One (23 page)

About the Author

Raised on comic books and classic novels, Leigh Ann developed an early love of science fiction and literature. As an adult, she rediscovered her love for not only reading, but also writing the types of fiction that enchanted her as a teen.

Leigh Ann, her husband, and four children live in Columbus, Ohio. When she’s not immersed in the world of fiction, you can find her obsessing over the latest superhero movie or using her kids as an excuse to go out for ice cream (again).

*~*

Read on for a sneak peek at two incredible upcoming Young Adult novels - Ultraviolet Catastrophe by Jamie Grey, and Wavecrossed by Andrea Lynn Colt....

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

by Jamie Grey

Available Fall 2013

Chapter One

You know your life is never going to be the same when your mom pulls a gun at the shopping mall. It started out as just another boring Saturday in August. Mom was tired of me moping around the house, so she dragged me out to spend the day shopping in the air-conditioned mall. About half of Columbus, Ohio, had the same idea.

We pushed through the crowds gathered around the Cinnabon and I paused to inhale, but Mom tugged me away from the sweet, cinnamony goodness. “Let’s get some school shopping done,” she suggested, pointing at one of the anchor stores. “I know we have a few more weeks, but you need some new clothes.”

I smoothed the front of my faded t-shirt and frowned. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

Mom shook her head, grabbed my sleeve. “Lexie, you look like you’re homeless. Look at the fraying at the hem. I’m going to get picked up for neglect.”

“Moooom.” I brushed my bangs out of my eyes and gave her my puppy dog expression. Not a typical girl thing to admit, but I hated shopping with a fiery passion.

She slung an arm around my shoulder. “Fine,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “But when they haul me away, it’s on your head.”

“Ha ha. You’re so funny.” I let her lead me to the store anyway. If I was going to have to shop, at least Mom had pretty good taste. Even better, she usually paid for everything.

She headed for a table full of pastel-colored polo shirts and I wrinkled my nose. “Nothing yellow. I hate yellow.”

“I know. How about this purple one? It would look so pretty with your dark hair.”

I sighed and let her hold it against my chest. She chewed her lip and studied me for a moment before her gaze slid past me deeper into the store.

She stiffened, her hands turning to claws and digging into my shoulders.

“What?” I whipped around to look behind me.

Mom dropped the shirt on the table and shook her head. She’d gone pale, but pasted a smile to her face. “Nothing. I just don’t think purple is your color.” She peered past me again and clutched her purse closer to her side. “You know what? I’m not feeling so well. I think we should head home.”

I frowned at her. “Home? Seriously? You dragged me all the way to the mall just to turn around and go home? I should at least get a smoothie out of it or something.”

Her right hand slid into her purse and stayed there, like she was searching for something, but she kept her eyes trained on the back of the store. “I’m not dealing with your smart mouth right now, Lexie. Let’s go.”

She moved to grab my hand, but I jerked out of her grasp. “What is going on? Why are you being so weird?”

Her eyes darted around the store one last time before she turned to me. “Nothing. We just need to move.” Slowly she slid her hand out of her purse.

And I froze in place, gasping at the shiny black gun in her grip. Blood roared in my ears. “What the hell is that? Is that real?”

“I’m sure you’ve seen a gun before. It’s for protection.” Mom grabbed my hand and pulled me from the store.

“Protection from
what
?” My voice threatened to erupt in a shriek and I swallowed back my fear. Oh my god. Had she gone crazy?

Something that felt like an electric shock zapped inside my brain, and the world spun. I clutched Mom’s arm as my mind lurched and sputtered. It felt like a computer had switched on inside my head, whirring and buzzing until it was all I could hear. My gaze focused in on the small details of the gun she tried to hide behind her purse - the curve of the handle, the faint etching on the barrel. Thoughts reeled through my head until they clicked in place. Instantly I recognized the gun was a .38 caliber, snub nose revolver by Smith and Wesson.

Even though I knew absolutely nothing about guns. Even though I’d only ever seen a gun on TV.

“What’s wrong, Lexie? Are you all right?” Mom tucked her hand, the gun still in it, into the pocket of her sweater before inspecting me with a worried gaze.

“Do you think I’m all right? You have a
gun
.” And my brain might be broken. It was enough to totally freak a girl out.

