2 Deja Blue (4 page)

“Nice shoes, Brennan.” I smirked as I looked down at his dirty bare feet and raised my eyebrows at him.

“Nice tornado-styled hair, Kansas. Is the wind-blown look in these days?” Brennan quipped back. I quickly reached up to smooth out my hair. It
was
a bit breezy. Shoot. I bet it got all messed up when Nick yanked me back from nearly getting run down by that stupid motorcycle. I was in such shock from that and then in such a romantic daze that I hadn’t even thought
about
how disheveled my appearance had probably become. I nervously glanced over to check out my reflection in a store window as Nick and Brennan shook hands and mumbled guy stuff to each other. Anya came over and gave me a quick hug. “You look perfect,” she assured me. I smiled gratefully in return.

Well, so much for a romantic stroll around town with my hot boyfriend. We chatted with Anya and Brennan and listened to the jazz trio play.

“So what are you guys doing tomorrow?” Anya asked.

“Hanging out at the beach ‘til about
lunch time, then we’re
heading downtown
with
my parents for
a
day chock-
fulla
fun,” Nick answered somewhat sarcastically
.

“Do you guys
wanna
meet us at the beach tomorrow morning? We won’t really have
any
other time to hang out otherwise,” I suggested. After all, I loved hanging out with my friends. Even though I loved my time with Nick, I always felt happy when Anya and Brennan were around. Maybe it was their
Fairy
essence, or maybe it was because I had a little bit of that magic inside me now, but whatever the case, I seemed to enjoy their company more lately. Even Brennan didn’t seem as annoying as he always has been. I thought about how I actually kind of liked hanging around him over these past few weeks. Lately, he wasn’t always the pain-in-my ass that
he
always has
been. And he’s definitely moved several notches above my annoying little brother Leo-
tard
. I snickered to myself at my thought
,
and I noticed just then that Brennan seemed to smile a little bigger. I looked at him
and Anya
for a moment and saw how beautiful and glowing they both really were. Brennan winked. He winked? Why did he just wink at me? I shuddered and glanced back over to Nick.

Nick nodded at my suggestion of them joining us at
the
beach, “Yeah, you should come hang out. It’ll be more fun for us to hang out with you guys, than
to watch
my dad rub sunscreen on my mom’s back.
Iccchgg
.”
He gave a shudder and winced. We all chuckled
,
and Anya and Brennan agreed to meet us at the beach the next morning. “Well, we’ll let you two get back to…alone time,”
Anya winked at me and shoved at Brennan’s shoulder, pushing him away from us.

“Uh.
Yeahhhh
.
Guess we’re
takin
’ off now,” Brennan chimed in as he gave the evil eye to his sister
,
silently warning her to keep her hands off him. Actually, my
Fairy
hearing picked up what he was actually saying and it was more like, “
Sweet stars of Mars, Anya! Don’t be so pushy! What’s the rush? I’m having a decent time here
.” Anya rolled her eyes at him and nodded towards me. Brennan gave a little nervous smile. He still sometimes forg
ets
that I c
an
hear the silent conversations between him and his sister. I smiled and waved at the both of them as if I was unaware of Brennan’s annoyance with his sister and his not-so-obvious desire to hang around for a bit. Finally, by ourselves again, Nick and I leisurely
walked
up the street
,
hand in hand, chatting about the new CDs we had bought. The sun was finally setting and my sto
mach was starting to growl. Oh
g
eesh
. I hope he didn’t hear that! “I am starving!” I announced, as I grabbed my stomach, just in case he did
hear it
.

“Yeah!
Me too.
Ready to head back?”
I nodded
,
and Nick led me back down the street towards our hotel so we could meet his parents for dinner. Other than that
close-call with the
dumbass on the motorcycle, this really was the beginning of a perfect vacation!

Chapter 5

We sat
down
to
dinner at White Caps, a restaurant right near the wat
er with excellent views of the b
ay. I glanced up from my chair and noticed Mr. Martino pull the chair out from the table and usher his wife to her chair.
Awwww
! Isn’t that just the sweetest thing ever? Nick often did little romantic things for me, too. Like surprising me with flowers, or taking me on a boat ride around the lake… I guess he learned a few things from his dad. I let out a big, relaxing sigh. Nick put his hand on my knee under the table
,
and I felt a zing of tingles run up my thigh. How was I supposed
to
concentrate on eating with Mr. Hotness touching me like that?  I raised my eyebrows at him and smiled. I opened a menu and held it between us so we could look at it together. As I was perusing the entrees, I couldn’t help but overhear the people at the table next to us. The middle-aged man was wear
ing a plaid short-sleeved shirt
tucked into his khaki shorts
,
black socks
and
brown hiking boots.  He was animatedly talking and gesturing to the woman sitting acro
ss the table from him. She was
plump
,
with her dark hair done up in a kind of old-fashioned bouffant hairstyle
. S
he had on a bright flowery-print sundress.  Nick and I looked at each other with wide eyes and that was
it
.
One surprised look at each other and w
e started c
huckling softly as we listened, trying to contain our laughter.

The man went on
,“
…Yah, so like I was
sayin
’ eh,
dem
apple knockers from da mitten had
dere
crawler gear pre-
ne
e
r
us.
And d
er
dey
were
;
towsands
of deer standing in da field side by each!
Dem T
rolls just ‘bout scared
dem
all clear overseas!”

“Holy
wah
!
Yah,
sure he
y!!”
She exclaimed in return
, with a look of surprise on her face.

