2 Deja Blue (21 page)

“
Nothin
’.
You had to wait, what…like five minutes?
Chill, Ruby.
”

“Ha.
Easy for you to say.
You’re not
gonna
get your ass kicked by a
Mermaid
tonight.” I said
grumpily
as I stared out of the window.

Jeremy glanced over at me
with a raised eyebrow
and touched my left leg, “
Now, now…there’ll be no ass kicking
…ass
swishing
maybe, but no kicking…n
ot
from a
Mermaid
without legs,” he chuckled, “Besides. I know
my
Ruby. You’re going to make
a
fil
l
et outta that little fish.” He glanced at me sideways and smiled, and I giggled at his lame remark. “You’re such
a goof
!” I laughed and smacked his shoulder playfully.
I could always count on Jeremy to have my back and make me laugh
…
w
hich was more than I could say about Brennan right now. I hadn’t heard from him or seen him in almost three days
,
since that night when
he stomped out of the store.

We pulled up to Anya and Brennan’s cottage around
5
p.m. It wasn’t dark yet, but they had the porch light on.
The cute, little craftsman-
style cottage featured stone pillars and a huge white porch with giant potted
red
g
eraniums in full bloom.
Anya greeted us at
the
door, smiling wide. “Hi guys! We ordered pizza
,
and it just got here. We figured we’d eat before the big night!” She seemed so excited and happy. How could she be in such a great mood, when I was more than likely going to lose and poorly represent the Earthen
Court? I was still nauseous and didn’t feel at all hungry. I followed Jeremy
through the front
door
into the bright, wide-open modern living space of the cottage.
Shades
of white, sand and pale lime-green
welcomed me.
I slipped off my tattered
,
navy blue Converse shoes and padded across the cool, dark-wood plank floors towards the huge
granite-topped kitchen island
that sat
in the center of the house. To the right was the kitchen and to the left was the main living space. Brennan was nowhere to be found.
Anya busied herself with getting down glasses and drinks for us while
I climbed up onto one of the barstools at the island and helped myself to a slice of pizza. I nibbled at the edge while I stared out of the windows which lined t
he back of the house.
Jeremy came up to the island, grabbed three slices of pizza
,
and went to sit on the giant lime-green sectional couch. Just then, Brennan came
thundering down
the stairs. I glanced over to him, feeling awkward and unsure of what to say.

“Recharging?” I asked, as I nibbled on my slice of pizza. Upstairs at Anya and Brennan’s house was a spectacular garden room. Potted plants, trees and flowers of every kind landscaped the interior space. It featured huge glass windows and solar panels to keep the room like a tropical getaway. Beautiful hydrangeas, hibiscus, lilies, birds of paradise, and about a hundred other types of flowers bloomed there, all year long. Anya and Brennan could stay in their human form longer, as long as they could recharge in the
garden with the earth and plants. Having such a wonderful botanical place in their very own house made it very convenient for them.

Brennan
cheerily
hopped onto the bar stool next to me and nodded, “Yeah.” He grabbed a slice of pizza and took a giant bite. I just stared at him. That’s it? That’s all he was going
to
say to me after not seeing or speaking to me for three days? What was his de
al? I dropped my barely-eaten slice of pizza on my plate and stared
sourly
out the window
.
At this point, Anya was sitting next to Jeremy on the couch.

“You
’
r
e
not hungry
, Kansas
?
” He said as he
glanced at me,
grabbed another slice and started inhaling it, “That’s a switch. You usually scarf down anything that’s put in front of your face,” he snickered.

I blew out a big frustrated sigh,
and
directed my pissed off gaze at him.
“
Seriously?!
That’s it?! That’s all you have to say to me? I haven’t seen or heard from you in three days you jack
-
hole! What the
hell
is your problem?”
I
snapped
.
Anya
and Jeremy stopped their conversation and jerked their heads over to us
,
and Brennan just looked at me with
frozen
surprise.
Okay. I may have been a little harsh. But
how dare he act like nothing was wrong or nothing had happened.

Brennan’s ex
pression softened from surprise
to amusement.
“
Whoaaa
Kansas.
Relax.
Did a house just fall on your sister or something?” Brennan smiled. I
squinted
my eyes at him, giving him
an evil look. “Shut up
,
Brennan.
You’re
the one who’s blown me off for the past three days. Stop acting like I’m the witch here.”

Brennan raised his eyebrows with a look of innocence
,
“
If the ruby slipper fits…” he smirked and my face turned about four shades of red in anger as Brennan quickly put his hands up in defeat, saying, “
Okay, okay!
Just calm down.
Sweet Stars of Mars, Ruby… I was busy. And Anya
ran
the drills with you. No need for you to send the flying monkeys after me…”
He picked up his half-eaten slice of pizza and started devouring it again.

