Blue Violet (2 page)

Adelaide
turned and waved the other two over. The girl who walked up to the table looked
exactly like Adelaide except that her hair hung to the middle of her back, and
she seemed more confident and more serious. The boy was unusually tall and
lanky with sandy brown hair. His dark eyes flashed an engaging twinkle.

“This is my
sister, Lila. That’s short for Lilianna. We’re--”

“Sisters?”
Ellie guessed. “Yeah, I kinda figured that one out.” She grinned at Lila. She
kept her hands deliberately under the table, rather than offering to shake.
“I’m Ellie.”

“Nate,” the
tall boy said, as he pulled out a chair across from her.

“So where’re
you from?” Lila asked. She sat down and pulled out a sandwich and an apple from
her lunch bag.

“Texas,” Ellie
said, watching for a reaction. She found it interesting what preconceptions
people had about places.

“Oh? Which
part?” Adelaide appeared interested.

“Austin, so
right in the middle of the state,” Ellie said.

“Austin’s
known for the music scene, right?” Nate asked around his bit of pizza.

“Yeah, there’s
lots of live music there. I’ll miss that. But it’s beautiful here,” she commented,
gesturing to the scenery outside.

“And cold,”
Lila said wryly.

“Why’d you move
here?” Nate asked.

Ellie cleared
her throat. “Um… family stuff.” She gave a casual shrug. She’d gotten good at
being vague over the years.
Family stuff
covered a whole host of
possibilities without being too specific.

“What year are
you?” Lila asked as she finished her sandwich and picked up her apple.

“I’m a senior.
What about you guys?” Ellie leaned back in her chair. Her nerves made eating
lunch impossible at this point.

“Lila’s a
junior. Delia and I are seniors,” Nate answered.

“Oh! Maybe we
have some classes together. What do you have in the afternoon?”

“Cool, we have
French together,” Adelaide said when they compared schedules. “Lila too.”

“You’re in
third-level French?” Ellie remarked with surprise, until she reminded herself
that these three were like her.
Special.
That would take some getting
used to. She didn’t meet many people like her any more. If anything, she
avoided them.

“We tested out
of first-level French last year,” Lila explained. “We took a trip to France in
junior high, so our parents made us learn it first…talk about sucking the fun
out of a vacation!” She sighed and Adelaide scrunched her nose. Ellie had to
laugh at their identical, disgruntled expressions.

Ellie happily
observed that they seemed to be such nice people. And she would love to be
friends with them, but that fell in the category of
not a good idea
.
Apart from its complicating her situation, it also could put their lives in
danger… the last thing Ellie wanted. As they talked and laughed, Ellie thought
about the situation and realized that, given her reasons for being here, there
was no way they could ever be
friends.
She’d have to keep a polite
distance. Of course, it would be much easier if Griffin would help.

Ellie stifled
a large sigh.

After lunch
Adelaide, Lila, and Nate walked to Ellie’s calculus class with her.

“See ya, baby.”
Nate gave Adelaide a quick peck on her cheek before he and Ellie headed into the
room.

Fortunately
the calculus teacher, Mr. Kramer, seated her across the room from Nate. The
less interaction the better.

As soon as the
bell rang, Ellie made her way to the front office, dropped off her signed class
slip, and headed for the parking lot. At least the first day of school was
over. Tomorrow she’d be less of a novelty.

Ellie was
walking out of the main building when she was ambushed by her new friends.

“Hey, Ellie!”
Adelaide called out.

“Hi!” She
waved and tried to keep walking, but the others caught up with her easily.

“How was your
first day?” Adelaide asked, skipping up beside her.

“Typical first
day in a new school,” Ellie grinned.

 “So Nate,
Lila, and I study together a lot. You probably already guessed that. Since you
share some classes with us, I thought you might like to join us some time,”
Adelaide continued.

Ellie didn’t
want to encourage a friendship, as tempting as that seemed. At the same time,
she didn’t want to drive Adelaide away.

“Sure! That
sounds great.” She’d just have to make sure her schedule was booked any of the
times they asked. They’d stop asking eventually.

“Okay. So how
does Wednesday night sound to you?”

