Double Trouble (3 page)

“I was really hoping this would stop,” I muttered. “Preferably before our birthday.”

“Doubtful.” Caitlyn collapsed onto the sofa. “Remember that website I found? An article on there said there's some family in England where each
member starts getting visions around the time they turn twelve.”

Caitlyn had been intrigued by the whole vision thing from the start. She'd done a bunch of research online and even posted a question on some wackadoodle paranormal message board. Me? I didn't want to learn anything about our visions; I just wanted them to go away. If her research helped us figure out how to make that happen, I was all for it.

“That reminds me. Did you ever hear anything back from that crazy website?” I asked.

“I didn't tell you?” Cait sat up and stared at me. “When I checked the site again, the whole thread had been removed.”

“Removed? What do you mean?”

Before she could answer, the doorbell rang. “Could you get that?” Mom's muffled voice rang out from the back of the house.

“Got it!” I hollered, already heading for the door.

When I swung it open, a delivery guy was standing there. “Package for Waters?” he said, holding out
a large, flat box covered in colorful foreign stamps.

I didn't answer for a second. I couldn't.

Because this wasn't the first time I'd seen that exact same package.

“WHO IS IT?”
I asked when Cassie didn't reappear right away.

I stepped onto the front stoop, glancing from my sister to the deliveryman. Then I gasped when I saw the package he was holding. My mind flashed to a vision I'd had last week—one we'd both had. It had showed Cass and me standing right here on our front step, holding a package. Holding
this
package.

“Is that for us?” I said, grabbing it from the guy. “Thanks.”

“Sure.” He tipped his hat, then hurried back toward his truck.

I grabbed Cass and yanked her inside. “Oh my gosh!” I hissed.

“I know, right?” Her eyes were wide and freaked out.

I glanced at the package. It was addressed in tidy, formal handwriting to Misses Caitlyn and Cassandra Waters. The stamps were from a mish-mash of foreign places—Germany, the UK, France, even one from Singapore.

“There's no return address,” I said. “I wonder who it's from.”

“One way to find out.” She grabbed it from me and clawed at the tape.

“Wait!” I suddenly remembered something. “This could be important. Up until now, everything I've seen in my visions has showed something good happening to someone, and everything you've seen has been, you know . . .”

“Bad,” Cassie finished with a slight frown.

For some reason, Cassie seemed to take it personally that she'd been seeing bad stuff so far. “But listen, this proves that was all just a coincidence, right? Because this time we both saw the same thing, and how can getting this package be good
and
bad?”

“Maybe someone sent you a birthday present and forgot to put mine in, too,” Cassie joked. “Anyway, it's addressed to us, so let's open it already!”

She opened the package and slid out a flat, smaller wooden box. Lifting the lid, she revealed a small leather-bound book, its cover soft and worn with age. Beside it was a cream-colored, expensive-looking envelope and a tarnished silver pendant on a long chain.

“Cool necklace.” Cassie picked up the pendant and dangled it for a better look. It was shaped like a fancy key, with an eye-shaped handle that had a star where the pupil should be.

Meanwhile I opened the envelope and pulled out what was inside. I glanced at Cassie just in time to see her slide the pendant on over her head.

“What?” she said at my look. “I'm sure this is for me. Is that a card?”

“More like a letter.” I skimmed the first few lines and gasped. “You're not going to believe this! Listen.”

I started to read:

“‘Dear Caitlyn and Cassandra, I hope it is not a complete surprise to hear from me, your grandmother, though I have not seen you since soon after your birth. I have, however, thought of you too many times since your dear father left us, and have often wished you could be here with me. However, I have honored your mother's wishes to remain apart from you—until now. With your twelfth birthday approaching rapidly, I know at least one of you must be experiencing the beginning stages of the Sight. That is why I have made the effort to locate you and send you this package. I am sure you must have questions about the family legacy, and the enclosed volume will answer many of them. This is very important, for without learning to manage your powers, you could—'”

“What's that?” Mom's voice interrupted in midsentence.

I spun around. She was standing right behind me, dressed in her police uniform. Before I knew what was happening, she grabbed the letter out of my hand. As she read the beginning, her expression darkened.

“I see,” she said. “I'll take this, too.” She snatched the leather-bound book out of Cassie's hand.

