Double Trouble (7 page)

“RELAX, WOULD YOU?”
Cassie said as we walked into school the next morning. “It's not going to burn you.”

“I know.” I reached up and touched the necklace, which was tucked beneath the collar of my shirt. We'd decided I should be the one to wear it that day. So far our two scariest visions had been about Bianca, so it made sense to try to find out more from her.

A couple of seventh graders rushed past, talking excitedly about that weekend's football game. I
cringed back against the wall, not wanting them to brush against me. Remembering how powerful that vision had been when I was wearing the necklace before made me nervous. Who knew what I might see now with its help?

“Chill,” Cassie ordered, peering into my face. “Let me know if you find out anything interesting, okay?”

“For sure.”

We parted ways to head to our lockers, which were at opposite ends of the school. As I reached mine, I heard someone calling my name. It was Liam—he and Bianca were coming toward me.

“Hey, Caitlyn,” Liam greeted me in his usual cheerful way. “Only three days 'til the party!”

I smiled weakly, looking past him at Bianca. Maybe I could get this out of the way before homeroom.

“Yeah,” I said. “Hey, Bianca, can you hold my books for a sec? My locker is kind of sticking.”

“I'll do it.” Liam grabbed my books.

As his hand brushed mine, the vision hit me hard.
A supervivid version of Liam appeared in front of me. He was soaking wet, dressed in swim trunks—and covered in blood! All four of the B Boys were dragging him across the cement deck of what I guessed had to be Megan's pool.

“Caitlyn!” The faded-out real Liam peered at me with concern, his voice barely breaking through the loud buzzing that filled my head. “Are you okay?”

“Give her some air—maybe she's overheated.” Bianca yanked him back, abruptly breaking the connection.

I gasped, staggering forward and catching myself on my locker. “S-sorry,” I blurted out. “I think you're right, Bianca. I must've walked too fast on the way here.”

“Here, drink something.” Liam pulled a water bottle out of his backpack.

“Thanks.” I took a swig of the water, not meeting his eyes.

“It's hotter than ever out there today,” Bianca said.

“Yeah.” Liam grinned. “Which is another reason
I can't wait for that pool party.”

I smiled weakly, then handed back the bottle. “Thanks,” I said. “I, um, should go splash water on my face.”

“Want me to come to the restroom with you?” Bianca offered.

“That's okay,” I told her quickly. “I'll meet you guys in homeroom.”

I slammed my locker door shut, then hurried down the hall in the direction of the girls' bathroom. Glancing back, I saw my friends walking the opposite way.

Good.
I changed direction, heading for the stairs instead.

Soon I was poking my head into Cassie's homeroom. She was talking to Megan and a couple of their other friends. As soon as she saw my face, she excused herself and hurried out to meet me.

“What is it?” she asked, pulling me to a private spot in the hall behind a trash bin. “Did you get something from Bianca already?”

“Not Bianca.” I took a deep breath, still shaken
by what I'd seen. “I had a vision about Liam.”

“Liam?” She wrinkled her nose. “But—”

“Just listen,” I cut her off, and I told her what I'd seen. “So now we know what's going to happen,” I finished grimly. “The B Boys are going to beat him up so badly he'll end up in the hospital!”

Cassie shook her head. “No way,” she said. “Those guys wouldn't do that.”

“Are you sure?” I demanded. “They make fun of Liam all the time.” I felt myself getting angry as I remembered the blood dripping down Liam's skinny torso. “Anyway, this explains the Bianca visions. She and Liam are friends—of course she'll be upset if he ends up in the hospital!”

“Yeah, okay.” Cassie still didn't look convinced. “But there's got to be another explanation. Why would Lav and Megan be so upset?”

“Megan seems like a nice person,” I said. “Besides, it happened—I mean, is going to happen—I mean, might happen . . .” I paused, realizing I was confusing myself.

“Okay, I get it,” Cassie said. “You're right, Megan
would be upset. Especially if something happened at her house. But not Lavender. She was really crying hard in my vision.”

She sounded very certain. I stared at her, wishing I could believe she was right. That Liam wasn't about to be beaten to a pulp at our birthday party. But what other explanation could there be?

