I screwed up my eyes. ‘I don’t know. I don’t understand it, especially how we didn’t hear it. I think maybe Kerry banging on the front door was what made them run away.’
‘Hmmm.’ Zoe sat back and folded her arms. ‘Funny that Kerry was there and no one else was around.’
I shook my head. ‘But why would she do something like that? It doesn’t make sense.’
‘Kerry doesn’t make sense, full stop.’
I gave a little laugh, though nothing really felt very funny just then.
Zoe sat forward again. ‘Hey. Good ritual, though. I felt like there was loads of power. Did you feel it?’
‘I felt something,’ I said. ‘I think you’d call it “terrified”. So that was you summoning the spirits, or whatever?’
‘You must’ve sensed them,’ Zoe said. ‘I felt like the all the air was full of – of presence. What did you ask for?’
‘Umm.’ I didn’t want to tell her what I’d been thinking about. ‘I – I sort of forgot. It was all so creepy. That music kind of got into my head.’
Zoe burst out laughing. ‘You’re telling me I woke up the spirits of the dead and you forgot what you wanted to ask them? Anna, you’re unbelievable.’
‘What did you ask for, then?’
Zoe smiled. ‘Bit of a list, actually,’ she said. ‘But not all for me. I asked for Tom to get what he deserved. I asked about your mum and dad too, because I think they’re already responding to that, don’t you?’
I nodded. ‘Sort of. It’s hard to tell with them.’
‘Be patient,’ Zoe said. ‘And I told them I was fed up with Kerry. I said, “who will rid us of this troublesome geek?”’
Zoe was half-quoting something from Shakespeare we’d been doing at school. ‘Well, King Henry wished he’d never said that, didn’t he?’ I said. ‘Maybe not the best line to pinch.’
Zoe laughed again. ‘Stop worrying. This is already working out for us. Things are happening, aren’t they? Look at your mum and dad. We just have to keep communicating with the spirits. It works, this stuff. I’ve read loads about it online.’
‘You don’t find it all a bit scary?’
Zoe shook her head. ‘Not a bit. You’ve watched too many dumb films. The spirits are there to help us. And tonight – forget all that stupid stuff with the food. That was just Kerry and we both know she’s a bit mad. When we did our ritual, it was magical. Something big will happen now. I know it will.’
14
Luke
The thing was, something big did happen, the very next day. For me, anyway. And it was the thing I’d been thinking about during the ritual, that I didn’t want Zoe to know. It was Saturday; both Mum and I were quite late getting up and it turned out we’d run out of milk. Mum was groaning because she’s useless without her first cup of tea in the morning. I felt a bit guilty because I knew I’d used up all the milk the previous night, so I offered to go out to the little corner shop a couple of streets away.
I was in the shop clutching my carton of milk, half-reading the covers of some of the magazines on the shelves, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped and turned to see Luke, standing over me with a big grin. He was wearing a big soft sweater and a really mad woolly hat that looked more like the thing that my gran puts over her teapot. If he hadn’t been so cute, he’d have looked like a complete idiot. ‘Er – like the hat,’ I said, laughing. ‘I think.’
Luke pulled it off his head, showing his mussed-up mop of dark hair. ‘Forgot I was wearing that,’ he said. ‘My grandma knitted it and – you know –’
‘That’s quite sweet,’ I said.
Luke pulled a face. I thought, well, Anna, that was a stupid thing to say. I’m sure boys hate being called sweet. Even I hate being called sweet.
‘I reckon you’d look better in it than me,’ Luke said, reaching out and putting the thing on my head. He pulled it down over my ears. It was really warm and had a sort of smell of him.
‘Trying to hide my face?’ I said.
‘No!’ Luke pulled the hat off again. ‘That’s the last thing I’d want to do.’
‘Right.’ I shifted from foot to foot. The milk carton was really cold and my fingers were getting a bit numb.
‘Anna,’ Luke said. ‘Er… I don’t suppose you want to go out sometime?’
I took a deep breath in. I could feel my whole body getting kind of warm and I was fairly sure I was blushing. ‘Umm, yeah, sure,’ I said, as casually as I could make myself sound. In my head, though, I was leaping up and down and singing something like the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. ‘What do you want to do?’
‘Whatever you like,’ Luke said. ‘I’m off next Thursday night. We could go to the pictures or we could go and get something to eat if you like.’
‘Eat?’ I said.
‘Great. Anywhere but the place I usually work, I’m sick of the sight of it.’ Luke gave me a massive smile. He had really kind eyes, I thought. Long eyelashes. ‘Shall I call for you?’
I thought for a moment. ‘I’ll meet you in town,’ I suggested.
On the way home, my insides were flipping over and over like someone had entered them in a pancake race. This was the thing I’d been wishing for last night – that Luke would ask me out. And the next morning there he was, just like that. It was too much of a coincidence, I thought. The only trouble was – I didn’t much fancy telling my mum. And I also didn’t like the idea of telling Zoe.
I hadn’t quite worked out how I was going
