Deception

by Stacy Claflin

  "Augh!" I shrieked, heart pounding twice as fast as normal. I jumped away from the window, no longer caring about the weather.

  Brooke was blinking her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

  I tried to force my breathing back to normal before I answered. "I was looking out the window and a crow flew by and scared me."

  "A crow?" she asked.

  "Yeah, they've really been freaking me out. Yesterday, a bunch of them were flying around me and it really unnerved me. Now this, it's so weird."

  "Yeah that is really...weird," she said. "Stay away from those things. I've heard that they will attack people."

  "I've heard of them attacking small animals but not people."

  "Oh they will attack people too, so be careful."

  "That's fantastic," I sighed. "Here I was thinking that it was just creepy, but now it's dangerous too."

  "Is anything else weird going on?" she asked.

  "Like what?"

  "Like anything out of the ordinary at all."

  "Things have been spontaneously exploding around me," I said. "On Natalie's birthday, a bunch of light bulbs shattered at home. They burst outside and inside. Then some exploded at Natalie's practice too in the gym, which was right after her smoothie erupted all over her face." I couldn't help giggling at that last part.

  Brooke giggled too. "That's strange. What was going on when the lights started exploding?"

  I thought for a moment. "The first lights blew up when my parents gave Natalie the new BMW. Then some exploded in my room after they told me that I had to go to her practice to cheer her on. Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

  "You know me. I have to know all the details about everything!" she said. "So you were pretty mad about the BMW?"

  "Mad? I am furious about it! What's worse is that they can't even see the blatant favoritism that they have for her. There is nothing about her that is more special than me! I just don't get it! They buy her the nicest of everything and make me work for everything. My mom even blames me for that, saying that I wouldn't appreciate nice things if she did buy them for me. Can you believe that?"

  "Obviously not much has changed," she said. "Except that they are buying her even more expensive things now than before."

  "It will never change. That's why I am going to college far, far away from Delphic Cove." I could feel the rage trying to surface in me again.

  "I can only imagine how awful it must be to have to live with that and then to have her be so popular at school too."

  "It's worse than awful! Everywhere I go, I hear about how great Natalie is and how wonderful she is. Great, she can hit a ball over a net but does that mean that she needs to have everything handed to her?"

  "It's not right at all. You get better grades, you work hard, you should have nicer things than she does," Brooke said.

  "You're right!" I exclaimed.

  POP!

  A light bulb in Brooke's room shattered.

  "What is going on with these lights?" I exclaimed.

  "It seems like every time that you get mad something explodes," Brooke said, not moving to clean the mess.

  "Are you listening to yourself?" I asked. "Are you suggesting that I am causing all of this stuff?"

  "It makes sense if you think about it," she said.

  "It makes no sense! Light bulbs and smoothies don't explode because someone is mad!"

  "Then why is everything blowing up when you are so angry?" she asked.

  "You're really going to blame this on me? You sound like my mother!"

  Brooke laughed. "I don't sound anything like her. I'm not blaming you for these things. You didn't go planting explosives. I just said that things are exploding when you're mad. It's a simple correlation. I would think that the girl that everyone used to call 'the scientist' could see that."

  I narrowed my eyes at her. "The crows showed up when I was feeling relaxed and happy."

  "What do you make of all of this?" she asked.

  "I don't know what to think of any of it!" I exclaimed. "It's insane. It makes no sense whatsoever."

  "It is crazy," she said. "Well, let's not focus on it. Why don't you get in the shower and I'll make my special omelets. You will love them--everyone does!"

  "Okay," I said, sighing. "I'm sure a nice warm shower will help get my mind off everything."

  Brooke smiled. "Definitely! I'll see you downstairs!" She jumped up and ran out of the room.

  As I was getting my stuff out of my bag to get into the bathroom, I heard Brooke talking to her brother.

  "We were right, Steve. The lights bursting at the gym were from Alexis, lights keep bursting when she is angry."

  "So it's finally starting," her brother replied.

  What was starting? What were they talking about? I opened the bedroom door, expecting them to be right outside, but they weren't. I tiptoed around the entire floor, but they weren't there.

