Inherited Magic (5 page)

Allison looked up to see who was
insulting her. She had no idea who he was, but it was a shame he had to be such
a jerk. This encounter summed up how her luck was going. She is approached by
an attractive boy, so of course he says something rude.

“You’ll be waiting longer than an
hour. I have plenty of quarters,” she said.

“I see,” he turned to walk away.

Allison rolled her eyes and
continued the game. She sunk a ball on her next shot.

“Tell me that’s bad,” she muttered
to herself.

“Okay, you’re not too bad.”

She turned to see the tall boy was
back, this time with a pool stick.

“What are you doing?”

“Since you’re going to take all
day, I might as well join you.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I don’t blame you, I am pretty
good. I guess if you don’t play anyone else you don’t have to worry about
losing.”

“Fine. Set up a new game, and
you’re paying.”

“What about your pocket full of
quarters?” he asked.

“You want to play, you can pay.”

“Fair enough.”

She knocked the remaining balls in
various pockets while he inserted three quarters and set up the game. Allison
was not sure what to think.

“You can go first,” he offered.

She approached the old pool table,
with its tattered green felt and warped surface. Allison concentrated, wanting
her shot to be good. She hit the cue ball as hard as she could manage and balls
went in every direction. She knocked in both stripes and solids.

“So do you want stripes or solids?”
he asked.

“Stripes.”

“That figures.”

“What figures?”

“I have a theory.”

“About pool balls?”

“Yes. I believe most people prefer
stripes to solids because they’re flashier. People always go for the flash.”

Allison sunk one ball and looked
up.

“Now you’re calling me shallow?”

“Not shallow, just human.”

Allison laughed, “I suppose you
always pick solids?”

His smile widened, “No. I like
stripes.”

“Doesn’t matter what you pick, I’m
about to run the table on you,” she said, taking her next shot.

She hit the cue ball and sent it
toward the closest striped ball. It rolled across the table, crashing into the
wall before coming to rest right in front of the pocket. She stared at the
ball, hoping it would somehow drop into the hole. She looked at the stationary
ball, and to her amazement, saw it begin to roll once again. It rolled as if
someone had pushed it, landing in the corner pocket. Allison felt her mouth
open, but suppressed a gasp.

“What are you, magic?” the boy
asked.

Allison also wondered what she was,
but recovered from the shock and tried to play it off, “Yeah, I have the magic
of a warped table and uneven floors.”

After that shot, her trash talk
proved incorrect. Nothing went in, and the boy had his first turn. He was good,
he made shot after shot. It was a while before he missed one.

“So,” Allison said, “you intrude on
my game, insult my pool skills, call me shallow and even insinuate I’m some
sort of witch. You could at least tell me your name.”

“I’m Adam Davis.”

“Allison Taylor. I haven’t seen you
around school, are you new or just visiting relatives?”

“New. Monday will be my first day.”

Allison hit the cue ball and
disaster struck. The ball she was aiming for went spiraling toward the 8-ball,
sending it into the corner pocket.

“What’s that? Looks like I just won
the game,” Adam said.

Allison tried not to smile but she
could not help it. The smile faded when she noticed Siler walk into the
building. He spotted her about the same time and walked over to the table.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Adam
asked when he noticed Siler walking toward them.

“No, thank God. I insulted him in
class the other day and I’m sure he has a few choice words for me.”

Siler approached Allison.

“Do you realize how lucky you are
that you’re female? If you were a dude, that stuff you said in class would have
landed you in the hospital.”

A million amazing insults flooded
Allison’s mind, but she did not want to start an argument or cause a scene in
front of Adam. Instead, she tried to be reasonable.

“You know how you got mad and
embarrassed when I called you stupid? That’s how you made Wes feel when you
called him a geek.”

“So what? He is a geek.”

Common sense, empathy and basic
reasoning skills were too complicated for Siler. Maybe he’d had too many
helmet-to-helmet collisions on the football field.

