Double Dare

by Tia Mowry

When we reached the hotel, our grandmother was waiting rather impatiently in her room. Actually, it was more of a suite, with a separate living room and kitchenette. There were fresh flowers in vases, plush carpet, and a marble-topped dining table—super fancy. Grandmother Lockwood looked pretty fancy herself in a black dress and tasteful gold jewelry.

  “Sit down, girls,” she said without bothering to say hello or ask about our day. “We might not have much time.”

  That seemed like an odd thing to say, but I sat at the table with Cassie next to me. The marble tabletop felt cool and hard under my elbows.

  “What’s the big hurry?” Cassie asked. “Do we have time to tell you about our latest visions?”

  “Yes, of course.” Grandmother Lockwood sat down across from us. “Tell me.”

  We filled her in on what we’d seen that day. She listened silently, nodding when Cassie told her how my cafeteria dance vision had come true.

  “That’s another one that seemed like it might be bad, but wasn’t,” I added. “I mean, when I had the vision I thought it was weird that all Cassie’s friends were staring at her while she spazzed out—”

  “You mean showed off my awesome moves,” Cass corrected.

  “Whatever.” I laughed. “Anyway, it turned out to be fine.”

  “Yes, it’s fascinating the way the visions break down between the two of you.” Grandmother Lockwood got up and grabbed a shopping bag off a chair nearby. “But let’s move on for now. I’ve got a few more focus objects here that belonged to your father, along with some other family heirlooms. I thought we’d try using several of them along with the talisman and diary to see what happens.”

  I leaned forward, eager to see our dad’s things—but also nervous. The visions we’d been getting during these tests were kind of creepy. I wasn’t sure I wanted another one.

  “Do you really think this stuff will help bring on more visions?” Cassie watched as Grandmother Lockwood took out a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, a battered wallet, some old coins, and a single leather glove.

  “That’s the theory.” Grandmother Lockwood pulled an old-fashioned and slightly moth-eaten ladies’ hat out of the bag and set it with the other stuff. Finally she added the diary and scarf to the pile. “Stacking the talismans means adding more stored power. We’ll have to see if that changes things.”

  “Changes things how?” I asked.

  “Like bringing on the visions when you wish to have them,” she replied. “And perhaps helping you focus, making things clearer and easier to understand.” She pushed the little tower of objects toward us. “Based on what happened yesterday, I consider it a good working theory.”

  “Whatever.” Cassie grabbed the glasses and studied them. “I’m up for anything that might give us some control over when we have visions. Because it’s really pretty embarrassing when I—”

  “Hold that thought,” Grandmother Lockwood said as the buzz of a cell phone rang out from her purse.

  She hurried over and answered. I glanced at my sister, still anxious about what we were doing.

  I forgot about that when I heard the squawk of a loud voice coming out of the phone. Uh-oh.

  “Is that Mom?” Cass murmured. “She doesn’t sound happy.”

  “Settle down, Deidre,” Grandmother Lockwood said into the phone. “I didn’t kidnap anyone. I left you a message—perhaps you didn’t get it?”

  More squawking from Mom. I felt light-headed for a second, not sure why the whole scene was weirding me out all of a sudden. Okay, I did know one reason—it sounded as if our grandmother hadn’t actually cleared this visit with Mom after all, which was bad news. But it was more than that . . .

  Then my mind cleared as I got it. “This was my vision,” I whispered to Cass. “The one of Grandmother Lockwood on the phone.”

  She lifted her finger to her lips. She was listening to the argument going on across the room. We couldn’t really hear what Mom was saying, though we could certainly imagine it.

  Grandmother Lockwood sighed loudly. “Let’s not punish the girls for a misunderstanding between you and me,” she said. “They only came because I told them you said it was all right. And it’s important that I see them while I can. Things may be much more urgent now, remember?”

  Cassie and I traded a confused look. What did that mean? Was she talking about the way the visions were getting stronger and more frequent?

  “Girls,” Grandmother Lockwood said, holding her phone out to us. “Your mother would like to speak with you.”

