by Andy Lewter
Gifted
A Valens Series
by Andy Lewter
Published by Astraea Press
www.astraeapress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
GIFTED: A VALENS SERIES
Copyright © 2014 ANDY LEWTER
ISBN 978-1-62135-279-2
Cover Art Designed by CORA GRAPHICS
For all those that believed in me, this is for you.
Chapter 1
I walked through a familiar door — the same door I had walked through every day for as long as I could remember. It was a door I recalled with a painful longing, yet I had no desire to relive the monstrous memories that were once behind it. I stepped past a stairway and turned towards the living room, ignoring the laundry basket strewn on its side and the scattered articles of clothing that lay across the floor — all looking as if they had been tripped over. I squinted through the beaming sunlight coming from the window, swiftly walked past the neglected, dust-covered piano, and finally entered the doorway to the kitchen.
I turned, and as expected, there he stood — just as he always did.
Beads of sweat dripped off his chin and onto his shirt. The familiar smell of aged whiskey mixed with sweat made my nose scrunch. It would always take him a minute to realize I was standing there.
He slowly turned his face up, his lazy blood-red eyes following — and finally he looked at me.
"Hi, dad," I choked out and forced a smile, because that's all I ever seemed to manage.
"Abby, you came home," he said, bewildered and confused.
I opened my eyes and pressed my face into my pillow as hard as I could. I'm not sure where this dream came from or how it started, but it's been recurring every night for the past year and a half.
My father passed away three summers ago, and I'd be lying if I said it was a surprise. I don't think my sister or I ever knew him sober, but he had enormous potential had it not been for the alcohol. He adored his wife and children, had a wonderful sense of humor and always found ways to pull a prank and catch someone off guard. We all knew what kind of person he could have been.
But his addiction took over and robbed us all.
My mother has always been a hard worker and tries to set the best example she can for my twin sister Olivia and me. After my father's passing, we moved away from Palmdale, California to the small town of Newton, Kansas. I got over the devastation of the population size about six months after living here and now find it predictable and boring. My sister on the other hand, has yet to be satisfied.
Olivia has always been the pretty, popular girl at our high school with too many friends to count. She's constantly talking about the small selection of boys at our school, then raves on and on about having to drive twenty miles south to Wichita just to buy a decent pair of jeans. Cheerleading and her social life always seem to be more important than her academic requirements. Frequently, she needs me to tutor her.
My twin sister and I are exact opposites of each other.
From what my mom says, I supposedly inherited my father's intelligence. I have a straight-'A' average and it doesn't seem too difficult for me to keep up. Well, except for trigonometry.
I have hazel eyes, thick, long, dark brown hair, and quite often seem to be the one with a smart remark in a crowd. While I have plenty of acquaintances at school, I'm pretty sure these people only like me because I'm Olivia's sister. But I don't care. The only person I truly connect with at school is my best friend, Miles Kavin.
This was our third year living in Newton and our senior year was going by very quickly.
I drew in a deep breath and peeked over at the clock, hoping it was later than I thought it was.
"Ugh, five o'clock in the morning," I said groggily as I rubbed my eyes.
I rose out of my warm bed and threw on a light robe over my pajamas. Whatever happened to wanting to sleep in like a normal teenager? Instead, I am the one that always wakes up before dawn and gets ready for school like it's something I look forward to.
I glanced over to my window, predicting it had snowed or rained overnight. Even though it was the beginning of March, we were in Kansas and anything could happen when it came to the weather.
Just as my instincts had told me, there was a thick blanket of snow resting on our front lawn.
I stumbled down the stairs in the darkness, flipping on lights as I went, and wondered to myself if school was going to be canceled due to last night's surprise winter storm. It always takes a minute for my eyesight to focus after waking up, but I somehow made it to the living room without tripping. Plopping down on the couch, I lazily grabbed the remote to turn on the TV. I switched it to a news channel and read the headlines on the bottom of the screen, hoping to see Newton High School on the cancellation list scrolling across.
"Newton High, cancelled," I read to myself.
After a few minutes of wondering if I was tired enough to go back to sleep, I got up and headed toward my mother's bedroom.
"Mom…" I whispered, while cracking open her door. "Mom, school's cancelled."
"Huh? Abby, why are you up so early?" She grunted as she rolled over to look at the clock.
"School's cancelled, it snowed a few inches last night. Just wanted to let you know." I knew what I said probably hadn't registered yet.
"What was that? It snowed last night?"
"Yeah, and school's cancelled today," I repeated again then stepped away from her door and into Olivia's room. I flipped the light on just to annoy her. She was curled up in a hairy pink comforter. There was so much pink in her room it was almost repulsive.
I plopped down at the foot of her bed and stirred the blankets to wake her.
"Olivia, school's cancelled," I announced enthusiastically.
"What? No! I don't believe you…" She sat straight up, seemingly too coherent, and glared at me with her piercing, deep blue eyes. Her natural, spiral curl blonde hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail that was tossed messily on the side.