“And you are stupid. In fact, that
geek will probably end up being your boss one day. Speaking of being stupid,
why aren’t you playing football tonight, academically ineligible?”

“No, I had a one game suspension.
And by the way, I would never work for someone like Wes Young.”

“Keep telling yourself that. Do you
know where high school heroes end up? Manning the counters of gas stations all
across the country. They spend their lives talking about that one time when
they won that one game back in high school.”

Anger flashed across his face.
“Yeah, maybe I’ll end up living in The Dirt Lot right next to you and all the
other white trash. You’ll probably end up on a pole somewhere dancing for
dollars or working the truck stop parking lot.”

Adam noticed Allison’s immediate
change in demeanor and he stepped between them.

“There’s no reason for any of
this,” Adam said.

Siler noticed Adam for the first
time, “Who’s this? Your first client?”

“No, but I was your mom’s client
last night,” Adam said.

Adam led Allison towards the door
and she followed in silent awe.

“Best dollar I ever spent,” Adam
called out before he and Allison exited the doorway.

Siler stood for a moment until he
finally processed Adam’s words. He ran to the door, but they were already out
of sight.

The phone rang several times before
going to voicemail. Allison ended the call- she never left voicemails- and
walked into the living room.

Allison was curious about how the
dance was, and whether or not Sam had fun with Wes. She assumed that Sam would
have told her everything last night, and now it was Saturday afternoon and she
was not answering. It was unusual for Sam not to answer right away. Allison
wondered if it had something to do with Josh. They were cousins, maybe he told
her that Allison had been rude to him, but that didn’t make any sense. She was
honest and to the point, but not rude. Besides, Josh was not the type to start
problems. Vinnie had filled her in on most of the details from the night
before, but she wanted to hear it from Sam.

“I still can’t get a hold of Sam,”
she told Vinnie.

 “Maybe she’s asleep,” Vinnie
suggested.

They heard Ruby’s car pull up, and
they both went out to help her carry in the groceries. Ruby usually made one
trip to the grocery store, and it was always on Saturday morning. While they
put away the food, Allison could feel her grandmother staring at her. The looks
and the questions from her Grandmother seemed strange. Something was not right.
It was almost as if she was watching and waiting for Allison to do something,
but Allison had no idea what it could be.

“It’s Saturday; does that mean
we’re going to the flea market?” Vinnie asked.

“Of course,” Ruby said.

They often spent Saturday afternoon
shopping in a neighboring town. They would search for treasures at the local
flea market, goodwill, yard sales, and a few clothing stores. They would
sometimes stop at the video game store, so Vinnie could buy some new games.
This was the only day of the week they did not eat at home. They would eat out
while they were shopping, usually at Cracker Barrel or Golden Corral. 

On the way to the car, Allison
tried to call Sam again. There was still no answer. Allison let Vinnie have the
front seat. Ruby and Vinnie were talking about finding a good coffee table they
could refinish, but Allison wasn’t listening much. She was thinking about Sam’s
and Ruby’s odd behavior, but she was mostly thinking about Adam and Josh. Last
week she was aware of Josh, but not interested in him. This week she had
started to like him and then Adam showed up. Most of the time she was not this
interested in high school boys. Most of the guys she found attractive were
older than she was. She wondered if Siler would try to beat Adam up first thing
Monday morning. She also wondered if they would have any classes together.

“So, did Allison tell you she’s in
love with a boy named Adam?” Vinnie asked.

These words cut through the haze of
her daydreams.

“Excuse me?” Allison asked.

“No, I didn’t realize she was in
love. Do tell,” Ruby said.

“She met the man of her dreams last
night while she played pool. He was tall, dark and handsome,” Vinnie said.

“He was tall and handsome, not
dark, and just for the record he is not the man of my dreams. As always, that
position is held by M. Shadows from Avenged.”

“You always go for the pierced up
tattooed boys,” Vinnie said.

“Well, you will be happy to know
that Adam is not pierced or tattooed, that I know of.”

