The Derivative Ring

Chapter 5

Troy approved our trip to go see Lynn Smith, so on sunday morning we piled into Ben's truck. Ben would go into the house with me, no dount Lynn would recognize Ben and know not to try anything, but Adam and Nate would be in the truck just incase. I sat in the passenger seat with a map that had Lynn's location circled. Ben and Adam had only been through this part of Salem Falls a few times and we didn't want to get lost.

I think Adam and Nate were starting to realize something was going on between Ben and I, but we hadn't told anyone yet that we were together. Ben didn't want to tell his parents that he'd let the whole soulmates thing slip instead of letting me figure it out on my own, so we figured we'd give it a little time before we started telling people.

"I think we're close," I said, looking at the map. "If you turn right up here her driveway should be just on the right."

Sure enough, a few minutes later we were pulling into Lynn Smith's driveway.

"Are you ready?" Ben asked me.

I nodded. "What are we even supposed to say?"

"Let me start, and then you can jump in and tell her what happened. Okay?"

I agreed and followed him to the front door. He rang the doorbell and shortly after, a woman with short blonde hair opened the door.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm Ben Bronson, and this is Lindsey Crowther," Ben said, turning on his charm. The woman probably already knew his name. "We were wondering if we could talk to you about something?"

"What is this about?" She asked.

"Do you have a daughter?" I jumped in.

This seemed to catch her off guard. "No, why?"

"You don't have a daughter named Claira? She's about five years old? She told me you were her mother."

"You were talking to Claira?"

"Yes, is she your daughter?"

"Yes, she is. But she died four years ago."

I looked at Ben as we both realized what was going on.

"Okay, can we come in and ask you some questions?"

"No, I'm busy. I should go."

"Listen, Lynn, Lindsey was just talking to Claira yesterday, is there any way we can stay and talk to you?" Ben asked.

"No. My daughter is dead and I need to go. It was nice meeting you." And then she slammed the door.

"Are you kidding me?" I said, turning to Ben. "Someone shows up at her door saying they've talked to her dead daughter and she doesn't even have any questions she wants to ask?"

"We got what we came here for. We know what your power is."

"Yeah, seeing dead people."

I sighed and Ben took off his jacket and put it around me since I was shivering. I hadn't realized how cold it was. Ben then led me off the doorstep and towards the truck.

"What did she say?" Adam asked.

"Claira died four years ago. I can see ghosts." I replied.

"Damn," Nate said.

"Well, that's kind of cool," Adam said.

"Yeah, its great," I replied, somewhat sarcastically.

"You'll learn to like it once you figure out how to use it," Ben said, trying to make me feel better. He didn't let go of my hand the whole way home.

Once we were home, Ben had a lot of homework to finish up so he went up to his room and said he'd find me later. I decided to go find Adam, and found him in his bedroom.

"Hey," I said, stepping into his room.

"Hey, crazy day today huh?"

"Yeah, I can't say I was expecting that."

"None of us were. Where's Ben?"

"Doing homework. I was hoping you could help me with something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"You know sign language, right?"

"Yeah."

"I want to learn. I'm hoping Ben will help me with it but I was hoping you could teach me something first."

"Of course, what do you wanna know?"

"How do you say I love you?"

He laughed. "So there is something going on with you and Ben."

"Yeah," I replied. "He asked me to be his girlfriend."

"I should've known he wouldn't be able to wait. He told you didn't he?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"What a jerk, we all told him he should wait for you to figure it out."

I laughed. "It's fine, really. Since Ben knew he was supposed to be with me, do you know who you're supposed to be with?"

"Uh, yeah. One of the girls who left Salem Falls. Her name's Janie."

"Have you ever talked to her?"

"No. No one has had contact with her since they left."

"You'll find her."

"I don't know."

"It's fate. It has to happen, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyways, this is the sign for 'I love you,'" he said, holding up his pinky, his index finger and his thumb, with his other two fingers bent down. I mimicked it with my own hand. "Yeah, exactly."

I smiled. "Simple enough."

"So how are you liking it here?"

"I love it. It's so different from what I'm used too, I've missed out on so much here. When Anthony showed up at school I was scared Mom was going to make me and Nate go back home."

"This is your home now. And as far as the rest of us are concerned, there's no reason for your mom to know about it yet. It would just freak her out."

"I never thought you and Ben would be so eager to help make sure we can stay."

Adam shrugged. "I guess we're both tired of being here alone. It kind of sucked. Now at least we have some allies."

-

Sorry this chapter is so short! I've been having this horrible case of writers block and trying to figure out how i'm going to get this story where i want it to be, and this is all i could come up with so far. I'm working on more now but i didn't want to wait to put this part up, so hopefully the next chapter will be nice and long! And any feedback on the story so far would really be appreciated! Thanks for reading :)