“Speaking of Megan,” Cassie added, glancing back into the classroom, “we were just talking about doing some shopping with Lav for the party after school today. So don't wait for me to walk home.”

“But we need to talk about this!” I protested.

“We will,” she assured me. “Tonight. I promise.”

WHEN I GOT
home, the front door was locked. “Guess Mom isn't home from work yet,” I muttered as I fished for the key in my bag. For a second I couldn't find it, and I scowled, wishing Cassie hadn't ditched me to go off with her friends.

Then my fingers closed on the key, and relief washed over me. But I still felt annoyed with Cass. For one thing, we really did need to talk. Time was
running out, and now that I'd seen what was going to happen, it seemed more important than ever to have a plan for how to stop it.

Besides, where did she get off going shopping for
our
party and not even inviting me? I could only imagine what kind of crazy stuff Lavender was talking her into buying right now.

But I wasn't going to worry about that. Not after what I'd seen today.

I grabbed a juice box out of the fridge, then wandered over to check the answering machine. There were no messages, just a missed call from someone the caller ID said was named Lockwood. The name seemed vaguely familiar, but I was too distracted to think about it much. I hit save so the name and number would stay on the machine for Mom, figuring it was probably one of her friends from her army days or something.

It had been extra hot and sticky that day, so I went to change into cooler clothes. As I pulled a tank top over my head, the key necklace clanked against my collarbone. I gasped, suddenly remembering where
I'd heard that name before.

“Lockwood!” I whispered, my heart beating faster. That was the name of the family I'd read about on the paranormal website. The ones who had the same type of power that Cassie and I did! Maybe someone had seen that post after all—maybe they were trying to contact me. I needed to get that phone number!

Racing out of my room, I skidded around the corner into the kitchen—and almost crashed into Mom. She was standing by the phone with a grim look on her face and her finger on the delete button.

“Wait!” I blurted out. “Don't erase that. I want to—”

Beep.
The flashing light blinked off.

“No!” I collapsed against the counter, hardly believing this was happening. “Why did you do that?”

“It was clearly a wrong number.” Mom pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, as if challenging me to say anything else.

Normally that look was enough to make me
back off. But not today. Because why would she give me her best scarymama look over a simple wrong number?

“Are you sure?” I said, my heart beating a little faster. “You're sure you don't know anyone by that name—Lockwood?”

Mom frowned at me. “Where's Cassie?”

I wanted to repeat my question. Actually, I sort of wanted to scream and insist she tell me what was going on and why she was acting so weird about all this. That was what Cassie would have done.

But I wasn't Cassie. “Um, she went shopping,” I said limply. “She'll be home soon.”

Mom nodded and headed for the door. “I'll be in the shower.”

“WELL?” CAITLYN DANCED
around behind me, sounding anxious. “Are you getting anything?”

“Calm down.” I bent closer to the answering machine. “I'm working on it.”

For once, I was glad Mom was so old-fashioned. Because that meant we actually still had one of those old-school cordless phones with a built-in answering machine. It meant we had a shot at retrieving that number.

“I wish I'd recognized the name right away,”
Cait moaned. “I could've written down the number before Mom even got home.”

“Yeah, I wish you had, too,” I said. “Are you sure it's the right name?”

She nodded. “Lockwood. I'm almost positive that's the name from that website.” She checked the clock on the microwave. “Hurry,” she urged. “We have to leave soon or we'll be late for school.”

“Relax.” I continued to fiddle with the recorder thingy. I'm pretty handy with machines and tech, and Cait and I were both hoping I could figure out how to retrieve a deleted number.

But nothing I tried seemed to work. “Well?” Cait said as I straightened up and sighed.

“Nada,” I replied. “Sorry. I think it's hopeless.”

Caitlyn looked disappointed, verging on devastated. “Do you think they'll call again?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” I glanced at her. “Are you wearing the necklace?”

“No. That thing kind of scares me.” She shivered. “Why don't you wear it today?”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, scaredy-cat. I will.”

