Natural Selection (13 page)

“
But what set it off? I
haven’t been near any natural disasters.”

“
I don’t know, baby. I wish
I did.”

I bit my lip, afraid to meet her eyes.
“Could accidental exposure to another Gaia’s power do it?” I asked,
looking up through my now dark lashes.

“
I don’t think so. Why do
you ask?”

With a sigh, I told her about the
first day of school, knowing it would lead to more discussion I
didn’t want to have. But she surprised me when she latched onto
something I didn’t expect. “He said he didn’t know you were so
close?” she asked, her eyes narrowing and her head cocking
thoughtfully. “Well then he definitely didn’t cause it. Did you go
anywhere unusual this summer?”

“
I don’t think so, just the
normal things I do during the summer.”

“
Hmm. Well, it’s a problem
for another day. Today my little girl is all grown up, and she is
stunning!” Mom placed her hand on my cheek and smiled
radiantly.

I blushed, and she returned to
cooking. I was saved more gushing by the emergence of Xander,
shuffling to the coffee pot in, I kid you not, full length fleece
footy pajamas—the kind with the plastic covered feet. He looked
like an overgrown toddler. Making a beeline for the coffee, he
poured a cup and turned towards the counter before he noticed me.
“Hubba, hubba, Amelia!” he said, waggling his eyebrows. I flushed
as he looked at Mom with a knowing look. “Dad out polishing the
guns, preparing for the zombie hoard of hormonal teenagers I’m sure
are already heading this way?”

Mom snorted. “Don’t even joke about
it, or I’ll lock all three of you into a barrel!”

Xander grinned and sat next to me,
silently nudging me with his shoulder and smiling. I smiled back
and leaned my head into him for the briefest moment, grateful for
his humor and his strength.

My father and Sariah had more to add
when they joined us, both gushing over my new looks. We ate
breakfast as family, lingering long after the last crumbs were
gone. I couldn’t remember us doing anything of the sort for a very
long time. Afterward, I allowed myself to be drug to the mall with
my mom and Sariah. They spent the day playing dress up with me, but
I was distracted by a new awareness of the fabrics. Sariah kept
trying, but everything she picked up felt harsh and scratchy to me.
Everything my mom found was fine, and I would grudgingly try them
on for her. Finally, I asked her what was going on, why I was
having so much trouble with the materials.

“
It’s the downside of being
Gaia, Lia. If it’s not natural, you won’t be able to tolerate it.
Synthetic fibers will make you itch, non-organic food won’t sit in
your stomach, and any place without plants and living earth will
feel like a prison. You will learn to deal with it, if you want to
live among humans.” She shrugged, then turned back to the clothes
racks on the hunt again.

I thought about the chemicals I could
taste in the water last night. Mom started buying organic before it
was cool. It always seemed to me that she had a little hippy in
her, but now I understood the real reason. We had a large vegetable
garden that she carefully collected seeds for each fall. Now I
realized that it was so the plants weren’t genetically engineered
and our food wasn’t covered in pesticides and preservatives. I
wondered how much trouble that must have been in the days before
every grocery store had an organic food section. How ordinary the
years past had been, surrounded by so much of the extraordinary,
made me even more in awe of my mother.

Once Sariah caught on to the fabric
issue, the shopping went very quickly. I felt guilty costing so
much money, but mom confessed the same day Dad started my college
fund, she started my post-metamorphosis shopping fund. As I was
chased into one dressing room after another, I realized I liked the
softer, more feminine look they were creating for me. I was even
sort of enjoying the process—which was a good thing since I didn’t
seem to have a choice. By the time we visited every clothes store
in the mall, some of them twice, we had about twenty bags worth of
clothes, and I thought we were done. I thought wrong.

I tried not to cringe as Sariah pulled
me reluctantly into the shoe store. None of my old ones fit, Mom’s
were too big and Sariah’s too small. An old pair of Mom’s flip
flops worked for shopping, but it wasn’t a comfortable choice in
Illinois in November. I have no idea how many different shoes were
shoved on my feet in a whirlwind of leather and metal. By the time
Sariah and Mom were done, I owned more shoes than I had owned in my
entire life added together! I complained about the cost, the only
logical argument I could come up with, but Mom explained we hadn’t
come near the thousands of dollars she stashed away.

From the shoe store, I was taken to
the hair salon, the first place we’d gone all day that I didn’t
object to. I loved having people mess with my hair, and I didn’t
think that had changed. I opened my mouth to tell the woman what I
wanted, but Sariah clapped her hand over my mouth and told the
stylist what to do. The woman looked at me doubtfully, but I just
shrugged and nodded. In the end, my hair fell in layers to about
the middle of my back with a thick swoop bang, delicately framing
my new face. Overall I was impressed and glad I’d listened to my
sister.

The final stop was the
organic makeup store Mom was very fond of. Sariah was a whirlwind
of motion picking out creams, powders, and pencils for me. I looked
at all the stuff she had in the basket and figured there was
no
way
I was ever
going to figure out how to use all this stuff. A clerk came and
applied them in a frenzy of motion I couldn’t really follow. She
handed me a mirror, and my unfamiliar face was more colorful, if
nothing else. I still wasn’t used to what I saw in the mirror, so
this little tweak made little difference to me.

As we were walking out of the store,
my mom came to a sudden stop. I glanced back and saw the alarm on
her face. Turning back toward the door, I saw the reason as Evelyn
walked in with her mother, Monica. Mom needn’t have though, because
Sariah smoothly pushed me into the nearby photo booth. As the
screen in front of us directed us through the process, I strained
to overhear Mom and the Matthews talking.

