Born at Midnight (3 page)

Chapter Four

“Oh, shit.” Kylie stared at the text message thinking it would disappear, or that she’d see a “just joking” magically appear at the bottom. Nope. Nothing disappeared or appeared. This was no joke.

But please. Sara couldn’t be pregnant. That didn’t happen to girls like them. Smart girls … girls that … Oh, hell. What was she thinking? It happened to everyone and anyone having unprotected sex. Or sex with a faulty condom.

How could she forget that little film at school, the one Mom had to sign for her to see? Or the pamphlets Mom had brought home and unceremoniously left on Kylie’s pillow like a bedtime snack?

Talk about a mood killer. She’d arrived home from one of the hottest dates she’d had with Trey, wanting to enjoy the high from his hot kisses and bold caresses, only to find the statistics of unwanted pregnancies and equally unwanted sexually transmitted diseases waiting for her. And her mother knew Kylie always had to read herself to sleep. No sweet dreams that night.

“Bad news?” someone asked.

Kylie looked up to see Toad Girl sitting in the aisle seat across from her, her legs pulled up to her chest and her chin propped onto her knees.

“Uhh. Yeah … no. I mean…” What she meant was it was none of her damn business, but being that blunt or rude never came easy for Kylie—well, not unless the person really pushed the wrong buttons—buttons that her mom seemed to know so well. Sara called Kylie’s unwillingness to state her mind the “too nice” disease. Her mom would have called it manners, but because her mom excelled at hitting Kylie’s buttons, her mom considered Kylie lacking in the manners department.

Kylie pulled her phone closed just in case Toad Girl might have super twenty-twenty eyesight. Then again, she guessed the person she should worry about having super eyesight was the blond guy, with his … She cut her gaze to where he sat and found him staring at her with … blue eyes. O … kay, at least one thing was clear, it couldn’t get any weirder.

“It’s nothing really,” she said, forcing herself to look back at the Toad Girl and not stare at her multicolored hair. The bus came to a quick stop and Kylie’s suitcase dropped to the floor. Aware that the blond guy still stared, and afraid he might take the empty seat as an invitation to come sit beside her, she moved over.

“My name’s Miranda,” the girl said, and smiled, and Kylie realized that other than her hair and her pet toad, the girl looked pretty normal.

Kylie introduced herself, giving the floor a quick check to confirm the toad hadn’t decided to visit.

“Is this your first time at Shadow Falls?” Miranda asked.

Kylie nodded. “Yours?” she asked out of politeness, then she looked down at her phone, still clutched to her stomach. She needed to text Sara back and say … oh heck, what was she going to say to Sara? What did you say to your best friend who just told you that she might be …

“My second time.” Miranda pulled her hair up and bunched it on top of her head. “Though I don’t know why they want me to come back, it’s not like it helped me the first time.”

Kylie stopped trying to mentally write the text and met the girl’s hazel eyes—eyes that hadn’t changed colors once—and curiosity had Kylie almost stuttering. “What … what’s it like? The camp, I mean. Tell me it’s not too bad.”

“It’s not terrible.” She released her hair and it fell into waves of black, lime green, and pink around her head. Then she glanced to the back of the bus where the pale chick now sat up and leaned forward as if listening. “If you don’t mind the sight of blood,” she whispered.

Kylie chuckled, hoping beyond hope that Miranda would, too. But nope. Miranda didn’t even smile.

“You’re joking, right?” Kylie’s heart did a cartwheel in her chest.

“No,” she said in a completely unjoking manner. “But I’m probably exaggerating.”

A loud clearing of a throat echoed in the bus. Kylie looked up to the front to where the bus driver stared into the big mirror. Oddly, Kylie felt as if she stared right at Miranda and her.

“Stop that,” Miranda hissed in a low voice, and clapped her hands over her ears. “I didn’t invite you in.”

“Stop what?” Kylie asked, but the girl’s odd behavior had Kylie shifting farther away. “Invite me where?”

Miranda didn’t answer; she frowned up at the front of the bus and then bounced back into her seat.

That’s when Kylie realized she’d been wrong. Wrong about the fact that it couldn’t get any weirder.

It could, and it did.

Not terrible. If you don’t mind the sight of blood.
Miranda’s words played like scary music in Kylie’s head. Okay, the girl admitted to exaggerating things, but come on, losing even a little blood was too much.
What kind of hellhole had her mother sent her to?
she asked herself for what was probably the hundredth time since she’d gotten on the bus.

