Saving Cayli

[Natalie Grey]

This morning she'd woken up with a death sentence. 

And now she'd never felt more alive. 

The car was massive but it was still squishy once they all piled in. Cay couldn't keep the grin from her face even as mom helped pop her seatbelt in like she was five and dad muttered protests up front. They'd barely slammed the doors before Jay squealed them out of the parking lot. 

Idly, she tried to find the light again, until Natalie's elbow nudged her in the ribs. "Later." The woman didn't turn round, her eyes following the zip of scenery outside instead. Though there was a vacancy there too, like she wasn't really seeing anything at all. Her hair fluttered in a cracked draft from the window. 

She might as well have been made from ice. Though maybe that was a good thing. It didn't seem to bother Natalie that mom acted like she was invisible, or that dad's eyes narrowed with suspicion every time they strayed to her face in the rearview mirror. Mom fawned over Jensen James like he was the second coming, but the warmth of her introductions had only peripherally included their other guest. She wasn't rude of course. Mom was never rude. But. Well. Considering what Jay must have brought her here to do. 

It itched like an itch Cayli couldn't scratch keeping her mouth shut. 

Because why wouldn't she want the accolade? And why shouldn't she tell mom and dad what had happened? 

It made no sense! 

Though none of it really did. 

The woman had said she was an ambassador, whatever the hell that meant, but there was a giant leap to that from a teacher in Africa. Cayli had questions, enough she was fit to burst, but she wasn't stupid enough to ask them in front of her parents. NO ONE needed to be treated to the latest episode in dad's Why Russia is the Enemy of the World tirade. Especially since it seemed Jay was mixed up in his eyeballs with the CCD if he had to have an AMBASSADOR just to visit home.  

No one ever told her anything anyway. Even though she wasn't an eleven year old kid any more. 

Jay and dad acted like they were enemies, falling right back into old routines, but she knew how quickly it could escalate. Mom and dad didn't have to let Jay stay. She had no intention of throwing gasoline on that fire by bringing up the Custody. Or magic powers. Or why the hell they were speeding like a hell mouth just opened up right under their feet. 

She didn't even ask why Jay brought up so many funny questions about Doctor Diaz. 

At least not yet. 

She settled back in her seat, frustrated, but soon buried her attention in her wallet. She fired messages to the friends who'd kept in touch while she'd lurched in and out of school the last year. She'd missed a lot of classes this semester and mom had restricted her access to her wallet while she was in the hospital, in case it somehow made her illnes worse. Truthfully she had been in no fit state to argue let alone miss it. But now she was better... 

It had only been days but it felt like a lifetime. 

Her girlfriends would probably flock once they knew Jay was home. Some of her boy friends too. It was a small town and news would spread sooner or later, though for now she kept the secret to herself. She didn't tell them she was out either, though she did enquire what everyone was up to tonight. Meeting plans travelled like light from fingertips. There was always some party somewhere. Cay grinned. 

This was going to be an epic surprise.