Double Trouble (8 page)

WHEN I WOKE
up on Friday morning, I couldn't remember exactly why I was filled with dread and anxiety.

Then it hit me. One more day until the party.

I lay there in bed with my eyes closed, trying not to picture what I'd seen in my visions. Liam covered in blood. The B Boys dragging him along like a limp rag doll. Bianca sobbing in the hospital waiting room.

With a shudder, I opened my eyes and looked over at the other bed. It was empty. I heard the
sound of the shower from across the hall.

Mom poked her head in. “Up and at 'em, Cait,” she said. “Breakfast is on.”

“Coming.” I climbed out of bed and headed for the kitchen.

Since Mom was around, Cassie and I didn't have a chance to talk until we left the house. For once I was glad for the long, hot walk to school.

“Any new ideas?” I asked as we trudged along.

“Not really. You?”

“No.” She'd told me about her latest vision, of course. Even though it didn't seem connected to the rest, it just added to my anxiety. “Maybe we should cancel. We could blame it on Mom, say we got in trouble and she grounded us.”

“We can't,” Cassie responded immediately. “The party's tomorrow, and everyone is superpsyched. It'd be social suicide to call it off now.”

“But—” I began.

“But that's not all,” she cut me off. “Megan is in full-out hostess mode, and Lav is in a frenzy, decorating and planning food and stuff. Even if we pulled
out, I bet the party would go on without us.”

“But would Liam still be invited?” I countered.

She glanced at me. “If Lav had her say? No way. But Megan's different. She'd still let everyone come.”

I sighed, knowing she was right. The party train had already left the station, and it was way too late to stop it now. All we could do was try to prevent it from crashing.

“Okay, then we have to figure out what we're going to do,” I said.

“I was thinking about that.” She kicked at a stone on the sidewalk. “At this point, it seems like our only option is to play defense. You make sure Liam is never out of your sight, and I stick close to the B Boys.”

Despite the serious situation, I couldn't help smirking. “That's awfully selfless of you,” I said. “I'm sure it will be terrible for you to be forced to spend tons of time with that cute Brayden Diaz.”

She shot me a scowl. “Grow up, Caitlyn.”

I grinned. Clearly I'd struck a nerve. Once this was over, I was going to have to figure out what was
going on with Cassie and Brayden.

My smile faded as I saw the school looming on the horizon. “Anyway, it's the best plan we've got so far. Let's keep thinking, though.”

I WALKED INTO
homeroom. Ms. Xavier was standing at her desk shuffling through some papers. Most of the other kids were there, too, including Liam. He was bent over some homework in his usual seat in the first row.

“Where's Bianca?” I asked as I took my seat beside him.

He looked up from his homework. “Not here yet, I guess,” he said. “I thought maybe you weren't going to show up either. Ms. X never gets here before you do.”

“I know. Cass and I left a little late this morning.” I sat down and glanced at Bianca's empty desk. “It's not like Bianca to be late, though. Do you think she missed her bus?”

Liam shrugged. “There's a first time for everything.”

He didn't seem concerned, but that empty seat was giving me a bad feeling.

Don't jump to conclusions
, I told myself.
She probably has a dentist appointment she forgot to mention to us or something.

“So are you all ready for the party?” Liam asked. “I looked at the weather report this morning, and it's supposed to be hot again tomorrow.”

I forced a smile. “Yeah, the weather should be perfect.”

“It must be weird,” he said with his loud, snorty laugh. “Having your birthday this time of year, you're probably not used to having a pool party, right?”

Ms. Xavier looked up sharply. She took a step toward us.

“Birthday?” she said with interest. “Is your birthday coming up, Caitlyn?”

“It's tomorrow,” I told her, still distracted by Bianca's empty seat.

Ms. Xavier raised an eyebrow. “I see!” she exclaimed. “Have you noticed anything strange this week?”

“Strange?” I blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

She smiled. “I've heard that birthdays can be times of exaggerated mental and emotional power for some people—especially twins. That's something you could explore in your report, perhaps?”