“Yes, I do. Now come
on
.” She tugged my arm and I let her speed walk me through the rest of the mall. I was still in too much shock to resist.

Mom and I burst through the glass doors, and as soon as the slap of the humid Ohio summer hit me, I found my voice. “Mom. Stop. What’s going on?”

She kept moving across the parking lot, despite the heat turning the pavement into a shimmering river. “Get in the car. We’ve got to go.”

I dug my heels in until she stopped. Crossed my arms. “How long have you had that thing? Do you even know how to
use
it?”

She threw a worried glance back at the mall doors, tucking a strand of her honey-colored hair behind her ears before turning to me. “We’re two single women living alone. It’s for our protection.”

I shook my head. “What exactly do you expect to happen?”

“Anything can happen,” she said with a frown, her glance flicking past me again. “Now really we need to get home. Will you please get in the car?”

“Fine.” I yanked open the door and slid into the sweltering interior. Mom had us in reverse before I’d even slammed the door shut.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye as she drove. Her knuckles were white against the steering wheel, and a muscle jumped in her temple. Dread felt like a heavy hand on my chest and I stayed quiet until we pulled into the driveway. She switched the car off, but I didn’t move.

“What’s going on?” I asked softly. “You’ve never lied to me before.”

Mom turned to face me, her eyes serious. “I’m not lying. The gun is for protection. I want to make sure you’re safe.”

“Safe from what? What did you see back at the mall?”

She shook her head. “Nothing you need to worry about. I promise. Now let’s get inside before we melt in all this heat.” She used her firm tone of voice, the one that told me the conversation was over, even though I still had more questions. I had no choice but to follow her into the house and ignore the fear already twisting my insides into knots.

*~*

“Lexie, your Dad’s on the phone,” Mom called from downstairs later that night.

I tugged my headphones off with a frown. The music was the only thing keeping me from freaking out about what had happened at the mall. Now Dad was on the phone? What the hell was going on?

“What does he want?” I called back.

“I don’t know, just pick up the phone.”

I sighed and stared at the phone beside my bed. I hadn’t talked to Dad in over a month. He’d been away on some sort of top-secret research trip to Japan. And before that, he had been busy at work. Talking to his daughter had never exactly been a priority. Why would he choose now, of all days to call?

A sudden lump formed in my throat. Even worse, what exactly was I supposed to say to him? About Mom? The gun? Or that weird flash of knowledge I’d had?

Even worse, that hadn’t been the first time I’d felt that strange zap in my brain and had a weird surge of knowledge. It had happened just a few months ago, while I was taking a math test. All the answers popped into my head without even having to work at them. Yeah, it had freaked me out then too. But I thought it was a fluke. Now I wasn’t so sure.

I pushed aside all of that and took a deep breath. “Hey, Dad.”

“Lexie, honey. How are you?”

I ignored the surge of homesickness I felt at his warm, familiar voice. “Fine. How was your trip?”

“It went really well. I think Quantum Technologies is going to be opening a new branch in Tokyo.”

My stomach clenched and I clutched the phone in my suddenly sweaty fist. “Are they sending you over to open it?”

Dad let out a surprised laugh. “Oh no, that’ll be someone else’s job. I just went to scope out the location and talk to some of their scientists.”

I forced my hand to relax. I barely saw Dad now, it wouldn’t really matter if he moved to Japan. Much. “Cool. So, um, what’s up?”

“I wanted to see how you were doing.”

“I’m fine.” Mostly. If I didn’t think too hard about what had happened today.

Oh my god. Was what he was calling about? Had Mom said something? But that was unlikely, she never talked to Dad if she could help it.

“Your mom said you’d been having some headaches lately. Are you still taking your ADHD meds?”

Well evidently she’d told him
something
. “Yeah, of course. It’s nothing, I’m sure it’s just the heat.”

“Just make sure to tell your mom if they get worse, okay? I worry about you.”

I frowned at the mouthpiece. Mom had basically said the same thing earlier when she explained about the gun. My skin erupted in goosebumps. “Why are you guys so worried about me all of a sudden?”

Dad paused, then said softly, “We’re your parents. It’s what we do.”

“Not like this. It’s like you guys are watching for something. What, am I suddenly going to develop magical powers?”

“Of course not. There’s no such thing as magic.”

“It was a joke, Dad.” I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I wondered if the job description for rocket scientists had a no sense of humor requirement. “Just forget it. It doesn’t matter. I’m fine.”

