by Tia Mowry
CAITLYN
WHEN I GOT home from school, nobody was there. I went into my bedroom and opened my computer. I’d been checking my email every chance I got, but there was still no response from that message board.
I decided to check the site again. I’d posted that message pretty quickly the other day. Maybe it hadn’t gone through. Or maybe the email alert wasn’t working right.
It was easy to find the parapsychology message board again. But when I started scanning the thread titles, the one I was looking for was nowhere on the first page. Strange. It had only been three days. But some message boards were pretty busy; maybe the thread had fallen out of sight, and that was why nobody was responding.
“Time to bump it,” I murmured, clicking the arrow to go to the second page.
Once again I scanned the titles. Nothing. Checking the dates on some of the latest entries, I saw that they’d been posted last weekend.
With a frown, I clicked back to page one. The last date there was Monday afternoon. My thread should still be on the page. Had someone changed the title or something?
I read through the thread titles more carefully, trying to figure out if any of them might be the one I was looking for. This time I noticed a thread about three-quarters of the way down, titled simply “CLOSED.”
I clicked to open it. My eyes widened when I recognized the name of the original poster from the “Real Psychics in the UK” thread. But the original post below the name was gone, replaced with a single, gray, italicized word: deleted. All of the posts that had followed the initial one, including mine, had disappeared.
I sat back and stared at the screen, my mind spinning. What did this mean? Why had the thread been closed and all the text deleted? It didn’t make sense. Many of the other threads involved much crazier topics than this one. . . .
Just then I heard a clatter in the hall and clicked off the site. “Oh, good, you’re home,” Mom said as she poked her head into my bedroom. “Dinner in half an hour, okay?”
Cassie was right behind her. Her face was grim, and she didn’t look at me as she entered the room. Gulp.
My satisfaction from that morning’s sweater prank had worn off a little. I mean, Cassie totally deserved it after what she’d done to Liam. But I hated fighting with her—especially now, when all I wanted was for us to work together to figure out the vision thing once and for all.
It had been total chance that I’d seen Lavender wearing that hot-pink sweater at all. She’d turned up in the background of a vision I’d had in social studies the day before when Ms. Xavier rested her hand on my shoulder. It had been hard to miss that hot pink—or the big, loopy date written on the whiteboard. I’d barely even paid attention to what Ms. X herself was doing in the vision; she was smiling as the school secretary handed her a note.
“Come set the table in a few minutes, okay, girls?” Mom said, breaking me out of my thoughts. She glanced at the window. “Why don’t you crack a window? It’s stifling in here.”
I climbed to my feet and headed for the window. “Are you sure we should open it?” Cassie said to Mom. “It’s freezing out today. Definitely sweater weather.”
She didn’t so much as glance at me. But I winced at the extra emphasis she put on the word sweater.
“Up to you,” Mom said. “Don’t forget about setting the table.”
As soon as she’d disappeared, Cassie turned to face me. “Listen, Cait,” she said. “We need to talk.”
I braced myself—now there was no escape.
“You shouldn’t have done that to Liam,” I blurted out. “He never—”
“Forget it,” she said sharply. “I’m sorry about it, really, and I’ll try to make it up to him later, okay? But that’s not important right now. I had another vision. And this one’s about Mom.”
“Huh?” That definitely wasn’t what I’d been expecting her to say. “What did you see?”
“Something bad, I think.” She started pacing, though our little bedroom only allowed about five steps before she had to turn around and go the other way. “It looked like she was at work, only she was really upset. I—I think she was packing up her desk. Like she’d been, you know, fired.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.” She stopped pacing and sat down heavily on the edge of her bed, staring at me. “So what are we going to do?”
“Do?” I echoed. “Wait. Mom getting fired—isn’t that what you want to happen? Without that job we’d have no reason to stay in Aura.”
