sweat break out on his skin. He tried to step back again, but his legs suddenly felt weak.
Then, just as the cat was about to strike, Jared saw a sudden movement behind it.
The cat, sensing the movement, leaped into the air to turn on the threat behind it.
Too late!
Zack dropped the open backpack over the cat while it was still in the air, and dove to the ground, his full weight falling on the backpack as he fumbled for the zippers that would close its flap.
Beneath him he could feel the cat squirming and thrashing, slashing at the heavy nylon with its claws.
He found the zipper and pulled it closed. With the cat still thrashing, and now yowling with rage, Zack scrambled to his feet, grabbed the backpack by the shoulder straps, and swung it hard against the trunk of the oak tree from which the cat had leaped only moments before.
The cat howled.
Zack smashed the backpack against the tree once more, and the cat fell silent. The boy glanced up and down the street. No one across the street, by the steps of the school, seemed to be paying attention, perhaps because the battle with the cat had been shielded from view by the large tree. And except for a woman who was just coming around the corner a block away, the street itself was deserted.
“Come on,” Zack said. “Follow me.”
With Chad and Jared behind him, he hurried across the street, but instead of heading for the front door of the school where the nerds had finally finished their chess games, he veered off to the side, headed down to the end of the building, and went around the corner. By the time Chad and Jared caught up, he was halfway up the steps that led to the door that opened into the staircase connecting the main floor not only to the second floor, but to the basement as well. Then all three of the boys were in the maze of pipes and ducts that filled the basement of the school, and Zack led the way to a dark corner near the furnace.
“What are we going to do?” Chad asked. “Burn it?”
Zack shook his head. “I’ve got a better idea. But first we’re going to make sure it’s dead.”
Gripping the shoulder straps of his backpack, he raised it, swung it high over his head, and smashed it down onto the basement’s concrete floor.
A grunting sound came from inside the bag, and there was a faint movement. Zack handed the pack to Chad Jackson. “Your turn.”
Chad hesitated only a second before hefting the bag as if to test its weight, tightening his grip on the shoulder straps, then swinging it high a couple of times before smashing it to the floor.
From inside the bag there were two more muffled grunts.
Chad tossed the bag to Jared Woods, who let it drop to the floor at his feet. “Now you.”
Jared gazed uncertainly down at the bag.
“We said we’d all do it,” Zack Fletcher said.
“Y-You didn’t say what—”
“Do it,” Zack cut in, his voice as hard as his balled right fist. “You want to keep on being our friend, you do it.”
Jared scanned the far reaches of the dimly lit basement, half hoping someone might come out and give him an excuse not to pick up the backpack, but he neither saw nor heard anyone.
They were alone.
With no one to save him, Jared bent down and picked up the backpack. He could feel some weak movement inside the bag, but nothing like the violent thrashing of a few moments ago.
He hefted it in unconscious imitation of Chad Jackson.
“Go on, pussy — do it,” Zack commanded.
Wincing at the nickname — and knowing Zack would hang it on him forever, just as he’d done to Seth Baker when he’d renamed him “Beth” when they were still just little kids — Jared steeled himself, tried to put down the nausea rising in his stomach, and swung the backpack against the wall.
He told himself he didn’t hear the yip of pain from inside the pack.
Told himself he hadn’t swung the pack hard enough to really hurt the cat. Not like Zack and Chad had anyway.
Told himself the cat was probably already dead.
Besides, the cat had attacked him last night, hadn’t it?
But even as he tried to convince himself, the nausea rose in his stomach again. He dropped the bag at Zack’s feet. “I did it, okay?”
His lips curling into a faint sneer, Zack picked up his backpack. “And now you’re gonna puke, aren’t you?”
Jared shook his head, though he wasn’t at all sure Zack was wrong.
“Okay, let’s go,” Zack said, slinging the pack onto his shoulders as if it still contained nothing more than his schoolbooks.
Staying half a step ahead of Chad and Jared, he led them back to the stairs, then up to the second floor corridor where their lockers were.
Theirs — and Angel Sullivan’s.
While Zack kept a careful eye on the empty corridor, Chad began working the combination to Angel’s locker.
Chapter 27
HE SUDDEN CHANGE IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE cafeteria told Angel that her cousin had finally come in. Yet it wasn’t anything she could really put her finger on, it wasn’t that the temperature changed, or a cold draft swept through, or even that the hum of conversation changed. No, it was something subtler.
A creepy feeling that made her skin tingle.
A sense of apprehension, as if some unseen threat was lurking close by.
“Here they come,” Seth said sourly, glancing toward the food line where Zack, Chad Jackson, and Jared Woods were grabbing whatever food was left as Mrs. Carelli began clearing out the steam table. “Just as I was starting to think we might actually make it through lunch hour without even seeing them.”
Angel didn’t have to turn around to feel them looking at her, and seeing the puzzled expression on Seth’s face, her odd feeling of foreboding grew stronger. “They’re doing something, aren’t they?”
Seth’s brow furrowed. “They keep looking over here — at least Chad Jackson does. And he’s got this weird look on his face, like he’s trying not to laugh. And every time he starts to lose it, Zack’s punching at him.”
“What about Jared?”
“He looks like he just puked his brains out. I mean, his face is all pasty and he looks sick.”
Her curiosity overcoming her apprehension, Angel turned to get a look at the three boys, all of whom quickly turned away from her.
Her feeling of apprehension deepened. “How come they looked away when I turned around?” she asked.
Seth shrugged. “How should I know? Maybe they’re embarrassed that you caught them talking about you.”
Angel and Seth stared at each other for a couple of seconds, and then the absurdity of what Seth had said got the better of both of them and they began giggling. “And maybe Chad’s going to invite me on a date, and maybe Heather Dunne’s going to ask you to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.”
“And maybe pigs really can fly!” Seth added. “Okay, so what’s going on?”
Angel shrugged. “I don’t know. But the weird thing is, I felt something when they first came in. I mean, I didn’t even see them, or hear them, or anything, but just before you looked up, I felt something.”
“Felt something like what?”
“I don’t know,” Angel said again. “It’s just a weird feeling — like something bad’s going to happen.”