Right then Kylie’s phone buzzed with an incoming text. Sara again.
Please don’t tell me … u told me so.

Kylie pushed her own problems aside to think about her best friend. They may have had a rough few months, but they had been best friends since fifth grade. Sara needed her.

Kylie started texting.
OMG, wouldn’t say that. Don’t no what 2 say. R U OK?? Do ur parents no? Do you no who the father is?
Kylie deleted the last question. Of course Sara knew who the father was. It had to be one of three guys, right? Unless Sara hadn’t been honest about what she’d done on the dates with her two last guys.

Oh, God, Kylie’s heart went out to her best friend. Even considering Kylie’s terrible circumstances of her parents’ divorce, Nana’s death, and being sent to “bloody” Shadow Falls Camp with some very strange people, Sara had it worse.

In two months, no matter how bad things were, Kylie would go home. By then, she’d hopefully have gotten over the shock of losing her dad, and Nana. And maybe over the summer, Soldier Dude would lose interest in her and disappear permanently. But in two months, Sara would have a belly the size of a basketball.

Right then, Kylie wondered if Sara would even go back to school. God, Sara would be so embarrassed. To Sara, fitting in was … everything. If blue eye shadow was the rave, you can bet Sara would have blue eye shadow before the week was out. Heck, she’d missed nearly a week of school when she got a big pimple on the end of her nose. Not that Kylie liked going to school with a big zit, but duh, everyone got a pimple every now and then.

But not everyone got pregnant.

Kylie could only imagine what Sara was going through.

Kylie reread her text, added a little heart, and hit send. As she waited for Sara to text back, Kylie realized she’d never been happier than right now that she hadn’t given in to Trey.

*   *   *

“Ten minutes for bathroom breaks,” the bus driver said.

Kylie looked up from the phone to the convenience store. She didn’t have to go, but considering she wasn’t exactly sure how much longer the ride would be, she dropped her phone in her purse and stood up in the aisle to follow the others off the bus.

She’d taken two steps when someone wrapped a hand around her arm. A very cold hand. Kylie jumped and swung around.

The pale girl stared at her. Or at least she assumed she stared at her. With her almost-black sunglasses, Kylie couldn’t be sure.

“You’re warm,” she said as if surprised.

Kylie pulled her arm away. “And you’re cold.”

“Nine minutes,” said the bus driver firmly, and motioned Kylie forward.

She turned around and walked out of the bus, but she felt Pale Girl’s stare bore into the back of her. Freaks. She was stuck with freaks all summer. Cold freaks. She touched her arm where the girl had held her and could swear she still felt the chill.

Five minutes later, bladder empty, she started back to the bus and saw a couple of the other kids paying for drinks. Goth Girl looked over at her from the front of the line. Then the boy with all the piercing who’d sat at the front of the bus walked past Kylie without saying a word. Deciding to grab some gum, she found her favorite grape flavor and went to stand in line. When she felt someone step behind her, she looked back to see if it was Pale Girl again. Nope, it was the boy from the back of the bus, the one with soft green eyes and brown hair. The one who reminded her of Trey.

Their gazes met.

And held.

She wasn’t sure why he reminded her of Trey. Sure, their eyes were similar but it was more than that. Maybe it was the way his shirt fit across his shoulders, and the certain air of … distance. Trey hadn’t been the easiest person to get to know. If they hadn’t been assigned as lab partners in science class, she didn’t know if they’d ever have gone out.

Yup, something about this guy seemed hard to get to know, too. Especially when he didn’t even speak. She started to swing back around when he raised his eyebrows in some kind of weak greeting. Taking his lead, she raised her own brows at him and
then
turned around.

When she faced forward, she saw Miranda and Pale Girl talking by the door and they were both looking right at her.

So, they were now ganging up on her, were they?

“Great,” she muttered.

“They’re just curious,” the deep voice whispered so close to her ear that she felt the warmth of his words against her neck.

She looked over her shoulder at him. This close, she could really see his eyes, and she realized she’d been wrong. These weren’t Trey’s eyes. This guy had flecks of gold around his pupils.

“About what?” she asked, trying not to stare.

“You, they’re curious about you. Maybe if you opened up a little…”

“Open up?” Okay, that annoyed her. She’d been giving him the benefit of the doubt about being the normal one, but not if he was going to start acting as if she was being the unfriendly one. “The only ones who spoke to me were the blond guy and Miranda, and the other one, and I talked to all of them.”

