Haunted Waters (17 page)

Chapter 63

I ate lunch in a corner of the hallway
where I thought nobody would see me. Skeeter, who has always had a thing for Ashley, finally came up and asked why I was hiding. I shrugged.

He rolled his eyes. “I get it. Boo’s still after you.”

“Keep it down,” I said, glancing down the hall.

“There’s no hiding,” Skeeter said. “He’s going to get you one way or another. And if he wants those four-wheelers of yours, he’ll get them.”

“No way,” I said. “If you don’t stand up to somebody like Boo, he’ll walk over you your whole life.”

“I’d rather be walked over than dead.” He leaned forward. “Plus, I’m scared that you and Ashley are going to get hurt.”

I wanted to tell Skeeter about the reservoir. I heard people talk about the stolen gold and could hardly hold my tongue.

When the tests were over for the day, I went to gym class and changed in the locker room.

The gym teacher, Mr. Baldwin, had set up an obstacle course, and we spent the period clocking our best speeds around hurdles, rings, and obstructions. We had to crawl through one enclosed area, run down the balance beam (which nobody could do), do push-ups and chin-ups, make a layup, jump the pommel horse, and run a lap around the gym.

In every class I’ve ever been in, there’s always one kid who is the biggest and clumsiest. At Red Rock Middle School, that guy is Chuck Burly. He’s the funniest kid in school, but he’s also the fattest. His face is always puffy and red, and he kind of hobbles when he walks, like he’s carrying a piano. I was cheering for him as he ran through the gym when I saw two people sneak into the boys’ locker room. From the back it looked like Boo, who usually wore a jean jacket, but I wasn’t sure.

Chuck couldn’t clear the hurdles, so he just jumped high enough to knock them over and kept going. He stepped on the balance beam, and I held my breath. Usually people fall right off, but Chuck scooted sideways, and when he hit the floor with a boom at the end of the beam everybody gave it up, clapping for him. He got stuck in the crawling thing, so Mr. Baldwin stopped the timer and moved it wider.

In the end, Chuck had the slowest time of the whole class, but he was the only one who got all the way across the beam without falling.

The bell rang and I slapped his sweaty back. “Sure looked good out there today.”

Chuck smiled. “Slow but sure. Give all the credit to my new eating plan. It’s called the seafood diet.”

“The seafood diet?”

“Whatever food I see, I eat.”

I had the feeling he told those kinds of jokes on himself so no one else would.

Chuck stopped laughing as we entered the locker room. My backpack lay in the middle of the floor, my books strewn around the place. One sock hung from a fluorescent light and another floated in the toilet. My pants were tied in several knots. Tight. Boo couldn’t have done this without help.

Coach Baldwin came in and looked the place over. “Timberline, in my office. Now.”

Chapter 64

I was heading to my next-to-last class,
wondering what Mom would say about my talk with Hayley, when someone blocked my path. Somebody big. At first I thought it was a teacher, but when I saw the dirty jean jacket, I knew.

“Hey, Timber girl,” Boo said with a sneer. “Tell your brother I’ll be waiting for him outside after school. I saw you drove your precious little four-wheelers today, right?”

I figured it was none of his business, so I said nothing. I didn’t even nod. I don’t like anyone making fun of my last name—certainly not Boo.

“Left him a little reminder in gym, but don’t forget to tell him—” Boo leaned down, and I could smell cheeseburger on his breath—“or I’ll knock all that metal on your teeth down your throat.”

I let Boo pass. I’d learned that ignoring a bully was one of the best ways not to let him or her get to you. But this was a little hard to ignore.

Especially the part about knocking the metal down my throat.

Chapter 65

“Who did it?”
Coach Baldwin said. Baldwin was a good name for him because his head looked like a lightbulb with hair on the side. He was thin, stood about six feet tall, and had chest and abdominal muscles that reminded people of professional wrestlers.

“D-did what, sir?” I said.

He cocked his head. “You threw your own socks in the toilet and tied your pants in knots?”

I shook my head.

“Who did it?”

I told him who I thought might have.

Coach shook his head. “Need some help with Heckler?”

“I th-think I have it under c-control,” I said.

Coach smiled. “At least let me help you untie your pants.”

I was late to my last class, but Coach Baldwin wrote me a note. While Mrs. Ferguson went to the office and left us working on an essay, Ashley told me what Boo had said to her in the hall. That made me mad. Until now he hadn’t said much to her, but this changed things.

“Why don’t we tell the principal or Coach Baldwin about Boo’s e-mail?” Ashley said.

“Boo will just get us some other way,” I said. “We need to handle this ourselves.”

“Bryce, that’s crazy. The guy is twice as big as you. He makes the Hulk look like a weenie.”

“Ash, I have to stand up to him.”

“Your pride’s gonna get us killed.”

If I knew karate or had pepper spray or a stun gun it would be different.

My cell phone vibrated. I had a new text message.

Bryce,

You have what it takes. If you can escape those guys in Gold Town, you can show this Boo character what you’re made of.

Sam

Chapter 66

I followed Bryce out of our last class
with the feeling that Boo and his little friend might jump us any second. We stopped at our lockers and put our stuff away.

No Boo.

The bus kids sprinted outside. Some of the drivers went by their own clock, and if you didn’t make it on in time they shut the door. A few of our friends looked at us like we were about to walk the plank.

Outside the Colorado sun beat down. Mom boasted there were more than 300 days of sunshine each year, unlike Chicago where in the winter God threw a gray blanket over the sky and it didn’t come off until spring.

“Nice day to get beat up,” Bryce’s friend Duncan said as he passed.

“Thanks a lot,” I said. Duncan is cute and one of the best at sports in our whole class. I’m not sure he knows I exist, except that I’m Bryce’s sister.

We walked through the parking lot and over the little rise that led to Mrs. Watson’s house. I saw two people in the distance, between us and the barn.

“Wait up,” Skeeter called from behind us. He ran over to us, legs and arms swinging wildly.

“Skeeter, this isn’t your fight,” Bryce said.

He caught his breath and looked at me. “I know. But I didn’t want you to think you were all alone.”

Bryce patted his shoulder. “Thanks, but we need to do this on our own.”

Skeeter glanced at me. “You sure?”

I nodded and he walked back toward the school.

Bryce gripped one strap of his backpack as if trying to keep from falling overboard. “You ready?” he said.

“No.”

“Me either.”