Violet Eyes

Chapter One I hated Michael Vallant for nine years before I finally met him.I had always thought I would recognize him instantly, but I didn't. I was too involved with my own schemes that afternoon down by the river.It had been my idea to come down to the river in the first place, to beat the muggy August heat by splashing around, but three hours had passed, and the heat had pulled ahead by five points and was winding up for another shot on goal.Just the way I'd planned it.When the moment was right, I stood up. "I have an idea. Let's play War."Maryanne laughed. She thought I was kidding.Wendy knew better. She grinned evilly. "I'm game. What are the rules, Angel?" Wendy was always up for anything a bit reckless.The other sunbathing teenagers sat up, looking interested. I was their Idea Girl, the one who could always think of something to do."We divide into two teams, the Pirates and the Landlubbers, on either side of the river," I said. "The Pirates try to keep the Landlubbers from reaching the Pirate side of the river with a flag." I looked around for a second, then snatched up the extra T-shirt I'd brought. "This is the flag. Pirates can't come onto the Landlubber side of the river. If a Pirate tags a Landlubber before she crosses the river, the Landlubber becomes a Pirate and tells all the secrets she knows. Everybody got it?""Who carries the flag?" Wendy's boyfriend, Carl, asked. A husky blond boy who moved with the slightly stiff movements of a windup toy, his square face held its customary stoic expression. I knew I could count on him to keep things from getting too rowdy."That's the secret," I told him.Nobody else had any questions so we separated into two teams of five people each. "Five minutes to plan strategy and then the war starts," I said.The Pirates, Carl in the lead, waded across the sluggish brown river. It was quite shallow, thigh-deep in one hollow, knee-deep everywhere else, and dotted with sandbars.Maryanne, Wendy, and two other girls were on my team. We formed a huddle."Who gets the flag? I don't want it." Maryanne nervously tucked a strand of chin-length brown hair back behind her ear."Angel," Wendy said. "She's the best runner."I shook my head. "They'll expect me to have it. You take it. Toss it to someone else if you think they're going to catch you."We spent another minute discussing strategy before deciding to split up. Maryanne would go downriver, and I would go upriver to draw off the Pirate forces while Wendy zigzagged across and the two other girls tried to protect her.While Maryanne was doing the countdown Wendy surreptitiously handed me back the flag. She winked at me, and I winked back. Now if the other three were captured and turned into Pirates they would give false information."On your mark, get set, go!"Singing, "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," Carl's Pirate team splashed into the water, eager to head us off. The current got stronger out toward the middle, and one of the boys was knocked off his feet for a moment. I saw Wendy swerve left around him and heard one of the other girls shout and turn Pirate, but noticed little after that.I turned and ran upriver. One of the boys, Jimmy, ran parallel to me, ready to cut me off when I tried to cross the river. Carl had obviously assigned each Pirate one Landlubber to watch.I let Jimmy keep pace close to the Landlubber side of the river until the bridge loomed ahead. The river wasn't very wide, but from the sandy bottom the bridge looked like the feat of engineering it was: three Y-shaped towers cradling a concrete road.I put on a sudden burst of speed and headed up the steep grassy bank on my side of the river. Jimmy swore as he realized my intention, and I grinned. I hadn't said you necessarily had to go through the river to get to the other side. Since he was so close to the Landlubber bank, he would have to race to beat me back across the river iLuiken, Nicole is the author of 'Violet Eyes', published 2001 under ISBN 9780743400770 and ISBN 0743400771.