Prophecy Read Free Page B

the soft down comforter away and inching out of my toasty warm bed. A chill covered my skin in goose bumps as I rolled my head against each shoulder and shuffled to the bathroom for a shower, tooth and hair brushing plus obligatory makeup when what I wanted was more sleep.
    I showered with the speed of a garden slug, hoping the hot water would rejuvenate my mind and muscles. It didn’t. I wrung water from my hair and wrapped one towel around my head before securing another around my body. A white cloud of steam coated the bathroom mirror. I rubbed a clear spot through the fog with the side of one fist and sighed. My eyelids hung at half-mast, begging for sleep until I remembered why my night was so restless. Adrenaline replaced fatigue with a burst. The woman’s scream had seemed so real, almost familiar, but I wasn’t sure. Chester hadn’t seemed worried about it and I’d never heard another sound. Which reminded me… The mysterious and possibly evil neighbor kids might be at school today. Allison hoped they were registered at the community college, but we had no idea how old they were.
    Suddenly the hair dryer couldn’t work fast enough. I wrestled my old brush through the length of my dark brown hair, smoothing the places where random waves popped up. My hair was sixty percent straight, forty percent rodeo clown. Mom’s Greek and Italian ancestry left her hair an unruly perfection, which managed to look sexy and windblown on her. I had no idea where my crazy hair came from, but it required patience. I carefully coerced the few wild waves into submission with the help of a flat iron. I tapped my foot, more anxious for school each minute. What if the Hale boys were my new classmates? What if they were dangerous?
    Mom called up the staircase as I opened the bathroom door. “Callie.”
    “Yeah?” I leaned my head into the hallway, lip gloss in hand.
    Before she answered, footfalls hammered against the steps. A moment later, Allison bobbed around the corner. Her hair looked amazing. She’d rolled and tied a silk scarf around her head like a headband, hiding the bow under the length of her hair. The ends of the scarf lay over her shoulders, coordinating seamlessly with her jade green blouse, jeans, and fringed bag.
    She spun outside the bathroom door for my inspection. “Hobo chic, what do you think?”
    “Nice.” I looked at my long sleeve T-shirt and frowned.
    Allison went into my room.
    I batted my lashes through a mascara brush and dotted the excess away with my fingertips. “I’m almost finished. Give me thirty seconds.”
    “Take your time.”
    Uh oh. I stuffed my makeup bag back into its drawer and darted across the hall to my room.
    Allison knelt on my bed, peering through the curtains. A white sweater lay across the comforter behind her. I’d bought the sweater when we went back to school shopping, but I hadn’t gotten up the nerve to wear it yet. The v-neck was deep and the material clung to my curves more than I liked.
    “Well, this explains it.” I crawled over the bed to kneel beside her. “You never pick me up for school because you’re perpetually late, but here you are.”
    She smiled, never taking her eyes off the house across the field.
    “I finally see what it takes to get a ride from my best friend.” I smiled.
    “Hot. Brothers.” She gave me a cursory glance. “Put on the sweater. Let’s go stand around the office. They have to go there to get schedules.”
    “I thought you wanted them to attend Wells.”
    I scooted off the bed and searched my closet for a decent camisole. The sweater’s neckline was scandalous without one. The form-fitting design was a whole other problem, but I could only handle one crisis at a time before breakfast. Nothing good in my closet, I moved on to my dresser hoping for something long enough to reach the waist of my low-slung jeans, preferably with lace at the neckline and in a color that wouldn’t show through the white sweater. Five minutes later,