Chapter Five
“What the hell was that, Max?” Jonas growled at the air in front of him. Landon, who had just yanked the curtains shut, looked tense by the window.
“Did she see you?” Jonas asked.
“I think so…I don’t know!” Max’s disembodied voice said, panic-stricken. His faint figure began to appear in the darkened room.
Landon flicked on a light and peeked out of the curtains. The redheaded girl was gone from the window—she was now standing on the lawn with her family, watching boxes being moved into the house.
“You better hope she didn’t see you,” Jonas mumbled as Max appeared in the room.
“Landon, you have to check her memory,” Max pleaded. “You have to erase it.”
“I can’t…!”
“Come on, the cop was okay…” Jonas’s voice trailed off.
Landon glared at both of them for a moment, his frustration rising. Max’s face was more panicked than it ever had been before.
He sighed. “No more!” Landon yelled as quietly as he could—his parents were in the house. “No more after this! Any more mistakes and it’s your own funeral!”
He turned back to the window and opened his mind.
If asked, he could never explain how he penetrated the minds of other people. It was like breathing: he didn’t really need to concentrate on it or force it. The power was impressive when used to its full extent—but Landon never pushed it that far.
Right now, he felt as if he were getting closer and closer to the girl as his mind reached out to her. It was like running in her direction, but instead of running into her, he entered her thoughts.
He ignored all personal feelings and went straight to her memory. Most memories were pictures more than words, so it was easy to find Max’s disappearing act in her head. He quickly removed the memory and left her mind even faster.
“Alright, its done,” he said, turning from the window and breathing heavier than normal. He could still feel the essence of her thoughts floating around in his brain.
“Thanks,” Max said gratefully. “So, who’s up for going over to say ‘hi’?”
* * * * *
Ness sat in her brand-new room and looked around very unenthusiastically compared to before. Even though she loved the room, there was a complete lack of personal touch. Her things from Los Angeles barely filled the space: everything was so empty that it felt as if the walls were pressing in on her. She sighed and looked out the window, across the street to the house that faced hers. She could see someone moving inside the window that was right across from her own.
“Time for dinner!” Ness heard her mother shout up the stairs to her room.
“I’m unpacking!” she lied, and pulled a couple books off a brand-new shelf to make it look like she was in the middle of doing something.
There were footsteps on the stairs and then her mother entered the room carrying a box. “How’s it coming along?” she asked.
“It’s so…boring,” Ness admitted. “It needs some excitement, or something,” she added, looking pointedly at the white walls.
“It’ll all come together in time. Here, I wanted to show you this.”
Cassandra put the box down in front of Ness and lifted the flaps. She reached in a pulled out a piece of multi-colored fabric wrapped in plastic. That’s how it smelled, too: like plastic.
Ness slowly took the package and unwrapped a plaid, pleated skirt with disgust. It was burgundy, gold, and white, and it had shorts attached to the inside.
“Oh, God, it’s worse than a skirt; it’s a skort. Why are you giving this to me?” Ness asked, her tone clearly one of repulsion.
“Because you’re going to start Saint Catherine’s with Claire and Charlie next week!” her mother gushed.
“Saint Catherine’s?” Ness asked, shocked again. “Saint Catherine’s. You’re sending me to a Catholic school?”
“Aw, c’mon, Ness, it’s really not that bad. It’s where I went to school ever since first grade. You’ll love it.”
“Not if Claire’s going there, I won’t.”
“She’s your sister now, Ness; you’ve got to get used to being around her.”
“Step-sister.”
“Just look at the rest of the uniform. I promise you, it’s not that bad.”
Ness pulled the cardboard box closer to her and looked over the edge. There were a bunch of burgundy and white knee-highs inside along with sweater vests and long-sleeved blouses in the same color.
“Mom, this thing is hideous,” Ness told her as she looked at the uniform in horror.
“No it’s not—Ness, you are going to look so cute in that. Oh, give me the blouses; I’ll iron them after dinner! You don’t want to go to school with a wrinkled blouse!”
