Daughters of the Moon Books 1 - 3, Page 3

  They landed on a lawn with a heavy thud.

  She looked up. The smells of onions and frying hamburgers still wafted in the air around them, but it was dark now, and they were on the street where she had walked the night before.

  “You’ve got to work on the landings,” Vanessa groaned and pulled herself up.

  “I told you, a fall is the only way out.”

  Vanessa looked around. The night was silent except for the occasional scrape of palm fronds overhead. Then, in the distance, she heard soft, running footsteps and the rapid, pounding steps of the person who had chased her.

  “Let’s go see who it was,” Vanessa said. “I mean, who it is.”

  “Right,” Catty agreed.

  They bolted and ran wildly down the street. The cool evening breeze stung their faces. Their footsteps pounded softly on the dew-wet pavement. Vanessa knew at once that the second set of footfalls she had heard the night before were those that she and Catty were making now.

  A block ahead, she could see herself, barefoot and running rapidly. Someone was chasing her. It was impossible at this distance to identify her pursuer, who was dressed in black and wearing a cap.

  She heard herself shout the strange prayer in the language she didn’t understand.

  At the same time her pursuer glanced back. The person must have seen them, but Vanessa couldn’t be sure. Suddenly, the person darted across a lawn and into the shadows.

  “This way,” Catty said.

  Vanessa followed her to a shortcut between two houses and into a narrow alleyway. She whispered. “Do you think whoever it is saw two of me?”

  “If so, they’ll never chase you again.”

  Vanessa almost laughed, but she was too breathless and excited with anticipation to see who it was.

  They ran down the alleyway to the next block, then crossed another street.

  “Whoever’s following you should be around here someplace,” Catty whispered.

  They crouched low and stepped cautiously down the alley.

  Without streetlights, the backyards were darker, the shadows deeper. Vanessa peered over the fence. She didn’t see anyone, but she heard the soft, padding steps of someone trying hard to be quiet.

  They ducked and hurried along a length of fence to a garage. She looked around the corner of the garage. A shadowy figure ran across the back lawn to the next house.

  She motioned to Catty, and they stepped silently forward. When they got to the next house, they gazed over a row of garbage cans into the tomblike quiet in the yard beyond. If her pursuer had been there, the person must have heard their movements and hidden.

  Catty nudged her and pointed.

  A thicker shadow formed between the house and a twisting cypress. It looked like someone was standing there. Vanessa was sure the person was looking directly at her even though she couldn’t see the eyes. And then the shadow whispered, I’ll find you later when you’re alone. She wasn’t sure she’d heard it, as much as felt it like a soft rustling across her mind.

  Panic seized her.

  “Did you hear that?” Vanessa asked.

  “What?”

  “Take us back, Catty. Now!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  VANESSA FELT HERSELF jerked away. Her neck whipped backward, and then the night zipped away with a sudden flash and roar. Vanessa clutched Catty’s hand as they spiraled through the tunnel. Her stomach wobbled with nausea, and she knew if they didn’t stop soon she was going to lose her hamburger.

  They landed with a hard knock. The air left her body. Pain spun thin and sharp inside her skull. She closed her eyes against the harsh fluorescent lighting.

  A buzzing sound filled her ears. She soon realized it was laughter.

  “Dang! Girls,” someone shouted and the laughter grew. She struggled to open her eyes.

  She was vaguely aware that Catty was squealing and calling her name.

  “Catty,” she whispered. This time Catty’s voice penetrated her aching head.

  “Vanessa, we’re in the boy’s locker room and the water polo team just finished practice.”

  Water polo? She was still in a dreamlike trance. Michael was on the water polo team. She’d get to see him. That made her smile. “Michael.”

  New laughter echoed off the walls. “She wants to see you, Michael.”

  Her nose touched something wet. She looked down. A wet blue Speedo lay in the chlorine-smelling water near her face. Her head shot up. The boy’s locker room!

  As quickly as she had looked up, she looked down again. A scream caught in her throat.

