“You’re hearing what?” Cadence asked, standing in front of me with her arms crossed, a look of disbelief marring her pretty face.
I was still sitting on Jamie’s examination table, but the doctor was standing next to my sister and my parents now, Brandon sitting next to me, his hand bumped up against mine. Aaron was across the room, and I couldn’t tell if he wasn’t right up in my business like everyone else because he didn’t think he belonged there or because somehow he already knew what we needed to discuss.
“I know, it sounds nuts…” I began.
“No, it doesn’t,” Brandon cut me off. “It sound remarkable.”
I looked at him and smiled. “They’re just whispers, fragments of sentences, nothing I can even understand.”
“Wow. Just… wow,” my mom said, her mouth agape much like my sister’s had been up until a moment ago.
“Well, it’s nice to have a talent,” my dad offered, forcing his fake dad smile, like the one he used when I struck out at T-ball, but I’d given it the old college try.
I’d used the five minutes it took for my family to arrive to tell Brandon, who really did seem to think it was pretty cool and didn’t seem to be looking at me the same way I looked at Christian, which gave me more courage to tell the others, but they still seemed shocked, so I guess I could’ve done a better job of revealing the information.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Cadence asked.
“And have you look at me like that from the very beginning?” I countered.
“Look at you like what? I’m not looking at you like anything.”
“You kinda are,” Brandon spoke up, making Cadence narrow her eyes at him.
“No, I’m not,” she turned and looked at Aaron, who sort of shrugged, which I took as an agreement with me. “I’m sorry, Cass, I just thought all the surprises were over with from Philly; that’s all.”
“Welcome to my world,” I replied, trying to keep my tone non-accusatory. “Every time I turn around I’m finding out there’s another secret I don’t know.” My eyes focused on Aaron for a split second, not because I meant for them to, but because they betrayed me, and once again, Cadence was spinning around.
“What?” she asked, turning back to face me.
“Nothing.” I knew I couldn’t look innocent if I wanted to, so I was happy when Jamie changed the subject. I didn’t want to tip my hand about knowing Christian’s secret when we hadn’t talked about the IAC yet.
“In light of the situation,” Jamie began, “I would recommend Cassidy go ahead and get her IAC for a number of reasons. First of all, if she’s already hearing voices in her head, they may as well be ours. Secondly, if she should happen to hear something useful, it would be nice for her to be able to use the IAC to communicate it to us quickly.”
“Oh, absolutely not,” my mom said, shaking her head adamantly. “She can’t get one of those eye computers right now. She’s already been through way too much. Eli, tell them.” She nudged my dad, who looked dumbstruck.
“Well, I think we should hear all of the options,” he muttered. My mom looked at him like he’d just revealed he has another family living in Detroit.
“What?” she asked. “You think that we should consider letting our child have a computer chip embedded in her eye?”
“Why not?” Dad, my hero, asked. “If Jamie thinks it’s a good idea, I think we should consider it. What do you think, Cadence?”
I hated that my dad was passing the buck to someone else when I’d just started to think he was my favorite family member. “Me?” Cadence asked.
“Well, you are the Hunter Leader,” Jamie reminded her.
Cadence exhaled loudly. “Christian mentioned it a few minutes ago, and I said I’d need to think about it,” she said. At least Christian had tried. That was something. Cadence turned and looked at Aaron, who was leaning against Jamie’s desk now, possibly amused at the entire exchange. “What do you think?”
“I think you are all asking the wrong person,” he said in his calm, wise voice. “Cassidy is the only person who really should have a say, in my opinion.”
“But she’s our minor child,” my mother reminded him.
He shrugged. “Age doesn’t make that much of a difference anymore once you’ve Transformed.”
“Well, I disagree,” Mom said, almost stamping her foot. “Cassidy, why would you want that already, honey? Why not just wait until you’re older?”
“Mom,” I began, keeping my voice as even as I could, though I could feel tears beginning to sting my eyes, “if I’d been capable of waiting patiently to Transform, I never would’ve gotten myself into this predicament in the first place. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of secrets. I know you want me to come home and finish high school,” I glanced at my sister, as she wanted that for me as well, “but no one there is like me. The least you can do is let me get my IAC so I don’t feel so… alone.”
I realized Brandon’s hand was in mine now as my mom stared at me for a long moment. She swallowed hard, and I thought she must be thinking back to when I was just a little baby, her little girl, a toddler in my tutu on the performance stage, my first piano recital, first football game in my cheerleading uniform. I had grown up too quickly for her. This would be the last straw for her. After this, I would be an adult, just as Aaron had insinuated. With trembling lips, she said, “Okay.”
I slid down off of the table and wrapped my arms around her. For a moment, I let myself be the vulnerable little girl she wanted me to be, and she hugged me so tight, I thought maybe she had superpowers.
“Let’s go,” Jamie said once I’d stepped back. I looked at him, grateful for his help, but also thankful that he was moving on this before any minds could be changed. “Who do you want with you, Cass? The room where Christian installs them is a little small. You can really only have two people in there, maybe three.”