He quirked the other eyebrow at her. And for some reason that pushed her button. “Do you have a nervous twitch or something?” she asked, and then bit her tongue. Maybe she was overcoming the too-nice disease. Sara would be proud. Her mom … well, not so much.

Her mom.

Just like that, the image of her mom standing there in that parking lot filled Kylie’s mind.

“You don’t know … do you?” the boy asked, and his eyes widened, his gold flecks seemed to sparkle.

“Know what?” she asked, but her mind seemed stuck on her mom. On the fact that she hadn’t even hugged her good-bye. Why had Mom done this to her? Why had her parents decided to split? Why did any of this have to happen? The familiar knot, the need-to-cry knot, formed in her throat.

He looked over at the door and when Kylie followed his gaze, Miranda and Pale Girl were still there. Had all three of them gone to the camp before and they were like buddies and she was the new kid on the block? The new kid they’d decided to pick on?

The lady behind the counter spoke up. “Hey, you wanna pay for that gum?”

Kylie looked back at the cashier. She dropped a couple of bucks on the counter and left without getting her change. She brushed past Miranda and the other girl with her chin held high and without blinking. She dared not blink for fear the flutter of her eyelashes would bring on tears.

Not that their snotty attitudes made her want to cry. It was her mom, her dad, Nana, Trey, Soldier Dude, and now even her concern for Sara. Kylie couldn’t care less if these weirdoes liked her or not.

Chapter Five

An hour later, the bus pulled into a parking lot. Kylie had seen the Shadow Falls Camp sign posted in front. A wiggle of fear stirred in her stomach. She shifted her gaze around, almost surprised the place didn’t have a high fence and a locked gate. They were, after all, considered to be “troubled” teens.

Kylie heard the bus engine rumble to a stop. The bus driver jumped down from the seat and stretched her little chubby arms up over her head. Kylie
still
didn’t know how she reached the gas pedals.

“We’re the last bus to arrive, guys,” she said. “Everyone is waiting in the mess hall. Leave your things in the bus and someone will bring them to your cabins later.”

Kylie looked at her suitcase. She hadn’t put a tag on it. How would they know it was her suitcase? Easy—they wouldn’t. Great, she could take the luggage with her and risk getting in trouble for not following the rules, or leave it and risk losing all her clothes.

She was not going to lose her clothes. She reached for her suitcase. “They’ll bring it to you,” Miranda said.

“It doesn’t have my name on it,” Kylie replied, trying to keep the sharpness from her tone.

“They’ll figure it out. I promise,” she said as if trying to be nice.

But was Kylie going to believe her?
No.

Suddenly, the green-eyed Trey lookalike moved into the aisle. “Believe her,” he said.

Kylie looked at him. While she didn’t trust Miranda, there was something about this guy she believed. While standing there, he reached in his pocket and pulled out some money and dropped it in her hands.

“Excuse me,” Goth Girl, said, and pushed past Miranda.

Kylie stared at the dollar and few coins.

“It’s your change from the store.” He motioned for her to step into the aisle.

She dropped the money into her purse and started out. His footsteps dogged hers. She felt him behind her. Felt him lean in a little closer, his shoulder brushing against her back.

“My name’s Derek, by the way.”

Caught up in listening to his deep voice and feeling Derek behind her, she didn’t see Blond Boy jump out into the aisle. In mid-step motion, Kylie had one of two choices. Plow into Blondie or fall back into Derek. An easy decision. Derek’s hands caught her by the upper forearms. His fingers pressed against her bare skin where her sleeves ended.

She looked up over her shoulder and their gazes met.

He smiled. “You okay?”

Amazing smile. Like Trey’s. Her heart did a little jump. God, she missed Trey.

“Yeah.” She pulled away, but not before noting Derek’s warm touch. Why that seemed important she didn’t know, but the pale girl’s coldness had left an equally odd impression.

They moved out of the bus and made their way into a large cabin-like structure. Right before Kylie entered the door, she heard a strange kind of roar. Like a lion. She paused to see if she heard it again, and Derek bumped into her. “We’d better move inside,” he whispered.

Kylie’s stomach fluttered with fear. As she took that first step over the threshold, she somehow sensed her life would forever be changed.

About fifty or sixty people filled the huge dining hall that had large picnic tables running parallel to each other, and the air smelled like pork-n-beans and grilled hamburgers. Some of the kids were sitting, others were standing.

