Kaleidoscope Read online

  Sometimes by going outside before the pulsing started I could beat it and lessen the urge. There were few places that made me feel as relaxed as when I was near our trees. It could have been the peaceful sound of the chirping birds or the fluttering leaves, but I could never place it. It was like the warm river flowing through my veins craved to be among nature. I knew it sounded weird, but I wasn’t sure how else to explain it.

  I nibbled on an apple slice and flipped through my physics book, scanning the pages on matter. There was a rustling in the woods, which normally wouldn’t startle me, but the breeze had stopped and it only came from the left side of the trees. My gaze lifted to the forest lining the back of our property. Our yard backed right up to preserved woodlands. They stood silently now, undisturbed.

  I flicked the light of my cell phone on to check the time. There was still an hour before I needed to leave to pick up Cameron. I bowed my head down again, finding where I left off, trying to become enthralled with atoms and molecules and yada yada yada.

  It wasn’t more than a minute when I heard the snap of a twig. This time I sat up and scanned the grove of trees from one end to the other. Animals heavy enough to snap a twig never came this close to civilization. But everything was eerily quiet again. No motion of the greenery or movement between them.

  Crack. My eyes darted to the sound on the opposite side of the forest from where I heard the twig snap and yet all I saw were the soaring trees and thick shrubbery.

  “Hello?” I asked uncertainly. I sounded ridiculous, calling out into the forest at nothing. But I felt something there. Tentative footsteps sounded, growing fainter and fainter. But I couldn’t see a thing. I stood up to get a better view. “Hello?” I asked with a little more confidence. There had to be someone there. And most likely I didn’t want to wait to find out who, but curiosity is like a plague, completely unavoidable.

  “Calliope?” I gasped and spun to see my dad’s curious gaze from the back deck. “What are you doing, sweetheart?”

  I fussed with my hair nonchalantly. “Nothing. Just working on some homework.”

  He looked at me skeptically, as if he didn’t believe me. “Did you hear something out there?”

  “It was probably just some squirrels.” Giant squirrels.

  “Come on inside. I really need to build a fence along those trees. I don’t like you being out here like a sitting duck. You never know what’s lurking in those woods.”

  I stood up and snagged my books and the quilt from the grass, tucking them under my arms, cell phone in hand.

  “Let me help you,” Dad offered when I got to the deck, reaching for the blanket.

  “Thanks.”

  “I forgot that you were getting out early this year. I wanted to be here when you got home.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. He rested his hand on my shoulder and kissed my forehead.

  “I just had to run to the grocery real quick.”

  I nodded. “What’s for dinner?”

  “I’m making vegetable lasagna.”

  “Cool. Do you need help bringing in the groceries?” I asked and dropped my books on the kitchen table.

  “I got them all,” he said. “Thanks though.”

  “When’s Mom going to be home?”

  He opened the fridge and finished putting away the groceries. “She’s going to have a late night tonight. Probably won’t be home until after eight, big case she’s working on. The trial is coming up in a few months. I don’t know the details, but from the sounds of it, she’s prosecuting a man for horrendous things. . .child abuse, battery, murder, you name it.” He shook his head and sighed.

  Our family defied all family stereotypes. My mom was a lawyer and my dad stayed home. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to and my mom wanted to work. He didn’t go to college. She did. She was in law school when they met.

  The lines were still blurry on how they met exactly. My parents met in some park in North Carolina where my mom often studied during law school. They noticed each other and clicked. Something like that.

  I didn’t know much about my dad’s past. All I knew was that he was an orphan. His parents abandoned him at birth. I guess it was something he didn’t like talking about and I didn’t pry. My dad did a few odd jobs on the side to keep himself occupied. He designed landscapes in his free time. He loved the outdoors, like father like daughter.

  “She’ll be pretty stressed out until then, huh?”

  He nodded. “She’s really committed to this case and getting this guy locked up. But, it just means more time for us.” He smiled to try and lighten the mood.

  Yay. Not that I didn’t love spending time with my dad, but a girl just needed her mom sometimes. Moms got things in a different way than dads. And it had been too long since I’d actually spent any bonding time with her. I really missed her.

  • • •

  Cam slid into the front seat of my little white Cabriolet. I had the top down to feel the warmth of the sun. She’d definitely seen her fair share of use over the years, but she had been good to me. Maybe a little beat up, but she was mine.

  Cameron and I had taken turns driving on road trips over the years—half in his old Jeep, half in my Cabriolet. Not cross-country overnight trips, but daytrips to Charlotte, Myrtle Beach and Charleston. We’d had lots of good memories in this car together.

  “Thanks, Cal,” he said. “I know you didn’t want to come back.”

  “Don’t sweat it.”

  Cameron threw his backpack in the backseat and combed his hand through his dirty blonde strands. “Are you as swamped as I am? I feel like I’m drowning in homework. This was supposed to be the easy year. The fun year.”

  I chuckled humorlessly. “And yet, I get out two periods early and I have twice as much to do as I did with all seven periods.”

  “It’s a joke.”

  “Yeah, on us.”

  He slapped my knee coolly and kept his hand there. “We haven’t really talked in a while. What’s new?”

