Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (30 page)

“I guess I'll be serious about it when I have to
be. Right now humor is the lesser of two evils.”

“What's the other one?” I asked.

“Anxiety.”

Oh. I guess I hadn't given a lot of thought to my
parents being worried.

Okay, off topic. “The cops still cruising by?”

Dad nodded. “Yes, Officers Gale and Ward were
just here as a matter of fact.”

“You know Caleb,” Mom began while my mouth was
stuffed with chili, “you would probably do better to refer to the
officers as such rather than cops.”

Total word-Nazi.

Dad came to the rescue. “Yes, that's something
to consider in the future Caleb. Words are powerful.”

I took a big swig of milk and asked Mom for the
jalape
ñ
os and some honey.

Mom passed the honey and I did an upside down
dump.

The parents watched, fascinated, as my cornbread
was obscured by a molten mass of goodness.

Dad said, “You having some cornbread with that
honey, pal?”

I smiled and nodded

“Okay, so I want you to get up early for a good
breakfast, take the pill, then you can scoot to school.”

Dad told me he may halve the pill so I'm not in a
daze and can actually get a decent result on the academics.

“Not
gonna make me high, Dad?”

“Yes,
that's the total idea.” He smiled.

So far, except for jerking dead people out of the
ground, I hadn't shown aptitude for much of anything. It was kinda
funny if you thought about it.

“It's nicely ironic that Caleb doesn't appear to
be blessed with a scientific aptitude but is talented nonetheless,”
Mom said, A Point Coming.

Dad frowned. “I know how you feel about all
this, Ali. That we are all meant to be completely unique so the
balance works for the cohesive whole. But,” shaking his head as if
fighting his own internal battle, “human nature is very
predictable.”

I stuck up for Mom here. “So, you could predict
that I'd be a zombie-raiser?”

Mom automatically corrected me,
“Cadaver-Manipulator.”

So irritating, but accurate.

Dad got a little bit of a flushed face.
Embarrassed? That would be something.

“No.” He made a steeple with his fingers for
his chin. “I certainly didn't anticipate this.”

That made me stop eating.

“
What
did you
think
I would be?”

Mom shrugged and Dad said, “Your mother and I
had a lot of theories. In the last few years, every parent waits for
the Aptitude Tests or,” he paused, giving me a steady look, “the
manifestation of a talent to rear its head.”

Loosening
his hands he put his palms out as if to say,
that's
the way it is for us all.

“In your case, we didn't need the test.”

“Thank goodness for that. What if it had been
flushed out in the AP Test, then he'd have been whisked away or
worse,” Mom said.

“'Or worse'?” I asked.

I took another bite of the cornbread, resisting
the urge to lick my fingers. I picked up a cloth napkin and started
working over my fingers.

“Just look at the Parker boy,” Mom said by way
of explanation.

“What about him? I've never heard anything about
him,” I said.

“Exactly,” Dad stated.

CHAPTER 19

My
parents hadn't been thrilled when I unceremoniously stuffed the pill
in my front pocket. The deal was, if anyone got a lame idea of
checking people's backpacks they wouldn't find the pill. There wasn't
a reason I could think of but they were adults and sometimes that
was
the reason.

Butt-munches.

I told my parents my thinking. Mom huffed and Dad
mumbled something about my constitutional rights. Whatever, by the
time I was able to yak about my rights, they'd be through my gear in
a hot second. Especially with nothing allowed in the aptitude testing
room.

Nothing.

Mom had made pancakes and bacon (thank you God). I
was on my sixth pancake, having already plowed through half a pound
of bacon.

Mom grimaced when I was unable to speak.

Dad looked over his papers, hiding a smile from
Mom.

“Caleb, stop shoveling your food.”

“Mom! Come have a pancake and stop panicking
about etiquette.” I took a swig of milk and the whole load slid
down the pipe.

Mom rolled her eyes. It'd have been impressive but
I'd seen Tiff Weller, no one could compete.

