Maria faced the front of the class with a smile.
Let them wonder, she thought. Let them feel like outcasts for a change.
“So I’ve decided we should go to Claire’s party,” Maria said at lunch. It was true, she had decided this, but at the moment she was trying mainly to get Derek’s attention. He’d been staring at his food, hardly saying a word. He looked like Rafi had once when he’d gotten food poisoning.
“I thought we weren’t invited,” Derek said, almost bored.
“Well, I wasn’t. I mean, I’m still not. I’ve decided I want to crash Claire’s party.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Derek held the same silver dollar from earlier in the week. He gripped it in his right hand like he was afraid he might drop it.
“Is everything okay?” Maria asked, though she felt weird saying it. Usually in their friendship, he was the one who made sure she was okay.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I just don’t understand why you’d want to go to a party where you’re not wanted.”
He didn’t sound like Derek at all.
“I heard about a special surprise that was happening, and I thought it might be fun to see.”
“Heard where?”
“Um, from Claire? In English? Or maybe Rob told me. I can’t remember.”
Clearly, Derek didn’t believe her. “Does this ‘surprise’ have anything to do with your magic ring?” he said. She did her best to keep her face totally blank.
“No,” she lied. “Rob spent the night with Rafi last night, and he said this thing about … Never mind. Forget I said anything.”
“Are you still going to bring it by my dad’s shop?” Derek said, ignoring her outburst. “Grandma Esme’s ring?”
“If I do, will you start acting normal?” Maria snapped.
Derek seemed like he was about to snap right back, but then thought better of it.
“Yes,” he said. “I mean, sorry. It’s been weird not having you at school this week. I’ve been worrying about you and that ring. And now you show up in this fancy dress, saying you want to go to Claire McCormick’s birthday party? It just doesn’t seem like you.”
If Maria had been surprised before, this sudden role reversal really caught her off guard.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’m still the same Maria. And if that stops being true, you’ll be the first to know.”
Derek nodded. He spun the silver dollar on the table, and he and Maria watched it until it finally wobbled and fell on its side, heads up.
“I’ll have my mom bring me by the shop after dinner,” Maria said.
“And then, if you really still want to, we can go crash Claire’s party.”
“Really?”
“Really. I wouldn’t want to miss this special surprise.”
Maria smiled. “If it’s half as good as Rob said, you’ll never forget it.”
Maria had no problem convincing her mom to take her to the shop, in yet another dress she claimed to have gotten from Grandma Esme. After what her mother had said last night about wanting them all to enjoy life, Maria probably could have asked for the car keys and driven herself.
With a quick call to Derek’s parents to let them know they were on the way, Maria and her mother hopped in the car and drove to the historic downtown district. Maria loved this part of town, over by the railroad tracks. You could still see the original brick roads peeking out where there were holes in the asphalt, and the old-timey streetlamps looked as if they could be powered by gas. Maria liked to picture the people who would have shopped here when it was the only place to go, before there were cars and outlet malls.
“Derek’s dad said he’d bring you home when you’re ready,” Mom said. “Have fun.”
Maria walked up to the front door of the shop, sandwiched in between two large display windows. There were a few new items since the last time Maria had been here. An eerie porcelain doll sat on a rocking horse with chipped paint. Maria couldn’t imagine anyone in this town buying either item, but you never knew. Sometimes the most ordinary people liked the strangest things.
It was five o’clock now, which meant the shop would be open for another hour. Derek’s family usually hung around after closing on Friday nights, though, checking inventory and setting up displays for the weekend shoppers. Saturday was a busy day for the historic district.
The old cowbell above the door clunked as Maria entered.
“Well, look who it is, dressed all nice to see us,” Mr. Overton called from behind the counter. He stepped out to meet her by the front tables. “I’m so glad you’re here. We just got in a necklace this morning that made me think of you.” He reached out his hand as if to pat her on the shoulder, but then, so fast she could hardly see it, he’d clasped the necklace around her neck. It was a string of black and purple rocks with little silver beads in between.
“Wow,” Maria said, “it’s so pretty. But there’s no way I could afford this, even with the family discount.”
“Are you kidding?” Derek’s dad said. “This beautiful necklace was clearly made special to go with this beautiful dress. Let’s call it a gift.”
It was true, the match was perfect.
“Oh, Mr. Overton, my mom would never let me accept this.”
“Please,” he said, waving his hand like it was nothing. “Besides, those look like gemstones, but they’re really just colored rocks. I couldn’t sell it for more than twenty dollars.”
“All right, then,” Maria said, laughing. “Thank you.” Fake rocks or not, it was still the third-nicest gift anyone had ever given her.
“Derek’s downstairs,” Mr. Overton said, nodding to the door in the back that led to the basement. “And do me a favor when you see him? Tell him to lighten up.”
So Maria wasn’t the only one who’d noticed Derek’s recent mood swings. That made her feel a little bit better, and a whole lot worse.
“Will do,” she said, making her way through the maze of display tables.
