Ian stomped across the stage and flopped down on the bench. He sighed heavily and dropped his head in his hands. Megan shot him a sideways look. “Everything okay?”
Ian looked up. “No! My parents won’t mind their own business. They’re trying to get me to settle down.” He made exaggerated air quotes, and I seriously had to resist climbing onto the stage and kissing him. He was exactly how I’d pictured the character.
Megan tossed some more bread crumbs. “That’s funny. That’s why I’m out here, too. My brother keeps making me go out with guys he knows from work. They’re all terrible.”
Ian gave Megan a long, appreciative look. It drew a few laughs from the audience. Then he looked away. “That’s too bad.”
“I know! All I want to do is stay in my room playing Call of Modern Warfare Warcraft.”
“You do?” Ian’s mouth dropped open, and the crowd roared.
“Yes. I just got to level four hundred. Do you have any idea how hard that is?”
Ian’s eyebrows shot up. “Yes! Yes, I do!” Another big laugh from the crowd.
My heart swelled. People were enjoying something I had written. It was the most amazing feeling in the world.
Megan looked up distrustfully. “You do?”
Ian hopped up onto the bench and put his hands on his hips. His stomach poked out. “Commander Davis, at your service.” He saluted her. “Level four hundred and counting.”
Megan stood up, too. “Really? Level four hundred?”
“Four hundred and two, now.” Ian puffed out his chest. He climbed off the bench and raked his hands through his hair. “I’m Jasper.” He held out his hand and Megan shook it.
“Anna.”
“Well, Anna. What are you doing tonight?”
“Looks like I’m spending it with you.”
Megan took his hand, and they strolled off the stage. The crowd started clapping. And kept clapping. And later, when Taylor and Brian and Ian and Megan returned onstage, people stood up. They stood up! It was a standing ovation!
I glanced around, and my eyes welled with tears. I was both happy and sad. Proud of myself for creating something that made hundreds of people clap. And sad that I wasn’t a part of putting the production together.
I looked down at my program. I’d been so nervous that I hadn’t even looked at it.
Across the front in loopy black lettering, it said: Hot Pockets and Modern Lovecraft.
Below that, in slightly smaller letters, it said: “a Lissa Black production.”
That was my name! On the front page of the program! I stared at the words.
Mr. Kincaid walked onstage, holding up his hands to quiet the audience. Slowly, the clapping died down.
“Thank you for coming!” Mr. Kincaid’s eyes scanned over the crowd, resting on me for a second. Was that a wink? “There will be refreshments in the cafeteria. Please purchase in abundance to help pay for our eighth grade class trip.” He cleared his throat. “But the real reason I came onstage—other than my need for constant attention—isn’t to peddle for donations. I need to honor someone very, very special who has joined us here tonight.”
My stomach dropped into my toes.
“As you all know, a play is put on every year by St. Mary’s seventh graders as an exercise in creativity. The students do everything—the writing, the set, the makeup, and costume design. This year, the play we presented was written by one of our most talented students.” Mr. Kincaid paused so everyone could clap. “Our young playwright is Miss Lissa Black … right there in the seventh row.”
A light from the balcony settled over my seat, and I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the glare.
“Everyone, let’s get her onstage and embarrass, er, I mean honor her.” Mr. Kincaid grinned at me and pulled at his suspenders.
Mom nudged me with her knee. There were tears in her eyes. “Get up there, Lissa.”
Taking a deep breath, I rose from my seat, wiping my sweaty hands on my best jeans. Suddenly, I was glad that I’d put on lipstick and my favorite green sweater.
With the bright stage lights, red spots danced in front of my eyes. I climbed the four wooden steps to join Mr. Kincaid. He put his hand on my shoulder.
“Allow me to introduce Lissa Black!”
The crowd stood up. Again. I was trying so hard not to cry that I almost didn’t see Taylor coming toward me from the right side of the stage. She carried a huge bunch of yellow roses tied with a white ribbon, and she looked grown-up and pretty in a short black dress that showed off her dark skin. She crossed the stage and handed me the bouquet, leaning forward to hug me.