Nuts.
She hadn’t realized that Adelaide would immediately make plans. And being new
to town, her original excuse of
busy
would stand out as an obvious
excuse.

“I think that
will be alright, but let me check. Okay?”

“Sure,”
Adelaide agreed.

Suddenly, Lila
let out a squeal of delight. “Alex!” She shot across the front courtyard.

Beside Ellie,
Adelaide limited herself to a milder reaction, just smiling widely. Ellie
couldn’t quite see the person Lila had greeted with such enthusiasm until she
launched herself into his arms, and Ellie had a direct view of him.

Suddenly
Ellie’s world tilted at a slightly crazy angle. One moment she was walking
along, trying to think of an excuse to miss out on studying. The next moment
she could hardly breathe. Feeling slightly dizzy, Ellie wondered fleetingly if
what she was feeling was some kind of effect from the boy’s powers.

The boy’s good
looks could be considered almost in-your-face handsome… tall, broad shouldered,
and with similar coloring to her own - black hair cropped short, slightly
longer on the top, and blue eyes. Even from where she stood, she could see that
his eyes were a paler blue than hers, almost silver. Drop dead hot was an
understatement. Ellie had seen her fair share of handsome guys over her
lifetime, but none had ever piqued her interest. And despite a rather
optimistic personality, she did not believe in love at first sight. But
something about this guy was getting to her after just one glance.

Adelaide
muttered, “What’s Alex doing home?”

Ellie realized
that she’d managed to keep casually walking despite the havoc occurring inside
her. Alex hadn’t noticed her yet, first talking to Lila and then Nate as he
joined them. She willed him to glance up and feared it at the same time.

And then he
did. He looked up directly into her eyes… into her soul. It could only have
been a few moments. Just seconds. Heartbeats. Adelaide gasped beside her, and
the sound was sharp enough that it caused Ellie to break eye contact. She turned
to a startled Adelaide, and without even thinking, put her hand on her arm. They
both jumped when an electric jolt passed between them.

Ellie jerked
her hand back. “You shocked me,” she accused Adelaide jokingly.
Deliberately.
Adelaide gave a somewhat distracted, half-hearted shrug and started walking
again.

Ellie didn’t
know how she did it, but she somehow pulled her thoughts away from what she’d
just seen when she’d touched Adelaide and followed her. She kept her eyes
lowered when they first approached the little reunion going on in the parking
lot. She made sure to stop and stand just far enough back so when they were
introduced Alex wouldn’t try to shake her hand.

“Ellie, this
is Alex,” Lila said, waving a hand in her general direction. “He’s our older
brother.

Ellie took a
deep, silent breath, and pasted a blandly pleasant expression on her face. This
usually had the effect of putting people at ease and causing them to not study
her any further.

She looked
Alex directly in the eyes and offered him a slightly lopsided smile. “Hi.” Her
voice sounded a little too breathy to her sensitive ears.

In return, he
gave her a long, lazy grin that caused her heart rate to increase even more. It
hadn’t yet settled down from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him. All Ellie
could do was stare back and try desperately to get her erratic breathing under
control.

“This is
Ellie…” Adelaide broke the spell. “She just moved here this week.”

Glancing at
the other three, Ellie gratefully realized that nothing had seemed odd to them.

“I see. I hope
you like it here, Ellie,” he replied in a deep, velvety voice.

Get a grip,
girl
, she scolded herself silently. She’d read tons of books with female
heroines who swooned at the sight of their true love and had thought them to be
incredibly wimpy. And now here she stood, barely able to keep herself upright.
Not that she was in love… far from it. But a girl could appreciate a bona fide
hottie when she saw one, right?

 “So far so
good,” Ellie said with a nonchalant shrug.

It suddenly
dawned on her that she needed to be keeping her distance from everyone in this
family. She turned to Adelaide. “I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” she said.
Throwing another glance Alex’s way, she added, “Nice to meet you, Alex.”  And
with a brief wave to all of them, she turned and headed to her own car, her
mind reeling.

As soon as
Ellie got home, she could tell Griffin wasn’t there. Her heart sank a little.
Maybe he wasn’t coming after all. Maybe he’d changed his mind.

