Goddess of the Night (4 page)

"Vanessa
Cleveland. Of all the girls in the sophomore class, I expected more
from you."

He looked at
Catty with a dour face. "And Catty Turner." He didn't seem
surprised that Catty was there. He handed a slip to each of them.
"Demerit slips, girls."

"It's a
nice color of pink." Catty smirked.

"Yes,
sir," Vanessa mumbled. Head down, she ran back, picked up her
messenger bag from a puddle of water, and hurried outside.

42

Catty waited
for her at the door.

"I can't
believe you brought us back here," Vanessa said. "What's
everyone going to say? They'll think we snuck in there."

"So what?"
Catty wadded her demerit slip and tossed it away. "It's not like
I did it on purpose."

"Catty,
you'll just be in more trouble," Vanessa said. "You can't
throw away your demerit slips."

"We
wouldn't have demerit slips
if
you'd let me tweak time a
little. Want to?"

"You can't
always use your power to get us out of trouble. You rely too much on
changing time to duck responsibility."

"Who made
you my mother?"

"Sorry."
Vanessa adjusted the bag on her shoulder. "But it's dangerous."

"Dangerous?"
Catty acted as if they'd never had this conversation before.

"What if
you get stuck in the tunnel?"

"If
something went wrong I'd just fall out. It's not real. It just feels
like I'm going faster than the speed of light."

"Maybe."
Vanessa leaned against the sun

43

soaked wall. It
was as hot as a fire brick and felt good against her throbbing head.
She wasn't as convinced as Catty. The tunnel felt like a real place
to her. The times she had ventured a peek, it seemed to stretch to
infinity. "Did you ever think that maybe that's the world we
belong in? That somehow we got stuck in some kind of time warp? Maybe
that's why your mother found you walking along the side of the road."

"That
would explain me, but what about you?" Catty stood next to her.
They had tried many theories to explain their powers. The time warp
was just another one.

"I'm
afraid you could get stuck in that world."

"That's
crazy," Catty said. "Won't happen."

"Just
promise to be careful, or I'll get mushy on you and tell you how much
you mean to me."

Catty punched
her gently. "Stop. I've got it under control. Loosen up, all
right?"

Vanessa looked
at Catty. She felt something dreadful gnawing at her.

"So who do
you think was following me?" Vanessa pulled her sunglasses from
her pocket.

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The fall had
cracked the lens. She tossed them into her bag.

"I think
you've got a mystery man. Someone with a crush on you."

"A secret
admirer?" Vanessa joked.

"Half the
boys at school have crushes on you.

As if to prove
her point, two seniors walked by, swinging skateboards.

"Hey,
Vanessa," one said.

"Looking
good," the other added.

"Hi,"
Vanessa waved.

"See,"
Catty pointed out.

"I'm just
friendly." Vanessa shrugged, and then she remembered what had
really bothered her about the night. "Did you hear anything?"

"No. What
did you think you heard anyway?"

"I thought
someone said, I'll find you later when you're alone.'"

"I didn't
hear that," Catty mused. "But if I had, I would have been
freaked!"

Vanessa lifted
her face, and with the late afternoon sun beating down on her, it was
impossible

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to remember how
dead scared she had felt the night before. The terror had slipped
away in a drowsy way, like smoke after a fire.

"A mystery
man," Vanessa repeated softly.

"Definitely,"
Catty said. "At first he was probably too shy to approach you,
some loner walking home from Planet Bang, then he gets up his nerve
to talk to Vanessa Cleveland, the most popular girl at La Brea
High--"

"I am
not."

"Be quiet,
it's my story. He goes to talk to you and you panic and run away. Now
he's got to chase you down to tell you he's sorry he scared you. Then
he turns and sees us, and now he's really embarrassed so he hides. I
wonder who it is?"

"Someone
like Michael Saratoga," Vanessa whispered as last night slipped
deeper into memory. "I hope it's Michael."

"You
talking about me?" a voice said.

Her eyes flew
open.