  At that moment I really wished I had something to rub in his face, but I had nothing. We’d spent the first half of the summer together, but he’d spent the second half with Isla.

  For whatever reason we’d gone to school with her since kindergarten and never had he ever noticed her. Then at one random summer party they caught one another’s eyes and everything fell into place. As if they were just at the right place at the right time. She smiled and waved and he didn’t look back. If that didn’t feel like complete desertion after six years of friendship I don’t know what did.

  The second half of my summer was spent with Lia or my parents. No hot dates or summer romances. No exciting adventures or escapades to relay to him. We didn’t even go on a vacation. I should’ve just lied, told him something. But what was the point?

  I shrugged, not at all unaware of the warmth of his palm on my thigh. The simple touch had my nerves darting around my body like a pinball machine. “Nothing really.”

  His hand squeezed my leg lightly. “Well that’s lame. No hot dates or thrilling adventures to relay?”

  He knew just how to rub it in. “Nope.”

  Cameron took his hand back and crossed his arms. “I just don’t get that, Cal,” he said, perplexed. “You need to relax and stop being so intimidating to all the guys. They want you, if you’ll just give ‘em the time of day.”

  “Thanks for the words of wisdom. I’ll try harder to change myself to be more appealing to them.”

  “You know that’s not what I meant,” he said. “You just turn the cold shoulder every time any guy wants to talk to you.”

  I chuckled. I did not. “Why do you care so much about my dating life, Cam?” Did I?

  “I don’t,” he said, looking away indifferently out the passenger’s side. “It’s just now that I have Isla, I see what I was missing out on by not being serious about any girl before. I can’t believe I never saw her before. The blind man can finally see.”

  Cut me while I’m do
wn, will ya? Maybe spit on me while I’m down there and rub a little salt in the wounds to top it off.

  “The only guy worthy of my time will be the one who’s willing to work for it. I refuse to give this away for free.” I gestured to myself to get a chuckle out of him and it worked.

  “All right. I see. You’re worth more than that. I know. You deserve a really good guy.”

  If only you could see that guy is you.

  I pulled up to his house and let him hop out.

  “Thanks for the ride, Callie. See you tomorrow.”

  I nodded and waved.

  It used to be—I’ll call you later; or—let’s hang out tonight. I couldn’t even remember the last time Cameron called me just to chat. Gosh, I missed him.

  Chapter Two

  Pulsating through my body like another heartbeat, the subtle thumping broke my concentration on Macbeth. The sensation beckoned me to my bedroom window overlooking our trees.

  The internal thumping started getting a little stronger a few weeks ago. The need; the yearning; the hunger to be outside—it had been controllable in the past. Simply being outside used to fulfill the urge. Before, there were even times when I could brush it off and go back to whatever task I was doing. Now, I found that it grew stronger every day, pulling me to the trees. It made me feel crazy.

  I cracked the window in my bedroom open and skimmed the trees. The sun had barely set behind the grove, generating a grayish blue haze streaming through the branches. I’d never been apprehensive about the vast pasture of greenery before, but as my eyes studied the unknown beyond, I began to question what was out there. I wasn’t sure if I was being lured by simple curiosity or something deeper. The only thing keeping me in the security of my bedroom was the coherent side of my brain that screamed danger at the thought of entering a darkening forest alone. But it was so tempting.

  My ears perked up at a faint tangle of noises. I lifted the window up a little more, but couldn’t quite make out what it was. It didn’t sound like birds or squirrels. There were two separate sounds. One was low, baritone almost, while the other was a slight bit higher, but not feminine sounding. I didn’t think it was humans, but the sounds were too soft to know for sure. Whatever it was sounded like. . .arguing? It was probably the next-door neighbors. Then there was a crack and then a thud. A tree branch falling?

  There was a knock at my door that caused me to jump.

  “Come in,” I called as I let out a sigh.

  My mom peered around my door. “Hey, baby. How was your first day?”

  I looked to the clock on my nightstand; the bold green numbers showed it was 8:07 pm.

  “Long, as yours seemed to be too.”

  She let out a humorless breath of laughter and walked into my room. She’d already changed into her gray pajama pants.

  “Do you like your teachers?”

  I shrugged. “They’re all okay I guess. No one is particularly strict or mean, so that’s a plus.”

  She chuckled and sat on the edge of my bed. My mom and I were nearly identical, but she kept her blonde hair short and hid her twinkling green eyes behind brown-rimmed glasses.

  “Dad was worried about you today. You feeling okay?”

  I nodded without hesitation. “Yeah. I’m fine. Why?”

  “He said you just seemed a little on edge.” Her fingers stretched out and tucked a few of my curls behind my ear, away from my face.

  “It was probably the fact that I got to see Cameron and Isla suck face all day.”

  My mom wasn’t sure if she should laugh or console me so it became a combination of both. “Oh, honey.” She pulled me to her chest.

  I had never declared my feelings for Cameron out loud to her, but I think my mom always knew, as all parents do with that aggravating, built-in intuition they have for their children.

  “He’ll come around.”