 She ran
upstairs and changed out of her generic, trying-to-blend-in high school outfit
and into something better. She nodded at her reflection, appreciating the way
the red, cowl-necked sweater brought out the color of her violet eyes, and the
way the black stretch pants clung to her slim figure. A look more suited to the
woman she was, rather than the teenage girl she pretended to be.

Feeling more
like herself, Ellie returned to the kitchen and got busy making dinner, trying
to ignore the loneliness that crept up on her.

“Well, at
least they picked a nice place to live,” a low voice grumbled.

Ellie jumped
and let out a little yelp. Then she turned to see her twin brother standing by
the back door. “You came!” she squealed as she flung herself into his arms.

 Griffin
hugged her back, his bronze, muscular body engulfing Ellie’s petite frame. His
golden blond hair, cropped short, was a stark contrast to Ellie’s long, ebony
locks. To look at the two of them together, one would never think they were
related, let alone twins. When they were little, their mother had teasingly
dubbed them Artemis and Apollo after the sibling Greek gods associated with the
moon and the sun, the night and the day.

Griffin pulled
back and regarded her silently with solemn concern clouding his tawny, almost
leonine eyes. With a sigh of frustration, he glanced away.

“I won’t have
anything to do with these people,” he eventually replied. “But I also won’t
leave you alone. You’re the only family I’ve got.” His expression was resigned
as he added, “I guess you counted on that fact.”

“No… but I
hoped. You know things just don’t work without you.” She gave him another big
hug to emphasize her words. “I’m so glad you decided to come. And I won’t push
you to get involved with my… little project.”

Leading him
out of the kitchen into the main floor of the house, Ellie couldn’t keep the
chuckle out of her voice as she pointed and said, “Your room’s right down that
hall…the master bedroom.”

“Nice pick for
the house,” he said, as he headed down the corridor.

“Hey, it’s
cozy,” she called after him. “And it’s bigger than it looks on the outside.”

The three
story house appeared to be deceptively small, and because it sat fairly high up
on the hill, it had an unhindered view of the entire valley. There was a
spacious wrap-around porch from which to enjoy the beautiful scenery. But with
all the snow, Ellie hadn’t spent much time out there yet. Even so, she’d caught
glimpses of the wildlife from the panoramic windows, including some elk and
even a bear. It was quaint, comfy, and unlike any place she’d lived. Which was
saying something, given how long she’d been alive. Ellie adored it.

Returning to
the kitchen, Ellie choked back a laugh when she heard her sibling’s low grumble
of annoyance. When she’d moved in a few weeks ago, she’d set up his room
exactly as she knew he’d want it, hoping Griffin couldn’t stay away too long.
At the sound of his footsteps in the hall, she swiftly hid her amusement.

“So what are
you planning to do while we’re here?”

He took a seat
at one of the three stools at the bar situated between the kitchen and the
dining room. Reaching for a bowl of candy, he popped a couple into his mouth.

“Why do I have
a terrible feeling that you’ve already got something lined up for me?” Griffin
eyed his sister suspiciously.

She threw him
an innocent look over her shoulder. “Not really.”

“What’s your
set up?”

She lowered
her gaze and grimaced. “I’m a student at the high school…Again. Today was my
first day, actually.”

Griffin’s
eyebrows shot up. “Why on Earth would you do that willingly?”

“Three of the
people in the family still attend high school—”

Griffin held
up his hands. “Forget it. I don’t want to know.”

“There’s too
much I need to tell you,” Ellie confessed, shaking her head.

“Jeez, Elle,”
he growled. “You’ve only been at school one day. How much trouble could you get
into in that amount of time?”

“I’ll tell you
more about it while I’m making dinner. But you should know that you’re playing
the role of my
guardian
while we’re here. I’ll be introducing you as my
older, though not necessarily wiser, brother.” She set a bowl of salad on the
table and gave him a playful nudge to the ribs on the way by.

“Huh,” Griffin
grunted. “And why is that?”

“Same reason
we always use. If you’re not in school with me, you couldn’t be my twin. You’d
have to be older. And as a high school student, it would look odd if I didn’t
have adult supervision. You know how it goes.”  She opened a drawer, scooped up
some silverware, and handed it to him along with some plates.