Supernatural Summer (3 page)

"No kidding?"

"That's the rumor. Some guy died in the building a hundred years ago, and strange stuff has been happening ever since."

I knew for certain it was no ghost interrupting our date, but I was happy to run with his theory. "So, you believe in that sort of thing? Ghosts and, I dunno, paranormal stuff?" I casually finished my drink, acting like my every hope didn't hinge on his answer.

Joshua pressed his lips together and seemed to consider how to reply. "Yeah. It'd be cool to see one. That doesn't make me too much of a geek does it?"

I had to bite my tongue to keep from bursting into a goofy grin. "I think it's cool, being open to weird stuff."

"Oh, so you think I'm weird?"

"No, that's not what I meant," I laughed, and my cheeks flushed.

Joshua laughed, too, and I relaxed. I was pulling this off.

Another latte and two scones later, he leaned across the table and took my fingers in his hand. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I held the table down with my free hand, just in case.

"So," he said, "I'm going to Carey's party tonight. If you want, I could pick you up."

"Yes!" I blurted. But a second later, I dreaded my impulse. What if I lost control while I was surrounded by classmates? On the other hand, if I turned down this date, who knows if I'd get another chance? "That would be great."

"Excellent."

"Excellent," I agreed.

We added each other's numbers into our cell phones and made plans for the party while he walked me out. I was dancing on clouds, and I'm sure my energy was spazzing out, but there was nothing on the street for it to disrupt. Josh opened my car door for me and nodded at something on the seat. "Hey, I love those."

I followed his gaze. It was the Mary's Gone Crackers that I'd bought for myself and Ram Dass. Ram Dass!

"Uh, I'll see you tonight. Okay? Okay. Good." I closed the door before he could say another word. I resisted the urge to punch the gas pedal and smoothly slid into traffic. Josh's face in my rearview mirror showed me he'd be watching until I was out of sight. The anxiety from running an hour late, combined with the elation from our date, had turned me into an emotional Krakatoa. I had to put space between us before the inevitable happened.

 
"He asked me out!" I cranked the music and began dancing in my seat. "And Ram is going to kill me!"

My knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. My aura pulsated inside the car. The radio's volume rose to deafening. I turned it back down and watched as the groceries rose out of the bags in the back seat. Crackers, tofu, organic grapes, and super grain bread swirled through the car like a swarm of angry birds. I had three blocks to go. I batted a bag of snap peas out of my line of vision and kept driving.

By the time I got to the Center, the parking lot was empty and the doors were locked. A loop around the building gained me nothing. Ram was gone. I drove home, taking the route that Ram would most likely walk, and searched for a boy wearing a dress shirt and slacks, carrying his good shoes in one hand and a stick or a rock in the other. He was nowhere.

I walked into the house, expecting to hear him clattering about in his loud, boyish way.

My mom stuck her head out of the studio. "Where's your brother?" she asked.

Oh, no.

A hollow banging erupted from deep inside the walls.

"Summer…" she said, her eyes narrowing.

I told her what had happened.

"You have no idea where he is?" Her voice was shriller than I'd ever heard.

I shook my head.

"Someone could have grabbed him off the street, and you didn't call to see if he made it home?" Her voice rose even higher. "Get on the phone to his friends and see if you can find him." She swiped the car keys from my hand.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To drive the area between here and the Center. If you hear anything, you call me immed—"

The front door slammed. Ram Dass walked into the studio.

"I waited forever," he scowled at my mother.

"It's my fault, Ram. I was supposed to pick you up. I'm sorry."

"Well. I got bored and walked to Mark's. We hung out, and his dad brought me home. It was highly embarrassing," he said. He punched me in the arm on his way to the kitchen.

"Ow!" So much for mediation training.

My mom whirled around and pinned me with an angry gaze.

"You're grounded. Two weeks," she said.

I didn't think I'd heard her right. "I've never been grounded in my life. It's against your principles."

"New policy, Summer. You misplace your nine-year-old brother, you start to lose privileges."

"But I have plans tonight."

"Not anymore."

I ran to my room and slammed the door.

