Chapter 5
(Serenity_Sea@yahoo.com)
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Sage froze where she was and her eyes scrunched closed. She cursed inaudibly, feeling that gaze on her even though her back was turned.
Kip shoved Tumbler accusingly. "I thought you locked the door!"
"I did, I swear!"
The tall man dressed in black, who stood comfortably at the door, pulled something thin and silver out of his coat pocket briefly. "You really think that lock was going to keep me out?" He fished something silver out of his pocket and tossed it to Tumbler, who caught it reflexively. "Otto gave me a key." His dark blue eyes scanned the room. "But I honestly thought you would have made better time getting here. Where is she?"
Drawing in a breath and praying for strength, Sage forced herself to turn on the stairs and face the newcomer. "Hi, Dad."
Memphis Raines stared at his daughter, taking in the way she was standing, arms braced on the railings of the stairs, leaning slightly forward and looking as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. If there were ever a time she reminded him more of *her*, he'd have been dammed to remember it now. Sometimes it took everything he had to remember that she was not her mother and it would therefore be wrong to take out what he was feeling on her. It took some effort, but he finally managed to speak without sounding bitter.
"Ho-How did you get here?"
She came down the steps slowly, just the way her mother always had - pausing to rest one foot on each rung as she descended, enjoying the noise it made.
"Mirror Man picked me up. I was lost in the center of town. He had me get in the car and we ended up here."
His eyes closed slowly, trying to hold back his temper. Right now, he was having no problem keeping mother and daughter separate. Even *she* hadn't been that stupid. Sage liked to pass herself off as being savvy, and for the most part, she was. But there was a certain innocence to her that seemed to carry itself well into her teenage years.
"And before you say anything," she held a hand up and walked the rest of the distance to where her father was standing, "He didn't force me to get in the car," her right hand dipped behind her back and she crossed her fingers tightly, in clear view of everyone else, "and I could have gotten out at any time."
He nodded, thinking it over. "Why didn't you answer your cell phone?"
Otto stepped between the two, momentarily distracting Memphis from his daughter. "I think I can answer that, Memphis. You see, cell phone service is not what it used to be out here and, well," he paused awkwardly as Sage got the picture and handed her phone over. "See for yourself."
Only one of the five little bullets was displayed on her phone, though it did show several missed calls from Kip and Tumbler around 4 o'clock. "Fair enough." He saw Sage trying to tiptoe away and Otto saw the determined set in Memphis' jaw. "Sage. Get your things. We're going home."
Her jaw dropped open in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me. I haven't seen Uncle Otto in years. I'm not leaving yet."
"*Sage*. Your things." When she didn't move, he firmly added, "*NOW*."
Sage swept through the rows of cars and back up the stairs where her jacket and book bag rested. Somewhere between reunions and the phone call, Mirror had retrieved her things and brought them up to the loft so she could get some work done while they tried to figure out what to do with her.
Hidden from view, her hand stilled on the bag as a devious plan crept into her mind. She reached inside the bag and pulled out her English notebook. It was her most important notebook, and she would need it later. But for now, it would serve as a way to return to the place where she felt at home and strangely alone at the same time. With any luck, she could at least find out more about her mother and forge a friendship with people who, in her opinion, should have been in her life all along.
"Sage?" Memphis called from below.
"Coming," she replied, taking a pen and scribbling a hasty note on a blank piece of paper. She covered the sound of her ripping out the page by confirming that she was coming again, and left it in fairly plain sight for whoever came up to the loft next.
Memphis did not so much as say hello to his old crew, and his eyes swept over Kip's friends as if they weren't even there. "Let's go." He placed a rigid hand on Sage's shoulder and walked her out of Otto's.
Otto moved as if to go after them, and Kip, who had watched the whole encounter with a sort of bored interest, put his arm, palm up, to stop him. "No, don't. She'll be back. And she's going to chew him a new one by the time they get home."
The older man had difficulty restraining himself, but muttered something darkly and left the room.
Kip and Tumbler turned to face the remaining crew. "Hey guys."
Silence once again reigned in the garage until Mirror Man came bounding forward and grabbed them both in a tight hug. Toby and Freb followed soon after, and even Donny got in on the action.
Sphinx and Atley were curiously missing, and Kip absently wondered where they went. Then Mirror was dragging him in the back for some pizza and to show off the newest cars they were revamping to Tumbler and it was out of his mind.
* * *
"You know," Atley sighed, exhaling a strong steam of smoke as he watched Memphis' black Acura pull away from the lot and onto the muddy back roads, "I'd forgotten what a stubborn sonofabitch he was."
Sphinx's teeth gleamed in the moonlight and Atley knew he wasn't out of line by continuing, "But you would have thought he'd want his kid to know about her past. If for no other reason for her not to repeat it." A long drag on the cigarette and he was careful to ground it firmly beneath his shoes. With a garage full of gasoline, you could never be too safe. "She's 16; almost 17. She gets her license in another month."
