Double Dare

by Tia Mowry

  I WAS SO distracted by Grandmother Lockwood’s mention of our dad that it took a second for the rest to sink in. “Wait,” I blurted out. “Testing? That doesn’t sound like something Mom would want us to do without her.”

  Cassie rolled her eyes. “Get real, Caitlyn,” she said. “She knew we’d be talking about the visions. I’m sure this is just part of that.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Your sister is right.” Grandmother Lockwood’s voice was crisp and final. “What I have in mind for today is little more than talking in any case. Let’s begin by going over all the visions you’ve had so far.”

  I had to admit, that didn’t sound too bad. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll start. My first one was with Mom . . .”

  Grandmother Lockwood listened intently as Cassie and I described our visions, taking turns to keep them mostly in chronological order. She didn’t say a word until I got to one I’d had a while back of Mom holding hands with some guy I didn’t know with holiday decorations in the background.

  “This man,” Grandmother Lockwood interrupted. “Is it the same one you saw in your vision today?”

  “No,” I said. “He didn’t look anything like that.” I hesitated, shooting Cassie a glance. “Actually, the guy in the Christmas vision looked sort of like an older version of our dad.”

  Our grandmother’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”

  “We saw their wedding photo once,” Cassie put in. “Sandy hair, kind of square chin, nice blue eyes.”

  “Yes.” Grandmother Lockwood stared at me, looking a bit shaken. “And this man with your mother—he looked like John?”

  “Well, not exactly,” I said quickly, not wanting to freak her out. As hard as it was for us that our father had died so young, Cassie and I had never really known him. But our grandmother had lost the son she’d raised and loved. That had to be even tougher. “I mean, he was older, for one thing. And his hair was shorter than in that photo and maybe a little lighter, and his face was paler, too.”

  “Yeah, we figure Mom must have a type,” Cassie said. “Guess this means she’s going to start dating again. She’d better hurry, though—Christmas is only a couple of months away.”

  I nodded. “Unless maybe I was seeing next Christmas,” I suggested. “How far ahead can the visions be, anyway?”

  Grandmother Lockwood didn’t respond. She didn’t even seem to hear me. She was staring into space, looking vaguely perplexed.

  “What?” Cassie said. “Is something wrong?”

  “No, not at all.” She blinked, glancing at us. “Go on. Next vision?”

  I traded a look with my sister. She was frowning, and my twintuition said she was getting fed up with the way our grandmother kept asking questions but not answering any of ours. I knew how she felt, but I didn’t want to make Grandmother Lockwood mad. Not now, when we might finally be getting somewhere.

  “Okay,” I said quickly. “I think my next one was about my friend Bianca . . .”

  Once again, Grandmother Lockwood kept quiet for a spell while we talked. Then Cassie got to her vision of the two of us in the empty classroom with Ms. Xavier.

  “That one came true today,” Cassie said after describing the vision. “Turns out she’s onto us, thanks to Greasy Gabe.”

  We’d already talked about Gabe because of some earlier visions involving him. So Grandmother Lockwood didn’t react to the nickname. But she leaned forward.

  “Onto you?” she said. “What do you mean by that?”

  I shrugged. “I guess Gabe heard us talking about the Sight,” I admitted. “He knows Ms. X is into that kind of thing—you know, paranormal stuff, voodoo, anything alternative, I guess.”

  “Yeah. So he spilled the beans so Ms. X would make our lives miserable.” Cassie made a face. “Any other teacher probably would have laughed it off if Gabe told them, or they would’ve had us committed, but not wackadoodle Ms. X. She wants to make us her personal pet project.”

  “Hold on.” Grandmother Lockwood’s voice was dangerously cold. “Are you telling me this teacher of yours knows about the Sight?”

  “Sort of. Or she thinks she does.” I gulped, not liking the stormy look on her face. “But it’s okay, everyone knows she’s kind of out there. Besides, she promised not to tell anyone, not that anyone would believe her if she did.”

