Read It and Weep!

by P. J. Night

  From the outside, Aunt Marina’s house looked pretty ordinary, much like the other houses on the block. Small but comfortable, with a modest front lawn and a center walkway leading to the front steps. The one feature that made Aunt Marina’s house stand out was her flower garden, which was always a riot of color.

  Aunt Marina had left the door unlocked, and Lauren knew it was fine to walk in. It smelled spicy inside—a combination of cinnamon, sandalwood, and patchouli. The interior of the house was a jumble of colors: oranges, pinks, and aquas. Lots of beaded curtains, colorful floor cushions, and funky knickknacks that Aunt Marina had collected during her world travels.

  “In here!” She heard her aunt call from the living room.

  Aunt Marina was standing on her head, her bare feet pointed up toward the ceiling, in a complicated-looking yoga pose, her face pink, her long blond hair tumbled around her arms.

  “Hi, Aunt Marina,” Lauren greeted her. She was just heading toward the couch when a black streak stopped her in her tracks. “Hey, Cinder,” she said to Aunt Marina’s cat. “You almost tripped me, as usual.”

  Cinder sat with his tail curled around his feet, staring without blinking at Lauren. Then he thrust out his paw and began grooming it.

  “Hey, isn’t it bad luck to have a black cat cross your path?” asked Lauren with a wink, and then plopped down on the couch and helped herself to a spiced wasabi pea from the dish on the coffee table.

  “If it is, then I’m in big trouble,” said Aunt Marina, her voice curiously muffled by being upside down, “because he walks in front of me about five times a day.”

  “Lucky for us we don’t believe in that silly superstition,” Lauren added.

  Aunt Marina’s feet flipped forward and she rolled gracefully up to a standing position. She was a petite person, an inch or so shorter than Lauren, and very young-looking for her age. Lauren supposed it was because she didn’t have any kids. All that worrying seemed to make parents go gray early.

  “Hello, darlin’,” said Aunt Marina, bending over to hug Lauren and then flopping onto the couch next to her. “Everyone should get upside down for a little piece of every day. It’s so good for the circulation and the joints. So what’s this thing you said you wanted to show me?”

  Lauren pulled the card out of her bag and handed it to Aunt Marina.

  Aunt Marina scrutinized the card. “Wow, this is pretty cool. It’s a very old tarot card. You don’t see many like this anymore.” She chuckled when she saw the message written on the back of the card. “Someone has an odd sense of humor,” she remarked.

  “Do you know what the card means?” asked Lauren.

  “It’s the Wheel of Fortune card,” she said. “From the cracks and bends in the paper, it looks like this card is pretty old. As for the message on the back, I wouldn’t worry about it. Chain messages are just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Where did you find it?”

  “My friend Charlotte found it. In a book. What’s the Wheel of Fortune?”

  “It’s a very open-ended kind of card,” said Aunt Marina, handing it back to Lauren. “It might signify that your fortune is going to turn.”

  “Like, the person might have bad luck or something?”

  “Not necessarily. It may go up, or it may go down. It generally means there might be a change in a person’s life, for better or worse.”

  Lauren nodded. She stuck the card back in her bag. It’s not like she believed this stuff or anything, but still. It was a relief to know it wasn’t necessarily a bad omen.

  “Thanks, Aunt Marina,” said Lauren. “I better get going. Lots of homework.”

  “Want me to drive you?”

  “No, it’s not raining anymore. I’m good.” She gave Aunt Marina a hug and was on her way.

  As she walked toward home, she pulled out her phone to text Charlotte.

  Aunt Marina says the card is no big deal. It’s the Wheel of Fortune. It just means your luck may go up or down.

  Almost immediately Charlotte texted her back.

  Oh, good. Thanks. BTW what’s the math homework again?

  Lauren grinned. Charlotte never seemed to remember her planner. As she reached the corner, she swiveled her backpack around and clenched it to her side in order to unzip it and pull out her planner. She stepped down off the curb.

  “Watch out!”

