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  Gina looked impressed, her smile as big as her eyes. "Good plan."

  Raylee did her best to occupy herself at one of the game tables as they drew closer, when she heard Crystal saying, "I need your help."

  SIX

  Gina had no problem shrugging out of her boyfriend’s arms, her eyes lighting up with the eagerness of a squirrel discovering the last available acorn.

  They lowered their voices enough that Raylee had trouble making out what they were saying, but she didn't miss hearing the cruel nickname they'd given her, "Skinny Penny" or the way Gina smiled, a grin that was, as once before, uncannily like the Grinch’s. As if on perfect Halloween cue, she cackled with a vicious delight, the witch hat she was wearing suiting the twisted laugh.

  They were so shameless about everything they did. Maybe that's what made what they did so much worse.

  And then Crystal turned until she was facing Raylee straight on, her long black hair shiny and curled to perfection, her bright red lips forming a "You" as she pointed a long red fingernail at her.

  As Raylee passed the punch table, her stomach clenched. Henry was standing there again. Maybe it was the bet he and David made back in the ninth grade about who would kiss Raylee before deciding that no money was enough to risk it that came back to her right then. Whatever it was twisted her stomach even tighter than before.

  Feeling a blend of confusion and terrible uncertainty, she made her way back to the bathroom where she sat down at the vanity table and took slow deep breaths, her stomach pain gradually subsiding.

  By the time she emerged from the bathroom, Crystal was talking to Billy, a huge smile plastered across her face as though she'd won a prize.

  Since his arrival, the whole school had fallen in love with him. The guys had already befriended him. All of the girls salivated whenever he was near, or even when he wasn’t. So, it would seem that the likelihood of Crystal winning him over involved an insurmountable challenge. Only Crystal had something that none of the other girls of this school did—status.

  As Raylee walked back over to Gina, Crystal snatched a peek at Raylee, pointed at her own chest, and flashed a thumbs up sign before letting her gaze travel back to Billy.

  Instantly, Raylee's shoulders slumped, her heart hanging low, her mind chilled with the prospect of who was deliberately setting out to disturb her, as she hurried away to her friend Paul. He could tell by the sense of urgency on Raylee’s face that she was shaken up.

  "Paul, I saw the mask again."

  "What? Where?"

  "At the end of the haunted house, there’s this skeleton and it had a mask on. Paul, it wasn’t there before. I noticed the skeleton before I even went through the house. Someone put it there."

  She grabbed his arm and led him back to the end of the attraction. A few kids, dressed as Lando and Han, were playfighting with their light sabers. When they moved away, the skeleton was there, but the mask was gone.

  "No," she whispered.

  Paul frowned, glancing around them as though the perpetrator would appear.

  "Let’s go."

  She practically ran outside, too distressed to stay any longer. Someone in there was watching her reaction, and she didn’t want them to see how upset some stupid mask was making her.

  "Why are we leaving?" Paul was out of breath when he caught up to her outside.

  "Because she uses every time she sees me as an opportunity to torment me." Raylee was visibly shaking.

  "You think Crystal did it?"

  "I think she's going to do something, or someone is. Henry. . ." She fumbled, frustrated that she didn’t know what was happening, who was behind it, and why they were doing it.

  A strike of lightning in the distant landscape sizzled silently. A few soft drops of rain lightly tapped the pavement, her nose, and the windshield of Paul’s car. It was so dark that the sodium vapor lamps did little to dispel it. She shivered, both from the dropping temperature and the darkness, and from the sense that something bad, something more than the cruel gestures Crystal made, was about to happen.

  Frustrated, she let herself into Pauls’ car and fastened her seat belt.

  Unsure what to say, Paul slid behind the wheel. "Let’s watch a scary movie."

  She frowned at him. "But you don’t even like scary movies."

  He started the engine, nodding. "Yeah, but it will make you feel better. We’ll swing by the video store. What do you want to rent?"

  Anything, as long as it wasn’t The Exorcist. She’d caught a scene of the 70’s horror film at someone’s house when she was just four years old; the little girl was growling and spinning her head. Five years later, having forgotten about what she’d seen, her friend Missy played the movie at her house, the forgotten scene suddenly popped up, only this time Raylee remembered the dreadful awareness of evil.

  Ever since, she’d been afraid of the dark. The darkness held the unknown, but it could also act as an abyss of evil and the unexpected. She’d been too young to grasp the complex nature of demon-possession, but smart enough to realize that what she’d seen was evil and frightening and not something she dared worry her parents about.

  So, she’d never spoken of it.

  Missy had been just as scared of the film as she had, but they never spoke of it to each other either. And Raylee never uttered a word about her fear of the dark to anyone. It would only add to her own sense of worthlessness. She certainly wasn’t going to reveal her ridiculous fear to Paul. It was hard enough to find friends.

