Deception (2 page)

The rage had a companion for the moment, humiliation.

I walked right up to my sister, faked a sweet smile and told her happy birthday before handing her the smoothie. "It's watermelon, your favorite!"

She gave me a sweet smile right back and said, "You didn't have to! Thanks, Lexi!" Then she gave me a hug and we both looked up at our parents and waved to them.

I never knew if she was being genuine or not. I'd read in her diary once that it was her goal to be the nicest person in the school. She didn't want to be a popular mean girl. She wanted to be known for being super sweet.

"Have fun with the rest of practice," I said evenly, and headed back to my seat.

Before I even sat down, my mom said, "See? That wasn't so bad, was it?"

I rolled my eyes.

Dad said, "I love seeing my girls get along. Did you see how happy she was when you gave her that smoothie?"

"Did you see how humiliated I was?" I muttered, only loud enough for me to hear. I watched Natalie sip the smoothie and I felt my rage tear at me like a wild, cornered animal.

I was only half listening to my parents talk about how great Natalie was. Watching her drink her smoothie and laugh with her friends made me wish that I could pour it on her head. I grabbed the bench, because I felt that I might jump up and actually do it.

Suddenly, the entire contents of the smoothie in the plastic cup burst forth and jumped all over Natalie's face, hair and jersey.

I gasped. It was as if someone had hit the cup from the bottom to make the smoothie leap up against the forces of gravity. Exactly when I was wishing that I could throw it on her!

"Oh, Natalie!" exclaimed my mom. "Jack, go down there and help her!"

My dad jumped up and sprinted down the bleachers, joining Natalie's teammates in helping to clean her up. I could see him talking to the coach and telling some of the players what to do.

My mom turned to me. "Did you put something in her drink to make it explode like that? I know that you didn't want her to get anything for her birthday!"

"Are you serious?" I exclaimed.

"I just can't believe that happened! My poor baby girl, Natalie!" my mom wailed.

POP! POP! POP!

POP! POP! POP!

POP! POP! POP!

Rows of fluorescent lights started bursting all over the volleyball players. Many of them started screaming and shrieking, others ran for cover.

The coach had grabbed a microphone and tried to get everyone's attention. He asked everyone to leave the building so that the custodian could come and clean up the mess. Practice was over and they would finish it up the next afternoon.

The drive home was a blur of my mom freaking out about everything. I wished I had brought the iPod that I'd gotten for my last birthday when I had turned sixteen so that I could tune her out.

When we finally got home, I ran to my room to escape but unfortunately I had my own light bulb mess to clean up. It was dark by then and I had no choice but to take care of it right away.

I used a flashlight to make sure that I got all of the pieces picked up.

I went to the kitchen to find replacement bulbs and groaned when I saw my parents and sister sitting at the table. I almost smiled when I saw the red in her bleached blonde hair and on her jersey.

"Where are the light bulbs?" I asked.

"In the garage, on the third shelf," my dad said, not even looking up.

I went to the garage. I squeezed between my dad's Escalade and my mom's Mercedes to get to the shelf with the lights on it. It was an ordeal to get the stool and to reach the shelf even with that. I finally got the two bulbs that I needed and marched up to my room, ignoring everyone as I went through the kitchen.

Just as I started to relax after replacing the bulbs, there was a knock on my door. "Go away!" I shouted.

The door opened and my dad came in. "It's been a rough day for all of us. Let's watch a movie together. Natalie picked out the one that she wants to see."

"Can't I just relax in here?" I asked.

"No, we need to spend some family time together. It'll be fun, come on."

I sighed. "Fine."

At least the movie that Natalie picked out was one that I wanted to see too. It was the latest dramedy that I hadn't had a chance to see in the theater.

As soon as the movie was over, Natalie asked where the batteries were for her foot spa. She pretty much used that thing nightly.

Dad told her, "They're on the top shelf in the garage. I'll get them for you; I don't want you to have to deal with that."

As I had earlier!

