Becoming Alpha (3 page)

I nodded, doing my best to not look disappointed and failing. It hadn’t been my idea to leave my room in the first place. Mom reached out to touch me, but I dodged her.

The crowd parted as I made my way inside. I tried not to listen to any of the whispers that followed in my wake. When I was halfway up the stairs, the DJ started playing again. By now, Mom would have taken care of Caleb, and Axel would go for a drive to wherever it was he went. And I would be here. Alone.

I couldn’t wait to leave LA. The less population density this new town had the better.

Still, I wondered if Texas would be any better. I hoped so, but Axel was right. If I didn’t learn to control these visions, my life would never be any kind of normal.

***

I was in bed trying to figure out how I’d let the night get so out of control when someone knocked on my door. Instead of waiting for an answer, Mom came in. She made her way around the boxes in my room and sat on the foot of my bed.

“On a scale of one to ten, how mad is Dad?”

Mom sighed. “He’s not mad, honey.”

I finally met her gaze. “I’m not buying that. I embarrassed him in front of all those people.”

“What’s a Hollywood party without a little drama?” She patted my leg. “We’re more worried about you.”

I stared at the ceiling. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“No. You’re not. But we’re hoping Texas will be better. That’s the whole reason we’re moving.”

I gathered my courage and hoped for the answer I wanted. “Is St. Ailbe’s a school for kids like me?”

She stuck her tongue out in a look of disgust. “No!” Then she laughed at herself. “No way. You would not fit in there. Trust me.”

Interesting. So who would fit in there? “Then why Texas? Why make Dad leave his job instead of making me switch schools again?”

I’d been through most of the private ones in Los Angeles while in lower school. By third grade, I’d exhausted all options. They finally sent me back to my original one. It was a good school, but that’s not why I went back there. The thinking was that my brother could keep an eye out for me. Their plan sort of worked. But my brother graduated, so that was that. Why my parents refused for me to do home schooling was beyond me. It would’ve made life so much easier.

“There’s really no one left who will take you besides Westlake, and I know you don’t want to stay there.”

Well that was embarrassing. “What about the public schools?”

Mom shook her head. “Not in this county. I want you to have an excellent education in a safe setting. And with your brother going off to college, it’s time for a new place. I always wanted an excuse to move back to Texas anyhow.”

“I could always do home schooling.”

“No way, kiddo. You’re already in your own head enough. I won’t let you become a hermit.”

“But Dad—”

“Why don’t you let me worry about your father? Okay? This job is a good one. He’ll be making the same as he was here with a fraction of the workload. After you leave for college, we’ll talk about coming back to LA, but I doubt we will. I have a feeling we’re all going to be
happier there. Plus, we’ll be by your cousins. I think you’ll find that you have more in common with them than you think.”

That had me sitting up. “Seriously?” The crazy
brujos
? She thought I’d have more in common with a bunch of crazy people that thought they were witches. I knew my
abuela
had gifts like mine, but some of the stuff the rest of the family believed was really out there. I doubted they’d see eye to eye with me.

“It’s my fault really. I didn’t keep up with them after your
abuela
died.” Her voice was soft, and tinged with regret. “But I tracked down my cousin Ana, and her twins Veronica and Carlos both have gifts. They’re a few years younger than you, but it’s better than nothing.”

She had a point. They couldn’t be any worse than the kids at school. Plus, who was I to judge someone for being weird.

Mom stood up, and smoothed down her dress. “I know it’s been hard for you here, but it’ll get easier.”

“Thanks. As you can tell,” I motioned to the boxes, “I think I might be ready to move.”

She laughed. “Good. You can help me pack the kitchen tomorrow.”

“Sure thing.”

Dad popped in the doorway. “You okay, princess?”

I nodded. “Sorry, Dad.”

“Don’t apologize for things that aren’t your fault.” He turned to Mom. “People are clearing out.”

“I’ll be right down.”

“Great.” Dad winked at me. “Get some sleep, princess.”

Mom stopped at the door. “Light on or off?”

“Off.” She was almost out the door when I stopped her again. “Mom.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome.” It was too dark to see her face, but I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was smiling.

