Deviation

13: Home Sweet Home

Chapter 13

The rest of the month passed incredibly quickly and before I knew it, it was Thanksgiving break- a weeklong vacation. Rocky, Connor, Vincent and I hadn’t found anything of real importance in the books and we’d been taking a break from practicing- except for Rocky. Every day she would get back to our dorm and practice telekinesis on the random stuff lying around. She had gotten pretty good at it.

Things were still sucky relationship wise. Connor and Rocky acted like they were just friends, but every time I looked at them I could see their attraction to each other. Vincent and I weren’t doing much better; we still hadn’t passed the handholding stage. There were a couple times I thought he might ask me out, but he chickened out every time. I’d finally resolved to ask him out after I got back from Thanksgiving Break.

Right now, it was early morning and Rocky, Alison, Vincent, Connor and I were on a bus headed for the airport. Some of the students had left the night before, but Alison and I decided to leave today so it wasn’t as rushed. Already I was starting to feel that homesickness I got whenever I left Linden. I was excited to see my family, but not to leave my friends…

“Hey, we’re not there yet, don’t look so sad,” Connor told me, breaking through my cloud of thoughts and nudging my arm.

I forced a small smile onto my face as I replied, “I know it’s only a week, but I’m going to miss all of you so much. We have the same estimated time of arrival, right?” They all gave me affirmative answers and I hoped none of the flights would get delayed.

“I hate one week breaks,” Vincent muttered, tucking his phone into his pocket. “I only get to spend like three days at each of my parent’s houses.”

I was sitting next to him, so I was the only one that heard; Connor and Rocky were across the aisle. “That does suck. Whose house are you going to first?”

“My dad’s; my mom wants me to spend Thanksgiving with her,” he informed me, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

I tried to remember what he’d told me about his dad. “So you’re going to go way out to the middle of nowhere first? Do they have cell service out there?”

“Yes, they’re not hillbillies.” He rolled his eyes like it was a dumb question.

I smiled sheepishly, “I know… Does your dad have horses?”

“He does, that’s part of the reason I don’t mind leaving civilization to go up there.” He smiled. “Do you know how to ride?”

I shook my head as the bus came to a stop and we all stood up. “I took lessons when I was younger, but I haven’t ridden in a while.”

“Well remember to text me when you get home,” he told me as we got off the bus. My friends and I formed a small circle outside of the airport, although not intentionally.

I pursed my lips, trying not to cry, “Bye guys…”

“Don’t cry,” Connor groaned.

Rocky laughed, “You’re crying? You don’t seem like a very emotional person… Besides it’s only Thanksgiving break, not graduation.”

“Easy for you to say,” I complained. “You live right next door to Connor.”

She shrugged, “True.”

“Gina, hurry up,” Alison called me and I sighed in annoyance. I said goodbye and hugged Rocky, then Connor and then Vincent. He hugged me back the hardest and slightly longer than my other friends, but I didn’t mind at all.

When I pulled back, I smiled sadly at them, “See you in a week…” I reluctantly began to walk towards the airport and Alison got fed up with my pace. She came over and started pulling me inside by my jacket sleeve. I glanced back at my friends one more time, already aching for Thanksgiving break to be over.

When we reached our parents after the two hour flight, I instantly knew something was wrong. I didn’t know what it was or how I could tell, but something seemed different. I pushed the feeling aside as Mom hugged me, focusing on being home. “Hi Gina, how has the year been so far?”

“Great, I’ve made some new friends and of course my grades have stayed up,” I replied. As I hugged her, I saw Alison hugging Dad over her shoulder.

Mom squeezed me once more before letting go. “That’s great; you’ll have to tell me about them. What about you, Alison?”

“It’s been okay, my friends are all awesome. But there is way too much homework,” she complained as I hugged Dad and she hugged Mom.

Dad laughed, but there was something off about it. “Well, that’s part of being a senior. If you think that’s bad, just wait till college.”

“Wonderful,” Alison muttered sarcastically.

When all the hugging finally ended, Mom and Dad led the way to where they had parked our family’s minivan. As Dad loaded the suitcases into the trunk, Mom spoke to Alison, “Do you want to drive? I heard about all the new rules at your school and how you can’t go off campus without supervision.”

“Sure,” she exclaimed happily. She grabbed the keys from Mom and went around to the driver’s seat. Dad joined her in the front and Mom sat in the back, next to me.

I nudged her with my shoulder. “So, when do I get to start learning how to drive?”

“When you turn sixteen,” she replied automatically. We’d been over this argument a million times. Most people got to start learning to drive at fifteen, but according to my parents ‘fifteen was an immature age’ and ‘sixteen was much better’.  

I sighed loudly, “Fine…” She laughed and rolled her eyes. We spent the drive back to the house catching up about everything that had happened. We laughed and talked and I forgot all about the bad feeling that had been in the pit of my stomach earlier this morning. Everything was going great.  

It was the day before Thanksgiving when the happiness came to an end. I woke up to my parents screaming at each other downstairs. I grimaced and put on my earphones, turning the volume up and hoping it would dull the sound of their fighting. I didn’t know what they were fighting about, just that it must have been pretty important, judging by how loud they were.

Suddenly my phone buzzed with a text from Connor. Turn on your television- channel 254. Curious, I took out my earphones and flipped on the television that was in my room. It was old and dusty, but it still worked. I found the channel he had requested and saw it was a news channel. I unmuted my T.V. and let it drown out the sound of my parents’ arguing. However, what I heard was almost worse than what was going on downstairs.

There had been another attack, at Skylar’s house. It took me a minute to recognize where I had heard that name before, but I got it. Skylar was Alison’s friend. And she was the only survivor at her home. She lived about twenty minutes away from us and her family had died while she was at a party with her friends. I wondered if Alison had seen this yet.

I turned off my television and ran into Alison’s room. In my haste to get there, I had forgotten to knock and she gave me a dirty look when I bustled into her room. She was at her desk writing in a journal which she promptly snapped shut. “What do you want?” She snapped.

"Did you hear about Skylar?" I asked her, ignoring her penetrating glare. She looked over at me with annoyance.

Shaking her head slightly, she replied, "What about her?"

"Her whole family was attacked; they all died except for her. It was on the news," I told her, feeling guilty. The look of shock and horror on her face made that feeling grow. I had to remind myself that none of this was my fault.

She gulped, “You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking, because it’s not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny. Call her and ask her.” I watched as she picked up her cellphone and dialed Skylar’s number, her fingers rapidly flying over the numbers. Alison shooed me out of her room when Skylar picked up. I didn’t bother complaining.

I got back to my room and saw I had five missed texts from the past two minutes. Three were from Connor and two were from Vincent. Four of the texts were asking if I was sure I was okay, but the other one stood out. It was the first one I got from Connor after I left to tell Alison what happened.

The text from Connor was only five words long, but it solved what we had been wondering for weeks. They’re saying it was vampires.