CHAPTER 28

First thing Sunday morning I faked an upset stomach and left Romy’s. She seemed a little down, but I let her keep the last season of Ivy Springs, which cheered her up. Instead of home, I headed for the library. Unfortunately, Ideal’s library wasn’t exactly the best resource, and I quickly saw why Mom had needed to drive three towns over to get her books. Looking for anything on “hedge magic” only got me a bunch of volumes on how to grow hedges. Thinking of Dex’s horrible lawn, I wondered if I should check one out for Nana. Then I remembered that everything between me and Dex was kind of awful right now. Besides, I had the case to focus on.

That night, Mom and I went back to that Chinese place, and I told her I was ready to leave. She raised her eyebrows. “Case closed?”

“Almost,” I said. I still hadn’t figured out how to stop Romy. Part of me wondered if I could just talk to her like…like a friend. Or maybe sneak a fake article into American Teen that said something like, “Why Hedge Magic and Raising Ghosts Is So Last Year!”

By Monday, I still hadn’t found anything. Dex had saved me a seat on the bus like usual, but he was very careful not to sit too close to me. I think both of us were relieved when Romy turned around and started telling Dex about her and Anderson’s night.

“And there was salt, like, everywhere,” she said, pushing her glasses up. “I mean, that was all we saw, but that has to mean something, right?”

Dex made a sort of choked laugh that he quickly turned into a cough. Romy’s brow furrowed. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just… Anyway, Izzy, why don’t you fill Romy in on our night?”

“She already did,” Romy said, barely suppressing a smile. She winked at me, and I wanted to be able to wink back so badly. Instead, I reached into my pocket. “I left out a part. We also found this.” Before leaving the cave Friday night, I’d searched the floor for that heart charm. I pulled it out of my pocket now.

Romy plucked the charm from my hand, a weird expression on her face. As she studied it, I studied her. “Have you seen it before?”

Startled, she raised her head. “I have a charm kind of like this, but it doesn’t look all blackened and stuff.” She handed it back to me. “Maybe it belonged to Mary.”

I don’t know what I’d expected. Not for her to be like, “Oh, right, this is mine! I did some kind of freaky spell at that cave, and whoops! Now we’re plagued by ghosts.” But I’d thought she’d show a little more reaction than that. If anything, she just seemed kind of confused.

We had a test in English and a freaking relay race in P.E., so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her any more that morning. Then she didn’t show up at lunch, so I made up my mind to talk to her during history, only to find out class wasn’t meeting because there was a pep rally for the basketball team. There had been, like, eight in the first season of Ivy Springs, but I’d never actually been to one. And I have to admit, my curiosity to see what an actual pep rally looked like almost outweighed my need to know what was up with Romy.

The gym was already full by the time we got there, but Romy and Anderson had saved a couple of places at the very top of the bleachers, just like the night of the basketball game. Dodging other kids, Dex and I carefully made our way up there. At one point, I nearly stumbled and he reached out, catching my hand. It was the first time we’d touched since the cave, and the feel of his hand on mine made me remember his lips on mine, his hands on my back. But the instant I had righted myself, Dex dropped my hand.

It was for the best. Really. Dex and I couldn’t be together, not like that. And I wouldn’t be at the school for much longer. The less I had to miss, the better.

Once we reached the top of the bleachers, I sat by Romy, and Dex went over beside Anderson. Even with two people between us, I was so aware of him my skin felt charged.

Trying to take my mind off of that, I nodded down at the gym floor. “So what exactly is going to happen?” I asked Romy.

She turned to me, surprised. “You’ve seriously never been to a pep rally?”

“They, uh, didn’t do them at my old school. We didn’t have sports.” I was too distracted to sound sincere, but Romy didn’t seem to notice.

“Okay, well, basically, it’s a stupid and pointless ritual wherein we all cheer for our stupid, pointless basketball team. We’ll shout some stuff, the cheerleaders will do a dance, and then the mascot will come out and we’ll shout some more.”

“That sounds…dumb.”

Romy nodded. “It is. Intensely. But it’s better than history, I guess.”

At that, the basketball team, all wearing their warm-up suits, jogged out into the gym and everyone started hooting and clapping like these weren’t the same guys we saw every single day. About half the kids in the bleachers even leapt to their feet, but since Romy, Anderson, and Dex all stayed seated, so did I.

