“For sure,” Van agreed. She wanted to continue reading the book and hoped Paley wouldn’t feel like staying up and talking.
“You get any flak about your brawl with Pernilla?” Paley asked, as she fluffed the contaminated pillow Van had thrown on the floor.
“Nope,” Van said. “But there’s always tomorrow.”
Paley rolled her eyes in solidarity.
“I wouldn’t use that pillow,” Van said. “It was on the floor.”
“’It’s fine.” Paley yawned. “Night.”
“Night.”
Within moments, Paley had fallen asleep.
Van went back to skimming the text. She flipped through the pages, trying to make out any of the words. Finally, she gave up. She needed sleep too.
She leaned over to shut off her nightstand light, saw the time on her clock, and gasped! She had spent an hour mesmerized by a text she couldn’t read. She flicked off the light, snuggled under her sheets, and squeezed Twinkle Toes to her chest.
Her dreams were filled with toga-wearing people she felt she should know, who spoke a language she didn’t understand.
CHAPTER SIX
Day 1: 6:37 a.m., Earth World
Van jerked awake, as Genie’s muffled, irate voice drifted in from the hallway, followed by indistinct voices responding to her stepmother’s drama. Van tensed—no one else occupied the third floor, which meant they were headed for her bedroom!
Paley popped up from a sound sleep and gaped at Van, her eyes full of terror. For all her casual flouting of the rules, Paley knew that if a Grigori discovered her away from the orphanage without permission, she might lose her hard-won employment at the Naked Ape. Genie and Van’s father felt okay about Paley sleeping at the Manor, as long as no one complained. After being caught at the bonfire last night, Van and Paley didn’t want to push their luck.
Blankets and pillows flew through the air. Van leaped out of bed to help hide Paley, who sprang up, grabbed her backpack, and scrambled for cover in Van’s oversized closet.
Van tossed the sleeping bag in behind Paley and had settled back into bed, when she noticed the burned book on her nightstand. She grabbed the text, dashed across the room, and tucked it into the neat pile of clean clothes Luma had left on her bureau. She dove back into bed and tried her hardest to look nonchalant, as the door to her bedroom burst open.
“Oh, good. You’re awake,” said Genie, striding into Van’s room. Genie had changed into a sharply pressed dress. She had styled her hair in a chignon and expertly applied her natural-looking makeup. She looked like her normal self again. “Put on your bathrobe. There are some Grigori here to talk to you. I directed them to your sitting room.”
Genie seemed irritated, so Van obeyed. She slid out of bed and grabbed her pink-and-white bathrobe from a hook on her bathroom door, then followed her stepmother into the adjacent room.
“Sorry to barge in like this, Vanessa,” Uxa said.
“They’re not sorry!” Genie said, her high cheekbones flushed pink.
“Would you prefer to talk downstairs?” Uxa asked Van.
Van’s L-shaped walk-through bedroom closet extended into the sitting room. Paley could still hear their conversation through the slats in the closet door. Van shook her head. She wanted Paley to hear what Uxa had to say. That way, she wouldn’t have to repeat the conversation later.
Fynn shifted his weight from foot to foot, darting his eyes around the room. Then he looked at Van as if trying to hide that he’d scanned the room, searching for something.
Van got the shivers. She had an inkling that Fynn—and Uxa, too—suspected that Van had found her father’s text after the Grigori had swept the Manor last night. She felt relieved that she’d securely tucked the book inside a pile of clothes in her bedroom.
“What do you want?” Van asked, sitting on the edge of a red velvet chaise lounge. Her words had come out more harshly than she’d intended, but they sounded better than “Get the hell out of my room.”
“Vanessa, do you remember me?” Uxa asked. “I work with your father.”
“HG Huxatec, my father’s boss.” Van pulled the bathrobe around herself, nodding. “You stop into the gym sometimes to talk to the teachers when I’m at my special classes on the reservation.”
Uxa seemed pleased. “No need for formalities. You can call me Uxa. This is Tussel Fynn, an associate of mine from the reservation—”
“They came to take you away!” Genie shrieked.
