by Tia Mowry
But the principal was already charging up the steps. “Sorry, Principal Z,” Emily said with an uncertain giggle. “We were just messing around.”
“Yeah, dude,” Brent added. “She has to do her dare.”
“She’ll be fine,” Abby added. “She’s a totally expert snowboarder. This is almost the same thing, right?”
“That’s the dare,” I murmured to Cait, who looked a little confused. “Brent dared Ems to show off her snowboarding skills by riding his board down the steps.”
“Yikes,” Cait said with a shudder.
I nodded, guessing she was thinking about our visions. I know I was.
Meanwhile Principal Zale was scowling around at everyone. “I knew this Truth or Dare craze would be trouble when I had to drag that young man off the flagpole the other day,” he said. “From this moment on, the game is over, do you hear me? The next person I catch playing this game on school property gets a full week’s suspension. And no class trip either.”
There were groans and protests from all sides, but I slumped against the wall, relieved. I perked up when Brayden sidled toward me, keeping an eye on the principal, who was still ranting.
“Hey,” Brayden said. “I was wondering if you were going to show up.”
Caitlyn looked from me to Brayden and back again. “Excuse me,” she said with a stifled giggle. “I need to, um . . .”
She scurried off. Subtle, Cait. Real subtle.
Luckily Brayden didn’t seem to notice her goofy behavior. “Bummer about the game, huh?” he said.
“Yeah, I guess.” I shrugged, trying to seem casual. “It was getting a little old anyway if you ask me.”
“Too bad, because actually I had one more dare for you, if you’re up for it.”
“But it’s not your turn,” I reminded him.
“I guess I’m just a rebel,” he joked. Then he cleared his throat. “So do you want to hear it?”
I couldn’t imagine what he was about to say. But suddenly I really, really wanted to know.
“Yeah, I’m game,” I said. “Lay it on me.”
“I dare you . . . to be my partner for the class trip.” He grinned, but he looked nervous. “What do you say?”
I was so surprised that I just burbled for a second. That so wasn’t what I was expecting!
“Um, yes!” I blurted out at last. “I mean, sure. Sounds good.” I shot him a sidelong smile. “Cool.”
“Yeah, cool.” He smiled back, looking relieved.
Then we had to step aside as Principal Zale swept past, dragging Emily with one hand and Brent with the other. Apparently it hadn’t taken him long to get to the bottom of things.
I sent Emily a mental apology, though mostly I was just happy that she was okay. Once again, the visions had come through. Just barely.
“Get to lunch, the rest of you!” Principal Zale called over his shoulder as he headed for the office. “Now.”
“You heard the man.” Brayden poked me on the arm, which thankfully didn’t bring on a vision. “Walk you to the caf?”
“Sure.” I fell into step beside him, glad that at least there was one silver lining to this crazy, ridiculous, confusing week.
16
CAITLYN
“SO WHAT ARE the odds that Ms. Xavier will turn up at the game?” I said.
It was Saturday, and Cassie and I were getting ready to head over to the football game. Just about everybody in town went to the home games, including the teachers. In fact, we’d ended up sitting with Ms. Xavier at our very first Aura Middle School game.
Cassie looked up from pulling on a pair of socks and frowned. “I can’t believe Granny L hasn’t answered my email yet.”
“I can’t believe you thought blackmailing our own grandmother would work,” I countered. “Do you really think she’ll tell us if she did something horrible to Ms. X?” I shuddered, still trying not to think about the skull-room vision.
“She’d better.” Cass stood up, heading to the closet to grab shoes. “Because I was serious about telling Mom. I mean, we have no choice.”
Just then there were twin pings from Cassie’s phone and laptop. “Email alert,” I said. “Maybe that’s her now.”
Cassie was already at her desk hitting keys on her laptop. I got up and looked over her shoulder. “I’m not sure who it’s from. There’s a video message.”
“Don’t click on that!” I yelped. “It could be a virus or something!”
Too late. Cassie had already clicked to open it. Typical. She never thinks things through until it’s too late. Like trying to blackmail our possibly scary grandmother, for instance . . .
I forgot about that and gasped as a familiar face popped up on the video. “Ms. Xavier!” I cried.
Cass looked surprised. “Wait, I need to turn up the volume.”
She cranked it up and started the video again. Ms. Xavier began the video reaching forward as if to adjust the camera, smiling and looking as happy as could be.
“Hello, twins!” she said cheerfully. “I heard you were worried about me, and I’m so sorry I won’t be there to help you with your social studies project after all. I want you to know, that was the only thing that made me hesitate even briefly before accepting this amazing opportunity.”
“Opportunity?” Cassie murmured.
I shushed her. My eyes widened as the camera panned out, showing more of the background. Ms. Xavier was in the skull room from my vision!
“But I just couldn’t turn it down in the end,” she went on, waving a hand at the creepy room. It was better lit than in my vision, but that wasn’t such a good thing. It just meant we had an even better view of the skulls and other stuff—old books, weird-looking cloth dolls, drippy candles, dusty bottles full of dried insects, and more.
“Is that her apartment?” Cassie joked weakly.
I shook my head, listening as Ms. Xavier went on. “It’s the biggest and best-funded study of the history and science of voodoo ever known,” she exclaimed. “I don’t know who recommended me for it, but I’m eternally grateful. It’s already showing great potential for interesting discoveries. But unfortunately it means I’ve had to take a sabbatical from AMS for at least the rest of the year, maybe longer.” She smiled sunnily. “I hope you’ll let me know how your project turns out! Ta ta, twins!”