Michael walked
over to her. He wore a short- sleeved T-shirt. Barbed-wire tattoos
circled his tan arms. He had just come from the boy's locker room and
his hair was still wet. His dark round eyes made

46

her think of an
ancient sun god trapped in L.A.'s urban nightmare. She liked the way
his eyes looked at her. His lips curled around perfect white teeth.
She wanted those lips to want her. Her molecules hummed. Could he
hear her desire like a soft growl rushing through her spreading
molecules? Damn invisibility. Maybe
if
she thought of the
upcoming geography test, her molecules would stay.

"Hi,
Michael." She tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.

He stepped
closer, and a whiff
of
spicy deodorant and chlorine enveloped
her. She breathed deeply.

He sniffed.
"You smell like onions."

She smelled her
hands. The aroma of the onions from the Johnny Rockets chili fries
clung to the tips of her fingers. "Sorry." What magic did
those dark eyes have to make her apologize?

"I like
onions."

"Me, too,"
she said. "I didn't see you after school."

"I had
water polo practice." Michael smiled. "I guess you saw me
there."

She felt the
blush rise to her cheeks, and then

47

thought, so
what? He should be the one blushing. She smiled with an insolence her
mother would have scolded her for. She knew he was blushing behind
his dark cheeks by the way he shifted his feet and cleared his
throat.

"You want
to hang out on Saturday?" he asked.

"What do
you have planned?" Was this a date? She stomped her foot, trying
to make her molecules obey. Don't go invisible now.

"Something
special." The tips of his fingers brushed across the fine hairs
of her arm. Her stomach fluttered and her molecules tingled with
delight.

"See you
Saturday, then," he said. "I'll pick you up at seven."
She watched him walk away, his backpack bouncing against his
shoulder.

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Chapter 5

VANESSA AND
CATTY walked across the school lawn. New worry started buffeting her
happiness.

"What will
I do if Michael tries to kiss me?"

"I don't
know, open your mouth a little, I guess."

"I'm
serious," Vanessa scolded. "What am I going to do? Just
looking at him makes my molecules vibrate. The last time I tried to
have a boyfriend, I couldn't control it. I never even got one kiss."

"Let your
molecules sing," Catty said. "Maybe he'll like it. Besides
you don't know it will

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happen this
time. Have you been practicing with your power like I told you?"

One look and
Catty knew she hadn't. "When you're alone you need to make
yourself invisible," Catty explained. "Visible, invisible.
Just like exercises. How else are you going to learn how to control
it? You should practice every day."

"That
won't help me now. What if my molecules go off on their own?"
Vanessa wondered. "What if I scare him? Maybe he'll think I'm a
ghost or something evil."

"You
should appreciate your gift more. I mean, just think what you could
do with it. I know what I'd do."

"What?"

"I'd spy
on people and copy answers to all the tests. You waste it."

"All my
problems seem to come from what you call a 'gift.' I wish we could be
like everyone else."

"Speak for
yourself. I like what I can do," Catty said. "You want a
Coke?"

The fact that
they were freaks never bothered Catty as much as it bothered Vanessa.
Maybe it

50

was because
Catty's mother encouraged her to use her power.

"No,
thanks." Vanessa sat on a cement bench facing a bank of outside
lockers. "I'll wait for you here."

She looked down
at the amulet that hung around her neck. She seldom took it off, but
she unclasped it now and studied the face of the moon etched in the
metal. Sparkling in the sunlight, it wasn't pure silver but reflected
pinks and blues and greens. Maybe who she was had something to do
with this moon charm that was given to her at birth. Catty had one,
too. That's how they had first noticed each other at the park in
third grade. They had been playing soccer on opposing teams, chasing
the ball down the field. When they saw the silver moon dangling from
each other's neck, they'd stopped running and let the ball go out of
bounds.

"Where'd
you get that?" Catty had asked, ignoring her jeering teammates.

"I got it
as a gift the night I was born," Vanessa said. "Where'd you
get yours?"

"Don't
know. I've always had it. I never take it off."

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"Me,
neither," Vanessa said.

