I saw him shrug. Around, came his voice in my head, along with the electrical buzz. It was so weird, this connection.
Are you okay? he asked.
Yeah, I’m fine. You’re the one who’s been MIA all week.
Just busy, came his reply.
I nodded, swallowing a lump in my throat. He was keeping things from me. I knew it shouldn’t bother me, but it did. He was way too secretive, and it was driving me nuts. I was still freaked out by the vision, and I needed to see him. To talk to him. For real, not this crazy talking-in-the-head stuff.
Can I talk to you after class?
I can’t.
My cheeks burned. He was blowing me off again. Mercifully, Dr. Blackwell strode in just then, saving me from embarrassing myself any further.
“Hey,” chirped Patsy’s voice as I flipped open my cell phone. “Glad I caught you.”
“Hey, Mom.” She hated it when I called her Patsy. “Yeah, I’m just sitting here waiting on my psych — I mean, on Sandra. She’s my, ummm. personal trainer.” I guess you could call her that.
“Personal trainer?”
How to get out of this one? “I just figured, you know, with my shoulder and all. ” I trailed off lamely, realizing I wasn’t making a whole lot of sense. Now that I’d gotten the hang of blocking my thoughts, Sandra and I had begun to focus on my visions — trying to harness them, to gain a sense of awareness and look for clues while they were happening, for details that might help make them more useful. I’d hoped they could match me up with a precog for the rest of my training, but Sandra was what was called a generalist. For now it was Sandra or nothing. Anyway, I liked her.
“I hope they’re not charging extra for that. God knows it’s expensive enough—”
“No, it’s included,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes. “In the tuition, I mean.”
“Well, that’s a nice perk, I guess.”
Cradling the phone between my ear and shoulder, I reached down and picked up the pajamas that Cece had left on the floor by her bed. “My shoulder’s feeling better, by the way.” Not that she’d asked. “Sometimes it gets a little sore after practice, that’s all.”
I heard her sigh loudly. “Maybe I was wrong to send you there. Spence is an excellent all-girls school here in the city, or there’s Riverdale if you like coed and want to be—”
“I like it here at Winterhaven, Pats — Mom,” I corrected. “Besides, it wouldn’t make any difference to my shoulder.”
“You’re right.” She sounded almost relieved, as if she’d been afraid that I might actually take her up on her offer. “I’m so busy that you’d be bored stiff here, anyway.”
What else is new? “How’s the new job?”
“Oh, it’s great. Exhausting, overwhelming. but I love it. Have you talked to Gran?”
“I tried to call yesterday, but no one answered. Did you show her how to use the answering machine before we left?”
“I did, but you know your Gran. Try her again later. She says Lupe’s been acting odd lately. I hope it’s not the first stages of dementia, bless her heart. Anyway, she seems convinced your mortal soul is in some sort of danger, so I promised to call and check up on you. I told her that you sounded awfully happy in your e-mails, but apparently she was going on and on about battles between good and evil, and God knows what else.”
I laughed uneasily. “Yeah, I think my mortal soul is pretty safe here.”
“Well, that’s reassuring. Poor Lupe, you know how fanciful her imagination is. She still swears that the blue bedroom is haunted. All these years, refusing to clean up in there.”
I’d always thought that maybe there was more to Lupe’s imaginings than my family knew, and now I wondered if maybe Lupe had “gifts” of her own. And if she did, well. it was going to be a little harder to brush aside her worries. “Tell her I’m fine, okay? Better yet, I’ll tell her myself. I’ll try them again later today.”
“Great. Oh, wow, look at the time! I really need to run.”
I could picture her glancing down at the diamond-encrusted Rolex my dad had bought her for their fifth anniversary. “No problem,” I said.
“Take care, then. Bye, hon.”
“Bye.” I snapped the phone shut with a sigh. It was always the same with Patsy. Which, in this case, was probably a good thing. After all, there was so much I couldn’t tell her, so much to hide. I knew with 100 percent certainty that if I told her about Winterhaven, about the “gifts” and “talents” that were fostered here, I’d end up just like Cece’s old roommate.
No way was I going to let that happen. Not now, not when I was finally comfortable in my own skin for the first time in ages, when I finally felt like I didn’t have to hide a vital piece of me.
All those years spent keeping secrets, even from my best friend. I glanced guiltily at my laptop, knowing that I owed Whitney an e-mail. She was so full of questions, and I wanted to tell her about my new friends, maybe even about Aidan, but something was holding me back.
A knock sounded at the door, making me jump. I banged my knee against the desk as I hastily shoved my cell phone back inside the top drawer.
“Come in,” I called out. I was actually looking forward to this session with Sandra. More than anything, I wanted to be in control of my visions, rather than have them controlling me.
Sandra bounced inside with her usual degree of perkiness. “Hey, good job,” she said as I quickly imagined the thick, strong wall around my mind, guarding my innermost thoughts. She was still a mind reader, after all.
And I still had secrets.
Advil,” I groaned. Sitting up in bed, I winced, feeling slightly queasy. My head was pounding, and for a moment I wondered if someone had slipped something into my drink the night before.
I shoved off the covers with a moan and stood, looking around for my bag. But when I looked over at the still-sleeping Cece, I stopped short. She was lying on her back, the covers bunched up around her waist. I’d never seen anyone lie so still. For a moment I just stood there staring at her, looking for that telltale rise and fall of her chest. But I saw nothing, no movement at all. She looked. dead.
Fear raced through my veins. Maybe I’d been right; maybe someone had put something in our coffee. Maybe we’d been drugged.
“Cece!” I shrieked, bending over her. I called her name one more time, reaching for her hand and giving it a shake. She didn’t move, didn’t flinch.
Nothing. I shook her again, harder this time.
At once her body jerked and she sat up, gasping for air. “Hey, why’d you do that?” she asked.
“Oh, thank God!” I breathed, stumbling back from her bed.
She glanced at the clock. “How long have I been gone? Oh my God, it’s ten already?”
“G-gone? Where’d you go?” I sputtered.
“I was visiting Allison.” Seeing my confusion, she added, “Astrally speaking. I meant to come back before you woke up. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Scare me? I was totally freaked!” My heart was still pounding, and my hands were shaking like crazy.
“Sorry about that. I should have warned you, I guess. You’d think we’d be used to each other’s little gifts by now, wouldn’t you?”
“So, how’s Allison doing?” I asked, once I caught my breath.