The Sphinx grunted his acknowledgement.
"Ten bucks the first place she comes is here."
Atley turned on his heel and went inside, leaving Sphinx to think about what he'd said.
"Hmmm." The tall, stoic man stared out into the distance, until he couldn't see the red of his former crew leader's taillights anymore. He stayed out a few more minutes for good measure and allowed his thoughts to drift to the girl's mother. She had been incredible, and a near-perfect match for Memphis. (Even though she swore she was 'flawed.') Without her, he was a bitter, stiff-necked man who couldn't even allow his daughter her happiness.
When she'd left, she'd left a whole in everyone's heart. That was just her way. She sort of attached herself to everything, stuck a claim on one part of you or another, and then left you high and dry when the wind changed and she decided to move elsewhere.
The thing was, she never moved far.
And he knew she was alive.
Sphinx reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter, reading it in the bright moonlight. Up until this evening, he hadn't dared to open it. The name was unfamiliar, but the handwriting wasn't. He had an all-too clear idea what was on the inside of the envelope.
He sighed deeply, finished reading, and tucked the letter back in his pocket.
Oh yes. She was alive.
* * *
"What were you thinking? You didn't even know who Mirror Man was! You got into a car *with a stranger*." Memphis shook his head and pushed himself to focus more than a third of his attention on the road. The last thing he needed right now was a ticket.
Sage sat in the passenger's seat, looking obstinately out the window. She refused to meet his eyes. Not only had he completely embarrassed her, he'd pulled her out of a situation where she'd been comfortable. For her to feel comfortable these days, it required a little more than a smile from someone and a kind word. But for once, she felt like she among family. And he'd taken that away. It was unforgivable.
"And then you have Toby call Kip. Did you not want to face him yourself? Were you worried he was going to ream you out?"
'Kind of the way you're doing now,' she mentally responded, refusing to show emotion. Her father was playing the 'I'm going to see how long it takes you to get mad' game and she could wait him out as long as necessary. She had two cards in her hand that she had yet to play and when she used them, it was going to be with great relish. For now, she'd just watch to see when they were off the major highways. With what she had to say, being in a congested area wasn't a good thing.
"Are you going to answer me?" he demanded and she responded with a lazy look.
Memphis bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood and tried to remember how much damage a speeding ticket would do him right now. He counted to ten until his mind hurt from the numbness. When he'd turned onto their street, he opened his mouth to speak, but Sage cut him off and beat him to it.
"Why didn't you tell me Mom's name was Sara?"
Now, Memphis was an extremely skilled driver. He'd been driving since he was a year or two younger than Sage and performed some extremely evasive maneuvers. The thing of it was, her question had caught him so entirely off- guard, he swerved to the left and nearly took out the neighbors' trashcans. With shaky hands, he pulled over and turned off the car.
He turned to look at her. "*What*?"
She returned the look. "Mom. Her name was Sara. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't think it was necessary." Sage rolled her eyes so sharply he thought they might fall out of her head. "Who told you?"
"I'm not a rat," she retorted, leaned over, and started the car back up herself.
Memphis watched her a bit longer and she evenly sent back a look of her own until he put the car into gear and drove the remaining distance home.
Before he could say anything to her, she'd grabbed her bag and had unlocked the front door. He exited the car as well, running a hand over the smooth black paint, and wondered how he'd gone from a car that was older than he was to one younger than his daughter. It drove beautifully.
But it wasn't Eleanor.
He sighed and went inside to fix himself a cup of coffee. For the next few hours, he was lost in paperwork, looking over Sage's grades, and wondering what type of car he would get her.
Kip said she'd been a simply awful driver when they started out. She'd been painfully bad. But then, after a week or so, the Raines genes kicked in and she had driven the test car - a 10-year-old brown Oldsmobile - like it was a sports car. She wasn't doing the fancy stuff - the 180's and 360's and reverses at 70 MPH - but she sure as hell could drive. He had even let her loose with his beloved silver Porsche, and that was the highest form of praise she could ever get from him.
Memphis glanced at the clock and rubbed a hand over his face. It was time for bed.
He turned off the lights and knew that he didn't need to leave any on for his younger brother. Kip wouldn't be coming home tonight. The stairs were dark and he had more than half a mind to leave it that way, and head straight for his room at the end of the hall. And he'd hate himself in the morning. He already hated himself for not even saying hello to the guys, but if he'd shown any sort of interest in rekindling what once was, Sage would have caught onto that in a heartbeat, and snatched the chance to-to do whatever it was she wound up doing.
He pushed open the door to her room gently, smiling when it didn't squeak, as was sometimes the tendency. Sage was stretched out on her bed, with her arms and legs flung to the sides. She hadn't changed out of her school clothes, though her shoes were off at the foot of the bed, and Memphis smiled when he saw her favorite stuffed toy - a red Volkswagen Beatle - clutched tightly in her right arm.