"I can't take this anymore!" I raged at the top of my lungs.

In one loud
Fwap-thunk
! the contents of my room—the bed, the lamp, the piles of clothing I'd been meaning to hang up—flew eight feet in the air and slammed back to the floor in a jumbled mess. I'd have been terrified if I wasn't already furious-frustrated-despondent-overwhelmed.

I flopped on the floor. What was I going to do? Joshua was going to pick me up at eight.

There was a knock at my bedroom door.

"No!" I said. I didn't care to hear the question.

The door opened and my mother's eyebrows rose when she saw my room.

"You have ruined my life," I told her.

"Well, that's obvious. I only came to see what the noise was. Please have this cleaned up by dinner."

"If it's okay, I would like to not be bothered for the rest of the night," I said through gritted teeth.

"Suit yourself." She retreated and closed the door.

I lay there fuming, my arms lashed across my chest. In spite of everything, I'd gotten a grip on this affliction, at least enough to get a date with Josh. My summer was about to hit a high point, and now she just took it all away.

Ram Dass was perfectly able to take care of himself. She could enroll my brother in conflict-resolving classes until the sky dropped, but he would always find outlets for his aggression. If anyone tried to abduct him, good luck! The kid could scream at a thousand decibels. He could knock teeth out with one punch if he needed to. God save the guy who tried to stuff Ram Dass in his van.

My parents' expectations were way out of whack. They were repressing Ram from being the kind of kid he wanted to be. And they were forcing me to be someone I wasn't. This was despotism. Tyranny!

I got up and rummaged through my clothes. Pulled out a pair of jeans. A strappy top. My purple wedges. I tossed this, my favorite party outfit, on the bed. I found my phone beneath my overturned desk and dialed Audrey's number. She picked up on the first ring.

"Have you been blowing me off?" she answered.

"No. And I need a favor."

"What's up?"

I filled her in on my day—the good, the great, and the ghastly. She squealed and laughed and gasped like a good friend should.

"So I need you to pick me up at the corner of Magnolia and Barker and take me to the party," I said.

"You naughty girl! You're sneaking out of the holistic homestead."

"I'll tell Josh to meet me at Carey's. But what if he really wants to pick me up?"

 
"Tell him I'm having a nervous breakdown and need advice on institutionalizing myself. That ought to throw him off the trail."

*****

At seven-thirty, I crept into my parents' room and looked out their window into the backyard. My mom was reading a book on the patio. Dad and Ram Dass were practicing the calming moves of Tai Chi.

I went back to my bedroom and inched the door closed. I'd locked it from the inside and left a lamp turned on. The paper clip in my pocket would allow me to trip the lock when I got home.

I'd never had to sneak out of my house, but darned if I didn't feel like a pro. I carried my shoes and tiptoed down the stairs, exhilarated and way more scared than I'd expected. If I got caught, I'd be grounded for eternity.

Once out the front door, I bounded through the garden. At the front gate, the azalea shrub sensed my excitement and reached for me. I swiped it away. "Bug off," I said. It shrank back and dropped a flower.

Audrey waited at the corner and revved the car engine when she saw me. "Perfect little Summer, going delinquent," she said when I slid in.

 
"Drive, woman," I said, and glanced down the block toward my house.

I'd been going to Carey's parties since middle school. His parents had a huge house with an in-ground pool where dozens of kids from my class flocked every summer weekend. Kids used to go there to swim, but as they got older, they went there to hook up. Carey's parents had built a pool house and shortly thereafter, our high school class had a spike in teen pregnancies.

There was no way I'd go that far with Joshua. God, not this soon. That was way out of my league. Still, I imagined him pulling his t-shirt over his head and what he looked like underneath. I bet he was really muscular.

"Whatever you're thinking about, it must be good," Audrey's voice snapped me out of my romantic fantasy. "But knock it off before you take too much mileage off the odometer. My parents are going to think I drove to the party in reverse."

Her eyes darted to the car's dashboard. The gauges were going crazy, and the odometer was rolling backward. This was another reason I had to be careful about what I did tonight. I had no idea how I'd react to intimacy. If Joshua were to take his shirt off in front of me, my aura might blow the roof right off the house.

