Unleashed (12 page)

“Do you know who slashed his tires?” Katelyn asked.

“No. Do you? Did he tell you?” Paulette stopped drawing as she waited for Katelyn’s answer.

“No idea,” Katelyn confessed. “But I don’t know who anyone is around here anyway.”

Paulette nodded. “It was probably Mike Wright. Trick had a run-in with him and his friends a while back. They’re such jerks.”

Katelyn shivered. She was right about Mike. She wished she’d stayed off his radar.

“Not Trick, I mean. Trick’s not a jerk.” Paulette sighed wistfully and went back to sketching. “You eat lunch with Cordelia Fenner.”

Katelyn nodded, feeling a little creeped out. Yes, she was the new girl, and yes, people were curious about her, but she was beginning to feel a little stalked.

“Never liked her,” Paulette said, biting off the words. “You should be careful.”

Katelyn’s brows rose in surprise. She hadn’t expected her to say anything like that about Cordelia.

“She acts so sweetsy-sweetsy. And I stress the
acts
,” Paulette went on. Then she gave Katelyn a slow, measured look. “She and Trick can’t stand each other.”

“Why not?” Katelyn was struggling to make sense of everything she was hearing.

“It might be something that happened in kindergarten, for all I know. People around here hold grudges. Maybe it’s because there’s not much else to do.” Her eyes went unfocused then, as if she were gazing at a faraway place. “I’d give anything to live in L.A. It must be so … 
different
.”

“Well, after you graduate, you can move there,” Katelyn offered.

“Maybe. Most of the kids here will wind up living here. Some of us get out.” She shrugged. “Anyway, take it slow. Sometimes it’s hard to separate out the phonies, you know what I mean?”

“Okay. Thanks for the advice.”

“I just don’t want to see anyone else get hurt,” Paulette said. She looked hard at Katelyn. “Because Cordelia Fenner
will
hurt you, if she feels like it.”

Katelyn had no clue what to think about what Paulette had told her, but it weighed on her for the rest of the day. As soon as the final bell rang, she headed for the senior parking lot. Cordelia had beaten her there, and stood waving to her from beside a black pickup truck. Katelyn hadn’t pictured Cordelia as the truck type, although she shouldn’t have been surprised, given the large ratio of trucks to cars in the parking lot. As Katelyn climbed inside the cab, she noticed that it was sparkling clean and smelled like cinnamon.

“Nice truck,” she managed to make herself say.

“Thanks!” Cordelia said. Her voice was upbeat, as usual, but her expression was strange—tense, almost—her smile fake. Katelyn thought about what Paulette had said about her. She couldn’t agree with it. Cordelia seemed genuinely nice. And now she was genuinely upset about something—and trying to hide it.

She’d thought about telling Cordelia about the wolf attack. But Cordelia didn’t seem to want to chat. Maybe she was sorry she’d invited Katelyn over.

“This is okay, my coming home with you, right?” Katelyn asked.

“Oh, yes, sure,” Cordelia blurted, too quickly and too brightly.

She pulled out of the parking lot and in silence they drove through the town and turned onto the narrow road that climbed into the mountains. Like Ed, Cordelia’s family lived far outside town. When they turned off the main artery into Wolf Springs, there were no paved roads, and Katelyn couldn’t distinguish one twisted Snow White tree from another. Cordelia focused on her driving so intently that Katelyn remained silent, suppressing the urge to fill the space with chatter. Her mind wandered and she found herself thinking about Trick. She thought about asking Cordelia to tell her more about him, partly to see if it was true that she didn’t like him. But Katelyn didn’t want to seem too curious about a guy Cordelia clearly didn’t approve of. Or maybe it was that she didn’t want to admit she liked him to anyone—including herself—just yet.

They turned down a winding trail and Cordelia sighed softly. Katelyn glanced at her just as Cordelia’s eyes widened like she’d seen something in the rearview mirror, but all Katelyn saw when she glanced at it was Cordelia. Shadows slid over the truck hood, then across the windshield. The trees seemed closer, denser. They slowed down.