Even at 16, you weren't too old to have something to cuddle with - in spite of it being over 10 years old; the red was no longer red but a dull, and considerably lightened cherry color - or too old to have your dad tuck you into bed.
Memphis gathered her close with one arm and expertly turned back her sheets with the other. He settled her in and she turned to rest on her side, hair fanning out on the white sheets and looking somewhat like. *him*, for once. The unyielding set to her jaw while the rest of her features were softened in sleep was undeniably something that she got from him.
He chuckled at the irony - 16 years after he'd shut her out of his life, he was realizing just how much he wanted to be a part of hers - and ran a hand through the thick hair that was all her mother's.
"I love you, Sage." Memphis leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
She mumbled something in her sleep and he smiled tenderly. *She'd* always loved her sleep too, and hated when he woke her up for one reason or another. Unfortunately, Kip loved sleep as well, so she had the sleep gene from both sides of her family this time.
As he closed the door on his slumbering daughter, he vowed to do whatever it took to forge a strong relationship with her.
Everything but bring her to Otto.
* * *
The morning, when Sage woke up, the sun was shining on the door across from her bed. This stuck her as odd, because when her alarm woke her up, the sun usually wasn't even out. Warily, she turned over on her side to see her alarm clock. '8:02'
She cursed. First period had begun nearly an hour ago. With a new sense of urgency, she rose from the bed, tossed the sheets to the top and spared a second to pull them down while reaching for the nearest pair of jeans.
The jeans she was now jumping into were black and feeling melancholy, she reached for her nearest black shirt. It was thin, and fitted, and she would normally have paired it with something more. well, at least something more colorful. But this morning, she wasn't in the best mood and color was the least of her priorities.
Halfheartedly, she grabbed her bag and headed for the bathroom, then the stairs. Nothing, however, could have prepared her for what awaited in the kitchen.
"Good morning, sweetheart," Memphis said, never taking his eyes off the papers her was reading.
And so the morning got weirder.
"Kip didn't come home last night, so I decided I'd let you sleep in and drive you to school when you woke up."
She tried to run a hand through her damp hair, but felt the gel and withdrew quickly. "Um. okay. I'll just grab a bagel and we can go."
He turned at the exact moment she reached for her bagel on the counter behind him.
Memphis Raines looked at his daughter and bit back a long string of curses. "I've never seen you do your hair that way before."
Knowing he was referring to the twists that covered her entire head with gel, her lips curved slightly. "Mirror told me I had the right shaped face for it. Would you believe his sister is a hairdresser?"
What he had trouble believing was that Mirror had willingly planted the idea in his daughter's head. And he had a sister that was a hairdresser? He didn't even know Mirror Man *had* a sister.
"Um, well. it's a new look for you."
She had wrapped the bagel in tinfoil and was tapping her foot impatiently. "Yeah, so? I like it."
He grabbed his keys and she pushed out the door ahead of him, getting into the unlocked car. "As long as it makes you happy," he mumbled sarcastically.
* * *
After she had signed in at the main office and gotten everything settled in her locker, the bell rang, signaling the end of second period. This meant she had exactly four minutes to get her ass to chemistry, which was on the other side of the school. Grabbing the thick chem. book that she'd left overnight and an equally thick red notebook, she slammed the door shut and plowed into a black and green varsity football jerseyed chest.
"Hey."
Sage closed her eyes and stepped away, knowing exactly whom the voice belonged to. "Why aren't you walking away to let me die of embarrassment right now?"
Jesse Castleback grinned, revealing a boyishly handsome set of white teeth, a sight that had brought many a cheerleader to their knees. "You weren't in English this morning," he ignored her negative statement, and put a hand on her shoulder to propel her in the direction of their next class. "I took the notes for you. Everything okay?"
She cast a gauging clear-eyed look at him, one that usually intimidated people she didn't want to explain herself to - which was pretty often - and was slightly disturbed to find that it had no effect on his laughing brown eyes. She sighed and wondered why she was giving into the query, completely unaware that she was currently the envy of half the cheerleading squad.
"I sort of had a big family reunion type thing yesterday after school. it went well, but the talk with my dad after; didn't."
"Parents are unpredictable like that, aren't they?" His eyebrow rose. "I thought you'd hung here after school. But if you were here late, how'd you get a ride home?"
She blinked. If he was okay with the fact that he'd just admitted to waiting for her, or was at least paying some seriously non-obligatory attention, then she could be too. "I, um. I got picked up." That wasn't to say that it wouldn't require some effort.
They had now reached the door of the chem. class. He stopped at her statement and put both hands on her shoulders. "You *what*?"
Sage immediately grew defensive. "I got a ride with a guy. I knew him," she added indignantly, pushing his hands away. "Sort of."