I lay in the dark listening to the sounds of the dying party. I had been excited about the move, but now I was seriously pumped. Cousins with gifts? This could change everything. But why hadn’t Mom contacted them before? What was different now?

The more I thought about it the more questions I had. And not only about my cousins, but about St. Ailbe’s. And those wolf-dog things. And that guy.

Mostly about that guy.

I rested my head against the window as my father drove. We were almost to our new home. After all the build up, the next chapter in my life was just around the bend, and the anxiety of meeting it head-on had my knees bouncing.

At least Axel wasn’t in the car with us. He and Mom were following us in his Jetta. We’d switched on the last stop so that Axel could eat his grotesque snack of choice. He was more than annoying when he didn’t get his way. Dad and I had much more acceptable munchies in the form of M&M’s and Cheetos in his Lexus SUV.

Neither car was fully packed with stuff. The moving van would come later today, and Mom’s car was getting shipped here from LA. She didn’t want anyone riding alone, just in case we got separated. I was still hoping now that Axel was taking off, a car for me would show up. It’d be nice not to have my parents drop me off on the first day of my senior year.

I grabbed for some snacks, more for a distraction than because I was hungry. I was trying to think positively about the chances of pulling off the whole “normal” thing at my new school,
but the closer it got, the more my confidence waned. “Want any?” I held the open bag of Cheetos to Dad.

“I better not. Those things are like crack. Once you start, you’ll never stop.”

I fake gasped. “Dad! You’ve done crack?”

He laughed.

“But seriously. You dare turn down day-glow cheese?”

“Hey, I’m trying to undo the damage I did to myself when I was your age.” He patted his stomach, which was mostly flat. He turned a corner into a gated complex. Although the word “complex” was a stretch. The gate opened onto a dirt road. Vegetation on either side threatened to swallow it.

“What’s the code again?” Dad asked.

“Eighteen thirty-six.” I scratched my head. “That sounds like a date.”

He leaned out of the window to punch in the code. “Yup. Year of the battle of the Alamo. Welcome to Texas, princess.” Leave it to Dad, the history buff, to know the answer.

Dad clicked his seatbelt back into place, and we drove down the bumpy road. I checked the directions from Dad’s new boss again. “Says here that we’re the ninth driveway. If we get to the fork, then we’ve gone too far.”

Dad grunted. “Well, we’re definitely in for a change here.”

“You could say that.” It seemed like these tiny driveways were more like trails in a national park. I couldn’t see any houses, and the “driveways” were really spread out.

When we reached the fifth, Dad cleared his throat. “So the head of St. Ailbe’s is meeting us at the house with the keys. I, uh, just…” Dad trailed off.

“What?”

He sighed. “Try not to touch anything or have any visions in front of him. I didn’t exactly say anything about—”

“Dad. Seriously. It’s not a big deal. I would rather not have one either, but in the event that I do, I’ll try to hide it. Cool?”

He patted my jean-clad leg. “Thanks, princess.”

“That’s nine.” I pointed to the driveway. It curved down a hill and finally opened up to a beautifully manicured lawn. A circular drive with a giant oak tree in the middle led up to the pale yellow stucco house. Butterflies filled my stomach as we stopped in front. It wasn’t as big as our house in LA, but almost. The white wrap-around porch drew my attention, especially the bench swing to the left of the front door. Off to the right was a white two-car garage.

Dad parked in front of the garage to leave the drive open, and Axel pulled up beside us. I slipped down from the SUV and pulled a pair of thin tie-dyed gloves from my pocket.

Mom hopped out of Axel’s car and put her arm around me. “How was the last of the drive?”

“Fine. But you still smell like chicharones.” I made a face. She tried to smother my face with kisses, but I pushed her away. “Nasty!”

The screen door squeaked open, which shocked me. Besides our two cars, there were no others here. A man stepped onto the porch, and we stopped goofing off. Mom straightened her shirt, and Dad knocked on Axel’s window. “Quit texting.”

I didn’t fully turn to Dad’s new boss until Axel was out of the car. I don’t know why I was surprised to see the older man from my vision walking out of the house. He was the one who hired my dad, so he’d most likely held the papers that gave me the vision. But I was still caught
with my mouth hanging open. The whole thing was weird, and that was saying something for a girl who was used to weird.

