Okay! So it's not Monday, and I'm very sorry for breaking my promise! Hopefully I can get another chapter up before the end of the week!
Read and Review please and thank you! Loves and peace!

To: she who must not be named,
Of course you can raid my house and throw pitchforks at me! I'm very surprised you didn't interupt me watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show to do so!

To: D,
Thank you SO much for your reviews to this story and to Lucid Lives! They mean so much!

Chapter 7

Sundays were complete opposites of Saturdays at my house. It was calm, quiet and deserted. My mom and Nancy always went out and did grocery shopping and ran other errands for our 82-year-old neighbour , sometimes they would help out at the community center too. Derek usually sat in his room playing little songs on his guitar and attempting to write his own. I usually spent Sunday reading. It was the only free time I really had that was void of noise.

Today, however, was not going to be a normal Sunday. Derek was up at six and shaking me awake for starters.

“Am, hey! Amity! Come on, get up. Amity Ville! Could you please get your lazy ass out of bed?! Okay fine. Don’t acknowledge me. I’ll wake you up some other way.” I was relieved when he left and shut the door on his way out. I laid there trying to fall back into to sleep again and I had almost achieved in when the door opened again. I let out a muffled grunt and rolled over to face away from it.

“You leave me no choice Amity.” Uh oh. Freezing cold water was being shot at my back before I could do anything. I jerked up into a sitting position and the water hit my face. I tried to shield myself with my hands but it was of little use. Derek was laughing manically and was not letting up on the water.

“Are you awake now?”

“YES!” I gasped for breath and the water ceased.

“Kay! Good, now get dressed, we’re making pancakes!” I gave him a questioning look as he left my room, super soaker in hand. Against every Sunday rule that was ever put in place I got up, found my slippers and went downstairs at 6:23.

The scene I saw in the kitchen almost made me go back to bed thinking I might be sleeping still. Nancy and Derek were both by the stove and Derek was helping Nancy flip a golden pancake. Derek never cooked. My mother was sitting in a chair at the table reading my copy of Romeo and Juliet. She was never one for romance or Shakespeare. She was more of a modern mystery reader. Nobody seemed to notice my presence as I sat across from my mom.

“How long has everyone been up?” I asked.

“Only twenty minutes. We decided to get a head start on the day. Oh yeah, I called Riley, Jane and Corin last night. They’re meeting us at the park by Lawrence Secondary.” Derek explained.

“Thanks.” It went quiet except for Derek instructing Nancy on how to scramble eggs. If I had been paying any attention I would have been surprised that he knew how. But as it happened I was thinking about Jackson. I’d seen him less then a day ago but yet I was already starting to wonder when I’d see him again. I guessed it would have to be soon. Especially if there really was two days of the week that I was supposed to be introduced to tomorrow. Thinking of Jackson brought back the strange feeling. Part of it was warm and safe the other part was indescribable. Happy to the extreme.

Derek set a plate down in front of me and startled me out of my train of thought. My plate held one slightly misshapen pancake and a small portion of half burnt eggs. I ate it without complaint and then went off upstairs to get ready for the day.

By the time I was done showering and getting dressed it was nearly eight. Nancy and my mom where just heading out the door and I had no idea where Derek was. I searched for his vibration and then followed it to living room where I found him reading. I didn’t bother to say anything to him because this was the first time I’d seen him read voluntarily in five years.

I picked up my book from the top of the entertainment center and sat beside him and read too. It was quiet and peaceful, something I wasn’t used to it being when I was around my twin.

The day pressed on and the sun came up and bathed the living room in warm light. I saw Derek look out from behind his book to the clock by the T.V.

“It’s almost twelve-thirty. I told them we’d be at the park at one. Wanna leave now?”

“Sure.”

The walk to the park by Lawrence Secondary was about twenty minutes long. Derek never stopped talking once. He had just finished talking about how great his book was when he seemed to remember something even more important.

“So Am, I was thinking. Tomorrow’s Monday and well that gives us seven days so I thought we, we meaning me, you, the drive-in crew and the boys, could all skip school and go and find costumes! I’ve decided that we’re going to have a Halloween party this year and costumes are required. Well it was actually Nancy’s idea to have a party believe it or not and I just thought that costumes would be fun. I haven’t dressed up since grade eight. Yeah. so that’s my idea. The boys agreed now we just need the drive-in crew and it’s all planned.” He sounded so optimistic and happy. How did he know that the next three people to find out about the end of their lives were going to take it well? How did he know they wouldn’t hate me or not believe me or weren’t going to be just plain scared of me?

