by Robert Gray
Dad laughed, the sound of it running a stake right through my heart.
“Of course not. I spoke to the agency. They’re sending over someone from the special forces unit to protect us. Our own personal bodyguard.” He glanced over at Mom, who nodded with delight.
So much for Team Eve, I thought as I collapsed back into my chair and pushed around the eggs with my fork, leaving sludgy trails.
“Oh, look at the time. You better run upstairs and put on your good clothes before you’re late for school,” Mom said.
“But the principal won’t let me wear those clothes. He said they remind him of Halloween.”
“And the problem is …?” She picked up my plate and headed for the garbage.
“The problem is they don’t celebrate Halloween at my school.”
The plate crashed onto the floor, and food flew everywhere.
“Oh dear. What kind of place?—” She whirled to face Dad. “Did Eve tell you about this?”
Dad stepped back as Mom’s snakes snapped at him. “I—no—she didn’t. Eve, is this true?”
I nodded.
“I have a good mind to march down to that school and give that … that human a piece of my eye.”
“That’s the spirit, Mom.”
Dad bent down to help Mom clean up the mess. “Maddie, things are different here. We all have to make some sacrifices. If they don’t celebrate Halloween at her school, well, then we’ll make sure we celebrate extra at home.”
This wasn’t good, and I knew it. Mom might be able to turn things to stone with her eyes, but Dad had the ability to melt Mom with his.
Mom sighed. “You’re right, Bill.”
Love could be so annoying sometimes.
I told Dad to drop me off a few blocks from school. I wanted to recover the little dignity I had left, which meant being seen in the Ghoulicious Pizza van had to go.
The sun burned at the edge of the endless blue sky, and I watched it cautiously. I hadn’t forgotten what it had done to me. It seemed to be studying me, too, following my footsteps from its high and mighty position. I won’t miss you either when I leave this place, I thought.
With my focus on the world above me, I hadn’t been paying attention to the world in front of me, and I walked right into the back of—
“Hey, aren’t you the girl that sat next to me in History class? The one with the big hair?”
—Warren. I felt so embarrassed. I pulled my hair across my face. Why did I have to bump into him? And worse, he remembered me as the girl with the big hair.
If my dignity had been the pizza van’s gas gauge, the needle would’ve just landed on E.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to run into you like that. The sky … it’s—um—amazing.”
“It’s okay. I mean you bumping into me. No harm, right?”
Warren’s inviting smile made the hairs on my arms stand up like zombie first-timers rising from their graves.
“Right … So, you walk to school? I figured since your dad’s the principal you’d ride with him.”
“You know he’s my dad?” Warren asked as he combed his fingers through his hair. “Here one day, and that secret’s out.”
I didn’t want to get Carly Beth in trouble, but I didn’t want to lie to Warren either, so I said, “This girl told me.”
“Girl, huh?” he said suspiciously as he peered at me. “Yeah, well, I try to keep a good distance from my old man. We don’t agree on … pretty much anything.”
I shrugged. “You don’t seem at all like your dad.”
“Oh, you met him?”
“I had the—er—pleasure.”
At this, Warren snorted. “I think that’s the first time I heard the word ‘pleasure’ in the same sentence with my dad.”
“I guess I’m full of surprises.”
“I guess you are,” Warren agreed.
We walked together to school, and as we strolled through the parking lot, I received different kinds of stares from the girls than I had yesterday. The jealous kind. And I felt my dignity needle steadily rise.
Carly Beth, Steve, and Lucy sat on the stoops near the front of the school. Their smiles were embarrassing enough, but then Carly Beth mouthed, I knew you liked him, and my cheeks and ears got all hot.
“You clean up well,” Steve said and jumped up to give me a hug. Before I had a chance to defend myself, Steve twirled me in the air. “So, how’s my scare queen doing?”
“Good,” I managed.
Once the world stopped spinning, I found myself right in front of Stacey Maxwell.