“We’re he-ere,” Cordelia announced in a singsong voice, mimicking an old horror movie. Katelyn couldn’t remember which one.

It took a moment for Katelyn to take the structure in completely. She had seen a program on television once where wealthy people into “living green” had built a house around a tree. Cordelia’s house reminded her of this, but at the same time it was nothing like it. A rambling structure of redwood, stone, and stained glass seemed to rise naturally from the earth, twisting and sprouting with turrets and bay windows like the limbs and trunks that grew around it and even through it. Leaves the color of flames swirled in eddies in what appeared to be open-air patios. Set at the top of a large stone staircase, situated on a massive stone porch, the front door was a double arch of redwood interspersed with panes of frosted glass. There were window boxes containing pretty purple flowers. Katelyn had seen plenty of mansions before but nothing near the majesty of this place.

Cordelia continued past the front of the house, driving the length of the curving structure, then pulled around to the back and parked next to a couple of other cars—a Mercedes and a Volvo SUV. As she turned the engine off, she heaved a sigh. Her hands dropped to her lap, and Katelyn froze in the middle of opening her door.

“What’s wrong?” Katelyn asked.

“It looks like my sisters are visiting.” Cordelia’s voice was low, hushed as she studied the two cars.

“Is that a problem?”

“Yeah. I’d give anything to be an only child.”

“I guess the grass is always greener,” Katelyn said, suppressing a nervous laugh. “I always wanted a sister.”

“You can have both of mine,” Cordelia said with a weak smile. She climbed out of the cab and headed for the back door, which was solid wood.

Katelyn jumped down and shut the truck door, then hastily followed her friend into the house. Inside, she found herself in a sort of courtyard with a trickling fountain and a skylight overhead. She looked around admiringly as Cordelia nervously scanned left and right. There were more of the pretty purple flowers in pots.

Katelyn heard trilling laughter and the sound of high heels clicking on the floor.

“Oh, crap,” Cordelia muttered.

Two older girls approached, one blond and the other brunette, and their resemblance to Cordelia was startling.

The blonde was wearing tight bronze leather pants and a sleeveless black blouse that showed off her curves. On her feet were super-high metallic heels with leather straps that wrapped up around her ankles, and chains laden with chunks of amber hung around her neck. Her makeup was perfectly applied, all smoky eyes and shimmering lips.

The brunette had on a black pencil mini, which looked like it was made of raw silk, and a sleeveless red mock turtleneck knit top. But unlike her sister, she was as hip-free and flat as a model. Her makeup was heavy and elaborate, her lips deep scarlet.

Cordelia crossed her arms in a defensive posture as the two approached. Something about how they walked over made Katelyn wonder if it had been a mistake not asking her grandfather if Cordelia could come to their house instead. The two were eyeing her in a way that made Katelyn even more uncomfortable than the staring animal heads at home did. What her grandfather had said the night before about predators and prey came back to her. These women definitely made her feel like prey.

They walked up and, instead of introducing themselves, continued moving around, taking in Katelyn from head to toe.

“Well, well, look what our little sister dragged home,” the brunette drawled.

“It looks like a stranger,” the blonde said.

It
?

They moved gracefully. Katelyn fought down an instinctive reaction to turn in a circle, too, tracking them the way they seemed to be tracking her.

“Smells like a stranger,” the brunette confirmed.

“Kat, these are my sisters, Arial and Regan.” Cordelia sounded unhappy, which Katelyn understood, because she was feeling the same way.

“Um, o-kay,” Katelyn said.

“Hear that voice, Regan? It
sounds
like a stranger, too,” the blonde—Arial—said.

What kind of freaks are they?
Katelyn thought as they continued to circle her.
Is this some result of banjo inbreeding?

Before Katelyn could say anything, Arial and Regan burst into laughter.

“Now, dear, don’t scare the children,” a tall, thin guy with tired gray eyes said as he walked into the room. He looked to be midtwenties, but maybe older. It was hard to say.

