy I guessed to be her dad, and a kinda cute guy a couple years older than us filled the entire hallway.
“Amy’s older brother, Steven. Hot, isn’t he,” Addison whispered to me.
“Oh yeah,” I answered, even though compared to Wade he wasn’t that great. Wade, with his dark blond hair and those green eyes… No. Not going there. But I could do this, talk about guys and stuff. I could be one of them.
We piled into the kitchen. Amy introduced me to her mom, Francine. She had a vegetable tray, Oreos and milk sitting out on the counter. We all went straight for the food.
I looked around at the other girls laughing and talking as they dunked their Oreos. So this was what life was supposed to be like. This was what Nina was always trying to do for me with the snacks and telling me to invite kids over from school. Maybe I should have let her do it for me. Maybe I’d have my own group like this if I had. But then, maybe this was going to be my group now.
Snacks all consumed, we headed back outside.
“So, teams,” Rissa said once we were back at the court. “I say Amy and Trisha, since Amy is the best one here and no offense Trish, but we don’t know how you play.”
“No offense taken,” I answered. They were about to find out just how bad I was. I’d always been clumsy, but it had gotten worse over the last year. So much for gracefulness being in the fae DNA.
“Great. Addison, that leaves you and me.”
“Let’s get it on,” Addison said. She laughed and swiped at the ball Amy had scooped up from the ground.
“Okay then, you against me, Trisha,” Rissa said. “Rock, paper, scissors for which team gets the ball first.”
The words weren’t even out of her mouth before she started, leaving me scrambling to catch up. I picked scissors, my default choice. It beat Rissa’s paper. She shrugged. “I had you pegged as a rock girl.” She tossed me the ball.
Amy patted me on the back. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. You and I are going to get along just fine. Take it out behind the tape.”
I looked to the ground at the court that had been taped on the cement and headed out of bounds. Addison was instantly all over Amy, and Rissa came straight for me. Now how was I supposed to get the ball to Amy? After a moment, Amy broke free of Addison and shot across the homemade court. I threw the ball hard. It bounced off the cement straight into her hands and she drove toward the basket for a layup.
“Oh yeah, look at that,” Amy crowed.
Rissa turned to me and looked me over, then grabbed the ball off the ground and tossed it to Addison, who went behind the line. I moved toward Rissa, staying just far enough away to make her feel like I wasn’t a threat, but close enough to stop her from getting any easy points. Amy stuck to Addison like glue.
It took a moment, but Addison found an opening and tossed the ball toward Rissa. I jumped forward, hit the ball before it got to her hands, knocking it toward Amy who barely had time to turn and catch it, going in for two more points.
“Why aren’t you on the basketball team?” Addison asked.
“I don’t play much,” I said, not sure how to answer. When had I become so coordinated? Something had changed since the last time I’d tried a sport, more than two years ago, before Dan and Nina. Some fae puberty thing?
“Well, you should,” Amy said.
We went back to playing. We played hard for twenty minutes or so, Amy and I creaming the other two until Rissa and I both went up for a rebound at the same time. She slammed into me, knocking me back against the corner of the garage and to the ground. My arm screamed in pain as it brushed across the cement, peeling off layers of skin.
“Trisha, are you okay?” She moved in close, looking me over. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to, seriously.”
Amy dropped to her knees beside me. “What hurts?”
I hid my arm behind my back. Heal, heal quick. It was going to heal either way; it just needed to do it quickly before the girls saw it happening. I could lose everything I’d caught sight of today. “Nothing too bad, I’m fine.”
“Let me see.”
“Nah, it’s okay, let’s just get back to the game.”
Amy looked at me quizzically. “Okay, if you say so.” She turned and went after the ball, which had flown out into the yard with my not so graceful landing. And this was why I didn’t have friends. Stupid, stupid. I needed t
o be more careful.
We went back to playing, but with far less intensity. I played carefully and it wasn’t long before Addison and Rissa were catching up. How long did I need to play before they didn’t know that I was leaving because of the fall? I went another fifteen minutes before calling them to a halt.
“I better head home guys,” I said after Rissa made a crazy three point shot.