Ness stared at her mother in disbelief for a few moments—all of that stuff had to have cost a fortune. Then again, Cassandra had apparently married a millionaire of some type, if he could afford a Mercedes and a grand piano all in one week. It was just a pity that all that money was going to waste on an ugly uniform like that. She studied the crest that was on the left side of the blazer, trying to figure out what it pictured. After a few moments, she gave up.
She gave her mother an oh-come-on look that Cassandra ignored. “Come on, now, you can take a break from packing and get something to eat,” she said.
“No, I’ll be fine,” Ness replied, not intending on telling her mother that she didn’t want to eat because she was planning to avoid Claire and her friends for as long as possible.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” her mother said, taking her arm and pulling her toward the door.
Ness sighed, looking back at the books she’d tossed on the floor. Eventually, her mother would drag her downstairs anyway. She couldn’t pretend to be unpacking all night…
“Alright, alright—I’ll be down in a minute.”
Cassandra looked satisfied with that answer as she moved toward the door. Then, at the last minute, she turned and said, “You’d better be.”
Rolling her eyes, Ness cleaned up the books again, put them back where they belonged, and headed for her bedroom door.
Downstairs, the sound of people getting ready to eat filled the air. She could hear her mother talking happily to Charlie and, unfortunately, could also hear the sound of Claire and her friends. She entered the spacious kitchen to see a familial sight that could have only been straight out of a movie. Ness backed out of the room and hid, feeling unprepared to enter what she had seen.
Three incredibly pretty girls dressed in skimpy bathing suits were picking over a fruit salad and cut-up veggies on a tray. They were all beautifully tanned with perfect hair and bodies—exactly the kinds of girls Ness pointedly avoided at school. Her mom was directing Charlie away from a plate of frosted chocolate cupcakes, and Cliff was pulling something steaming out of the oven in the background.
“Fresh-baked bread!” he called. “Get it while it’s hot!”
“Oh, how nice!” her mother said in a voice Ness rarely heard her use. “These sandwiches are going to be great.”
“Well, we want to try and make Ness’s first night here one she won’t forget,” Cliff told her, putting the loaf of bread down on the counter and giving Cassandra a big kiss on the cheek. Ness felt her insides turn with revulsion.
“Where is the little weirdo, anyway?” Claire asked, and the musical giggle of her friends rang through the air.
“Claire,” Cliff scolded, “how many times do I have to tell you—”
“What, Dad, that’s she’s not weird? Haven’t you seen how she doesn’t even match right? She’s just as bad as—”
“Close your mouth or there will be no more pool parties for you and your friends,” Cliff told her sternly. “Sorry, girls, but Claire needs to learn how to handle herself. She can’t go around and say things like that about her sister—”
“Step-sister—”
Ness chose that moment to walk into the room. “Oh, it’s okay, Cliff. Trust me, I’m used to being insulted by girls like her,” she said casually as she grabbed a huge strawberry off the plate right in front of Claire. She heard the other two girls give out little gasps and saw them take a step back when she got too close—but that only made Ness smile. She took a big, obnoxious bite and held out her hand to the short brunette to the right of Claire. “Hey—I’m Ness.”
The girl couldn’t have been more than five feet three inches tall, and that was very unintimidating compared to Ness’s height of five feet ten inches and her strangely mismatched features. Instead of introducing herself, the girl scanned Ness up from head to toe, her eyes lingering on the ripped-up jeans and, of course, her hair and eyes.
“Jeeze, I didn’t think everyone in Pennsylvania could be so rude—”
“Or that everyone from California could be such an ass—”
“Oh, we’re actually quite amusing once you get to know us,” Ness told her smartly.
“Girls, drop it—”
“And are all of you freaks, too? Because someone who looks the way you do can only be some kind of freak down inside.”
That was when Ness dove across the kitchen island, her hands headed for Claire’s throat.
