Dot cleared her throat. “That’s not the point. I’m asking, because right after that, she seemed to disappear. I don’t like to accuse people of things, but maybe you were a little miffed that my little princess was in your yard and you . . . did something about it.”
“Dorothy, are you accusing me of harming your pet?” Father asked harshly.
Dot seemed a little taken aback by Father’s tone, although she should have expected it. “I’m not accusing. I’m asking.”
Father clenched his jaw. “Well, I’m telling you that I don’t know where your damn dog is. The fact that you can’t keep your dog out of my yard doesn’t make me guilty of anything.”
Dot flashed Father a toothy smile in an attempt to keep Father calm. “Boopsie is not the only one. Several pets have gone missing over the past few months. It’s not normal.”
That was true. There were missing dog and cat posters all over the neighborhood.
“What does that have to do with me?” Father demanded.
Dot’s eyes darted between my father and me. “Trent, let’s be real here. You’re cute and all, but your family’s a little freakin’ weird.”
Father pulled the door open and pushed me inside. Dot tried to grab the door as Father followed me in, but he pulled it out of Dot’s hand so abruptly that she had to jump back to keep from getting hit. The door slammed shut in her face.
This was exactly what Father was always afraid of—people judging us and snooping in our business.
Leaning against the door, Father took a deep breath and rubbed his palms on his thighs. He looked like a little boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Father, how could you?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to. It was the only thing I could find.”
“You’re not supposed to—”
“I can’t help it, Neva! Just like you can’t help yourself with the apples. I don’t have a choice. You know that. I have to hunt.”
Closing my eyes, I lowered myself onto the couch. He was right. My father had an unquenchable desire to hunt animals and remove their hearts. He couldn’t help it. It was part of his curse. The real reason I could never have company over was because our home was filled with stuffed, mounted animal heads. Deer, bears, moose—you name it. Some people kept a few in the house here and there, but we had more than a hundred in neat rows around our home. Any normal person would be freaked out by the sight. My room, the kitchen, and the bathrooms were the only places in the house exempt from them. I’d begged Father repeatedly not to stuff them, because it would be easier on us both if he would just discard the animals, but the huntsman in him had to have his trophies. Father spent his weekends hunting in the woods, and our basement served as his work area. I didn’t want to think about what really happened to Boopsie.
One might say Boopsie had been cursed as well—first, by being the pet of that lunatic, and second, by becoming my father’s prey.
“I’m sorry, Father. I know you can’t help it.” I should have been more patient with him, like he was with me.
He sighed. “It’s okay. Let’s . . . let’s finish dinner.”
I followed him into the kitchen. He kissed me on top of my head as I peeled apples for the pie.
“What do I always tell you?” he asked.
“You and me, we have to stick together. We’re all we have, and we can never trust anyone else.”
He winked. “That’s my girl.”
He was right. Besides Father, everyone I knew would be just a memory in less than a year.
5
Mia and Hadley had it out for me Thursday morning. Before Mrs. Davenport’s class began, Hadley checked herself out with her compact, which was no strange occurrence. She did, however, keep pointing the mirror in my direction. She pretended to do it absently while talking to Mia, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see she was doing it on purpose. I kept my head turned to the right to keep the mirror out of my sight.
“Oh my God,” Mia said, glancing at me. “Just when you think she can’t get any weirder. I couldn’t make this stuff up.”
It took everything I had to ignore them, but I managed to make it through the period.
Noelle caught up with me in the hallway after class as Aubrey and I headed to the cafeteria.
“Hey, Neva, can I talk to you?” she asked, looking nervously from me to Aubrey.
I was starving and didn’t feel like discussing our project at that moment. “Can we talk about our project in class later?”
She bit her perfect, pink lip. “No, it’s not about that. I told Mia and Hadley about . . . you know, the thing.” She glanced at Aubrey who didn’t take the hint that this needed to be a private conversation, but Noelle continued anyway. “I should have known they would run with it and blow it out of proportion. I really shouldn’t have told them, and I’m sorry.”
The look in her eyes told me she was truly contrite, and I respected her for owning up to her actions. “Thanks,” I muttered.
She gave my arm a small squeeze. “All right. See you in social studies.” I watched her disappear into the crowd.
“What was that about?” Aubrey asked as we continued to the cafeteria.
“Nothing.” I had never told Aubrey about the mirror thing. She was the only friend I had besides Henry, and I didn’t want to lose her by making her think I was crazy.
Aubrey shook her head, sending her teased auburn hair falling over her face. “Don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ What did you tell her that she told Mia and Hadley?”
I stopped walking and peered into Aubrey’s emerald eyes. If Mia and Hadley knew, the entire school would know by the end of the day. There was no way she was going to keep my embarrassing secret to herself. I might as well tell her.
“It’s a long story. Get your lunch, and I’ll tell you.”
In the cafeteria, I grabbed our usual spot and dug into the apple pie left over from the night before. A few minutes later, Aubrey joined me with two slices of pizza. “Okay, so what’s the deal?”
“I have a mirror phobia.”
Aubrey raised her eyebrows. “Like, you’re afraid of mirrors?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would anyone be afraid of a mirror?”