I rolled my eyes, feeling heat rush to my face, but I held my tongue.
Hmmm.
That wasn’t really an answer. He didn’t lie, but he certainly didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. He didn’t answer my question about why I hadn’t seen or heard from him in the last three days. Stupid
Fairy
answers. Ugh. I suppose he
was
treating me the way he always had. He wasn’t acting like he was mad at me. In fact, he was acting like Brennan usually acted…
he
annoy
ed
the hell out of me.
Maybe I was making more out of this than there was
to be made
. But then,
he
was the one who blew me off. I would never understand boys. I blew out another sigh of frustration and shook my head. I was still annoyed with him, but I guess there was no sense in worrying about that anymore since he was here now and we were all about to witness me getting my ass
swished
by a
Mermaid
in just a few short hours.  I decided to drop it and turned my attention to Anya, who was still sitting silently on
the couch with Jeremy. In the sweetest voice I could manage, I calmly asked, “So
,
what time do we leave?
I don’t want to be late.
” I thought I did a good job of
ignoring Brennan’s flying monkeys comment and
even
Brennan
himself
, who was shaking his head and grabbing yet another
slice
of pizza.

Jeremy spoke up, with a look of amazement on his face. “Wow. This is just like watching somebody with multiple personality disorder.” Anya
giggled and
threw a pillow at Jeremy and answered me, “Soon. We’ve got to be to Lake
Superior
by ten.”

“SUPERIOR?!?!”
I screeched.
“As in, LAKE SUPERIOR??!?”
I almost fell off of the stool I was sitting on. Jeremy cheered from his comfy seat on the couch as he swallowed a mouthful of pizza, “
Woohoo
!
Road
t
rip!!”
I annoying
ly
shook my finger a
t Jeremy (feeling like a school
teacher scolding a 5-year old
,
I might add) “
Ohhhhh
y
ou! You just shut it! You hate cold water, you big baby!”

“Well,” he chortled, “I’m not the one that’s
gettin
’ wet tonight.” I shot him my best evil glare. The thought of swimming in Lake Superior was chilling.
Literally.
Being the coldest of the Great Lakes, this was not going to be like a dip in the backyard
80-
degree swimming pool. “Why didn’t you guys tell me I was
gonna
have to swim in Superior?!?” I whined to Anya.
             

She looked sympathetic. “Ruby, honestly, I didn’t really want to stress you out. I mean, just taking on all of the swimming
stuff and dealing with all
of
the
Fairy
security was enough, don’t you think? I didn’t want you freaking out about
where
you were going to be doing this.”

I
gulped as the enormity of the situation began to sink in.
There was no use arguing. There was no use whining. It is what it is. Ready or not, I was going to have to do this.
I sat there
silently staring out the window, while Anya and Jeremy continued to chat on the couch and Brennan continued to stuff his face.
Lake Superior was over a three-hour drive from
here
. I was not looking forward to sitting in the car for th
ree-and-a-
half hours with Brennan.
I had a lot on my mind. I didn’t want to lose, but I felt I was going to. I would let down
all of the members of the Earthen Court (including my friends, the Princess and Prince),
ruin Celestine’s chance
for true love, and fail miserably.
I rubbed my forehead with my hands,
and
then felt a wave of nausea hit me
.
I felt l
ike any movement I made or
any
sound I
whispered
would push me over the edge into full-on crazy panic mod
e. I tried to remain very still
to keep t
he shaking and
trembling at bay. Maybe if I didn’t move or didn’t speak, the fear would silently slip away.

But no, I wasn’t that lucky.

The sick feeling in my stomach began to work its way up my throat
,
and I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit.
I stood up
quickly
from my barstool and
sharply, yet calmly
,
announced, “I’m
going to go
throw up. And then I’m going to
change into my swimsuit.” And without looking back, I walked into
the bathroom.

Chapter 22

Because the drive
to Lake Superior
was going to take so long, Anya and Brennan suggested that they take
one of
their car
s
. They never drove.
Anywhere.
They alway
s just soda-pop fizzed in and POPPED
out of wherever they needed to be
. I hoped Brennan would drive, t
hen maybe he would be distracted enough not to talk to me. I couldn’t handle him right now. I had too many other things on my mind
.
And, lucky for me, he did.
We all decided that Anya’s lime-
green
Volkswagon
bug was just too small for all four
of
us to ride in for that long of a drive. We piled into Brennan’s
beautiful
Caribbean
b
lue convertible Ford Mustang and took off for our destination.
(Not that the Mustang was much bigger, but it did offer a bit more leg room
in the front seats
.)
The bright
Caribbean
blue color of
his
car reminded me of the color of the sky where it meets the water on a
clear
day…but with a kick. Brennan
liked to go fast. Of course, the classic American muscle car was a must for him.
Three hours in the car.
Ugh.
How was I going to make it without throwing up?
Maybe I could take a nap. Lake Superior is
the
largest freshwater lake in the world. The entire world!
I didn’t understand why we had to go there, when I saw Celestine in the waters of Lake Michigan. But
,
apparently, the
Grá
mo
Chroí
Dúshlán
– the
Challenge
I was to participate in – was to take place where the
Water Royal Court resided
when they were in this state
…which was in Lake Superior. So
on our way we went.