Now that I was seeing him in the flesh, Dad’s boss looked a bit younger than my parents. Light brown hair curled around his neck. He hadn’t shaved, giving him a rugged look that went along with his scarred hiking boots. He didn’t make a sound as he walked down the steps, which was eerie enough without adding the fact that he’d co-starred in one of my oddest visions ever.

I didn’t know I’d made a noise until Axel elbowed me. “Dude. You okay?”

I cleared my throat. “Totally. Why wouldn’t I be?” Axel had been pestering me ever since I had the vision in Dad’s office, but I hadn’t spilled much. Maybe I should’ve told him, but I couldn’t bring myself to. For some reason, my connection with the younger guy felt personal.

“Thank you for getting here so quickly, John,” he said to Dad. “I’m Michael Dawson.” His grey T-shirt was a smidge too tight around his arms, making it strain against his biceps as he reached out a hand.

Dad stepped forward to shake it. “Wasn’t a problem. This is my wife, Gabriela, my son, Axel, and my daughter, Tessa.”

Axel and I stayed by the car while our parents greeted him. It was better to keep my distance, less chance of a vision that way. But when Mr. Dawson reached to shake Axel’s hand, he abandoned me. I sighed. This was going to be awkward.

Mr. Dawson held out his hand to me, but I didn’t take it. “Welcome to Texas,” he said. It sounded a little like a question.

Mom gave a nervous laugh instead of her normal booming one. “It’s been a long drive, and we’re a little cranky. But we can’t wait to get settled in.”

Nice save.

A breeze picked up, blowing my hair in my face. It’d finally grown past the bottom of my shoulder blades. I pulled a rubber band out of my pocket and yanked the wavy mess into a sloppy bun.

I followed them to the house. As soon as my flip-flop hit the bottom step I had a feeling that this house was going to be full of stuff for me to “see.” I shoved my gloved hands in my pockets. Better safe than sorry while Mr. Dawson was around. Mom and Dad were touring the house with him. Axel hung back with me. “What’s your deal?”

I shrugged. “Didn’t you see how he walked?”

“No.”

“Remember when we went to the San Diego Safari Park and spent the night and we went into the tiger enclosure?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Those cats were crazy. They were inches from us the whole time, and we didn’t even notice it until the guide shined her flashlight on them.”

“Exactly.”

“And what does that have to do with Mr. Dawson?”

“He didn’t make a sound coming down those stairs.”

Axel shoved me. “You’re messing with me.”

I shoved him back. “No. I’m actually not. Pay better attention next time.”

We walked through the door and went the opposite way my parents had gone, ending up in a living room.

“Look at this yard,” Axel said as he looked out a back window.

“What yard? All I see is forest.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

I shook my head. He was so weird sometimes. “I’m going to go claim my room.” I found it upstairs, first door on the left, complete with en suite bathroom. It was even better than the pictures Dad had shown us. A bay window with a bench faced the front yard. The unpaved driveway disappeared around the corner, hidden by the forest.

Axel stomped into my new room. “Oh, this is for sure my room.”

“No. Yours is next to Mom and Dad’s. This is mine.”

“No way. I’m older. I get this one. With the tree, it’d give me maximum sneaking-out capabilities.”

“Dude.” I smacked him on the back of his head. “You’re not really going to be living here.”

“Right. Forgot about that part.”

I snorted.

“This can be your room I guess.”

I rolled my eyes. “Perfect. Thanks so much.”

Mom called from downstairs.

“Coming.” We walked down to find her.

“How are you guys doing?” she asked as soon as we entered the kitchen. Dad and Mr. Dawson were standing around the kitchen island with her. It was a nice, bright white kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances.

“My room is much better than Axel’s and that’s what counts, right?”

“That’s right,” Dad said.

“Hey!” Axel said.

Mr. Dawson chuckled and the sound gave me goosebumps. There was something off about him, and I wanted to figure out what it was.

“I opened all the windows down here to air it out a bit with that nice breeze,” Mom said. “But it’s so hot out, we’ll need to close them in a minute. Help me with that?”