The Revival, Part 1

The first chills of autumn were curling around my toes, and it was lovely. I was barefoot on the sidewalk and still in my pajamas, and the best part was that the air smelled fresh like a forest.

Our group had just pulled into a parking spot in front of a small hotel in a valley from a fairy tale. Sara, Courtney, and Teia jumped out and inspected the grounds while Leandra and I talked to the front desk with the other two hanging out behind us.

"I hope you girls won't be bothered by the convention," the lady at the front desk said as she eyed my ancient t-shirt, which had a red hand print creeping over my shoulder.

"There's a place for a convention here?" I asked. I hadn't seen any signs of a large convention center on our way into town. Maybe it was on the other side of something?

"Oh, they just built it! It's a lovely building, too; looks just like a big church," she said. "Shouldn't bother you, though, I think it's mostly young people down here."

Leandra and I exchanged looks and shrugged, and then we gathered everybody and dropped our stuff off in our rooms. The beds went from pristine to upset in a matter of three seconds. Bags were zipping and unzipping all along the line of rooms, which were connected now by unlocked and open doors. Everyone freshened up while I put on some real clothes, and we went out hiking and exploring the town after lunch.

When we got back just before dinner time, our rooms were in an even greater mess than we had left them. Sara tapped me on the shoulder while I was staring, open-mouthed, at the contents of my duffel, which had all been pulled inside-out and dumped on the floor.

"My hoodie is covered in cat hair," she said when I looked at her. I would have laughed, but she had been wearing the hoodie earlier, and it hadn't been covered in fur that morning. Similar reports came from the other rooms. Ava and Natalie were so mad that they stormed out and went to confront the front desk lady. Courtney sat on the side of the bed and then stood up right away.

"Ow! Something poked me!" she yelled. The rest of us watched as she flung the covers off and revealed a rather impressive arrangement of knives under the covers. They were pointing blade up. We all were staring at the bed, trying to figure out how the knives had gotten there, when Natalie fell through the door, pulling Ava through after her. Both girls had thin streams of blood running from small cuts all over their arms, and they were soaking wet.

"Natalie!" I said. "What happened?"

"She tried to kill us!" Natalie gasped. She and Ava were on the floor, wheezing as they tried to catch their breath. Suddenly Natalie sat up, pointed at the door, and screamed, "Shut the door!" Teia reached over and slammed it shut with one arm.

"Are you alright?" Leandra asked Ava. She put her finger tentatively on one of the scratches on her sister's arm, to see how deep it was.

"We're ok," Ava said as she glanced at Natalie, who nodded. It was hard to look at them with so much blood trickling out of their tiny wounds. I sat on my feet in front of them, and everyone rallied behind me so we all could see their faces. Ava was still breathing hard, but Natalie had finally gotten control of herself.

"We went down and asked who'd had the audacity to mess with all of our stuff," Natalie said. "And the old lady just looked at us, stiffened, and screamed at us. So we started backing up, you know? We said we'd come back later." She wiped her nose and left a red smear on her cheekbone. "But when we were walking away she threw something at us."

"What'd she throw? Ninja stars?" Teia asked. I turned to glare at her, and she shrugged. "What?" I shook my head and turned back around.

"No, she didn't throw ninja stars," Ava said. She looked at Nat with wide eyes. Natalie looked terrified. "She threw her cats at us."

The other five of us chuckled until we realized that they were perfectly serious. Courtney took in the myriad of red cuts on their arms and said, "Wait. So...what you're saying is, you were attacked by cats?"

Ava and Natalie nodded. We were silent.

"But why are you wet?" Sara asked.

"We jumped in the pool," Natalie said. For the first time since she'd fallen through the door she looked slightly happy. "And then we got out of the pool."

"What happened to the cats?"

"They didn't get out, we're pretty sure," Natalie said. A moment later, something large thumped on the window. All seven of us practically jumped out of our skins, and Courtney leaned close to the glass to see what it was.

"Hey, guys?" she asked. "By any chance, were there more than two cats?"

"No," said Ava. "Why?"

"Because there are two very wet cats and about sixty very dry cats hissing at our front door," Courtney said. I pushed myself up off of the floor and joined her by the window. Sure enough, there was a legion of angry felines crowded around our door. I spun around and looked at everyone else, not sure if I should be laughing or screaming.

"Did anyone bring a gun?"

Rocky Mountain High

For the most part, the trip was a success. Turning my birthday weekend into a road trip to look at colleges had been a collaborative effort involving me wanting to look at a university in California and my mom and her best friend being very willing to drive me there. So we jumped into our van -- named the Big Ol' Van (B.O.V.) by my dad and The Monstrosity by my sisters and myself -- and drove there. It was me, my friend Ariel, and our mothers. Denver to San Diego.