  She could handle watching Jason Voohrees, Freddy Krueger, or Michael Myers because they were all made-up villains with plots that were scary and entertaining, yet obviously unrealistic. But movies like The Exorcist were too real; there was truth to some of the things that unfolded in that movie, and Raylee was unwilling to watch something that could actually happen.

  "Halloween? Friday the 13th?" She suggested.

  Paul was smiling. "See, you’re feeling better already."

  A few minutes later, they were pulling into the parking lot of the video store. Over half of the lot was packed, typical of a Saturday. Renting movies was one of Silver Canyon’s highlights. And since it was Halloween night, as they soon learned once they entered the store, a majority of the patrons were renting scary movies.

  Hurrying to the horror section, Raylee was relieved to find that there was one last copy of Friday the 13th, part 2. It was actually her favorite of the series because it featured Ginny, a strong female protagonist, and shoveled a lot of humorous banter between the camp counselors.

  Snatching up the video tape, she weaved her way to the back of the line, which wrapped all the way around the left side of the store. Paul was at the front by the cash registers, digging through the concessions. When he joined her in line, he produced a bag of chocolate kisses and sour twists.

  "I have popcorn and soda at home, so we’re all set," he said, looking around the store. "Is it always this busy?"

  "Yep. Because we can’t experience much excitement on our own, we have to live it vicariously."

  Paul gave her a crooked grin and shook his head. "So, what happened back there? I mean, Crystal was there, but I didn’t see her anywhere near you. Did she say something to you?"

  "She pointed at me and mouthed the word 'You' in this creepy kind of way. I don’t know what she said to Billy, but whatever it was obviously satisfied her, and she made sure I knew it as she passed me by."

  "Same old tricks, trying to keep you off-guard."

  She bit her lip. "Maybe. There was something else though." She took a deep breath. "Billy. Henry. I don’t know. Billy and I were going through the haunted house when I felt like something was off." She huffed, feeling foolish. Shaking her head, she proceeded. "Forget it. It’s all stupid. Probably Crystal playing with my nerves."

  He touched her shoulder. "Tonight is our time, okay? I am not letting anyone ruin our fun, and neither are you. Got it?"

  Feeling better,
amused by Paul’s persistence, she nodded.

  The theme song from Halloween poured out through the five TV monitors that dangled from the ceiling throughout the store. Raylee felt excitement flutter in her chest. She loved Halloween. The scary fun, the costumes, the music, all of it was exciting, entertaining, harmless.

  Paul was right. This was going to be a fun night no matter what.

  As they drew closer to the register, Raylee’s mind inevitably went to Billy. He was such a nice guy. She just wished that there could be something more between them. If only she weren't so awkward. Sure, she was semi-smart in English, but didn’t look half as pretty as Crystal or Gina, another mark against her.

  Of course, as she painfully reminded herself, it didn’t make much sense that he would be interested in Crystal either. She was beautiful, but she was mean.

  What happened at the community center tonight? She looked so pleased with herself once she left his side; it bothered Raylee so much that she failed to even notice Billy’s reaction. She could hope that he cared less about Crystal’s proposal or compliment, or whatever she’d said, but Raylee was a realist about a lot of things. And she knew from experience that boys didn’t tend to flock to her. Donald Schwartz had been the only exception, a good exception aside from the halitosis and nervous twitching, but still only a single exception. She could only conclude that boys weren't magnetized by her due to her being vastly different than other girls—not pretty enough, not confident enough, or not cool enough.

  Maybe she had asked him out and he'd said yes. That was realistic. They were both beautiful and popular and self-confident. They didn’t stumble over words or worry what other people thought. But the thought of that being the case tore at Raylee’s heart.

  As stupid as it might seem, Raylee's feelings for Billy were already strong, and they were based on good things—his concern for others being at the top of her list. He helped pick her up when Crystal shamed her. Billy didn’t seem to notice when Raylee’s hair resembled a stick of cotton candy or when she couldn’t find air to communicate. He didn’t laugh at her or leer at her or make bets. If he was that type of guy, he would have already acted on it, and everyone wouldn't like him. Even the teachers delighted in his presence, not the typical treat given to most high schoolers.

  Billy seemed to genuinely like her as a person, and that fact felt really good to Raylee, so good that her head was floating in the clouds.

  "Back to the ground yet?" Paul was saying as she came out of her whirlwind of thoughts.

  "Those clouds could sure use some more padding," she joked, a bit embarrassed. If her dwelling on Billy was causing her to disconnect from her surroundings, she was already in trouble. Some people might call it a crush, but Raylee thought it was something more valuable than that, even if he never knew about it.

  The monitors were now showing a scene out of Gremlins. By the time they got to the front, Raylee had watched the video compilation replay a total of five times.

  Back at his house, true to his promise, Paul went to work in the kitchen, heating fresh popcorn over the stove. The VCR was paused at the opening scene of the movie.