Jesse stared at her for a long, measuring moment, then sighed, shaking his head. "You are too much, Raines. You're going to kill me, you know that right?"
Involuntarily, she felt the corners of her mouth curve upwards. "Yeah, okay."
The bell rang and they took their seats at the lab desk they shared near the back of the classroom. For the next few minutes, Sage sat quietly and took studious notes, while the teacher lectured about lab techniques and the importance of safety around highly flammable components.
About 15 minutes into the lecture, Jesse slouched in his seat and groaned under his breath. Sage hid a smile; she had begun to understand her partner and knew that this was his least favorite part of the day. She, on the other hand, lived for science for some unexplainable reason. Maybe the controlled situations appealed to her, since labs could go as planned or entirely reversed from the expected results. For whatever explanation, this was, without a doubt her favorite class. But when he slouched in his seat like that, she knew that paying attention from this point on would be out of the question. When he was bored, he fidgeted. And when he fidgeted, he distracted her until she personally stopped him.
She gave him about a minute before the foot jiggling began before touching his arm gently. "Chill. He's almost done, I remember this experiment from my last school."
He rolled his eyes at her and playfully flicked a strand of her hair. "I kinda like this. Where'd you get the idea for it?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," she murmured under her breathe, looking for all the world like she was paying diligent attention, though she was really trying to control her impatience with their still-droning teacher. That was the only thing that sucked about switching schools. You sometimes ran the risk of repeating things. A lot.
Jesse flicked her hair again. "The football team's hosting a party this Friday night. Wanna come with?"
Finally, the teacher was wrapping up. Unfortunately, he was also altering the experiment. She needed to get these diagrams down; at least one of them had to have them the correct procedure down. "Sure," Sage replied, answering without really thinking.
He grinned and resettled himself in his chair. He knew when she realized what had just happened because her eyes got greener and grew to the size of the beakers resting on shelves around the classroom.
"What?" She asked loudly, drawing the attention of the class and teacher. Instantly, she blushed, and ducked her head, letting her long twists cover her cheeks.
"Was there something you disagreed with, Miss Raines?"
Sage shook her head solemnly. "No, sir." Then a mischievous smile twisted her lips and her eyes gleamed. "Actually," the class, who had by now turned back around, glanced back, "what if instead of using a control plate with the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, we added another form of bacteria and see how it held up against that? I think that by using a non-plant bacteria, we would be able to test its effectiveness on a more stable type of virus."
Their teacher looked impressed. "That's a very good idea. While you're going over the procedure, I'll see how I can work that in. Thank you for your input, Miss Raines. I hope to be hearing from you more often."
She exhaled loudly, slumping in her seat with relief. Jesse cleared his throat and she glanced at him to see him grinning at her. "Don't speak. I just used up the reserves of my brain power and I need to regenerate."
He held his hands up innocently. "I wasn't saying a word."
Sage glared at him. "Sure you weren't." She reached for her pen and tried to go over the procedure quietly, but this proved hopeless as her mind was otherwise occupied with the fact that she had just accepted what could be justifiably called by any stretch of the imagination - a date. The pen that had been hovering over her notebook slammed down as she turned to look at him. "What did you just rope me into, Castleback?"
Jesse smiled disarmingly. "Would I rope you into anything without your consent first?" Her glare hardened, and he continued, "You are just accompanying me to a small party with a few friends on Friday night. And don't think you can back out, because you already accepted and I will be devastated if I have to find another date. Not to mention, bored silly because all the good-looking girls in this school have nothing but air between their heads and yet you defy that, for somehow I manage to have a stimulating conversation with you no matter what." When she didn't react, he added, "That was a compliment, you know."
Now she had to smile at him. "I know. I just don't want to ruin your evening. I'm not going to be a different person from who I am now, so just be prepared for that. Fitting in with the cheering squad isn't really my thing. You still sure you want me to go? There may be dirty looks shot to the rah-rah chicks if they start to mutter things under their breath."
He slipped an arm around her shoulder easily, using his free hand to push away their notes while laughing at her probably dead-on prediction. "If I had wanted anyone else, I would have asked them. Don't you want to shake up the complacency of this town anyway?" Her eyes sparkled and he had his answer. "Besides. Can I help it if I don't want you wandering around the streets of Long Beach unaccompanied?"
Sage recalled his earlier outburst. "Why were you so freaked, anyway?"
Jesse shook his head slowly, almost as if mocking himself. "It probably has something to do with the fact that my father's a police officer."
* * *
I think that is quite possibly the longest chapter so far. It more than makes up for chapter four, though you all should consider yourselves lucky that you were granted another 2-chapter update.
The chemistry between Jesse and our girl Sage is starting to take a turn for the better. She has no idea just how deep this boy has fallen. And why should she? No one ever paid her much attention before. But for some reason, little Castleback has fallen for the dark, mysteriously smart Raines daughter.