  “Catty!” she yelled. Keeping her head down, she stood. She was never going to forgive Catty for this landing,

  “Here.” Catty was giggling in pure delight.

  Vanessa found Catty, yanked her hard, and pulled her through the throng of naked boys.

  “Did you get to see what you came looking for?” someone said.

  Embarrassment made her molecules disarrange. “Not now,” she whispered.

  A shrill whistle made the laughter stop. Vanessa spread her fingers. Coach Dambrowsky plodded into the locker room, his tennis shoes squishing water. His forehead and nose were sunburned.

  Vanessa ducked around him, her hands in front of her face. He must have sidestepped because she ran into his soft stomach.

  “Excuse me.” She tried to worm past him.

  “Wait a minute!” He grabbed at her arm. His fingers whipped through her disorganized molecules. “What the—?”

  This time he caught Catty.

  “You two are busted,” he said and brushed flecks of dandruff from his blue sweatshirt.

  Catcalls filled the locker room.

  “You girls should be ashamed of yourselves. Don’t you have any modesty?” Coach Dambrowsky scolded.

  “If we were boys in a girls’ locker room you’d snicker and pat us on the back,” Vanessa argued from behind her hands. She spread her fingers to see how angry he looked. The sunburn had turned crimson. He was pissed.

  “Let’s see, who do we have here?” Coach licked his thumb and pulled pink demerit slips from his pocket. “Let me see your face.”

  Vanessa slowly brought her hands down.

  Coach looked surprised. Was her face disarranged?

  She glanced at Catty. She could tell by Catty’s expression that she looked fine. She took a deep breath. How was she going to explain this to her mother?

  “Vanessa Cleveland. Of all the girls in the sophomore class, I expected more from you.”

  He looked at Catty with a dour face. “And Catty Turner.” He didn’t seem surprised that Catty was there. He handed a slip to each of them. “Demerit slips, girls.”

  “It’s a nice color of pink.” Catty smirked.

  “Yes, sir,” Vanessa mumbled. Head down, she ran back, picked up her messenger bag from a puddle of water, and hurried outside.

  Catty waited for her at the door.

  “I can’t believe you brought us back here,” Vanessa said. “What’s everyone going to say? They’ll think we snuck in there.”

  “So what?” Catty wadded her demerit slip and tossed it away. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.”

  “Catty, you’ll just be in more trouble,” Vanessa said. “You can’t throw away your demerit slips.”

  “We wouldn’t have demerit slips if you’d let me tweak time a little. Want to?”

  “You can’t always use your power to get us out of trouble. You rely too much on changing time to duck responsibility.”

  “Who made you my mother?”

  “Sorry.” Vanessa adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “But it’s dangerous.”

  “Dangerous?” Catty acted as if they’d never had this conversation before.

  “What if you get stuck in the tunnel?”

  “If something went wrong I’d just fall out. It’s not real. It just feels like I’m going faster than the speed of light.”

  “Maybe.” Vanessa leaned against the sunsoaked wall. It was a
s hot as a fire brick and felt good against her throbbing head. She wasn’t as convinced as Catty. The tunnel felt like a real place to her. The times she had ventured a peek, it seemed to stretch to infinity. “Did you ever think that maybe that’s the world we belong in? That somehow we got stuck in some kind of time warp? Maybe that’s why your mother found you walking along the side of the road.”

  “That would explain me, but what about you?” Catty stood next to her. They had tried many theories to explain their powers. The time warp was just another one.

  “I’m afraid you could get stuck in that world.”

  “That’s crazy,” Catty said. “Won’t happen.”

  “Just promise to be careful, or I’ll get mushy on you and tell you how much you mean to me.”

  Catty punched her gently. “Stop. I’ve got it under control. Loosen up, all right?”

  Vanessa looked at Catty. She felt something dreadful gnawing at her.

  “So who do you think was following me?” Vanessa pulled her sunglasses from her pocket.

