So, Here's the fourth chapter of No Straight Lines:

Chapter 4: Who is That Boy?

A knock rang at the door. Great. I was still in the shower. Couldn’t a girl get some privacy for at least ten seconds around here? 

I jumped out of the shower and quickly wrapped myself up in my towel. Then I ran across the house as fast as I could. I left drips on the hardwood floor, but that didn’t matter. There was no one there except me to see it, anyway. Mom and Dad were working late and Charlie had a date. There was a dance tonight, which was why I was taking a shower, but I didn’t have a date to go with. I was hoping to just nab someone there. I didn’t want one of those weird geeks, though…

I swung open the door, wondering who could be knocking at such an hour.

Standing on the doorstep was a boy. Dressed in a nice semi-formal shirt with black slacks and some black shoes. I suddenly regretted just tying a towel around me, and I blushed. I didn’t even know this guy, but for some reason he looked familiar, like I had met him before  when I was three, when he was three too, and now that he was fifteen I only recognized the basic features of his face. Those startling blue eyes, the way his cheeks turned pink when he blushed, the unruly black hair. It was absurd, of course, but as I watched him, I found that there was something there that wasn’t there five seconds ago.

The boy seemed to sigh out of relief, and smiled gladly at me. “Cat,” he said. Or at least I thought he said.

“Excuse me? I don’t own a cat,” I said.

“No, no, it was a slip of the tongue. I meant Kathrine. Kathrine Thomas, fifteen years old, who goes to Westview High School,” he replied, blushing and looking like he wanted to smack himself in the face. Apparently he knew me.

I had no idea to react, so I smacked a look of suspicion on my face to hide the confusion. “Well,” I said, “you seem to know a lot about me. What else do you know? Come in and we’ll talk.”

He walked inside and flopped comfortably on a couch, like he’d sat there almost every day of his life. I slammed the front door shut and went to get dressed. I waited as a computer analyzed my head and figured out where the best places to blow my hair dry would be, then analyzed it again and put my hair in the right hairdo to go with my dress. I came back and sat across from the boy. He was sitting in my favorite spot.

“So,” I said, “what do you know?”

“Well,” he started, “I know you are different than those people who are living here. In this city. In this world, you don’t feel like you fit in. I know that you have imperfect teeth although you probably try to hide it. You have an older brother, Charlie, who is ten years older than you, and your parents work all day and come home late. Your afternoons are very boring with no friends to spend them with. You’re dressing to go to tonight’s dance but don’t have a date because you feel like there’s someone else in your life that hasn’t come around yet. There’s more, a lot more, but you’d think I was crazy if I told you everything I know about you. There are things I know that even you don’t know. Can I ask you a question?”

I was astonished. “That’s right… all of it right… but I never told anyone about half of that. How’d you know?” Realizing that this was probably a waste of time, I frowned, stood up, and started to walk away.

“No, wait,” he said. “I also know you aren’t supposed to be here. You… um… I don’t want you to think I’m crazy. If you don’t already think I’m crazy, that is.”

As soon as he said, “you aren’t supposed to be here,” I felt really weird. There was this image that popped up in the back of my head like a memory of a dream. The image showed nothing more than a glowing purple wispy object, but I also remembered that when I had seen that object the first time I had been terrified. I turned around and faced the boy again.

“What’s your name?” I asked skeptically.

“Jason. I… have a complicated past, as of late. More stuff you wouldn’t get. But if you promise not to call me crazy… and if we go to the dance, I might explain. It won’t make any sense… at least, not yet.”

“Depends. What’s your last name? You didn’t give me your last name,” I replied. I wanted to know who this boy was. Maybe he was going to Westview High School and I could see him sometime and we could laugh about what happened tonight.

“Um… I don’t know if that’s a good idea… I don’t want to freak anyone out…” Jason said, like his last name was the name of a criminal or something.

“Just tell me or nobody gets hurt,” I said, pulling a kung-fu move. I didn’t really know karate or anything, but the boy flinched as if I could do something unspeakably horrible to him. “You know, I don’t really know karate,” I said.

“Oh. Um… that’s something else, then. I know that you’re supposed to know martial arts,” he said, like it would change my mind and I would suddenly realize I did know karate all this time. Nothing of the sort happened.

“At least tell me your last name. I’ll walk out the door if you don’t,” I demanded.

“Okay, fine. My last name is…”

And right then the window behind me shattered.