“There was a Pac-Man and Asteroids at the Pizza Hut on the reservation,” she said. I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. With Meg, it was sometimes hard to tell.
“Pac-Man?” Priscilla said. “That’s the dinosaur of video games.”
“It’s a classic!” Meg protested. “Sarah’s mom was a pro. I used to watch her play all the time. The only other person who could beat her was Charley.”
I made the sign of the devil. “Don’t speak the witch’s name.”
Meg gave me a look. “Oh, stop. She wasn’t nearly as bad as what I remember.”
I snorted. “Oh, really? In my op—”
“Come on, come on!” Priscilla said, shoving her thick mop of hair out of her face while shaking her remote at us in impatience. “We have, like, five more minutes before break is over. We’re wasting valuable time here.”
I un-paused the game and Dynamite blared from the television speakers once more. After a moment, though, I noticed that Priscilla was copying my moves step-for-step.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be the girl with the green dress!”
Priscilla glanced my way, a look of comic horror on her face. “What? I thought I was the girl with the red dress.”
I laughed. “That’s me!”
Priscilla stopped mid-step as she contemplated the scores on the screen. “You mean I’m not winning?”
“No, you’re not winning. I am!”
“Wait,” said Meg, still tripping over her own feet. “Am I the guy with the yellow hat or the other guy?”
I collapsed onto the couch, unable to stop laughing. “You’re the other guy, Meg! This is a freaking disaster.”
The back door swung open and David popped his head inside. “Meg, what are you doing? In case you haven’t notice, we’re swamped out there. You’re supposed to be helping me, not in here goofing off.”
“You’re just jealous we didn’t ask you,” I teased.
“Whatever,” he said. “I could out-dance all of you with my mad skills.”
“What mad skills?” Priscilla said.
“These mad skills.” David stepped into full view and performed some weird combination of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk and . . . something else.
“What the heck do you call that?” Priscilla said.
“Haven’t you ever heard Walk Like an Egyptian?”
Meg laughed. “Melody used to listen to that song all the time. I thought she’d drive Mom and Dad crazy with it. That, and Eternal Flame.”
David stretched out his arm to Priscilla and began swaying from side to side, singing some cheesy ballad I’d never heard before.
Priscilla, who’d had a secret crush on David for years, looked like she was about to pass out. She fanned herself with her hand and fluttered her eyelids. “Omigod. He’s hot. And he sings.”
“Gross!” I said. Reaching for a pillow from the couch, I chucked it at David’s head. “Get out of here!”
He began singing louder, but thankfully left.
Meg, laughing, tossed her remote onto the couch and held up her hands. “I’ve got to get back to work. I guess you win, Sarah.”
Priscilla flopped down next to me. “I’m out, too.”
“What? Come on,” I said. “Just one more dance.” I began flipping through the songs, looking for a particularly difficult one I’d been practicing on the sly.
“You’re too good at this,” Priscilla complained. And then she added, as if reading my mind, “What do you do, get up in the middle of the night and dance by yourself? It’s no fun playing with you.”
“You guys are just sore losers,” I said.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out. “It’s Adrian,” I announced. Into the phone I said, “Hey you.”
“Hey. I’m coming over.”
Something was wrong. The abruptness of his tone caught me off guard, and the smile fell at once from my face. “Is something the matter?”
“No,” he said a little too quickly. “Why?”
Adrian was lying. “You sound weird,” I said.
“It’s nothing. I promise. I just . . . I sort of have an unexpected surprise.”
The knot in my chest loosened and I fingered the heart pendant at my throat, zipping it back and forth on its chain. “A surprise?” I said, smiling. “What sort of surprise?”
“Well, I don’t want you to freak out or get mad or anything.”
I gripped the phone tighter in my hand. “You do realize that I’m going to freak out now just because you said that.”
Priscilla whacked me in the leg with the back of her hand and mouthed, What’s going on?
I shrugged and mouthed back, I don’t know. Adrian wasn’t making any sense at all.
“I’ll just . . . I’ll see you in a few.” The line went dead. He didn’t even say goodbye. I stared at the phone in my hand before shoving it back in my pocket with a shrug.
Priscilla’s brows rose into her hairline. “So?”
“Not a clue,” I said as I pushed the coffee table back in place, “but something’s going on. Adrian’s on his way over here right now with some sort of surprise.”
Priscilla handed me the game disc and I returned it to its plastic case. “Surprises are supposed to be good. So why are you making that face?”
I stopped, standing with my hands on my hips. “’Because I’m not so sure about this one.”
The door swung open again. Meg, the no-nonsense version, was back. “Break’s over. I need you both working inventory, so let’s get going.”
“We’ll be there in a minute,” I said. “We’re just cleaning up.”
Meg closed the door again and Priscilla turned to me, a thoughtful look on her face. “You don’t think it has anything to do with his dad, do you?”
My heart stuttered in my chest at the thought, but surely that couldn’t be it. “He said he has a surprise. That doesn’t exactly qualify.”
Priscilla’s eyes lit up. “What if he’s going to propose?”