Van’s stomach lurched; her shoulders slouched. “W-Why? Did I do something wrong?” Uxa was an enforcer of rules—a strict, stern woman, obviously here to deliver news of Van’s punishment for last night’s fight.
“No, no, not at all,” Uxa said, who held her unwavering gaze on Van. “It’s . . . you may have heard the rumors. We’re forming a team of children to work on a project this summer.”
Van sighed in relief, then got angry. You barged into my house at 7 a.m. to tell me this? Why? But she filtered her thoughts and kept her cool. She knew acting out would affect her placement and reflect poorly on her family. “I did hear about that.”
She couldn’t hide the disappointment in her tone, though. Van knew where this conversation was going. She envisioned her summer filing papers in some boring satellite office on the mainland of Massachusetts, instead of enjoying the beach.
“Special children,” Fynn said. “For a special project.”
His attempt at a smile made Van suspicious, rather than reassured.
“It’s a great honor,” he continued. “You are the only one chosen from the island.” “Vanessa’s not special.” Genie harrumphed. “She’s a bit slow, so she’s in remedial classes. She’s not summer project material.”
Van flushed and looked down, twiddling with the robe’s cotton sash. Genie had known all along that Van’s placements hadn’t been earned, that the Elders had fixed them.
“Your placement tests demonstrated you have certain abilities,” Uxa said. “Abilities no one else has.”
“Maybe you got the results mixed up.” After what Pernilla, and now Genie, had said, Van wasn’t sure she had any abilities at all.
“No, no. There’s no mistake,” Uxa said. “We need you, and we need for you leave right away. You’ll spend the summer away from home.”
Van’s anxiety flared. “I don’t want to leave the island.” Or my clothes or my bedroom or Paley or even Ken.
“She’s not going anywhere!” Genie screamed, stomping her exquisite foot on the floor.
For once, Van felt glad for her stepmother’s interference.
“It’s a short while,” Uxa said. “Only thirty days.”
“Twenty-nine, not counting today,” Fynn cut in.
“She doesn’t want to go! She’ll be useless!” Genie screeched. “She could never survive away from her hairdresser for that long!”
Van was astounded by how much noise could come out of someone so petite.
“This is not optional,” Fynn said to Genie. “The results of Van’s placement tests assigned her to this, er . . . project. She’s required to abide by the island’s Rules of Testing.”
As abrasive as he was, Fynn was right. Van had no desire to be permanently banished to the mainland. She sighed. “Only twenty-nine days?”
Uxa nodded. Her lips curved upward into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“No!” Genie said. “Not unless you tell me exactly what she’ll be doing over there! My husband is missing, maybe even dead. Now you want to take my daughter, too? Isn’t anything enough for you people?”
Van felt touched by Genie’s concern but, at the same time, disturbed that her stepmother had mentioned her father might be dead.
“Over where?” Van asked. “The mainland?”
“I’m sorry, Iphigenia,” Uxa said. “All I can tell you is that Vanessa will be working with the Grigori. The rest of her mission is classified.”
Van’s back stiffened. “Mission?” She didn’t like the sound of that.
Genie persisted. “Does this have something to do with Michael’s disappearance?” There was strained silence. “Can you at least give me any news about my husband?”
Uxa gave Fynn a look.
“Come with me,” he said to Genie. “I’ll give you the most up-to-date information we have.” He clasped Genie by the elbow and led her from the room.
For the first time in Van’s life, she hated to see Genie go. Left alone with Uxa, she began to realize what she would miss by being placed on the project. Her eyes welled up. It was so unfair. She would miss the beach, the boardwalk, the parties. She swallowed hard.
“Does this have something to do with my father?” she asked, her voice squeaky from the tightness in her chest. “Why did you call it a mission?”
“I’ll give you all the details once you arrive at the reservation. For now, you must pack.”
Van used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes before they spilled over and embarrassed her. “Can Paley come with me?”
“Sorry, no. She didn’t place for it.”
“Is Pernilla going?” Van asked, practically spitting her nemesis’s name.
“It doesn’t matter that Pernilla placed number one overall in the Games,” Uxa said grimly. “This is a special situation. She is not assigned to this project.”