“
Hello, Nancy. Fancy
meeting you here of all places! What are you and your girls up to
today?” Monica asked in that saccharine voice of hers. It was never
anything I could put my finger on, but there was something
seriously off about her. She’s always been very intense, and at
times it scared me, but as my best friend’s mother I learned to
love her as she was. However, something seemed different about her
now.

“
Hello, Monica. Yeah, we
had to get Amelia some new clothes. You know how girls are at this
age, growing like a weed!” I could hear the strain in Mom’s laugh,
and I peeked out the curtain. Through the crack, my eye met one of
Evelyn’s, which widened. I pressed myself against the back of the
booth, hiding my face behind Sariah. I didn’t think she really hid
me from view, though, considering I was about half a head taller
than her now.

There were the normal niceties as they
said goodbye. Mom turned to watch their departing backs before
motioning us out of the booth. Sariah climbed out gracefully, and I
followed awkwardly. We went to collect our pictures, but the
printer was empty.

“
Huh,” she said with a
shrug. “Wonder if the printer’s broke.”

I eyed after Evelyn and her mother and
had my doubts.

I FELT LIKE a prisoner in my own home.
If people saw me, it would raise questions we had no logical
answers for, so I wasn’t allowed to leave the house. I went through
books like crazy, watched all the movies we owned, and paced the
house like a caged animal. Often, I found myself pacing from room
to room for no reason other than I could. The official story Mom
told everybody was I had mono, and couldn’t be around anyone else
for fear of spreading it. She started home schooling me so I
wouldn’t fall behind, but it did nothing to alleviate my
restlessness. After about two weeks, Mom relented and started
letting me out for short periods of time at night. Even that came
at a price, since I had to bundle up so no one would recognize me.
It wasn’t really a problem, as winter was already in full swing
despite the fact that the calendar said it was still a month
away.

Thanksgiving came and went. I begged
my grandparents to let me come live with them but Mom said no. The
chances of running into someone I knew were too high. Grandma just
gave me a sad look then looked at my parents helplessly and
shrugged.

I could completely relate with how a
prisoner feels, even if my cell was a lot larger and cushier than
theirs. In my hour a day I got outside, I would sit in my tree and
soak up the life all around me. It surrounded us on a daily basis,
and I’d never really understood it. I could feel every plant, every
animal, and every sun-baked stone. The earth’s crust shifted so
minutely a seismograph probably wouldn’t notice it, but I did.
Weather patterns were obvious to me long before they approached,
and I became a better predictor than the weatherman. I was
seriously considering the idea of becoming a meteorologist if I was
ever allowed out of my own damn house.

I began to grow moody and snappish.
Even Xander began to avoid me, which made it worse since his sense
of humor helped make my captivity bearable. I lived vicariously
through my family’s stories of their days.

My mom started teaching me about being
Gaia, how to use all of my abilities. We didn’t move nearly fast
enough for me, and she kept telling me I was trying to run before I
could crawl. Already I could make plants dance and give small
animals subtle suggestions but couldn’t manage it with anything
larger than a cat. My other abilities might as well not exist for
all I was able to use them. No matter how hard I tried to knit a
slice across Mom’s palm, it just bled as if to taunt me.

Worse than being captive in my own
home, I hated the sense of waiting for disaster. There was another
murder, this one in Elkhart. I begged Xander to take me to do some
digging, but he said it was too dangerous. The news never really
revealed her name and none of us knew what she was. The media was
all over it, and I can’t say I blame them. Detective Laurent
stopped by, wanting to ask me if I knew the latest victim. Mom told
him I was asleep and too sick to talk, but she would ask me and
call him back. He didn’t sound satisfied but he had no choice but
to accept what she said.

Christmas came and went. My family was
exhibiting a seriously guilty conscience based on my gifts. It was
one of the biggest hauls I’d ever gotten, everything from clothes
and makeup to a Kindle and a new iPod. I didn’t get anything for
anyone since I wasn’t allowed outside my own house. We had our
traditional dinner, and I was in a little better spirits. Sariah
and Xander announced they decided to join me in my captivity over
Christmas break, stating it was only fair. After a day cooped up
with them, I practically shoved them out the door the next
morning.

Mom relented, and we made a family
trip to Denver so I could ring in the New Year like a normal
teenager. I can’t even begin to tell you how good it felt to walk
down the street without worrying whether or not I could be
recognized. And the power! I couldn’t believe the strength the
mountains emanated. We skied and rode horses and took long walks as
a family. Sariah made me have a girly spa day with her which was
way more fun than I thought it would be. I spent every second I
could outdoors, dreading the day our trip would be over. With a
heavy heart, I climbed into the car to head home knowing the trip
had only made things worse.

I tried to convince my folks that
enough time had passed for me to go back to school, but they
wouldn’t hear it. Falling into depression, I barely noticed the
passage of time as January flew past. Mom tried to throw a little
party when I passed all my finals with flying colors, but I simply
pouted through it because I couldn’t even invite a friend
over.

I discovered an ability to manipulate
the wind, a talent my mom assured me was rare in female Gaia. Dad
worked with me on it and we quickly learned the boundaries. I could
only direct the existing wind, not create it. If it was too far
away or ran into any kind of wind block, I lost control. And though
I couldn’t make the wind stronger or more destructive, I could make
it die away. From there we expanded and discovered I could keep
rain from falling, but it drained me very quickly. Encouraging rain
heavy clouds to let go was much easier, but once it started to rain
I had very little control. I was disappointed by what seemed like
an awful lot of work for something fairly pointless, but my dad
looked so proud I kept my opinion to myself.