I laughed and bit my lower lip.

"You've got something nasty on your mind. Spill it, girl," Audrey said.

I shook my head. I didn't want to spoil the feeling by talking about it.

The party was going full force when we got there. The sun had disappeared into the Pacific Ocean and strings of lights illuminated the pool and patio. The place was packed with more kids than I'd ever seen at Carey's house, and the frenzied tone told me his parents were gone for the weekend.

Audrey and I looped around the pool, weaved through the crowd, and cut into the house. There was no sign of Joshua. Across the room, someone waved to Audrey and I motioned that she should go ahead without me.

I'd gotten to the party late on purpose, figuring there'd be less opportunity for a poltergeisting outburst. My classmates were crammed together, dancing and talking. They shouted over the blaring music and challenged each other to silly drinking games. Probably no one would notice if a few random objects whirled overhead.

I pushed through the sea of teenagers and into the kitchen, bypassed the beer keg, and grabbed a can of soda. On another night, I might have had a beer. Tonight, I needed full attention on my aura.

Where was Josh? Even on my tiptoes, I couldn't see over the crowd. I elbowed my way toward the door and stepped hard on somebody's foot. Bumped someone's beer and sent it splashing onto a girl from my civics class. I was throwing apologies to the left and right when someone grasped my elbow and swept me through the crowd into the cool night air.

Joshua.

"I've been looking for you," he said.

Somebody squeezed behind me, and I was crushed into Josh's chest. It felt warm and solid, and his t-shirt was soft against my cheek.

"This is some party," I managed to say.

"I'm glad you're here," he shouted.

His voice drowned in the din. I pointed to a quiet spot on the patio where we could talk without shouting. But before he could interpret my hand gestures, Josh was grabbed from behind.

 
"Duuuude!" Michael McHart, the lacrosse team captain, grabbed Josh in a headlock. With a flick of his wrist, Josh reversed the hold and twisted Mike's arms behind his back.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was impressed.

Josh set his captain free. "Mac, you know Summer," he said by way of introduction.

"Yeah-yeah." Mike looked me up and down. "You weren't kidding," he said. He wiggled his eyebrows at Josh and danced his way into a pack of girls.

"What was that about?" I asked.

Josh's cheeks flushed lightly. "Ignore him, please. Pretend that egg never got fertilized."

The rest of the night was much the same, with Josh's teammates clustered around us and my friends breaking in to say hello. I'd lost all hope of a romantic encounter when a guy I recognized from chemistry class slid up to me. A cutie, I think his name was Noah.

"Hey, how you doing?" he asked with a flirtatious smile.

"Um, fine, I guess."

"Good. Great. Awesome party. Where you been this summer?" He nudged me with his elbow and looked down at the empty soda can in my hand. "How about I get you a refill and we catch up?"

Josh had been talking to a teammate and I didn't think he saw Noah join us. But his arm slid around me in a flash and his hand cupped my shoulder. Euphoria flooded my brain, so I can't be quoted but I think he said, "I've got it covered." At which point, Chemistry Noah slunk into the crowd.

"Do you want another soda?" Josh asked me.

"Um, I'm good." A herd of raging elephants couldn't have moved me out from under his arm. I may have the ability to energetically hurl a desk across the room, but standing there pressed into to Josh while my classmates watched? I'd never felt so powerful in my life.

The pool lights flickered like they were on the verge of shorting out, and the Tiki torches sputtered, but I held my ground. I took a few easy, deep breaths, and the disturbances let up.

Audrey squeezed through a pod of partiers and came to my side. "Not that you care, but your popularity index is spiking through the roof," she whispered in my ear. "And I hate to break it to you, but I need to get the car home."

"Just fifteen more minutes?"

Josh must have seen the crushed look on my face. "What's up?" he asked.

Audrey's face lit up. "I was about to ask if you'd give Summer a ride home."

"That's cool, if you don't have to go right away. I'm parked in four deep," Josh said to me.

"It's okay, I'll go with Audrey." The night had been perfect, and I was afraid I'd ruin everything if I were alone with him in his car.