by Tia Mowry
“Okay, I have the perfect person to go next,” Liam said. “Ready, Cait?”
I nodded. This was actually kind of fun. It was amazing how different it was to use my sense of touch to identify someone instead of relying on sight. “Ready,” I said.
The next face appeared beneath my fingers. I’d barely started feeling around the cheekbones when buzzing filled my head.
It was weird getting a vision with a blindfold on. There was no faded version of reality to distract me from the vivid scene I was experiencing.
The vision showed Lavender Adams being dragged by the wrist down a city sidewalk, looking annoyed. I couldn’t see who was pulling her—he was just out of my line of sight—but the rest of the scene was super bright and clear, just as the visions always were when I was wearing the talisman. I could see a woman walking past and giving Lavender a curious look, a dog sniffing at a fire hydrant, and a big sign in English and Spanish advertising souvenirs and snacks.
“L-Lavender!” I managed to gasp out.
The face pulled back, and the vision was gone. I yanked down the blindfold and saw Lavender staring at me. The crowd watching had grown, too. At least half the class was gathered around my desk. Oh well, at least Gabe hadn’t come back.
“Skip the drama, Caitlyn,” Lavender said in her usual snotty way. “It’s not like you’re receiving messages from beyond to help you figure out who’s who. At least in my case.” She smiled and touched her face. “I mean, anyone could recognize me just from my super-high cheekbones.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I swallowed hard, trying to sound normal. “Anyway, can we stop now?”
“We still have time.” Liam tugged the bandana back up over my eyes. “This is fun—let’s at least do one more. Hold on . . .”
I sighed, waiting for my heartbeat to slow to normal. There were more muffled whispers, and then another face.
My shoulders tensed, but no vision came this time. Whew! I felt around the new face, trying to figure out who it might be. Biff? No, too small.
“Bianca?” I guessed.
“Guess again.” Liam sounded pleased with himself.
I tried the names of a few other girls from my homeroom. But none of them were right. Finally the face cleared its throat.
“I think we’ll have to wrap this up,” it said. “It’s almost time for the bell. It’s me, Caitlyn. Miss Marin.”
That was the substitute from yesterday. I pulled down the blindfold again and gave her a weak smile.
“Oh, hi,” I said. “Um, I guess Ms. Xavier is still out sick or whatever?”
“Yes, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me again.” She chuckled, then clapped her hands. “Everyone to your own desks, people! Get ready for morning announcements.”
I slumped down in my seat, my mind wandering back to the vision about Lavender. That definitely hadn’t been Aura in the background. Was it San Antonio—maybe our class trip? If so, what was going on? Lavender had looked kind of upset . . .
“Pretty cool dare, huh?” Liam said.
“Not bad,” Bianca agreed. “Very creative.”
I nodded. “It was kind of fun.”
Except for the creepy vision part, I added silently, trying not to shudder.
I could only hope that whatever happened to Lavender turned out to be a good thing in disguise, just like the vision of Liam at the pool. Otherwise, it could mean that our visions were changing again. What if all of Grandmother Lockwood’s testing was messing things up? What if my good visions were getting mixed up with Cassie’s bad ones?
Miss Marin was bending over some papers on Ms. Xavier’s desk. I stared at her, feeling vaguely uneasy. It seemed awfully coincidental that the wacky teacher had disappeared immediately after my grandmother had learned about the whole social studies project fiasco.
But that’s all it is, I told myself firmly. A coincidence. Right?
11
CASSIE
“WAIT, WAIT, I’VE got it!” Minion Abby giggled loudly. “Wait. No I don’t . . .”
I winced, wondering if her laughter had always been so shrill. We were in homeroom, and Brayden had just dared Abby to peel a banana with her feet. Cute, right? Only not. I was already over the stupid game, but the rest of the school was still crazy for it. Emphasis on crazy. Some seventh grader had brought a live goat to school as her dare, and I’d heard there was an eighth grader who had been singing everything he said all day. One kid in our class had even dared another to climb the flagpole out front, though the principal had put a stop to that one.