“What are you doing talking to my boyfriend, you little troll?” she snapped.
I took a step back and clenched my fists at my sides. If she said one more thing to me I was going to pounce on her, simple as that.
Warren jumped between us and threw his arm around Stacey’s shoulders. “Stop being so jealous. I bumped into her by accident on our way to school. No big deal.”
She snarled and me and dragged Warren by the arm into school.
I had a strange feeling this wouldn’t be my last encounter with Stacey Maxwell, but that thought popped when McDougal appeared at the school’s entrance, shooing kids away from the steps. “Clear a path, people. Get to class. Stop lingering by the doors.”
He eyed me up and down, either trying to remember me or trying to decide whether or not the clothes I’d dressed in met his standards. Finally, he gave a displeased sigh, probably because he couldn’t give me detention.
“Hanging around the school steps. Don’t you kids know that’s a fire hazard? Not to mention it makes the school look like some hip-hop club. That’s not how I run my school. Do I look like Jay-Z to you?”
I shook my head, even though I had no idea who he was talking about.
“Well, do I?” McDougal asked again, shifting his attention to Steve, Lucy, and Carly Beth. They all shook their heads.
“Consider this your second warning, Miss …?”
“Hallows,” I managed.
“In my school, Miss Hallows, there is a strict three strike policy. One more, and it’s detention for you.”
“But we weren’t doing anything wrong,” Carly Beth murmured.
McDougal must’ve had ears like a banshee because he glared right at my new friend. “That goes for you, too.”
“Yes, sir,” Carly Beth groaned.
“Good.” McDougal glanced at his watch. “Five minutes until homeroom. Let’s have a good day then.”
Oh, let’s, I thought.
By midday, I felt trapped in some adorable sequel where I knew all the characters, and they were following a worn-out storyline. Laughter and name calling still echoed through the halls, and Carly Beth continued to be my bodyguard. I envied her strength. Nothing seemed to scare her … or so I thought, until lunch came.
Inspired by the coming holiday, Steve and Lucy argued about who would win in a fight between werewolves and zombies as they picked at their lunches. Steve took the stance that zombies would win because they’re already dead, while Lucy sided with werewolves because zombies were too slow and stupid. I thought it best that I keep my opinions to myself, knowing full well that neither would win. Zombies had a short attention span when it came to anything besides eating human brains, and werewolves would rather party. Instead, I switched to a more meaningful topic: Stacey Maxwell.
“I can’t believe someone as nice as Warren would date someone like her,” I said.
I detested Stacey for what she did to me, and, okay, maybe her dating Warren made me a little jealous, too. I couldn’t help but make fun of her. Steve didn’t help any. He laughed so hard while I performed my Stacey impersonation, tempting me to get louder and louder. I scrunched my face up real tight, furrowed my brows, and said, “I pick on people so I can feel better about myself. I’m a self-conscious nobody who still wets the bed … and I eat my boogers when no one’s looking.” I expected Steve to be crying from laughter at this. He wasn’t. I didn’t see Lucy and Carly Beth laug
hing, either. And that made me nervous. “What?”
“Turn around,” Lucy whispered.
Stacey and her two minions Jasper and Becca glowered at me, their lunch trays clenched in their white-knuckled fists.
“I guess you heard all of that,” I muttered.
Stacey’s lips curled into a nasty grin.
Oh, yeah, she’d heard it.
My eyes dropped to Stacey’s tray. It held a bowl of green leaves soaking in some purplish sauce, a cup of fruit drowning in syrup, a tall cup of brown liquid, and another cup overflowing with sugar.
I gulped. “No hard feelings, right?”
Stacey poured her drink over my head. The cold liquid charged down my back, through my pants, and collected in my shoes.
I took a deep breath. I was going to be the better human; after all, I’d been making fun of her. “Okay, I deserved that. Now we’re even, right?”