Van felt instantly relieved. The project wouldn’t be so bad without Pernilla there.
Uxa fidgeted. “Listen, Vanessa, did you see your father last night?”
Van remained outwardly calm, as her internal alarm blared. She shook her head no.
“Did you find . . . did he . . . leave you anything yesterday?”
The charred text. Uxa was asking about the text. Again, Van shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”
Technically, Van didn’t see her father last night, and he didn’t give her anything. She’d found a text in his fireplace, a text he’d obviously tried to destroy. Genie once told Van white lies were okay if it meant protecting the family, and Van had started to think her father might need protecting.
Satisfied, Uxa gave a curt nod. “Be packed and ready by six o’clock tonight. Fynn will pick you up here and bring you to the reservation. I’ve a meeting to attend, along with many things to do before briefing your team tonight, so I must be going.”
Uxa walked across the room. She reached out and grasped the doorknob, then paused and glanced back toward Van with a solemn expression. “The wheel of fate has turned upon you, Vanessa. You have been called forth to do a great deed. Be prepared, as you are now standing on the threshold of a legacy.”
Van gulped. The sitting room door closed, and Uxa was gone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Day 1: 7:43 a.m., Earth World
The second the sitting room door shut, Paley burst out of the closet. “You got chosen! How cool is that?”
Van cringed at Paley’s loud voice. “Shhh! Someone could still be lurking.”
“Doubt it,” Paley said. “I would love to see the reservation and go on an off-island adventure. I wish I was picked, too. Thanks for trying.”
“You lucked out,” Van said, leading Paley back into her bedroom. “I’m going to be support staff for the Grigori, shuffling papers around, instead of going to the beach.” Van took off her bathrobe and re-hung it on the bathroom door. “From going to my classes on the reservation, I can tell you—there’s nothing to see there.”
“But you get to find out what the Grigori actually do. Uxa called it a mission. That’s exciting.”
“Not exciting. I have nothing to wear.” Van fanned her fingers and frowned. “Is the Naked Ape open today? I need to get my hair and nails done.”
“You’ll be on a team,” Paley said with a huge smile. “There’ll be boys from off-island.”
“Mainlander boys? Ick.” Van shuddered elaborately. “I like our guys just fine.”
The ringing of the Inter-Island Connect landline intruded on their conversation.
Van tore out of the bedroom, practically decking Paley on the way. She ran to the wall phone in the hallway. “It’s probably Ken, calling to apologize,” she said in a rush. “Not that I care.” She picked up the receiver.
It was Miss Nutting.
She had heard about Van’s placement on the summer project and wanted to say good-bye and offer Van a complimentary blowout and polish change. Miss Nutting understood that thirty days was too long to be away from the salon.
“Paley’s here with me,” Van said. “It’s okay if we both come, right?”
Miss Nutting hesitated.
“We’ll be there in a bit,” Van said before Miss Nutting answered, then hung up.
Paley scrunched her face. “What?”
“She sounded . . . upset, almost.” Van shrugged. Miss Nutting’s hesitation seemed to indicate she didn’t want Paley tagging along, which was out of character for the good-natured hairdresser.
“Oh.” Paley let out a breath. “You’re there all the time. She’ll miss you.”
Van rummaged in her closet for a backpack. “She’ll miss my money, you mean.”
“No, that’s not what I mean,” Paley said, gathering her things and shoving them into her worn backpack.
Van tucked a clean pile of clothes into a brand-new pink-and-red backpack. She grabbed her favorite hairbrush, then Twinkle Toes.
“Why are you bringing that?” Paley asked.
“I can’t go to sleep without Twinkle Toes.” Van tried to smush the stuffed animal into her backpack. It wouldn’t fit, so she left it on her bed.
“I meant your backpack.”
“Depending on how long our appointments take, I might not have time to pack this afternoon,” Van said, pulling off the sales tags. “These are just the essentials. I’ll have Luma send the rest of my things when she gets back.”
