Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) (12 page)

“Cam, I never got along much with Hannah,
but Yolanda
really
didn’t get along
with her. Hannah never thought of Yolanda as a sister, but more like a living
thing taking up space in the house. Our mother tried her best to love her, but
it was never enough. Hannah made life
Hell
for Yolanda.”

“That’s why I’m not exactly sad to have
to kick some Hannah ass,” Yolanda said.

In the middle of Yolanda’s sentence, I
heard a strange noise from above, like a flock of birds had flown by or a stack
of rocks had collapsed. There was something up there, and I had no idea what it
could be.

The nerves hit me instantly. “Liesel,
I—”

“That’s so weird he calls you
Liesel
!” Yolanda said. “That’s such a
dopey name! Why did you decide on choosing th—
”

“Leese, tell me again, why would we meet
here, if Hannah knows it exists?”

“She’s not here, Cam,” Liesel said.
“There’s no way Hannah’s anywhere near L.A.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do. Don’t ask me why.”

“She has to assume we might come here,
right?”

“No.”

“No?”

“If anything, Hannah should be scared of
this place. There’s no telling what the three of us together could do to her.”

I started jumping up and down, my heart
racing, my ears picking up more frequency from above. “Leese, what the hell
couldn’t
she do to us? You said it
yourself! Yolanda doesn’t have any powers! What are three non-magical humans
going to do to stop Hannah, who has the power of
seven
witches? Couldn’t she just kill us with a blink of her eye?”

“It’s not as simple as you’re making this
out to be—”

“I don’t care! All I know is that we
could be in serious danger right now! And all you two want to do is catch up
and reminisce! Is now really the time for that?”

I couldn’t help it. I was really starting
to lose it. I felt like I was pinned down, like my hands were cuffed behind me
and there was nothing I could do to stop the inevitable.

Everyone’s
going to die, and it’s all going to be our fault, because we didn’t act quickly
enough, because we didn’t know what to do.

Both sisters crossed their arms at the
same time and stared at me, as if they had yet another big secret they were
itching to reveal to me.

“What?” I asked. “What is it?”

“You haven’t told him yet?” Yolanda
asked.

Liesel shook her head. Now I could see that
she was nervous, too, biting her lip and looking like she was going to start
crying. “I don’t know if there’s ever been a good time. But I guess now’s
better late than never.”

“Better late than never for what?” I
asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Yolanda waited for Liesel to say
something. When she didn’t, she took a step forward and grasped my shoulder.
“You see, Cam, what Alicia—I mean, Liesel—is trying to say, is
that—”

“No,” Liesel said, whisking me away from
her adopted sister. “No, I need to do this.”

She pulled me to the side. I wanted to
start crying, even though I didn’t know what for. I had no idea what this
secret could be, but I knew it was going to be huge. “Leese, you’re scaring
me.”

“It’s not bad, Cam.”

She wouldn’t look me in the eye. I knew
it was bad; it had to be. “Then just tell me. What is it? I can handle it! You
told me a few days ago that the world was coming to an end, and that you were
pregnant, and—”

“You’re
pregnant
?” Yolanda shouted from behind us. Before I could move
away, she was hugging the both of us. “Oh my God, you didn’t tell me that!
That’s so exciting!”

“Shut it!” I shouted at the top of my
lungs. “Tell me what the secret is! Please!”

The sisters looked at me again. Yolanda
giggled, and Liesel returned to her look of nerves and fright.

“Cam… there’s a reason I came to Reno…
there’s a reason I fell in love with you freshman year… from the moment I first
saw you…”

“You mean—”

“It wasn’t random,” Liesel said. “The
city.
The high school.
We were always… meant to be.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I had no idea
what she was talking about.

Yolanda smiled. “That’s so sweet!”

But I had by now tuned Yolanda out. I
needed to hear the truth. “Liesel, look me in the eye and tell me…”

She stared at me, but wouldn’t open her
mouth.

“Tell me the truth, now, once and for
all. Why did you come to Reno? Why did you fall for me? What is it about
me
?”

Liesel looked at Yolanda, then back at
me. She took a deep breath, and shrugged her shoulders.

“You’re a witch, Cameron. The only male
witch in the western United States.”

I didn’t hear her second sentence.

I had already fainted.
 

YOLANDA

Yolanda Foxwell hadn’t exactly been excited
to see her sister before meeting her at Red Rock Canyon, but she was intrigued,
to say the least. It had been over five years since they’d talked, of course,
and she wondered what she’d look like these days. Would she have the long,
flowing red hair? Would the freckles still be there? Would her boobs be bigger,
or smaller, maybe? She was curious. And as she lay in bed with her boyfriend
Shaun, a tall gangster white boy with three tattoos, a broken ankle, and an
overbite, she started to wonder what the next few days would have in store.

“I’m
gonna
be
leaving soon,” she said to Shaun.

“Where are you going?”

“It might be for a few days. I don’t know
for sure yet.”

He lay on the bed next to her, wearing
only a tank top and boxers, slowly caressing her shoulders. He had been aware
of her odd behavior and wanted to know what was bothering her.

“Can I go with you?” he asked.

“No. This is a lone mission.”

“A mission? What is it you’re actually
gonna do?”

She sat up in the bed and brushed the
hair out of her face. She looked down the empty hallway and realized she
probably would never step foot in this crummy house again. She had much bigger
plans in her future than this guy and this town.

“Somebody from my past has done a really
terrible thing,” Yolanda said. “I can’t just sit by and let her go on.”

