Believing (Lily Dale #2)(7)

“I didn’t listen, in case you didn’t notice,” Evangeline says with a laugh, and gestures at her sneakers and simple long-sleeved blue T-shirt, untucked over her jeans to help camouflage her well-padded hips and thighs. Her slightly frizzy reddish hair is tamed more than usual, though, held back with a silver barrette. And she’s wearing lip gloss.

“So what’s it like not to have to wear a uniform to school for a change?” Evangeline asks.

“I don’t know yet . . . I used to complain about it, but maybe in some ways a uniform was easier. You never have to think about what to wear.”

“Well, if you’re worried, don’t be. You look fine.”

“The thing is, I’m going to run out of stuff to wear in, like, two days,” Calla tells Evangeline. “I didn’t come up here thinking I was going to stay past summer.”

“If you want to go shopping for warmer clothes,” Evangeline tells her, “I’ll go with you. That would be fun. We can go to the mall and you can get some sweaters and a down coat. What do you think?”

“Yeah, that would be good,” Calla murmurs, realizing there’s just one problem with that scenario: she’s broke.

Money wasn’t a problem when Mom was alive. She gave Calla a generous allowance and they often went shopping together. Mom loved to buy clothes for her. Now, even if Calla found her way to a mall, it’s not like she could buy anything. And it’s not like she feels comfortable asking her grandmother for money, or even Dad, for that matter.

Having faced far more traumatic problems these last few months than a wardrobe that’s seriously lacking, she puts the matter out of her head.

At least she looks halfway decent today, and that’s what counts.

She took the time to brush on mascara and rim her hazel eyes with a smudged liner pencil. She worked gel into her long, sun-streaked brown hair before she dried it, to make it look thicker and help keep her bangs out of her face. She’s overdue for a haircut, and the bangs are starting to bug her.

Disturbed as she’s been about what’s been going on around here, she didn’t overlook the fact that she’s going to be seeing— and be seen by—both Blue Slayton and Jacy Bly today.

“Hey, I meant to ask . . . how did your visit go this weekend? With your friend Lisa?”

Hearing the wistful note in Evangeline’s voice, Calla wishes she had thought to invite her over.

Then again, maybe it was better that she didn’t introduce her newest friend to her oldest. They couldn’t be more opposite: honey-blond, overprotected Lisa, with her designer wardrobe and her healthy skepticism for all things Lily Dale–related, and down-to-earth, orphaned Evangeline, with her disdain for fashion and her extracurricular classes in subjects like Crystal Healing and Past-Life Regression.

Oil and water, Calla thinks, and is glad she kept her two friends apart. At least, this time.

“It was fun,” she tells Evangeline. “But the weekend flew by.”

“You must miss her, huh? How long have you guys been friends?”

“Since kindergarten.”

All at once, the breeze off the lake seems to grow cooler. Goose bumps spring up on Calla’s arms, and she hurriedly slips into her fleece-lined Windbreaker, glad she thought to grab it.

“I’ve known most of the kids in my class since kindergarten, too,” Evangeline is saying, idly kicking a stone along the road. “But my best friend, Amy, moved away last year after her parents split up. The two of us used to do everything together. Now I just kind of hang with whoever’s around.”

“Like me?” Calla flashes a teasing smile.

“Yeah, right. Oh, before I forget to ask . . . do you ever do any babysitting?”

“Sometimes I did, back home. Why?” Calla shivers a little and decides she really is going to need warmer clothes around here.

“This friend of my aunt’s, Paula, just broke her ankle, and she needs help after school for a few weeks with her kids. They’re really cute, two and five. I can’t do it because between my schoolwork and extracurricular stuff and another babysitting job I’ve got, I’m booked. But I told Paula I’d ask you.”

Caught off guard, Calla automatically hedges. “Oh . . . well, I’m not sure . . .”

Then again, what else has she got to do?

And—hello—you were just worrying about being broke, remember?

Now she’s suddenly got the opportunity to earn some cash. Anyway, being around cute little kids might be good for you, she tells herself, realizing she’s feeling oddly—and quite suddenly—gloomy.

“You should do it,” Evangeline is urging. “Paula’s great. You’ll like her a lot. And she pays great. Why don’t I just give her your number so she can call you and talk to you about it?”

“Whatever, go ahead,” Calla agrees, distracted by the plunging temperature and the strange oppression that seems to have drifted into the air.

Then she catches movement out of the corner of her eye and notices, with a start, that she and Evangeline aren’t quite alone.

For a split second, she wonders if the girl with the long blond hair is someone Evangeline knows from school.

Oh. Whoa. There’s a filmy quality about the girl’s slender build.

Is she . . . ?

Yes. She’s an apparition.