  Her reflexes reacted before her brain did. She leaped backward, stumbling and almost falling, just in the nick of time before a bicyclist zoomed past her. It was a delivery guy.

  “Watch where you’re going!” he yelled over his shoulder, and disappeared around the next corner.

  Lauren’s heart was thudding. That was a close call. She texted the math pages to Charlotte. Then she added,

  Oh by the way, thanks to you, I almost got run down by a delivery guy on a bike.

  What??

  JK LOL. I just stepped off the curb without looking. Must remind self. No more texting while walking.

  Charlotte texted back.

  Be careful!

  But that night another terrible thing happened to Lauren, and this time there was nothing she could do to stop it. She had a nightmare that spiders were crawling all over her.

  Chapter 7

  The next morning, just as Lauren had settled into her seat on the bus, Stacy plunked herself down into the empty seat next to her.

  “Got the lab?” she asked, without bothering to say hello.

  With a sigh, Lauren pulled out her notebook and handed it to Stacy. “You realize this is blackmail, right?” she said.

  Stacy smiled sweetly, her pink lip gloss sparkling in the morning sun. “I prefer to think of it as a mutually beneficial arrangement.” She moved back to the back of the bus again, leaving Lauren alone, seething quietly.

  Lauren and Charlotte had gym together, second period.

  “So, yeah. Aunt Marina says the card is nothing to worry about,” said Lauren as she and Charlotte sat side by side on the bench, tying their sneakers.

  “I know this is going to sound silly, but that’s reassuring in a weird way,” said Charlotte. “I’m not, like, superstitious or anything, but with my dad away and all, I just don’t need any bad luck right now.”

  Lauren smiled. She didn’t say anything about the terrible dream she’d had last night. Why worry Charlotte? “Yeah, it’s silly to be superstitious,” agreed Lauren. “This is like feeling guilty about breaking a chain e-mail. I always delete those things right away.”

  “Me too,” said Charlotte, although from the way Charlotte looked away quickly, Lauren wasn’t sure if she was being completely truthful.

  “You want the card back, or should I just toss it?” asked Lauren.

  “I guess you can give it back,” said Charlotte. “It’s kind of cool-looking. I can use it as a bookmark.”

  Lauren rummaged around in her bag. “Huh. That’s funny. It’s not in here. Sorry, I guess I must have lost it.”

  “No big deal,” said Charlotte, standing up.

  “Let’s move along, ladies!” called Ms. Behr, poking her head into the locker room. “We’re starting basketball today!”

  Charlotte and Lauren both groaned.

  Stacy came dashing into the locker room seconds after the second bell had rung. “Sorry, Ms. Behr!” she called. “I was helping Ms. Monti make a collection for the clothing drive and lost track of time!”

  Ms. Behr frowned at Stacy. “You know how I feel about liars. Now hustle up and join us in the gym when you are ready.” She left the locker room.

  Stacy’s mouth gaped open like a fish. “What’s with her today?” she asked her friends, who were waiting for her to change. “She always buys my lame excuses. Every teacher does.”

  Ava shook her head. “All the teachers love you,” she said. “Who knows why the old bear’s growling today.”

  Charlott
e and Lauren looked at each other and smiled just a little. It was nice to see Stacy admonished in front of everyone. A change from the way teachers usually fawned all over her.

  “All right, everyone! We’ll start with the fundamentals,” called Ms. Behr when the girls were all assembled in the gym. “First a free throw contest! Form teams of four! Keep track of your shots! The team with the fewest free throws runs two laps!”

  Charlotte and Lauren teamed up with Gwen and Allie, who were also terrible basketball players. Stacy, Maddy, Katie, and Ava immediately formed a team. They were the best athletes in the grade.

  “Wow, you guys,” said Gwen to Charlotte and Lauren after they’d each taken their turn. “When did you both become such good shooters? You each made eight out of ten shots!”

  Charlotte laughed. “Beginner’s luck?”

  Lauren shook her head. “No idea.”

  Lauren and Charlotte’s team came in second place. Stacy’s team came in last.

