Deception

by Stacy Claflin

A single light above the stage shattered. I knew then and there, with full certainty, that the exploding light bulbs were all me. She was going to have to be the one to watch her back, because I was determined to learn to control this strange new superpower.

  "What was that all about?" the announcer asked, laughing. "Get your clappers and screamers ready, people! Let's hear it for Hailey Adams!"

  The room exploded with noise as the crowd began clapping and cheering. She smirked at me and then turned to the crowd and waved, encouraging them to bring up the volume.

  When the noise died down, the announcer told the crowd to cheer for me and the noise level was noticeably louder than it had been for Hailey. I couldn't help but feel glad about that after her comments to me.

  I looked over at her and she said something that I couldn't hear at all. I tried not to laugh.

  The crowd kept going and going. The announcer tried to get them to calm down, but even with the microphone, he couldn't be heard and everyone got louder when he tried to speak. He laughed and backed away from the mike until the noise finally died down.

  "We have a clear winner here! The beautiful Alexis Ferguson is your Junior Class Princess!" He walked to the table of tiaras and crowns and picked up mine.

  "You're going to pay!" Hailey hissed at me. She looked ready to throw a temper tantrum.

  The announcer placed the tiara on my head and handed me a bouquet of flowers. I stood next to Natalie, who congratulated me excitedly. Hailey stormed off the stage.

  "This is so exciting," she said. "We're both homecoming princesses!"

  I laughed. "Who would have guessed?"

  She smiled. "Nobody would have before tonight! You look unbelievable! You two were awesome on the dance floor too!"

  The announcer called up the Senior winners, the king and queen. After they had received their crowns and flowers, we all went up to have pictures taken, followed by an exclusive royalty-only dance. I made small talk with my dance partner as we danced. We had never talked to each other before that night.

  I was glad when the dance was over and made a beeline for Cliff and my friends. They were all congratulating me and Emma was beside herself with joy to be a BFF of one of the princesses.

  Hailey showed up with a huge scowl on her face. "Alexis, since you stole my tiara and my dance, I am going to steal a dance with your date."

  "She didn't steal anything, Hailey!" Emma insisted. "The crowd picked the favorite. You weren't it!"

  Hailey's face became beet red. "Emma, you'll never be popular--or skinny!"

  "At least she has smarts and she'll make something of herself beyond high school," I told Hailey.

  The people around us started laughing. I hadn't even noticed anyone paying attention to us.

  "You both had better watch your backs," Hailey hissed. I was waiting for claws to shoot out of her fingers and horns to pop out of her head.

  "Why are you so concerned with us watching our backs?" I asked. "You're too afraid to say or do something to someone's face that you have to go behind their backs like a coward?"

  "You go, Alexis!" someone shouted behind me.

  I tried not to laugh, but I really loved my new found confidence. I had discovered the truth in the saying that you feel good when you look good. I also knew that, with some practice, I was going to master the light bulb explosions and use those to my advantage as well.

  "How dare you call me a coward?" Hailey demanded. "You think that because for one day you look okay, you're better than me?"

  "I don't think that I am better than you," I said. "But I refuse to fear you."

  "You will regret that decision."

  "Look, if you would like to dance with my date, that's fine with me. But you'll have to ask him if he's willing to dance with you. Otherwise, you can leave my friends and me alone," I told her.

  "I'll leave you alone when I'm ready to leave you alone!"

  "Would you like to dance?" Cliff asked Hailey. "Perhaps I can convince you that Alexis meant no harm, because I know she didn't."

  She glared at me and barked at Cliff, "Let's go dance."

  As they began dancing, Emma asked me, "How can you let her dance with Cliff?"

  "I'm not worried about her at all," I said. "He is smart enough to see that she's shallow and evil."

  Emma laughed. "That's true!"

  "Let's go dance, the three of us!" I said. "We'll show her that we can have fun and that I am not threatened by her dancing with my date."

  "Sounds like a great plan!" Amanda said, and we all made our way to the dance floor and danced together. We were having fun, and it was obvious that it was irritating Hailey. I wondered what, if anything, she had up her sleeve for us or if she was just blowing hot air.

  By the time that Cliff and I were dancing together again, he said, "She's very interesting."

  "I'm beginning to see that too," I said. "What did she have to say to you?"

  "She was trying to convince me that you are a horrible person," he said. "Though all she managed to convince me of is what a horrible person she is."

  "She does make it pretty obvious."

  We danced for a while longer until people began leaving. Our group made its way to the limo--without any winged visitors. Once inside, everyone decided to go for coffee since nobody wanted to go home just yet.

  Once inside the coffee shop, we all sat together at the tables that we pulled together. We laughed about Hailey and talked about all the events of the night. We chatted for at least an hour until the coffee shop closed, then the limo started dropping everyone off.

  When Cliff and I were dropped off at Brooke's house, he walked me to my car and looked into my eyes and said, "I had a wonderful time, Alexis. I would really like to get to know you better. Would you allow me the pleasure of taking you out for dinner tomorrow?"

  I smiled. "I would love that!"

  "Perfect," he said. "I'll call you tomorrow and we can work out the details." He opened my door, and I climbed in for the short ride home.