Was she ever going to give it a rest? I wasn't particularly interested in doing my report on being a twin, especially right now. And even if Cassie and I didn't really have
twintuition
, I was pretty sure she felt the same way.

“Did you know that William Shakespeare died on his birthday?” Liam said. “He wasn't even that old.”

In the short time I'd known him, I'd already discovered that Liam was full of random facts like that. And that he liked to share them pretty much anytime. Usually I found it charming, but now I sort of wished he'd pulled out a more cheerful fact to share.

“Fascinating,” Ms. Xavier said. Then she glanced at me. “Happy birthday, Caitlyn. I'll have to be sure to wish Cassie the same when I see her in class later.”

She turned away and called the class to order
for morning announcements. I sat there staring into space and thinking about what she'd said. According to the post on that message board, members of the Lockwood family came into their powers when they turned twelve. So it seemed birthdays did have some sort of special significance, at least for people like Cassie and me. Could Ms. Xavier possibly know that? All this time I'd been writing her off as a kook. But maybe it was worth talking to her, finding out if she'd ever heard of the Sight, or the Lockwoods, or any of the rest of it.

As I tried to imagine how that conversation would go, I winced. No, I was just grasping at straws. Our best bet to find out what was happening to us was our grandmother. Once the party was over, Cassie and I would have to track her down. Even though Mom seemed determined to stonewall us forever.

The bell rang, and I glanced at Bianca's still-empty seat. She was officially tardy now. Was it weird that she'd pulled a no-show today of all days? Or just a coincidence?

“Are you sure Bianca didn't mention anything about being absent today?” I whispered to Liam.

He shrugged. “I don't think so. Maybe she's sick.”

Sick enough to end up in the hospital?
I wondered.

I slumped down in my seat with a sigh, wondering if Cassie had been right all along. Seeing the future had seemed kind of fun at first. Like a cool superpower from a movie. But lately it was starting to feel like a whole lot of trouble.

“WHY DIDN'T YOU
call her if you're so worried?” Cassie said as she climbed into bed that night.

“I sent her a text at lunchtime, but I never heard back.” Bianca hadn't showed up at all that day. Liam had texted her, too, reminding her about the pool party. Neither of us had received a response. Liam hadn't seemed worried, but he didn't know better. He hadn't seen what I had.

But somehow Cassie didn't seem particularly worried either. “Bianca wasn't hurt in any of our visions. We need to focus on the real problem.”

“Liam,” I agreed. “I just wish we knew more about what was going to happen. And when.”

“We know when. We just have to keep the B Boys away from Liam at the party, and we're golden.”

She made it sound so easy. Then again, she hadn't been the one who'd seen that terrible vision of Liam with blood all over him.

“It's not much of a plan,” I fretted.

“It's the only one we've got. Anyway, it can work.” She yawned and switched off her bedside lamp. “We changed the future before, right? We can do it again.”

“Since when are you Miss Optimistic?” I said with a ghost of a smile. “I thought that was my job.”

She grinned at me in the darkness. “I learned from the best.”

“Ha-ha,” I said. “Okay, let's hope for the best, then. I'm good at that, right?”

Wrong. As soon as I closed my eyes it was there—the image of Liam from my vision. Could we really stop it from coming true?

At least Cassie is fully on board with helping this
time
, I thought as sleep crowded the corners of my mind.
I know I can count on her to help keep an eye on things tomorrow. And at least this time we know exactly what's coming.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
my favorite twins!” Mom sang out as Caitlyn and I walked into the kitchen the next morning. She had an apron tied on over her jeans and T-shirt, and she was wielding a spatula.

I blinked at her, wondering if I was still asleep and dreaming. Because Mom hadn't been this chipper in days—maybe weeks. Come to think of it, I wasn't sure she'd
ever
been this chipper.

“Thanks,” Caitlyn said, hurrying over to give her a hug.

“I made pancakes,” Mom said. “Chocolate chip for Cassie and banana walnut for Cait.”