For a second my mind was filled with what that might mean. With nothing to keep us in Aura, Mom would probably move us back to San Antonio. We could return to our old school, our old friends, our old life. I’d been so busy trying to make the best of this move, support Mom, try to convince Cass that it wasn’t the end of the world. All this time I hadn’t allowed myself to think about anything else. But what if we could go home?
“I don’t know,” Cassie said, sounding uncertain. “I mean, I thought that was what I wanted. But Mom looked so unhappy in the vision—and I don’t want that, you know?”
I pulled one leg up onto the edge of the bed, resting my chin on my knee. “She does seem to really love being a cop.”
“She seems to like this crazy town, too, for some reason,” Cass agreed.
I shot her a sidelong look. “And I kind of do, too,” I said softly. “I mean, it’s different from San Antonio—”
Cass snorted. “No kidding!”
“But it’s not all bad, right?” I said. “The people are mostly nice. We both have friends now, and the teachers seem decent, you know? I mean, I think it’s actually starting to feel like home.”
“I might not go that far. But I guess this strange little place does have its good points.” Cassie stood and starting pacing again. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t rather be in San Antonio. But I don’t want to move back if it means Mom has to give up her dreams.”
I smiled at her. Maybe my sister and I still had a few things in common after all. “So what do we do?”
She stopped and looked at me. “Duh,” she said. “We have to change the future. You said you think we can, right?”
“I said we might be able to,” I corrected. “I mean, we just haven’t tried it yet.” I smiled at her, glad that we were talking again. Then my smile faded slightly. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But listen—I didn’t tell you the rest of what happened. . . .”
By the time she finished her story about seeing Gabe and Uncle Chuck, my heart was thumping double time. “No way!” I blurted out, a little overwhelmed. “That sounds just like my vision!”
“Huh?”
“Remember when I tried to tell you about my latest vision earlier?” I said. “It was pretty much exactly what you just described.”
I filled her in on the vision I’d had about Gabe and the unknown man—who apparently was his uncle Chuck. Cass listened, tilting her head to one side like she always did when she was super focused.
“Maybe the visions are connected,” she said. “Why else would they meet up by the police station?”
Now that she’d said it, I suddenly felt uneasy, though I wasn’t totally sure why. “I don’t know,” I said, sitting up straighter on the bed. “Why would it necessarily have anything to do with Mom, though? She wasn’t even in my vision.”
“Right. So why did Gabe and his uncle look so happy, unless they were out to cause trouble?”
“I don’t know.” I really, really didn’t like the thought that Gabe and his uncle might be after Mom for real. Couldn’t there be another, less scary explanation for all this? “Wait! I just thought of something. What if what you saw wasn’t really what you thought you saw?”
“What are you talking about?” Cassie said.
“Well, I never imagined that the vision I had about Megan would turn out to be something good, you know? For all we know, your vision about Mom could’ve been totally innocent. Like, maybe she was packing up h
er desk because they decided to give her a promotion and move her into her own office or something.”
“Oh, I get it. Yeah.” Cass looked thoughtful—and a little hopeful. “I mean, Mom looked pretty upset to me. But when I saw me and Brayden holding hands, I never thought that would end up the way it did either.”
“So what if we’re all worried for nothing?” I said. “Our two visions might have nothing to do with each other—or with anything bad.”
“And what if we aren’t?” she countered. “I mean, how often do the visions work that way?”
“I don’t know.” I leaned back on my bed, running through all my past visions in my head. “I never found out how most of them turned out. Like, that time I had the flu, but Mom was smiling. It could’ve been anything. Then there was the one at the dentist—all I know is that the hygienist was laughing, but I have no idea why.” I ticked off each vision on my fingers. “The one with you and the test, well that wound up exactly as I saw it, since you aced it. And there was the one about Ms. Xavier yesterday, but it only showed her receiving a note in class, looking happy about it. And then it actually happened today, but I don’t know what the note said.”