“Hey!” Cass protested. “That was sent to us—Cait and me. Our names are on the box and everything.”

“Yes,” I said, still trying to take in what I'd just read. “It's from our—our grandmother.”

Cassie nodded. “And it sure didn't sound like Maw Maw Jean either,” she added. “It's got to be from our father's mom, right?”

“That's enough,” Mom said. “This is a mistake, and that's the end of it.”

She'd slipped into what we called her scarymama voice—the tone that brooked no argument. But why? We hadn't done anything wrong.

“But—” I began.

“That letter—” Cassie said at the same time.

Mom swept past us, her face twisted into an expression I couldn't quite figure out. She looked angry, yes—but also really freaked out. And that freaked
me
out. Mom was about the coolest cucumber on the planet.

“Hey, where are you going?” Cassie cried. Mom charged toward the door, pausing just long enough to grab her purse from the bench. She stuffed the book and letter inside.

“To work,” Mom replied in a clipped voice without turning around.

I winced as the door slammed behind her hard enough to shake the house. “What was that all about?” I exclaimed. “I can't believe she took our stuff and left!”

“Not all of it.” Cassie touched the necklace, which she was still wearing. “Guess she didn't notice this.”

“I can't believe we have a grandmother we never knew about,” I said. “And she seemed to know about
our visions, too. At least I bet that's what she meant by ‘the Sight.'”

“Yeah.” Cassie frowned, fiddling with the key-shaped pendant. “Mom seemed to know who it was from, though. And she didn't like it.”

“The letter said our grandmother was honoring Mom's wishes to stay away from us,” I recalled.

Cassie bit her lip, staring at me with troubled brown eyes. “So does that mean Mom knew about this weirdo twin superpower thing all along? And didn't tell us?”

“We don't know that for sure,” I said quickly. “Anyway, at least we know we're not going crazy, right? Sounds like this Sight thing is something that's passed down in our dad's family or something. Sort of like those Lockwood people I read about on that website.”

“Yeah. Speaking of which, what vision did you get from Mom before?”

I'd almost forgotten about the image that had hit me when I'd put my arm around Mom a few minutes earlier.

“Actually,” I said. “It showed Mom holding hands with a—a guy.”

“What guy?”

I shrugged. “He looked sort of like our dad, actually,” I told her. “At least as much as I can remember about that wedding picture. He was a nice-looking white guy with light brown hair and a square chin.”

“Huh,” Cassie said. “I thought these visions were supposed to show the future, not the past. Or are you branching out now?”

“I don't think it was the past. Mom looked pretty much like she does now, and the guy was around her age. It's probably just someone who looks a little like our dad.”

“Guess this means Mom is finally going to start dating again,” Cassie said. “And apparently she's got a type.”

“Yeah.” Something about the vision bothered me. Was it the idea of my mother going out on a date? She hadn't really done that much, especially in the last few years. “Do you think it's—you know, unhealthy? Her dating someone who looks so much
like her dead husband, I mean.”

“Probably not a big deal.” Cassie shrugged. “I mean, you only see good stuff, right?”

“But the package . . .”

“Think about it, girl,” Cassie said. “The package really did turn out to be good
and
bad, right? It's good that it came, because now we know there's someone out there who knows what's happening to us.”

“But it's bad that Mom saw it and took it away.”

“Yeah.” Cassie paused, shooting me a sidelong glance. “Anyway, good or not, it's weird to think about Mom dating someone new. Did she look happy in the vision?”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, she did. She was smiling. Oh! And I forgot to say there was a Christmas tree in the background. I couldn't really see much else, though.”

“Christmas? Really? Okay, that's ages away. Let's not stress over it yet.” Cassie touched the necklace, a determined glint in her eye. “Right now, we have more urgent things to deal with—starting with how we're going to get our stuff back.”

FRIDAYS WERE ALWAYS
rough. The weekend was right there, so close you could practically taste it, but our teachers expected us to sit through hours and hours of superboring classes before we could escape. Wretched!

This particular Friday was more awful than usual. I couldn't focus in my first two classes. All I could think about was that mysterious package—and the way Mom had gone nuts about it.

The worst part? She was still refusing to tell us
why. It was like our dad all over again. For years, she'd put off our questions by saying she'd tell us someday. But “someday” hadn't come yet, and she was still keeping mum.