  “I see.” Grandmother Lockwood stood abruptly, her gray eyes flashing fire. “I can’t believe you girls were so careless. In all the years of the Lockwood legacy, this has never happened before. We’ve always kept family business within the family.”

  Cassie rolled her eyes. “Whatever. It’s not like we did it on purpose.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It was stupid.”

  She was glaring at us as if we were the worst people in the world. I couldn’t believe it. Talk about unfair!

  I don’t get mad that often, but I could feel a slow burn starting inside me right then. “We had no idea what was happening to us, remember?” I said, my voice shaking a little. “It took a while for us even to realize it was happening to both of us. So sue us if we want to talk about it once in a while!”

  “You shouldn’t have spoken in front of others.” Her voice dripped ice.

  “We didn’t!” I cried. “Aren’t you listening? We made a mistake—we know that now. But we took precautions. We went off by ourselves to an empty classroom. It’s not like we knew Gabe was out there.” I glared at her. “Anyway, who else are we supposed to talk to about this besides each other? It’s not like you’re even telling us anything useful or important!” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Cassie making a cutting motion across her throat with one finger, but I didn’t care. My whole body was shaking now. “You won’t even tell us how our own father died!”

  Pushing my chair away so hard it fell, I raced for the front door, suddenly needing fresh air. The tears were coming fast and I almost tripped down the steps, but caught myself and stomped out to the middle of the yard. Then I stopped, gulping in the humid soup that passes for air in Central Texas. The limo from yesterday was at the curb, and I could see the same driver, Al, napping in the front seat.

  Grandmother Lockwood followed me outside. “Listen to me, Caitlyn,” she said sternly, shooting a wary look toward the limo. “This is very serious, do you hear me? Whenever outsiders learn of the Sight, bad things tend to happen. Very, very bad things.”

  “Whoa,” Cassie said. “This is it.”

  Grandmother Lockwood rounded on her. “What?”

  “You two.” She waved a hand at us. “You were wearing that blue suit, the whole shebang. I already saw this fight in a vision. I just told you about it, like, five minutes ago, remember?”

  Grandmother Lockwood stared at her for a moment. Then her shoulders slumped and she let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Caitlyn,” she said. “You’re absolutely right. This isn’t your fault. Yours either, Cassandra. Let’s go back inside.” She glanced at the limo, where Al was beginning to stir. I guess even with the windows up and the AC on, we’d been making enough noise to wake him.

  We followed her back into the house. I was taking deep breaths, trying to get myself under control. Grandmother Lockwood walked over and picked up the diary.

  “So what about Ms. Xavier?” Cassie asked. “Should we tell her we won’t do the project after all, or what?”

  “Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it.” Our grandmother checked her watch, then tucked the diary back in her purse. “Now I’d better be off. I’ll be in touch soon.”

  “Wait!” I cried.

  But she was already striding out without a backward glance.

  “DO YOU THINK she’ll come over again today after school?” I asked. It was Tuesday morning, and we’d just reached the Aura Middle School steps.

  Cassie glanced up at the building in front of us. “Your guess is as good as mine. Now let’s zip it, okay? It’s bad enough that Ms. Xavier knows about us. We don’t want the whole school to find out what freaks we
are.”

  I nodded. We’d been discussing Grandmother Lockwood’s latest visit the whole walk to school, and we’d pretty much covered it, anyway.

  When I stepped into homeroom, a petite young woman with short hair was sitting at Ms. Xavier’s desk. She looked only a couple of years older than my cousin Joy, who was in college. “Who’s that?” I asked Liam and Bianca, sliding into my seat between them.

  “Substitute,” Bianca said without looking up from the book she was reading.

  “Ms. Xavier’s absent today?” I bit my lip, flashing back to the intense look in Grandmother Lockwood’s eyes when she’d promised to “take care of” the problem of our social studies project.

  But I shook it off, telling myself I was being silly. Ms. Xavier had probably caught a cold or something. Good. That would give us an extra day to figure out what to do about her.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Caitlyn,” Liam said. “We were just talking about the class trip.”