“Albert, what are you doing here?” Cordelia asked with a short relieved laugh. She clearly liked him more than her sisters.

“I’ve come to collect my wife,” he said.

Arial sauntered over to him. “Killjoy,” she said, pouting.

He gave her a weak smile. “You should be happy if I kill anything, pet.” He turned to Katelyn and stuck out a hand. “I’m Al Fontaine. You must be a friend of Cordelia’s from school.” His smile was strained but his manner was pleasant.

Bemused, Katelyn shook hands with him. “Nice to meet
you
,” she said, hearing her emphasis after the fact. His tired face lit up one or two watts, and he chuckled.

“Come on, Kat, let’s go to my room,” Cordelia said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her quickly away.

Katelyn was relieved to get out of there, and as soon as they were out of earshot, she blurted, “What the hell was that?”

“They like to scare people, manipulate them,” Cordelia muttered as they entered a paneled corridor. “Don’t let them get to you. I try not to.”

Katelyn was embarrassed for her. Her sisters were freaks. “I can see why you said you wished you were an only child. I don’t blame you. For the first time in my life, I’m glad I’m sibling-free.”

Cordelia glanced back. “Well, then, they were good for something. That’s a switch.”

“Sorry,” Katelyn said, “that was mean of me.”

“Not even close, trust me,” Cordelia said. “Here’s my room.”

The room was about three times the size of Katelyn’s room at her grandfather’s. It was paneled in silvery wallpaper with lavender accents, very light and airy when compared to the dark, heavy furniture. The central focus was a carved canopy bed and, beside it, a full-length oval mirror on wooden clawed feet etched with a moon and a star. Cheerleading trophies covered the top of a chest of drawers. Pictures of Cordelia in her uniform and other girls in Wolf Springs Cheer regalia were everywhere.

Beyond the bureau, a sliding glass door led to a small patio and from there straight into the woods. Katelyn stared into the thick, shadowy blurs of pine needles and fiery autumn leaves. She wondered if Cordelia was forbidden to go into the woods as well. Given what had happened the night before, it seemed like a pretty good rule.

She turned to Cordelia, who was watching her expectantly.

“Nice,” Katelyn said. “You’ve got a lot of space.”

Cordelia smiled, but she was still tense. “Yeah. It’s a luxury, but I like my privacy.” She shrugged as if to apologize. “I’m weird that way.”

“Who doesn’t?” Katelyn asked. “I would kill to have this much space to myself.”

Cordelia plopped down on the bed and stretched out on her stomach, propping her chin up on her fists. “Tell me about L.A.”

Katelyn sat down on a wooden chair upholstered with gray tapestry fabric. It was nubby and rough but comfortable. What could she say:
It’s so much better than here
?

“Big. Busy. Plus, the ocean.” She hoped she kept the longing out of her voice. She didn’t want to insult Cordelia by dissing her hometown. Although, Katelyn’s impulse to make a friend of her had been dampened a bit by Paulette’s remarks in class.

“We have a lot of ponds. Okay, swampy bogs.” Cordelia wrinkled her nose. “And the river. When the snow starts melting, it practically
is
like an ocean.”

“Hmm,” Katelyn said neutrally, but inwardly quaked at the thought of living in snow. In Southern California, you had to make a deliberate effort to find snow.

“So what are your friends like?” Cordelia pressed, obviously eager for details.

“My best friend, Kimi, we did everything together. We were—are—like sisters,” she said, flinching at the use of the past tense. Kimi was still her best friend, and when she got back to L.A., things would be just the same as they used to be. Her eyes started tearing and her vision blurred. She needed to get the attention off herself before full-on tears came. “So who do
you
hang out with?”

Cordelia gestured to all the pictures and trophies. “Well, you know I used to be a cheerleader.” She slumped back on her bed, still watching Katelyn curiously. “Lately, though, I’ve just been spending a lot of time with my family.”

“Oh … that’s … cool,” Katelyn said, hoping for Cordelia’s sake that the rest of the family wasn’t like her sisters.