Actually, I didn't blame her for being freaked out, now that we knew the talisman might be connected to our visions. I was a little freaked out, too, especially when I remembered those extra-vivid visions I'd had while wearing it.

But I wasn't about to admit that to her.

“SETTLE DOWN, YOUNG
scholars.” Ms. Xavier clapped her hands to bring the class to order.

I'd been chatting with Megan and the minions. Megan sat right in front of me, and I'd taken every opportunity to brush against her, touch her on the arm, whatever. I was getting nothing. No visions, zilch, a big fat zippo.

As Ms. X started babbling on about our research projects, I glanced over my shoulder at Brayden, who sat a couple of rows behind me. If what Cait had seen was true, maybe he was the one I should be trying to touch.

The thought made my face go hot. I stared at the teacher, hoping nobody noticed.

“. . . so you'll have a free period today to continue
your preliminary research and outlining,” Ms. X was saying. “I'd like you all to try to settle on your final topics by the end of next week at the latest, all right? Now go forth and research!”

Most people pulled out their smartphones to go on the Internet. Others hopped up and headed for the bookshelves or the classroom computer.

I just sat there trying to focus. With everything else that had been going on, I'd barely spent two seconds thinking about this stupid project.

Then I noticed Ms. X heading toward me with a big smile on her face. Uh-oh.

“Cassie,” she said. “Have you and Caitlyn discussed pursuing my idea?”

“Um, sort of,” I said. “It sounds cool and all, but Cait really has her heart set on doing her own thing, so . . .”

“Oh, are you sure?” she said. “As I mentioned, I'd be happy to guide you two, help you figure out the best way to explore all the facets of your twinhood.”

She looked really disappointed, which kind of
weirded me out. Why was she so into this twin thing, anyway?

Then again, why did she feel the need to wear a ring on each finger and a dozen bracelets on each arm? She was an oddball, that was why. Case closed.

She leaned on my desk, gazing earnestly into my face. “Cassie,” she said. “This project could be very useful to you and your sister. It could help you open up new possibilities, maybe discover new things about yourself. Help you explore the true power of being twins.”

I forced a smile, though I was more weirded out than ever. This went beyond oddballness. Was it possible that she suspected something was going on with us?

No—that's crazy talk
, I told myself sternly. There's no way she knows anything. She probably just saw a cheesy made-for-TV movie about twin telepaths or something, and thinks she's going to help us discover how to read each other's minds.

And reading Caitlyn's mind? Not really something I aspired to. I had no interest in learning her
deepest thoughts about rainbows and puppies and pink-frosted cupcakes. Or whatever she thought about all day.

“Um,” I began, not sure what to say to Ms. Xavier.

She put a hand on my shoulder. “Just tell me you'll talk to her once more, all right?” she said.

At least I was pretty sure that's what she said. I couldn't be positive, since my brain was suddenly full of buzzing as a vision slammed into my head.

The vision showed Ms. Xavier, of course. She was in her classroom, pretty much right where she was standing now. Only the place was empty except for me and Cait. We were standing in front of the teacher, who was smiling and looking excited.

Just then minion Abby called out to Ms. X, wanting help with something or other. The teacher moved away, and the vision disappeared. I flopped back in my seat, my heart racing.

Okay, that one didn't look too bad
, I told myself. Maybe Cait was right—maybe not everything I see is something terrible.

Then another possibility occurred to me.

Or maybe it just means Ms. Xavier is going to successfully browbeat us into doing her stupid project idea
, I thought with a grimace.
That would probably qualify as a bad thing.

But a big waste of a vision. There were more important things to think about than that stupid project. That was one of the most aggravating parts of this whole Sight. We seemed to have no control over what kinds of things we saw. Sometimes it was completely trivial stuff, like seeing a grade on a test ahead of time. Other times? Majorly important stuff. Like Mom almost losing her job. Or Liam covered in blood at our birthday party.

My gaze wandered to Brayden, who was bent over his notebook scribbling busily. Had Cait really seen what she thought she had? Could Brayden and his friends really be capable of something like that?

It was hard to believe. But if it did happen, we needed to be ready. No question about it.