“Wrong,” Stacey said. She dumped her bowl of leaves over me. Leafy debris clung to my soaked hair, while sticky purple goo trickled down my cheeks and neck. I felt my blood heat. My hands shook uncontrollably.
“That’s enough. Leave her alone,” Lucy said.
“Don’t talk to her, you loser,” Jasper countered.
Lucy’s face turned bright red. Steve grabbed her, preventing her, I was sure, from clawing Jasper’s eyes out.
“Look, we don’t have to do this—” I started.
Stacey tipped her fruit cup down the front of my shirt. And then my human instincts took over.
I pulled a big bowl of chocolate pudding off of Steve’s tray and pressed it right into Stacey Maxwell’s face.
Everything after that was a whirlwind of yelling and screaming and clawing and pulling and biting.
“Fight! Fight!” The whole lunchroom circled us. Moments later, teachers charged in, and with a fistful of Stacey’s hair firmly in my grasp, I felt my feet leave the ground.
“She started it!” Stacey screamed.
My eyes darted around until they found McDougal. It was the first time I ever saw him look truly happy.
“In my office. Now! You just earned yourself a month of detentions, Miss …?”
With my head sagged and my shoulders slumped, I murmured, “Hallows.”
During eighth period, French class with Mrs. Bordeaux, to be exact, Carly Beth tried to convince me that I should go to detention after school. “If you don’t, you’ll get suspended.”
She had said this several times already since I half-heartedly cleaned myself off in the girl’s bathroom. I didn’t have green leaves in my hair now, but my clothes were ruined with stains and splotches. I had no idea what suspension was, but after about the fifth time Carly Beth had mentioned it, I realized it had something to do with not coming into school for a few days, which sounded fine with me. I hated this school, and I hated that principal. He didn’t even give me a chance to explain my side of the story.
“I can’t go to detention. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. I told you, my dad needs me at the pizza shop. That’s way more important than some stupid detention.”
Carly Beth threw her hands on her hips and huffed. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. McDougal will make the rest of your stay in this school a living hell.”
“Then I’ll return the favor,” I said.
“Your second day and you already want to start a war. Take a step back, girl. Think about what you’re doing.” She eyed me hesitantly.
But my thoughts weren’t on what I was doing. They were focused solely on Carly Beth. I had thought nothing scared her, but what was she doing when Stacey gave me a food shower? Nothing. Maybe she wasn’t my friend after all.
The bell rang. Time to go home. I didn’t say goodbye to Carly Beth. She was a human, and I had almost forgotten I couldn’t trust humans.
None of them.
THIRTEEN
TIME KILLERS
When I entered the van, Dad regarded my stained clothing with an understanding smirk. His shirt was also covered in stains—mostly pizza sauce, by the looks.
“Guess we both aren’t very good at keeping our clothes clean,” he remarked. “Did you at least have a better day at school?”
I tossed my book bag behind me. “Yeah. Much better than yesterday.” I left it at that. Last thing I wanted to do was have to explain the fight with Stacey and the string of detentions McDougal gave me.
“Glad to hear it,” Dad said and tapped my arm with his fist.
I kept quiet and stared out the window during most of the ride to the pizza place, while Dad prattled on about how he hoped we didn’t get the crowd we got yesterday. I didn’t know if meant the number of humans that showed up or that one of them left behind a nasty calling card, but I agreed either way.
Then he said, “The guy from the special forces division arrived earlier today. I’ve been training him as a cook. Well, he’s been training me, actually. He’s great at twirling pizzas.”
That got my attention, and I flicked my head to face Dad. “How did he get here so fast? It took us ten days by boat.”
“A portal,” Dad whispered, as if someone could hear him giving away Top Secret information.
“But I thought URNS closed all the portals?”
Dad shrugged. “Well, sort of. They banned all travel for monsters, but under special circumstances—”
“That’s not fair. You work for URNS, and you’re doing like this whole undercover stuff. Why didn’t we get to use a portal?”