  Bianca finally looked up from her book. “You used to live in San Antonio, right?” she said. “Do you know if there are any good music stores there? I’m hoping there will be some free time in the schedule so we can go shopping.”

  Lavender was just wandering past. She stopped in front of Bianca’s desk. “Music stores?” she said. “Are you talking about real music, or, like, dorky marching band music?”

  I was surprised she was talking to us at all, let alone in an only slightly obnoxious way. Bianca looked a little startled, too, but she glanced at the clarinet case by her desk and then shrugged. “Either one, I guess,” she told Lavender.

  “Oh. Because I’m totally going to hit up this shop I saw online called Viral Vinyl,” Lavender said eagerly.

  “I know that place,” I said. “It’s right around the corner from where my aunt and uncle live.”

  “Really?” Lavender’s eyes widened. “So you’ve been there? I heard they have a huge selection of super-rare foreign stuff. Like Sakiko’s first album that was only released in Japan!”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty neat,” I began.

  Before I could go into detail, the B Boys rushed over to us. Buzz poked Lavender on the shoulder.

  “Truth or dare, Lav!” he yelled with a grin.

  “Again?” Lavender rolled her eyes, but she was smiling at the same time. She eyed Biff. “I think this time I’ll pick dare.”

  “Cool!” Buzz’s eyes lit up. “I dare you to go change into your gym suit and wear it until lunchtime.”

  He grinned, looking proud of himself. Biff and Brent laughed and high-fived each other behind him.

  “What? You can’t be serious!” Lavender put a hand on her heart and pretended to stagger back from shock.

  “Ow!” I said as she stepped on my foot.

  The rest of my complaint caught in my throat as a vision sputtered into view. It was a quick one, and a little fuzzy since I wasn’t wearing the talisman. It showed Lavender and Biff kissing on a darkened bus.

  Lavender moved off my foot and I snapped out of it immediately. Glancing around, I was relieved to see that nobody had noticed my brief space-out. My friends were laughing along with the B Boys as Lavender loudly proclaimed that she was going to make gym suits so stylish they’d be on the cover of Vogue by next week. Or something; I wasn’t really paying much attention as I did my best to shake off the vision.

  Ew, I thought. Obviously I just got a sneak preview of the class trip. I so didn’t need to see that. Though I suppose it’s a good warning not to sit anywhere near those two on the bus . . .

  I grimaced, wondering if this was what Grandmother Lockwood had meant when she’d talked about the visions going into overdrive right after our twelfth birthday. Lavender had barely touched me, but it had caused a vision. How many was that now this week? I tried to recall if Grandmother Lockwood had mentioned how long that extra-intense period usually lasted. Because it was already getting old. For real.

  9

  CASSIE

  “CHECK IT OUT,” I said as we rounded the corner onto our block that afternoon. “She’s here.”

  The limo was parked by the curb again. I sped up, Caitlyn at my heels. She waved at Al, who was in the front seat of the car with the window rolled down.

  When we neared the front door, the sound of muffled yelling came from inside. “Uh-oh,” Caitlyn said. “Sounds like Mom is here, too. And she’s not happy.”

  I shrugged. “What else is new lately?”

  They both shut up when we stepped in. “Girls,” Grandmother Lockwood said. “I’m glad you’re home. We have much to discuss.”

  I glanced at Mom, who was glowering but silent. “Cool,” I said. “Let’s discuss, then.”

  We all sat down at the table. Grandmother Lockwood had her purse with her again. Was the diary in there? She didn’t make any move to take it out. Was she keeping it hidden from Mom?

  She clasped her hands in front of her. “Today I’d like to fill you in on the history of the Lockwood family. The first known instance of the Sight occurred in a woman called Caroline Elizabeth Lockwood, who was born in the mid-eighteenth century.”

  She rambled on for a while about various long-dead Lockwoods. I tapped my foot under the table, trying to stay patient.

  But what can I say? I’m not a patient person.

  “Is this really important right now?” I burst out at last, interrupting her monologue about some guy named Cecil Lockwood. “I mean, shouldn’t we be talking more about what’s happening with us today?”

