Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) (33 page)

“But that’s not important right now,” my father added. “All we care about is getting Zoe set up for when we’re gone. It could come at any time, and we need to know that she’ll be taken care of. That’s why we’re asking you this now, because Reyna’s travels have started to show signs that it’s coming soon.”

“Well there’s no question we’d take Zoe in,” Mark said shortly. “We’ll take care of her like our own daughter. But, she’s already 15, isn’t there a slight chance that maybe he’s forgotten about you guys?”

My parents both exchanged grave looks. “That’s not possible,” my mother said. “Zoe is too important for him to just forget. He’ll be watching her always. Our best hope is for her to go to school and find…”

At that moment, young Zoe and Annie interrupted the adults’ secret talk. Before I could react or even move closer, everything started to get blurry. The final image of both families reuniting on the top of the Space Needle became engrained in my mind until I found myself being shaken awake back in our apartment.

“Zoe, it’s time to get up!” Annie said distantly.

“Huh?” I stuttered, adjusting back to her room.

“You’ve got class in 20 minutes. You’re going to be late if you don’t get up!”

Shaking my head, I stood up and stammered towards the door. My most recent dream and inability to fully travel back again started to build my frustration to dangerous levels. I then headed into my room, wondering how much of a role the Johnsons’ had to play in Common Ground.

**************************************

Finals week came faster than a gust of wind. After going weeks without Annie but having the company of Hope and Steph, the lead up to finals was the exact opposite. Hope and Steph were practically invisible, while Annie was constantly around, an arrangement I wouldn’t have given up for the world.

“I really hate you sometimes,” Annie said the morning before the last day of finals. We were both using the bathroom mirror to get ready for the day.

“Why?” I laughed. “What’d I do this time?”

She stood there and shook her head. “You just don’t even have to try, do you?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about!” I said, grabbing a hair band and tying it into a perfect ponytail.

“You’re hot! And you don’t even need to wear makeup or anything!” she whined. Her mascara bottle smacked the counter extremely hard while she said it. “It’s not fair!”

“Please,” I sighed. “I’m not doing this again. I hate makeup; you should know that by now.”

“Whatever, maybe someday you’ll share your secret with me,” Annie joked, zipping up her makeup bag and storming out in a huff.

My relationship with Annie was back and better than ever. Liam’s betrayal of Annie, although horrible and disgusting, was the best thing that could have happened to us. Even though I’d learned a lot more about Common Ground, and Annie’s life was in danger, I felt it best to keep Annie in the dark on it all. My mind was prepared to deal with it, but if Annie knew, she’d probably lock herself away forever. Instead, the medallion never came up and I felt perfectly fine with having Liam hold onto it. It was better for her to assume it was from Liam and ignore it than to wonder why it was sent.  She seemed to have been moving on from Liam in her own way as she hadn’t mentioned him once since the day we got back to school. To my pleasure, Annie had spent her entire time going to class and studying.

“Are you ready?” Annie asked somewhat nervously while we headed towards campus.

“I think so,” I replied. “The question is, are you?”

“Yeah, I’m definitely ready. I swear, if I don’t pass this Econ test, I’m going to drop out,” she over-dramatized. “I studied ‘til like four in the morning! My brain feels like mush.”

I secretly knew how late Annie had been up. Although my body needed sleep and felt tired, sleep had become an infrequent occasion. Some nights I wouldn’t need to sleep at all and would feel fully energized during the day. The nights leading up to finals were sleepless nights, which actually made me extremely bored. A part of me felt pity because I knew Annie was driving herself crazy night after night studying while I sat thinking more and more about Common Ground.

“We should get some grub,” Annie yawned. “My stomach is screaming at me.”

We changed course and walked towards the Pit, where we found Steph and Hope grabbing some pre-finals breakfast.

“Annie!” Steph gleefully yelled as we entered.

“Hey,” Annie said, reciprocating the joyful hug Steph had clamped on her.

“Where have you been?” Steph demanded. Even though Annie was back, she had been so secretive that even our downstairs neighbors hadn’t seen her since Thanksgiving. Annie just gave a half smile and walked into the common area.

“Just been dealing with some stuff,” she said.

“Like what?” Steph asked, putting a caring arm around Annie’s shoulders.

“Just random things. My grades have slumped a little, so I’ve kinda had to lock myself away for a few weeks,” she said. Even though she was lying, you wouldn’t have been able to tell. Her face looked tired still and she slumped down a little while she walked.

“Oh, well, do you think you’ll be able to come on the camping trip tomorrow?” she asked hopefully, looking back and forth between Annie and me. “Zoe told you about that, right?”

“What?” Annie replied distantly. “Oh, yeah, we’re going to come, but it’ll just be the two of us.”

“Why? What about Liam?” she asked, stopping suddenly and grabbing Annie’s arm.

“Oh, we broke up,” Annie mumbled. Steph’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“What happened?” she whispered. “You were going so strong…”

Annie just shrugged her shoulders and continued shopping around for some breakfast, stopping at the smoothie bar. She ordered a strawberry, banana smoothie then looked at me. “Want one?”

I nodded and kept looking between her and Steph, waiting to see if Annie would respond.  It took another minute before Steph spoke again.

“What happened?” she said louder, laughing uncomfortably.

“Oh Steph stop!” she snapped. “I don’t want to talk about it, can’t you see that? If you want to know, why don’t you go ask your boyfriend?”

It was time for my mouth to drop in shock. It was the exact opposite reaction that I had been expecting. Annie’s voice sounded like it was unleashing every bad thought, every tear from Liam into Steph. Even though I felt bad for her, Steph had been pressing and should have known that sometimes you just need to leave a girl alone.

