Page 59 of School Spirits
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 thebig finaleevery 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. “Itlookslike 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 onlythoughtthere 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.
CHAPTER 29
Since the school had been evacuated, we held the emergency meeting of PMS at Romy’s house. Romy’s mom had gone overboard with the snack options, laying out three different kinds of chips on the counter, as well as two kinds of soft drinks.
Once we’d gotten our food we followed Romy up to her room.
Romy immediately clambered onto her bed, sitting cross-legged in the middle. Anderson sat next to her, while I took the desk chair and Dex folded his long body onto a bright green beanbag chair.
“Okay,” Romy said, dusting crumbs off her hands, “I think we can all agree there’s some seriously crazy stuff going on at Mary Evans High.”
“I don’t know, Rome,” Dex said, crossing his ankles. “Hedgehog violence is a lot more common than you’d think.”
“What I still don’t get,” Anderson said, grabbing a handful of chips, “is why she went from floating some chalk to this whole reign of terror thing.”
“There never was a haunting before,” I said, finally getting it. “Floating chalk, locker doors opening, all of that was BS, just stories people told.” I was too freaked out and thinking too fast to even pretend I didn’t know much about the paranormal. “This is the only haunting Mary Evans High has ever had, and it’s because someone used magic and freaking summoned a ghost.”
