The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (14 page)

“You sure?” said Mom
reluctantly. “It’s not good to let things like this
continue.”

“It’ll be okay,” I
answered her in my usual calm and confident way. “All will be
fine.”

I knew my mom wanted to do
more, but for now I just wanted her to support me.

“Come on,” Mom stood up
and led the way to the kitchen. “The oatmeal is going to get cold.”
She grabbed my hand and yanked me along.

Eric was sitting in front
of his bowl half asleep, as I stopped and gave him a hug. “What’s
that for?” He struggled just to open one eye.

“Being the best big
brother a girl could have.” I pulled back and gave him a kiss on
the cheek.

A huge yawn escaped his
mouth, “You got it.”

Eric and I walked quietly
to the bus side by side without saying a word. We timed it just as
Judi pulled up with the bus at the stop.

“Good morning Judi,” I
smiled at her and walked up the bus stairs.

“Good morning Kati,” Judi
smiled. “Great to have you back.”

It was one of those
statements that could be taken many ways and I knew exactly what
Judi meant by it.

I walked down the aisle to
my seat without any care of cell phones, stickers, or whispering.
It was going to be a wonderful day.

It wasn’t long before
Allie, Oliver, Dan, and Jacob were all seated around me. They could
easily see there was something different about me today.

“Can you guys all meet me
Saturday morning out in front of the school at ten in the morning?”
I looked over at Jacob and winked. “I have something to show
you.”

Each of them either nodded
their heads or said they would be there except Allie. All of us
looked at her, wondering what was wrong.

“I usually watch over the
twins for my dad,” she looked disappointed.

Oliver started to say
something, but saw the look on my face and shut up.

“My mom died during the
summer,” Allie’s eyes looked down at her lap. “We moved here to be
closer to my dad’s sister. That’s all the family we have left. I
have to help around the house as much as I can.”

It was as if the air had
been let out of the bus. No one knew what to say.

I broke the awkward
silence, “Then we’ll just have to figure something out.” I nudged
her in the side, “Besides… you wouldn’t want to miss a ‘nuke em’
party would you?”

Allie broke out into a
huge grin all over her face, “No way!”

“Now let’s talk about
something really important,” whispered Oliver, “the
dance!”

Allie’s huge grin
disappeared in a flash, “I…” Her voice trailed off.

“Don’t know how to dance?”
interrupted Oliver. “Nobody does! We’ll all get out there and jump
around a bunch of times and act like we know what we’re doing.”
Oliver pulled down his red sunglasses. “What could go
wrong?”

Allie didn’t look
convinced.

I whispered quietly to
Allie, “How about I go home with you after school tonight and tell
your dad all about it? My mom can take us there and pick us up
afterwards.”

Allie leaned closer to me,
“I don’t have a dress.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I
said assuring. “My brother told me girls don’t wear dresses to the
dance. Just put on your jeans and an old sweatshirt. You’ll be just
fine.”

Judi pulled up in front of
our school and wished each of us to have a great day as we walked
down the stairs of the bus and onto the sidewalk below.

I noticed a fancy car
pulling up just behind the bus. A moment later, Maddison stepped
out from the passenger seat. Rebecca and Heather got out from each
side of the back seat.

Maddison stood for a
moment beside the car staring at me, then strutted off with Heather
and Rebecca in tow. I looked into the windshield of the car -
Maddison’s mom was glaring at me from behind the steering
wheel.

I turned away and joined
my ‘buds’ already walking up the sidewalk just behind Maddison and
the girls. I looked back over my shoulder for a moment. Maddison’s
mom was still parked in the driveway watching us.

Maddison and the girls
suddenly hurried into the building. I definitely felt like they
were up to something no good when Maddison looked back at us
through the door. The look on her face could only mean
trouble.

We said good-bye to Allie
at her classroom door and told her we would see her at
lunch.

“I didn’t know her mother
died this summer,” said Oliver quietly as we walked toward our
room.

“Me neither.” I looked
back for a moment at her classroom. “I can’t even imagine what she
has gone through.” Now I knew what Grandma Grace was trying to tell
my mother.

I entered my classroom
still thinking about Allie, dropped my books on my desk, and
plopped into my seat. My eyes noticed that Maddison was staring at
me with a big grin on her face. I turned my head toward Heather and
Rebecca. They were doing just the same thing and then it hit me – I
felt something on my seat squishing back and forth as I
moved.

I knew exactly what it was
– gum and a lot of it!

“Morning Kati,” said Troy
as he sat down.

I sort of nodded my head
without saying anything.

The look on my face must
have told him that something was wrong, “Kati?”

“Excuse me,” I started to
stand up and felt the gum stretching out between my jeans and the
chair. I glanced across the room to see Maddison with her hand over
her mouth to stop from laughing out loud.

“It’s all over you,” Troy
was looking at the gum on my rear which was totally
embarrassing.

I finally stood up and
walked up to Mr. Anders’ desk. “Could I be excused for a few
minutes? I got some gum on my clothes somehow and need to clean it
off.”

“Sure,” answered Mr.
Anders. “You might want to consider having your mom bring another
set of pants to you. It looks pretty bad.”

Maddison stared me as I
walked by her desk. It was as if she said, “Your mine and you can’t
stop me.”

I did as Mr. Anders
suggested and called my mom to bring me a fresh pair of
jeans.

“What happened?” Mom
looked at the gum still on my pants that I couldn’t get off.
“Change into these and I will get this pair cleaned at home.” She
looked into my eyes. “Do I need to get involved?”

