Glitches (Book 1)

Chapter 12: Justin

"Iconic Young Psychic Goes Missing," the headlines stated everywhere, on TV, on the radio, and in newspapers. The constant reminder of what had happened certainly wasn't helping Dad's situation.

The day after Claire's disappearance, he had sunk into a morose state, locking himself in his study and only coming out for meals and coffee. Mom and I had tried many times to cheer him up with kind words and various small gifts, but none of it seemed to be having any effect. Every time one of us approached him, he would simply stare past us, fixated on things that only he could see.

"Justin, time to go to school!" I heard Mom yell from downstairs.

School. I nearly snorted at the thought. It seemed like such a simple, even trivial thing to think about when so much was going on in my life. I felt like pretending to be sick or something to get out of having to go, but I didn't want to give Mom any more trouble than she already had to deal with. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, ran my fingers through my messy brown hair, and jogged downstairs.

Spooning down my cereal in record time, I walked around to the back of the house where Mom waited for me in the car. Neither of us said anything during the fifteen-minute drive to my middle school, which was really unusual.

Even if I was too sleepy to have a conversation, Mom usually said something, at least a "goodbye," or "have a nice day," before dropping me off. The fact that she didn't showed just how stressed out she was.

When I was a few yards from the entrance, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I almost didn't pick it up, thinking it was just a random call and I could return it later, but something made me tap the screen just to see who it was. To my surprise and delight, it was Claire!

I glanced at my watch. I had about five minutes before school started, and even if the call took longer than that, whatever Claire had to say was probably way more important than being on time to first period. Scrambling to answer the phone, I excitedly put it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Justin!" I heard her say. "I almost thought you weren't going to pick up the phone!"

"I almost wasn't."

"Don't you want to know where I am and what I'm doing?"

"I do," I said, nodding my head. "I just didn't know it was you calling. I thought you said the place had no reception."

"It doesn't, but Jade let me step outside the building for a few minutes to catch my breath before orientation. And speaking of my orientation, I have so much to tell you! I got to see Amanda. It was pretty freaky, but I think I can get used to her. The thing I'm really worried about is this other girl here, her name's Megan. Amanda wanted her to do my orientation, but she seemed really reluctant. I'm afraid that she might not like me too much, and she seems like a pretty important person at WGO. It wouldn't be good for me to make enemies before I make any friends."

Megan? My hands started to get clammy, and I tried to reassure myself in vain. Megan was a pretty common name. In fact, there were probably thousands of Megan's in the world. What were the chances of it being her? But deep inside me, I knew it was the only logical explanation for a girl trying to stay away from funny, pretty Claire without even meeting her. But if she was our sister Megan, why didn't Claire mention that?

And then, it hit me. I had never gotten around to showing Claire the old family photo with Megan in it before Amanda changed the caption. She didn't even know that Megan King existed. I cursed myself from being so absentminded, I had found the photo almost two years ago. How could I had possibly not shown such a unique photo to my sister at least once between then and now? But what was done was done, and if I wanted Claire to be prepared for what she would probably find at WGO, I would have to tell her what I knew about Megan and Dad.

"Hey, about that Megan girl..." I began, but noticed a lot of disturbance on the other end of the line. "Claire? Are you okay?"

"Yeah...breaking up...terrible reception...call later," I managed to hear through the static.

"Dang it!" I yelled in a whispering tone as I shoved my phone back into my pocket, but there was nothing I could do now. Claire would have to fend for herself.

The entire school died down as I entered the hallway. Some kids even stopped to point at me and whisper to their friends. This was highly unusual, and I was growing uncomfortable. I was a pretty popular guy in school, with a famous sister and whatnot, so I was used to a lot of friendly greetings in the morning.

I had gotten apologetic looks and encouraging smiles before when one of Claire's shows didn't sell as well as we had hoped, or when she wasn't on the front page of the paper, but never anything like this.

Finally, as I slid into my desk in class, my best friend, Trevor, broke the deathly silence. "Hey, I hope your sister's okay." He shot a smile and gave me a rough pat on the back.

"Thanks," I said softly as I pulled out my textbooks.

He didn't know half of it.

"They'll probably find her. I mean, she is a celebrity and stuff, so they'll look extra hard."

"I hope so," I beamed, satisfied with the knowledge that, at least for now, Claire was okay.