Free T*Witches: The Power of Two by Randi Reisfeld, H.B. Gilmour Page B

herself. It never happened. It was just another eerie episode in her increasingly weird life.
     
    Still she'd been waiting for the call. She'd compulsively kept her phone at her side and checked her e-mail hourly. So far, zilch.
     
    Except now. Cam braced herself and hit the TALK button.
     
    "Where on earth is Camryn Sandiego?"
     
    So much for premonitions, Cam thought, instantly recognizing Beth's teasing voice.
     
    Cam laughed nervously. "Channeling Bree much?" Their bud Brianna was the one always riffing on Cam's name.
     
    "Speaking of Bree," Beth responded, "and the rest of our friends, you remember them. Names like Kristen, Sukari, Amanda? Everyone wants to know where you've been hiding. You've become a phantom since we got home. Report your location—longitude and latitude, please?"
     
    "I'm home. Where else would I be?"
     
    "And answering the phone is, what, too far to stretch? I've been texting, and just tried your land line."
     
    "Hmmm, I thought the phone might be screwy," Cam lied, feeling as if Beth could see her, had caught her rifling through her parents' private papers. "Anyway, I'm glad it worked this time. So what is up?"
     
    "That's the question, Cami. What is up? No one's heard from you. You're not returning messages—"
     
    "Come on, Beth, it's just that I've been, you know, busy."
     
    Preoccupied was more like it. Trying to find her birth certificate. Trying to pretend that Alex didn't exist... while hoping she'd call. Trying to remember for the police, who were interviewing everyone who'd spoken with the still-missing Marleigh Cooper, exactly what she'd seen the day of the finals. Without, of course, mentioning the nightmare man.
     
    "Cam," Beth asked gently, "you're not still mad at me, are you?"
     
    "For what?"
     
    On the other end of the phone, Beth sighed. "You know."
     
    Of course she did. For insisting that Alex, a complete stranger, had to be Cam's twin. For planting the seed of doubt in Cam's own mind. For just... doing what a bff—best friend forever—would do: say what was really on her mind. Tell the truth. Try to be supportive.
     
    "Even if I was mad at you," Cam rushed to reassure Beth. "You know, where you're concerned, I'm incapable of holding a grudge—"
     
    "Prove it. Meet me for pizza in fifteen."
     
    "Wait!" Cam laughed. "I hear something. Aha! The sound of my stomach rumbling. Okay, Fish, give me and my humongo appetite twenty minutes, and we'll meet you at PITS."
     
    Her spirits high, Cam hung up and finally looked at the birth certificate in her hand. It read, "Dylan Michael Barnes." Stashing it back in the file, she zipped through all the other papers. Not one was her birth certificate.
     

    Pie in the Sky, aka PITS, had been a hangout for Cam and her friends since the beginning of junior high. Because the gang totaled a half dozen—besides Cam, Beth, and Brianna, there was Kristen, Sukari Woodard, and Amanda Carter—Cam's dad had tagged them the "Six Pack." The label had stuck.
     
    "So is everyone annoyed at me, or what?" Cam, sitting in a booth across from Beth, fiddled with her phone, making sure it was on and powered up. Just in case.
     
    "I covered for you," Beth responded, sipping her soda. "Told them you had to do the mother-daughter bonding thing—you know, since Dylan's away for a while. They totally bought it. Everyone knows how tight you and your mom are."
     
    Cam eyed her knowingly. "And sort of insinuated I'm not ready to face anyone since I blew the game?"
     
    "Posttraumatic soccer stress—they bought it," Beth admitted. "And, no, I never mentioned she-who-shall-be-nameless, your Montana mirror image. I'll leave that to you." She smiled, shrugging. "They wouldn't have believed me, anyway."
     
    "Thanks, Bethie," Cam said gratefully.
     
    Beth shrugged and toyed with her straw. "Anyway, everyone's consumed with trying to figure out what happened to Marleigh Cooper."
     
    "Yeah, there's a motion to rename the town 'Marleigh Bay.'" Their