I can't wait to see where it leads.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Sage froze where she was and her eyes scrunched closed. She cursed inaudibly, feeling that gaze on her even though her back was turned.
Kip shoved Tumbler accusingly. "I thought you locked the door!"
"I did, I swear!"
The tall man dressed in black, who stood comfortably at the door, pulled something thin and silver out of his coat pocket briefly. "You really think that lock was going to keep me out?" He fished something silver out of his pocket and tossed it to Tumbler, who caught it reflexively. "Otto gave me a key." His dark blue eyes scanned the room. "But I honestly thought you would have made better time getting here. Where is she?"
Drawing in a breath and praying for strength, Sage forced herself to turn on the stairs and face the newcomer. "Hi, Dad."
Memphis Raines stared at his daughter, taking in the way she was standing, arms braced on the railings of the stairs, leaning slightly forward and looking as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. If there were ever a time she reminded him more of *her*, he'd have been dammed to remember it now. Sometimes it took everything he had to remember that she was not her mother and it would therefore be wrong to take out what he was feeling on her. It took some effort, but he finally managed to speak without sounding bitter.
"Ho-How did you get here?"
She came down the steps slowly, just the way her mother always had - pausing to rest one foot on each rung as she descended, enjoying the noise it made.
"Mirror Man picked me up. I was lost in the center of town. He had me get in the car and we ended up here."
His eyes closed slowly, trying to hold back his temper. Right now, he was having no problem keeping mother and daughter separate. Even *she* hadn't been that stupid. Sage liked to pass herself off as being savvy, and for the most part, she was. But there was a certain innocence to her that seemed to carry itself well into her teenage years.
"And before you say anything," she held a hand up and walked the rest of the distance to where her father was standing, "He didn't force me to get in the car," her right hand dipped behind her back and she crossed her fingers tightly, in clear view of everyone else, "and I could have gotten out at any time."
He nodded, thinking it over. "Why didn't you answer your cell phone?"
Otto stepped between the two, momentarily distracting Memphis from his daughter. "I think I can answer that, Memphis. You see, cell phone service is not what it used to be out here and, well," he paused awkwardly as Sage got the picture and handed her phone over. "See for yourself."
Only one of the five little bullets was displayed on her phone, though it did show several missed calls from Kip and Tumbler around 4 o'clock. "Fair enough." He saw Sage trying to tiptoe away and Otto saw the determined set in Memphis' jaw. "Sage. Get your things. We're going home."
Her jaw dropped open in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me. I haven't seen Uncle Otto in years. I'm not leaving yet."
"*Sage*. Your things." When she didn't move, he firmly added, "*NOW*."
Sage swept through the rows of cars and back up the stairs where her jacket and book bag rested. Somewhere between reunions and the phone call, Mirror had retrieved her things and brought them up to the loft so she could get some work done while they tried to figure out what to do with her.
Hidden from view, her hand stilled on the bag as a devious plan crept into her mind. She reached inside the bag and pulled out her English notebook. It was her most important notebook, and she would need it later. But for now, it would serve as a way to return to the place where she felt at home and strangely alone at the same time. With any luck, she could at least find out more about her mother and forge a friendship with people who, in her opinion, should have been in her life all along.
"Sage?" Memphis called from below.
"Coming," she replied, taking a pen and scribbling a hasty note on a blank piece of paper. She covered the sound of her ripping out the page by confirming that she was coming again, and left it in fairly plain sight for whoever came up to the loft next.
Memphis did not so much as say hello to his old crew, and his eyes swept over Kip's friends as if they weren't even there. "Let's go." He placed a rigid hand on Sage's shoulder and walked her out of Otto's.
Otto moved as if to go after them, and Kip, who had watched the whole encounter with a sort of bored interest, put his arm, palm up, to stop him. "No, don't. She'll be back. And she's going to chew him a new one by the time they get home."
The older man had difficulty restraining himself, but muttered something darkly and left the room.
Kip and Tumbler turned to face the remaining crew. "Hey guys."
Silence once again reigned in the garage until Mirror Man came bounding forward and grabbed them both in a tight hug. Toby and Freb followed soon after, and even Donny got in on the action.
Sphinx and Atley were curiously missing, and Kip absently wondered where they went. Then Mirror was dragging him in the back for some pizza and to show off the newest cars they were revamping to Tumbler and it was out of his mind.
* * *
"You know," Atley sighed, exhaling a strong steam of smoke as he watched Memphis' black Acura pull away from the lot and onto the muddy back roads, "I'd forgotten what a stubborn sonofabitch he was."
Sphinx's teeth gleamed in the moonlight and Atley knew he wasn't out of line by continuing, "But you would have thought he'd want his kid to know about her past. If for no other reason for her not to repeat it." A long drag on the cigarette and he was careful to ground it firmly beneath his shoes. With a garage full of gasoline, you could never be too safe. "She's 16; almost 17. She gets her license in another month."