“My favorite!” Caitlyn exclaimed.

“Thanks, Mom,” I said, sitting down. “Smells great.” I tried to muster some enthusiasm, but it felt fake. How could Mom act as if this were a totally ordinary birthday? How could she pretend that nothing was wrong?

Still, I knew it wouldn't do any good to antagonize her, especially not today. She'd taken off work to help Megan's folks chaperone the party, so I'd have to deal with plenty of blowback if I annoyed her now.

“Good, good.” Mom sort of hovered there, waving the spatula around aimlessly, almost nervously. It must have been my imagination, though, because Mom didn't get nervous, pretty much ever.

“What's this?” Caitlyn reached for a shopping bag in the middle of the table.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” Mom smiled. “Those are your birthday presents. Go ahead—open them.”

There were several gifts for each of us. Once
again, I played along, gushing over the flip-flops and bracelet she'd gotten me. Okay, the bracelet really was pretty sweet. At the bottom of the bag were envelopes from our Maw Maw Jean and various other relatives on Mom's side. Mine contained a hefty gift certificate to my favorite store. Again, sweet.

But it was hard to enjoy it, since thinking of Maw Maw Jean just reminded me of my other grandmother, the one I'd never met, whose name I didn't even know.

I wolfed down my stack of pancakes, then pushed back from the table. “Dibs on first shower,” I told Cait. “We should get moving—I told Megan we'd be there by ten to help set up.”

A few minutes later, I was clean and dressed in my swimsuit and a pair of shorts. As I pulled a tee on over my suit, the key-shaped pendant caught my eye. It was lying on the dresser, where I'd put it last night.

Yanking the shirt the rest of the way on, I grabbed the necklace. I stared at it, hesitating only
briefly before putting it on and tucking it under the collar of my shirt.

“WOW,” CAIT MURMURED
as we pulled through a set of tall iron gates. “Nice place!”

Major understatement. This was my first time at Megan's house, and it was even fancier than I'd expected. A long, curving drive led between rows of huge oak trees. The house was enormous, pale stucco with lots of windows and scrolled pillars holding up the portico.

“Here we are,” Mom said, stopping in front of the entrance. She was still in cheerful mode. “Help me get the stuff out of the trunk.”

We were unloading bags of food and soda when Megan and Lavender emerged from the house and rushed toward us. Frisking around their legs was a brown-and-white dog on a long leash, the other end of which was looped around Lavender's arm. I gasped. It was the dog from my vision!

Caitlyn noticed my reaction and raised her eyebrows. I nodded slightly, then bent to pat the dog as
it strained forward to greet us, tail wagging nonstop.

“You're here!” Megan cried. “Come on in. We've got most of the decorations done, but we still need to blow up more balloons and make the punch.”

“Who's this?” I tried to sound casual as I rubbed the friendly dog's ears.

“This is Amigo,” Lavender replied. “He's helping, too.”

Amigo? Of course—I should have guessed. According to the rest of our friends, Lavender was a total animal freak. Since her parents wouldn't let her fill the house with critters, Lav doted on her dog. You know those annoying parents who talk about their kids like they're the second coming? That was Lav whenever she mentioned Amigo.

The front door swung open again, and a tall, slender blond woman hurried out. “Welcome!” she exclaimed, offering Mom her hand. “You must be Deidre Waters. I've heard so many lovely things about you!”

Mom smiled and shook her hand. “Hello, Mayor March. It's great to finally meet you.”

Mrs. March's laugh sounded like tinkling bells. “Please! Call me Renee. I may be the mayor at work, but around here I barely qualify as human, let alone any kind of authority figure.” She winked. “You have tweens, too, so I know you hear me on that.”

“I do.” Mom chuckled. “Thanks so much for hosting this party. It's very generous of you.”

“Oh, it's nothing.” Mrs. March waved a hand. “Here, let me help you bring your things inside.”