Nick’s mom noticed us giggling behind the menu and loudly cleared her throat. We stole glances at each other again, barely containing our laughter. “Shush!” Mrs
.
Martino scolded in a hushed tone. “Now kids, it’s not nice to laugh at other people.” As if to prove her point, she suddenly leaned over to their table and interrupted, “Excuse me, where
abouts
in the U.P. are you from?”

The people sitting next to us were
Yoopers
– natives of the Upper
Peninsula
of Michigan
(or U.P.).
The peninsula is considered part of our state, but separated from the lower part of our state by Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The two peninsulas
are connected by a huge bridge…
the Mackinac Bridge.
You wouldn’t think that mere separation of a bridge could cause such wide differences in a culture, but it does. Many
Yoopers
have Scandinavian, Swedish, or Finnish ethnicity. Their accent often resembles people who are from those countries and parts of
Northern Minnesota and Canada. T
hey even have
their own special dialect and slang up there. You practically need a dictionary to figure out what they’re saying! I’ve heard them speak all my life
and I still t
hink they sound like foreigners,
not
just
neighbors who live a few hours away. The gentleman at the table smiled at us, “Yah.
Me
and the missus are from Ishpeming. Taut we’d come over da crossing into da mitten and hang out
wit
some
t
roll
s for a while.”
He nodded, smiling broad
ly
and h
is wife
excitedly added,
“
Head '
er
for
s
agola
, we are, eh?!”

Okay. What?!? I got that they came over across the bridge
,
and I immediately recognized the term “
Troll
,
” which is what the
Yoopers
call everyone who live
south of the bridge, or “under” it. But I looked questionably at Nick because I had never heard the expression his wife used. Nick leaned over and whispered in my ear, “They’re going to paint the town red.” I nodded in understanding.
Yooper
dialect is so weird! They’re from the same state for Pete’s sake! What’s with the crazy language? Speak
English
, please!

“Are you enjoying the festival?” Nick’s mom asked.

“Oh yah,
youbetcha
!” the wife nodded enthusiastically and continued,
“We’ve never been, eh?” The husband
added,
“
Dat
dere’s
some cherries worth
dere
Raha
, eh!” He smiled.

Nick’s mom nodded, “Oh yes, the cherries are definitely worth every penny! Simply delicious! And there is so much to do! We’re from Lake City, so we come here often, but we do hope you enjoy the rest of your stay with
us-
Troll
s
!” She winked and smiled
as she said that. The husband and wife nodded, resumed their conversation and went back to eating their meal.

“There, you see?” Mrs. Martino said, “They are perfectly normal, friendly people who don’t deserve to be laughed at. Just because someone talks different, or looks different doesn’t mean they should be ridiculed.” She pursed her lips and seemed satisfied at her impromptu
lesson on manners
. Nick quipped back, “Don’t you mean, ‘
dey
shoon
be ridiculed,
eh
?’ ” A smile curved up on Mrs. Martino’s face as she swatted Nick’s head with her menu. 
“You, stop!” she laughed.
  She was right though. Just because they looked a little out of place, or talked a little funny, didn’t mean they deserved to be the butt of our jokes. I made a mental note to try not to smile at their funny dialect anymore. We finally ordered and made it through the rest of
the
meal without any further scolding from Nick’s mom. It was really quite nice. It was one of the first times I’ve sat down to eat with Nick’s family. Other than seeing them at their pizzeria, I didn’t often “socialize” with his parents. Usually Nick hurried us out of his house as soon as he could, or shooed them away from our table at their restaurant. I totally get it though. What teenager wants to hang out with their parents in front of the person they’re dating? Certainly not me! My mother would inevitably start spewing some random
Wizard of Oz
trivia, or babble on and on about her gardens, and dad would most likely give a play-by-play of some Discovery Channel show he’d been watching.
Ugh. No thank you. Thankfully, Nick’s parents were revealing themselves to be pretty cool.

We were just digging into our dessert (slices of cherry pie and yummy extra creamy vanilla ice cream) when I got that weird tingly feeling again. I jerked my head up and looked around the crowded restaurant. “You okay, Ruby?” Nick asked. I continued scanning the room, and noticed one of the exit doors swing shut. I didn’t see who went out
the door,
and I didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary. It was so weird. I felt all
creepy-crawly
,
with tingly chills running up and down my arms and spine. I looked back towards Nick, shaking my head, and pasted a smile on my face, “Nope, everything’s fine!” That’s when I caught a glimpse out the window of
a
dark, shadowy figure on the sidewalk. I couldn’t quite see him in the darkness
,
but I got the feeling he was watching us. He suddenly turned on his heels and ran down the street. I watched him go and felt the strange
prickly
sensation fade away again. Huh. This is kind of starting to freak me out. As soon as I see Anya tomorrow, I’m going to ask her about this
odd sensation
I’m getting and see if she knows anything about this creepy dude who seems to be watching me. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe there wasn’t anybody watching me. What would anybody want with me? I’m just a regular teenage girl. Maybe the tingl
ing
feeling
really
is
a new
Fairy
power I’m getting, but I don’t know what it is yet. It’s probably just a coincidence that I’ve seen some dark, shadowy
figure lurking near doorways….twice in one day. I absent-mindedly shoveled another piece of pie into my mouth while I tried to look nonchalant at Nick and his parents and pretend
ed to follow
their conversation. I mean, the
strange
chills might not have anything to do with the
mysterious lurking stranger
. I’ve never sprouted
Fairy
super-powers before, so what the hell do I know? Ugh. This worrying is going to give me a headache. I tried to pull myself back into the moment and pay attention to what Mr. Martino was saying.