"Sure is, just saw it on the news," I prodded, giving her a taunting smile.
"Ugh! Of course it would be." She fell pathetically onto her fluffy pink pillow and pulled her pink hairy blanket over her head.
"Why do these things always happen to me? As soon as the hottest guy in the school asks me to sit with him at lunch, some freaky weather man predicts a blizzard and ruins my life!" Her voice was muffled under her pink madness of a blanket.
"Tell me Liv, why do you think my best friend is the hottest guy in the school?"
That did it.
She glowered, throwing the hairy cover dramatically off her head. "Are you joking? I mean, what girl — besides you of course," she said while waving her hand dismissively toward me, "doesn't fantasize about Miles Kavin? All of my friends are obsessed with just his presence." She fell back on her pillow, a dream-like expression crossing her features. "And then there's gym and his cut-off shirt." She paused and failed to suppress an exaggerated sigh while staring distantly at the ceiling.
I couldn't help but make a face after that. I never understood the big deal about Miles, but every other girl in the school — not to mention every girl that has ever laid eyes on him, worships the ground he walks on.
"Ugh, go back to sleep Liv," I spat with my eyes closed, gladly walking out of the pink calamity of
a room.
I stumbled pitifully down the hall and into my room, hoping I somehow would be able to fall back into a deep slumber. I crawled into my tiny bed, buried myself into my blanket mound and peeked toward my window to see if dawn was anywhere close.
Of course, there was no trace of light.
I decided to try to use a yoga method to help me fall asleep — something I'd never tried before. I closed my eyes and attempted to absorb the calming aura that I held in my room — concentrating on very little while I disconnected from the world and inhaled slow, deep breaths, pushing myself toward sleep.
CRACK!
I sat straight up, weary and disoriented. Sunlight was pouring into my bedroom and blinding my eyes. I blinked in shock. I must have fallen asleep after all.
"Wow, I should remember that one," I mumbled to myself, realizing that I had a new tactic to help me fall asleep.
CRACK!
"Are you kidding me?" So this is what woke me up.
I jumped out of bed and ran over to my window, slamming it open before another rock was thrown and chipped the glass.
"Miles! Haven't you ever heard of a door?"
"Good morning, sleeping beauty." He smiled as he threw a heaping snowball, nailing the screen cover over my window and sending powdered snow all over my face.
"Ugh!" I forced out, while furiously wiping the freezing powder off my face. "What do you want?"
"Shh, don't talk so loud."
"Then quit throwing snow in my face!" I yelled, ignoring his request.
"I don't want your sister to know I'm here," he said. A sudden crimson flushed his cheeks, which clearly wasn't from the cold weather.
I heard footsteps coming down the hall and I immediately did an about-face toward the entrance, realizing who was about to open the door to my room.
Olivia came barging in with a pink outfit in each hand. She must be planning to go somewhere and needs my opinion on what to wear. She had what looked like two separate skiing outfits and laid them on my bed, staring at them as if she were expecting them to talk to her.
"Which one do you think is cute, yet appropriate for sledding?" she asked, while tapping her forefinger on her chin in thought.
In that same moment, there was a sudden, icy breeze that belted through my bedroom, shooting snowflakes in the air from the leftover snowball that was stuck on my window screen.
Olivia snapped her head up and narrowed her eyes. "Um — why is your window open?" She asked, raising her brows.
"Oh, er — I woke up sweating and needed some fresh air." I nodded. If there was one thing I was good at outside of school, it was being able to fool someone.
Well, anyone but Miles. Which was weird.
I don't think it's fair to be dishonest and I've always had a hard time lying to people. But when those random times come along that I feel the need to speak anything but the truth, I always seem to escape the lie unscathed.
"What — is there a prom today that you're attending in the snow?" I grinned.
"Psh… I wish. Tiffany and Derrick are going sledding later and I need to pick out what I'm going to wear. So you should help me decide," she rambled. "You see, this one's warm but it swallows me and you can't see my figure—" she circuitously went on, looking into the tall mirror hanging on my wall and switching the outfit she held up every few seconds. "And this one makes my butt look good, only it's not as warm."
I let out an un-gratifying sigh, trying to understand why anyone would care what they looked like outside in the freezing cold.
"Don't you think if you went outside in this kind of weather, you'd want to be warm?" I asked her impatiently, hoping she'd hurry up and pick one herself. The longer she was in here, the higher the chance she'd find out that Miles was standing below my window.
Then I'd be caught in my lie.
"The warmer one does make more sense, I guess. And it's just Tiffany and Derrick, it's not like Miles’ going to be there," she paused a moment, biting her lip in hesitation before speaking. "You know… I called him about an hour ago to see if he wanted to come with us. He said he's grounded from not doing his chores. I mean — who gets grounded anymore, anyways?" She tore herself away from the mirror and smiled, and then skipped her way out the door.