  I went down the stairs quietly and crept around until I spied them in the office at the other end of the house. There was no way that I should have been able to hear them from Brooke's bedroom. That should have been impossible.

  I snuck back up to Brooke's bedroom and looked for a vent or some other way in which I could have heard them talking. There was nothing that would have allowed me to hear them. She had an old style heater that didn't have vents.

  Maybe I had imagined it all. It was probably the stress of everything causing me to hear voices. I was upset when I heard voices when Natalie was in my room. My emotional state had to be triggering this, I decided to find some way to keep myself calm, despite the circumstances.

  It was no wonder that I was overwhelmed. I had my parents' favoritism in my face, crows chasing me, and also my anger seemed to be causing things to explode.

  I hoped that the homecoming dance and preparations would be enough of a distraction to help me forget about all of it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  On Monday at lunch, I sat down next to Amanda at our regular table with Emma, her boyfriend and some of his friends. Amanda looked lost in her thoughts and everyone else was talking with each other.

  "Is everything okay?" I asked Amanda.

  She looked up. "Everything is fine. I'm going over all my history facts for my test next period."

  "Want some help with that?" I offered.

  "Nah," she said. "I'd rather hear what you've been up to. I didn't hear from you all weekend! Some best friend. Ha! Last I saw you, everyone was running from those freakish lights blowing up."

  "Don't remind me," I mumbled. "On Saturday, I ran into Brooke and spent the night at her house. We caught up on the last two years."

  "I forgot all about Brooke," Amanda said. "They just up and moved suddenly, didn't they?"

  "I guess it was sudden," I said. "It seems a blur in my memory."

  "They did move unexpectedly, I remember it well. I've never seen anyone just up and move so fast before."

  I shrugged my shoulders. "They're doing fine now. She's taking classes on fashion design and she wants to create a homecoming dress for me."

  "What? She's going to create a homecoming dress for you? Does this mean that you're actually going to go to a dance?" Amanda smiled and adjusted her glasses.

  "Yeah. Somehow, she talked me into it. I'm probably going to make a complete fool of myself."

  "No you won't! This is going to be so much fun. I can't wait!" she exclaimed. "So, do you have any ideas on who to go with?"

  "I'm going with her cousin who is going to be in town."

  "Ohhhh...is he cute?"

  "She says he's very handsome and that all the girls will be jealous of me," I said, rolling my eyes.

  "Oh, this is going to be amazing! I can't wait! I can't believe you're finally going to go to a dance!" Amanda began to dance in her seat.

  "Who are you going with?" I asked, trying to get into the excitement that everyone else had. I had never been to a dance before because I didn't want to make a fool of myself,
and I never had a boy interested in dating me. Of course, I never gave them any reason to be, always studying or working and never putting effort into my looks.

  I couldn't understand spending hours in the bathroom like Natalie did, just to get the attention of some boys. I was much more interested in preparing myself for a solid career.

  I loved watching and reading crime dramas and wanted to have a job in a field that would allow me to take part in putting the bad guys away. It would be fun to use my science knowledge to uncover evidence at crime scenes. Even to be a lawyer or a judge would be exciting as well.

  The entire process of bringing down the evildoers was alluring to me, and of course that was not popular with most kids my age. There was actually a club at school called the CSI Club, of which I was a member, that met once a week. It was the one time of the week that I looked forward to.

  Much to the disappointment of my hormone-driven friends, I didn't even have any interest in any of the smart, geeky guys in the club. Amanda and Emma seemed to think that I was really missing on something special by not spending hours and hours with some guy, while gushing over him to the point of not being able to focus on my school work.

  No thank you. I would much rather have boredom and misery now pushing through classes that I didn't care about to get those A's and get into a prestigious school which could earn me the career of my dreams.

  It was no wonder that I didn't fit in very well with the other kids. I was definitely not the average teenager who was only focused on right now with no care for the future consequences of their actions. Everyone saw me as boring, myself included.

  I knew that the day was coming when I would be a successful adult with a job I was crazy about, and making all kinds of money because of it. Then all these people, whose glory days would to end at graduation, would be telling their families that they knew me back in high school.