I had to wipe the tears from my eyes, because I was seriously starting to bawl. Taylor led me offstage, where the rest of the cast was hanging out in the back hallway. Everyone cheered when they saw us. Ian raced forward and picked me up, hoisting me over his shoulder. “To the party!” he yelled, and he didn’t put me down until we were in the school cafeteria. It smelled the same as ever—like Pine Sol. The lunch line was open so people could buy snacks and juice.
“Ian, I just want to say—” I choked up, thinking about how good he’d been playing Jasper.
“I know what you’re going to say.” He shook his head and pointed at Taylor and Brian. “The verdict is in. I’m adopted.” Taylor is Ethiopian. Brian is Mexican. And Ian is a pale white boy with an Afro.
“No.” I shook my head. “You were perfect.”
“I had good material. Thanks.”
“Wait a second. Where’s Roland Reed?”
Ian shrugged. “Who knows? He’s never around.”
Casey pushed through the crowd and shoved her phone at Ian. “Would you take a picture of us?” She squeezed between Taylor and me and put her arms around us. “Everyone look happy!”
I grinned like an idiot while Ian snapped the picture. Even when he handed the phone back to Casey, I couldn’t stop smiling.
It wasn’t just that the play had turned out so well. It was how everyone had made me feel. I wasn’t at St. Mary’s anymore, but I hadn’t been forgotten.
SCENE TWELVE:
A CONVINCING DISGUISE
The next day, I fell asleep on the ride home. Usually I can’t sleep on car trips. I must have been totally zonked.
But I perked up that evening. It was hard not to. Haylie was so excited about trick-or-treating. She kept running around in circles dressed in her fairy princess costume and yelling “poof!” while waving her wand. I love my little sister, but talk about a generic costume choice.
I was a movie director, complete with a megaphone and clapboard.
Adam had refused to be Sound Guy, choosing to dress as a Sasquatch. He knocked on my door at five o’clock wearing his backpack and his furry mask. “Rrrrrrrr!” He was dressed all in brown, and wearing animal paw slippers.
I turned toward the living room. “Haylie, c’mere!”
Haylie pranced to the door, decked out in her purple fairy dress, clutching her wand. “What?”
I pulled her onto the front steps and shut the door behind us. Adam shoved his mask into his already-bulging backpack.
Squatting to look Haylie in her eye, I asked her: “If I took you on an adventure, would you promise to keep it a secret?”
Her blue eyes grew huge. She looked from me to Adam. “Yes! Yes, I promise.”
“Are you sure? Because it’s really, really important that you keep your promise.” I dropped my voice even though I knew Mom and Dad were on the back porch, safely out of earshot. “It’s about Blue.”
When Haylie nodded vigorously, I went on. “If we take you both trick-or-treating, can you pretend he’s in costume? Like, he’s dressed as a goblin? Not, he is a goblin?”
“Yes! Oh, please, please, please let us go trick-or-treating!” Haylie clapped her hands. “I’ll be good, I promise!”
Adam and I exchanged a look. Adam’s face scrunched up and he rubbed his chin. “I guess it’ll be dark out,” he said doubtfully. Even though he’d agreed to the
idea, he still didn’t seem sold on it.
“Trust me on this. People expect to see little kids running around in goblin costumes, so that’s what they’ll see.” I turned back to Haylie. “In an hour, Up—er, Charlie will drive us into town. So you need to play it cool. Like Blue’s just one of your friends, hanging out. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Adam touched my arm. “Come on, Lissa. We need to get going.”
As I rose, Haylie looked at her star-topped wand. “He should have this, though.” She extended it, cheap glitter drifting to the ground. “It’s magic. So long as he has it, no one will figure out he’s not in costume.”
“Thanks, Hails. I’m sure Blue will appreciate this.” She gave me a huge smile and opened the door.
Adam and I rushed through the woods to Blue’s hideout. We found him kneeling on the broken sidewalk, drawing with colored chalk. When he heard us crashing through the trees, he stood up.
“You’re here!” Like always, he sounded pleased, as if he hadn’t expected us.
Adam lowered his backpack and removed a bologna sandwich from the front pocket. “Here you go,” he told Blue. “Remember to remove the wrapping first.”