I finally had an empty mouth and told her, “Thanks
for the breakfast Mom.”

My hair fell into my eyes and I whipped my head
back and it stayed there. Mom looked at me and my hair then back to
my plate again. She gave a big sigh and turned around, getting the
next batch of pancakes on a plate.

“Ah... hon?” Dad called.

Mom turned with an eyebrow raised. “I think I
want something lighter,” Dad patted his belly which was barely over
the belt.

Was that the crap I was gonna worry about when I
was old? That sucked.

I turned to Mom. “I'll suck those up Mom.”

“Are you sure? You've had six already.”

Was she kidding?

“Yeah, Mom, still hungry.” I stood and jerked
up my shirt, displaying my flat stomach and ribs.

Dad laughed aloud. “Wow, doing some dieting?”

“No, doing some growing, I think,” Mom said,
looking at me critically.

I put my dishes in the sink. Mom came over and
gave me a tight hug which I ducked out of the moment I could and not
hurt her feelings. Mom was cool but no touchy.

Dad
gave me a hard clap on the shoulder and asked if I remembered the
protocol for the pill taking. Yes, I told him. I figured forty times
had been enough reminders for the next one hundred years.

“I
didn't remind you that many times, Caleb.”

Mom
and I looked at each other, laughing. No, guffawed. That's what
Jonesy called it.

Dad threw up his hands. “Okay, okay, I
surrender. I guess I mentioned it a few times.” We looked at him.
“Ah... more than a few times.”

I walked to the door, throwing my backpack on and
launched myself outside. A drizzle settled over me through the cedar
slats and I was instantly wet, freaky weather.

My thoughts crowded inside my head like cobwebs.
The Js and Jade were gonna meet at my locker and then we had
alphabetical buildings for the testing. Good thing that all the
school buildings already had letter of the alphabet names I thought
with disinterested sarcasm. I was feeling hyped.

I ripped open the school door and used my foot to
prop it open as a hooded girl walked in right behind me. She let it
slam behind her with a satisfying clatter. A tingle went through me
and she looked up at me. It was Tiff, shoulda known.

“Hey Hart. Done any playing in the dirt lately?”

I grinned, and she grinned back. A vague bruise
rimmed underneath her eyes like a shadow. I wonder how she'd
explained that to her parents.

She read my face and said, “They don't know.”

“Who?”

“My parents, bright one.”

I looked around while kids surged back and forth,
the constant noise of their talking in the background.

I leaned in. “Are you nervous?”

“
Hell
yeah. I don't want any attention for this. Maybe I'll just hit a
couple of points. I'll get noticed but not
noticed
,
if ya know what I mean.”

I did.

“I was thinking about what happened. And, it was
damn good that we're not testing in the same building. Since, we're
like... a...” she gave a puzzled frown.

“Radio?” I supplied.

“Somethin' like that. Whatever it is, I don't
want to pop some false-positive crap. Ya know, hit as an
all-five-points just because you're in the room,” her eyes
narrowed. “Ya know Hart, you're okay... for a boy.”

Thanks, I guess.

“But just because we're both,” looking about
her furtively, lowering her voice, “AFTD doesn't mean we have to be
in the same frying pan.”

She straightened, about to bolt.

“Wait... can I count on you?”

“Well,
yeah. I just meant that I don't want to be corralled in some creepy
place because of getting sucked into your undead drama.”

Tell
me how you
really
feel.

Out loud I said, “gotcha.”

“See ya later and good luck.” She flipped her
hood back, skulking into the crowd.

I'd been so into my conversation I'd missed
everyone standing by my locker. Three faces peered at me through the
mess of kids. John had his usual expression of silent mode, the
weather awakening his shock of orange hair into a tornado. Jonesy was
smiling. The whites of his eyes two twin dots of ivory floating in
his face, only to be joined by a brilliant slash of teeth as he
caught sight of me coming toward him.