I stood up to run to my room and scream into my pillow, but before I could lift a foot...

POP!

POP!

Two more shattered light bulbs.

"You'd better get some light bulbs while you're getting those batteries," I told my dad and stormed to my bedroom.

***

There was a knock on my door and I ignored it. Natalie came in, closed the door quietly and sat on my computer chair across from me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I want you to know that it wasn't my idea for them to get me that car. I know they're always buying me nice stuff but I don't want you to hate me. It's not my fault."

"No, it's not your fault," I told her. "But to be honest, it's hard to separate you from the fact that you always get really nice stuff and I have to work my butt off for anything that I want."

"I think that maybe they're trying to help me not feel bad about never being able to live up to you."

I laughed. "You not living up to me? You're the volleyball star, you're on the sophomore homecoming court and you're the stylish, popular one. How exactly do you not live up to boring, plain me?"

"You're smart and confident, Alexis. You have the best grades in the whole school! You're the first junior to be president of the Honor's Club. Don't forget about your trip to the White House after you won that national science contest," she said. "Those fancy colleges are going to be begging you to join them."

"I'm surprised that you noticed any of that," I said.

"We don't need to be jealous of each other," she said. "We are both amazing people with different accomplishments. We don't have to compete to be on top, we're on top of completely different circles."

"Don't forget, we're also really humble," I said, and we both laughed.

"We get that from Mom!" she said in between laughs.

"That's for sure!" I said. "At least I now know that I did get something from her."

"Can we at least have a truce?" she asked. "I don't like all of the competition between us. Sisters are supposed to have a special bond. It's not supposed to be like this."

"I don't want something fake," I said. "I'm not going pretend that everything is fine, when it's not."

"Things can be fine with us despite what our parents do. That doesn't have anything to do with
our
relationship."

"It has everything to do with our relationship, Natalie! Everything. I may be smart, but you're the favorite, and they always throw it in my face. You certainly don't do anything to discourage it."

"Discourage it? What am I supposed to do to discourage it?" she asked. "They're our parents, the adults. It's not my job to tell them what to do!"

"You could say something to encourage them to not act like you're royalty, and I'm just the peasant."

"You are absolutely insane! No wonder they like me better."

I jumped off the bed. "Excuse me!"

She looked at me with innocent doe eyes. "What?"

"I said 'excuse me,' Natalie! Would you mind repeating yourself?"

"What? That it's not my job to tell our parents what to do?" she asked.

"No! What you said after that!" I exclaimed.

She looked genuinely confused. "I didn't say anything after that, Alexis."

"Oh, so you didn't call me insane and say it was no wonder they like you better?" I demanded.

Her face went white. "I never said that...."

"I heard you loud and clear! You can't deny it!"

She stood up too. "I don't know what's going on here, Alexis, but I did
not
say that."

I couldn't believe that she was denying it. I'd heard her loud and clear.

"What a freak!" she exclaimed, but her mouth did
not
move.

"Did you just call me a freak?" I asked, before I could stop myself.

"Are you claiming to read my mind? You were looking right at me and could see that I didn't say anything! If you don't want to be friends that's fine with me, Lexi! Just leave me alone!" She stormed out of my room.

I sat back down on my bed, unable to figure out what had just happened. How did I hear her talk when she didn't say anything? Was I losing my mind and hearing voices? I knew that many brilliant people were accused of being insane to some degree. I didn't want that!

I grabbed a book to get my mind off the craziness from the entire day, but was unable to focus on it. I couldn't stop thinking about everything.

Was I losing my mind, or did I hear Natalie's thoughts? If so, then I must be going crazy, because only crazy people hear voices.

I actually preferred to think about my parents and how angry I was with them. I wanted nothing to do with any of these negative emotions. I was always so calm, never emotional like my mom and Natalie. The wide range of emotions running through me was very irritating.

CHAPTER TWO

I woke up to the sun shining on my bed. I couldn't remember falling asleep or even having had any dreams. I looked at the clock and was glad to see that it was still early, not even 9:00 yet. Perhaps I could sneak out of the house unnoticed.

