The Prophecy (9 page)

Caleb
remained tight-lipped, though, and I knew I wasn’t going to get any more out of
him today. The fact that he had intentionally revealed what he could do, to
me
,
of all people, didn’t make sense. That he even possessed these mystical powers
at all was mind-blowing.

I
absently rubbed my right arm at the memory of Jasmine’s paintball digging into
my skin the afternoon before. Our team had ultimately won, no thanks to me, but
not before Jasmine had cornered me and got off three rounds at close range. One
of the bullets had hit my thigh. I was pretty sure I’d be wearing jeans for at
least the next week. The second bullet hit my arm. And the third . . . it had inexplicably
exploded in a mess of paint mere seconds before slamming into my chest.

I’d
looked around, confused, but the only other person in sight had been Caleb.
Before I could question what happened, Adrian had appeared from out of nowhere
and got off a few rounds of his own, taking Jasmine down.

I
looked at Caleb out of the corner of my eye now. “You stopped that bullet
yesterday, didn’t you? You didn’t have to do anything at all, and I would never
have known.”

“At the
meeting,” he said. “You . . . felt something. Between us.”

“Yes,”
I said carefully, not knowing what he was getting at.

Caleb
shrugged. “Stopping that paintball . . . it was pure instinct.  But maybe I’m just
tired of keeping secrets, you know? Maybe I’m tired of no one knowing.” He turned
to me then, a deep sadness in his dark eyes. “And maybe I’m just tired of being
alone.”

Before
I could respond, Caleb rose and jogged off, not looking back at me. I almost
called after him but let him go.

“What
was that about?”

I spun
around to see Adrian in the doorway. “How long have you been there?”

The
line of his jaw hardened as he studied me in silence. “Long enough,” he finally
answered.  

“What
did you see?”

Adrian’s
eyes narrowed. “Is there something I wasn’t supposed to see?”

If
Adrian saw what Caleb had done with the fire, he would have said something.  I
shook my head. “No. Nothing.”

Caleb’s
fire was still smoldering. Little wisps of smoke and ash drifted up. I stood
and stamped it out with my foot, trying to ignore the look that Adrian was
giving me.

“The
others are getting up,” he said, somewhat tersely. “Come in for breakfast when
you’re ready.”

We left
soon after we ate. No one came to tell us goodbye or to say how much they had enjoyed
seeing us or that we’d be missed at all. It was almost as if we didn’t exist. As
much as I wanted to remain estranged from these people—
my
people—there
was part of me that also craved their acceptance. To what lengths would I have
to go in order to earn their approval?

“Don’t
worry about it for one minute,” Imogene had said to me as we packed up the cars.
“They’ll come around in time.”

“Or as
soon as I prove myself to them,” I said, only half-joking.

As we drove
along the road leading away from the reservation, walking toward us were
Jasmine and Caleb. Shyla blared the horn, honking it in wild spurts, and
swerved as if she meant to cause a hit-and-run. I silently vowed never to get
in the car with her again.

Adrian
rolled down the window to shout something obscene, and Caleb spun around as we
passed and waved his arms over his head. He was laughing. So was Adrian, who
was leaning so far out the window I thought he might actually fall. Shyla
hooked a finger around the belt loop of his jeans and yanked him back.

Turning
in my seat to watch Jasmine and Caleb fading into the distance, I suddenly realized
that although Caleb was waving at all of us, his eyes were fixed only on me.

NINE

Priscilla
pumped her arm in the air and bounced on the balls of her feet, turning a full
circle next to me. “I’m winning! Omigod, I can’t believe I’m actually winning!”

“I
don’t understand why my score’s not going up,” Meg complained as she performed
a slight variation of the same move. Her dancing wasn’t nearly as good as
Priscilla’s.

“Time out,”
I said after a moment, discovering Meg’s problem. I paused the video game and
the music cut off. Swiping Meg’s remote out of her hand, I turned it around.

“Hold
it this way. You have to point
this
end,” I said, giving the controller
a shake, “at that sensor up there, or you won’t score any points.”

“What
sensor?”

Tapping
the thin black bar taped to the top of the entertainment center, I said, “
This
sensor. It’s what tracks your movements.” I looked at my aunt in exasperation.
“Haven’t you ever played a video game before? You’re not
that
old.”

“There
was a Pac-Man and Asteroids at the Pizza Hut on the reservation,” she said. I
wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. With Meg, it was sometimes hard to tell.

“Pac-Man?”
Priscilla said. “That’s the dinosaur of video games.”

“It’s a
classic!” Meg protested. “Sarah’s mom was a pro. I used to watch her play all
the time. The only other person who could beat her was Charley.”

I made
the sign of the devil. “Don’t speak the witch’s name.”  

Meg gave
me a look. “Oh, stop. She wasn’t nearly as bad as what I remember.”

I
snorted. “Oh, really? In my op—”

“Come
on, come on!” Priscilla said, shoving her thick mop of hair out of her face while
shaking her remote at us in impatience. “We have, like, five more minutes
before break is over. We’re wasting valuable time here.”

I un-paused
the game and
Dynamite
blared from the television speakers once more. After
a moment, though, I noticed that Priscilla was copying my moves step-for-step.

“Hey,
you’re supposed to be the girl with the green dress!”

Priscilla
glanced my way, a look of comic horror on her face. “What? I thought I was the
girl with the red dress.”

I
laughed. “That’s me!”

Priscilla
stopped mid-step as she contemplated the scores on the screen. “You mean I’m
not winning?”

“No, you’re
not winning. I am!”

“Wait,”
said Meg, still tripping over her own feet. “Am I the guy with the yellow hat
or the other guy?”

I
collapsed onto the couch, unable to stop laughing. “You’re the
other
guy, Meg! This is a freaking disaster.”