  Cassie grabbed the phone, holding it out a little ways from her ear so I could press in and hear. “Mom?” she said. “It’s us.”

  “Sorry, we thought you okayed this,” I added.

  “It’s all right,” Mom said, though she still sounded pretty cranky. “You haven’t known your grandmother for very long; you don’t know how she can— Well, never mind.”

  Grandmother Lockwood was watching us from across the table, her arms folded over her chest. Had she pushed Mom too far this time? I was expecting Mom to order us to come home right this minute.

  “What do you want to do?” Mom asked instead. “Would you like to stay there? If not, I can come pick you up.”

  “No, it’s fine, Mom,” Cassie said. “We want to stay.”

  “If it’s okay with you,” I added despite an eye roll from Cass.

  “Fine.” Mom didn’t sound particularly surprised. Fortunately, she didn’t sound all that mad anymore either. Just kind of tired. “Be home in time for dinner, all right? And promise me you’ll check in with me before going anywhere from now on.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said.

  “Sure thing,” Cassie added.

  We said good-bye and handed back the phone. Grandmother Lockwood spoke to Mom again briefly, then hung up.

  “All right, that’s settled.” She rubbed her hands together and returned to her seat. “Let’s get started.”

  She told us to join hands and also touch all of the objects at the same time. I obeyed gingerly, half expecting to be knocked out by some lightning bolt of a vision brought on by all that Lockwood stuff.

  But nothing happened.

  “Well?” Grandmother Lockwood said.

  Cassie shook her head. “Nada,” she said. “Guess it’s not working this time.”

  “Hmm.” Our grandmother frowned. “All right, let’s try something else. Think back to that last vision—the one you had about the two men.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. Why did she want us to basically spy on total strangers? Wouldn’t it make more sense to try to get a vision about someone we knew? There wasn’t much point in predicting what those two men might do next, or the next time the guy with the long braid went Dumpster diving . . .

  Suddenly my head filled with buzzing, and I was slammed into another vivid vision. I was looking at those trash cans again—the same ones Braid Guy had been digging through before. But this time he was nowhere in sight. Instead, a slender young woman was standing there, pointing at something in the can and yelling angrily. At least I guessed she was yelling, since all I could hear, as usual, was the loud buzzing. The young woman had sleek black hair pulled back in a ponytail, and was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. An oatmealy-looking facial mask covered her face, making it hard to tell what she looked like.

  The vision didn’t last long, since Cassie pulled her hand away a moment later, breaking us out of it. “Well?” Grandmother Lockwood asked.

  “I didn’t see those men,” I told her. “But I’m pretty sure I saw the same place from the first stranger vision . . .” I went on to describe what I’d seen as best I could.

  “Weird,” Cassie said when I finished. “I didn’t see anything like that at all.”

  “Really?” I was startled. “What did you see?”

  “An old dude in a grungy-looking bathrobe,” she said.

  Grandmother Lockwood leaned forward. “Was it one of the men from the last vision?”

  “Nope. This g
uy was way older than them—probably like seventy at least,” Cassie said. “And actually, his robe was all dirty and gross, but it looked like it was real silk.”

  Leave it to fashion-crazy Cassie to notice a detail like that! “Where was the guy?” I asked.

  “He was sitting in this huge dining room with, like, gold candlesticks and a white tablecloth and stuff,” she said. “There was even a nice place setting. But he was using his fancy fork to eat sardines straight out of the can!” She made a face. “Wretched, right?”

  “Sardines?” Grandmother Lockwood sounded perplexed. “I don’t understand.”

  “Me neither,” Cassie said with feeling. “Sardines are totally gross!”

  Our grandmother hardly seemed to hear her. She was staring into space. “I wish I had more resources here,” she muttered. “This isn’t making sense. Not unless . . .” She cut herself off and stood abruptly. “We should probably get you home so Deidre doesn’t have a fit.”

  It seemed a little late for that, but I nodded. “This is the first time Cass and I had a vision together that didn’t show the same thing,” I said. “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know.” Grandmother Lockwood looked troubled. “The visions don’t normally work that way. Then again, we’ve never had twin Seers before, so this is all new territory.”