  “I thought they were all good basketball players,” Charlotte murmured to Lauren, as the rest of the class watched Stacy’s team run two laps. Stacy glowered at them as she passed by.

  Lauren shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe Stacy’s having a little bad luck today. And from the looks she keeps giving us, you’d think it was all our fault.”

  “Here’s your notebook back,” said Stacy to Lauren after lunch that day. The second bell hadn’t yet rung as kids filed into science.

  Lauren took the notebook and then did a double take, staring at Stacy’s face. “What happened?” asked Lauren.

  “Thanks for pointing it out,” Stacy said sarcastically. “If you must know, I seem to have had an allergic reaction to something. It must have started during gym class, because why else would I miss so many shots?” With a toss of her head, she continued to her desk.

  Ms. Monti was writing the lab partners on the board. With a combination of thrill and horror, Lauren saw that she was paired with Peter Clark. She’d had a secret crush on him since the first day of school. Along with every other seventh-grade girl. She could feel Stacy glaring at her from a few desks away, but she refused to look.

  Lauren and Peter sat down next to each other.

  “I hear you’re a science whiz,” said Peter, nudging her with his elbow.

  Lauren could feel herself blushing. “Well, my dad’s a scientist so I guess it rubbed off a little or whatever.” She smiled at him.

  Zing!

  A rubber band flew off her braces and hit Stacy, two lab tables away, in the arm.

  Lauren’s face immediately flushed. She tried to die of embarrassment right on the spot, but couldn’t.

  Stacy whirled around to see what had hit her arm. She saw Lauren staring at her and their eyes locked. Lauren looked away quickly, only to see Peter staring at her from the other direction, a look of disgust and amusement on his face.

  Ms. Monti clapped her hands to get their attention. “For today’s lab, each group needs to transfer fruit flies carefully into their own vial. Watch me, so you learn how.”

  The class watched her take the vial full of fruit flies and tap it gently on the counter. Then she quickly removed the foam stopper on the vial, placed a new vial over the old one, turned it upside down, and gently tapped a few flies into the new one before recapping both vials. “Do it carefully now,” she cautioned.

  Two by two, teams of lab partners tapped out their own supply of fruit flies and then passed the vial filled with fruit flies to the next pair.

  “You want to try it?” Peter said to Lauren, after Stacy had passed them the vial teeming with the tiny fruit flies. “I’m nervous about making the transfer.”

  “It’s easy,” scoffed Lauren. “I’ve done it loads of times at my dad’s lab.” She picked up the vial. “See, you just move it over the other vial and tap it like this, and then—”

  Several flies suddenly flew toward her face, startling her. “Oh!” she said, and dropped the vial on the counter. She had thought the connection she’d made between the vial was secure. So how could flies have escaped from it?

  The vial rolled off the desk and bounced onto the floor, dislodging the cap at the other end as well.

  A swarm of fruit flies rose up in a small, dark cloud as they all escaped from both ends of the vial and zoomed around the classroom.

  Several girls screamed. Lots of people ducked for cover under their lab desks. Even Ms. Monti looked dismayed as she picked up a set of papers she’d been grading to whap away at the swarm of flies.

  “Open the window!” she called. “Try to fan them in that direction!”

  And chaos ensued for the next several minutes.

  Chapter 8

  “I heard about science,” said Charlotte, as she and Lauren stood side by side at their lockers between social studies and last period. “Sounds rough.”

  Lauren groaned. “How did you hear so fast?”

  “News like that travels fast. And besides, there seem to be flies all over the school. I saw one bobbing around in the library.”

  “I have no idea how that happened. I just wasn’t expecting any flies, and then they flew in my face and I guess it startled me so much I—” She groaned again. “And in front of Peter Clark, too!”

  A fruit fly flew lazily past them, then continued down the hallway.

  Charlotte suppressed a grin. Poor Lauren. She would never live this one down. They’d be calling her Fruit Fly until high school graduation.

