by Diane Hoh
“We could have been killed.” Maxie gripped the jar more tightly, slid it just a fraction of an inch to the right, toward the outside edge of her skirt.
“Oh, I only sprayed a tiny bit on each plate. I didn’t want you all dead. Not then. I was saving that for tonight.”
“What are you going to do, Candie? Why were you fiddling with the hot water heater? And why all the paint cans in the living room?” As if she didn’t know the answer. But keeping Candie talking seemed like the best idea right now.
But her question had exactly the opposite effect. “Enough talk,” Candie said curtly, and dropped to her knees beside the hot water tank again, her back to Candie. “I told you, this house I’ve hated all of my life is going to go up in a blaze of glory, and you’re going with it.”
“That won’t change anything, Candie. It won’t make your mom change.”
Candie’s head swiveled in fury. “Yes, it will!” No house, no sorority. No sorority, no fixation, period. She’ll get over it. And she’ll come to me for comfort when it’s all gone.”
“Omega Phi is more than a house, Candie. You know that’s true. What your mom wants back is in her head, in her memory, not in this house. She’ll just hate you for what you’ve done, that’s all.”
“She’ll never know. No one will. Because you’re not going to be around to tell them. And no one else knows. I was planning on blowing all of you to kingdom come tonight after everyone was asleep. But that didn’t work out. I guess it’ll just have to be you and Erica.”
“Where is Erica?”
Candie pointed. “Over there. In that closet. Folded up like dirty laundry.” She laughed. “She never even knew the earring fell off …I scooped it up and wrapped it in a napkin and stuck it in her blazer pocket. I knew she’d freak when she noticed it was missing. She’d want to retrace her steps. It was the perfect way to get her back here. I’m going straight back to the dance when I finish with the house.”
“Chloe knows you left with Erica.”
“Chloe’s an idiot. I’ll just say Erica went home alone and I returned to the dance. Everyone will think what you thought. That she was angry about her mother’s accident and wanted revenge. You did think that, right, Maxie?”
Maxie flushed with pain. I’m sorry, Erica, she thought again.
Suddenly, Candie smiled at Maxie, a brilliant, happy smile. “I saw this on television,” she said cheerfully, bending again to the hot water heater. “You just unhook this little whatchamacallit back here, set the paint cans around, open the lids, and the paint fumes mixed with the leaking gas ignite. Fireworks! And Omega house, the only place my mother was ever really happy, will be history. And so will nosy Maximilia McKeon. But first, I have to tie you up …”
As Candie stood up and sent her eyes on a search around the room, Maxie slid the spray canister out from behind her and checked quickly to make sure it was loaded.
It was.
She jumped to her feet, her thumb on what she prayed was the correct knob, and yelled Candie’s name to make her turn around.
“What?” Candie said impatiently, and turned.
Maxie aimed the jar at Candie’s face and jabbed the knob with her thumb.
It was the correct knob.
A spray of white paint flowed forth instantly, right in Candie’s face. Candie screamed out in horror, and her hands flew to her eyes.
Maxie took advantage of her surprise attack. Running to the door leading into the kitchen, she pulled it open and ducked inside.
And at that moment, Maxie heard, the sound of a car door slamming outside.
Her sisters were home.
Chapter 23
TWO HOURS LATER, SURROUNDED by friends gathered in her room, Maxie commanded, “Will you all please stop looking at me like I was Joan of Arc? It makes me nervous.”
“Well, you did save the house… and everyone who lives here,” Tinker said. “You said yourself, Candie had planned to do her dirty work when we were all in bed. If you hadn’t showed up when you did and stopped her, she wouldn’t have had to change her plans. Nothing would have happened until we were all in bed and asleep.” She shuddered. “Everything …everything would be gone, and us with it.”
Brendan and Jenna, summoned to the house by a grateful Erica, nodded agreement. “It was crazy of you to tackle Candie alone,” Brendan scolded gently. But he took her hand in his as he said it.
“I guess,” Jenna admitted reluctantly, “life in a sorority house isn’t as dull as I thought it was, is it?”