“It was safer to travel by boat. We don’t know who we can trust anymore. And if word spreads that we got special permission to use portal keys …”
Dad didn’t continue. He didn’t have to. If The Source found out we were spies … Yeah, that would be bad. Besides, I was more curious about the URNS agent than arguing about portal travel. “So who did the agency send?”
“You’ll see.” He laughed. “Actually, you won’t.”
As we pulled up to the pizza place, I ran through a list of monsters qualified enough to be special agents. Maybe a black knight … or a headless horseman … or that guy with the hockey mask … or that one with the knives for fingers.
I jumped out of the car as soon as we stopped, threw open the door, and rushed into the pizza place, searching around and … and …
And saw no one.
“Hello?” I called out.
“Hello,” a voice responded.
I searched the restaurant, but didn’t see anyone. “Where are you?”
“Over here,” the voice said. He sounded close enough to be standing next to me.
I spun around. “Excuse me mister …?”
“Griff.”
“Hi. I’m Eve. It’s a pleasure to—er—meet you … only I don’t know where you are, Mister Griff.”
“Just Griff. And I’m right here. Behind the counter.”
My eyes fixed on a circle of dough spinning in midair.
“URNS sent us a possessed pile of pizza dough?” I asked my dad.
“No, silly. They sent us an invisible man.”
“So you’re like a super agent sent here to protect us?” I asked, speaking directly to the ceiling. I could tell by Griff’s voice that his face was somewhere around there. He had to be at least two feet taller than me!
“Super agent?” Griff replied. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration. I work at the same desk as your father.”
“You do?” Dad shot me a nervous glance. “I never saw … I had no idea.”
Griff chuckled. “That one gets ‘em every time.”
“I bet you can’t tell me what you do in the agency, because then you’d have to kill me, right?” I asked.
“I’m just here to snoop. It’s what I do best.”
I started to say that I could’ve used his abilities at school, when the bell over the door jingled—a noise that increasingly got on my nerves—and two men entered, the same ones from yesterday. Could they be Source agents? I wasn’t sure, but they were our first customers, and th
at made them suspicious to me. Hmmm. I put my Super Spy guard up.
“We came back for that killer stromboli,” the bearded human with the beady eyes said.
“Yeah, that thing was killer,” the red-haired human agreed. His eyes were pretty beady, too, now that I thought about it.
“Real killer,” I said, nodding slowly. Their expressions of complete confusion looked real. Maybe a little too real.
“So, one killer stromboli coming up.” I pretended to write their order down in my pad, but what I really wrote down was THE SOURCE with two arrows pointed toward the humans. “Anything to drink with that?”
“Coke,” one said.
“Same,” said the other.
I walked away, but paused when I heard one of them say I had a chip on my shoulder. I checked my shoulders and didn’t see any chips. They were trying to trick me, I knew, but it wasn’t gonna work.
“Griff,” I whispered. “Table—er—three o’clock. They ordered a killer stromboli. They came in yesterday. I think they might be …” I dragged my finger across my throat.
“Three o’clock is by the bathroom,” Griff said. “That’s ten o’clock.”
“Right,” I said. “That’s what I meant. Ten o’clock.”
As I brought over the sodas, I felt Griff brush past me. I smiled and put the drinks down, thinking about the award I would be getting for capturing these criminals.
By the time the stromboli finished cooking, I couldn’t contain myself. I needed to know what Griff had discovered.
Dad and I carried the stromboli over, and I watched the two humans savagely rip apart the dough to get to the pepperoni and cheesy guts.
“Psss.”
“What is it?” I whispered.
“You were right,” Griff said.
“Dad! Quick! C’mere!” I wanted him to hear how I might’ve just saved the entire monster race.
“What’s up?” Dad asked, wiping off the sauce and flour that had covered his hands like thick, gooey gloves.
“I overheard them say that work was murder. And one of them said he needed to kill time until ‘the family’ arrived. There might be more of them coming.”