“Really?” Addison actually sounded disappointed. Probably because they wouldn’t be able to play two on two anymore, but still, it sent the warm fuzzies through me.
“No one answered when I called, I left a message, but you all know how that goes.”
“Sure do,” Rissa said. “Who can we get a hold of to take her bike home?” she asked the other two.
“Actually, I don’t live too far from here. I can ride.”
“Oh yeah? What street do you live on?” Amy asked.
That wasn’t really something I wanted them all to know, but how did I get out of answering? “Truit.”
“Nice. Close enough you can come play again. You should think about joining the team at school, you played great today.”
“Thanks,” I answered then headed for my bike, trying to get away before they asked anything else. I wiped at my nose with my shoulder. I wasn’t going to cry. Nope. Wasn’t happening. I’d only spent one afternoon with them. I’d be fine without them. It wasn’t worth someone finding out about me. The Council wouldn’t go for that and I’d end up changing my permanent address to Faerie.
“Sure you’re okay after that fall?” Amy called after me. “I don’t want you getting half-way back and something starts to hurt. Especially since you don’t have a phone.”
“I’m fine, thanks. And tell your mom thanks for the snack, it was great.” I hopped on my bike and took off, not caring which direction, just needing to get away. I pedaled hard for a few blocks, then slowed to catch the street names. Not far from home at all, maybe fifteen minutes. I’d drag it out as long as I could. Maybe by then I’d be able to get these emotions under control. And hopefully the tears would be dry.
Chapter Ten
Friday morning. At this time last week, I was dead in the woods. Time went by so fast. It didn’t help that I’d been out of it for two of those days, but still. I learned more about fae in the last week than in all the years of Mom teaching me. Not so much book type knowledge, but real life knowledge. Only so much came across when being explained, instead of experienced.
I left for headquarters super early for two reasons. One, Nina was being all emotional. She was the only reason I remembered the whole being dead a week ago thing. Two, I wanted to get there in time to tell Starren to not send Other Me to school. It would be better to take the risk of the school calling Nina about me not showing than it would be for Amy, Rissa or Addison to try to talk with O-Me at school. That thing didn’t seem too smart and it had no idea what had happened yesterday.
Actually, I didn’t know how that worked, now that I thought about it. Did they make a new Me every time they needed one with all the memories intact, or did they just send the old one out? Either way, it just didn’t seem like a good idea. I’d gotten home last night before Dan and Nina and deleted the message I’d left for them. What they didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt them. Especially Nina, who’d be so excited about me having friends.
I biked to the entrance and stopped just outside. Cumat wasn’t here to greet me like normal, so I pushed my bike tire against the wall in just the right spot. It disappeared. I shoved off with my feet and coasted through the portal on my bike. I slid to a stop, barely through.
Plopping my bike down, I half jogged up the hallway. Today was the day. I could feel it. We were going to find Jaden.
I met Cumat part way up the hall. He was probably on his way to get me. He nodded a good morning but was uncharacteristically quiet, just spinning around and leading me to Starren’s door.
The others were already there. I could hear them fighting with the door still closed. Something about a mom. My mom? I looked over at Cumat, but he didn’t pause. Shoot. If he hadn’t been here I would have stopped and listened. When Cumat shoved the door open, Starren snapped her mouth closed.
She didn’t say anything, just brushed by me and headed for the portal room.
Wade shrugged when I sent him a look, and we followed.
My mom was coming up an awful lot. Did they know who my mom was? If so, they knew more than I did.
We followed Starren at a good clip. Starren moved into the room, stopped us outside of the portal door and grabbed Cray. “Where in Chicago? We have three portals to choose from.”
Chicago? What happened to California? No one seemed to be in the mood for questions, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Near water. Something to do with wood?”
Starren thought for a moment, then nodded. She grabbed the doorknob and flung the door open, then stepped through without a backward glance.
The rest of us jumped through after her. We arrived in the early morning sometime. What was the time difference anyway? Mom and I had skipped this place on our tour. She had never said why, just didn’t want to go there. I remembered because I had wanted to come to see the aquarium but she had said we couldn’t.