Now here we were, with our first hint in forever about that side of the family. And once again, Mom was stonewalling us. Talk about unfair! I mean, she'd always been strict, running our household like some kind of military camp, at least in some ways. When she said jump, Cait and I were supposed to jump. No questions asked. Not even, “How high?”

But that had never seemed like a big deal. Because I'd always trusted her before. Always been sure she had our best interests at heart, even if she sometimes had a funny way of showing it.

Now? I wasn't so sure. Was it possible she'd known all along that Cait and I would end up with these freaky visions? Was it possible she knew—and hadn't even bothered to warn us? That she'd just sat back, letting us think we were going psycho, when all along she could have helped us understand?

Those sorts of questions kept swirling around in
my head all morning. Things weren't any better by the time I headed to the library for study hall.

Megan fell into step beside me. “Want to look at magazines, or do you have to finish the social studies homework?” she asked as we pushed through the library's glass doors. “Abs and Ems are frantic because they both forgot that geography worksheet is due today.”

“Huh?” I blinked at her.

“Magazines,” Megan said again, “or homework. What's it going to be?”

“Um, magazines,” I said, trying to sound normal. “I'm caught up in social studies.”

I'd done all my homework while waiting up for Mom to get home from work the night before. When she came in, she muttered a quick “It's late; get to bed” in my direction before heading down the hall.

This morning? No better. She'd puttered around in her bedroom “getting ready” until we'd left for school. I'd tried to talk Caitlyn into busting in there with me and confronting her, but as usual, my sister didn't want to make waves. So instead we'd sat in
the kitchen, just the two of us, eating our cereal and wondering what exactly to do about the situation.

At least that was what
I
was wondering. Cait? Who knew?

Soon Megan and I were ensconced at a little round table in the corner, the latest issues of
Vogue
,
Seventeen
, and various other fashion mags spread out in front of us. Well, the latest issues available in the sleepy little Aura Middle School library, anyway. Which meant most of them were about six months old.

Normally that would have annoyed me. Today? I barely noticed. I sat there flipping past pictures of models and makeup and who knew what else, still focused on my problems.

After a while, I became vaguely aware that Megan was talking to me. Mostly because she started poking me in the arm. Hard.

“Ow.” I pushed her hand away. “What?”

“Have you heard a single word I've said in the past ten minutes?” she demanded, looking peeved.

I bit back a sarcastic response. “Sorry,” I said
instead. “Guess I'm a little distracted today.”

“Oh.” Her expression immediately switched from annoyed to worried. “Everything okay?”

“Sure,” I responded automatically.

“Really? You've been acting kind of—I don't know. Just not yourself. I noticed earlier, too.”

I was touched that she seemed so concerned. Not sure what to say, I toyed with the key-shaped necklace, which I hadn't taken off since it had arrived.

Megan's gaze followed my hand. “Ooh, cool pendant!” she said. “Where'd you get it?”

I hesitated, wanting to tell her the truth. Maybe not the whole truth—I had no interest in spending my twelfth birthday in the loony bin. But that didn't mean I couldn't tell her the non-loony parts, right?

“Actually, it's a long story.” I glanced around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear us. “But you have to swear not to tell anyone, okay? Like, not even Lav or the others.”

“Cross my heart,” she said, tracing a manicured finger in a big X across the front of her cute pastel-striped shirt.

I took a deep breath. “It's about my—my dad.”

“Your dad?” Megan looked confused.

“He died when I was a baby,” I said. “I don't remember him at all.”

She leaned forward, looking stricken. “Oh, Cass! I had no idea. I'm sorry.”

“Thanks.” I shrugged. “The thing is, my mom is really weird about him. She won't tell us anything, and Cait and I have always wanted to know more.”

“Of course you do!” She nodded emphatically. “You must be dying of curiosity. Why won't she talk about him?”

“I don't know. And I can't really even ask.” I grimaced, picking at a peeling bit of paint on the edge of the table. “If you knew my mom, you'd know she gets mad if you ask too many questions. And trust me, you don't want to get her mad if you can help it.”

“Oh.” Megan looked thoughtful for a second. “Do you have any other relatives you could ask?”

