Chapter One – The First Time

On the surface, Grace Rhodes seemed to most to be a fairly average girl. Average looks (brown hair, blue eyes), average height (about 5 foot 3 inches), an average family of four (two parents and a little brother), average grades (mostly B’s with a few A’s and C’s mixed in for good measure), and a smattering of average boyfriends (a soccer player, a runner, and the treasurer of the student council). There is a reason people are told not to judge a book by its cover, however, and Grace Rhodes had secrets of her own boiling beneath the surface.



The differences between Grace and her classmates were not obvious – even to those who knew her best – until her day was done and she was safely tucked into her bed. It was in her sleep that Grace saw things, things that she did not want to see.



The first time Grace remembered being aware that her dreams did not conform to the usual standards, she was four. She woke up sobbing and she ran into her parents’ room, surprising them awake. Between shaking breaths she told them the sources of her woes: “I…d-don’t want Grammy to…d-die!” Her parents shared a surprised look – of all the things for a four-year-old to be concerned about, death was usually not one of them. This look did not escape Grace’s notice, even through her tears, for she was an exceptionally observant child. Her parents consoled her, and the nightmare was forgotten…until a few days later.

Grace’s mother, Brianna Rhodes, was making sandwiches for the two of them when the telephone rang. Grace watched her mother, and even in the midst of four-year-old innocence, she recognized three things: that her mother was white as a sheet, that she had dropped the telephone, and that this scene was remarkably similar to a nightmare that she faintly remembered having a few days ago. This last thought was confirmed when her mother pulled Grace into a hard hug, seemingly never wanting to let go, and rocked her back and forth, repeating, “How did you know, sweetie? How did you know?”



The first time it occurred to Grace that her dreams, and sometimes nightmares, could hold the future, she was seven. Now, to a seven-year-old, the future is a vague concept, usually reserved for thoughts of tomorrow or the day after. So when Grace had a dream of her father getting into a car accident, she was naturally worried sick about him, but dismissed it as only a nightmare, as her parents had done on many a similar occasion. She gave no thought to her nightmare until her mother received yet another phone call, this one too remarkably similar to the one she remembered from her dreams the night before.

The night was a blur of white walls, antiseptic smells and stony-faced doctors. Grace didn’t remember much of it later; too busy mulling over if her dreams really happened. Now, Grace was a naturally contemplative child, but there is only so much time a seven-year-old devotes to such boring topics. Her daddy was hurt and she was worried, and her mommy was as still as a statue in the waiting room. Travis Rhodes survived the accident with nothing more major than a few broken bones, but Grace’s dream had planted a new seed into her thoughts – what if her dreams held the future?



The first time Grace tried to change one of her dreams, or visions as she was now calling them, she was nine. It had been a very bad day at school – Josh Miller had told the whole school that she had cooties, and she had thought he was cute! Well, if Josh Miller thought she had cooties, he certainly wasn’t worth her time, even if they were neighbors, and they had been playmates for years. So, to say the least, Grace wasn’t in a good mood by dinnertime, and it didn’t help at all that her mom had been nice enough to make her favorite; macaroni and cheese. What Grace really wasn’t looking forward to, however, was the announcement she thought her parents might be making – if her dreams really were visions. So, what better way to keep her parents from making an announcement than to not let them talk at all?

So Grace talked and talked and talked, and her parents looked at each other in surprise. While Grace was certainly not shy at home, she was never usually this extroverted. But Grace continued talking, hoping that they would run out of time at dinner for this announcement her parents were obviously trying to make.

“Grace, sweetie, is there something wrong?” her mother asked, sounding genuinely concerned. At this, Grace only frowned.

“Of course there’s something wrong! I don’t want a baby!” she exclaimed, her mouth already forming a pout, as if that could help her cause.

At this, her parents’ mouths dropped open, and they looked like goldfish, closing their mouth every few moments only to have it drop open again. They definitely hadn’t mentioned anything, and they’d been careful to talk about it only when she was in bed. This was far from how they’d expected her to discover that she was going to be a big sister.

“Gracie,” her father began, using his pet nickname for her, “how on earth did you know you were going to be a big sister?”

“In my dream last night,” she answered without pause, “except in my dream you and Mommy told me, so I didn’t want that to happen tonight, so I just kept talking, because if I was talking, how were you going to talk? But I guess it didn’t work, because I’m still going to have a little baby stinking up the house!” This was a very impassioned speech, and Grace looked rather satisfied once she’d finished, as if this had been weighing on her all day. Her parents didn’t know, but it had been irritating her all day, and she’d been rather cross as a result. (Her parents also didn’t know that the next day they would be getting a letter from Grace’s teacher informing them that she had punched her classmate Josh Miller in the gut, and that disciplinary measures at home were encouraged.)

But, at the moment, her parents were too surprised to note Grace’s reaction to her rant, as they were too busy reacting themselves. Brianna had dropped her fork entirely, and Travis’ had stopped halfway to his mouth, beans falling off of the end of it. Grace’s face changed from satisfied to confused, wondering why her parents considered her dreams so odd. After all, her dreams had happened before, and their reactions hadn’t been quite so severe.

She didn’t know what was going through their heads; that they were finally considering the possibility that her dreams were more than just that – dreams. They’d always dismissed them as mere coincidence before, but they didn’t know how many she had, or how often she had them, as she had stopped telling them a long time ago. It looked as if Grace and her parents were in for a long discussion that evening.



It had been a long time since Grace had tried to change anything, or even question anything involving her dreams. She was fifteen now, and acceptance seemed to come with age. After one of her premonitions, as she now referred to them, she tried to hide her reactions. Thus far her dreams had included various important events: when her dad got promoted, her aunt and uncle won the lottery and decided to take the Rhodes’ on vacation, and the more memorable one when her mother had started going into labor, prompting Grace to encourage her father to stay home that day. If she couldn’t change what happened in her visions, she could certainly try and improve them.

What bothered Grace the most was her obvious lack of free will – if her entire life was predetermined, what was the point in making decisions? Were they already made for her, or did she have any say in the matter? Just because she had grudgingly accepted her visions didn’t mean that she had to enjoy the process that seemed to be behind them.

Her parents had been curious at first, but after an obvious lack of interest on Grace’s part, they gave up questioning her, only asking her to tell them if anything major happened. Their lives were busy enough with a new baby anyway. Grace had loved her little brother Cameron Richard, on sight, even after the reluctance she admitted to having in the beginning. She was fiercely protective of him, and anyone that picked on him was disabled immediately. She had punched her neighbor Josh in the stomach a few times; the ones that were too young to punch got the innocent, protective older sister act shown to their parents, which, unsurprisingly, left few people bullying Cam Rhodes.

All in all, those who thought Grace to be a relatively standard teenager were right, at first glance. She went to school, did her homework, and loved her family, though at times she felt alone in thesea of strangers who thought they knew her. Most of the time, however, she lived a normal existence. There was only that slight abnormality of her dreams that told the future.