I don't remember the trip out, and the time in Cali was fine, I suppose. It seemed to be like all my other trips to the state, which have actually been quite a few, since we have family there. I remember sitting up front with Nili, telling her about a boy from school, so that she would be able to stay awake while driving in the middle of the night. The highway between Vegas and southern California is very dark and creepy at night, so part of me didn't quite understand why she needed help staying awake. I suppose other people's minds turn off in the dark.

But it isn't the trip there that I truly remember, nor my visits to the universities, though parts of them are still branded in my mind. No, the one thing I really remember is a rest stop on top of the Continental Divide, somewhere in the mountains.

We'd been driving for a very long time. It was mid-October, so of course it was snowing outside. I'm pretty sure temperatures were way below normal, because the van just couldn't stay warm. The heat was blasting so much that Ariel and I had to turn up the TV so we could hear our movies. Our van was awesome for one reason: the back seats could fold down into a bed. Ariel and I spent almost the entire road home reclining and watching movies or sleeping.

By the time we got close to the rest stop, I had to pee like crazy. I mean, not one of those, "Oh crap, I think I need to pee" moments. It was one of those, "Mom? Pull over. Pull over, please" moments. Luckily for me, the blue rest stop sign shone out from the darkness a mere thirty seconds after this realization, and in a minute we were parked and Ariel and I, in our pajama pants and slippers, were tumbling out of the doors and heading for the steps to the building.

The cold air and snowflakes hit my face like a snowball formed around a small brick. You know that feeling of getting into a pool that isn't heated and you feel like all your warmest parts are being assaulted in the crudest manner? It hurt like that. I blinked and stuck my hand out to touch the van, just for a moment of solidarity. And then I remembered I had to pee. Ariel was already halfway up the steps, and she turned and hustled me on.

"What are you doing? I thought you had to pee, too?"
"Shut up," I said. "My head hurts." I'd reached the top of the stone steps and was only a few paces from the door, and suddenly my vision decided to go dancing in the dark. Blinded, I reached out for something, anything, and my fingertips scraped the stonework on either side of the door. My vision cleared and I shook my head, trying to clear it as well.

Inside, heat was being blown out of vents in every corner of the room. Everything was made of stone, rough and gray, and looked perfect for climbing. Ariel was gone, into the bathroom I supposed, and I glanced around, trying to find that little sign with the lady in the dress. It was on the opposite side of the room, across from the vending machines. I walked over to it, but didn't get very far.

The bathrooms were separated by a long wall, I'm sure most people would be familiar with it, and you had to go around the wall either to the right or the left to go into the correct bathrooms. In my particular case, I needed to go right. Instead, I went straight. I intended to go right, of course, but en route my eyesight blurred and everything in the room became very wobbly, which was strange because usually, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but usually, rock doesn't wobble. At least, it doesn't shimmy like that rock was doing. And it doesn't turn colors and fade into black.

When I opened my eyes again, my cheek felt like a scrape under lemon juice. My fingers were clamped around the edge of the wall, and just to the left of my face was that little sign. The woman on it seemed to be looking at me with an eyebrow raised, an amazing feat since she had no facial features. Ariel appeared from inside the bathroom.

"What's wrong? Your cheek is red!" I glared at her, I believe.
"My vision keeps going wooo-woooo," I said, moving my hands back and forth in a pulsing motion. Ariel laughed.
"You mean you're fainting?"
"I...I have to pee so bad," I said. My head felt better so I sort of curled myself around the corner and made a beeline for the closest stall. Ariel laughed at my response and followed me inside. The floor was made up of a bunch of little tiles, and they all looked very pretty individually. When I looked at them, though, they melted together and there was nothing I could do about it. I shut the stall door after me, locked it, and fell in a heap on the floor, hitting my head on the door on the way down just for fun.

"Michelle?" I heard Ariel say. "Are you ok?" I took a deep breath, glad I was awake and ecstatic that I hadn't ended up with any part of me in the toilet.
"I fell," I said, and started to giggle. I stopped because it hurt, but Ariel started laughing and she couldn't stop. "Stop laughing!" She didn't. I don't think she could. I stared at my knees and at the floor, trying to figure out how to get up on the toilet without blacking out again. I decided that I would just have to try it.

My business finished, I sort of fell out of the bathroom stall and haphazardly washed my hands. Leaning forward, I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror and started laughing a little. I was so pale I actually matched my white T-shirt. My dark hair made the effect even more dramatic, making me look like a dark-eyed Snow White. Ariel was still laughing. I made it out of the bathroom, and was even leading the way, until we got to the front door and my brain decided to take a little break just as I reached out for the handle. I missed. Ariel giggled.

Somehow we made it back to the car in the dark, with Ariel sort of leading me down the steps. It took me blacking out three times for her to finally realize that maybe she should have a hand on my arm, just in case. Luckily nothing adventurous happened, and we made it to the van safely. When inside, our moms asked why we had taken so long.

"Michelle kept fainting in the toilets," Ariel said, and then dissolved into laughter that didn't stop at all until we were out of the parking lot and back on the highway.