Rewind (Vanish Book Three) (2 page)

“
Rose, I know I’m not the
only one that knows what’s going on here.”

“
No, Scarlett I don’t know
what is going on with you. You’re acting weird. I mean, the
Scarlett I know would have ditched the funeral to go to the mall….
Which reminds me, if you weren’t with Nicole, who were you
with?”

“
I was with Dante,” I
explained. I felt awful that I missed the funeral, but I had to
find him.

“
Dante?” Rose said,
confused. “You wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Dante
Quinn”

“
No, Rose something has
changed, and it’s not me,” I explained.

“
Alright, if you say
so.”

“
Okay forget about all of
this.” I shook my head. “We came back from the future Rose. I’ve
been friends with Dante since I was ten—”

“
No you’ve been friends with
those awful girls since you were ten.”

I thought for a moment, was it possible
that we changed things so much that no one had powers anymore? That
must be it! If they had powers, they would know I was telling the
truth— or it would at least be a little bit likelier that they
would believe it.

“
So Rose,” I began. “Have
you ever heard of real people having superpowers?”

“
No,” she answered as she
lay on her bed flipping through the pages of a magazine.

“
So you can’t go back in
time?”

“
No,” she said as she
glanced up at me. “I’m starting to think that you really have gone
crazy, Scarlett.”

“
I was joking,” I laughed
more convincingly than I expected. “I’m going for a walk.” She
looked up from the magazine again.

“
Don’t be back too late, we
have school tomorrow.”

I turned down the street
without thinking, before I knew it I was standing in front of
Dante’s house. I wanted to knock on the door. I needed to see him,
but I knew it would be the same as it had been in the
woods.

I turned around and walked
to Grace’s. I needed to see her
alive
, and I hadn’t seen her since I
got here. When I got to her house, I walked up to the porch and
knocked on the door. A woman that I didn’t recognize answered the
door.

“
Is Grace here?” I
asked.

“
No, sorry,” she said before
she shut the door.

Grace didn’t live here
anymore? I would just have to look for her at school tomorrow. I
wasn’t looking forward to that. I had no idea what had happened
before in this alternate universe, but I was certain I would make a
fool out of myself somehow.

I walked home and got in
bed. Rose was already asleep. I was so worried about tomorrow,
besides looking like an idiot, what if someone did realize
something else was
off
.

I closed my eyes, and tried
to forget everything. If I wanted to pull this off, I needed to be
well rested.

When I did fall asleep, I
knew as soon as my dream began, that it wouldn’t be a good one. It
was a dream of the future—a dream of my past.

I stood at the edge of the
cliff as the Alliance stared me down. There were about twenty
people, so at least the whole Alliance wasn’t after me… yet. I knew
I was dreaming, so I took the time to observe each of them. I
looked through the crowd from the right to the left. I didn’t
notice anyone familiar until I came to the end of the
line.

Ann and Nurse Debby stood
there staring me down, anticipating the moment that they would kill
me. I flinched, and looked back at Dante’s ghost. The urge to jump
swept over me again.

Everything happened as it
did before, but it all happened so fast the last time, I hadn’t
really seen what went on. After I was hanging off the cliff, things
seemed to get clearer. Whoever took over Dante’s body, pushed Rose,
but we didn’t fall, not right away. My fingernails dug through the
dirt as I held Rose’s weight and my own. Then, Dante’s ghostly hand
reached for mine. It hadn’t hit me before, that since the man at
the mansion where we saved Grace had held on to me, Dante could as
well.

He pulled us up a little
bit. The Alliance couldn’t stop him, but both of us were too heavy
for him to pull up. As we fell to the ground, still holding each
other’s hands, I had an out of body experience. Rose screamed all
the way to the ground, and she moaned as she lay there, but I was
gone, my body had disappeared.

Chapter 2: Peer
Pressure

I woke up covered in sweat.
What had just happened? I couldn’t be so ignorant to think that
future didn’t resume without me. I went back to the past, and it
seemed everyone else remained in the future.

I stayed in bed for a few
minutes pondering this. I couldn’t know
anything
for sure, but my theories
seemed to be a real possibility.

“
You’re not ready yet!” Rose
screeched. “I am not going to wait for you forever,
Scarlett!”

“
Rose, I’ll be ready in two
minutes,” I assured.

“
Oh right, the popular,
beautiful, and amazing Scarlett Summers will be ready in two
minutes; I’ll believe that when I see it,” she yelled as she ran
down the stairs.

Rose seemed to know nothing other than
her life in this alternate universe, as if she had been here all
along. I looked down at my wrists my scars remained, and the gash
on my upper arm was still healing.

I threw on some jeans and a
long-sleeved shirt—if anyone saw the scars, I would be screwed—and
then I brushed my hair and teeth and ran down the
stairs.

“
I told you,” I said as I
walked out the door.

“
You’re going to school…
like that?”

“
Yeah, why?” I looked down
at my outfit; it seemed suitable for school.

“
Today is going to be
interesting,” she said as she looked me up and down.

I ignored her and walked over to the
rusty, black Blazer in the driveway.

“
So do we share this car?” I
asked and immediately regretted it. I needed to stop saying
whatever popped into my head.

“
We do as long as mom
doesn’t find out,” she threatened.

“
What do you mean, why would
she care?”

“
You know mom has always
kept you on a much shorter leash.” She sighed. “I don’t know, I
guess you’re her favorite.”