“So, tell me more about this Adam
boy,” Ruby said.

“There’s not much to tell. He came
over and started talking to me while I was playing pool. At first I thought he
was kind of a jerk, but he ended up being a nice guy.”

 “Does he go to your school?”

“He’s a transfer. He starts on
Monday.”

“Oh,” her voice sounded strained,
“So you don’t know much about him? Where is he from?”

“I’m not sure where he came from. I
think he travels a lot. His dad is in the military.”

“And he just approached you while
you were playing?”

“Pretty much. He wanted to use the
table.”

Allison sensed something in Ruby’s
voice that made her feel defensive of Adam.

“What’s wrong?” Allison asked.

“Nothing, just be careful around
this Adam boy. We don’t know anything about him.”

“Okay,” she said, “but, he’s just a
regular high school kid like me.”

“You are not regular. You are
exceptional and only someone exceptional deserves your attention.”

“Thanks, I think.” 

They pulled into an empty spot in
the gravel parking lot. On the way inside, a car caught Allison’s eye. It was
Susan’s car, the wood panel station wagon. It had to be hers because it had the
dent in the right front bumper. What were the odds that there would be two
identical cars with a dent in the same location?

“Sam is here,” Allison told Vinnie,
“there’s Susan’s car. I hope we run into them before they leave.”

Vinnie looked worried.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Okay, look. I didn’t want to say
anything because I thought it might blow over by Monday, but Sam is mad at
you.”

“Mad at me?” she felt her face
become hot, “What did I do?”

“Nothing, but Wes said something
about asking you out first. She didn’t say anything to him about it, but she
told me after the dance. She was sort of embarrassed and mad that you didn’t
tell her.”

“Who cares if he asked me out
first? There was nothing to tell.”

“She does, obviously. Just give her
some time to get over it. I told her it wasn’t a big deal, but she wouldn’t
listen.”

“I need to talk to her.”

Allison was used to making people
mad, and in most cases she enjoyed the chance to get under someone’s skin. This
was different though, she did not like having one of her closest friends upset
with her, especially when she had not done anything wrong. She had to fix it.

They browsed at the various booths,
Vinnie and Ruby kept an eye out for an affordable coffee table while Allison
looked for Sam. There were many good tables but most of them were too new, they
wanted a project. For them, half the fun was in refurbishing an old worn table
into something beautiful. They walked and browsed but nothing caught their
attention. While they were inspecting the different goods, Allison spotted Sam
looking at a beaded necklace. She walked off from her family and right up to
Sam.

“Hey.”

Sam looked down, “Hey.”

“How was the dance?”

“Good.”

“Look, I know you’re mad at me, and
I want to talk about it. I don’t understand why.”

Sam looked up, her face twisted in
anger, “You don’t understand why? You humiliated me. That was the first real
date I had, and it ends up that I was just a second choice.”

“It’s not like that. I mean, it
doesn’t matter that he asked me out; because you’re the one he took. I can tell
he likes you, so what’s there to be humiliated about?”

“You just don’t get it.”

“No, you don’t get it. I told him
he should ask you out, to help you. I knew you had a crush on him so I tried to
be a good friend.”

“If you were a good friend you
would have told me he asked you in the first place, and for your information I
don’t need your help.”

It was Allison’s turn to get mad,
“You need a lot of help if you think I did anything wrong. I didn’t tell
because it was irrelevant, I don’t like him like that. I didn’t tell you what I
had for breakfast that morning either, because it mattered as much as Wes
asking me to the dance did. Wes had no clue you were even interested because
you never talk to him, so you must need my help more than you think.”

“Whatever.”

Allison was done with the
conversation. If Sam insisted on acting that way, what else could she do? She
wasn’t about to beg for anyone’s friendship. She turned to see Vinnie watching
from another booth.

“You want to be like this then you
can cut your list of friends from three to two. So now you have Vinnie and your
own cousin, maybe Wes if you manage to talk to him ever again,” Allison said.