The Athena Effect by Derrolyn Anderson Page A

And don’t you think it’s kind of lazy for you to lay around sleeping all day?”
    Cal nodded sadly; there was no point in arguing because her Aunt Angie had no desire to believe her. Caledonia knew by Phil’s color what he’d had in mind, but unfortunately, she had no proof. Instead of waiting around for something bad to happen, she continued to avoid the house as much as possible.
    Her life became even harder now that she had someone to dodge at school too, but it pained her to see Calvin, and she was so stubborn about avoiding him that she even missed getting her lunch a couple of times. Constantly ravenous, she started wasting away, growing thinner and thinner.
    Wandering the streets at night like a ghost, she stumbled upon a little convenience store that was open all night, shocked by all the different things she saw inside it. She was forced to spend some of her precious dollars on food, taking it with her to the little clearing that she rested in at night. She stayed quiet as a mouse, fearful of attracting the frightening vagrants that sometimes shuffled by her hiding spot in the middle of the night, muttering to themselves.
    She was back to only being able to read in the daytime, curling up in the quiet recesses of the school library, usually falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion. By the end of the week, she was coming to the end of her rope.
    On Friday, Calvin finally caught up with her at school, cornering her in the cafeteria. He sidled up to her in line, getting right up next to her before he announced his presence.
    “Hey,” he said casually.
    Her head snapped up to see him, and she froze, poised to run like some wild thing. When their eyes locked, the two of them stood rooted to the spot, staring at each other. The world all around them faded into the background as he scrutinized her with deep blue concern.
    “Where have you been?” he asked her.
    “Nowhere,” she replied, her voice barely a whisper.
    She recovered, taking her food and leaving the building with him hot on her heels. She walked fast, going to the farthest bench to sit down and take out a book. His shadow fell across her.
    “Are you avoiding me?”
    She looked up at him, “What do you want from me?”
    He was startled by her directness. She was nothing like the coy, flirtatious girls he was used to. She unnerved him, and he found himself groping for words.
    “Hey Cal!” Where have you been hiding?” They both looked up to see a pair of girls approaching. One of them hooked her arm around Calvin’s in a territorial display. Caledonia recognized the girl he had been kissing.
    “Who’s she?” the girl asked, following his eyes.
    “Hillary, Debbie…This is Caledonia,” he said her name slowly, enunciating each syllable.
    “That’s a weird name,” the girl clinging to him laughed shrilly.
    “It means Scotland,” Cal said, making Caledonia’s eyes narrow up at him suspiciously.
    “Oh my Gawd!” Hillary squealed, “What is wrong with your eyes? That is so freaky!”
    Caledonia looked at Hillary coldly, “It’s called heterochromia iridium. That means they’re two different colors.”
    She laughed again, “Like, duh– I can see that ! What, are you some kind of science geek or something?”
    She looked down, “I read it in Grey’s anatomy.”
    Now Hillary really laughed at her, scoffing, “Oh really? You can read a TV show?” The other girl joined in, and Caledonia looked confused.
    “It was a book first, stupid,” Calvin said, pulling his arm back from Hillary.
    Caledonia snapped her book shut and got up to leave without saying a word. Calvin stood watching her hurry away around the corner, too proud to chase after her.
    “A bunch of us are going to the fair this weekend, wanna go?” asked Debbie.
    “I don’t know,” he said, finally stalking off to look around the corner and see that Caledonia had already disappeared into the crowd.
    She’d slipped away again, like sand running through his