The Sphinx grunted his acknowledgement.
"Ten bucks the first place she comes is here."
Atley turned on his heel and went inside, leaving Sphinx to think about what he'd said.
"Hmmm." The tall, stoic man stared out into the distance, until he couldn't see the red of his former crew leader's taillights anymore. He stayed out a few more minutes for good measure and allowed his thoughts to drift to the girl's mother. She had been incredible, and a near-perfect match for Memphis. (Even though she swore she was 'flawed.') Without her, he was a bitter, stiff-necked man who couldn't even allow his daughter her happiness.
When she'd left, she'd left a whole in everyone's heart. That was just her way. She sort of attached herself to everything, stuck a claim on one part of you or another, and then left you high and dry when the wind changed and she decided to move elsewhere.
The thing was, she never moved far.
And he knew she was alive.
Sphinx reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter, reading it in the bright moonlight. Up until this evening, he hadn't dared to open it. The name was unfamiliar, but the handwriting wasn't. He had an all-too clear idea what was on the inside of the envelope.
He sighed deeply, finished reading, and tucked the letter back in his pocket.
Oh yes. She was alive.
* * *
"What were you thinking? You didn't even know who Mirror Man was! You got into a car *with a stranger*." Memphis shook his head and pushed himself to focus more than a third of his attention on the road. The last thing he needed right now was a ticket.
Sage sat in the passenger's seat, looking obstinately out the window. She refused to meet his eyes. Not only had he completely embarrassed her, he'd pulled her out of a situation where she'd been comfortable. For her to feel comfortable these days, it required a little more than a smile from someone and a kind word. But for once, she felt like she among family. And he'd taken that away. It was unforgivable.
"And then you have Toby call Kip. Did you not want to face him yourself? Were you worried he was going to ream you out?"
'Kind of the way you're doing now,' she mentally responded, refusing to show emotion. Her father was playing the 'I'm going to see how long it takes you to get mad' game and she could wait him out as long as necessary. She had two cards in her hand that she had yet to play and when she used them, it was going to be with great relish. For now, she'd just watch to see when they were off the major highways. With what she had to say, being in a congested area wasn't a good thing.
"Are you going to answer me?" he demanded and she responded with a lazy look.
Memphis bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood and tried to remember how much damage a speeding ticket would do him right now. He counted to ten until his mind hurt from the numbness. When he'd turned onto their street, he opened his mouth to speak, but Sage cut him off and beat him to it.
"Why didn't you tell me Mom's name was Sara?"
Now, Memphis was an extremely skilled driver. He'd been driving since he was a year or two younger than Sage and performed some extremely evasive maneuvers. The thing of it was, her question had caught him so entirely off- guard, he swerved to the left and nearly took out the neighbors' trashcans. With shaky hands, he pulled over and turned off the car.
He turned to look at her. "*What*?"
She returned the look. "Mom. Her name was Sara. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't think it was necessary." Sage rolled her eyes so sharply he thought they might fall out of her head. "Who told you?"
"I'm not a rat," she retorted, leaned over, and started the car back up herself.
Memphis watched her a bit longer and she evenly sent back a look of her own until he put the car into gear and drove the remaining distance home.
Before he could say anything to her, she'd grabbed her bag and had unlocked the front door. He exited the car as well, running a hand over the smooth black paint, and wondered how he'd gone from a car that was older than he was to one younger than his daughter. It drove beautifully.
But it wasn't Eleanor.
He sighed and went inside to fix himself a cup of coffee. For the next few hours, he was lost in paperwork, looking over Sage's grades, and wondering what type of car he would get her.
Kip said she'd been a simply awful driver when they started out. She'd been painfully bad. But then, after a week or so, the Raines genes kicked in and she had driven the test car - a 10-year-old brown Oldsmobile - like it was a sports car. She wasn't doing the fancy stuff - the 180's and 360's and reverses at 70 MPH - but she sure as hell could drive. He had even let her loose with his beloved silver Porsche, and that was the highest form of praise she could ever get from him.
Memphis glanced at the clock and rubbed a hand over his face. It was time for bed.
He turned off the lights and knew that he didn't need to leave any on for his younger brother. Kip wouldn't be coming home tonight. The stairs were dark and he had more than half a mind to leave it that way, and head straight for his room at the end of the hall. And he'd hate himself in the morning. He already hated himself for not even saying hello to the guys, but if he'd shown any sort of interest in rekindling what once was, Sage would have caught onto that in a heartbeat, and snatched the chance to-to do whatever it was she wound up doing.
He pushed open the door to her room gently, smiling when it didn't squeak, as was sometimes the tendency. Sage was stretched out on her bed, with her arms and legs flung to the sides. She hadn't changed out of her school clothes, though her shoes were off at the foot of the bed, and Memphis smiled when he saw her favorite stuffed toy - a red Volkswagen Beatle - clutched tightly in her right arm.