The referee
blew her whistle and the game continued, but Vanessa couldn't focus
on the ball. She kept turning to look at Catty. Twice she kicked the
ball out of bounds, and once she collided with one of her own
teammates.

Afterward the
two teams went out for pizza. She and Catty shared a double-cheese
pepperoni with pineapple and anchovies. They had been best friends
ever since. It had taken longer for them to share their unique
talents. What Catty called their gifts.

Maybe it wasn't
a gift, but a curse, and if she got rid of the charm, her strange
ability to become invisible would also go away. But she felt too
uncomfortable when she took it off. She wondered why that was.

52

Chapter 6

CATTY CAME BACK
with a Coke and sat next to Vanessa.

Morgan Page ran
up to them. She dropped her purse and swirled. "What do you
think?" She wore a bare, breezy sundress. It was too skimpy for
the school dress code, so she wore sleeves over the halter sundress
during classes. Now she shed the sleeves and showed off her
solar-glow tan, the best in the school. Expensive salon highlights
added luster to her already perfect hair. She picked up her purse and
pushed her yellow shades into her hair.

"Where
have you been? I walked all the way to Johnny Rockets looking for
you. I must be glistening with sweat."

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Catty leaned
into Vanessa muttering, "She's got to be the only person in the
world who thinks her sweat is pretty."

Morgan didn't
hear Catty over her own running talk. "I swear I saw you two
sitting at the counter. I thought we were supposed to meet at Johnny
Rockets."

Vanessa gave
Catty a quick, angry look.

Morgan watched
them with curiosity.

"You
couldn't have seen us," Catty said. "We were in the boys'
locker room."

She elbowed
Vanessa. Vanessa held up her demerit slip as proof.

Morgan couldn't
be lured away from her questioning. "I could have sworn I saw
you two munching on burgers, and then you were gone."

"We
weren't there," Vanessa insisted.

Morgan stopped.
She eyed the silver moon charm in Vanessa's hand.

"That
would go perfectly with my dress." She reached for it.

Vanessa quickly
clasped the necklace around her neck.

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"You
always wear it," Morgan said. "Don't you ever get tired of
it?"

"Sometimes,
I guess," Vanessa lied, and wished she hadn't. She didn't want
Morgan to think the amulet was something she would ever lend out.

"I saw you
talking to my hottie."

"Who?"
Vanessa asked.

"Michael,
of course. Was he asking about me?"

"Michael
asked Vanessa to go out with him," Catty informed her smugly.

Morgan seemed
upset, but only for a moment. She smiled and pulled the yellow shades
back on her perfect nose. "So you're going out with Michael."

"Yes."
Vanessa felt a little embarrassed.

"Be
careful."

"Be
careful of what?"

"You know,
he conquers the land and leaves it desolate."

"Translation?"
Catty's eyebrows raised.

"He makes
like he's all vulnerable and sensitive so you start trusting him and
then he takes advantage," Morgan responded knowingly.

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"How can
he take advantage if you don't let him?" Catty demanded.

"Guys have
their way. Sometimes they think it's their due."

"Michael
doesn't seem--"

"That's my
point exactly," Morgan continued. "That's how he gets away
with it. And I bet you haven't even kissed."

"So what?"
Catty was exasperated.

"You'll
see," Morgan warned.

"I didn't
know you liked him," Vanessa said.

"Please,"
Morgan snorted. "I call every good- looking guy my hottie. He's
nothing special."

Vanessa sensed
that Morgan was upset, maybe even jealous, but before she could say
more, Morgan's radar picked up someone else.

"There's
Serena," Morgan said. "She's such a freaky dresser."

Serena
Killingsworth walked toward them, carrying her cello in a brown case.
Her short hair, currently colored Crayola-red, was twisted into
bobby-pin curls. A nose ring glistened on the side of her nose. She
wore purple lipstick, red-brown shadow around her green eyes, and a
smile that

56

seemed to hold
a secret. She was new at school. Vanessa liked her look and
especially admired the way she seemed so oblivious to what other
people thought about her.