Chapter 1

The end of day bell couldn't come quickly enough, not today anyway. Sabra Kozilinski stared at the clock, watching the second hand with impatient eyes. It wasn't often that her brother was allowed to come home to visit and she didn't want to miss a single second of what time they would be allowed together.

"Settle down," Tasha hissed from next to her. Natasha Biddleson, her best friend since elementary school, knew what was happening tonight. "Squirming isn't going to make time go by faster. You don't want Leather Head up there to give you detention tonight."

Tasha nodded toward their last period teacher. Leather Head had been given the name for his weird shaped head and the leathery looking skin that covered it. He was also one of the meanest teachers the school had and enjoyed doling out detentions with an unselfish hand.

"Is there a problem, Miss Biddleson?"

Natasha shot Sabra a dirty look. "No sir. Everything is fine."

"Did I not give you enough work to keep you busy? Should I give you another page or two?"

"Oh no sir. Busy as a bee," she lifted her pencil and made some movements as if she were writing on air before pressing it back on to the paper.

"Well, then, perhaps it's you, Miss Kozilinski? Do you need more work for this weekend? I mean, isn't your brother coming to visit today?" He waited for Sabra to nod and then rose from his chair and moved towards her seat.

The man didn't walk like a normal human. Instead he always seemed to skulk or scuttle, looking sneaky and deceptive. He trailed his finger over the papers on Sabra's desk and then let his hand settle on her shoulder, his gnarled looking fingers digging into her skin. "Detention would be a shame today, wouldn't it Miss Kozilinski?"

"Oh yes sir," Sabra gasped. She stared back down at her papers, not willing to look up at her teacher. She knew his tricks well and knew what would happen if he thought she was mocking him.

"Then perhaps you can share with the class what the answer to problem thirty-five?" He stared down at her paper, noting that she had yet to reach that part of the assignment.

Instead of giving in, knowing what he would do if she didn't give the answer, she stared at her book, figuring the answer in her head. As she opened her mouth, she could only pray that it was right. "Negative twenty-six, sir."

The sound of his disappointment could be heard as he realized that she was right. "Very good, Miss Kozilinski. Please don't make me talk to you again or I will have no choice but to see you for detention at the end of the day."

"Oh yes sir, I mean no sir. I'll finish my work. Thank you, sir." She breathed a sigh of relief as his hand dropped off her shoulder. She even managed not to rub at the bruised flesh, knowing that would give the man more satisfaction.

She didn't even dare to look up before he reached his desk, seating himself and picking the book he'd let fall back up. It was a heavy looking book, thick bindings and yellowed pages that almost seemed to creak as he turned them. Sabra didn't even want to hazard a guess at what it was about or who was the author.

"Ouch," she hissed at Natasha. "I'm going to end up with bruises."

"But no detention." Natasha grinned at her friend. "You got lucky."

"Yeah." She wrote down the next answer, quickly working out the problems in her head. Leather head didn't want to see their work, only the answers, neatly printed on the left hand side of the page. He only demanded the work from those in the class that were failing, but Sabra was one of the smartest of the students he had.

"What time does Ben get here?" Nat asked, glancing up at the clock.

"He'll be home before I get there." Sabra wrote down another answer, her eyes going from the book to the page of paper, then back to the book. She wouldn't look up, not and give Leather Head any other chance to punish her. "Shh," she warned Nat.

The two girls settled back into their work, only glancing up every few minutes instead of the second by second perusal Sabra had been doing before. She jumped when final bell finally rang and quickly packed away her books. Pulling her keys out of her purse, she nagged at Nat. "Come on, girl. Let's go."

Nat shook her head. "I'm going, just give me a chance to put stuff away." She threw her book into her bag, wishing she had Sabra's skill with math and English. The girl was a whiz, every class seeming easy to her and not the constant struggle Nat had with finishing assignments and understanding enough to pass her tests.

She watched as Sabra headed to the door without her, finally slinging on her back pack and following her. They met Deanna Schlock at the door to the parking lot and headed towards Sabra's car.

"It was close," Tasha said. "Leather Head was pushing buttons today."

"Yeah, but there was no way I was missing out tonight. It's not often that Benjamin can get away to visit. I'm not missing a moment of the time we can spend together." Sabra hit the auto lock button on her key fob then hit the button for the trunk. She threw her book bag into the back before climbing into the driver's seat and waiting for her friends to end their usual argument about who was sitting in the front seat. "Hurry it up or you guys are going to be walking," she called out in a sing song voice.

Tasha won and Deanna climbed into the back seat, rolling her eyes at Sabra. "She cheated again."

"You two are going to have to come up with a better way of handling this." Sabra glanced at Tasha. "She always claims you cheat and you're never happy any other way." She put the key in the ignition, starting the new Mustang that her parents had gotten her for her eighteenth birthday. It roared to a start, then purred as she shifted it lovingly into reverse.

The parking lot was busy, kids crossing the lot, others pulling out to join the lineup that was starting at the stop sign to get out to Main Street. Sabra waited for her chance, then smoothly and quickly backed the car out, getting into line with the other kids. She sat impatiently, her hand thumping against the steering wheel to the beat of the music that came out of the speakers. Deanna and Tasha argued, like they always did, but instead of trying to be the peace maker, she growled at the line ahead of her, hitting her horn irritably.

"Sabra, they can't move if the person in front of them isn't moving." Deanna glanced at the reflection of her friend in the rear view mirror. "He won't leave until you get the chance to see him. The council wouldn't do that to you or to him."

"I don't know. This whole visit has been a bit shady, like he's being given time off to give us bad news. I don't understand it, I just know I don't get to talk to him on the phone anymore. Mom and dad are so damn secretive about stuff. I hate being thought of as a child." She smacked her palm on the horn once more. "Hurry the hell up!" she cried, rolling down her window to make her irritation known. She slammed on her brakes barely missing the bumper of the car in front of her.

She started keeping time with her hand again, moving forward eagerly until she was at the stop sign. "They need to put a stop light in here," she complained. She hit her accelerator and then her brake when the car coming hit their horn. By the time she pulled out, she had tears in her eyes and her whole body was shaking.

"Are you okay, Sabra?" Tasha let her hand fall to her friend's arm. "He's visited before and I don't think I've ever seen you like this."

Sabra let out a long sigh. She shook her head, trying hard to calm down. "Something is going on and I don't know what it is. No one will tell me anything. I've ... I've been having problems with bad dreams and I've had a hard time sleeping. I know it has something to do with Ben but I don't know what." She turned on her turn signal, watching as the long line of continuous cars passed her. There was an abrupt break, and she squealed out of the lot and took the almost too small space in line.

Another sigh left her lips. She felt Natasha's hand slide to her shoulder and give her a reassuring squeeze. "Just keep it calm, Sabra. Ben will be there when you get home. You know how he feels about you."

Sabra nodded and a small smile touched her lips. She'd never told her friends what had happened the last time Ben was home. She wouldn't tell them now. They'd never understand and would probably consider her and her brother some kind of perverts. But she knew they weren't, she knew that Ben felt the same thing for her that she did for him. She could almost feel him now, his anxiety to see her, watch him pacing the floor in front of the living room window, watching for the first sign of her car.