“Not yet,” I smiled at
her, took the clean jeans in my hands, and stepped into a nearby
bathroom. A few minutes later, I stepped out again and handed her
the jeans with gum on it.

“Could you pick me up at
Allie’s after school tonight?” I explained to her everything that
Allie had shared with them on the bus.

“Sure,” replied my mother.
“Are you sure it’s not time for my help?”

“Not yet,” I said for the
second time. Everything will come to an end soon.

“Kati,” said my mom
sternly, “you’d better not do something wrong!”

“I won’t,” I gave her a
kiss and returned to class.

Maddison actually looked
surprised to see how calm I was when I walked back into the room. I
walked over to my seat figuring it needed to be cleaned, but I was
pleasantly surprised to see someone had already taken care of
it.

I looked over at Mr.
Anders to say thank you, but he pointed to Troy.

Troy was sitting there
just smiling at me.

“Thanks!” I sat down in my
seat and stared into those long lashes.

“No problem,” said Troy as
he continued to look into my eyes.

I glanced across the room
at Maddison. Her eyes were shooting the normal daggers at me again.
I tilted my head sideways and gave her a look that said, ‘bring it
on girl’!

At lunch, all of us sat
around the table talking to each other about the gum. Oliver wanted
to do something immediate and Dan started to scratch his
nose.

Allie put her hand on his
wrist, “Not this time. No one will believe it was an accident the
second time.”

“She’s right,” added
Oliver.

Dan placed his hand back
on his lap reluctantly. “So what are we going to do?”

Jacob looked across the
table at me, as if he were waiting for me to say
something.

“The other day when I ran
away into the forest, I found Jacob walking on the
trail.”

“It was more like she
tried to run me over,” added Jacob.

I looked at Jacob, “Do you
want to tell the story?”

“Go ahead,” answered Jacob
a little dejectedly.

“We saw a light across the
meadow that flashed for a few moments and then
disappeared.”

Oliver couldn’t help
himself, “You saw the ghost! What did she look like? Was she our
age? Did she try to hurt you?”

Jacob lightly slapped the
back of Oliver’s head, “Listen!”

“Sorry.” Oliver leaned
closer to me.

“Jacob and I followed the
light to a hidden cave.”

Oliver exploded again,
“Was the ghost hidden in the cave?”

Jacob started to thump
Oliver on the back of his head, but this time Oliver
ducked.

“Missed,” Oliver looked up
at Jacob just in time to get thumped for real. “Ow!”

“Be quiet!” Jacob nodded
his head toward me.

“No,” I said looking at
Oliver, “we did not see any ghosts at all.” I gave him the look
that said stop interrupting me.

Oliver finally sat back
and listened.

“We never found what
caused the light,” I looked over at Oliver, who was starting to
lean forward again, and placed my finger over my mouth as I stared
sternly into his eyes.

Oliver sat back
again.

“There was a powerful wind
inside the cave which came and went. We eventually found a hidden
tunnel which led us to a hidden cave that was used as a hide out
over a hundred years ago by some kids our age. We found their
journal inside.”

“What were they doing?”
asked Allie.

“They were trying to stop
someone from bullying other kids back then – they called themselves
the Cow Pie Gang!” I watched their reaction for several seconds.
“That’s where I want to take you on Saturday. Maybe it could become
our hideout.”

“And maybe we could be the
new Cow Pie Gang,” added Allie.

The rest of the day was
pretty calm and normal for school. No matter what was going on, I
tried to keep track of Maddison and her friends. I was determined
not to walk into any more of her traps.

Allie and I walked out to
the bus together. I told her that everything went quite well during
the afternoon, but it just seemed like Maddison was up to
something.

“Where is she?” My eyes
scanned the parked cars waiting for kids. Her mother wasn’t
anywhere to be seen.

“Maybe Rebecca or
Heather’s mom picked them up?” suggested Allie.

“I don’t think so,” I
turned around to look behind us. “There they are.” I pointed my
finger at them walking around the building.

Maddison saw that I was
looking at her and stopped. The look on her face was pure
rage.

“That’s not good,” said
Allie from beside me.

Maddison turned away. In a
moment the three girls disappeared around the corner of the
building.

“Come on,” said Allie as
she tugged on my arm.

“Hi girls,” said Judi as
we stepped up into the bus.

“I’ll be getting off with
Allie today,” I handed Judi a note from Mom saying I had her
permission. Judi took the note, read it, and placed it in a basket
by her chair.

We got off at Allie’s stop
and began walking toward an old house on the corner.

“This is it.” Allie seemed
embarrassed by it. “My aunt lives next door. She watches the twins
when Dad is working and I am at school.”

I answered quickly, “Looks
like a great house. I’ll bet your dad has this house looking spiffy
in no time.”

“Spiffy?” said Allie. “My
mom used to say that word all the time.”

“Mine too!” I was trying
to be careful not to hurt Allie’s feelings. “I guess it rubbed off
on me too.”

We looked at each other
and smiled.

A woman stepped out the
front screen door with two small boys around five years of age
looking around her hips, “Hey there!”

“Aunt Karen,” said Allie
in a quiet voice as walked up the sidewalk to the house, “this is
Kati. She’s a seventh grader and my new friend.” Allie gave me a
look that told me we would be more than friends; we would be
friends for life.

“Hi Kati,” said Allie’s
aunt. “Would you girls like something to drink? I just made a
pitcher of sweet lemonade.”

It was as if ‘shy’ Allie
had suddenly come to life. “You have to try it,” said Allie as she
pulled me along behind her. “She makes it from fresh lemons and a
little sugar. It is so good.”