“Use your other toe, Abs,” Megan suggested, leaning forward for a better look.
Emily giggled. “Abby, you better not dare me to eat that banana when you’re done with it.”
“Ew!” several people chorused.
Brayden grinned. “Told you guys it’s harder than it sounds.”
“Yeah, good one,” I told him, trying to get into the spirit of the game. “How’d you come up with a dare like that?”
He shrugged. “Brainstorm, I guess.”
“Well, Abby’s having fun with it, anyway.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Just then the banana slipped out of Abby’s grip and squirted off across the room. She chased it down, laughing loudly.
Brayden cleared his throat and shot me a sidelong look. “Actually, I only asked Abby ’cause she’d been hounding me all day to pick her next,” he said quietly. “I was thinking about asking someone else.”
My breath caught in my throat. But I played it cool. “Oh yeah?” I said, all casual like. “Who?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He waggled his eyebrows and elbowed me.
I gasped as a vision swept over me. It was short, since Brayden’s arm only touched mine for a second. Just an abrupt, blurry image of Brayden being helped up the steps of a bus . . . by Caitlyn.
“You okay?” Brayden looked concerned as I came out of it.
For a second I wished I could just tell him the truth—I wasn’t okay, and everything definitely wasn’t fine. Not even close.
But no, bad idea. There was no way he’d believe me. He’d just think I was crazy, like Gabe did.
“Guess I was all breathless thinking about who you might have almost picked for Truth or Dare,” I said, going for flirty and playful.
I guess it worked, because he blushed a little and grinned. “I do have that effect on the ladies sometimes.”
“I see.” I fanned myself as if overcome, and he laughed.
Megan heard him and looked over. When she saw me and Brayden laughing together, she raised her eyebrows and then smiled at me approvingly.
Abby, on the other hand, had finally finished her dare and looked over just in time to see Brayden elbow me again—no vision this time, thank goodness—and she looked peeved.
“Hey!” she said, hurrying over with the banana. “I did it.”
“Cool.” Brayden smiled. “Guess it’s your turn to pick someone.”
Abby frowned slightly. “Fine.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Cassie—truth or dare?”
“Dare, I guess.” What can I say? I’m daring. Besides, with everything going on, the truth seemed scarier than any possible dare right now.
At that moment our homeroom teacher strode in. “Seats, people,” Mr. Bustamonte said. “Time for morning announcements.”
“Oh well,” I said. “We’ll have to pick this up at lunch.”
“Fine.” Abby shrugged. “That’ll give me time to think of something really good.”
I slid into my seat behind Megan. The first announcement was about the class trip. “Be sure to sign up with your partner by Friday, or one will be assigned to you. The final list and bus assignments will go up next Wednesday morning,” the school secretary said. “That’s one week from today, y’all.”
As the announcements continued, I leaned forward and tapped Megan on the shoulder. “Hey,” I whispered. “Want to be partners?”
She shot me an apologetic look
over her shoulder. “Sorry,” she whispered back. “Lav already signed me up with her.”
I sat back in my seat and glanced at Abby and Emily. I’d heard them talking about signing up together, so that was a no go, too.
Oh well. I wasn’t too worried. There were a bunch of minor minions in the other section who I could ask. Or maybe someone else . . .
My gaze wandered toward Brayden, and I felt myself blushing. Yeah, right. He’d probably already signed up with one of the other B Boys. But whatever. Finding a buddy for the class trip? Least of my problems right now.
I’D BARELY TAKEN three steps out of homeroom when Cait raced up to me. “Here,” she hissed, shoving something into my hand. “I don’t want to wear this anymore.”
It was the talisman, of course. “We have to stop meeting this way,” I joked.
“Whatever.” She gave me a little push as she turned away.