  “That’s us, new and improved,” Cassie joked. “Hey, maybe we should consult with Ms. Xavier about it. She’s an expert at all this weirdo stuff—or at least she thinks she is.”

  Our grandmother frowned. “That won’t be necessary,” she said icily. “I’ve dealt with that little . . . problem.”

  Yikes! “What do you think she meant by that?” I whispered as she swept off into the bedroom.

  Cassie shrugged, though she looked a bit worried. “Who knows?” she said. “Maybe she found someone with the flu to cough in Ms. X’s coffee.”

  We had to stop talking then as Grandmother Lockwood returned with her purse and jacket. “Let’s go, girls,” she said.

  I was itching to discuss what had just happened with Cassie. But I was going to have to wait, since Grandmother Lockwood ended up riding back to Aura with us. Not that we could have talked freely in front of Al anyway.

  It was a quiet ride home. Grandmother Lockwood stared out the window without saying much. Cassie played with her phone. Even Al was pretty subdued aside from some humming.

  Finally we pulled up in front of our house. “Come,” Grandmother Lockwood said. “I need to speak with your mother.”

  The three of us climbed out. Cassie and I headed for the front door, but our grandmother called us back.

  “Give us a hug,” she ordered. “I might not see you for a while.”

  “What?” I said, surprised. “Why not?”

  Grandmother Lockwood pulled Cassie into an embrace and I blinked, recognizing yet another vision coming true in front of me. It had been such a minor vision that I’d nearly forgotten about it.

  She reached for me next, and I hugged her, breathing in the light scent of jasmine and mothballs. “Are you going somewhere?” I asked.

  “Yes, I might have to go away for a bit,” she said. “But don’t fret, I’ll be back before long.”

  “But what if something happens, or we have questions, or . . . ,” I began.

  Grandmother Lockwood pulled two small pieces of paper out of her purse. “Here’s an email address where I can be reached,” she said, handing one scrap of paper to each of us. “It’s only for emergencies, though, all right?”

  I stared at the email addy, feeling dismayed. Just when we were starting to get somewhere! I mean, I wasn’t thrilled about the odd stranger visions. And Grandmother Lockwood didn’t seem quite as knowledgeable about all the details of the Sight as I’d hoped. Still, she seemed to be our best bet for getting things under control.

  Before I could say any of that, Mom hurried outside. “Go inside,” she told us. “I was about to start dinner. Pasta’s in the bag on the table.”

  “But—” Cassie began.

  “Go!” Mom pointed.

  What choice did we have? We went, leaving the two of them out in the yard together.

  13

  CASSIE

  BY THE TIME I walked into social studies class on Thursday, people were starting to buzz about why Ms. Xavier had been out all week. Emily joked that she’d probably joined a cult, while Brayden and Megan speculated about alien abduction.

  Me? I was trying not to think about it. I’d thought Caitlyn was crazy to think Grandmother Lockwood could have anything to do with our teacher’s absence. But after yesterday, I wasn’t so sure.

  Brayden leaned across the aisle as Miss Marin started passing back our quizzes from the day before. “Hey, did you hear?” he asked with a grin. “Brent came up with this awesome dare for Emily.”

  “Really?” I tried to focus on what he was saying. Looking at his adorable face made that a little easier. “What’s the dare?”

  “You know how she’s always bragging about how fast she picked up snowboarding when her family went to Colorado last year?”

  I shrugged. “No,” I said. “I wasn’t here last year.”

  “Oh, right.” He blinked. “Wow. It’s kind of hard to believe you’ve only been in Aura for like a month or two. I already can’t even imagine this place without you.”

  He suddenly looked weirdly shy. Was he blushing? He leaned over, fiddling with his cast so his hair fell forward, hiding his face.

  “Yeah, um, it feels like longer to me, too,” I said, feeling awkward—but kind of psyched, too.

  “Anyway.” He sat up and cleared his throat. “So Ems went skiing with her family and kept sending everyone photos of herself on the slopes. She met this guy who taught her to snowboard, and she couldn’t stop bragging about what a natural she was.”