The band started up, and I saw Adam on the very edge, playing his drum. I’d kept a close eye on him since the locker thing, but so far there had been no sign of Mary. I wasn’t even sure what she was planning for him. Snyder had gotten the frog with the bashed-in head, signaling that he was about to get his head bashed in. Beth had gotten the mangled Barbie a few days before she was nearly hit by a car. Adam had gotten an explosion. A month ago, I would have said a ghost making someone blow up was pretty much impossible, but if Mary could wield a killer microscope and manipulate a car, what was to stop her from sending Adam sky high? Still, I wondered how she was going to manage that, exactly?

Dex leaned closer to Anderson. I heard him murmur something, and all thoughts of Adam were forgotten.

Maybe I could try to talk to Dex on the bus. Tell him…I don’t know, I’d lied about not having a boyfriend. And then I’d felt guilty about the kiss, and that’s why I’d spazzed out. He was probably too smart to buy that, but it was worth a try. God, why were boys so complicated? I suddenly wished I had a ghost to fight right that second. Or a vampire. A werewolf. Heck, I’d even take a gollum, no matter how messy killing one was. Anything to make me feel like me again.

I sat there brooding through the rest of the pep rally. It worked pretty much exactly like Romy had said, and I had nearly tuned it out by the time the giant hedgehog rushed onto the court.

On the other side of Romy and Anderson, Dex snorted, and in that moment I wanted nothing more than to be sitting beside him, hearing whatever snarky comments he undoubtedly made about the mascot.

I hadn’t realized I was staring at him until he turned his head and looked at me. Romy and Anderson were talking, their heads close together, but for a second it was like there wasn’t anyone but me and Dex. A little smile drifted across his face, and just when I was thinking about returning it, there was a shout from the gym floor.

The hedgehog was wheeling out a big “cannon.” As one of the cheerleaders handed him a sparkler, I leaned over and asked Romy, “What’s the deal with that?”

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, this is the big finale every time. He pretends to light the fuse, and then it shoots out glitter and confetti while we all ooh and ahh and pretend he hasn’t done it a million times. On the upside, it means this stupid pep rally is almost over.”

“So it’s not a real cannon?” I asked.

Romy shook her head. “Nope. Just an air cannon.”

“But…” I leaned forward. “It looks like a real one. Like that one that’s outside the front of the school.”

The hedgehog took the sparkler as the student body stomped their feet, chanting, “M! E! H! S!” He lit the fuse, and it kindled, smoking.

I sat up straighter. “Did he just really light that?”

Squinting, Romy peered down. “Huh. Yeah. Maybe this is a new part of the routine.”

But the cheerleader who’d handed the mascot the sparkler was staring at the fuse in confusion. Then she started backing up, saying something over her shoulder to one of the other cheerleaders. And the hedgehog, suddenly looking a lot more malevolent than I’d ever thought a hedgehog could, pushed on the barrel of the cannon until it was pointing straight at the band. Or, more specifically, straight at Adam. I saw him drop his drumsticks, face wrinkling in confusion. A group of kids cheered, obviously expecting glitter and confetti, like Romy had said.

Shooting to my feet, I tried to make my way down the bleachers, but I was too high up and there were too many people. Distantly, I heard Dex call my name, but I was too busy trying to get to the floor.

One of the cheerleaders was shouting and pointing at the cannon, and I heard a chorus of shrieks go up from the gym floor. I wasn’t going to make it.

But then, a basketball player darted from the first row of the bleachers, throwing all his weight onto the cannon. The sound its wheels made on the hardwood was awful, but the deafening boom that followed was much, much worse.

Thanks to the basketball player, the explosion pounded into the far wall of the gym instead of Adam—and all the kids within fifty feet of him. But it didn’t matter. Everything descended into complete pandemonium as kids screamed at and shoved each other, trying to get off the bleachers and out of the gym. I hung on to the railing, inching down the side of the bleachers. Down on the floor, one of the basketball players was holding the hedgehog’s arms behind its back as another boy reached up and tugged the mascot’s head off.

The suit was empty.

As the boy holding the head staggered back, the suit slid through the other player’s arms, pooling onto the floor.

I only thought there had been panic before. The screaming got louder, people started shoving harder, and the entire building seemed to quake.

Fear—thick, choking waves of it—rushed through the gym. More than fear, really. Terror. Horror. Dread. All of it pulsing in the air, and somewhere, I knew, Mary Evans was getting stronger.

Much stronger.