Blue hrumphed, but he peeled the plastic back before swallowing the sandwich. Without a word, Adam handed him a red Gatorade to wash it down.
“Blue.” I sat down in the dirt with him. “Do you know what day today is?”
I held my breath waiting for his reply. Blue might get really upset if he realized this was the anniversary of his being taken.
Blue wriggled his nose. “Saturday?”
“That’s right, but it’s something else, too. It’s Halloween.”
“Oh,” he responded in a small voice.
“So we’re taking you trick-or-treating!” Adam boomed in the same fake cheerful voice Dad uses sometimes. “You’ll get a ton of candy, and you won’t even have to worry about disguising yourself.” Adam rooted through his backpack. “But, just to be safe, I brought supplies. Check it out—clothes, masks, grease paint, a … hat,” he said, naming each item as he removed it. “You can wear anything you need to feel safe.”
Blue fingered a black skullcap. “I don’t know …”
“I promise we’ll take care of you,” I told him. “Nothing bad will happen to you so long as we’re around. And Haylie’ll be there too.”
“Haylie?” His face lit up.
“Yeah, of course. She wants to go trick-or-treating with you. And she gave me this for you.” I held up the wand. “It’s magic,” I said, echoing Haylie. “You’ll be safe as long as you have it.”
“Really?” He took it and studied it like it was Aladdin’s lamp.
“Really. You just point it at someone and they’ll leave you alone.”
Blue took it and examined it in his gnarled hands. “Wow.”
Adam glanced at his watch. “Sorry, but we need to hurry. Do you think we can have him at my place by six?”
“No sweat,” I said. “Now, Blue, like I said, no one’s going to pay any attention to an extra goblin running around on Halloween. But you can’t look exactly like yourself. We need to B-movie it up—make it look like you’re wearing a goblin costume. Because your mask is too realistic. And your tail looks like a special effect from Jurassic World.”
“What do we do?” Adam asked while Blue stood there with his hands behind his back, looking confused.
“Leave it to me.”
I rummaged through the pile of random supplies. “Here we go!” I pulled out a faded green John Deere sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. “This is a good start.”
Adam eyed the jeans. “Those look a little big.”
“Yeah, but we need room for his tail. We can put it down a pants leg.”
“Good thinking.”
Blue wriggled into the outfit, and we crammed the black skullcap over his ears. “Yikes, that does not work,” I said, inspecting him. He looked like a real goblin in a skullcap, especially considered that the hat barely covered his ears.
“I have something for that.” Adam reached into the depths of the backpack and removed a squashed-looking straw hat. He plunked it onto Blue’s head. “Tada!”
“Oh, man.” I took a step back to survey him. “You look like a DreamWorks reject.” A character like Blue in that getup wouldn’t get past the drawing board.
“What’s he supposed to be?” Adam asked. “Other than himself, I mean.”
“He’s the Freeburg goblin, of course. Otherwise why else would he wear a straw hat and a John Deere sweatshirt?”
Adam grinned. “Nice.”
“Did you bring a grease pencil like I asked?”
“Yeah, here.” He removed it from the side zipper. “What’s it for?”
“Like I said, he needs to look like a fake goblin trying to be a real goblin.” I rubbed the grease pencil across my palm to get a smooth line. Then I drew squiggly wrinkles across Blue’s forehead. He stayed perfectly still while I worked, gazing at me with his big brown eyes.
“That tickles.”
“Shh, it’ll be over soon.”
After a few more dashes, I was finished. “All set.” I blew on his face to remove the stray bits of pencil. “Now, let’s get you some candy!”
After reloading Adam’s backpack, we weaved through the woods. Dead leaves crunched beneath us, and a strong wind gusted around us, cutting through my jacket.
“Adam’s brother is giving us a ride,” I told Blue once we were close to Adam’s house. “Act like you’re playing a part—as Haylie’s human friend dressed as a goblin. Act casual.”
“Casual?”
“Yeah. Remember—casual keeps you safe.”
He frowned, nodding.
