“She doesn’t forget about that stuff usually—” Mia started.
“Mia!” Shal cut in. “Not helping.”
I sighed. “I guess she was going to figure it out eventually. I’ll just try not to react and hopefully she’ll assume she was wrong. Unless you want to tell Carl you love him?” I said, looking at Shal. “That might distract her—”
“No,” Shal said firmly.
“Worth a shot,” I muttered.
We were walking down Main Street again, and I noticed that a lot of the older people who hung out in the coffee shops and restaurants were huddled together around newspapers. In fact it seemed people were talking in hushed voices everywhere I looked.
“What’s going on?” I wondered.
Mia glanced at me. “I heard the teachers talking about it on the way out. They found the hiker.”
“Was he alive…”
Mia shook her head. “Apparently he’d been attacked by something.”
I felt my stomach twist. I had a pretty good idea what had done it. Which meant the monsters were not only hunting me—they were attacking anyone else who got in their way. And that meant all of Riverfield was now in danger. There was no going back.
“Could be a bear or something,” Shal said. “Or wolves.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, “maybe.”
Shal grimaced. “Let’s talk about something else. That freaks me out.”
“Not Liam,” I said.
“Or Carl,” Mia added.
Shal paused and looked at us. “Well, that’s all I got.”
I just laughed and shook my head. “You’re impossible. What are you guys doing this weekend?”
Shal shrugged. “Same thing as usual. Hanging out at my house eating ice cream and listening to my mom talk about parties and how much cooler she was when she was our age.”
“It’s the best,” Mia muttered. “But my dad won’t let me have people over.”
“I can,” I said. “I’ve got lots of room. Do you want to come over on Saturday?”
As soon as I said it, I sort of remembered that there was a rattling magic door in my closet and a bunch of heavily armed warriors guarding the house. But I was too late.
“Sweet,” Shal said happily. “I can tell my mom I’m going out!”
“And we won’t have to listen to her stories,” Mia agreed, looking very relieved.
“Exactly,” I said hesitantly.
As long as I got them out before ten-thirty when the rattling usually started, it should be fine. I would just have to keep a close eye on the clock. I could even pop into Derwin and tell Eldon I’d be a little late because I was having my friends over.
I pictured his face. He’d love that.
“Awesome,” Shal said as we stopped in front of her house. “See ya, girls.”
She scampered inside and Mia and I continued on to her house.
“That hiker,” Mia said, glancing at me, “I think they said it was up by Raven’s End.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I muttered.
“Make sure you stay out of those woods,” she said worriedly.
I snorted. “Trust me—I will.”
—
I didn’t have any homework, so I spent the evening helping Stache finish the painting in the main floor hallway. We were painting it white to cover up the old faded yellow colour and the many splintering cracks in the plaster that he’d had to fill. I actually liked painting with my dad. He’d pretend to splash me or push me into the wall, and then I’d paint the back of his shirt when he wasn’t looking.
We had briefly discussed the hiker incident, but he had just said the same thing as Mia: stay out of the woods until they found the animal and got rid of it. We left it at that.
I’d always been much closer to my dad. Along with his big hands and big bones, I’d also gotten more of his interests: working around the house, sports, old historical fiction novels. When I was a kid we used to pretend to box and sword fight while my mom fussed about me wearing jeans and T-shirts instead of dresses. Don’t get me wrong. I love my mom, but I think she was kind of hoping for a daughter she could dress up and shop with and do her hair. Instead she got me: a jeans-wearing Monster Crusher.
When my dad finished the last corner, he put his arm around me.
“This place is gonna be something,” he said proudly.
“It’s something, all right,” I replied.
He glanced at me. “You liking it here, Laurabell? You know, besides the bats?”
(P.S. My dad calls me Laurabell when no one else is around.)
“It’s not bad. It still looks like a haunted house, and I don’t want to know how many spiders are in the basement I refuse to go into, but other than that, it’s coming around.”
“Good,” he said, patting my shoulder. “I think I’m going to go start on the—”
“Get some sleep, Stache,” I cut in.
He seemed to think about that. “All right. See you tomorrow, Laurabell.”
“Good night.”
I headed up to my room as well, figuring I’d take a shower and clean some of the paint off my cheeks before I went through the panel. I was just grabbing a towel from the linen closet when I heard my cellphone beep. There was a text message from Shal:
If you need to talk give me a call. I’m up.
I frowned. That could not be good. I tried to think what could be wrong. I glanced at my computer, and on a hunch, I sat down and checked my profile. No.
There I was, tagged on a Photoshopped picture. Instead of his mother, Liam had his arm around me. Well, my face on his mother’s body. The words Lovers=Gross were written over our legs in big red font. Liam was tagged in it too.
He was going to see this. He was going to be embarrassed, and he