“…
But she
gave
you
the car,” I argued.

“
You know Mom; does anyone
ever know why she does what she does?”

“
No, I guess not,” I sighed
at the honesty of my answer. She pulled out of the
driveway.

“
She has been acting a
little strange lately though.”

“
What do you mean?” I
wondered.

“
Not even really lately,
just yesterday. She seemed a lot nicer. Maybe it was the funeral; I
don’t know.”

“
Yeah,” I smiled and was
lost in my thoughts.

What would have caused her to start
being nice just yesterday? I figured in this alternate reality, she
had been nice all along. If it had only started yesterday, was it
possible that she knew something was up?

Before I knew it, we were
parked. I took a deep breath and got out of the car.

“
I’ll see you after school,”
Rose said as I walked away. “Right after school Scarlett, I mean
it.”

“
Okay,” I called back as I
walked toward the front doors.

When I walked inside the
school, everyone had their eyes on me. I looked around at all of
their faces. For the most part, they were all the same people I’d
known from school before. I looked down, even though it didn’t stop
them from staring, at least I could pretend it did.

As I went to head for first
hour, I realized—I didn’t know what any of my classes were. I
started panicking. I couldn’t blow it this early on, and over
something as stupid as not knowing my classes. I took my back pack
off and dug through it, but I couldn’t find a schedule.

I took a deep breath and walked into
the office. I knew I would certainly make a fool out of
myself.

“
Hi,” I said to the lady
behind the desk, who was too focused on the computer to even
acknowledge me. “I lost my schedule; can I get a new
one?”

“
It’s four months into the
semester…” she started, “…why would you need your
schedule?”

“
My mom wants a copy, don’t
even ask me why, I don’t understand either.” I smiled at how quick
I’d come up with that.

“
Alright,” she said
apprehensively. “Name?”

“
Scarlett Summers,” I
replied. She looked it up on the computer and printed a copy
out.

“
Here you go,” she said as
she handed it to me.

“
Thank you.”

I left the office before I
read it. No matter how hard I had to try, I needed to fit in, and I
needed to be the person that everyone here knew. I looked at the
schedule; I knew most of the teachers—that would make things a
little easier. Then, I looked at the date on the bottom, April,
20th, 2011. Three days before Grace’s disappearance.

Before I knew it, it was
lunch time. So far, I’d done a good job at blending in. Everyone
else was in the lunch room already, so the halls were empty, giving
me a chance to talk to the ghost that just appeared at my
side.

“
I know you probably think—”
I started to say.

“
No, I know what happened,
and I also know that things aren’t the same, you’ll work it out,”
Dante’s dad said.

“
So how did I know you here,
if I’m not friends with Dante?”

“
You’ll see. I’m surprised
you haven’t figured it out already. Nice save with the whole
schedule thing, by the way.”

“
You were there? I didn’t
see you,” I said, confused.

“
Ghosts can hide, you know,”
he joked.

“
So do you have any
advice?”

“
No, and I need to
go.”

“
Wait, what about Dante,
what can I do to make him believe me?” I begged.

“
You have to figure that one
out on your own,” he said, and then he was gone.

I walked down to the lunch
room. Nicole and the other girls told me to sit with them. They
kept nagging me about my choice of clothes, but I was too
distracted to listen; I spotted Dante. He walked across the
cafeteria in his usual attire, black jeans and a black T-shirt,
with a grey long-sleeved shirt underneath. His dark-brown hair,
spiraling out of control. He couldn’t have looked better, and yet…
no one seemed to notice him. Were they blind? He was easily the
hottest guy I saw, and his bad-ass façade made him seem ten times
sexier. I fought the urge to run over to him, to try my best to
make him understand.

As I sat in the crowded
lunch room, an array of feelings, I thought were far behind me,
came flooding back. All of my insecurities had rushed back in
increments since I'd walked through the main doors. Nicole
definitely wasn’t helping matters. They all turned away—they were
teaching me a lesson; do as we say or we'll make your life a living
hell. I got it; I really did, but I couldn’t care less who was
looking at me. Scratch that. From across the room, a pair of
deep-brown eyes, were fixed in my direction. As I looked back, he
rolled his eyes and turned away. I got up to leave the table,
enough was enough. I needed to talk to him; he needed to
understand.

"Where do you think you're going?"
Nicole demanded.

"What does it matter to
you?" I snapped.

I was all for fitting into
this warped reality until I could figure out what to do. I was even
more willing, seeing as I may never get out, but I was not about to
let some snotty bitch tell me what to do.

"Sit." They all ordered
together.

"No," I challenged them.

"If I were you, I would listen," Nicole
said in a sweet voice.

"Or what?"

"We'll never talk to you
again."

"Hmm," I pretended to think.
"Bye."

I almost wished I had made a
scene. In fact, I didn’t stand up to them at all, not really. I
wanted Dante to see, and realize that this was for him.

I walked over to him, eager to tell him
I wasn't one of them anymore, but he, too, turned away from
me.

"Dante?"

"Are you lost?" He asked. "I
know how hard it is for you, but your friends are over there." He
pointed to the three girls glaring at me.

"We're not friends anymore," I
explained.

"Oh," he said. He was coming
around; he was realizing that I wasn't the person he thought I was.
"Then your table's over there." He pointed to an empty
table.

"So, before you didn't like
me because you thought I was mean? And now you’re acting no better
than you thought I was."