  I suddenly 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, though to me dances and boys just seemed so trivial.

  "Emma and some other girls and I were going to talk our dates into renting a limo and going to dinner before the dance. Do you want to go with us?" she asked.

  "That could be fun," I said. "Just let me 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. I'm so excited that you'll be going! It's never as much fun without you."

  The bell rang and we all went our separate ways.

  The afternoon breezed by as I went through my afternoon honors classes and then walked to my CSI club. Once the meeting was over, the school was mostly empty since everyone else had already gone home or was practicing their sports in the gym or on the field.

  As I walked to my car in the parking lot, I heard the familiar whirring noise again 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, perhaps even double.

  Now they were between my car and me. I would have to risk running directly underneath them to get to my car. They were staring at me and a few were starting to caw. Soon, they would all be cawing.

  I had to decide what to do–-and fast! I started running toward the school and away from my car as fast 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 a lot of the sport fields were.

  Once I got near the football field, I dared to look behind me to see if the crows were still chasing me; they were gone. 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 his arrogance.

  "There's no fire," I shot back. I didn't owe him any kind of explanation.

  "I can't believe how fast you were running," he said, sounding impressed.

  "Yeah, that's why they call it running, because it's fast." Why wouldn't he go away?

  "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 all the girls that are 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 you know. My name is Alexis."

  "You should think about joining the track team, Alexis. You would definitely make the cut. You might even be the fastest in the school. You're really fast," Tanner insisted.

  "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 said.

  I laughed. "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," I pointed out.

  He gave me a funny look. "I have to get back to football practice. 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 as he turned around and jogged to the football field.

  I walked slowly past the building and peeked around the corner to see if those nasty crows were waiting for me.

  They were.

  I walked the whole way around to the other side of the school, and when I saw that 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 had seen me and had begun to make their way towards me, I was already locked inside my car. I drove out of the parking lot as fast as I could.

  I couldn't believe those crows! What did they want and why were they so obsessed with me?

  I had a little bit of time before my dinner shift at the deli, so I decided to go to the library and get some studying done.

  I had just settled into a chair to read a book, when someone sat down in the chair next to me and said, "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 me in the arm. "I was at the sports store down the road, and I decided that I may as well get some homework done here and wait out the traffic."

  "Makes sense. I hate fighting the traffic at this time of day down town."

  "It's such a waste of time," he said. "What are you studying?"

  "Honors Lit. We practically have to read a book every week. It can be a bit much, but it's good prep for college, where they really expect a lot out of you," I said.

  "You've always been so smart. You're going to do awesome in college. What are you going to major in? I assume you already have it all planned out."

  I smiled. "Well not all planned out. I want to do something to do with justice, either working as a judge, an attorney or even in the CSI field."

  "The justice field, huh?" he asked. "That's amazing."

  "Amazing? Why?" I asked.

  "Oh! I...uh, it just seems...uh," he stammered and then changed the subject. "Your school has that CSI Club, right? Are you part of that?"

  "Yeah, I am. I love it. The science behind solving the crimes is phenomenal. I think I'd really love being a part of that. La
st 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.

  "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 take seemingly insignificant clues to prove someone's innocence or guilt."

  "That sounds very 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 get this book read."

  "Right, sorry," he said, and 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 crows really following you around?"

  I sighed. "I really don't want to talk about the crows, Stephen."

  "I go by Steve now," he said.

  "Okay, Steve, I really don't want to talk about the crows."

  He laughed. "I'm sure you don't, but I want to hear about them. It's not every day that someone is being chased by crows, you know."

  "You are definitely Brooke's brother," I said. "You two are nosy."

  "Yes we are. You can't hide much in our family! So tell me about the crows," coaxed Steve.

  "You're not going to stop until I tell you, are you?" I asked.

  "Nope, so you may as well just tell me," he grinned.

  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 by the creepy birds.

  "You must have 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. "If it's in you, then it's in you."

  It was my turn to change the subject. "So what's your cousin like? Brooke has set us up for my homecoming dance, but I know nothing about him."

  "My cousin?" he asked, looking confused. "Oh! You mean Clifford. Right. Yeah. I almost forgot that he was coming to visit."