“Lead,” Starren said. Cray looked down at the asphalt and headed out.
I kept about ten percent of my attention on him, the rest I used to check out the city. We were in a nice section, for sure. What section, I had no idea. The shops were amazing, crazy styles that I’d never seen before decorating the windows.
There was a record shop, a shop selling painted china. I stopped at a clock shop and looked inside for a moment. The clocks all ticking in tandem was nearly hypnotizing. I looked at one of the clocks closer, a grandfather clock, wood shining a beautiful dark color.
Nine o’clock here. Ten at home. Mrs. Hemp definitely knew I was a no show for class by now. If she’d called Nina about me acting strange, what was she going to do when I disappeared for the second time in a week? Poor Nina. She was going to think I was lost in the state forest again.
“Hey, guys, wait up,” I called after the others who were leaving me behind. “Can I use one of your cell phones?”
The group looked at me.
After a moment Wade took pity on me. “None of us have cell phones, Trish. We don’t have anyone here to call.”
True. Now I felt stupid. “Well, can we find a pay phone? I need to come up with a reason that makes sense for me not being at school and call Nina.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Starren snapped. What was wrong with her today? She was so uptight.
“I don’t have a choice. Dan will throw a fit.”
“You think I care about what these fake parents do? You think I care about their feelings? You’re crazy,” she practically snarled.
“Hey, take it easy,” I said, blowing a breath out of my nose, fighting the urge to yell back. Obviously something was wrong today, she was being weird. “No, I don’t think that. But he works for the government here. Trust me, you don’t want my face plastered all over everything.”
Okay, so the news that I was missing again probably wouldn’t make it this far unless I was gone for at least a week, but it was a good excuse. “You need my help with Jaden. Just wait two minutes.”
She got in my face, her eyes slightly crazy as she leaned in. “You think we can’t do this without you? What did we do until we met you this week? Sit around and wait to be rescued?”
“She’s right, Starren,” Wade said.
“We probably shouldn’t be doing this even with her help,” Cray said nervously, pushing up his glasses. “I would prefer waiting to hear back from the Council, but if you aren’t willing to do that, we don’t stand a chance without Trisha.”
Starren snarled under her breath, her face contorting into something scary.
Wait a second, why were they so worried?
“Tomorrow is his r
ecorded birthday. We have to find him today,” Cray whispered to me.
Oh crap. How had I not thought of that? We did seriously need to find him. But first I needed to call Nina.
I ignored her and walked away. There had to be a pay phone around here somewhere. I knew they were getting rare, but we were in a very public area. It took a couple blocks, but I found one next to a bus stop. I reached for the phone and paused, hand in midair. Did I really want to do this? Which was worse, calling Nina and making her and Dan mad, or letting them worry? I stood by the payphone and chewed my lip.
“If you’re going to do it, just do it,” Starren said.
They would be mad either way, maybe less mad if I warned them. I dropped in some loose change and dialed. Good thing I’d thought to bring money, couldn’t depend on these fae for everything. The phone rang and rang. I let out a quiet breath of relief. A message would do. Then, of course, Nina picked up.
“Hello?”
“Um, hi Nina,” was all I could think to say at first. I’d been going over the message I was going to leave in my head. “I’m going to be home a little late.”
“I’m glad you called. Are you going to a friend’s house?” She laughed. “Where are you calling from? The caller ID says Chicago. Obviously something is weird. Unless you’re traveling?” She laughed again, cracking herself up like normal.
Oh, crap. I hadn’t thought about caller ID. What did I say to that? What a stupid idea. Had I actually called because they needed me to, or because I wanted to hear Nina’s voice? “Gotta go,” it came out rough, the week catching up with me. I wanted to let everything that had happened pour out to her right then and there, but I couldn’t. For one, fae or not, she’d probably kill Wade. “Talk to you later.”
“Wait, Trisha, where are you? What’s going on?” Her voice faded as I reached forward and put the phone on the hook. I wasn’t going to feel bad. Nope, not bad at all. Okay, maybe a little. But I’d done the right thing in calling her. I couldn’t help it if she worried more.
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