  CHAPTER SIX

  That night, I had dreams of being a princess in a faraway castle. They were strange, in that it felt like I was experiencing them as a small child, but at the same time like I was observing them as my current self.

  When I woke up, I was disgusted. Was I turning into a prissy girl who was going to swoon over my newfound love? I would do anything necessary to keep that from happening. I was determined to keep focused on my grades so that I could have a successful career and depend on myself. I didn't need some man to save me.

  Even so, I couldn't shake the images of my dreams. As I lay in the dark thinking about the castle, I began to drift back to sleep.

  I found myself in the middle of a flower garden, on one side of the same immense castle that was in all of my dreams. I was running through the dirt, chasing a boy who was about nine or ten. He was significantly taller than me, so I must have been pretty young.

  His clothes were fairly modern, given the fact that we were at a castle. I would have expected much different attire. I was wearing a dress that was also more modern than I would have expected.

  Suddenly, the boy turned around and looked at me. Those were the same eyes that I had been staring at all night!

  He grinned and said, "Marguerite, now it's my turn to chase you!"

  Marguerite?

  I giggled, turned around and started running the other direction through the paths of the enormous garden. I looked back and he was close behind, laughing and smiling at me. I loved those eyes.

  As I started to get tired, I dove onto a pile of leaves and he jumped onto the pile right next to me. He started piling the leaves on top of me. I shrieked and started throwing them at him.

  I heard some adult voices not too far away.

  "Look at those two, they are truly made for each other."

  "They absolutely adore each other."

  "There is nothing he wouldn't do for her. He would go to the ends of the earth for her."

  "Just
as it should be."

  "She is so devoted to him. Already, everything she does is for him."

  "Nothing makes my heart happier than to see them growing up together like this. By the time that they are grown, their love will be so solid that nobody could get in between them."

  "They are going to lead with a strength that has not been seen in thousands of years."

  "They are exactly what our kingdom needs."

  "I love how things work out for the best like this. Things have been so difficult for such a long time. I really hope that they are able to bring peace for the land."

  "According to the prophecies, that is exactly what those two will do for our people."

  "I was hoping that we would be able to eradicate the Moretti's, but it looks like Clifford and Marguerite will be the ones."

  I turned to the boy. "What are the grownups talking about?"

  He jumped up and held an invisible sword. "Someday you and I are going to fight battles and beat the bad guys!"

  "Wow!" I exclaimed. "How are we going to do that?"

  "We'll spend years training and we'll develop our special powers!" He swung his invisible sword at imaginary people all around him.

  "What are our special powers?"

  "Nobody knows yet," he told me. "The powers will start coming out when--"

  "Children! Time to come inside!"

  "Oh!" I complained. I got up from the pile of leaves anyway. The beautiful, brown eyed boy and I walked out of the garden to where the adults were. They were beyond gorgeous.

  "Alexis! Alexis!"

  I didn't want to open my eyes or leave this dream. "Go away," I mumbled, and pulled my covers over my head.

  "Alexis! You have to wake up! I think Hailey did something to your car!"

  I opened my eyes and Natalie was standing over me, still dressed in her homecoming dress.

  "Why are you still in your dress?" I asked groggily.

  "I just got home," she said. "But that's not important. You need to go look at your car!"

  I got up, put a hoodie on and looked out my window. Something was all over my car, but I couldn't tell from up in my room. "What's all over my car?"

  "Let's go down there so you can see for yourself," Natalie said.

  "I hope you know that you interrupted a very good dream."

  "Oh...were you dreaming of Cliff?" she asked. "He's so hot! Those eyes are to die for!"

  "No, I wasn't dreaming of him," I said. At least I didn't think I had been.

  "Later, after I wake up, you have to fill me in on everything!" she said. "I want to hear all the details from last night! But after you see your car, I need to get some sleep."

  As we started to leave my room, I stopped in my tracks when I passed my homecoming dress. The pattern on the dress was exactly the same as the pattern on my dress in the dream. The dress itself was completely different, but the pattern was the same.

  "What's wrong?" Natalie asked.

  I shook my head. "Nothing, just admiring the dress."

  "It is a gorgeous dress," she said. "I love that pattern! I've never seen anything like it before. Brooke must have gotten that in Paris."

  "Must be," I said. "Let's go see the damage to my car."

  There were dried raw eggs and shaving cream all over my car. It would take a few washings to get it clean.

  "Can you believe her?" Natalie exclaimed. "She has some nerve! We've got to figure out a way to get back at her. Maybe we could TP her house or stuff something gross in her locker!"

  "Don't worry about that," I told her. "I have something much better in mind."

  She smiled. "I can't wait to see what you're planning!"

  "It will be good, trust me. But first I need to figure out how I'm going to clean this car."

  "I'm sure that dad has some strong cleaners in the garage. You know how he won't let anyone else wash our cars except him."

  "Good idea," I said. "I'll look there first. Hey Natalie, can I borrow an outfit tonight? Cliff is taking me out for dinner."

  "He is? I have the perfect outfit for you! I can help you with your makeup and hair if you want."