And that second touch was the one that brought on a vision. It was brief, like the one about Brayden, but much more vivid. It showed Caitlyn hanging out with the Nerd Squad at Bianca’s locker. They were looking over at another locker nearby—Emily’s. A bunch of cards and stuff were taped to the outside, though I barely got a look at them before the vision winked out again.
“Urgh,” I said as I came out of it.
Cait heard me and turned back. “What?”
I glanced around. Students were rushing past us in every direction, heading to first period. I grabbed Caitlyn’s arm and pulled her to a quiet spot by the water fountain. Grandmother Lockwood would probably have a stroke if she knew I was going to talk about the Sight in public, but oh well. This time I was sure Gabe Campbell wasn’t anywhere within earshot.
“Vision,” I whispered, and then jumped into what I’d seen. “Those had to be get-well cards. Which means something bad is going to happen to Emily.” I sighed. “Just what we need on top of everything else, right?”
“Yeah.” Cait bit her lip. “Speaking of which, Ms. Xavier’s absent again today.”
I shrugged. “Great. That’s one more day she can’t bug us about that stupid project.”
“On my way out of class, I asked the sub if she knew what was wrong.” Caitlyn tugged on her hair, looking worried. “She said she didn’t know, but the school wanted her to be available to fill in indefinitely.”
“Maybe Ms. X has the flu.” I shrugged again.
Caitlyn frowned. “Aren’t you the least bit worried that a certain someone we know might have something to do with it?”
“Oh, please.” I snorted. “We have enough real drama going on without looking for more. Granny L had nothing to do with this.”
“I don’t know how you can be so—” Caitlyn cut herself off as Megan hurried over to us.
“Hi, Caitlyn,” Megan said with a sunny smile. “Ready to head to math, Cass?”
“Sure.” I shot my sister a look. “Right behind you.”
12
CAITLYN
I KNEW MY sister wasn’t worried about Ms. Xavier, but I was. I tried to talk to her about it again when I ran into her in the hall on the way to lunch, but her friend Abby caught up to us before I could say anything.
“Ready for your dare, Cassie?” she singsonged, ignoring me.
Cassie looked irritated for a split second, but then she shot Abby a sunny smile. “I was born ready,” she said. “I just hope you’re not going to make me cartwheel down the hall like that girl we saw on the way to third period.”
“Or the poor kid she clonked on the head with her foot,” Abby agreed with a laugh.
I hadn’t heard about that. Then again, I’d been doing my best to ignore the whole Truth or Dare thing. Still, I couldn’t help trailing along behind the two of them as they hurried into the cafeteria, a little curious in spite of myself. What would Abby ask my sister to do?
Liam and Bianca were just emerging from the lunch line. “Let’s sit over here,” I told them, waving toward a table near the one where Cassie and her friends usually sat. “My sister’s about to do a dare, and I want to see.”
“Sure.” Liam set his tray down.
“What’s she going to do?” Bianca asked.
“Not sure yet.” I glanced over at Cassie’s table as I sat. She and Abby were surrounded by Megan and Co., the B Boys, and various other popular kids. I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the general din of the caf.
But a second later, Lavender looked our way and smirked. “Check it out, Cassie,” she said loudly. “Looks like you’ve got an audience already.”
Abby giggled. “Even better.” She cleared her throat and raised her voice so everyone at the surrounding tables could hear. “Listen, everyone!” she announced. “You’re invited to help with Cassie’s dare, okay? She has to choose a popular song that everyone will know and act it out through, like, interpretive dance.” She giggled again. “She can’t stop until someone guesses the right song.”
“Cool dare,” Liam said with a snorty laugh. “Like Name that Tune without the tune.”
Bianca laughed, but I didn’t respond. Cassie had just turned and shot me a look, complete with eyebrow waggle. For a second I thought maybe she was embarrassed about performing her dare in front of the entire sixth grade.
But I got it when she stepped out to an open spot between tables and started to dance, flinging her arms around and snapping her head. I gasped as I flashed back to my vision—the one of her dancing in front of her silent friends in the cafeteria.