She descended the steps to the cavernous basement. All the buildings in the historic district had these carved-out, cave-like spaces beneath them. They were never open to the public because the sandy Florida soil made them a little unstable. Nowadays, it was rare to find a basement in any Florida building at all.
The Overtons used their basement for the antiques they were still polishing, painting, or otherwise restoring. Maria always thought it looked like a dragon’s horde down here. The old mirrors scattered around only added to the effect, multiplying the space and the treasure infinitely.
“Derek? Are you down here?” Maria called out at the bottom of the stairs.
“Maria!” Derek said, appearing from behind a bookcase with the sound of crashing objects trailing in his wake. He held an old clock in one hand and a wrench in the other, and he was scratching at his neck as if he’d just hit it on something. “What are you doing here so early? I thought you weren’t coming over until after dinner.”
“Mom had such a busy day she forgot to eat lunch, so we ate an early dinner. We called fifteen minutes ago to say we were on the way.”
“My dad didn’t tell me.”
“Oh. Well, sorry. Do you want me to go?” She said it jokingly, but Derek hurt her feelings by actually seeming to consider. “Your dad says you should lighten up, by the way.”
Derek frowned. Then he asked, “Did you bring Grandma Esme’s ring?”
“It’s my ring now, and yes, I did. Just like I promised. Any moment now, you’re going to stop acting weird, just like you promised.”
Derek looked around skittishly.
“You’re right,” he said, scratching his neck again. “It’s just, I thought you were coming later.”
“Well, Claire’s party starts in less than an hour, so …”
They stood there staring at each other, as if they were having an argument instead of a conversation between friends. For the life of her, Maria couldn’t figure out what the argument was.
&nb
sp; “So did you want to show my ring to your dad? See if he can tell us anything?”
“No, that’s okay,” Derek said. “Aunt Luellen is the one with all the jewelry knowledge, and she’s out right now.”
“Why would Aunt Luellen know anything about jewelry?”
“She’s an appraiser. That’s what she does in New York, and all over the world. She works for one of those big auction houses, telling them how much to sell things for. Stuff that’s a lot more valuable than anything around here.”
“I like the stuff here,” Maria said, her hand going to the rock necklace at her neck. Now she knew something was really wrong with her best friend. The Derek she knew would never insult his family’s shop. “Well, is your aunt getting back before Claire’s party?”
“I don’t know,” Derek said. “She left to go see her friend again. She didn’t say when she was coming back.”
“Okay, then,” Maria said, feeling increasingly exasperated. She nodded to the wrench in Derek’s hand. “What are you working on?”
“This? It’s nothing. Just fixing up an old clock. Come on, do you want to head upstairs and walk around outside? I feel like I’ve been in this basement forever.”
Maria couldn’t agree more. She followed Derek around the piles of antiques back toward the stairs, but jerked his arm suddenly when she saw a spiderweb in their path.
“Whoa, what gives?” he said, rubbing his arm.
“You almost walked right into that web.”
“Oh, wow. I didn’t even see it.”
He leaned in to take a closer look at the web just as Maria located the spider that had made it. The spider was looking right at her, but she could still see its body, and its bloodred hourglass.
“Derek, don’t!” she exclaimed. “That’s a black widow spider. Their bites are poisonous.”
Derek jumped away.
“Jeez. Thanks, M. Now I really think it’s time to go.”
He grabbed her hand and started to lead her around the web. It was strange, she thought, that he didn’t at least want to cut the thing down.
“Derek, wait.”
“Seriously? You want to stay down here with a poisonous spider?”
“It’s just … if a black widow bites you, my mom says you can go thirty whole minutes before you feel it. I noticed you scratching your neck earlier. Do you think the spider could have already bitten you?”
“What? No way. I’m fine, Maria. But I might not be if we stay down here a second longer.”
“Do you want me to take a look at your neck?”
“I said I’m fine.”
“All right, all right,” Maria said. She didn’t want to be down here another moment, either, with the black widow spider she could swear had been watching her. She let Derek pull her up the stairs that led back to the shop. She waved helplessly to Mr. Overton as Derek gave him a very gruff good-bye, mumbling that they were going to grab root beer floats at the old-fashioned pharmacy down the block.
Outside, the sun was just beginning to set, the pinks and reds reaching out to them like fire filtered through a gemstone. Maria remembered what her mom had said about old people who got more confused as the sun went down. Could it happen to young people, too? Would Derek be warning her about lurking enemies next?
And if being confused was the first sign of something worse, would Maria be able to save him, the way she hadn’t been able to save Grandma Esme?
Distance from the shop seemed to do Derek good. Root beer floats seemed to do him even better. By the time his float was a creamy soda at the bottom of a tall glass, Derek was almost back to his chipper self.
“So remind me what the plan is for Claire’s party?” he said, raising his voice in a question at the end. “We’re just going to walk up and act like we’re totally welcome there? Won’t that be really unpleasant for you?”
“It would be unpleasant, which is why we’re not going to do that. We’re going to sneak around the entrance by the lake and hide behind Claire’s pool house until the ‘surprise’ happens.”
Derek’s eyes widened. He coughed on the last sip of root beer float.