The video ended. I sat back, stunned.
“Wow,” Cassie said, clicking off the email. “Crazy.”
“Yeah. I guess this means Grandmother Lockwood didn’t have her kidnapped after all.”
“Not against her will, anyway.” Cassie shook her head. “But you can’t tell me she wasn’t behind this sudden voodoo ‘opportunity.’ I mean, who else would ask Ms. X to do something like that? And who else would tell her we were worried about her so she’d make this video—the day after I sent that email?”
“I guess it had to be Grandmother Lockwood,” I agreed. “I still feel guilty for suspecting her of all kinds of terrible stuff, though.”
Cass shrugged. “Maybe we were a tad harsh on her, but she was definitely pretty sneaky,” she pointed out. “And this proves she got my email. So why hasn’t she answered it?”
“I don’t know.” I was only half listening as my brain worked out what all this meant. “But I guess I’m still mostly seeing good stuff after all.”
“Oh. Right.” She frowned. “Ms. X was probably thrilled about whatever that guy in the cape was doing in your vision.”
“I just remembered something else,” I said slowly. “Ms. Xavier was in that vision I had about Emily, remember? The one with the ribbon on her chair?”
“Oh yeah.” Cassie nodded. “Weird. But you had that one before Ms. X left for Voodoo University, right? Maybe that meant there was still a chance she wouldn’t go. Like, showing a possible future, not a definite one.”
“But actually she did go, and the thing with Emily didn’t happen, so the whole vision was bogus.” I sighed. “Talk about confusing!”
“We already know
none of the visions are sure things, right? Otherwise we couldn’t change what we see.” Cassie checked her watch. “We can figure all that out later. Right now, hurry and finish getting ready. I don’t want to miss kickoff.”
“You mean you don’t want to miss getting a seat behind the home team bench so you can flirt with your trip buddy Brayden during the game?” I teased.
“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes. “I never should’ve told you about that.”
She’d filled me in on Brayden’s “dare” on our way home from school yesterday. How adorable was that? I was super happy for my sister—especially since Brayden seemed like such a great guy. “It’s not like I wouldn’t have noticed when we all got on the bus next week,” I pointed out, wandering over to the dresser to do my hair.
“Whatever. Are you worried about who the school’s going to stick you with? What if you end up trip buddies with, like, Gabe Campbell or someone gross like that?”
I still didn’t have a partner for the class trip. That meant the school would assign me someone. Not ideal, but I was trying not to worry about it.
“Maybe I’ll end up meeting someone nice,” I said.
“Okay, Suzie Sunshine.” She sounded skeptical. “But if you end up with Gabe, don’t expect to hang out with me and Brayden.”
Her computer pinged again. Cassie’s eyes widened when she looked.
“It’s from her!” she said.
I didn’t need to ask who she meant. Dropping the hair elastic I’d just picked up, I rushed over.
The email from Grandmother Lockwood was short and not so sweet.
I received your message, and I trust you’ve heard from your teacher by now. Please refrain from threatening me in future, it’s not at all useful. Also, your mother mentioned that your class is going to San Antonio next week. I’m afraid this could be dangerous for you two. Please be certain to cancel as soon as possible. I’ll explain when I see you.
Love,
Your grandmother
Cassie was horrified. “She doesn’t want us to go on the class trip? Why?”
“Dangerous? What do you think she means by that?” Feeling a little nervous, I grabbed my sister’s hand.
The vision came immediately. I wasn’t wearing the talisman, but I still had no trouble seeing the brighter Cassie that replaced the real one in front of me. Vision Cassie’s eyes were wide as she watched Grandmother Lockwood embrace a man in the middle of a hilly street. And when the man pulled away, I recognized him—it was the shabby guy from our earlier vision!
Before I could get a good look at the background, Cassie yanked her hand away. “What?” she demanded.
I blinked at her, overwhelmed by what I’d just seen—and what it could mean. “Didn’t you see it?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No visions here,” she said. “But I can tell you had one. So spill. Was it about me and Brayden?”
“N-no.” I tried to gather my thoughts, but they were whirling around in my head like leaves in a storm. “You were there, but the vision was mostly about our grandmother. And I think . . .”
My voice trailed off. I was half afraid to say what came next.
“What?” Cassie demanded, giving me a sharp poke in the arm.
I took a deep breath, meeting her eye. “I think our father might still be alive!”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TIA MOWRY-HARDRICT
TAMERA MOWRY-HOUSLEY
Photo by Diana King
Photo by Martina Tolot
TIA MOWRY-HARDRICT & TAMERA MOWRY-HOUSLEY have been in the public eye for over twenty years, beginning with their hit ABC/WB show Sister, Sister. They’ve starred in Disney Channel’s original movies Twitches and Twitches Too as well as the Style Network’s #1 reality series, Tia & Tamera. Tia was the lead of The CW/BET show The Game and the Nickelodeon series Instant Mom. She can most recently be seen on Cooking Channel’s show Tia Mowry at Home. Tamera is currently a host and producer of the hit daytime talk show The Real, which airs on FOX, and starred in the Lifetime series Strong Medicine. Tia and Tamera reside in Los Angeles with their families.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
CREDITS
Cover art © 2017 by Annabelle Métayer
Front cover type by Annica Lydenberg
Cover design by Katie Fitch
COPYRIGHT
TWINTUITION: DOUBLE DARE. Copyright © 2017 by Dashon Productions and Two Heart Productions. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957944
ISBN 978-0-06-237292-5
EPub Edition © April 2017 ISBN 9780062372949
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FIRST EDITION
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