Starlight (Book 1)

12: Where There's a Spark

Alaina couldn't drive fast enough for Dad. Something was clearly wrong, and the confusion of not knowing what was going on—what had happened at Sleeping Lake, and what was happening now—was overwhelming me.

"Twice in one weekend," Eleni said. She was staring down at her socks, kicking her feet back and forth through the air. "This is so... odd."

Lily groaned. "Can you pass me the chips?"

Eleni handed the bowl to Lily, who dove her hand into it, grumbling to herself the whole time.

"Do you think our apartment is okay?"

"We don't even live anywhere near there," said Jax.

"Yeah, but still."

"Do you think we'll miss school on Monday?" asked Lily.

"Don't we have practice?" said Eleni.

"Yeah, well, if the school is literally burning—"

"The school is not going anywhere," said Alaina, from the driver's seat, causing a chorus of groans to rise from our group.

"Damn," mumbled Jax.

Lily drove her hands into the chip bowl once more. I didn't know it to be possible, but she was somehow eating angrily.

Behind the window, I could see the trees blurring past in a melting pot of greens and greys.

Lily and I looked through the pictures we had taken on the hill. With the glare the sun provided, some of them were quite bad, and she, Eleni, and I found it increasingly funny to cycle through the images one after the other, like some kind of sideshow.

As I showed Lily more of the pictures I had taken, as few as they were, a noise interrupted her.

"Oh, that's my phone," I said, tugging it free from my pocket. A techno version of a song from one of my favourite movies carried through the room, and the words "unknown number" flashed across the screen—but I knew that it could only be one person.

"Dad, it's Riley," I said.

"Answer it," Kieran told me.

I rushed to press my finger against the button that accepted the call. At first, I didn't dare to speak. The only thing I could hear was a strange silence, followed closely by a rumble which I couldn't quite place.

"Kat?" said a voice.

"Oh, hi," I replied. "Sorry, we're on the road."

"Your dad is still there, right? Can you pass the phone to him, please?"

I glanced over at Kieran, who stared back at me. I didn't even have to form the question.

After he nodded, I replied, "What's going on?"

A pause. "Kat, I... this is something I'm not sure I want to explain right this second. Give the phone to Kieran—now, please."

Grumbling, I stood up and passed the phone to Dad. He took it from me with a look I could only interpret as 'this had better be good,' and barked in his Orion-voice: "What?"

A few moments of silence followed. I could tell everyone in the camper was trying to figure out just how bad the news was from the expression on Dad's face. I had to give him credit there: he just nodded and listened, giving away absolutely nothing.

"Yes, I understand... you know, Lee... yes, I said, I'm on my way. We'll be there in about—yeah, yeah, I'll tell her." He glanced at me. "I get that, Lee, I know. Listen, why don't you call me back in a few hours? We can talk about it later..."