The
back door swung open and David popped his head inside. “Meg, what are you
doing? In case you haven’t notice, we’re swamped out there. You’re supposed to
be helping me, not in here goofing off.”

“You’re
just jealous we didn’t ask you,” I teased.

“Whatever,”
he said. “I could out-dance all of you with my mad skills.”

“What
mad skills?” Priscilla said.

“These
mad skills.” David stepped into full view and performed some weird combination
of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk and . . . something else.

“What
the heck do you call
that
?” Priscilla said.

“Haven’t
you ever heard
Walk Like an Egyptian
?”

Meg
laughed. “Melody used to listen to that song all the time. I thought she’d
drive Mom and Dad crazy with it. That, and
Eternal Flame
.”

David
stretched out his arm to Priscilla and began swaying from side to side, singing
some cheesy ballad I’d never heard before.

Priscilla,
who’d had a secret crush on David for years, looked like she was about to pass
out. She fanned herself with her hand and fluttered her eyelids. “Omigod. He’s
hot.
And
he sings.”

“Gross!”
I said. Reaching for a pillow from the couch, I chucked it at David’s head.
“Get out of here!”

He
began singing louder, but thankfully left.

Meg,
laughing, tossed her remote onto the couch and held up her hands. “I’ve got to
get back to work. I guess you win, Sarah.”

Priscilla
flopped down next to me. “I’m out, too.”

“What?
Come on,” I said. “Just one more dance.” I began flipping through the songs,
looking for a particularly difficult one I’d been practicing on the sly.

“You’re
too good at this,” Priscilla complained. And then she added, as if reading my mind,
“What do you do, get up in the middle of the night and dance by yourself? It’s
no fun playing with you.”

“You
guys are just sore losers,” I said.

My
phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out. “It’s Adrian,” I announced. Into the
phone I said, “Hey you.”  

“Hey. I’m
coming over.”

Something
was wrong. The abruptness of his tone caught me off guard, and the smile fell
at once from my face. “Is something the matter?”

“No,”
he said a little too quickly. “Why?”

Adrian
was lying. “You sound weird,” I said.  

“It’s
nothing. I promise. I just . . . I sort of have an unexpected surprise.”

The
knot in my chest loosened and I fingered the heart pendant at my throat,
zipping it back and forth on its chain. “A surprise?” I said, smiling. “What
sort of surprise?”

“Well, I
don’t want you to freak out or get mad or anything.”

I
gripped the phone tighter in my hand. “You do realize that I’m going to freak
out now just because you said that.”

Priscilla
whacked me in the leg with the back of her hand and mouthed,
What’s going
on?

I
shrugged and mouthed back,
I don’t know
. Adrian wasn’t making any sense
at all.

“I’ll
just . . . I’ll see you in a few.” The line went dead. He didn’t even say
goodbye. I stared at the phone in my hand before shoving it back in my pocket
with a shrug.

Priscilla’s
brows rose into her hairline. “So?”

“Not a
clue,” I said as I pushed the coffee table back in place, “but something’s
going on. Adrian’s on his way over here right now with some sort of surprise.”

Priscilla
handed me the game disc and I returned it to its plastic case. “Surprises are
supposed to be good. So why are you making that face?”

I
stopped, standing with my hands on my hips. “’Because I’m not so sure about this
one.”

The
door swung open again. Meg, the no-nonsense version, was back. “Break’s over. I
need you both working inventory, so let’s get going.”

“We’ll
be there in a minute,” I said. “We’re just cleaning up.”

Meg
closed the door again and Priscilla turned to me, a thoughtful look on her
face. “You don’t think it has anything to do with his dad, do you?”

My
heart stuttered in my chest at the thought, but surely that couldn’t be it. “He
said he has a surprise. That doesn’t exactly qualify.”

Priscilla’s
eyes lit up. “What if he’s going to propose?”

I
looked at her. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m totally
serious. And just so you know, I get dibs on Maid of Honor. You can pick Meg if
you want, but I really think you should pick me, seeing as how we’re best
friends and all. And the dress can’t clash with my hair. Navy blue and emerald
are my colors.”

I
dropped the remotes in the basket as I debated whether to laugh or knock some
sense into my best friend’s head. “I see you’ve given the issue of my
hypothetical wedding a lot of thought.”

Priscilla
nodded enthusiastically. “Totally. Ever since I found out that you and Adrian are,
like, cosmically destined for each other.”

“Cosmically
destined?” I muttered, and then laughed. “Listen, Adrian is not going to
propose. He said he didn’t want me to freak out, so why would he say that if he
was going to ask me to marry him? Marriage proposals are supposed to be
exciting. Not to mention spontaneous.”

“They’re
supposed
to be. But wouldn’t you freak out, even a little, if he asked
you to marry him?”

The
back door opened and David’s head appeared this time. “Get a move on, ladies. You’re
not getting paid to stand around.”

“We’ll
be right there,” I said, shooing David away. “I promise,” I added when he
didn’t budge.

David closed
the door and I turned to Priscilla. “I would definitely freak out. I mean, I’m
seventeen years old. I am
so
not ready to be someone’s wife yet. But
like I said, he’s
not
going to ask me to marry him.”

Priscilla
grinned. “We’ll see about that.”

We made
our way outside only to have Meg shove ledgers, garden supply catalogues, and a
very long list of needed items at us. The warm weather wouldn’t last forever, which
meant we had to start planning the cold-weather crops even as we were wilting
from the heat.  

My
uncle had spent the last two weeks since our return from the reservation digging
additional raised beds and constructing another smaller greenhouse that would
extend the growing season. As the summer crops dwindled, Meg, Priscilla, and I
concentrated our efforts drying herbs, and distilling and bottling the essential
oils the local herbal shop ordered every year. Still, money would be tight.