Believing (Lily Dale #2)(52)

It comes out entirely the wrong way, though, and Lisa snaps back in her familiar drawl, “Well, it’s been a while since I’ve heard it. How come you never called me back the other day?”

“I’m sorry,” Calla says immediately, and means it. “I know I’ve been bad about staying in touch since you left. It’s just . . . I’ve had a lot going on.”

“I know what you mean. It’s been crazy here, too, between school and cheerleading practice and trying to find something to wear for senior portrait day.”

Knowing Lisa can’t possibly understand that what Calla’s been through this last week in Lily Dale can’t begin to compare to her own life, she asks, “What’s been going on at school? Fill me in.”

As Lisa talks about people she used to know and places she used to go, Calla finds herself wistful, once again, for the routine daily life she left behind in Florida. She never realized, at the time, just how blessed she really was. It isn’t only about having lost Mom—or even Kevin.

It’s just . . .

Having exchanged ordinary for extraordinary, she wonders if she’ll ever get used to seeing and hearing what others can’t, to disembodied shadows and spirits popping up to show her bloody corpses, to just knowing things about other people, strangers, even—things she can’t possibly know.

“I’m going on and on,” Lisa says after a few minutes of updating Calla, “and you haven’t even told me how you like your new school.”

“Oh . . . it’s good.”

“Have you made some new friends besides . . . what’s the name of that girl next door?”

“Evangeline. Yeah, I’ve made a few. This girl,Willow—I eat lunch with her and another girl, Sarita. They’re really nice.” Before Calla left tonight, Willow said something about sitting together in the cafeteria again tomorrow, so Pam—or Shakespeare—at lunch is history, thank goodness.

“What about those guys?” Lisa asks. “Blue and Jason?”

“Jacy.” Wow. It seems like a million years ago that Calla told her about them, but it was only a few weeks, right on the heels of finding out about Annie, so she made it sound as though she were juggling two guys.

“Did you choose?” Lisa asks. “Or are you still into both of them?”

“Oh, uh, I’m going out with Blue Saturday night, and . . . and I had lunch with Jacy the other day. So, yeah. Both, I guess.”

“Lucky you.” Lisa fills her in on her own love life. She’s decided she has a crush on Nick Rodriguez, but he’s going out with Brittany Jensen, though he keeps flirting with Lisa when Brittany’s not around.

“What do you think I should do about Nick?” Lisa asks.

“I don’t think you should do anything right now,” she says firmly. “Let him make a move, if he’s going to.”

“I guess you’re right. I just don’t think he’s really all that into Brittany.”

The conversation drifts on, and Calla lets Lisa do most of the talking.

“It’s so hard to do all this catching up in one quick phone call,” Lisa says. “When are you coming to visit? You got the airline voucher, right?”

“I got it. I’m not sure. My dad doesn’t want me to leave here just yet,” she white-lies.

“I wish you were at least online, so we could stay in touch better. And you could blog again, and update your MySpace page. People have been asking what’s up with you.”

Calla murmurs an agreement, but she can’t help thinking it would feel wrong to go back to blogging these days. She can’t imagine sharing most of the details of her daily life with anyone in her old world, let alone putting it out there in cyberspace.

“When I do eventually get down there, I’m going to get my mom’s old laptop and use that here,” she tells Lisa. “My dad said it would be okay.”

“That would be great! The sooner the better, right?”

“Right.” I guess.

“You name the weekend, and I’ll start making plans,” Lisa tells her, and Calla halfheartedly promises to do just that. It won’t be for a while, though. As much as she misses Lisa—and as much as she wants a computer to use—she isn’t particularly eager to face her old house and its bloody memories.

Realizing she should probably hang up and get busy on the rest of her homework, she says, “Listen, I just wanted to ask you one last thing . . . about Kevin. How’s he doing?”

“He’s good. Actually, that’s funny, because I just talked to him, and he asked me about you, too.”

“What did he ask?”

“Just what you were up to lately. I think he misses you . . . although when I asked him if he was going to break up with Annie, he got annoyed.”

“They’re still together?”

“Yeah.”

“Why’d you ask him about breaking up with her? I thought you liked her?”

“I do. But I love you. Anyway, Kevin’s talking about bringing Annie down here for Thanksgiving, so . . .”

So, so much for that, Calla thinks.

She hangs up with Lisa a few minutes later, with a promise to call and e-mail more regularly, and a “love you, too,” in response to Lisa’s.