I looked at her. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I’m totally serious. And just so you know, I get dibs on Maid of Honor. You can pick Meg if you want, but I really think you should pick me, seeing as how we’re best friends and all. And the dress can’t clash with my hair. Navy blue and emerald are my colors.”
I dropped the remotes in the basket as I debated whether to laugh or knock some sense into my best friend’s head. “I see you’ve given the issue of my hypothetical wedding a lot of thought.”
Priscilla nodded enthusiastically. “Totally. Ever since I found out that you and Adrian are, like, cosmically destined for each other.”
“Cosmically destined?” I muttered, and then laughed. “Listen, Adrian is not going to propose. He said he didn’t want me to freak out, so why would he say that if he was going to ask me to marry him? Marriage proposals are supposed to be exciting. Not to mention spontaneous.”
“They’re supposed to be. But wouldn’t you freak out, even a little, if he asked you to marry him?”
The back door opened and David’s head appeared this time. “Get a move on, ladies. You’re not getting paid to stand around.”
“We’ll be right there,” I said, shooing David away. “I promise,” I added when he didn’t budge.
David closed the door and I turned to Priscilla. “I would definitely freak out. I mean, I’m seventeen years old. I am so not ready to be someone’s wife yet. But like I said, he’s not going to ask me to marry him.”
Priscilla grinned. “We’ll see about that.”
We made our way outside only to have Meg shove ledgers, garden supply catalogues, and a very long list of needed items at us. The warm weather wouldn’t last forever, which meant we had to start planning the cold-weather crops even as we were wilting from the heat.
My uncle had spent the last two weeks since our return from the reservation digging additional raised beds and constructing another smaller greenhouse that would extend the growing season. As the
summer crops dwindled, Meg, Priscilla, and I concentrated our efforts drying herbs, and distilling and bottling the essential oils the local herbal shop ordered every year. Still, money would be tight.
I had my nose buried in a ledger and supply catalogue, calculating how many peas we had left in stock and how much of a supply we’d need to order, when Priscilla nudged me in the side. I shoved her arm away with an irritated grunt.
“Thanks a lot. You made me lose count,” I said.
“Who’s that with Adrian?” she hissed in my ear.
I looked up and nearly snapped my pencil in two. All the blood rushed from my head and I clutched her arm. “You have got to be kidding me,” I said.
Adrian’s face lit up with exaggerated glee the moment our eyes met. He skirted around the table where Priscilla and I had set up our work things and nearly tripped over a pile of boxes in his rush to get to me. He pulled me against him in a tight hug.
“At least pretend like you’re happy to see them,” he whispered in my ear.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Caleb and Jasmine actually standing there, right in my very own backyard, like one of my worst nightmares come to life. “What are they doing here?”
I must have said it louder than intended because Jasmine crossed her arms and answered, “I keep asking myself that same question. This isn’t exactly how I planned on spending my weekend, you know.”
Adrian’s arms loosened around me, and I fumbled for my stool. If I didn’t sit down soon, I was going to pass out.
“They came for a visit.” Adrian’s smile stretched ear to ear as he and Caleb bumped fists. “Awesome, right?”
“Awesome isn’t exactly the word I would use to describe it,” Jasmine said.
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Jasmine. You’re just pissed because now you and Astrid can’t sit around painting each other’s nails all weekend.”
She sniffed as she looked around the greenhouse. “Yeah. Well, I suppose I can see why you didn’t exactly put up a fight when Mom told us we were coming here.” She gave me a pointed look, one brow raised higher than the other.
A furious heat rose to my cheeks. Whatever she was implying, I did not feel that way about Caleb, and I didn’t exactly get that vibe from him. We didn’t even know each other!
“You came all this way just for a visit?” I said.
“Apparently so,” Jasmine said, with not a little sarcasm.
Caleb grabbed her arm. “Chill out, Jas—”
She yanked free. “Sorry if I’m a little less enthusiastic than my brother here, but I think I’m entitled. I actually had plans until my mom had to go and ruin them all.”
Priscilla cleared her throat beside me and gave a general wave to break the tension. “Hi. So I’m Priscilla. Sarah’s best friend.”
I shook my head, some of the shock of seeing our visitors wearing off. “Oh, um. This is Caleb and Jasmine Moon.”
“I kind of got that,” Priscilla said.
I turned to Caleb. “So you’re here just to what, hang out with Adrian for a few days?”
“Doubt it,” Jasmine answered. “I can always tell when Mom’s up to something, and she’s definitely up to something.”
That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach returned. “Like what?”
“How should I know?” Jasmine sneered.
She obviously wasn’t happy to be here, and the feeling was mutual. I didn’t want to spend any time with her, or Charley. I also didn’t want to share Adrian with Caleb, especially since we had a date already planned for later that night.
I hadn’t forgotten about the last time we’d seen each other two weeks ago, when I’d found out he had powers, too. Seeing him now made me realize I’d been worrying about the implications of what that meant.
Jasmine was still complaining, even though no one was really listening. I looked at Caleb and rolled my eyes, and he turned his head to hide a grin.
“I mean, how stupid is that?” Jasmine was rambling. “I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
Meg, who’d been helping a customer when Adrian, Caleb, and Jasmine showed up, approached us just then. She smiled at Caleb. “Well isn’t this a surprise? What are you doing here so far away from home?”
