Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) (9 page)

“If you love it buy it. It’s
a classic!” Jen said.

“You’re right guys,” Taryn
said.

“OK, I’ll take it,” Taryn
said to the salesman, as she handed him back the bag to wrap.

Rachel couldn’t believe her
eyes. Taryn was taking out her parent’s credit card to charge seven hundred and
seventy dollars. This was insane. She thought for a moment about what would
happen if she’d spent that kind of money on her parent’s credit card. She would
be punished for life and cut off forever. She had not been brought up to spend
frivolously, and she respected that. Rachel was in shock that none of the girls
even thought twice about the amount of that bag or the amount of money being
charged on the credit card.

“That will be $850 with tax,”
the sales man said as he reached for her card. Taryn looked at the girls and
giggled! “I’m so excited! I finally have my LV!”

Taryn signed for her
purchase and they all left the store, excited and happy.

Rachel spotted the Gap and
said, “Hey guys, can we pop into the Gap for a minute?”

The girls looked at Rachel, “The
Gap?”

Rachel instantly felt
ashamed. Was the Gap not cool in Westchester?

“I don’t want to go into the
Gap, but I’ll be next door in Victoria Secret,” Emily said.

“OK,” Rachel said with a
smile. “I’ll just meet you guys there then.”

As Rachel entered the Gap,
she suddenly felt a sense of calm rush over her body. She quickly reached for a
sweater to check the price tag. She wondered if the Gap in the Westchester Mall
had the same prices as in Pennsylvania, and to her luck they were the exact
same.
Phew,
she thought to herself.

She browsed the button-down
shirts and t-shirts, but didn’t find anything that jumped out to her. Then she
spotted the cutest scarf and hat set. They were red and had a woven thread of
silver sparkly material intertwined in them. They were on the sale rack for
eight dollars, so she couldn’t let this deal pass. She picked up the hat and
scarf, tried them on and walked over to the mirror to see how she looked.

Perfect! She thought. She
got on line to buy the hat and scarf, and was surprised to see how busy the Gap
was. The line to pay was rather long and she’d been standing there five minutes
already. She looked up ahead of her to see why the line was taking so long. 
Then, all of a sudden she heard a familiar voice.

“I thought this was on sale?”
Rachel heard the woman say.

“No, this item is not on
sale ma’am. I told you already, if you want this blouse, it is full price.”

“But look, it says
sale
,”
the woman answered.

Rachel couldn’t believe her eyes. Was
her mother really in front of her, arguing with the cashier at the Gap? What
were the chances? How unlucky could she possibly be?

Rachel didn’t know whether to hide, or run
from the store. For a moment, she just stood there, frozen in fear, hoping her
Mom would leave. But she didn’t. Her Mom stood there, arguing for what felt
like another hour. Rachel was panicked and didn’t know what to do. She finally
decided to hide.

She dropped her hat, and ran to the back
of the store.

As she did, all of a sudden she heard
her mom’s voice coming closer and closer to the back of the store, in search of
the manager. Rachel was stuck. There was nowhere for her to go except to hide.
She jumped behind a rack of hanging men’s sweaters and sat there, peeking out
of the clothes.

“Excuse me, this shirt is
supposed to be on sale. I took it off the sale rack, and the cashier won’t give
me the sale price.”

“I’m sorry for the confusion
ma’am, we will get this all sorted out.”

Rachel held her breath, trying not to
move. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she watched her mom pay and
exit the store.

Rachel exhaled, relieved.
That was way too close of a call.

Now she had to figure out
her exit plan: she was still worried that her mom could catch her in the mall.
This reminded her that it was almost time to leave. She pressed the Indiglo
button on her watch and it lit up 4:05PM. If she didn’t leave soon, she was
going to be late.

As she sat there behind all
the sweaters, her cell phone began to ring. She quickly pulled it out of her
pocket to turn off the volume and looked down at the caller ID.

MOM CALLING

She hoped her mom wasn’t
still in the Gap. She couldn’t see or hear her, so she figured the coast was
clear. She climbed out from behind the sweater rack, stood up and brushed
herself off. She gave a quick look around the store and realized her mother had
gone.

“Hi Mom, What’s up?”

“Hi Sweetie, you ready to
get picked up now?”

“Um, almost, I need about
twenty more minutes.”

“Ok, I’m just leaving the
mall, I should be there shortly.”

“See ya soon!”

Rachel was now screwed. How
was she ever going to beat her mom back to AHS and make it into the building
before she arrived?

Chapter Eleven

Rachel scurried out of the
Gap, and ran into Victoria’s Secret. She grabbed Taryn by the arm and said, “Hurry,
I need to go— my mom’s on her way to get me from school. I told her I was
staying for extra help because I’m grounded, so I need to get back there before
she does.”

“Whoa!” said Taryn. “What
are you talking about?”

“I’m grounded. I had to lie
to get out of the house. My mom doesn’t know I’m here,” Rachel said, out of
breath. “We have to go now!”

“OK! Girls, let’s go,
quickly!” Taryn said. “We have to get Rachel back to school.”

The six girls rushed out of
the mall quicker than ever and jumped into the car. Taryn backed out of the
parking space quickly, almost hitting a white Range Rover parked behind her.
Rachel sat in the back, and kept a look out for her mom’s station wagon.

“Why are you grounded, Rach?”
asked Liv.

“Because of the newspaper
article, and the fight. My parents just don’t trust me anymore.”

“Wow,” Liv said. “They’re
tough.”

“You have no idea!” Rachel
said.

“So does this mean you can’t
come to the movies later?” asked Jen.

“I’m going to try. I need to
see how the night goes. If I can sneak out, I will!”

“You’re so cool,” said
Taryn, as she sped down the highway and on to Route 22.

