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[Chapter Eight]

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arcane \ahr-KEYN\

(adj.) understood by few; mysterious or secret

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My parents got me a GPS tracking necklace.

Like the ones people buy for their dogs in case they run away. The actual device was imbedded in the small ruby stone hanging from the necklace's thin silver chain. Just a typical looking necklace...that happened to pack a whole lot of power. My parents had warned me to never take it off, not even for showering—it was waterproof, of course—in case it was to get stolen. They designed it themselves, with plans to occasionally check it. That way we would always know where I was in contrast to my clone.

For example, today, from ten to three, I was going to be at the mall with Olivia, shopping for my Prom dress. Kill me now. I made sure to let my parents know when I was leaving and I texted them when I got there. They checked the little GPS thingy to verify my story and then 'okayed' it. We were taking every little precaution because we didn't want my clone to get out of control again. Why we needed five hours to find one dress, I didn't know. So, if I changed my plans for any reason, I had to inform my parents and they'd watch the GPS to make sure I did what I said. Right now, we were planning on staying in Macy's until I found my dress.

"Okay, what color dress do you want?" Olivia asked excitedly, barely containing a squeal of excitement.

"Not pink," I said in horror. She made a face of disappointment and opened her mouth to argue with me but I cut her off. "I hate pink and it looks horrid with my hair color. No pink."

Sighing in defeat, Olivia hung her head and muttered, "Fine."

"Any other color is fine, though," I said softly, trying to cheer her back up. I just really didn't want to wear something pink. No thank you.

With her face once again lit up, we searched through all of the racks, Olivia grabbing as many dresses as she could get her hands on. I'm not sure how long we were there, but I had to have tried on the entire store with no success. Eventually I finally narrowed it down to three dresses: an emerald green gown, a royal blue Grecian dress and a champagne colored gown.

"Try on the green one again," Olivia commanded, holding the blue and champagne ones in her hands. She was lifting them up at different times as if the right one would suddenly yell at her to pick it.

I groaned under my breath and tugged the dress on again. I really hate trying clothes on. After a while, I get tired and cranky and my hair always gets messed up and frizzy.

"I'm going to say no to this one," I decided, doing a slow spin, "I don't like how it looks on the top." It had thin spaghetti straps that were starting to dig into my skin and frankly it made my arms look weird.

"Really?" Olivia asked, taking a break from looking at the other two dresses to inspect me. "I think it's pretty on you. It makes you look a lot taller than you are."

"And it makes my shoulders look like mountains," I answered sardonically.

"Ugh, fine," she said, "which one are you going to pick then?" She held out the last two dresses expectantly. I glanced at them, trying to figure out which one I would be more comfortable in. The blue Grecian dress was absolutely gorgeous and I love how it flowed, but I still wasn't sure about it. I loved the champagne color of the other dress and I liked that it was strapless. Neither one was perfect though.

"I don't know, Olivia, maybe I should look for another dress, neither one feels right."

Her shoulders drooped and the dresses brushed the floor. "Dayna, there aren't any other dresses. I made sure to grab all of them because you're so damn picky."

"Just let me look really quick, okay? If I don't find anything I'll pick one of those two, okay?"

"You're the one that hates shopping," she pointed out, hanging up the dresses and following me out of the dressing room. I made a face at her and started rifling through the racks. There had to be something in here that we had missed. Some dress we had overlooked. I wanted something pretty, comfortable and inexpensive; anything else was open for negotiation. I just wasn't having and luck today.

Passing over the pink dresses, I flicked dresses aside, hoping one would just speak to me. Olivia was next to me, trying to help. However, her help consisted of grabbing every dress in my size and thrusting it in my face then holding it against my body before I could say anything. Half the time she made a decision for me and put it back on the rack. This could be why I hadn't found my dress yet.

One such dress caught my eye, but before I could tell her to not put it back, it was lost amongst the other dresses. "Hey wait!" I protested, pushing the dresses aside to search for it. All I had seen was a light brown color, but I wanted to see the whole dress.

"What is wrong with you?" Olivia asked when I nudged her aside.

"I want to see that dress again." A flash of color caught my eye and with a triumphant yell I pulled it off the rack. The color was hard to describe, but I'd have to say it was a light brown, almost silver with a purplish tint to it. According to the tag it was grape copper. Whatever that meant.

Without a word to Olivia I headed to the dressing room, dress in hand. I had my clothes off and the dress over my head by the time she made it in. The dress fit perfectly, hugging my body in all the right places. It was a strapless dress with a kind of wrap around deal that went all the way past by butt. The rest of it flared out like a typical gown, making me look a lot taller than I really was. Bonus.

"Oh my God," Olivia whispered when she saw me.

I looked in the mirror and smiled. The dress was perfect. Not only did I look amazing I felt amazing. The color looked gorgeous with my hair and the cut accented the small curves of my body. "I found my dress," I grinned.