Even at 16, you weren't too old to have something to cuddle with - in spite of it being over 10 years old; the red was no longer red but a dull, and considerably lightened cherry color - or too old to have your dad tuck you into bed.
Memphis gathered her close with one arm and expertly turned back her sheets with the other. He settled her in and she turned to rest on her side, hair fanning out on the white sheets and looking somewhat like. *him*, for once. The unyielding set to her jaw while the rest of her features were softened in sleep was undeniably something that she got from him.
He chuckled at the irony - 16 years after he'd shut her out of his life, he was realizing just how much he wanted to be a part of hers - and ran a hand through the thick hair that was all her mother's.
"I love you, Sage." Memphis leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
She mumbled something in her sleep and he smiled tenderly. *She'd* always loved her sleep too, and hated when he woke her up for one reason or another. Unfortunately, Kip loved sleep as well, so she had the sleep gene from both sides of her family this time.
As he closed the door on his slumbering daughter, he vowed to do whatever it took to forge a strong relationship with her.
Everything but bring her to Otto.
* * *
The morning, when Sage woke up, the sun was shining on the door across from her bed. This stuck her as odd, because when her alarm woke her up, the sun usually wasn't even out. Warily, she turned over on her side to see her alarm clock. '8:02'
She cursed. First period had begun nearly an hour ago. With a new sense of urgency, she rose from the bed, tossed the sheets to the top and spared a second to pull them down while reaching for the nearest pair of jeans.
The jeans she was now jumping into were black and feeling melancholy, she reached for her nearest black shirt. It was thin, and fitted, and she would normally have paired it with something more. well, at least something more colorful. But this morning, she wasn't in the best mood and color was the least of her priorities.
Halfheartedly, she grabbed her bag and headed for the bathroom, then the stairs. Nothing, however, could have prepared her for what awaited in the kitchen.
"Good morning, sweetheart," Memphis said, never taking his eyes off the papers her was reading.
And so the morning got weirder.
"Kip didn't come home last night, so I decided I'd let you sleep in and drive you to school when you woke up."
She tried to run a hand through her damp hair, but felt the gel and withdrew quickly. "Um. okay. I'll just grab a bagel and we can go."
He turned at the exact moment she reached for her bagel on the counter behind him.
Memphis Raines looked at his daughter and bit back a long string of curses. "I've never seen you do your hair that way before."
Knowing he was referring to the twists that covered her entire head with gel, her lips curved slightly. "Mirror told me I had the right shaped face for it. Would you believe his sister is a hairdresser?"
What he had trouble believing was that Mirror had willingly planted the idea in his daughter's head. And he had a sister that was a hairdresser? He didn't even know Mirror Man *had* a sister.
"Um, well. it's a new look for you."
She had wrapped the bagel in tinfoil and was tapping her foot impatiently. "Yeah, so? I like it."
He grabbed his keys and she pushed out the door ahead of him, getting into the unlocked car. "As long as it makes you happy," he mumbled sarcastically.
* * *
After she had signed in at the main office and gotten everything settled in her locker, the bell rang, signaling the end of second period. This meant she had exactly four minutes to get her ass to chemistry, which was on the other side of the school. Grabbing the thick chem. book that she'd left overnight and an equally thick red notebook, she slammed the door shut and plowed into a black and green varsity football jerseyed chest.
"Hey."
Sage closed her eyes and stepped away, knowing exactly whom the voice belonged to. "Why aren't you walking away to let me die of embarrassment right now?"
Jesse Castleback grinned, revealing a boyishly handsome set of white teeth, a sight that had brought many a cheerleader to their knees. "You weren't in English this morning," he ignored her negative statement, and put a hand on her shoulder to propel her in the direction of their next class. "I took the notes for you. Everything okay?"
She cast a gauging clear-eyed look at him, one that usually intimidated people she didn't want to explain herself to - which was pretty often - and was slightly disturbed to find that it had no effect on his laughing brown eyes. She sighed and wondered why she was giving into the query, completely unaware that she was currently the envy of half the cheerleading squad.
"I sort of had a big family reunion type thing yesterday after school. it went well, but the talk with my dad after; didn't."
"Parents are unpredictable like that, aren't they?" His eyebrow rose. "I thought you'd hung here after school. But if you were here late, how'd you get a ride home?"
She blinked. If he was okay with the fact that he'd just admitted to waiting for her, or was at least paying some seriously non-obligatory attention, then she could be too. "I, um. I got picked up." That wasn't to say that it wouldn't require some effort.
They had now reached the door of the chem. class. He stopped at her statement and put both hands on her shoulders. "You *what*?"
Sage immediately grew defensive. "I got a ride with a guy. I knew him," she added indignantly, pushing his hands away. "Sort of."