It wasn’t so much that I was afraid of mirrors, I was afraid of the effect they had on me, but that was too much to explain so I just stuck with the simpler explanation.
I shrugged. “I just am.”
“Wait. Is it one of those things where girls don’t like looking at themselves? If it is, that’s crazy. Neva, you’re gorgeous.”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing like that.”
“What? Do you think a monster’s going to come out of it and grab you or something? Is it because of that movie Candyman? Honestly, that movie scared me, too. When I saw it, I was afraid to look in a mirror for weeks.”
“Aubrey, I really don’t want to talk about it.”
She scowled. “Oh, but you’ll talk to Noelle about it? The girl who’s never given you the time of day before this week?”
“It’s not like that, Aubrey. We were going to be working in her bedroom, and I had to know what her mirror situation was like. Of course she wanted to know why, so I told her. It’s not a big deal.”
Aubrey bit into her pizza, watching me over the steaming slice.
Who was she to be mad at me anyways? “It’s kind of like how you neglected to tell me that you were asking Tate out.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, give it a rest already. He’s just a stupid guy. They’re a dime a dozen. I’m not about to fight with you over him.”
I took a deep breath. I needed to steer this conversation in a better direction. “Look, I’m sorry I never told you about my mirror phobia, and I shouldn’t be mad about your asking Tate out. I can never date him myself, so what does it matter?”
Aubrey nodded. “It’s cool. Just don’t get too close to that girl. She might be the nicest head of the three-headed dragon,
but she’s still a part of the dragon.”
***
I knew PE would be brutal if I didn’t figure out a way to avoid Mia and Hadley in the locker room. I realized I used the same stall every day, and today, that would change. I planned on getting to the locker room early. Behind the wall that divided the locker room into two parts, there were four stalls no one ever used, because it was rumored that a girl was murdered in one of them decades ago. I had never come across any real evidence of that happening—no articles or Internet findings. Aubrey told me there was no information, because the town kept it a secret and brushed it under the rug. Still, I should have been able to find something if it were true.
During class, we broke into two groups for soccer. Mia and Hadley were put into the other group, so I didn’t have to deal with them during class.
Afterward, I slipped into the stall to change. I planned on waiting until the other girls left before exiting, and, hopefully, I wouldn’t see Mia and Hadley for the rest of the day. Of course, Mia, Hadley, and Noelle were always the last to leave the locker room, because every hair and eyelash had to be in place.
I leaned against the wall impatiently, hoping I wouldn’t be late for sixth period.
“How’d she get in and out so quick? I didn’t even see her,” Mia complained. A person had to lead a very sad life to have nothing better to do than making other people miserable.
“That freak knew we were going to get to her,” Hadley answered. Then she snickered. “I guess if I looked like that, I’d be afraid of mirrors, too.”
Mia joined in with her cackling laugh.
“You know she’s not ugly,” Noelle said softly.
The laughter cut off abruptly. “Well, she’s not pretty,” Hadley said.
“Yeah, she is,” Noelle argued. She was a straight shooter. That was one of the things I liked about her.
“Well, is she prettier than me?” Hadley asked, sounding like a ridiculously insecure little girl.
“You guys have different looks,” Noelle replied, sounding over the conversation. “Besides, beauty is subjective. It’s all a matter of opinion.”
“Well, what’s your opinion?” Hadley demanded.
“You’re both pretty. Leave it at that.”
I smiled. That was definitely not the answer Hadley had been hoping for.
Finally, the sound of footsteps moved toward the exit. After it creaked opened and closed, I emerged from the stall and hurried to class, making it in the nick of time.
***
Noelle had arranged for us to work in her kitchen that afternoon. She assured me it was mirror-free. When I entered the house, she warned me not to look to my left, because a huge mirror hung on her living room wall.
Noelle, Tate, and I sat on barstools at the kitchen island and pulled our project notes from out backpacks.
Noelle went into hostess mode. “Help yourself to anything you want, guys. We have chips, popcorn, cookies—”
My eyes settled on the bowl of red, shiny apples on the island countertop. I grabbed one and bit into it.
“Or apples . . .” Noelle said, watching me.
Tate stared at me wide-eyed. “That must be a really good apple.”
I realized then that I had moaned as I’d bitten into the apple. My face warmed.
I always craved apples no matter what, but when they were right in my face, I couldn’t resist. I had to have them, and I wouldn’t stop eating them until they were gone. I couldn’t very well devour the entire bowl of apples.
I wiped the juice that dribbled down my chin. “I know this is a strange request, Noelle, but would you mind moving this bowl of apples? If not, I’ll eat them all, and I really don’t want to do that.”
Noelle frowned, but took the bowl. “Okay, I’ll put them on the table in the living room for now.”
Tate watched me with one eyebrow raised, probably thinking I was the biggest weirdo he’d ever met. I looked away.
“Okay, let’s get to work,” Noelle said as she reentered the room. “Everyone take out your index cards, and let’s practice our presentations.”
“What cards?” Tate asked.
“Tate!” Noelle whined. “I told you to write out your presentation so we could practice it today. I told you that!”