  I stayed silent in her arms for a moment, contemplating her words of encouragement. Of course, deep down I would always have that hope, but every day it slowly dwindled the more I thought about them together. “I don’t think he will this time.” I clenched back a tear. I wouldn’t let myself cry over him. I thought about what my dad said earlier and realized I’d let my mom pity me long enough.

  “Enough about me.” I pulled away. “How was your day? Dad said you’ve been given a really tough case.”

  She nodded solemnly. “Everything points to this guy, but it’s all circumstantial.” She explained what she could about the case in her lawyer mumbo jumbo and sighed. “But I’ll get him. It’s what I do.” She smiled and tugged me to her side. “I just need to give it my all.”

  “You’ll get him. I know you will.”

  “Thanks for your vote of confidence.” She winked. “I’ll let you get back to your homework. When you’re done come downstairs and we’ll watch a season premiere of one of the shows we DVR’d.”

  “Ah, let the fall season begin.”

  • • •

  Week one of the school year had been conquered. Friday morning rolled around and everyone seemed to be settling into their niches. The freshmen were getting the hang of the layout and weren’t as much in the way with being lost. Now they were gaining confidence and big heads because they were big high schoolers. The buzz of coming back to school and seeing friends was slowly fading as people started to feel the weight of the schoolwork pile on.

  “Good morning, Calliebug!” Lia beamed at my side as I walked into the school Friday morning.

  I groaned, but formed a smile to hide my current state of mind. The pulsing was bad today, fiercer than it had ever been and just being outside at school wasn’t fixing the problem. “It’s still early. Can we keep the squealing to a low decibel?”

  “Oh, but it’s such a pretty day out!”

  “You would think we would have at least one class together,” Lia complained as I dug around in my locker for my calculus book.

  “You’re in all AP classes, Lia. I wouldn’t last one day in any of those classes.”

  “Oh, you’d last just fine if you applied yourself,” she said, leaning her back against the lockers. “And you’d have me, which we both know would basically be like a free ride. I could have been your own personal tutor.”

  I laughed. “I’m good where I’m at. Thanks,” I said, shutting my locker. She matched my stride as we shouldered passed people in the hallway.

  “I’ve barely seen Cameron all week. Where is he?”

  Thankfully the thumping wasn’t painful, but it was distracting. I was surprised Lia couldn’t hear it. It made it really difficult to carry on this conversation. “I’m not the person to ask anymore.”

  She must have heard the defeat in my tone. I couldn’t keep it in check today.

  “This phase will pass, you know? They are in phase one. The lovey dovey phase, where no one exists but them. In a month or two they will hit phase two where their relationship will become more comfortable and they will start play-bickering—picking little fights about nothing to keep the relationship interesting. They will be in that phase for a few months and then phase three will hit. That’s the phase that will either make or break them.”

  “What’s phase three?” I asked, trying to sound interested.

  “It’s the confidence phase,” she said matter-of-factly. “Where they become so confident in their relationship they don’t try as hard because it has come so easy to them before. They will fight all the time over what he hasn’t been doing or has been doing that drives her crazy and vice versa.” She shrugged as if it was common knowledge.

  I peered up at her. “And then. . . ”

  “Well. . .either they will figure out that even though they fight all the time they love each other too much to break up and they will work on being better to one another; or, they will decide the fighting has torn such a huge wedge in their relationship that it’s beyond repair and they will decide it’s not worth it to fix it.”

  “So, we’ve got a few months to see how this play
s out,” I said, swallowing back the hammering in my ears. Maybe it was like when you traveled to high elevations and your ears needed to be popped. I swallowed again and tried to yawn, but it didn’t help.

  She nodded. “Six months to a year is the typical natural cycle. Unless the wild card gets thrown in and they break up for a completely different reason, like another guy or someone moves away or someone cheats. Don’t worry we already have a month and a half down.”

  “Oh wise one, how did you gain such knowledge?”

  “I read way too many books in my free time.”

  I laughed as the warning bell rang for school to start, and we split off to our separate classes.

  • • •

  Looking out the kitchen window as I ate my after school snack, I felt the strings tug even deeper at me from the forest. The more I watched the spray of ferns and shrubs, the more I was drawn to be amidst the peacefulness in which the leaves rustled and the trickle of flowers crawled under the shade beneath the branches. Despite the warning my internal radar gave to stay away, I couldn’t deny the tranquility that spread through me at the thought of breathing in the crisp air, shaded under the awning of green. This time I let it consume me.

  I hovered on the edge of the grove of trees where the spongy moss threatened to creep up the lawn, inviting me to take one step. The pulsing was already weakening and calmness was gently seeping in. It was only moments before my body gave into the urge to explore further when I felt it.

  That sixth sense.

  That sixth sense feeling of knowing when someone’s behind you or watching you. That tingling feeling that rises up your spine and shivers down your limbs. I was having that moment. It felt like I was staring straight at someone in the trees, but all my naked eye could see was the rich woven branches. And yet it was there. Something or someone had to be out there.

  The rational part of my brain kicked in and I started to retreat, pushing a step back. As my foot moved back I heard a quiet yet eager step come toward me. I took another step backward and simultaneously heard another step forward.