When Lightning Strikes [COMPLETED]

Chapter 15: Practice Make Perfect (Part 1)

Julie found herself staring at Andromeda more and more.

This was her mother, right? Or was she crazy? Was it normal to be calmly contemplating thoughts like this?

"Honey, is there something wrong? You have been staring at me for a couple of minutes now."

Julie shook her head and looked back at her bowl of cereal. "No. I'm sorry. I must have spaced out for some reason."

Andromeda blanched, but she kept the tight false smile. Julie clenched her hands in her lap. How could they be her real parents and know there was something going on? If they weren't real, had they been faking it her whole life?

"Just making sure that you're happy, dear."

Julie felt like screaming: Yeah or just trying not to feel as guilty!

Instead she managed to choke out. "Yeah, I know. You are always trying to make sure I'm happy." She didn't think that sounded too sarcastic.

She stirred her bowl, watching the different colors bleed into the milk in a rainbow of swirls. Out of the corner of her eye, Andromeda nodded and went back to washing dishes. She had a dishwasher, but she never used it.

Maybe everyone here was a pod person. It wasn't any more unreal than any other explanation. Well, not Kara—not her.

Not yet, anyway. Maybe you could turn into a pod person. Or maybe some were not able to, so they stayed at the 'fine arts' school. Maybe...maybe a tinfoil hat would be good. Either way, she didn't feel like eating more. She pushed the bowl away.

"So what are your plans today?"

"Well, since I didn't get to practice yesterday, I'll go to the gym today. I will work on my summer reading a little later. I have a big list since the only English the fine arts school offers is AP."

She didn't mean to say the words fine arts sarcastically, but Andromeda didn't notice or care. Now she was too busy stirring something on the stove. It was like she had to stay too busy to think or something.

At this point, keeping her emotions under control to remember stuff was wearing thin. It was less than a week since she started documenting in her red notebook, but it felt like a lifetime. It also felt real. It felt more real than the artificial beauty of the island. Was the beauty used to disguise the ugliness of the people who lived here?

"That sounds nice. Do you want a ride to the school?"

"Nope."

"Is there something wrong?"

Yes. "Nope."

Julie swallowed back a wave of nausea as she considered that maybe all her memories of Atlanta were not real. What if all of those were somehow implanted? What if there was some hairy fingered man pretending to be Mandy or Darcy when she texted? What if her whole life as she knew it wasn't real?

She gripped her legs under the table, trying to fight off a panic attack. Her focus wavered as she stared at her bowl of colorful milk. She struggled to take a breath, fighting to let the tingling sensation chase away her losing even one more memory, even if it was a scary one. She felt the tingles sweep over her body and let her breath out.

They had to be real. All of them. Her dancing was real. She felt it to her core.

"Okay. Well let me know when you leave and think you will get back." Andromeda's hand stayed steady on the mixing bowl, and her face focused on it intensely.

"Fine." She pushed back from the table to walk quickly upstairs, back stiff. She needed to figure out what was going on before she drove herself crazy with all these ideas.