“Not really.” I shrugged. “I mean, I've got plenty of family on my mom's side. But they won't cross her. Plus I'm not sure how much any of them even know,
since Mom got married when she was stationed overseas.” I took a deep breath. “But actually, the reason I'm thinking about all this now is because our grandmother—my dad's mom—sent Cait and me a package with this necklace and a letter, too. It came yesterday. Until then, we didn't even know she existed.”

“Really?” Megan exclaimed. “What'd the letter say?”

“Good question.” I slumped in my seat. “Mom grabbed it before we could read more than, like, the first few lines.”

“Whoa.” Megan fell silent for a moment. “I don't know what to say. I mean, it's hard for me to imagine not knowing everything about my family.” Her mouth twisted into a half smile. “Sometimes it feels like it's basically Aura's town history!”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I can see how that could be a problem, too.”

She smiled. “So I don't know how much help I can be. But still, I'm here for you, Cassie, if you need to talk or whatever.”

“Thanks.” Megan was being so cool that I was half tempted to share the rest of my family secret.

But only half. She might be understanding, but it was asking a lot to expect her to believe I could predict the future. I hardly believed it myself.

So instead, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. But as soon as I touched her, my vision went all fuzzy, and Megan's sympathetic face faded into the background.

Overlaid on top of it was a much brighter, more vivid Megan. But this Megan wasn't sitting in the library. She was pushing open a big wooden gate into a grassy yard dotted with trees, carrying a small bag with the logo of the Adams General Store stamped on it. An adorable little brown-and-white dog leaped up to greet her, almost knocking her over. Vision-Megan laughed, grabbing the dog and cuddling him before setting him down and hurrying off across the yard.

I gulped, wanting to break the connection. But for some reason, I couldn't move. It was as if I was locked into the vision, which was so bright it was
practically blinding me.

Luckily the minions rushed over right then. One grabbed Megan's shoulder and kind of shook her. That jostled her hand out of mine, and I fell back, the vision blinking away.

“Oh my gosh, you guys,” Emily exclaimed, looking frantic. “We are so dead!”

“Settle down, ladies,” Megan said, rolling her eyes at the minions. “What's wrong?”

They started babbling about something, but I wasn't listening. I just sat there, taking deep breaths and feeling grateful that the other girls had interrupted at just the right moment.
Lucky
, I thought, touching my necklace again. Then again, I might not have needed luck if Mom hadn't snatched away the only thing that might help me make sense of all this.

I DIDN'T SEE
Caitlyn until right before lunch. She looked startled when I grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the hallway and into an empty classroom.

“What are you doing?” she complained. “I want to get to the caf before they run out of dessert.”

“I had a vision,” I hissed, not really in the mood for small talk.

Her eyes widened. “You did? Who—when—what?”

“Megan.” I quickly filled her in on the gist of what I'd seen.

By the time I finished, she was nodding. “Hey, that's great!” she exclaimed. “Don't you see what this means? I was right!”

I glared, not in the mood for cryptic optimism. “Right about what?”

“About how maybe it was just a coincidence that most of the stuff I was seeing was good and most of your stuff was—”

“Not good,” I finished. Then I blinked. “Hey. You know, you have a point.”

“I know, right?” She grinned. “I mean, what could be bad about Megan playing with an adorable puppy, right?”

“Yeah.” For some reason, that made me feel a little better about having had another vision. “I just wish we still had that letter,” I said with a frown.
“Because it sounded like our grandmother wanted to help us deal with this crazy Sight thing.”

“I know, right?” Cait said. “It's one thing to randomly start having visions of the future. It's another thing to find out it runs in your family!”

I nodded. “Too bad we don't even know our grandmother's name. We have to get that letter back!”

“We can try.” Caitlyn looked dubious. “Anyway, let's talk about it later. I'm starving.”

“Okay.” I followed her out of the room. She immediately spotted the dork patrol heading for the caf and rushed off to catch up to them.

I glanced around for my own friends. My gaze caught on Gabe Campbell leaning against the wall nearby. He was staring at me with narrowed eyes.

Uh-oh. Was he just hating on me in general, as usual? Or was there a chance he'd heard what Caitlyn and I were saying? He was awfully close to that classroom door . . .

I shook off the thought as I saw Megan and Lavender coming toward me. Good old Greasy Gabe
didn't need a reason to look suspicious, right? And I had enough to worry about right now without adding him to the mix. I was just being paranoid.

“Guys!” I called to my friends, turning away from Gabe. “Over here!”