  “Sounds annoying,” I said, glancing forward at Emily two seats ahead.

  He shrugged. “I guess, but Brent came up with a way to finally make her prove it.”

  “How?” Unless we had a sudden freak blizzard or something, I didn’t get it. But I couldn’t help flashing back to the vision of Emily and the ambulance. Could it be connected to this dare?

  Brayden grinned playfully. “I swore I wouldn’t tell,” he said, his brown eyes twinkling. “Brent wants Emily to be surprised. Sorry. You’ll have to wait and see. Just keep your fingers crossed that she chooses dare when he asks her.”

  I still felt uneasy. If something bad was going to happen to Emily, I needed to prevent it if I could. Otherwise, what was even the point of the stupid visions?

  “Oh, come on,” I wheedled, trying to sound flirty rather than desperate. “You can tell me. I won’t breathe a word.”

  “Sorry, no can do.” He crossed his heart with one finger. “I can’t go back on my word to a bro.”

  “Sure you can.” I tilted my head and gave him my best smile. “You might as well give in now. I always get what I want in the end.”

  “Oh yeah?” He grinned.

  “All right, kids,” Miss Marin said, dropping the last paper on someone’s desk. “Hush up and let’s get started.”

  Brayden shrugged, still grinning, and mouthed the word sorry at me.

  I smiled weakly and slumped in my seat, feeling anxious and a little annoyed. Whatever Brent had in mind for Emily, it looked like this was one thing I wouldn’t see until it happened.

  “WHAT IF SHE never comes back?” Caitlyn said, wandering toward my desk.

  I looked up from my homework. We were in our room waiting for Mom to get back with the takeout Mexican food she’d ordered. Being Aura, there was no delivery, so she’d had to go pick it up.

  “You mean Granny L?” I said. “She’ll be back.”

  “How do you know?” Caitlyn twisted her hair between her fingers, looking anxious. “I mean, she finally started telling us some stuff about the Sight. But there’s so much more to know, and we can’t do it on our own. I mean, we can try like we were before, but it�
��s not like we were getting very far, and if Gabe tells anyone else or we make some dumb mistake, who knows what could happen or . . .”

  Uh-oh. When Caitlyn gets going like that, she can talk for hours without really saying anything. “Chill,” I said. “Seriously. It’ll be all right.”

  I reached over and grabbed her hand. As soon as I touched it, I gasped as a vision came.

  The Caitlyn standing in front of me faded away, and instead I saw a brighter, more vivid Caitlyn. She was standing in a brilliantly lit shop with posters of retro-looking women on the walls sporting all kinds of crazy hair colors—bright blue, purple, hot pink. Lavender was there, too. She was standing in a doorway, frowning. She said something—not that I could hear it, what with all the usual buzzing—and angrily tossed the magazine she was holding at Cait.

  Cait yanked her hand away, breaking the vision. “What?” she demanded. “Did you see something about me?”

  “Yeah.” I took a few deep breaths, trying to get my racing heartbeat under control. “Don’t worry, it was nothing scary. Just Lav being bratty.”

  “Well, that could be any day.”

  I told her what I’d seen. She looked confused. “Posters of purple hair? Where’s that?”

  “Got me.” I shrugged. “I haven’t been to Lav’s house yet; maybe she has really weird taste in home decor.”

  “But why would I be at Lavender’s house?” Caitlyn said. “We’re not friends.”

  Just then we heard Mom holler from the front of the house. I pushed my homework away and stood.

  “Come on,” I said. “Whatever you did to annoy Lav, I doubt it’s life or death. Let’s worry about the important visions first, okay? But before that, let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  14

  CAITLYN

  I DIDN’T SLEEP very well that night, and for once I couldn’t blame it on Cassie’s snoring. Every time I dropped off I had weird dreams—one was about Grandmother Lockwood talking to a bunch of ghosts with voices that sounded like buzzing, another featured a voodoo witch doctor doing weird experiments on Ms. Xavier and Emily, and in yet another the only thing I could remember was hanging on to a long, black braid to avoid falling into a deep pit. Creepy!