"No kidding."

Exhaustion finally set in and I had to struggle to keep from complaining about the pain in my feet. Slipping the dress off I pulled on my clothes and sighed deeply. "Okay, let's get this dress and leave. I'm pooped."

Olivia pouted and followed me out of the room. "Dayna," she whined. "It's only one, you promised we could shop until three. Plus, you still need shoes."

I muttered a curse under my breath and handed the dress to the sales attendant. "Olivia, I'm going to fall over from exhaustion. You know I don't last long when shopping." She made the damn puppy dog eyes, making my heart twist in guilt. "Fine," I groaned, "We'll stay for lunch and then quickly," I emphasized, "look for shoes. Then I'm going home, even if it isn't three yet."

"Yay!" she clapped, "Thank you!" I rolled my eyes, paid for the dress and followed Olivia. We headed to the food court where I inhaled my food and urged her to eat as fast as she could.

Half an hour later we were looking for shoes but we couldn't figure out which color would go with my dress. Black looked decent, but kind of weird. Silver was horrible and white was just odd. Our best bet was finding a shoe that was the same color as my dress.

"Uh, excuse me?" I said to a sales attendant walking by. The guy, with the nametag, David, stopped to look at me.

"What can I help you with, sugar?" he smiled pleasantly.

I held up the bag with dress and frowned, "Do you have any comfortable shoes that go with this dress? Emphasis on comfortable."

He reached out to grab the dress. "May I?" he asked. I nodded, so he pushed the bag aside and examined the dress critically. "I think I have the perfect pair," he said after a moment. "Wait just a moment, love, and I'll be back before you know it." He winked and disappeared, clapping at some younger attendant to follow him.

"Well," Olivia smiled, "he seems friendly. Maybe he'll find the perfect shoe for you."

"Gods I hope so," I muttered. I really just wanted to go home and sleep forever. I was starting to feel the stress of shopping. Maybe I'd go for a run when I got home, just to de-stress.

David returned a couple minutes later with two boxes. "I brought you two different shoes, just in case," he informed me. "Here, try this one on." He pulled out a strappy shoe that matched my dress perfectly and slid it on my foot. Twisting my ankle slowly, I inspected the shoe, liking how it looked on my foot. "And here's the other one!" David sang, pulling out the slightly taller shoe. It had more shoe than straps.

Standing up, I walked around the store with both shoes on, trying to see which one was more comfortable. "Can I try on the other shoe?" I asked, pointing at the second shoe. I wanted to see how it would look with the same shoe on both feet.

"Sure thing, sugar," David said. When I had both shoes on, I grabbed my dress and held it up. "Fabulous!" David praised. I had to agree. The shoes were perfect with the dress. Even though they were slightly taller, which meant more dangerous, they were more comfortable.

"Thank you so much," I smiled, giving David a quick hug as we left.

Olivia and I headed to her car, done for the day. I made sure to call my parents as we left, letting them know that we were leaving the mall and heading home. I heard my dad in the background, verifying my location.

Olivia dropped me off at my house a couple minutes later, telling me she'd call or text me later. I waved goodbye as she headed to Andrew's house.

I walked into the house and headed upstairs, hanging up my dress and putting my new shoes away. I changed into running clothes and walked downstairs.

"Hey mom, I'm going for a run," I said, sticking my head into her office really quick.

She frowned, taking off her glasses to look at me. "Why?" she asked.

I gave her a sheepish smile and shuffled my feet. "I don't have anything else to do and I just came back from dress shopping with Olivia."

"Ah," she murmured sagely. She immediately knew how stressed out I was after shopping. My body was tired and sore and I needed to de-stress by running.

"Alright, how long do you think you'll be?"

I chewed on my bottom lip for a minute, thinking about it. It took me a little over ten minutes to run a mile plus some more time for walk-running another mile. Hey, I was no track star. I'd be lucky if I survived the run. "Probably thirty minutes," I said. She nodded and motioned for me to go run.

With a quick glance at the clock, I turned on my iPod and started my hellish run around the block. With music blasting in my ears, I was able to forget about the fact that I was running and just concentrate on the music.

Five minutes into my run, during the breaks between songs I heard a muffled yelling noise, but ignored it, brushing it off as nothing. However, it persisted and I heard it through my music. Worriedly, I glanced behind me and nearly screamed when I saw a massive dog running at me. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth and his eyes were focused on me. With a playful bark he leapt at me, successfully knocking me over and onto the grass.

Frozen in fear, I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping it wouldn't eat my face off. "Please don't eat me," I whispered. My heart was pounding in my chest, threatening to burst. The dog leaned in close and started licking my face, leaving slobber all over.

"MILES!" I heard a deep voice yell sharply. "Bad dog, heel!"

The dog, Miles I presume, paused for a second, but then decided to ignore the command and kept licking me.