  The fall had cracked the lens. She tossed them into her bag.

  “I think you’ve got a mystery man. Someone with a crush on you.”

  “A secret admirer?” Vanessa joked.

  “Half the boys at school have crushes on you.”

  As if to prove her point, two seniors walked by, swinging skateboards.

  “Hey, Vanessa,” one said.

  “Looking good,” the other added.

  “Hi,” Vanessa waved.

  “See,” Catty pointed out.

  “I’m just friendly.” Vanessa shrugged, and then she remembered what had really bothered her about the night. “Did you hear anything?”

  “No. What did you think you heard anyway?”

  “I thought someone said, ‘I’ll find you later when you’re alone.’”

  “I didn’t hear that,” Catty mused. “But if I had, I would have been freaked!”

  Vanessa lifted her face, and with the late afternoon sun beating down on her, it was impossible to remember how dead scared she had felt the night before. The terror had slipped away in a drowsy way, like smoke after a fire.

  “A mystery man,” Vanessa repeated softly.

  “Definitely,” Catty said. “At first he was probably too shy to approach you, some loner walking home from Planet Bang, then he gets up his nerve to talk to Vanessa Cleveland, the most popular girl at La Brea High—”

  “I am not.”

  “Be quiet, it’s my story. He goes to talk to you and you panic and run away. Now he’s got to chase you down to tell you he’s sorry he scared you. Then he turns and sees us, and now he’s really embarrassed so he hides. I wonder who it is?”

  “Someone like Michael Saratoga,” Vanessa whispered as last night slipped deeper into memory. “I hope it’s Michael.”

  “You talking about me?” a voice said.

  Her eyes flew open.

  Michael walked over to her. He wore a short-sleeved T-shirt. Barbed-wire tattoos circled his tan arms. He had just come from the boy’s locker room and his hair was still wet. His dark round eyes made her think of an ancient sun god trapped in L.A.’s urban nightmare. She liked the way his eyes looked at her. His lips curled around perfect white teeth. She wanted those lips to want her. Her molecules hummed. Could he hear her desire like a soft growl rushing through her spreading molecules? Damn invisibility. Maybe if she thought of the upcoming geography test, her molecules would stay.

  “Hi, Michael.” She tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.

  He stepped closer, and a whiff of spicy deodorant and chlorine enveloped her. She breathed deeply.

  He sniffed. “You smell like onions.”

  She smelled her hands. The aroma of the onions from the Johnny Rockets chili fries clung to the tips of her fingers. “Sorry.” What magic did those dark eyes have to make her apologize?

  “I like onions.”

  “Me, too,” she said. “I didn’t see you after school.”

  “I had water polo practice.” Michael smiled. “I guess you saw me there.”

  She felt the blush rise to her cheeks, and then thought, so what? He should be the one blushing. She smiled with an insolence her mother would have scolded her for. She knew he was blushing behind his dark cheeks by the way he shifted his feet and cleared his throat.

  “You want to hang out on Saturday?” he asked.

  “What do you have planned?” Was this a date? She stomped her foot, trying to make her molecules obey. Don’t go invisible now.

  “Something special.” The tips of his fingers brushed across the fine hairs of her arm. Her stomach fluttered and her molecules tingled with delight.

  “Sure.”

  “See you Saturday, then,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at seven.” She watched him walk away, his backpack bouncing against his shoulder.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  VANESSA AND CATTY walked across the school lawn. New worry started buffeting her happiness.

  “What will I do if Michael tries to kiss me?”

  “I don’t know, open your mouth a little, I guess.”

  “I’m serious,” Vanessa scolded. “What am I going to do? Just looking at him makes my molecules vibrate. The last time I tried to have a boyfriend, I couldn’t control it. I never even got one kiss.”

  “Let your molecules sing,” Catty said. “Maybe he’ll like it. Besides you don’t know it will happen this time. Have you been practicing with your power like I told you?”