"Thanks Abbs!"
As soon as I heard the echoing click of her door through the hallway, I turned back around. I squinted through the window and followed Mile's tracks as they ran to the side of the house. He must have heard Olivia's voice and run for it.
"Miles — are you still there?"
I focused on the last track, waiting for him to come back where I could see him.
"Miles!" I said loudly after he didn't reappear. "It's freezing. Come out or I'm shutting my window."
He popped out from around the corner with a steady, expressionless look on his face.
"Come over in an hour," he said quickly, then turned abruptly, only to disappear again.
"Hey! You made me lie to my sister," I hissed through my teeth.
His head popped back out from around the corner of the house — the smirk he held on his face made my stomach twist.
"You're the one who lied and I had nothing to do with it," he retorted with a taunting smile, the bright cascade of snow made his green eyes bright as ever.
"You lied to her on the phone when she called you," I clambered again, frustrated with of all the dishonesty.
"I'll explain why when I see you in an hour." He disappeared around the corner for good.
I slammed my window shut and pulled my robe tight around my body.
"It's f-f-freezing out there," I mumbledto myself.
I did the best I could not to let questions flood my mind. Miles had never acted so strange before — let alone ever had a reason to lie to anyone. My only plan was to take a quick shower and hope Olivia was gone sledding with her friends before she realized I was up to something — and started asking questions.
Chapter 2
With my sister gone sledding and my mom at work, I realized soon after I got out of the shower that I had the entire house to myself. This was something that didn't happen very often.
I threw on my favorite sweater and a pair of jeans and then headed downstairs for breakfast. I poured a bowl of cereal and stared out the window between each bite, clearing my mind and trying to not think about why Miles was acting weird.
When I finished eating, I put the bowl in the sink, slipped on my heavy coat and grabbed the keys to my car. It wasn't a nice car, but it was mine. Since my sister and I both passed Driver's Ed before we turned 16, my mom had to break down and get us both cars for as much as she could afford.
Since I'm the oldest, I got first pick between a shiny red, car and a light blue, rusty car. I knew too well that Olivia would want the red one, so I forfeited for her sake and picked the rust bucket. I was simply grateful that I had something to drive. It didn't matter what it looked like.
I got my car started after a few attempts, cranked the heat to high and grabbed the ice scraper off the passenger-side floor. The roads should be cleared and safe enough to drive on since there hadn't been any snowfall for a few hours.
Miles' house is on a gravel road amongst a bunch of trees and it usually takes me about ten minutes to get there. It was while I was on Main Street that I realized the gravel road Miles lived on had slim chances of being plowed. Usually only the main roads would get cleared off — and my car wasn't designed for snowdrifts.
Just as I was about to turn onto the gravel road, I saw Miles. He was standing with his arms folded, leaning next to a red truck that was lifted a foot higher than it should've been, with tires up to his waist.
I pulled in behind the truck, realizing that I would have gotten stuck not even a hundred yards down the road.
He walked slowly up to my car and tapped my window. I narrowed my eyes, shut off the ignition and opened my door hard, hoping it would knock him over. Much to his pleasure, he caught my door before it could to do any damage.
"What has gotten into you? First you come to my house and expect me to lie to my family — and now you want me to get into that ridiculous truck? To do what? Go get stuck in the snow somewhere? In this sort of weather? Is this what your secret plan was for the day?" I stomped furiously out of my car and into cold air. With the wind chill at negative two, my face was sure to be chapped in no time.
Miles laughed deeply as he turned on his heel toward his truck. Even with him being six foot, three inches, he still had to reach and jump up to climb in.
I scoffed. Was he expecting me to follow him?
I looked at him, and then back at my car. Even with my curiosity peeked I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do. Miles rolled down his window, stuck his head out and must have guessed by my expression what I was thinking.
"I'll just back up and run over your car faster than you'd be able to start it. It's your choice." He said with the same taunting smirk on his face.
A sudden rage overcame me.
"What exactly do you have planned in that big of a truck?" My hands clenched into hard fists.
Miles rested his chin on his elbow, leaning partly out of the window with a bored expression on his face. "At this point, I'm willing to say anything to get you into the truck. But I know you better than that, so I'm not going to tell you anything at all," he said, slightly amused. "I'll let the curiosity eat at you until you can't stand it anymore."
How does he know me so well?
I gave in with a quick exhale, locked my car door with my key, and stomped pitifully toward the truck. If I had waited any longer to make my decision, my fingers would have gone numb from the cold, and I wasn't about to risk my car getting totaled because I decided to go home. Miles had a reputation for making simpleminded decisions.
Miles opened the door from the inside before I had the chance to pull it open. Grabbing onto the armrest inside the door, I hoisted myself onto the side step to climb in. The blazing heat coming from the vents felt amazing on my face and hands. I slammed the door shut and gave Miles the fiercest look I could manage.