But it was Jade that made my breath catch in my
throat like an errant bubble, captured. She wore coal black jeans and
matching short-top All Stars, the laces as black as the jeans. A
brilliant green camisole stole all attention inside the v-neck of a
tight T-shirt that ended at the swell of her hips. Her hair hung
there and as I looked, she gave a subtle flick of her head and one
side swept away over a shoulder.

I realized I had stopped moving forward. With a
low chuckle, I resumed my progress across the commons. Jade gave a
little smile. Looks like she had sorta figured out I dug her. Maybe
she already knew since she was an Empath and all. Go figure.

I
walked up to the group. We all sorta shuffled around nervously. This
meant a lot to all of us. We were all gonna find out, in the case of
me and Jade, everyone else was gonna find out about us and it would
change things. So far, I was the only one that had the big guns.
Well, that wasn't completely accurate, Carson could burn the place
down. Things were complicated. But he didn't have any cool drugs (I
didn't think) that would buy him time. He was going away to the same
school as all paranormals.

An evil idea began to take shape.

Jonesy picked up on it immediately. “You've
thought of something cool.” Leave it to him to scope the potential
for trouble.

“
Yeah.
Here we were hoping to distract the dorks from making trouble for me
but
Carson
has
his own.”

John stroked his chin thoughtfully, its narrowness
perfectly fitting in between thumb and the curl of his index finger.
John was all angles and bones, he was a skinny sucker.

“Let's play it cool today,” John said looking
at Jonesy.

Jonesy gave him The Look.

“Let's try not to make a ruckus,” John
clarified.

“A
fracas,” Jade added.

Jonesy was deeply confused now.

“What they mean is, don't blurt out anything in
the middle of testing that will get us all in trouble,” I said.

“Well,
hell no. I wouldn't do that,” Jonesy said, offended.

We
all did a slave eye-roll. Yeah, that was
so
going to happen! Jonesy not talking out of turn! Jonesy following
along and playing well with others.

Jonesy
having a filter
.

Jade intervened, “You're a great guy Jones but,
I have noticed that you aren't always self-aware.”

That was diplomatic.

He glared at her and she stared back, her face all
open and innocent. Finally, defeated. “Okay, I guess I'll try to
concentrate on the test,” he grumbled.

“Well that's the concept,” John said.

The principal walked out into the commons,
manually ringing the class bell. This was it. Suddenly, my awesome
bacon and pancake breakfast sat like a cold lump in my belly, waiting
for expulsion. I got a grip.

Jade held out her hand and I took it, fingers
closing around the whole of it. The Js glanced over at me nervously.

Principal Avers began in his monotonous voice
saying, “people, listen closely to your building assignments, all
pulse accessories are disallowed in the testing facilities. There
will be mandatory breaks every fifty minutes...” he droned on about
some other unimportant stuff, then we all sharpened right back up
when he said, “...and finally, the following buildings will be
assigned alphabetically as follows: last names beginning in A through
H will test in Building Alpha, last names beginning in I through P
will test in Building Bravo, and names beginning in Q through Z will
test in Building Charlie.”

I
did the swift calculations in my head... Jade, Sophie, and Jonesy in
Bravo. And Brett,
my
mind added. Jade was safe enough with a bunch of other kids and some
staff. Let me see... me and Carson (oh joy) in Alpha and John and
Tiff in Charlie.

My eyes met John's over Jade's head. He was
thinking the same thing I was; Carson with me and Brett with the
girls. Bad news.

Principal Avers added, “Disperse to your
respective buildings. You have five minutes. Line up outside the door
to be scanned.”

That meant the disc that all of us had located
behind our ear would be scanned for attendance, admittance, and
later, tracking and information.

I
jammed the pill inside my mouth and dry swallowed it. I used the
commotion of everyone wandering around, acting like I was coughing in
my hand. Dad had told me that I couldn't be
too
paranoid, maybe there were pulse sensors or pulse-digis recording all
our moves. I did okay.