"Miles!" The voice was closer now and laced with anger and irritation. Miles was pulled off of me seconds later and soundly scolded. "What is wrong with you?" his owner growled.

I let my eyes flutter open, hoping it was all safe now. What I saw before me made me want to close my eyes again. Kyle was crouching next to his dog and scowling at me.

Why? Why did it have to be him of all people?

Sitting up slowly, I used the corner of my shirt and wiped the slobber off my face, resisting the urge to gag. A fish could swim around in the amount of saliva on my face.

"Is he your dog?" I asked after a moment, removing my earbuds.

"Unfortunately, yes," Kyle replied wryly.

I looked at his dog warily and scooted back a couple feet. It shifted and tried to lunge towards me, but Kyle kept a firm grip on his collar. "What happened?"

Rolling his eyes, Kyle snapped for Miles to sit and then knelt next to him. "I'm not really sure. Basically this big idiot here saw you run by and decided to chase after you before I even had a chance to react."

"Oh," I murmured. "What kind of dog is he?"

"Mastiff," Kyle replied in a condescending tone. As if I was supposed to know that. I at least knew Miles wasn't a poodle or a Chihuahua, don't I get points for that?

Standing slowly, I backed away from Miles and Kyle and smiled, "Well okay then, I'm just going to finish my run. Bye."

Miles barked sharply and lunged towards me, fighting against Kyle's strong hold. "Miles!" he said sharply, "Sit!" It was no good, Miles was hell bent on getting to me.

"What is wrong with your dog?" I yelled. "Do something!" As much as I appreciated Miles' attention, I did NOT want a dog following me around forever.

Kyle gave a sharp tug, forcing Miles into a sit. "Just come closer and pet him or something. I don't know what his problem is."

"Are you crazy? You want me to pet that monster? He's going to eat my hand."

Kyle gave me a blank look before he burst into laughter. "He's going to...oh man...I can't..." he reached up to wipe tears away and glanced at me. "Miles is a weenie, he wouldn't hurt a fly."

In no way comforted, I took a cautious step forward and reached out with a shaky hand to pet Miles on the head. He turned his head quickly and buried his wet nose in my palm. Stifling a gasp I pulled back my hand and gave Kyle an accusatory look.

"What?" he asked. "Pet him again, not just a pat on the head."

Taking another step closer I placed my hand on Miles' head and brushed it down his neck and across his back. He yipped happily and wriggled under my hand. "This isn't so bad," I admitted.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kyle give me a sly look. "What are you doing?" I asked suspiciously. He grinned and let go of Miles' collar. "No!" I squealed as Miles buried his head in my stomach happily. "Ugh! Get your dog off of me," I said breathlessly, "It...tickles!"

"Nah, it's more fun to watch," Kyle grinned, twisting his legs around so that he could sit more comfortably on the grass.

I relentlessly pushed at Miles' head, trying to dislodge him, but he was persistent and strong. "Miles, no!" I said sternly. "Sit!" He whimpered, but did as I said, looking up at me with dark brown eyes. I felt myself melt a little on the inside.

"Oh sure," Kyle drawled, "listen to the pretty girl, but not to your master. I see how it is. Worthless dog."

Grinning, I patted Miles on the head, "Good dog." I put my iPod back in and smiled triumphantly at Kyle. "Good luck with your dog." I looked at Miles one last time and pointed at the ground. "Stay." When he looked sorrowfully at me I pointed again. "I mean it, buster. Stay."

I had turned to start running again when I felt Kyle's hand on my arm. "Wait a second," he said firmly. "For Prom, what time do you want me to show up for dinner?"

I chewed my lip thoughtfully, noticing the way Kyle's eyes were riveted to my actions. Resisting the urge to grin I looked at him seriously. "We're meeting around five. Andrew already made reservations at Lindi's, a local restaurant."

"All right," he nodded. I watched him carefully, wondering why he was acting so nice all of the sudden. I had assumed that he was going to call me sometime next week, demanding information about the dance and then hang up rudely afterwards. But this change in attitude was kind of freaking me out. I didn't know if I could handle it.

"Okay, well if that's all..." I said awkwardly.

"Hmm?" he said, lifting up his head to look at me. His silver eyes seemed to harden as he thought about something. I watched in fascination as a cold mask quickly settled over his features. "I'll be there at five to escort you to dinner and the dance, but that's it," he said icily. "I'm not going to some stupid after party and I'm not going to spend the entire dance with you. I may be your date by force, but I'm not going to spend the night in misery. Is that clear?"

Kyle the asshole was back.

"Crystal," I hissed, turning around to run off. I wasn't running away, at least that's what I was telling myself. I was merely avoiding the situation for now. I didn't want to think about how nice Kyle had been for even a couple minutes there because I couldn't let myself forget how rude he really was.

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