Five minutes later, I led Haylie to where Adam and Blue were hiding behind a pickup in the Griggs’ driveway. “Blue!” she screamed when she saw him, and I shushed her.
“Don’t call him that tonight! Call him—” I considered. “Heck, I don’t care. Lots of people have weird nicknames. Look at Upchuck.”
Speaking of Upchuck, the screen door creaked on its hinges, then banged shut. We all popped up from behind the pickup like curious gophers and scooted from our cover before Upchuck noticed us hiding.
“Hey. Y’all ready to go?”
“Yeah, we’re good.” Adam was as cool as a cucumber. “Thanks for driving us.”
“Thanks,” I echoed, and Upchuck’s gaze shifted to Haylie and then to Blue. Haylie seemed fine, but Blue stared at the ground like he’d been caught doing something wrong.
“Who’s your friend?” Upchuck asked Haylie.
“This is Blue.” Haylie nudged him. “Right, Blue?”
Blue wouldn’t tear his eyes from the ground. “I’m casual.”
“Huh. Well, I’m Charlie,” Upchuck said. “Now come on. The sooner you guys get your candy, the sooner I can go home and get ready for the real evening.”
“Date, huh?” Adam asked. “I should have known. I can smell you from here.”
Upchuck lifted his shirt collar and sniffed. “It’s not that bad.”
“Yeah, if you were born without a sense of smell.”
“Hey, you want a ride or not?”
We all squished into the pickup, which was pretty clean—no food wrappers or anything, although the dog smell still hung in the air. Adam was right—Upchuck definitely had a date.
In just five minutes, Upchuck pulled up to a street corner. Lined with one-story houses, the street had already been invaded by miniature witches and Batmans and pirates. Haylie was so excited, she almost fell out of the truck.
“I’ll be back in an hour and a half,” Upchuck said. “Meet me on this corner.”
Adam pulled four sacks out of his backpack and gave one to each of us.
“You know the drill.”
It was so much fun. Who knew that trick-or-treating could be so awesome? Every single house was decorated—ghosts hanging from trees, carved pumpkins. And when we rang doorbells, half the time Haylie
did her “trick” before being asked. It was a curtsy, which was sort of lame, but people forgive adorable kids.
After the tenth house I noticed that Blue’s sack was empty. “Blue, is there a hole in your bag?”
He smiled at me, bits of plastic wrapper and chocolate stuck to his teeth. Of course.
Someone was playing music a few blocks over, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
I took Haylie’s hand. As I strained to place the tune, it occurred to me that banjo music wasn’t an appropriate soundtrack to my life, after all. Freeburg deserved more credit than that. Maybe Taylor Swift, since she can do both pop and country—like how I could rock NYC and Freeburg.
As we crossed the street, a superhero posse approached us from the other way—little kids in Batman and Superman and Iron Man costumes. One kid dressed as Iron Man stopped in his tracks when he saw Blue. “Mom!” he wailed. His mother swooped him into her arms.
“Tired already?” she murmured, smiling, but he wouldn’t stop crying. He buried his face in her shoulder, peeking once at Blue. He squealed and hid again.
“Poor little guy,” his mother said as she passed.
“Adam,” I hissed, grabbing his sleeve. It felt like there was a rock in my stomach. “Did you notice that?”
“Notice what?”
“That little kid was terrified of Blue! He looked right at him and started crying!”
“Really?” Adam’s eyes looked worried behind his Sasquatch mask. “Are you sure?”
Blue and Haylie had run ahead, and they turned around to make sure we were following. They grinned so big I decided not to worry about serious stuff, at least not right now. They should have their night.
“I might just be paranoid,” I said to Adam, smiling weakly. But what if I wasn’t? It got me thinking—Blue still acted like a kid, and I definitely thought of him as more human than monster. But that little kid had noticed the monster right away. Would Blue become a full monster? When?
We hit up a crazy number of houses in the next hour and a half. At first, when a door opened, the half-second that followed freaked me out. Would someone scream “Monster!” and faint? But it was just like I’d told Adam: people expected to see a little kid in a goblin costume, so that’s what they saw. We even got compliments on Blue’s makeup.
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