Another awkward pause stretched between us. “So how’s that little project of ours going?”

I gritted my teeth. The little project wasn’t so little, especially after he’d abandoned me to work on it alone. “It’s just fine. No thanks to you.”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry. You know how crazy it gets here at QT.”

“I know that you dumped some circuit boards and project plans on my desk six months ago and expected me to take care of it. Well you know what? I did. The quantum sensor is up and running, I attached the thermometer to the heat sink, and it’s ready to start reading the gamma ray spectra of nuclear materials. If I had access to any. Look at me, I’m a freaking genius for figuring it out.”

Dad cleared his throat uncomfortably. “What did you do about the infrared sensitivity?”

“I re-designed the bolometer to measure the electromagnetic radiation.”

“Wow. I’m impressed. That’s really advanced work.”

And I’d figured it all out on my own. When he suggested the project, I’d thought finally we might have something to work through together. Something in common. Obviously, I’d been wrong.

I didn’t bother to respond, and Dad finally cleared his throat before saying, “So I was thinking you could come visit me before school starts, and you could try out the sensor in my lab. I’d love for us to spend some time together. I haven’t seen you in months.”

Whose fault was that? But I bit back my angry response. I learned a long time ago that the drama wasn’t worth it. “We’ll see. I have plans with some friends next weekend. And then school starts up again in a few weeks.”

“Honey, I think….”

“Anyway, was there anything else? Mom’s calling me for dinner.”

The line between us practically throbbed with hurt feelings, but finally he said, “No, that’s all I had.”

“Well, glad you’re home from Japan. Talk to you later.”

“Love you, sweetie.”

“Bye, Dad.”

I clicked the phone off and threw it down on the bed. He couldn’t be bothered to visit more than twice a year. How dare he try to guilt me into feeling bad about our lack of relationship?

My head throbbed even worse than usual and I rubbed at my temples. It was seriously none of Dad’s business if I’d been having headaches. He’d lost the right to care when he left us ten years ago. He meant well, but Mom and I were just fine on our own.

Maybe I’d ask if she’d let me learn how to shoot her gun too.

CHAPTER TWO

Mom usually worked late on Thursdays, so I’d taken over making dinner for us that night. It had been a week since the gun incident, and I’d brought it up over and over, but Mom kept shutting me down. I’d poked in her closet, dug through her desk. Nothing. Not even a scrap of information. So I’d finally had no choice but to drop it.

Tonight we were going to have pizza and watch a movie. Our usual Thursday night date. Hopefully we could get back to normal. I hated how pale she looked lately, the dark smudges under her eyes. I hated even more that she was keeping something from me.

I pulled the ingredients out of the fridge for homemade pizza. Quick, easy, and my favorite. After a while, it had kind of turned into our thing, though Mom had made me add a salad to the menu. Parents and their vegetables.

Tonight I was going to try something a little different - a new sauce. I needed the distraction of trying something new, and maybe the change would be good for both of us. I pulled the recipe up on my tablet and scanned through it. Seemed easy enough for a white sauce. I put a couple of tablespoons of butter in the saucepan and then started to add the flour. I paused and chewed my lip. Was the milk next, or the garlic?

A zap sliced through my brain again and the kitchen spun. I threw out my hand to steady myself against the counter and a second later, the whole recipe popped into my head, almost like I was seeing it on the screen.

“Oh my god.” I dropped the whisk in the pan and moved to the sink. Sweat beaded on my neck and my heart thundered like I’d been running. I flipped the faucet on and splashed my face, but the words and images still floated behind my eyes.

I sucked in a deep breath, then another, but my lungs still felt like they’d stopped working. Tears prickled behind my eyelids and I scrubbed at my face with the kitchen towel to keep them from spilling out.

This was beyond headaches. It was like my brain was possessed. Maybe I had a brain tumor. Or cancer. My stomach clenched and I forced myself to think calmly. I was going to have to say something to mom. But not right now. Not upset like this.

I folded the towel carefully and hung it back up. Then I went back to the stove to finish the sauce. Keeping busy seemed liked a good idea. If I could bring up the weirdness like it was no big deal, maybe we could talk about it rationally. The last thing I needed was for her to freak out. Because then I’d freak out too. It would be ugly.