Zodiac Academy: The Awakening
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
I WAS HALFWAY through the window when the police sirens sounded.
Pause. Breathe. Wriggle hips.
The window was a tiny thing with a metal latch digging into my belly. But I was under fed and had the determination of a pitbull. You've met your match Mr Window.
Sirens again.
My heart thumped a warning tune in my ears. I lifted my head, the bathroom below me familiar and haunting. I didn't have to do this. Breaking and entering. Although technically I wasn't breaking anything.
My sister was way better at this kind of thing. But maybe that was why I was here instead of her. I wanted to prove I could do it. So I was damn-well going to try.
Sirens. Closer this time. And whoosh, I was mentally carried away to a jail cell. Then weeping dramatically on a stand in court. “Guilty!” the jury chimed then bam, a metal door slamming in my face while I turned to my cellmate Patrice who had a gut the size of a beach ball and a menacing gleam in her eye.
At least she's well-fed.
Maybe prison was the answer to my prayers. Tory would kill me though. Although, to be fair, she was one mistake away from ending up behind bars herself. We'd be a force to be reckoned with in jail, queens of the condemned. Like Thelma and Louise if they hadn't driven themselves off a cliff.
Mental note: ask Tor if jail is a decent Plan B.
For now, prison wasn't on my to-do list. My senses were alive with adrenaline and okay just a little bit of fear.
Can I do this?
Or am I really just the useless twin?
I took a bracing breath. The chances were those cops weren't coming for me. I just had to be fast as a precaution.
I braced my hands against the ice-cold tiles and pushed, my hips getting jammed and my butt waving like a flag as I hung out the back of the house. The midnight blue tips of my ebony hair were waving around like a sheet in a storm.
Push – wriggle – yes!
I clambered onto the toilet without grace and jumped down, my beat-up Converses as quiet as air as they hit the tiles. I took a moment to internally celebrate what I'd just achieved, rocking my ass to a silent tune.
I did it!
I yanked the door open, darting further into the house which I knew was empty and yet...
A knot frayed and tugged apart in my chest. A floorboard creaked beneath my feet as I moved and the sound was a thunder crack in my ears.
Pete's at work. No one's here.
His name in my head sent a violent chill through me. Up until three months ago this house had been mine and Tory's home. If you could call it that. Pete had never thought of us as his kin. We'd been stuck here for our final year in foster care. And the day before we'd turned eighteen he'd shoved us out on our asses, since he was no longer entitled to the state fund for 'looking after us'. But the only thing he ever looked after was a bottle of Jack and his precious fifty eight inch TV.
I slipped into the room which had been mine and Tory's. Stripped bare already. He wouldn't be getting any more foster kids now that Darla had left him. Nearly two months before our birthday she'd walked out and I couldn't blame her. He'd conveniently forgotten to mention that to our social worker and we'd been too close to freedom to kick up a fuss.
There hadn't been much to remove from the room except the bunk bed that had been too damn small and too damn degrading for a couple of grown-ass girls. Oh no, did I forget to thank you for that set-up Pete? I'll be sure to do it on my way out.
I threw caution to the wind and jogged loudly across the room. I pressed my palms flush to the wall, moving, searching. I grinned as I found the right spot and my heart bounced with hope. I gripped the edges of the brick and pulled, the masonry coming loose until I revealed the little cubby hole Tory and I had used to stash stuff.
Reaching inside, I bit down on my lip in concentration as I tried to feel out what I was looking for.
Cash. A whole wad. We'd been thrown out of Pete's house so hard and fast we hadn’t had time to grab it. And it wasn't the type of thing we could have asked Pete to hand back to us. He'd have spent it on one night at the local casino. But we'd been saving for years. While I’d been hustling for money from students at school, buying and selling their unwanted crap for them and taking a profit, Tory had been doing something much more illegal. She never really went into it because she didn’t want to implicate me but I could hazard a guess at what it was. She always came home at ungodly hours of the night smelling of gasoline and adrenaline.
I couldn’t find it in me to care about the source of our funds. This money was our future. In this precious brick hole was nearly two thousand dollars. Enough for six months rent on our apartment. And a shitheap it might have been, but it was certainly better than a cold sidewalk.
Knuckles rapped against the front door – hard.
My gut plummeted. Pete didn't have friends. He was a loner. A loser.
Cops imminent.
My fingers brushed the pile of cash and I snatched it in my fist, bundling what I hoped was the whole contents between my fingers.
A crash sounded as the cops battered the front door down. No no no no.
Heart in throat, I ran like there was a fire up my ass.
A door burst open down the hall.
“Freeze!” a male voice shouted. I threw a glance over my shoulder and all I saw was the barrel of a gun.