Claire and her friends all let out piercing shrieks. Claire herself fell backwards, tripping on her own two feet, and Cliff had to grab Ness when she tried to run around the island to go after her. Her mother screeched, “Ness! What are you doing?” and Charlie yelled, “Get ‘er good for me! She smashed my Lego amusement park this morning!”
Cliff held Ness’s arms behind her back, but she didn’t quit struggling to get out of his grip. In fact, she seriously considered using her power to get out of the hold but reconsidered, deciding that she didn’t want to prove Claire right.
Cassandra put herself between Ness and Claire. “Ness, stop it right now. Go sit down.”
With a violent wrench, Ness pulled herself out of Cliff’s grip. “Forget it. I’m going.” And with that, she left the room.
“Get back here, young lady!” Cliff called after her, but Ness only rolled her eyes. She slammed the front door and kept it held tightly behind her with her mind.
Her feet took her across the tree-lined street before she realized that she had no idea where she was. How could she possibly go somewhere and cool off when she’d only end up getting herself lost in two or three blocks?
* * * * *
Landon was sitting on his front porch when he heard the door across the street bang shut. His eyes quickly snapped up and locked on the person who was responsible for making such a loud noise—a noise of the sort that was hardly ever made on the street where he lived.
As he watched the new girl walk hurriedly across the street, he could only imagine what some of the other neighbors sitting on their porches were saying.
Then, an idea struck his mind: why not try and talk to her? Almost immediately, one part of his brain began to protest: he knew that he didn’t have too much luck as far as girls were concerned; besides, she’d witnessed Max disappearing earlier in the evening and would probably associate him with the weird event.
Then again, he had erased that from her memory, so what was there for him to be afraid of?
Everything, his mind argued back. You don’t know how dependable your power is.
Before he could argue with himself any more over the subject, his vocal chords seems to act on their own.
“Hey,” he called just as the girl reached the sidewalk. She looked up at him, surprised—and then her mouth opened and a slight gasp escaped her lips…
…And Landon found the same thing happening to him. Not because she was gasping at him: actually, that happened multiple times almost every time he went to a public place. After all, the way he looked could be described as uncanny or even macabre: he had dark auburn hair with very prominent streaks of a brown so light it was almost blonde. His eyes—a piercing, penetrating gray—seemed too light to belong with the dark reddish-brown of his hair.
This girl—she, too, could be described in the same way Landon had heard people describing him and his friends. Her long hair, which was so many different shades of red, fell around her shoulders like an eerie sort of halo. Her eyes looked as if they were supposed to be blue, but someone had messed up somehow when creating her, and they turned out purple instead.
Purple, he thought. God, her eyes are purple.
And that is why the two of them couldn’t have been gasping at one another, but with one another: it was rare to see someone who looked as strange as they did without somehow altering their appearance with chemicals or contacts.
Landon cleared his throat. “Um…did you…did you just move in across the street?” he stammered.
Way to go, Mr. Cool ‘n’ Casual, his mind told him.
“Yeah,” she replied. “We just got in a couple hours ago.”
Landon was a bit surprised: he half expected her voice to be something ethereal or heavenly, just because she simply looked so out of this world. However, it was completely normal: not quite as light and airy as most girls sounded; it was a small amount deeper and just more…well, normal somehow. There was no other way to explain it.
“Oh yeah? Where did you move from?” he asked.
“Los Angeles.”
“You moved to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles?”
“It’s not like I really had a choice in the matter. My mom just kind of got married and brought me over here with her,” the girl explained, taking a step toward Landon.
“Oh—I’m Landon Jameson, by the way,” he told her and extended his hand.
“Ness Parazzi,” she said, stepping forward to return the handshake.
The moment they met skin-to-skin, Landon could have sworn that he heard a click, as if something in the universe had just been set right. He looked into her eyes and felt himself falling.
Do I…know you?
His power began to act up on its own—he was being pulled into her mind—he saw himself the way she saw him: tall, good-looking, with his weird auburn-and-brown hair. His steely gray eyes were captivating, unlike any she had ever seen before.