Cassie leaned against the dresser, gazing at herself in the mirror. “Mine were mostly the same way: kind of cryptic and random. Like the food court guy at the mall looking scared, and the vision of Mom looking upset, and some girl at school crying—” Cutting herself off, she turned to face me, frowning. “Hey, I just realized something. All my visions show bad stuff: people that are sad, or worried, or poor Brayden breaking his leg.”
“Really?” I thought about it. “Come to think of it, all mine so far have shown people looking happy or laughing. Even the one of Megan, which turned out to be positive, too, though it didn’t look like it at first. What a crazy coincidence!”
“Or is it? What if that’s the way it works? I see all the bad stuff, and you see only good stuff?”
“It’s probably not like that,” I said hurriedly. “I mean, how weird would that be?”
“Not weird. Just typical.” She glared at me as if it was my fault. “I have to deal with the messy stuff, and you get to be Miss Sunshine all the time? How fair is that?”
“Quit it, Cass,” I said. “Don’t be so negative.”
“Why not?” she snapped. “It sounds like that’s what’s supposed to happen.”
This was veering offtrack fast. “Can we focus on this thing with Mom?” I said. As much as I was trying to stay optimistic, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong—and that it might have to do with Gabe. “It’s obvious now that Gabe isn’t the only one who thinks Mom stole his uncle’s job. What if he and Uncle Chuck are trying to get Mom fired?”
Cassie was silent for a moment. “I guess it’s possible,” she said at last. “Anyway, it’s our only clue so far. Maybe we should check him out—Gabe, I mean.”
“Okay. But we won’t see him until school on Monday.”
“Or maybe tomorrow,” Cass put in. “He’ll probably be at the football game. We can try to question him there, maybe figure out what he and Uncle Chuck are up to.”
I didn’t like the thought of waiting. Not with something so important at stake. “The game’s still a whole day away,” I reminded her. “What if Mom gets fired today?”
Cassie looked alarmed, and I began to panic. Then she glanced at the window and shook her head. “She won’t. What would they do? Call her back to work to fire her? And besides, the sky outside was super stormy in my vision,” she said, looking suddenly relieved.
I followed her gaze. It was a bright evening, still sunny without a cloud in the sky. “Are you sure?” I asked, still worried.
“Positive. We still have time.”
“Good.” I met her eyes and saw my own anxiety mirrored in her identical big browns. “Now all we need is to figure out what to do. And soon.”
15
CASSIE
SATURDAY DAWNED GRAY and overcast. It wasn’t as stormy as the sky I’d seen in my vision, but it looked to be heading in that direction. I couldn’t help glancing at the window every few seconds as I picked at my cereal. It was pretty obvious that Cait had noticed it, too. She was a morning person, and normally drove me and Mom crazy being all chatty. But today she was as quiet as I was.
“What are your plans for today, girls?” Mom asked, sitting down with her second cup of coffee. “Going to the big game?”
“Maybe.” I shot another look at the window. “If it doesn’t rain.”
“It’s supposed to hold off until tonight,” Mom said. “Hope that’s true, or it’ll be a wet afternoon for all of us.”
“What do you mean?” Cait asked. “I thought you had to work all day, Mom.”
“I do.” Mom sipped her coffee. “But I’m stationed at the games—the middle school first, then the high school game after.”
“Really?” I traded a surprised look with Cait. “You mean you’ll be at the football game?”
Mom nodded. “I’m told it’s a tradition for all the officers to be at these games against the Jeffers teams. Just about the entire town will be there anyway, and emotions run pretty high—apparently this rivalry goes way back. Can’t hurt to have a few extra cops there to keep an eye out for trouble.” She winked at us over the rim of her mug. “Plus that way we don’t have to argue over who gets time off to cheer on the home team.” She checked her watch. “Speaking of work, I have to go.”
She got up, leaving me staring at Cait across the table. It had been a long time since the days we claimed we could read each other’s minds, but right now it wasn’t hard to guess what she was thinking. What did this mean? If Mom wasn’t even at the precinct, how could my vision come true?
