Holiday hesitated. "He'll be here either tomorrow or Tuesday."

"Is Fredericka coming with him?"

"Yeah," Holiday said.

"Great," Kylie muttered. So if she did morph into a werewolf, Fredericka, who would also be in wolf form, would probably chase her down and rip her wolf ass to shreds.

Her day was just getting better and better.

Chapter Twenty-two

That afternoon, Kylie decided to skip the picnic dinner at the swimming hole. First, she didn't have a bathing suit that would fit; second, she really wanted to make a few calls to see if she could locate any Brightens who might know something about her real dad. And third, well, she hoped the ghost would drop by again. Something about the way she'd shown up when Kylie had been talking to her mom felt odd.

Kylie knew she couldn't start fixating on trying to guess who the ghost was talking about being in danger. But deep down, the fixating had bit. Could the ghost be talking about her mom? Could her mom be in danger?

Worried that it might be true, Kylie had called her mom. Twice. But her phone was turned off. Probably because she was in mid-flight.

Kylie sat down at the computer desk, telling herself everything was fine, and pulled out the printed list of phone numbers. Her cell rang. Hoping it was her mom, she took the call without checking the caller ID.

"Mom?" Kylie asked.

"Not Mom. It's Sara."

"Oh, hi," Kylie said, trying to figure out which one of the multitude of emotions about Sara she should let control the conversation. There was the hurt she felt that Sara-whom she'd considered her best friend for years-hadn't returned any of her calls in almost a month. There was the concern she felt knowing that Sara was ... going through something. And then there was the melancholy she felt because she knew her friendship with Sara would never be the same again.

When the silence seemed awkward, Kylie jumped in. "My mom said she saw you in the grocery store the other day."

"Yeah, she did. She's looking good, too. I like her new look and hairstyle.

She said you talked her into getting a makeover."

"Did she do it?" Kylie asked. "She hasn't told me she did it."

"Oh, I hope I didn't ruin her surprise."

"Nah, I appreciate the warning. Does she look good? Or dumb?"

"Good. She looks ... younger, I guess. You know, kind of like she might be about to start dating."

"Dating?" Kylie knew this was a possibility, she'd even suggested it, but for some reason now the idea hit her stomach like a bad piece of chicken. "Did she say that or are you just guessing?"

"No, she didn't say it. She just looked, you know, like a woman who wanted to be noticed by a man. Tighter jeans and a fitted top that showed off her girls. I almost didn't recognize her."

Was Sara saying her mom was dressing like a ho? That wasn't the makeover Kylie had suggested. Realizing the conversation had gone quiet again, Kylie started talking to fill the silence. "Mom said you looked..."

Kylie had almost lied and said good, but at the last minute decided not to do it. "... thinner. Are you on some new diet again?"

Sara was the first to try every new diet endorsed by Hollywood: low carbs, no carbs, all fruit on Tuesday, all brown rice on Wednesday, the crazier the better.

Not that she ever stayed on any of them.

"Not really," Sara said. "I think it's the birth control pills. I heard they'd cause me to gain weight, but they seem to be doing the opposite with me."

Sara was on the pill? It struck Kylie again how much things had changed between them. The old Sara would have certainly told Kylie something as big as getting on the pill.

But then, Kylie hadn't exactly been in a sharing mood with Sara lately, either. Of course, trying to explain to a normal about being a still unidentified supernatural was a little-well, a lot-more difficult than discussing birth control pills.

"Did your mom agree to you taking them?" Kylie asked, knowing Sara's mom was a bit of a religious fanatic and constantly preached against premarital sex.

"Are you kidding? She'd die if she found out. I went to the clinic and I faked her signature."

Kylie had heard about some other girls doing the same thing to get around the Texas law that required a parent's signature before dispensing the pills.

Another long pause followed.

"So, who are you dating?" Kylie asked.

"A couple of different guys." Sara sounded purposely vague. Kylie couldn't help but wonder if Sara was having sex with the couple of different guys, too. Once upon a time, she might have asked.

"So," Sara said. "You're still coming home in a couple of weeks, aren't you? Camp from hell is almost over? No more being a boner, huh?"

Annoyance chomped down on Kylie's stomach. Obviously, Trey had told Sara about the whole boner reference, because Kylie couldn't remember mentioning it.

"Actually, I'm only coming home for the weekend. And I really like it here." Kylie didn't tell her about the whole boarding school possibility just because she didn't want to go into it. But she sent up a silent prayer that her mom agreed to it. The thought of going back to her old school and not having the old Sara at her side was just too much.

"Really, you like it? You hated it at first. Camp Freaky, isn't that what you called it?" Sara sounded shocked.

That was before I actually realized I was a freak, too. Well, not a freak, but not all human, either. "I guess things change." Kylie meant her relationship with her one-time best friend, as well as her feeling about the camp.