  "That would be fantastic!"

  "I better get some sleep so that I will be ready to help you later," she said and walked inside.

  I headed for the garage to get supplies to clean my car. It was completely covered in junk, so I knew she put a lot of effort into it. I had already decided that the next time I saw Hailey at school I would act happy and as if nothing had happened. That would tick her off. Happiness and success are always the best forms of revenge.

  After I finally finished getting my car cleaned up, I was really sore from the combination of dancing and washing the gunk off my car. I decided to go lay down for a while before getting up to study. I couldn't believe that I hadn't touched my homework since Friday night.

  I fell back to sleep quickly and found myself back at the castle. This time it was night and I was laying in a luxurious bed. I had been awakened by some noise in the room followed by hushed conversation. I pretended to be asleep.

  "We've got to be extremely careful! No mistakes!"

  "I won't make any mistakes. Are you sure that your family members will be where you say they will be?"

  "It's all set, so don't worry about my end of things."

  "What if she wakes up?"

  "Don't worry! She trusts me and it will all be fine."

  There were some shuffling noises and then someone picked me up out of the bed. I didn't know what was going on, but I did know one of the people and I trusted her. I was scared but didn't say anything.

  Before I knew it, we were outside and I could hear the sounds of the leaves rustling below and branches breaking. I could hear some animals in the distance and some birds nearby. They sounded like crows.

  "How much longer?"

  "It won't be long now. We're nearing the edge of the woods at this speed."

  "Shouldn't we change her memories?"

  "Have you forgotten? She's one of the descendants of the Fyrsturae!"

  "Oh, right. It's impossible to tamper with her mind."

  "She also has the mark of the Sonnast. Who knows what could happen if we tried to control her mind. I don't want to find out."

  "Let's hurry. We only have a short time to drop her off and to change the memories of her new family."

  I woke up in a cold sweat. The dreams were insanely crazy and entirely too realistic. It was as if I had actually been there as a little girl. I decided to get into the shower and focus on other things and forget about these crazy dreams.

  As soon as I got out of the shower, I realized that I was starving. I warmed up several helpings of a pasta dish that was in the fridge. Then I got into my sparkly clean car and drove to an abandoned field that nobody ever went to. I had with me a box of burned out light bulbs.

  I laid out several light bulbs in a row in front of me. I hoped they didn't have to be plugged in to make them explode.

  I looked at one and tried to will it to explode. Nothing happened so I tried again.

  Nothing.

  "What am I doing wrong?" I asked myself.

  I stared at it with such a concentration that my face became red.

  Nothing.

  Then I realized that every time I made a light bulb shatter, it was when I was raging mad. I sighed because I was not mad at all.

  "Well, I better get mad," I told myself. I started to think about time after time that my parents had favored my sister over me. Those examples were plentiful and easily came to my mind. The images passed through one by one much like a slide show.

  It worked and soon I found myself ready to punch someone. I focused all of my energy on the middle light bulb in front of me. I took all of my anger and tried to use my eyes as a laser to make it explode.

  It didn't even budge.

  "Dang it!" Then I heard two explosions from the box of light bulbs. "Are you mocking me?" I asked whatever force was making these bulbs not explode.

>   I turned my attention back to that middle light bulb. "Explode! Explode!"

  Nothing happened. "This is ridiculous! Why can't I control it? It's obvious that I'm causing it!"

  I decided to try again, and this time a different light bulb in the row that I had lined up shattered. I wasn't happy, but at least it was progress. This one was closer to the one that I had been trying to burst.

  For the next half an hour, I continued to practice my new talent. I managed to shatter the lights in the row each time, but I never did get the bulb that I was trying to burst. One time, I did get the bulb next to the one I was trying for, but that was the best that I could do.

  On my way home, I thought about my upcoming date with Cliff and the wonderful time that we'd had the night before. I needed to get rid of all the anger I'd been focusing on trying to break the light bulbs.

  ***

  When I got back home, Natalie had already picked out my perfect outfit. When I put it on, I saw immediately that she was right. It looked fantastic! I asked her to show me how to put on makeup, since Brooke hadn't let me watch her the day before.

  I couldn't believe how good I looked--nearly as good as I did the night before! I was starting to enjoy this new look of mine. I was amazed at how looking good made me feel even better and more confident.

  I hoped that I could find a balance between looking good and keeping my academic focus. I didn't want to become obsessed with how I looked and lose my perfect GPA.

  Just as the doorbell rang, Natalie sprayed her favorite perfume on me told me that she wanted to hear everything when I got back.

  ***

  I looked at the red sports car that we were walking up to. I couldn't believe that it was his. There was no way that I was going to admit that the ugly old car in the driveway was mine.

  He looked at me and smiled. "Do you think that my car is a bit much?"

  "No, not at all! It's a very nice car--was it imported? I've never seen one like this outside of the movies."

  "Yes, I had it imported. Would you like to drive?"

  "Are you kidding? I would be afraid to!"

  He looked into my eyes. "I trust you. Besides, you strike me as a safe driver."

  "I am. I've never even been pulled over. But I don't want to drive it," I said. I didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of him.