Steph sat there stunned for a moment, staring painfully at Annie. It was the first time I had ever seen the slightest bit of disagreement between the two of them.

“Fine,” Steph said, her voice cracking. It looked like she was about to cry but had restrained. “Good luck with finals.” And with that, she turned on the spot and stormed off. Hope and I were both standing there silently, watching the madness unfold.

“Give me a sec,” I whispered to Hope, who nodded silently and slouched off towards the cereal bar, leaving Annie and me alone.

“Wow,” I said quietly to her. “Where did that come from?”

“I don’t know,” Annie mumbled. “I guess I’m just not ready to talk about it yet.”

Her face had shifted from fire and anger to weariness and depression in a matter of moments. Any rage left from Steph’s innocent questioning had faded, only to be replaced by absolute sadness.

“You know whenever you need me, I’m here for you right?” I said with a reassuring rub of her back.

She just smiled and nodded. “You and Hope better get going, you’ll be late.”

Steph and Annie’s mini-blowup had taken a little more time out of the morning than what was planned. The clock on the wall told me that the Philosophy final started in five minutes. Feeling rushed, I grabbed my smoothie, gave a quick goodbye to Annie and pulled Hope by the arm on our way out of the Pit.

“What was that all about?” Hope asked while we left the Pit.

“Annie’s real stressed about finals, and Steph was her scapegoat I guess,” I shrugged. “She’s barely spoken to me the last few days, so I don’t think it was anything personal.”

“I’ve never seen that side of her before,” Hope mumbled. “It was kinda scary.”

“Everything will be fine,” I reassured her. “Once finals are over and we’re all up in the mountains, this will all be a thing of the past.”

Hope gave a weak smile and continued on. Truth was, I wasn’t so sure of Annie’s ability to forgive. There was no proof that Annie was ready to be surrounded by other people with boyfriends. On top of that, one of the guys would be her ex’s best friend. While my thoughts continued to race around Annie’s most recent blowup, I entered Philosophy and buckled down for my first final.

Once my two finals were over for the day, I decided it was a good idea to head home and see how Annie had done with her Economics test.

“You home?” I shouted when the condo door shut behind me.

“I’m out here!” Annie yelled from what sounded like the living room.

The sliding glass door to our balcony was wide open and Annie was lounging on one of the two cheap beach chairs we had purchased to give our balcony some pizzazz. She had her sunglasses on and was sipping what looked like water, but didn’t smell like water.

“A little early to be drinking, isn’t it?” I asked, taking a seat in the other chair.  She had her feet kicked up on the ledge, and had the first full smile I’d seen in weeks.

“The test went awesome!” she squealed. “Every single thing I studied for was on that test. I was the first to finish!”

“Unbelievable!” I exclaimed. “I’m proud of you Ann. Really I am. You’ve come a long way this semester, and I knew you could do it.” I gave her a wide smile and kicked my feet up to join hers on the ledge.

“Thanks, want a drink?” she asked.

“No thanks, I’ve got Professor Woodward’s final tomorrow, so I should be ready for that. You go ahead though.”

“More for me,” she said happily. “Speaking of Woodward, how have things been with him? Since we weren’t talking much before Thanksgiving, I never got a chance to find out if you figured out anything else about him and your parents?”

It was a strange feeling to be talking with Annie about Professor Woodward and those connections. Part of me wanted to tell my best friend everything that I knew; the special world of angels and demons, my unbreakable bond to her and all of my unknown abilities were on the tip of my tongue ready to come out. But, I remembered that Professor Woodward talked about secrecy and how important it was.

“Still nothing. All I know is what you know. He and my dad went to school together and that’s about it.”

“Have things gotten weird between the two of you then?” she asked.

“Not at first, but lately he’s been distant,” I started to say.

“How so?”

“Right after we got back from Thanksgiving, I emailed him about something and he never responded. Then, anytime I’ve been in class with him, he’s been bolting the room as soon as class finishes, not giving me any chances to talk with him,” I finished.

That was the only truth I could tell Annie about Professor Woodward. His distance since Thanksgiving had started to become annoying. There was never a response email about the medallion, and he had yet to speak with me since the break had ended. Both he and Liam had been avoiding me since then, and there was no explanation or reason why.

“That’s weird,” she said, looking thoughtful. “I’m sure he’ll come around.”

“Whatever, it’s no biggie,” I replied. And with that, there was no more mention of Professor Woodward or any other man for that matter. We sat outside for a good portion of the afternoon just talking and catching up. It felt great to have Annie back, and doing well on her finals was the perfect cure to her boyfriend ills.

The final day of the semester started with a surprise. My entire Yoga class received an email from Mr. Himani saying that our final session of the semester had been cancelled and for everyone to have a happy holiday. Luckily, it gave me extra time to prepare for Professor Woodward’s final and also to get some packing done for the camping trip.

“So, I need you back by four this afternoon,” Annie said from somewhere behind an enormous pile of camping stuff scattered around the living room.

“For what?”  I replied, trying to find a clear path to the kitchen.

“To leave for the mountain!” she panted, finally popping up next to the stereo by the TV.

“Shouldn’t be a problem. What are you up to today?”

“I’m just going to finish packing, maybe take a trip to the store. Need anything while I’m out?” she asked from the living room.

“Yeah, get some OJ and some munchies for the road,” I shouted back towards the living room.

“Will do,” she responded. “I’m gonna go shower, good luck on the final!”

**************************************

Campus was a ghost town while I walked towards the Pit. Only a few random students, a majority that were in Professor Woodward’s class, seemed to pop up here and there. When I entered the Pit, I noticed two very familiar people standing by the juice machine, talking covertly.