The two of them grabbed more bags out of the trunk and headed for the house, chatting like old friends. “Wow,” Caitlyn said to Megan. “Your mom seems great.”

Megan shrugged. “I guess. Come on, I'll show you guys the pool. It's out back.”

She headed toward the front door, but Lavender stopped her. “Let's take the scenic route,” she said. “Otherwise your mom will want to play twenty questions with the twins once she gets through with their mother.” She jerked her head toward Cait and me.

“Good point.” Megan smiled at us. “Mom is a
true politician. She loves talking to people—a little too much sometimes. Come on, we'll go this way.”

We followed her around to the side of the house, carrying the rest of the bags. Amigo raced between our legs, dashing around as much as the leash would let him and barking at passing birds. We passed through a sturdy gate built into a tall plank fence. Inside, nestled up against the side wall of the house, was a grassy area dotted with small, carefully pruned trees. A cluster of potted plants sat in a sunny spot near a door leading inside. The fenced area was probably at least twice the size of our backyard, though next to the rest of Megan's place it seemed small.

I recognized it right away—this little private garden at the side of the house. It was in my vision about Megan and Amigo. Go figure—for once maybe I really had seen something pleasant, like Cait said! In any case, the place looked just as peaceful and pretty as it had in my vision.

“Dad calls this the orchard,” Megan explained, gesturing at the trees. “It's sort of his hobby.”

“Yeah.” Lavender laughed. “If you're wondering why it looks like Fort Knox, it's because he's always trying to keep the deer and raccoons and birds from eating the fruit. Next he'll probably buy a cannon to scare them off.”

Megan giggled. “I think I saw a cannon catalog lying around the house. Don't tell the neighbors.”

“I won't have to,” Lav countered. “We'll be able to hear it all the way over at my house.”

I smiled, but at the same time I felt a tiny bit left out. These two had obviously been friends for ages. I'd started to feel more at home in Aura the past few weeks, but suddenly I was back to feeling like an outsider.

Then Megan turned her sunny smile on me. “I'm so glad you're having your party here, you two,” she said. “It's going to be fun.”

That made me feel better. At least about the friendship thing. But fun? I could only cross my fingers and hope it was true. Liam hadn't seemed to be having much fun in Caitlyn's vision. Catching her
eye, I guessed that she was thinking the same thing.

“So where's this pool, anyway?” I said to cover my weird mood.

“Right back here.” Megan hurried ahead and flipped the latch on a second gate. The sound of music drifted toward us, along with the smell of chlorine.

“Wow,” Caitlyn said.

I knew how she felt. The pool area was just like I'd seen it in my vision —nicer than anywhere we'd celebrated our birthday before.

For a while we were so busy that I barely had time to breathe, let alone worry about the future. Megan and Lavender had already set up a bunch of stuff on a big teak table. We added our food, then helped finish the decorations and mix a huge volume of frothy pink fruit punch in Mrs. March's enormous crystal punch bowl.

Finally Megan seemed satisfied. She glanced around, tapping her chin. “I think we're ready.”

“Just in time.” Lavender checked her watch. “People should be getting here soon. I'd better put
Amigo away.” She'd let the dog off the leash in the fenced-in pool area while we set up. Now she clipped the leash back on. “Can I put him in the orchard?” she asked Megan. “He'll be out of the way there, and he can take a nice nap in the shade.”

“Aw, can't he come to the party?” Caitlyn patted the happy little dog as his butt wiggled with enthusiasm.

“I'll probably bring him out to say hi later,” Lav said. “I just want him out of the way while everyone's arriving. Otherwise he's likely to run out through the house and chase a squirrel into the road or something.”

“Yeah.” Megan smiled. “He's incorrigible. Aren't you, boy?”

Amigo practically turned himself inside out with joy as Megan patted him. Then Lav gave a tug on the leash. “Okay, that's enough. Into solitary with you, baby.”

She picked up the dog and snuggled him. Then she disappeared into the orchard.

“I'll make sure Mom is ready for our visitors,”
Megan said. “Be right back.”