  One look and Catty knew she hadn’t. “When you’re alone you need to make yourself invisible,” Catty explained. “Visible, invisible. Just like exercises. How else are you going to learn how to control it? You should practice every day.”

  “That won’t help me now. What if my molecules go off on their own?” Vanessa wondered. “What if I scare him? Maybe he’ll think I’m a ghost or something evil.”

  “You should appreciate your gift more. I mean, just think what you could do with it. I know what I’d do.”

  “What?”

  “I’d spy on people and copy answers to all the tests. You waste it.”

  “All my problems seem to come from what you call a ‘gift.’ I wish we could be like everyone else.”

  “Speak for yourself. I like what I can do,” Catty said. “You want a Coke?”

  The fact that they were freaks never bothered Catty as much as it bothered Vanessa. Maybe it was because Catty’s mother encouraged her to use her power.

  “No, thanks.” Vanessa sat on a cement bench facing a bank of outside lockers. “I’ll wait for you here.”

  She looked down at the amulet that hung around her neck. She seldom took it off, but she unclasped it now and studied the face of the moon etched in the metal. Sparkling in the sunlight, it wasn’t pure silver but reflected pinks and blues and greens. Maybe who she was had something to do with this moon charm that was given to her at birth. Catty had one, too. That’s how they had first noticed each other at the park in third grade. They had been playing soccer on opposing teams, chasing the ball down the field. When they saw the silver moon dangling from each other’s neck, they’d stopped running and let the ball go out of bounds.

  “Where’d you get that?” Catty had asked, ignoring her jeering teammates.

  “I got it as a gift the night I was born,” Vanessa said. “Where’d you get yours?”

  “Don’t know. I’ve always had it. I never take it off.”

  “Me, neither,” Vanessa said.

  The referee blew her whistle and the game continued, but Vanessa couldn’t focus on the ball. She kept turning to look at Catty. Twice she kicked the ball out of bounds, and once she collided with one of her own teammates.

  Afterward the two teams went out for pizza. She and Catty shared a double-cheese pepperoni with pineapple and anchovies. They had been best friends ever since. It had taken longer for them to share their unique talents. What Catty called their gifts.

  Maybe it wasn’t a g
ift, but a curse, and if she got rid of the charm, her strange ability to become invisible would also go away. But she felt too uncomfortable when she took it off. She wondered why that was.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CATTY CAME BACK with a Coke and sat next to Vanessa.

  Morgan Page ran up to them. She dropped her purse and swirled. “What do you think?” She wore a bare, breezy sundress. It was too skimpy for the school dress code, so she wore sleeves over the halter sundress during classes. Now she shed the sleeves and showed off her solar-glow tan, the best in the school. Expensive salon highlights added luster to her already perfect hair. She picked up her purse and pushed her yellow shades into her hair.

  “Where have you been? I walked all the way to Johnny Rockets looking for you. I must be glistening with sweat.”

  Catty leaned into Vanessa muttering, “She’s got to be the only person in the world who thinks her sweat is pretty.”

  Morgan didn’t hear Catty over her own running talk. “I swear I saw you two sitting at the counter. I thought we were supposed to meet at Johnny Rockets.”

  Vanessa gave Catty a quick, angry look.

  Morgan watched them with curiosity.

  “You couldn’t have seen us,” Catty said. “We were in the boys’ locker room.”

  She elbowed Vanessa. Vanessa held up her demerit slip as proof.

  Morgan couldn’t be lured away from her questioning. “I could have sworn I saw you two munching on burgers, and then you were gone.”

  “We weren’t there,” Vanessa insisted.

  Morgan stopped. She eyed the silver moon charm in Vanessa’s hand.

  “That would go perfectly with my dress.” She reached for it.

  Vanessa quickly clasped the necklace around her neck.

  “You always wear it,” Morgan said. “Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

  “Sometimes, I guess,” Vanessa lied, and wished she hadn’t. She didn’t want Morgan to think the amulet was something she would ever lend out.

  “I saw you talking to my hottie.”