I tried to tell myself this was good news, that it meant we had more time. But as I glanced at the steely sky outside, I couldn’t quite make myself believe it.
“CASSIE! YOU’RE HERE!” Megan waved both arms over her head as I made my way toward her with Cait at my heels.
There was a pep rally held before the game, and it was still at least half an hour away. But it was obvious that the tailgate parties had started way early. Tons of people crowded the parking lot outside the stadium, sitting in lounge chairs, perched on truck tailgates, or just running around giddily. Music blared from every direction, along with the sounds of laughter and shouting. None of the partiers seemed to notice the still-threatening sky overhead. Pushing past some rowdy high schoolers, I finally reached my friends. They were gathered around Megan’s sister’s car. The hatchback was open, revealing lots of snacks and sodas laid out inside. Megan and the other cheerleaders were already in their uniforms, while everyone else was dressed head to toe in green and gold. I glanced around for Brayden, wondering if he might watch the game with us since he couldn’t play. But there was no sign of him. Probably just as well—I didn’t have time for distractions today.
“Hi, Cassie,” Lavender greeted me, licking Doritos salt off her fingers. Then she noticed my sister behind me. “Oh, hi.”
“Hi.” Cait nudged me.
I cleared my throat. “Listen, we’ll be right back, okay? I want to check out the scene.” I forced what I hoped was a carefree laugh. “This is my first Jeffers game, and it’s crazy!”
“I know, right?” Megan grinned and gave me a high five. “Come back soon!”
“Promise.” I tossed a smile to the whole group before diving back into the crowd.
Soon Cait and I were wandering the parking lot. “How are we going to find Gabe in all this?” she wondered breathlessly.
“You’re the optimist—you tell me.” I’d been thinking the same thing myself. This was way more intense than any football game I’d ever been to in San Antonio, and the crowd was only getting bigger!
We wandered around for a while with no luck. “What if Gabe doesn’t come to the game?” Caitlyn said. “Liam and Bianca told me he got cut from the team—maybe he hates football now.”
“Really? He’
s got to come. Otherwise we’ll have to wait until Monday after all.” I eyed the sky. “And somehow I’m thinking we don’t have that much time.”
“Oh, man, don’t say that! Maybe we should— Wait! Is that him?” Cait grabbed my arm so tightly I winced.
But she was right. Gabe was sauntering through the crowd just ahead, hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans.
“Gabe!” I called, sprinting forward. “Wait up!”
He turned, looking surprised to find me and Cait chasing him. “Oh, it’s the twins,” he said with a snort. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah.” I reached out and rested my hand on his arm. “Did you just get here?”
I was hoping for a vision that might help us, might tell us what to do next, but no luck. Gabe shrugged and stepped away, dislodging my hand. “What’s it to you?”
“Oh, we’re just excited. I mean, this is fun, isn’t it?” Cait smiled and nudged him with her shoulder. I guessed she was trying to trigger a vision, too. Judging by the frustration that flashed in her eyes, I guessed it hadn’t worked for her either.
Not that I was going to stop trying. “I like your watch,” I said, grabbing his hand and pretending to admire the boring digital he was wearing. Rats! What good was having some freaky superpower if it didn’t even work when you needed it? I took a deep breath, trying to calm my pounding heart.
Gabe glanced at my hand, then yanked his arm away, looking suspicious. “Why are y’all talking to me anyway?” he snarled. “Shouldn’t you be hanging out with your dorky cheerleader friends?”
He stomped off, and I gritted my teeth. “Well, that was a bust. What are we supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know.” Cait looked anxious. “Let’s try to keep an eye on him. It might be the only way to figure out if my vision and yours are actually connected.”
I wasn’t so sure. “We don’t even know how all this hoodoo-voodoo stuff works,” I reminded her. “It doesn’t matter if we’re with that loser for five seconds or five hours. Sometimes you get nothing.”
“So you’re just going to give up?” Cait said, a spark of challenge in her eyes. “But Mom—”