She hurried into the house, leaving me and Caitlyn alone.

“It's weird being here, isn't it?” Cait said with a wry smile. “It's our first time seeing everything. Only not.”

“I know, right?” I glanced toward the pool, shuddering as the image of my sobbing friends swam into my mind. “Definitely weird.”

I forgot about that when Mom emerged through the open French doors. “Everything ready to go out here?” she asked.

“I think so,” Cait told her. “People should start arriving any minute.”

“Good.” Mom hesitated, glancing from my sister to me and back again. She cleared her throat, and once again I couldn't help thinking she looked nervous. “Listen, girls, while we have a moment alone . . .”

At that moment Lavender raced back into view, kicking the orchard gate shut behind her. “They're here!” she squealed.

“Who?” I asked.

Megan hurried back out just in time to hear her. She rolled her eyes and smiled. “The B Boys,” she said. “Leave it to them to be fashionably early, right?”

Lav laughed breathlessly. “How's my hair?”

“Looks good.” I glanced at Mom out of the corner of my eye. What had she been about to say? After everything that had been going on, I really wanted to know.

She caught my look and stepped toward me. “Happy birthday, Cassie,” she said, giving me a quick hug.

I didn't hug her back. I couldn't. It was all I could do to stay on my feet as the vision hit me.

Even though the real Mom was right in my face, I could hardly see her. All I could see was future Mom, superclear—and superangry. This was scarymama times infinity—she was scowling so hard she almost looked like a whole different person.

Mom let me go and stepped away to hug Cait. I just stood there, shaking. What had made future Mom so angry? I had no idea—for once, I'd barely
been able to see any background aside from a plain white wall. I hadn't even been able to tell what Mom was wearing.

Oh, well
, I thought, doing my best to shrug it off. She was probably mad at Cait for not making the bed again. Or me for coming home half a second past curfew.

In any case, the wall told me the scene, whatever it was, would take place indoors. The walls I could see through the numerous windows were all shades of tasteful pastel. Mayor Megan's Mom didn't seem like a plain-white-walls kind of person.

That meant I could worry about this newest vision later. Right now I needed to focus on our visions about this party.

As Mom hurried toward the house, I touched the pendant around my neck. Suddenly I didn't want to wear it anymore. I was going to have enough to deal with today without any more random superstrong visions.

Pulling it off, I slipped it to Cait. “Here,” I murmured. “You can wear this, okay?”

She hesitated, then nodded and took it from me. Relieved, I turned back to my friends.

“Chill out, Lav,” Megan was saying. “A girl should never look desperate, you know.”

Caitlyn looked confused. “Desperate?” she echoed as she slipped the necklace over her head.

“Oh, didn't you hear?” Megan smiled. “Lav just decided she has a massive crush on Biff.”

“Really?” That got my attention. Last I'd noticed, Lavender had seemed to be crushing on Brayden. Which was sort of a problem, given my own weird, mixed-up feelings about him. “Why didn't you tell me about this before?”

“Shut up, Megs. You don't have to tell the whole world my business.” But Lavender was grinning like an idiot as she shoved Megan. “Now be quiet, guys. Here they come!”

Brent and Buzz bounded out through the French doors. “Yo, the party can start!” Brent exclaimed. “We're here!”

Biff and Brayden were right behind them. Biff was carrying two towels and helping Brayden
maneuver his crutches down the wide, curved steps leading from the house to the pool area.

“I hope there's lots of food,” Buzz said. “Swimming makes me hungry!”

Biff laughed. “Dude, when did a party of Megan's ever not have tons of food?” Dropping the towels on a lounge chair, he hurried over and grabbed a handful of chips.

Meanwhile Brayden hobbled toward us. “Hey,” he said. “Thanks for inviting us. Happy birthday.”

He smiled at both me and Cait but held my gaze for an extra second.

I grinned back at him, glad that I'd volunteered to stick close to the B Boys today. “Thanks,” I said. “Now come on and let's get this party started!”