And of course, there was Ness—her glorious curtain of red hair shined in the twilight, darker red in front but lighter and laced with so many colors in the back. Her features were beautiful, her skin pale—
Ness yanked her hand back just as Landon began to understand what was happening.
Then again...he had no idea as to what was going on. It had never happened before—not during any of the other few times he’d entered minds.
They looked at each other strangely for a few moments, but neither said anything about what just happened.
As he stared at her, he noticed a golden haze surrounding her like some sort of aura. Her hair glinted in its light, shimmery red-gold in back and just gleaming auburn in the front.
Had he connected their minds somehow? Because that was definitely how it felt.
But that…that was impossible. His mind couldn’t just jump out on its own like that…
…Or could it?
Again, he found himself clearing his throat. “I—uh—I bet that was your mom that I met last week, then. She said she had a daughter that was probably around my age…”
“Yup, that would be me,” she told him, extending her hand.
“I take it Claire’s your new stepsister then?”
“Ah, so you know her.”
“Everyone in our school knows her. She thinks she’s the Little Miss Thang of Saint Catherine’s.”
“Saint Catherine’s? You go there?”
“Yeah, it’s a lot better than the public high school—not to sound stuck-up or anything, but it’s true.”
“My mom’s sending me there when school starts. I argued because I didn’t want to be anywhere Claire was going to be. She didn’t listen,” Ness told Landon, rolling her eyes. There were a couple moments of silence until she said, “She really does think she’s all that, doesn’t she?”
Landon snorted. “Yeah.” He sat down on the wooden front steps and told her, “Just wait until you get to school.”
Ness sighed and sat down next to him. “It’s my first night in Pittsburgh and I’ve already attacked her.”
“You attacked her?”
“Yeah,” Ness told him, and she repeated the story about the kitchen incident.
Landon laughed. “Wow, no other girl at school would be brave enough to do that.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not like the other girls.”
There was a pause, and then Landon said, “I bet if Claire sees you over here, you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Like I care,” Ness scoffed. “How come?”
“Let’s just say one of my friends dated one of her friends, and it ended bad for us all.”
“Bros before hoes, right?” Ness said.
Landon laughed. “Right.”
“Who is this friend, so I’ll know to tell you if his name is mentioned?”
“Jonas Gonzales. You might have seen him over here earlier.”
“The dark one?”
“Yeah, that would be him.” Landon’s eyes traveled to the house across the street to see Ness’s mother looking out the living room window. When she realized that he saw her, the curtains swished closed and her face was gone. “Maybe I could introduce you to them—Jonas and Max, I mean—you seem like you’d fit in with us pretty well.”
“You think?” she asked, not bothering to veil the surprise in her voice.
“Yeah.”
“Will it piss off Claire?”
Landon felt a smile pulling at his lips. “Most likely.”
“Awesome. Then I’m in. You guys should come swimming some time before classes start.”
“Max would love that,” Landon said. “He—um, has a thing for water. But he’s got a bigger thing for pretty girls—” He stopped abruptly. “Uh, I mean, girls—they…they, uh, make him nervous—and if Claire and her friends are there—and you—well, of course you—I mean—”
Ness was laughing pretty hard by that point. Landon felt the blood rushing into his face. Why did he have to be so awkward sometimes?
“So—Max—he’s afraid of girls, but he loves water?” Ness asked.
“Yeah, you got it. See, I told you you’d fit in.”
This time, they found themselves laughing together. Suddenly, he didn’t feel embarrassed of himself anymore. In fact, he felt every part of him loosening up. It was so weird—he never felt this comfortable around people if he’d only known them for about ten or fifteen minutes.
“I’d better get going soon,” Ness said, her eyes meeting Landon’s. “My mom keeps looking out the window over there.”
“I guess you can expect that after you tried to strangle your stepsister.”
“And when your daughter is sitting on a porch with some strange guy.”
Landon smiled. “That, too.”
They said a few goodbyes, exchanging screen names in the process, and Ness turned down the walkway to leave. Landon watched her as she walked across the street, her red hair almost glowing in the golden haze and the moonlight.
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