That brought a sad, rueful laugh from everyone in the room. They all knew it would be a long time before everything seemed the same as it had once been. Maybe that would never happen.
“Look,” Maxie felt compelled to point out, “I should have figured all of this out sooner. The thing was, I knew I’d noticed something important when Tia Maria was doing my so-called makeover. I just couldn’t remember what it was. Now, I do.”
Erica, nursing a headache from the blow to her skull delivered by Candie, spoke up from her place on Tinker’s bed. “What was it, Maxie?”
“She was wearing Candie’s ring. I mean, she had all these rings on her fingers, over her plastic gloves, like she couldn’t bear not to have them on. One of them looked so familiar …” Maxie grimaced. “Could have saved us all a lot of heartache, if I’d realized that earlier.”
Brendan laughed. “Will you just relax and let yourself be patted on the back a little? We,” waving his hand to include the entire group, “believe in giving credit where credit “is due. Enjoy. It won’t last that long.”
Maxie squeezed Brendan’s hand. Then she looked around at Jenna and all her sisters and smiled.
At last, they were all safe.
A Biography of Diane Hoh
Diane Hoh (b. 1937) is a bestselling author of young-adult fiction. Born in Warren, Pennsylvania, Hoh grew up with eight siblings and parents who encouraged her love of reading from an early age. After high school, she spent a year at St. Bonaventure University before marrying and raising three children. She and her family moved often, finally settling in Austin, Texas.
Hoh sold two stories to Young Miss magazine, but did not attempt anything longer until her children were fully grown. She began her first novel, Loving That O’Connor Boy (1985), after seeing an ad in a publishing trade magazine requesting submissions for a line of young-adult fiction. Although the manuscript was initially rejected, Hoh kept writing, and she soon completed her second full-length novel, Brian’s Girl (1985). One year later, her publisher reversed course, buying both novels and launching Hoh’s career as a young-adult author.
After contributing novels to two popular series, Cheerleaders and the Girls of Canby Hall, Hoh found great success writing thrillers, beginning with Funhouse (1990), a Point Horror novel that became a national bestseller. Following its success, Hoh created the Nightmare Hall series, whose twenty-nine novels chronicle a university plagued by dark secrets. After concluding Nightmare Hall with 1995’s The Voice in the Mirror, Hoh wrote Virus (1996), which introduced the seven-volume Med Center series, which charts the challenges and mysteries of a hospital in Massachusetts.
In 1998, Hoh had a runaway hit with Titanic: The Long Night, a story of two couples—one rich, one poor—and their escape from the doomed ocean liner. That same year, Hoh released Remembering the Titanic, which picked up the story one year later. Together, the two were among Hoh’s most popular titles. She continues to live and write in Austin.
An eleven-year-old Hoh with her best friend, Margy Smith. Hoh’s favorite book that year was Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune.
A card from Hoh’s mother written upon the publication of her daughter’s first book. Says Hoh, “This meant everything to me. My mother was a passionate reader, as was my dad.”
Hoh and her mother in Ireland in 1985. Hoh recalls, “I kissed the Blarney Stone, which she said was redundant because I already had the ‘gift of gab.’ Later, I would use some of what we saw there in Ti
tanic: The Long Night as Paddy, Brian, and Katie deported from Ireland.”
An unused publicity photo of Hoh.
Hoh with her daughter Jenny in Portland, Oregon, in 2008. Says Hoh, “While there, I received a call from a young filmmaker in Los Angeles who wanted to make The Train into a film. They ran out of money before the project got off the ground. Such is life.”
Hoh in 1991, addressing a class at the junior high she had attended in Warren, Pennsylvania.
A 1995 photo taken in Austin, Texas, with Hoh’s grandchildren. Says Hoh, “Although my deadlines for Nightmare Hall were tight, I made time for my grandchildren: Mike, Alex, and Rachel. I'm so glad they live here.”
A current photo of Hoh at home in Austin, Texas.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1994 by Diane Hoh
cover design by Andrea Uva
978-1-4532-4806-5
This edition published in 2012 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY DIANE HOH
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
follow us: @openroadmedia and Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
SIGN UP NOW at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters