VIOLET

-WINTER-

I woke up Friday morning with a sense of dread. My week had settled into an uncomfortable routine since Caleb’s arrival. We bickered through every class we had together and competed during gym. Much to my dismay, I had not been able to beat him at anything since Monday’s tackle incident. It was really starting to get annoying. And to make matters worse, at one point during the week the female population of our little high school decided that I was a menace to their chances with Caleb. It was not like I couldn’t handle myself with Sterling and her little group of she hounds but it was getting irritating. It was all Caleb’s fault! Why had he come here? Who or what was he hiding from? And why was he so inhumanly hot!? Other than confirming the fact that I could not hear his thoughts, I had learned nothing of him this week. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I had learned he had a younger sister though he was adopted. He was 17 years old and had moved here from California. But somehow I had this gut feeling that every word he had said had been a lie. My impatience was growing.

Snapping myself out of my thoughts I finished my morning routine and took a few extra minutes to check the house. Julia and I had spent yesterday afternoon frantically cleaning and cooking. Nothing had been left untouched. Everything was either swept, washed, dusted, buffed or any assortment of the above. I may not be happy about Caleb coming over but I refused to have the house looking anything but amazing. I had even ventured into Jethro’s room to dust and change the sheets for him and Kayla. I was lazy but my mother had been a neat freak and keeping my house up to her standards was my way of showing that I still loved and remembered her. I had made two large chicken lasagnas. One was for Michael and Reese but I was still debating on whether I should add arsenic to it or not. As I left the house for school I decided against it. Ash Mountain was too small of a town to get away with murder in.

Walking into World History I relaxed. Caleb and Michael where nowhere to be seen and Julia sat jumpily in her seat waiting for me. I slid into my chair with a smile and started pulling out my homework. Julia seemed about to burst with happiness so I made myself comfortable and looked at her expectantly. Content that she had my full attention she started talking.

-Grammy said that on Sunday we are going into the city! We are getting the car, girl!- she cheered and I sat up in my chair excitedly. – And you are coming with me, I don’t care if Jethro doesn’t like it! He is going to be busy mooning over Kayla anyway.-

-Heck yeah! Car shopping!- I replied as I pumped my fist in the air. I stood up, pulling Julia with me and we started to do our happy dance. Julia and I started to sing randomly as we shuffled our feet and waved our hands around like aliens.

-It’s our birthday! We gonna party! We so sexy! Ah Ah!-We sang as we bumped our hips and struck posses for an invisible camera. Our happy dance was a special thing, it had to be the perfect balance between embarrassing, dorky and rhythmic. We had worked hard to make it look so bad.

-Dear God Woman! Remind me never to take you out dancing!- Caleb said. I whirled around surprised and almost lost my balance. Michael was beside him laughing at a cherry red Julia.

-When the hell did you get here?- I asked, trying to hide my embarrassment. Caleb smirked.

-Oh, about the time you stood up to dance. Most entertaining, I assure you.- He replied smoothly. I was in the middle of blushing furiously when Julia stepped behind him and whacked him in the head with a notebook.

-What the…!?- Cried Caleb as he turned around to face Julia. –What in the name of Lilith was that for?-

-For taking the Lord’s name in vain- She replied as she fought back a smile and sat back down in her chair. She brushed the wrinkles out of her skirt and turned to Michael in an attempt to ignore Caleb.-Why, good morning Michael!-

-Good morning Julia. Wonderful to see you. –Replied Michael as tipped his invisible hat to her with a chuckle. Caleb stared at them while rubbing his head.

-Hey! But why did you have to hit me with a notebook!- Caleb sputtered offended. I sat back down smiling smugly while Caleb glared at me.

-Because,- Julia replied sweetly- You have a really hard head!-

I resisted the urge to blurt out “That’s what she said” and bit back a giggle. Julia would not appreciate the joke. Julia frowned as she looked down at her hand, it was still lightly bruised from the last time Caleb had cussed in front of her. She had smacked him hard only to step back with a yelp holding her hand to her chest. It had been the funniest thing I had seen all week. And I was secretly relieved that I was not the only one that had trouble remembering to keep their language in check when Julia was around. I would never admit that to him though, Caleb already had a big enough ego. He thought he was God’s gift to women, and the problem was, in the dark jeans and simple grey T-shirt he was wearing, he really did look like he was. Caleb rolled his eyes and just muttered something under his breath about soft humans. Wait! I did a mental double take. Had he really said “soft humans”? What was he? A mutant duck? I shook my head and looked at him curiously but before I could comment Mr. Hynes shuffled into the classroom. Well great! The cosmos where just not cutting me any slack. What does a girl have to do to get some answers around here?

-Open your books to page 145- Called out Mr. Hynes. –We are quickly going to go over the answers to last night’s homework.-

I looked up at the ceiling as if looking at the Gods and rolled my eyes. That was so not what I had meant when I was talking about answers. I raised my hand in a salute and looked back down to see my friends staring at me confused.

-What? We are having communication issues, ok?- I huffed. The Gods were probably laughing at me right now. I had it on good authority that they had a sick sense of humor.

Warning, my friends; be very careful what you ask the gods for. I snorted mentally and went back to the homework discussion.