As they headed off the exit,
Rachel spotted her mom’s station wagon cruising along.

“That’s my mom, hurry!”
shouted Rachel, pointing to her mom’s car.

“Don’t worry, I have an
eight cylinder engine—, I’ll beat her before it turns into a one lane road.”

Rachel sat in the back seat
and watched as Taryn weaved in and out of cars. Her mom’s car was two cars
ahead, and the road narrowed in approximately one mile. Rachel knew if they
didn’t make the stoplight, she would surely get caught.

The light turned green in
the distance and Rachel held her breath and closed her eyes. She couldn’t watch
anymore, she was getting too anxious. She felt the car accelerate and the girls
all screamed “Wahoo!”

Rachel was so nervous, she
began to sweat. She couldn’t bear to think about what would happen to her if
she pulled up at the same time as her mother, or right after her, for that
matter. She tried to devise a plan for what to do if that happened. Even if she
did beat her mom, she would only beat her by a minute, and she would have to
quickly run into the building and then walk out again so her mom would think
she was just leaving.

“We did it!” Taryn said as
she passed Rachel’s mom on the left. Rachel opened her eyes and looked out the
rear windshield. Much to her surprise, Taryn had managed to get five cars ahead
of her mom.

“OMG, you’re amazing Taryn,”
Rachel said. “You saved my life!”

As the car pulled into the
driveway of the school, Taryn sped down and dropped Rachel at the side
entrance. “Go in that way, and then come out the front,” Taryn said. “Your mom
will never suspect anything.”

As Rachel jumped out and
shut the car door behind her, her friends yelled, “Hope to see you tonight
Rach! That was so fun!”

She didn’t look back. She
ran quicker than she thought was physically possible in the side door of the
school and through the hallways. Her cell phone was ringing with her mom’s name
flashing on the screen. She knew her mom was out front waiting.

Rachel swung open the front
door of the school, practically out of breath and walked out into the main
parking lot where her mom was patiently waiting. Rachel took her time walking
so she could catch her breath before getting in the car. She didn’t want to be
suspicious.

As she walked up to her mom’s
car, she could feel her mom staring at her. She hoped her mom didn’t suspect
anything. As she entered the car, her mom said, “Hi Rachel, glad to see you
being such a good student.”

Rachel couldn’t tell if she
was being sarcastic or serious, but didn’t bother to question her. She sat
silently in the car on the way home to avoid any conversation about her
punishment, math help or anything else that her mom might bring up.

*

When Rachel walked into her
house, she went right upstairs and into Sarah’s room. She knew she had to talk
to her about tonight. As she climbed upstairs to her bedroom, she could hear
Sarah singing Selena Gomez & The Scene’s
Love You Like a Love Song.
Surprisingly,
Rachel liked that song and when she walked into her room she broke out into
song with Sarah. The two smiled at each other and then finished the song
singing loudly and dancing. They both laughed hysterically when it was over,
and greeted each other with a hug.

“So, how was the mall?”
Sarah whispered.

“OMG, you will never guess
what happened.”

“What?”

“Mom was at the mall. I had
to hide from her in the Gap. It was the most insane experience ever. I really
thought I was going to get caught, but she didn’t catch me.”

“Shut up! That’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah, and then I beat her
back to school by like a minute.”

“Amazing!” Sarah said with a
smile.

“But I don’t know what to do
now,” Rachel said.

“What do you mean? You’re
back. You’re fine!”

“No, I mean about tonight.”

“Oh,” Sarah said. “What’s
tonight?”

“Well, I want to go to the
movies with all my friends. I hear like the whole school is going to be there
and I don’t want to miss it.”

“I’m going to the movie,
too!” Sarah said. “Why don’t you just come with me?”

“But how? I’m grounded. Mom
and Dad will never let me out.”

“Eh, don’t worry about them.
I’ll sneak you out. It will be fine.”

“Really? You are the best
big sister in the world,” Rachel said as she gave Sarah a huge hug.

“I’m leaving at 7:30pm, so
be dressed and ready by then, K?”

“You bet! Love you, Sarah.”

Rachel skipped out of Sarah’s
room and back into her room. The burning question of what to wear popped into
her mind as she rummaged through her closet. She had so wished she’d bought
that cute sparkle scarf and hat from the Gap.

As she looked through her
closet she came across a magenta pink satin Betsy Johnson dress that she’d
picked up at the Salvation Army in Pennsylvania with Dana. It was unlike her to
have designer clothes, but she’d bought this dress used, and it had a big stain
on the sleeve. It only cost $7, and she’d bought it to wear for Halloween one
year and couldn’t part with it afterwards. It had been hanging lifeless in her
closet for the past three years, but it brought back fun memories for her, so
she vowed never to throw it out.

Seeing her pink dress made
her miss her friends back at her old school. She hadn’t spoken to them much in
the past week, but knew they were still friends. Rachel prided herself on
having the types of best friends that even if they didn’t speak to each other
every day, or hang out all the time, they were still very close— and when they
did hang out; it was as if no time had passed.

A buzzing noise coming from
inside her jacket pocket interrupted Rachel’s nostalgic thoughts. She fumbled
around until she found her phone.  She looked down at the screen and saw Emily’s
number pop up.

“Hey, Em! What’s up?”

“Just wanted to see if you
were coming tonight?”

“Oh yeah, I am coming!”

“We will pick you up at 7,
ok?”

“Well, actually, I’m going
to catch a ride with my sister ‘cause she’s going to help me sneak out. It will
be easier that way.”

“Look at you, sneaking out
all the time!” Emily said laughing.

“I know, it’s terrible! I
feel bad, but I didn’t do anything to deserve this punishment though.”