  “Not one of my better moments,” said Lauren, shoving a notebook into her locker and rummaging around for her Spanish book. “It was—hey! Look. Here’s that tarot card of yours I thought I lost. I guess it must have been shoved inside my science notebook all day, the one that I loaned to Stacy. Still want it?”

  Charlotte shrugged. “Sure. I guess so.” She took the card from Lauren and stuck it into her own bag.

  Stacy walked by with Ava and Maddy. “Great going in science today, Laur-Laur,” she said in a singsongy voice. “Good thing it wasn’t a spider lab.”

  Ava and Maddy both cracked up.

  “Thanks, Stacy,” said Lauren drily. “Appreciate your sympathy.”

  “Next time, be more careful and make sure the cap on the bottom of the vial is fully on. Always good to check,” said Stacy over her shoulder, and the three girls continued on their way.

  “You don’t think—,” said Charlotte.

  “I wonder—,” said Lauren.

  They’d both spoken at the same time. They both looked at each other.

  “Do you think Stacy rigged the vial like that on purpose?” asked Lauren, staring at Charlotte in disbelief. “Of course the stopper could have come free from the force of the fall from the table to the floor, but it seemed to pop off so easily, and that’s why so many fruit flies escaped. Stacy’s the one who handed it to me. Maybe she fixed it so it looked like the stopper was in, but maybe it really wasn’t.”

  Charlotte blinked at her. “Why would she do that?”

  Lauren shrugged. “No clue. She’s already blackmailing me for my notes.” She told Charlotte about the compromising video Stacy had taken on the bus.

  “It’s hard to know for sure, I guess,” said Charlotte.

  Lauren shook her head slowly back and forth. “I guess I’ve had quite a bit of bad luck today.” She told Charlotte about the rubber band flying off her braces and hitting Stacy. “That was bad enough, but did it have to happen in front of Peter Clark?” Lauren’s face got hot with humiliation just thinking about it.

  Charlotte shook her head and patted her friend’s shoulder sympathetically. But there was an uneasy feeling beginning to creep and crawl through her thoughts.

  When she got home that afternoon, the twins were still furious with Charlotte about the pink uniforms. Their mom had put them through the wash twice that day, with several different kinds of
bleaching detergents, and they were slightly better, but you could still see the pink tint.

  “The guys are calling us Pink One and Pink Two,” said Jon, when Charlotte walked in Wednesday afternoon.

  “Even the other team was laughing at us,” said Tom.

  Charlotte apologized to them again. “I’m really sorry, guys,” she said.

  That night, as Charlotte was in her room doing her homework, she got a text. The number was unfamiliar. She opened it up.

  I told you to pass the card along. Do it, or darkness will descend on you.

  Her entire body jolted as though it had been shocked. She pressed her glasses more closely toward the bridge of her nose and stared at the text. Should she ignore it? Was it someone at school playing a joke on her? But who knew about the card?

  Her mind began rapidly calculating. Lauren, of course, knew about the card. But she would never play a mean trick like this. Would she? Who else knew about it? Stacy had seen the card during homeroom yesterday. But she would have no way of knowing about the message written across the back. Lauren’s Aunt Marina? Impossible and ridiculous.

  Charlotte studied the phone number attached to the text. It had thirteen digits. Was that some kind of mistake? Phone numbers usually had ten digits, not thirteen. She went over to her computer and plugged the sequence into a search engine, hoping that it would reveal the phone number’s owner. But nothing came up that would indicate that this was even a phone number, let alone who it belonged to.

  Charlotte called Lauren. She answered right away.

  “What’s up, Char? Found a fruit fly in your backpack and calling to complain? You’ll have to wait your turn.”

  “No, I . . .” Charlotte hesitated.

  “What’s the matter? You okay?”

  “I’m fine. Did you just send me a text by any chance?”

  “Me? No. Why?”

  “I just got a weird text. From a weird number. It was about the card. I just wondered.”

  “Are you still freaking out about the dumb card, Charlotte? I never had you pegged as a superstitious type. Why don’t you just toss it if it’s freaking you out so much?”