“They’re staying with us for a few days,” Adrian said.
My eyes cut first to Adrian, and then immediately to Jasmine. She eyed Adrian with a proprietary grin and tossed her long, glossy hair behind her shoulder.
“I suppose that part isn’t so bad,” she said.
“Oh no she didn’t,” Priscilla muttered with a giggle.
There goes our date, I thought. I returned my attention to the ledger in front of me. Something was definitely going on, like Jasmine said, but what?
Meg left to help David with a customer, and Priscilla offered to show Caleb and Jasmine around. Adrian sidled next to me, his arm nudging mine.
“You’re freaking out,” he said when I refused to look at him. “I knew you would freak out about this. Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s just for the weekend. I’m sorry about tonight. We can reschedule.”
I threw my pencil on the table, where it rolled off and fell to the ground. I left it there. “I’m not upset about our date.”
“Then what is it?”
“We talked about this already. You know how I feel about Jasmine, and she’s made it perfectly clear how she feels about you. And now she’s here, rubbing my nose in it. She’s even staying in the same house as you.”
In fact, Jasmine’s name had come up a lot over the past two weeks. We’d talked about her so much we’d had our very first fight and then gone two whole days giving each other the silent treatment.
“Not this again,” Adrian said as he closed his eyes and raised his face to the sky. “She’s just a kid.”
“She’s fifteen. And gorgeous. She’s practically throwing herself at you, and you’re either too blind to see it or too dim-witted to notice.”
Adrian’s eyes widened. “Did you really just call me dim-witted? I honestly thought you were better than that.” He gritted his teeth. “For the last time, I told you that you have nothing to be jealous about.”
“Jealous? Who said anything about being jealous? I’m not jealous.”
“You aren’t?” His skeptical tone told me he didn’t exactly believe me.
“Of course not! I’m just . . . I’m just really . . . I don’t like her!”
The muscles in Adrian’s neck bulged. “Well you know what? I don’t particularly like the way Caleb looks at you, but you don’t see me getting jealous and acting all weird about it.”
I gasped. “What are you talking about?”
“And not just Caleb. Maybe you don’t see how other guys look at you, but I do. They look at you. All the time.”
“That’s a load of BS! What guys are you talking about?”
“Caleb, for one!”
“Why are you so stuck on Caleb? What’s he got to do with anything?”
“He’s interested in you. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice when we were on the reservation.”
I rose to my feet and thrust out my chin. “Like you said, I’m the most unobservant person ever.”
“What? I never said that!”
“It was implied.”
“For the last time, I’m not—”
David inserted himself between us, giving us each a severe glare. “Cool it. People are staring. This is still my place of business. And,” he said, looking pointedly at me, “your place of employment.”
Adrian stormed off and I bit the inside of my cheek, suddenly on the verge of tears. I had never before been so furious with him. “I just wish we could go back to the way things were. When we were normal.”
David’s face softened and he gave my braid a playful tug. “We were never normal, Sarah. You just didn’t know it.”
TEN
“I’m hanging out at your place tonight,” Shyla said quietly as she sank into the couch next t
o me. “If I have to stay here, with her,” she added, nodding in Jasmine’s general direction, “I’ll lose my mind.”
Jasmine was acting as though she didn’t care what Shyla was saying to me. However, as someone who’d had a lot of practice pretending not to care, I thought she wasn’t doing a very good job looking disinterested.
“You’re always welcome at my place,” I said, not bothering to lower my voice. After the way Jasmine had treated me during our visit to the Katori reservation, I wasn’t going out of my way to hide my true feelings where she was concerned.
“Maybe I’ll stay with you the entire weekend. I can’t believe—”
Charley cleared her throat, effectively cutting off Shyla. “Thank you all for coming here tonight. We’ll consider this an informal Council meeting.”
“Can you believe how she’s practically moved in and taken over?” Shyla whispered to me, her voice toxic with incredulity. “This is Gran’s house.”
“First of all,” Charley said with an eye on Shyla and me, “I would like to thank Imogene for welcoming us into her home on such short notice.”
Imogene offered a tight smile in response. Apparently she hadn’t been given any notice at all. She could have pointed them in the direction of the nearest hotel when they showed up on her doorstep that afternoon, but it wasn’t Imogene’s style to turn anyone away.
“So,” Charley went on, clapping her hands together. “I know many of you are wondering exactly what we’re doing here.”
“I think we’re all wondering,” David said.
“Exactly,” piped Jasmine. “I could have stayed with Astrid this weekend. I don’t understand why you had to drag me here, too. This is so pointless. And unfair! I have my own life, you know.”
Charley’s lips compressed as she arched her brow at her daughter. “Are you done tantruming?” Jasmine sat back, deflated, as her face turned a shade darker.
“What we’re wondering,” Imogene said, ignoring the by-play, “is what was so important that it necessitated a visit. You could have picked up the phone and saved yourself the gas money.”
Charley laughed as though she was the only one to get the joke. “Well, let’s just say it’s a little too complicated for a phone call.”
The Prophecy Page 7