Shaun shook his head, clearly taken aback
by her vague little speech. “So when are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

“What about your job?”

She laughed and turned to him. “You don’t
really listen to me much anymore, do you? I quit my job. Last week.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I told you last night.”

“I must’ve been tired. You know my hours
are killing me, baby.”

He brought his hands past her shoulders
and started reaching for her breasts. She quickly pushed him away.

“You know what this means, don’t you?”
she said.

“What?”

“We’ve had a lot of fun together. And I
don’t regret a second of it. But Shaun, this has to end here.”

“What does, baby?”

He still wasn’t getting it. “You know.
Us. As a couple.”

“
What
?”

“I’m sorry. I just have too much to deal
with right now.”

“You told me you loved me,” he said,
looking away from her.

“I do love you. I did, I mean. I’m not
just going on a trip, Shaun. I’m leaving San Diego. Forever. I’m not coming
back.”

“I’ll go with you,” he said. “I’ll go wherever
you wanna go. You
wanna
go to L.A.? New York?”

“It’s not about where I want to go. It’s
about where I
have
to go.”

He didn’t say anything. He just stared at
the wall, turned away from her, showing emotion for the first time in weeks. “You
don’t love me anymore? I’ve been good to you.”

“I know you have. But it’s not
gonna
work. Not any longer. I’m sorry.”

She kissed him on the cheek, grabbed her
bag of clothes, and headed down the hallway. Shaun didn’t try to stop her. He
didn’t even move from the bed.

As Yolanda reached the end of the
hallway, Shaun’s kid brother Kris grabbed her hands from behind.

“Yolanda! Yolanda!”

She turned around. Shaun’s five-year-old
brother looked close to ten.
 

“What is it?”

“I wanted to know if you can stay and go
swimming with me?”

She knelt down and smiled at him. “No.
Unfortunately I have to get going. But I’ll take a rain check, OK?”

“What’s a rain check?”

“It means, another time.”

“Oh OK. Next time maybe we can go
swimming. And then have lunch!”

She slapped him on his flat adolescent
belly and stood up. “Watch your eating habits, Kris, or you’re gonna get super
fat.”

He transformed his face into a vicious
snarl. “Huh?”

“Nothing. Catch you later.”

Yolanda stepped out into the breezy
afternoon sun and jumped into her Jeep Wrangler. She looked at the house one
last time, veered onto the street, and headed for the I-5 Freeway. She put on
her sunglasses and started blaring some cheesy 90’s soft rock music through the
car’s front two speakers.

“Cuz I’m your lady…” Yolanda started
singing, even though it sounded more like shrieking. “Whenever you reach for
me… I do all that I—”

When her cell phone started buzzing on
the passenger seat, she turned the music down and answered it right away,
knowing who was to be the voice on the other end.

“Hello? Hey.” Yolanda swerved around a
few cars that were going way too slow for her liking. “Yeah, I know exactly
what to do,” she said on the phone. “Excited to see Cameron again?”
 

She didn’t know why but the voice on the
other end was soothing her, like she was a part of a plan that was finally
going to bring forth justice. She felt really good about this. And, considering
she hadn’t taken an acting class since the seventh grade, she knew she was
going to have to whip out her dormant theatrical chops for a few days, however
long it would take to train the dumb boy.

“I couldn’t find the powers,” Hannah said
over the phone. “They’re buried so deep within Cameron that you and Liesel need
to do all you can to pry them out. Once I get Cameron’s powers, there will be
no stopping me.”

“I know,” Yolanda said with a smile.
“You’re already taking over the world. Just imagine what’ll happen when you
inherit Cameron’s powers. The strength you’ll have… it’ll be otherworldly.”

Silence followed for a moment, and then
an eerie giggling erupted on the other end. “I love that Alicia’s going to
think you’re on her side.”

“I know.”

“She thinks after she abandoned us that
you would still be on her side. How naïve.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“OK, well you know what to do,” Hannah
said. “Just make sure you draw it out. Don’t have this happen too quickly. I
want to make sure everybody Alicia knows are going to suffer long, agonizing
deaths.”

“Including Cameron?”

“Of course, Cameron. That boy’s going to die
at my hand. And we’ll see how that perky little Reno waitress Alicia… oh wait,
excuse me,
Liesel
… fares in the long
run when her goodie two-shoes husband’s no longer with her.”

“Oooooh, you are so evil, Hannah.”

“Evil? No. I am seeking justice. And we’re
going to make our sister and her boy toy serve out that justice… right before
the world becomes ours, and only ours.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” Yolanda said.

“Same to you,” she said. “Now get to Red
Rock Canyon, put on a smiley face, and make sure those two don’t suspect a
thing. I’m counting on you, Yolanda. You’re a major piece in this plan. If you
screw up in any way, the whole mission could be at risk, do you understand?”

“Yes, Hannah. I promise you. I won’t let
you down. Alicia has to pay for abandoning us the way she did. Leaving us all
alone… with Mother. She’s not gonna know what hit her.”

“All right. I’ll talk to you in a few
days. Keep me informed on Cameron’s progress. I’ll be waiting to hear from
you.”

“OK.”

The line went dead, and Yolanda tossed
her phone on the back seat. She couldn’t believe the time she was making. She
was already out of San Diego, already headed for Los Angeles, Lancaster,
Palmdale, and soon, Red Rock Canyon.

She was so excited to see her sister for
the first time in five years.

But unfortunately for Liesel, it was for
all the wrong reasons.