  Grandmother Lockwood frowned. “I’ll thank you not to interrupt, Cassandra.”

  Just then Mom’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out and frowned as she read the text.

  “Seriously?” she muttered. Then she looked up. “I got called in for a meeting at work.”

  “Now?” Caitlyn said in surprise.

  Mom shrugged and stood. “Duty calls,” she said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  This time she didn’t gripe about us talking to our grandmother without her. I wondered if it had to do with the boring history lesson. Come to think of it, a meeting at the cop shop sounded a lot more exciting than more of that.

  As soon as Mom was gone, our grandmother cleared her throat. “All right, girls,” she said. “We’ll continue with the family history at a later time. Let’s move on to other topics.”

  I sat up, relieved. “Cool,” I said. “Cait and I both had visions today we wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Later,” she replied. “I’d like to do some testing while Deidre isn’t here to interfere.”

  Whoa, okay. Now we were getting somewhere. Glancing over, I saw that Caitlyn seemed alarmed.

  “Fine,” I said before she could protest. “Let’s do it.”

  “But—” Caitlyn began.

  “It’ll be fine,” I told her. “You’re the one who keeps wanting to know how this whole deal works, right?”

  “Yeah.” She still looked troubled, but she nodded at our grandmother. “Okay. What are we going to do?”

  Grandmother Lockwood took the diary out of her purse and asked if we had the talisman. When I pulled it out from under my shirt and showed her, she nodded.

  “Good,” she said. “I want both of you to touch both items. Make sure you’re touching each other, too.”

  Caitlyn moved over to sit next to me. I pulled off the talisman and held it out so she could grab part of the chain. Then we took each other by the hand, resting our free hands on the diary.

  “Now what?” Caitlyn said.

  “You’re not getting a vision?” our grandmother asked.

  I frowned and dropped Cait’s hand. “It doesn’t work like that,” I said. “We can’t just call up a vision whenever we want, like ordering a pizza. But you should know that if you’re the expert.”

  She frowned. “I do know that,” she said sharply. “But sometimes with the help of a focusing object—”

  “A what?” Caitlyn interrupted.

  “You mean the dia
ry?” I added.

  “Yes, the diary, the talisman, anything else that’s been in the possession of a Lockwood with the Sight,” she said. “You see, each vision you have adds energy to everything you’re touching at the time.”

  “What do you mean?” Caitlyn asked.

  “A vision expends much energy,” she said. “That’s why most Seers are shaken and confused afterward.”

  “Yeah, I hear you,” I muttered, glancing at Cait.

  “Some of that energy seeps into the things you touch—your clothes, jewelry, whatever’s in your pockets at the time,” Grandmother Lockwood said.

  “What about people?” I asked. “Like the ones the visions are about?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose them, too,” she agreed. “But in objects, it can become concentrated after a while. Then if another vision comes while you’re touching that item—”

  “It makes the vision stronger”—now I got it—“which is why our visions are stronger when we’re wearing the talisman.”

  “Precisely.” She nodded. “That pendant has been worn or carried by many generations of Lockwoods, dating all the way back to Caroline Elizabeth. It’s the most powerful focusing object in our possession, which is why I wanted you to have it.”

  “Wow.” Caitlyn touched the pendant, which was lying on the table where we’d dropped it. “I knew it was old, but not that old.”

  “The diary belonged to Caroline’s great-grandnephew,” Grandmother Lockwood went on, patting the old book. “And each generation of Seers since then has added his or her thoughts to it. Your father often carried it in his back pocket.”

  I stared at the diary, awed by what she’d just said. This ratty old book had been one of our father’s prized possessions. Suddenly I felt a little choked up, almost as if I might cry.

  “So my favorite pair of jeans is probably all charged up with vision power, too, huh?” I said to cover.

  Grandmother Lockwood pursed her lips. “Please try to focus, Cassandra,” she said. Then she pulled something else out of her purse—a tattered plaid wool scarf. “This belonged to your father as well.”

  She dropped the scarf on top of the diary and talisman. “We’ll try it again with all three objects.”