Sure enough, her friends were all watching intently. So was Liam. “Is it ‘Dancing Queen’?” he called out.
That made the B Boys laugh, though Lavender just rolled her eyes. “Abs said it has to be a popular song, not a dorky one.”
Cassie’s other friends started shouting out the titles of recent pop hits. But I narrowed my eyes—there was something about the way Cass was making goggles around her eyes with her hands and then pointing at herself that stirred something in my memory.
“It’s ‘Look at Me’ by Sakiko Star,” I called out.
“Of course!” Lavender cried. “I don’t know why I didn’t get it right away.”
Cassie collapsed into her seat, looking a little winded after her vigorous dancing. “I don’t know why either,” she complained. “And you call yourself a Sakiko fan?”
“No fair,” Brent exclaimed. “Twins shouldn’t be allowed to play. Don’t you two have, like, ESPN or something?”
“ESPN?” Cass echoed, looking confused.
Megan laughed. “I think he means ESP.”
As everyone started razzing Brent for his mistake, I lost interest and turned away. I definitely hadn’t needed any twintuition to guess that song. Cassie only played it all the time—it was even the ringtone on her phone.
I pulled my sandwich out of my lunch bag. Liam and Bianca had already started talking about the math test we had coming up next period. That gave me a chance to think about Cassie’s latest vision. Emily seemed to be turning up a lot in the visions lately, which made me wonder what was going to happen to her—and if we’d be able to figure it out in time to stop it this time.
Maybe Grandmother Lockwood would be able to help—if she showed up today, that was . . .
WHEN CASSIE AND I got home that afternoon, a familiar limo was parked at the curb. When we neared it, the driver’s door swung open and Al hopped out.
“Good afternoon, twins,” he greeted us cheerfully. “Your grandmother sent me to pick you up.”
I was shocked. “Did our mother say it was okay?”
“Miz Lockwood figured you’d ask that.” Driver Al whipped out a cell phone and handed it over.
Cassie peered over my shoulder as I scanned a text from Grandmother Lockwood. It said we were supposed to come back to the hotel for more testing, and that she’d called Mom at work to clear it with her.
“Sounds good,” Cassie said. “I’m kind of surprised Granny L knows how to text, though. Score one for the older generation.”
“Funny
.” I shot Al a smile, hoping he wouldn’t tell Grandmother Lockwood that Cassie had said that. “Just let us dump our school stuff, and we’ll be right back, okay?”
Moments later we were tooling along the highway toward Six Oaks. I was itching to talk about Ms. Xavier, or the Sight, or the Emily visions, or anything important at all, really, but Al was right there and he seemed to be in a chatty mood.
“How was school today, ladies?” he asked with a glance in the rearview.
“Fine,” I said.
“Kind of fun, actually,” Cassie added, getting pretty chatty herself. “There’s this big game of Truth or Dare going around school . . .” She quickly filled him in on the basics.
“Sounds like something the kids would love and the teachers would hate,” the driver said with a chuckle. “So have you two been picked yet?”
“Actually, I did a dare today,” Cassie said. She filled him in on her dance dare. “I’m pretty sure Abby wanted to embarrass me by making me look goofy, but it was actually pretty fun.”
“So did you get to pick someone after that?” Al asked. “That’s how the game works, right?”
“Totally.” Cassie grinned. “That was even more fun. I dared this guy Brent from the football team to change into girls’ clothes and wear them for the rest of the lunch period.”
Now that she mentioned it, I vaguely recalled noticing the tall B Boy wandering around the cafeteria wearing a skirt. But I’d had too much on my mind to worry about it at the time.
“Where’d he get the clothes?” I asked.
“Donations from all of us girls who were there,” Cassie said. “Plus Biff ran and got some granny glasses from the lost and found. Brent looked awesome! He even let Megan put lip gloss on him.” She grinned, then launched into describing every other dare she could think of, from Liam’s Viperguy getup to the goat thing to some kid eating a whole bunch of hot peppers and ending up at the school nurse’s office.