He must have seen the tension in my face because his smile faltered and he put his arm around my shoulders as we walked.

“It’s going to be okay Amity. No one hates you. I’m not gunna lie to you and tell you that no one was freaked out because a few of us were. But we’re more scared of the idea than anything. We all still love you Am. Don’t worry.” We hadn’t displayed this kind of twin-linked-knowledge since we were really little when we realized it was a bit weird. And suddenly I was regretting that a lot. It was nice to have someone there to know how you were feeling. We didn’t say anything else until the park was in view and so were three people shaped objects.

“Bonjour! We have reason to believe that you two have called together a meeting. We are also hoping this meeting has something to do with Halloween plans. It is currently the twenty-fifth and I have heard no plans of anything. I’m a bit disappointed.” Riley was hanging up side down on the monkey bars, ranting to us as we approached.

“We’ll talk about Halloween in a few minutes. First Amity has to tell you guys something.” Derek spoke first. He could probably still feel my anxiety. “Everyone sit right here.” He indicated a place in the middle of the grass. He then got sand from the playground and created a ring around a patch of grass. He gently pulled me in front of it and I sat down.

I was too scared to say anything out loud so I just concentrated on the patch of grass. Singling out the Living vibration and listening to it for a few seconds. I could see everyone’s confused expressions in my peripheral view. I could feel their vibrations giving off shocks of it.

Finally I gathered all my anxiety and thought to the grass: Dead. The luscious green it had been faded away and it became brittle and almost white inside the ring of sand. Then I thought to it: Live and it did. It perked back up and became even more healthy then the grass outside of the ring. Then I closed my eyes and spoke.

“I’m a Ven. We control life on this planet. November second is the date set for everything living on the planet to be killed off. You’ve got seven days to live.” It sounded so inhumane. So grotesque, I didn’t know how Derek thought they’d still want to be around me.

It was quiet and I waited, like I had with everyone else, for them to get up and run or to start yelling. But they didn’t.

“That was the single coolest thing I have ever witnessed.” I told you Riley would believe me.

“Thanks Rye.”

“You’re such a weirdo Amity Smith. But thanks for the heads up. Muchly appreciated.” This was Jane’s way of showing compassion. Using the least insulting words she could think of. I still hadn’t opened my eyes but when I felt myself being hugged I knew it was Corin.

“Thank you guys.” It was quiet again for a few minutes. It was broken by Derek though.

“The plan for tomorrow is as follows: you guys, the other boys, Amity and I are going to shopping for costumes for a Halloween party me and Amity and throwing.”

“Yes! I love it! Pure genius! I’m going to be The Mask!” Riley told us.

Derek and I were home for no less then ten seconds when the phone rang. I jogged into the kitchen to answer it.

“Hello!” I said into the receiver breathlessly.

“Hi Amity. It’s Jackson. I take it you read the guide. Tomorrow’s going to be weird for you. I’ll come and wake you up because alarm clocks won’t work and you need to be up fairly early.”

“Oh…oh! Right! Okay. That sounds fine. Extra key to the house is in the mailbox. I’ll see you then I guess.”

“Yes, bye Amity.”

“Bye Jackson.” And he hung up.

“Who was that?” Derek asked from behind me.

“That was Jackson. He’s a Ven too.”

“Why did you tell him where the extra key was?” he sounded a bit defensive.

“Well as a Ven we get two extra days of the week. All time stops. So my alarm clock won’t be able to get me up, Jackson volunteered to come and wake me up.”

“Oh.” Was all Derek said.

“I’ll bring him on Monday for everyone to meet. I hope you’ll like him.”

“Me too.” Derek said before he left to go watch T.V.

I was nervous now. Not because I had to deliver death dates to any more people. No this was a normal feeling. I was hoping that Derek would like Jackson. He wasn’t my boyfriend or anything but he was going to be the only person I had left in seven days and I needed Derek to approve of him. Otherwise I would have to go through a century knowing that the one person who mattered so much to me didn’t like the only person I had to take care of me after November second.

I worried me so much that I felt sick. I refused dinner that night and went to bed early. Probably for the better though, considering I had to get up early the next day.