I knew that my dad would be at the office, because every Saturday he went in really early. My mom and Natalie loved sleeping in, so I figured that I had at least an hour and half to leave before they would even be up.

I wanted to enjoy the sunny morning before I had to work the lunch shift.

I got ready as fast as I could and jumped in my Ford. With weather like this, I headed straight for the lake in our town. It wasn't a huge lake, but it was big enough. It was always so peaceful to be there with the wildlife and the calm water.

I parked, walked to a part of the lake that was vacant and sat on a bench, soaking in the warm sun and enjoying the sights and sounds. To me, this was the most peaceful way to spend time, and it never lasted long enough.

This was no exception.

"Alexis! What are you doing here?"

I turned around to see Brooke, a neighbor who had moved to the other side of town a couple of years earlier. We had been best friends growing up, but had lost touch.

"Brooke! I haven't seen you in forever!" I said, trying not to be disappointed about my short lived break.

She sat down next to me. "How you are? What's going on in your life? It's great to see you!"

"It's good to see you too!" I said, working up some enthusiasm. "I'm not doing much. I work a lot to pay for my car and I study a lot to get into a good college, far from here!"

Brooke laughed. "I don't blame you. I want out of this place too. I want to design fashion!"

I looked her up and down. I noticed that she was dressed like she'd just stepped out of the pages of fashion magazine. The complete opposite of me. Suddenly I felt self conscious about my boring clothes. "You can do it. Just look at you!"

She smiled. "Thanks, Lexi! I'll never be as pretty as you are, though."

My eyes nearly popped out of my head. Was she kidding? I let out a small laugh. "Yeah, right."

"I'm not joking. You are gorgeous, but you've never seen it," she said. "I have always been jealous of your looks."

This time I couldn't hold in the laughter. "I don't know what you're on, but I appreciate the compliments, especially after yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?" she asked.

I sighed. "There was a lot going on but the short story is that it was Natalie's birthday and once again my parents threw their favoritism towards her in my face."

Brooke frowned. "That's not surprising."

"No, it's not. They completely outdid themselves this time."

She smiled. "Why don't you come over and spend the night tonight? You can get away from those guys and we can catch up. It'll be fun! Maybe we could bake some cookies, like we used to."

I actually smiled. "That does sound like a lot of fun!"

"Want to come over for dinner? Then we can make cookies, watch movies and stay up late!"

"Sure, my shift at the deli is over at four, so that gives me enough time to get home and grab some stuff for a sleepover," I said.

"Perfect!" she said, and then gave me her new address. "I'll see you then!"

As she walked away, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the warm sun beating down on me and the sounds of the lake lapping up on the shore. It was so calming.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed when I heard a strange whirring noise. I tried to ignore it, hoping that it would go away.

It only got louder and gave me a creepy feeling, so I opened my eyes.

I was so startled by the sight of over a hundred crows flying in a massive circle directly above where I was sitting that I jumped off the bench.

They were all going around and around in a circle. As soon as one made eye contact with me, it began to caw. The rest followed suit and dozens of crows were orbiting around and around right over me, and all of them were shrieking at me.

I grabbed my purse and inched away from the bench without breathing. I couldn't take my eyes off of them, and I noticed that as I inched along, the whole circle inched right along with me in the air above me. I stopped for a moment and finally took a breath.

As soon as I began to breathe again, every single creepy bird in the circling, cawing flock turned its eyes toward me. Each one was looking down at me while whirling above my head.

To make sure that I wasn't losing my mind, I slowly walked about two feet. Each one kept its eyes fixed on me. They circled, cawing, and they stayed directly above me. Exactly as I moved, the circle moved.

I made a split second decision and ran to my car as fast as I could without looking up or back. Once I was safely locked in my car, I looked outside to see if they had followed me. I didn't see them, so I inched myself forward so that I could see above the car without getting out.