The Weird Travels of Aimee Schmidt: The Curse of the Gifted Read Free Page B

sprint across the street. A dented, red van honked and swerved into the other lane to keep from hitting her. An arm stretched out of the driver’s window, displayed a third finger salute, then the van straightened back into the lane and continued down the street. She thought, Geez, crazy driver. But nothing, not Robert and Trent’s obnoxious behavior, or even almost getting run over, could distract Aimee. Her mind instantly returned to Dylan.
    Dylan Townsend was a great diversion to the worrisome thoughts poking around in her head. He was a senior, too, at East Medford High. Gorgeous and tall with an awesome body from years of athletic training, Dylan was perfect. He was smart, unlike so many of his jock friends, and the starting quarterback for East Medford. He was so good he made State Varsity this year. The University of the Cascades, one of several universities, offered him a full ride. And until a few weeks ago he dated Brandi Peters - Mr. and Miss Perfect - but that’s over. Aimee mused, Too bad, for her at least.
    Aimee and Dylan had classes together since ninth grade, but until last summer he didn’t act like she existed. She certainly noticed him though. He was impossible to miss. Now that they were more than just classmates, Aimee couldn’t get rid of the crazy fluttering in her stomach every time she saw him.
    Before Aimee noticed, she made it back to the house without one more thought about her bizarre dream earlier. Only Dylan occupied her thoughts. She stood on the front lawn staring at her house. Geez, she thought, my totally weird life almost feels normal, but with my luck it’ll never last. She sighed, then went inside to get ready for school.

Chapter 2 Nightmares
     
    ...Three weeks earlier
     
    Today was like every other day. After the final school bell rang Aimee sprinted to her car, then sped to work. At seven she finished and hurried out, jumped into her beloved canary yellow ’71 VW, and tore home to get supper on the table before her dad could polish off a bag of chips and a couple beers while he waited for Aimee to arrive and fix dinner. Fortunately, his truck was still missing as she whipped her car into the driveway. Dad would be starving when he finally made it home so she needed to fix something fast. Since she was in charge of the kitchen, Aimee did her best to screw with her dad's addiction to junk food and beer, but he made up for it the other ten or twelve hours she wasn’t with him to police his lousy habits.
    Zonker announced Dad’s arrival around seven thirty-five. Just like clockwork, he slid in the backdoor, hung up his coat, and hollered he was starving. He scooted up beside Aimee at the counter and gave her a fast hug while he snuck a peek in the microwave. “Mmmm, leftover Chinese, my favorite,” remarked Dad. Everything, when it came to food, was Dad’s favorite.
    Dinner was quiet as usual, the silence only broken by a few nondescript exchanges about their day, peppered with a selection of casual one word responses. After seconds of General Tsao’s chicken, topped off with a bowl of peaches and a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream, Dad lingered at the kitchen table reading the paper while Aimee sailed through the mindless chore of washing the dishes and sweeping the floor.
    “Can I help?” Dad finally peeked up from the story he was reading. His timing was always impeccable.
    “Uh, nope, thanks anyway,” she said as she tucked the last plate into the cabinet. “All done. Now on to homework.”
    He closed the paper and smiled. “Dinner was good. Thanks, sweetheart,” he said and headed off to the den. Quickly the loud drone of TV filtered throughout the house.
    Aimee entered her room and switched on the desk lamp, grabbed Mom and Dad’s photo, then dropped into her chair. She had a few minutes to spare to look at the photo - a nightly habit. She touched the glass. “I love you,” slipped from her lips.
    Finally, she grabbed her textbook and quickly flipped to the