“You’re joking.”
“What?” Maria said. “I’ve been over there with Rafi before. I know my way around. And we won’t have to be there for very long.”
“Oh, well, that makes the thought of trespassing on Claire’s property so much better.”
“Come on, Derek. Please? You know you want to see Claire get what she deserves.”
“You still haven’t told me what that is, exactly.”
“I told you, it’s a surprise.”
“If you want me to come with you, you at least have to give me a hint.”
“Fine,” Maria said, sipping the last of her own float. She tried to think of the best way to put this. “Let’s just say you and I won’t be the only unexpected guests at the party.”
Maria hadn’t been lying when she’d said she’d been here before, to the narrow gravel driveway that led around the McCormicks’ lake. But that had been in the daytime, in her mother’s jeep, dropping Rafi off. She hadn’t been trying to walk on uneven rocks in a fancy dress that time, shivering in the cold. She also hadn’t paid any attention to the forks in the path.
“Are you sure it was supposed to be a left back there?” Derek whispered. Maria didn’t have the heart to tell him they had a while yet before he needed to be quiet.
“Pretty sure.”
“Are we almost there?”
“Yup, almost,” she replied, deciding to sound more confident than she felt.
“I don’t think my dad believed me when I said we were walking back home. Do you?”
“I thought he did,” Maria said. “Why else would he have let us leave on our own?”
“Because he feels sorry for you.”
“Oh.” The syllable fell out of her mouth like a heavy, dead thing.
“No, I mean, because of … this week.”
“I know what you meant,” she said. Her voice was clipped.
“Well, either way, as long as we make it back in an hour, we should be good. Is the surprise supposed to happen before then?”
“I think so. And if not, I’m sure that could be arranged.”
“Okay. I’ve got my phone just in case we run late.”
“We might need to use it as a flashlight soon.”
It was a few minutes past six thirty, and the last hints of sunlight had vanished into the February air. When she thought Derek wasn’t looking, Maria slipped the ring out of her clutch purse and slid it onto her finger. If you’re listening, she thought, please show us the way before we get lost.
The familiar warmth of the ring was welcome in the chill, and Maria sensed the spiders before she saw them. It was as if the blades of grass at her feet weren’t tiny but massive, quaking with the vibrations stirred by the creatures’ approach. Her eyes went right to them — two, then a few, then a multitude of spiders, weaving and scuttling through the grass and the leaves.
She tried to follow them without being too obvious. She didn’t want Derek to know the full extent of the ring’s powers, for reasons she couldn’t fully explain. She used to feel like she could trust him with anything.
When they came to the next fork, Maria eyed the line of shiny silver spiders at her feet and said to Derek, “It’s a right here. I’m positive this time.”
Sure enough, after they cleared one final bend around a corner of trees, they could see the lights of the pool house and the house beyond it. The spiders veered off into the woods beside them. They must have decided Maria didn’t need them anymore, now that she could see where she was going. But when Maria peered into the trees, she could swear she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her, hovering in the shadows, beckoning for her to follow.
“Come on, Maria,” Derek said, standing at her side. “What are you looking at?”
The eyes were gone, although Maria hadn’t sensed any movement. Maybe she’d imagined them after all.
Maria and Derek hurried up behind the pool house. Really, it was more like a poolside house, small only in relation to the McCormicks’ mansion on the other side of the yard. There was even a little kitchen visible through the back window. Pressing her face against that window and peering through to the front, Maria could see the large mass of kids from school, crowded on a glass dance floor over the pool, just as Claire had promised. A few people danced, but mostly people stood around in clumps, like they were at a dance in the school gym. The blue glow from the pool and a string of lights overhead made everyone look like they were underwater. The effect was dazzling.
“I think we might be the only kids in our grade not at this party,” Derek said.
For a frightening moment, Maria couldn’t breathe. The sight of everyone she knew having such a good time without her struck her like a punch in the stomach when she wasn’t ready. She had known in her head that Claire didn’t like her, and it had been easy to say that she didn’t care. But this felt like a real, physical pain — one she couldn’t control with words. What had she done to deserve this? Nothing, that’s what. Claire was a mean girl, end of story.
“You okay?” Derek asked.
“Sure,” Maria said, breathing in, then out, the way Grandma Esme had taught her to do during yoga. “I’m getting more and more excited to see the surprise.”
But when Maria scanned the crowd for Claire, she found her standing off to one side, not smiling or talking to anyone in particular. She actually looked a little nervous, as if after working so hard to plan the perfect party, Claire had no energy left to enjoy the party itself. The playlist she’d made echoed over four speakers surrounding the mass of guests. It looked like people were having a hard time hearing one another.
“Honestly, it doesn’t seem all that fun,” Derek said, echoing her thoughts. It was almost revenge enough to know that Claire’s perfect party wasn’t so perfect after all. But only almost. Because Maria had a feeling that come Monday, Claire would somehow remember that the party had been amazing — that Maria had missed out on the time of her life — and she would bully everyone else into remembering the same thing.
The Spider Ring Page 6