I’d spent the night before writing out my note cards and making sure they were perfect, because I didn’t want to feel the wrath of Noelle. Tate acted like he had no idea what Noelle was talking about, and she spent the next half hour writing his cards for him. I suspected Tate wasn’t this absentminded and was taking advantage of the situation. He knew Noelle would do the entire project herself if she had to, to ensure we got an A.
Once Tate’s cards were done, we did a test run. Noelle made me read mine three times, because I hadn’t delivered my information with enough “charisma.”
Noelle wasn’t 100 percent happy with the final product, but figured things were as good as they were going to get, so she dismissed us. Tate offered me another ride home, which I gladly accepted.
“I had no idea you were such a lazy bum,” I joked as he backed out of the driveway. I pulled a book from my backpack and pretended to read it so I could keep my eyes off the mirrors.
Tate laughed. “Usually I’m not, but I know Noelle. Nothing I do is good enough for her, and she’s going to end up redoing it herself, so why not just cut to the chase?”
He had a point, but I couldn’t picture Tate working hard on anything. He seemed so laid back and always looking for a good time. I pictured him suckering girls into doing all his work for him.
“Where are we going?” I asked when we passed the turn-off to my house.
“I’m starving. I know you have to be starving, too, with the way you scarfed down that apple.”
I squirmed in my seat. I knew my apple eating wasn’t a pretty sight. I must have looked like someone who hadn’t eaten for years.
“Or if you want, I can turn around and take you home,” he offered.
“No. It’s okay. I could eat.”
Tate turned the radio down, and I was grateful. It had been blaring some hip-hop song that hurt my ears. “So where’d you come from?” he asked. “Most of the kids in Rock Canyon have been here since they were born. Sophomore year, you just showed up out of the blue.”
My stomach flipped at the fact that he’d noticed when I’d showed up.
“I moved from Michigan. My dad’s job got transferred.” Part of that was true. We had lived in Michigan.
“You like it here?”
I shrugged. “Not really. But it doesn’t matter. My dad’s job makes him move around a lot, so we’ll probably be moving soon.”
“Well, that sucks.”
“Why does that suck?” I finally mustered up enough courage to look up from my book. The side of Tate’s mouth was curved into a sweet smile. His lips were pink and looked kissably soft. I wondered what they felt like, and then I quickly pushed the thought away.
“Because you’re cool, Neva. You make me laugh. You’re chill and laid back and different. I’d like to get to know you better.”
I couldn’t imagine how red my cheeks were. While I was flattered, maybe spending extra time with Tate was a bad idea. There was no point in trying to get to know each other. I couldn’t give Tate anything but lies, mysteries to solve, and a broken heart after I inevitably disappeared.
We had been driving for about thirty minutes and passed plenty of places where we could have stopped for food. “Where are we going?” I asked again. The further we traveled from home, the more uneasy I felt.
“Somewhere special. It has the best food around, and no one in town knows about it. This is my secret hang out where I only bring a few select people, so don’t tell anyone about it.”
I smiled at the thought of being special enough to go to his sacred place. “I won’t tell a soul.” My smile faded as I wondered how many other girls he’d already taken there.
I was sure he’d heard about my mirror phobia by no
w, and I appreciated him not saying anything about it.
Finally, we pulled into the parking lot of a small restaurant. There were several spots, each one empty. Tate pulled into one, and we studied the humongous menu.
A girl in roller skates and a poodle skirt rolled out to take our order. A sixties themed diner. It brought back memories.
“You first,” Tate insisted.
“Um, I’ll have the apple turnover and um . . . apple juice.”
Tate frowned. “Like the box of apple juice for kids?”
I nodded. “I like apple juice.”
Grinning, Tate said, “I’ll have chicken strips, fries, and a chocolate shake.”
“Sure, I’ll be right back,” the waitress said before rolling back inside the restaurant.
Tate laid his head back on the car seat. “So you really like apples.”
“Yeah.”
“My thing is chocolate,” Tate said. “I can never get enough of it.”
It wasn’t quite the same thing, though. I was sure chocolate didn’t turn him into some sort of ravenous beast. He’d probably never snatched a piece of chocolate from another person’s hand because he couldn’t help it.
“So, what do you do on the weekends?” Tate asked. “I never see you around. I always see Aubrey, though.”
I took a deep breath and hoped the food didn’t take too long to come. This was what I had been afraid of—the questions. “I’m kind of a homebody. I spend some time with my dad, or I read or watch movies.”
Tate closed his eyes, cocked his head to the side, and snored. I tapped his arm playfully. “Stop it!”
He laughed. “I’m sorry, but that sounds lame as hell. You should hang out with us some time.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Mia and Hadley would love that.”
Tate’s smile faded. “Hey, Mia and Hadley don’t run anything. Seriously, if Noelle likes you, it’s only a matter of time before they like you, too. Those chicks are like monkey see, monkey do when it comes to her.”
“I noticed.” They always seemed hungry for her attention and approval. They reminded me of ladies-in-waiting, my stepmother’s personal assistants. They came from high-ranking, noble families, but their sole purpose was to please the queen.
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