Jesse stared at her for a long, measuring moment, then sighed, shaking his head. "You are too much, Raines. You're going to kill me, you know that right?"
Involuntarily, she felt the corners of her mouth curve upwards. "Yeah, okay."
The bell rang and they took their seats at the lab desk they shared near the back of the classroom. For the next few minutes, Sage sat quietly and took studious notes, while the teacher lectured about lab techniques and the importance of safety around highly flammable components.
About 15 minutes into the lecture, Jesse slouched in his seat and groaned under his breath. Sage hid a smile; she had begun to understand her partner and knew that this was his least favorite part of the day. She, on the other hand, lived for science for some unexplainable reason. Maybe the controlled situations appealed to her, since labs could go as planned or entirely reversed from the expected results. For whatever explanation, this was, without a doubt her favorite class. But when he slouched in his seat like that, she knew that paying attention from this point on would be out of the question. When he was bored, he fidgeted. And when he fidgeted, he distracted her until she personally stopped him.
She gave him about a minute before the foot jiggling began before touching his arm gently. "Chill. He's almost done, I remember this experiment from my last school."
He rolled his eyes at her and playfully flicked a strand of her hair. "I kinda like this. Where'd you get the idea for it?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," she murmured under her breathe, looking for all the world like she was paying diligent attention, though she was really trying to control her impatience with their still-droning teacher. That was the only thing that sucked about switching schools. You sometimes ran the risk of repeating things. A lot.
Jesse flicked her hair again. "The football team's hosting a party this Friday night. Wanna come with?"
Finally, the teacher was wrapping up. Unfortunately, he was also altering the experiment. She needed to get these diagrams down; at least one of them had to have them the correct procedure down. "Sure," Sage replied, answering without really thinking.
He grinned and resettled himself in his chair. He knew when she realized what had just happened because her eyes got greener and grew to the size of the beakers resting on shelves around the classroom.
"What?" She asked loudly, drawing the attention of the class and teacher. Instantly, she blushed, and ducked her head, letting her long twists cover her cheeks.
"Was there something you disagreed with, Miss Raines?"
Sage shook her head solemnly. "No, sir." Then a mischievous smile twisted her lips and her eyes gleamed. "Actually," the class, who had by now turned back around, glanced back, "what if instead of using a control plate with the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, we added another form of bacteria and see how it held up against that? I think that by using a non-plant bacteria, we would be able to test its effectiveness on a more stable type of virus."
Their teacher looked impressed. "That's a very good idea. While you're going over the procedure, I'll see how I can work that in. Thank you for your input, Miss Raines. I hope to be hearing from you more often."
She exhaled loudly, slumping in her seat with relief. Jesse cleared his throat and she glanced at him to see him grinning at her. "Don't speak. I just used up the reserves of my brain power and I need to regenerate."
He held his hands up innocently. "I wasn't saying a word."
Sage glared at him. "Sure you weren't." She reached for her pen and tried to go over the procedure quietly, but this proved hopeless as her mind was otherwise occupied with the fact that she had just accepted what could be justifiably called by any stretch of the imagination - a date. The pen that had been hovering over her notebook slammed down as she turned to look at him. "What did you just rope me into, Castleback?"
Jesse smiled disarmingly. "Would I rope you into anything without your consent first?" Her glare hardened, and he continued, "You are just accompanying me to a small party with a few friends on Friday night. And don't think you can back out, because you already accepted and I will be devastated if I have to find another date. Not to mention, bored silly because all the good-looking girls in this school have nothing but air between their heads and yet you defy that, for somehow I manage to have a stimulating conversation with you no matter what." When she didn't react, he added, "That was a compliment, you know."
Now she had to smile at him. "I know. I just don't want to ruin your evening. I'm not going to be a different person from who I am now, so just be prepared for that. Fitting in with the cheering squad isn't really my thing. You still sure you want me to go? There may be dirty looks shot to the rah-rah chicks if they start to mutter things under their breath."
He slipped an arm around her shoulder easily, using his free hand to push away their notes while laughing at her probably dead-on prediction. "If I had wanted anyone else, I would have asked them. Don't you want to shake up the complacency of this town anyway?" Her eyes sparkled and he had his answer. "Besides. Can I help it if I don't want you wandering around the streets of Long Beach unaccompanied?"
Sage recalled his earlier outburst. "Why were you so freaked, anyway?"
Jesse shook his head slowly, almost as if mocking himself. "It probably has something to do with the fact that my father's a police officer."
* * *
I think that is quite possibly the longest chapter so far. It more than makes up for chapter four, though you all should consider yourselves lucky that you were granted another 2-chapter update.
The chemistry between Jesse and our girl Sage is starting to take a turn for the better. She has no idea just how deep this boy has fallen. And why should she? No one ever paid her much attention before. But for some reason, little Castleback has fallen for the dark, mysteriously smart Raines daughter.
I can't wait to see where it leads.