Something felt off, odd. It took her a minute to realize what it was. Silence. No one spoke. If this was the school’s lunch room, she probably wouldn’t be able to hear herself think. And that’s what everyone appeared to be doing right now. Thinking.

A quick sweep of the crowd had Kylie once again feeling as if she didn’t belong here. There was a large amount of what Kylie’s mom would call “rebellion evidence.” Sure, Kylie rebelled. But she guessed she did her thing in less noticeable ways, not so much with her clothes and such, but in her surroundings. Like the time she and Sara had painted her room purple without permission. Her mom had freaked.

These kids, they didn’t just paint their rooms, they wore their rebellion boldly. Like Miranda’s hair or that other kid on the bus who had nose rings and piercings. As Kylie’s gaze shifted around, she noticed a couple of kids had tattoos or shaved heads. And there were tons more goth-dressed kids. Black obviously had not gone out of style with troubled kids.

Uneasiness started crawling on Kylie’s skin. Maybe she had hung out with Sara too long, but it seemed evident that she didn’t fit in. But unlike Sara, Kylie wasn’t so eager to become one with this crowd.

Two months. Two months.
She repeated the words like a litany in her head. In two months, she’d be out of here.

Kylie followed Blond Boy to an empty table in the back. And when she got there, she realized all her bus companions had hung together. Not that she felt as if she belonged with them, she hadn’t even had eye contact with some of them, but face it, a known freak was better than an unknown one.

Suddenly, Kylie started feeling people turn and look at her. Or were they looking at all of them? The new kids were on display. The crowd’s gazes became a collage of cold stares with different-colored eyes, but similar expressions and a lot of eyebrow twitching.

Weirded out to the max, she looked at Derek, then Miranda and even Pale Girl and Blond Boy, and damn it if they were doing it, too. The eyebrow thing. It wasn’t cartoonish, and not as noticeable as Sara’s whole roll your eyes and pucker your brows kind of thing, but just a little twitch.

Like Derek had done back at the convenience store.

What was it with the eyebrows?

Looking back into the crowd, fighting the urge to look down at her shoes, she forced herself to hold their gazes. Face it, she didn’t want to be the chicken of the bunch. The one everyone picked on. And if that made her like Sara, so be it.

“Looks as if we are all here,” a female voice said from the front.

Kylie tried to find the face behind the voice, but her gaze clashed with another stare—a cold, bright blue-eyed stare that somehow stood out from the rest. Pulling her attention away from just the eyes, Kylie noticed the boy’s jet-black hair. And just like that, she remembered.

She remembered him.

She remembered … her cat.

“It can’t be,” she muttered under her breath.

“What can’t be?” Derek asked.

“Nothing.” Kylie forced her gaze to the front where the woman spoke in a singsong type of voice.

“Welcome to Shadow Falls Camp. We are…”

The woman, probably mid-twenties, had long red hair that hung almost to her waist. She wore jeans and a bright yellow T-shirt. Standing beside her was another woman about the same age, but good God, she wore goth. All black, even her eyes appeared black. Somebody really needed to subscribe to a fashion magazine or two.

Kylie looked over at Goth Girl who’d been on her bus. The girl stared at the woman with a sense of admiration.

“My name is Holiday Brandon and this is Sky Peacemaker.”

Right then the cabin door opened and a couple of men walked in. They looked like lawyers, or some other serious type of profession that demanded they wear matching black suits.

Kylie watched the two women up front shift their gazes to the visitors and frown. She got the feeling the two men weren’t expected. That they were even unwelcome.

Sky, the goth leader, walked over and led the men outside and Holiday continued. “Okay,” the singsong voice said. “First we’re breaking down into newbies and returnees. Everyone who has been here before will move outside. You’ll find some helpers out there with your schedules and cabin assignments. As always, the rules of this place are posted in your cabins. We expect you to read them. And let me make something clear right now, we’re not going to rearrange cabin assignments. You are here to get along, and get along you will. If a serious problem arises, bring it to the attention of either myself or Sky and we’ll discuss it, but not until after twenty-four hours. Any questions?”

Someone in the front raised a hand. “Yeah,” the female voice echoed in the room. “I have a question.”

Kylie leaned to the right to see the girl. The girl, another goth-dressed individual, turned around. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the rules, but … I want to know, who the hell is she?”

The girl pointed—pointed right at the table where Kylie stood. Or was she pointing right at Kylie? No, she couldn’t be.

Oh, damn. She was. She was pointing
at
Kylie. “Crap,” she muttered when about sixty pair of eyes all turned and focused directly on her.