* * * * *
I didn’t tell my mom about what had happened until the next day when I found her sitting in the living room. And I only mentioned the part where we went to the Kool Spot after school and saw Jerry’s new sign. Okay, I left out the whole toilet papering part. I had a feeling I might get grounded if I told her about the prank, because she’d busted me for all my other pranks. After I put rubber cement on Mr. Connolly’s chair back in the seventh grade, she confiscated my entire CD collection for a month. Not to mention I couldn’t leave the house for a week after letting all the air out of Gerald Salinger’s bike tires last summer (hey, he deserved it after throwing Ryan’s Darkworld deck down a sewer hole.) No way I’d get anything pretty for the toilet paper.
I didn’t mention the shadow people or the portal, either. No way she’d believe me about that one. Sure, I wanted to tell her all of it, but the words wouldn’t form in my mouth, and I wasn’t sure why.
My mom listened and flipped through her tabloid as I told her about how Jerry had declared me an enemy for no good reason. Her nose never left the paper. I guess she was reading the story on the front cover: Missy’s Argument With Blake: Second-by-Second Details Inside! Man, those people had no privacy.
“…and I wish he’d return my calls. I tried him eight times this morning,” I finished, blood roaring in my ears. Didn’t anyone care about this except me?
Finally she yawned and turned her little frame around on the couch. “Well, one bad apple ruins the bunch. Jerry’s been having some problems with a couple of kids. Those are his rules, and you’re just going to have to follow them.” She lowered her face back down to the tabloid. “That’s just the way things are.”
I couldn’t stop my big mouth. I should’ve known my mom wouldn’t care. She never did when it came to anything like this. “What? It’s OK he kicks everyone out of the Kool Spot? And stops even talking to me?”
“You hang out in that place too much, Rita.” She turned the page to reveal a bunch of actresses in gowns. Something about fashion. “You need to do other things. Why don’t you try out for volleyball this year? Or go shopping for clothes like…like normal girls do? Or—”
“Because that’s not me,” I interrupted before she got to the part about the cheer squad I refused to join. “I like drawing and art and video games and hanging out with people who share my interests.” Which is why I’m never here, I wanted to add. “That’s why I like Jerry’s company. He’s fun and I can be myself for once.”
A loaded silence fell across the living room: the boring cream walls, the fake flowers, and the fresh vacuum tracks in the carpet. Uh, oh.
But instead of an explosion like I usually got, my mom sighed and set the tabloid down on her lap. “You’re hopeless.”
“Geez, sorry I’m not just like you when you were younger.”
“Rita, you’re pushing it.” The edges of her voice told me it was almost eruption time.
My arms fell to my sides. That was it. I stomped outside and shut the door behind me before I yelled something at my mom that got me in trouble. We had zip in common, and she always let me know she resented it.
I felt ready to explode with it all. The one person I wanted to talk to the most—Jerry—wouldn’t even associate with me anymore, and my mom didn’t care about the injustice of it all. Just, why can’t you be like everyone else, Rita? I really couldn’t believe she was my mom sometimes. The two of us clashed on every possible level.
I raced down the stairs and towards my bike. I had to get to Penny’s house and help Ryan tell her about the shadow people. She’d be mad at him for the toilet papering thing and he might need backup. It beat stewing over what my mom said.
“Ouch!”
Pain surged through my foot like someone had jabbed a spear through the sole of my shoe. I lifted my foot. A huge rock sat right on the bottom step. And did I mention it was pointed, too?
I went to kick the thing off the step before anyone else got hurt, only to notice something sticking out from under it—a folded piece of bright blue paper.
I yanked up the paper and forgot all about the pain in my foot. Maybe Jerry had left me a note. My heart pounded with the anticipation. Maybe he still wanted to associate with me after all. Maybe he’d even tell me something about those shadow goons and maybe even about other worlds. The note nearly blew away as I unfolded it in my hands and held it up to the light.
The paper had a single line scrawled on it in bad handwriting. And I’m not talking chicken scratch, but doctor handwriting. Like whoever had written this note had been standing next to a ticking bomb or something.
After I turned the note upside down and right side up at least four times, I made out what it said. At least I thought I did.
Leave town and hide. Or you’re in danger.
Disappointment washed through me as my heart nearly burst from my chest. Leave town? This note—it was a threat. My head spun and I had to grab the railing to steady myself. Shadow people, portals, losing my cousin, and now threatening notes. No way. A harmless prank shouldn’t have led to this.
I decided I’d let Penny do most of the thinking. She was good at that. My brain felt like it had gone through a garbage disposal since last night, plus a storm of emotions tore through me. I lowered the note to stuff it in my pocket, but stopped short.
One of those shadow guys stood across the street.
My blood froze. Not literally, but it sure felt like it.
He stood there in his shadow jackboots and armor in broad daylight, between the neighbors’ garage and a huge pine tree. Now that it was light out, I had no more doubt about it: yes, this guy really was a living shadow. It looked as if someone had cut out a life-sized soldier from black construction paper and stood it up by the neighbors’ driveway.
He stared like a deer caught in headlights. Well, I think he was staring. It was hard to tell on shadow people.
Just then, I recognized him. It was the tall guy the shadow leader had jabbed his finger at last night. That didn’t make me feel any better.
Before I could run back into the house, slam the door, and dial 911, he whirled around and crashed into the woods behind the neighbors’ house. Twigs broke and branches slapped back into place as he made his getaway.
I stood, note in hand, breathing so loud the deaf must’ve heard it.