The girls changed into Capri pants, summer tops, hoodies, and flat sandals. Van searched the first floor for Genie but couldn’t find her stepmother. Luma had taken off for the long holiday weekend, and her father was MIA. They were alone. Van grabbed the nearest IIC to call for a taxi.
“Why don’t we walk?” Paley said, full of pep.
“No way.” Van’s blistered feet still hurt after walking in her boots last night. She dialed Island Taxi.
Ten minutes later, a classic yellow six-seater buggy pulled up. Van and Paley slid into the back and slammed the door.
“Put it in on my family’s account, Urvi,” Van said.
The grumpy driver grumbled his acknowledgment, stepped on the accelerator, and they zipped away. The buggy bumped and bounced as Urvi took them over a “shortcut” on an unpaved roadway.
“Don’t you think it’s a little strange you were the only one chosen from the island?” Paley asked. “I know you get picked for everything, but you’re only a sophomore. It’s weird—just saying.”
“Why are you saying anything at all?” Van snapped. Paley’s usually well-hidden envy showed in her comment, implying that Van hadn’t earned her place on the project. She glanced at Paley, ready to blast her, but saw Paley’s defeated face, and Van’s resolve crumbled. “I’m sorry. I’m a little stressed. We only have a few hours, so let’s make the most of it.”
“Maybe Miss Nutting will know how I can sneak off-island and meet up with you!” Paley said, her mood now cheery. “I can give you updates on what’s going on!”
“Okay!” Van said. “Then I won’t miss anything.” She gripped the seat to keep from being expelled from the buggy, as Urvi careened around a corner.
“Miss Nutting will know a way,” Paley said, also holding tight. “Trust me, working in that beauty salon—most of her clients are Grigori and Elders. She knows everything.”
Van kept her grip on the seat and breathed in the fresh salty air. She gazed out the window, admiring the white birches with their curls of peeling bark, the massive trunks on the courtly beech trees, and the shimmering pines. All which faded into picture-perfect sand dunes dotted with spiky green beach grass, as Urvi zoomed down Bo
ardwalk Way. Within minutes, they skidded to a stop outside the door to the Naked Ape.
Miss Nancy Nutting, proud owner of the jungle-themed salon, wore a fern-print smock, with her curly, butter-yellow hair swept up in a tiger-striped clip. She offered her usual greeting when they walked in, but today her smile seemed forced and her shoulders tense.
Was it because I brought Paley? Van wondered.
Paley plunked her backpack down next to the colored contact lens display and dug into the newly arrived merchandise.
“Tell me everything Uxa told you about this project,” Miss Nutting said, guiding Van into the shampoo chair. “Spill.”
Van and Paley told their story, while Miss Nutting washed Van’s hair. Afterward, Miss Nutting seemed even more agitated and combed out Van’s wet hair with painful jerks, rather than her usual flowing motions.
“Ow! What’s going on?” Van asked irritably.
“Is that all Uxa told you?”
This serious side of Miss Nutting disturbed Van. She wished the carefree, graceful hairdresser she knew and loved would return. “Yeah. Why?”
“I’ve known you both since you were babies.” Miss Nutting dashed over to the salon’s door. “Paley, you’re like a daughter to me, kindred souls, both of us being from the Gables, and since you’re here, you can hear this, too . . . and Van, left to be raised by that rotten stepmother of yours . . . there’s things you need to know before going over there.”
She clicked the lock, flipped the “open” sign to “closed,” and turned her back to the door.
Patting down her apron, she faced Van and Paley with an expression so commanding, it would’ve stopped an avalanche. “I need to tell you girls the truth about the island.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Day 1: 8:52 a.m., Earth World
After Miss Nutting suggested they “act natural,” she whipped out the Whisperer, a low-noise, cordless hairdryer, along with an enormous round brush, and began styling Van’s hair. “Do you know why our Native Island tribe has blue eyes, blonde hair, and skin pale as the moon?”
“You mean,” Paley asked, “versus the Native Americans who are darker skinned, with black hair and brown eyes?” Her own hazel eyes were now aqua blue and had one yellow star surrounding each black pupil.
Shock of Fate: A Young Adult Fantasy Adventure (Anchoress Series Book 1) Page 5