  One thing Raylee appreciated about scary movies is how they made her forget about things for a while. In this case, Billy and Crystal. Her mind had already convinced her that some kind of romantic relationship was building between them, even though Crystal and Ryan were an item.

  Or were they? She actually hadn’t seen them together lately. Did they break up?

  Her hands started to sweat. She wiped them vigorously across her pants.

  Paul came out of the kitchen with a big fat bowl of steaming buttery salty popcorn. Her mouth watered.

  He set the bowl on the coffee table and returned to the kitchen where he plucked two bottles of cola from the fridge. Back into the living room, he plopped next to her on the couch, handed her a soda, and hit play on the VCR.

  The film recounted the ending of the first in the series. Final Girl Alice having nightmares about Mrs. Voohrees confessing to Jason being her son, drowned because of the neglect of the counselors, the truth soon frighteningly clear to Alice that Jason’s mom is insane and has killed all of her friends, Alice killing her in self-defense, Jason coming out of the lake.

  Raylee always enjoyed these movies, but now, as she sat there with Paul, eating popcorn and chewing on a sour twist, she found herself not enjoying the movie as much as feeling like the reveal of the killer was somehow a portentous message meant for her.

  How ridiculous and paranoid that was. Yet, she couldn't help the impeding feeling.

  She glanced outside.

  The bright orange spot of the sun from only an hour ago now faded into an ebony blanket of steel-gray clouds. Over the movie’s urgent music arose the pattering of rain, and accompanying the brightness of shuddering lightning came the deep rumbling of thunder.

  Raylee closed her eyes and silently counted. She got to four, took a deep breath, let it out quietly.

  Paul was engrossed in the movie, which was surprising giving his aversion to horror films. His hand was paused halfway into his mouth, a piece of popcorn at the end of his fingertips, his eyes big and wide. Raylee laughed. He turned.

  "You okay? You seem really into it."

  He shoved the popcorn into his mouth, sipped some soda, nodded, and his eyes quickly traveled back to Alice.

  Raylee shook her head and grabbed another sour twist, jumping slightly as thunder came crashing down.

  When Raylee was growing up, her grandmother used to help her remain calm during the storms. They would count the seconds between each crack of lightning and boom of thunder, and Raylee would feel safe knowing that the storm was at least a couple of miles away and moving farther and farther.

  She missed her grandmother. At the beginning of Raylee's eighth grade year, she'd died from a rare form of cancer.

  Now, she found herself counting silently, but she got only as far as three before thunder rumbled again. That meant it was less than a mile away; the head of the storm was swiftly moving closer. The movie couldn’t distract her.

  She stood and moved to the window, where she parted the curtains. The driveway was almost entirely shrouded in darkness; she could make out the faintest outline of Paul’s vehicle followed by a dim glow of the streetlamp. At the end of the lawn, shadows of the expansive hedge extended from the edge of the driveway to the neighbor’s bordering yard.

  Lightning lit up the sky.

  One-one-thousand-two-one-thousand-three-one-thousand-four-one-thousand-five. . .more thunder. It was moving farther out now.

  Raylee released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

  But she couldn't help but notice that the chill that ripped through Raylee a moment ago resembled the same kind of terrifying emotion that she’d felt back at the haunted house.

  But, why?

  She let the curtain fall as she turned around to look at Paul. Like before, his eyes were glued to the screen. Didn’t he hear the storm? Didn’t he sense something dreadful?

  Apparently, she stood at the window longer than she’d thought. In the movie, Alice had already died. And one of the couples was calling from a phone booth. That was troubling to her, that she’d been caught up for several minutes at the window. It was just a storm.

  But, then, why did she feel so afraid?

  SEVEN

  Katy was breathless as she caught Raylee in the hall the next day. "You have to make your move. Homecoming is the perfect excuse."

  Raylee frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "They pushed the dance back to December?"

  "They did?"

  "Yeah, something about the rainstorm flooding the football field. The forecast is calling for more rain over the next week, and November's calendar is already overloaded, so Principal Grabisch rescheduled the dance for December."

  "Oh."

  Katy shook her friend, her eyes alighting with excited frenzy. "Don't you und
erstand what this means?"

  Crinkling her forehead, she shook her head.

  "There's plenty of time to plan!"

  A crash of thunder shuddered the building just then. Both girls turned to look through the window near the snack bar.

  "See you later!" Katy dashed away to her class as Raylee pressed on to drama.

  Today, they were assigned the task of talking about their favorite genres and why they were drawn to them. Raylee confessed that she liked suspense movies the most because they were so full of excitement and the unexpected, though she was quick to add that she didn't care for the unexpected in real life.

  It was Billy's turn next. He'd always been drawn to mystery, whether in real life or in movies.

  "Mystery is at the core of reality. The world is rich in details and imagery that beg to be understood. Take the mountains, for instance. They speak to the idea that there was something greater than them, no, someone greater."

  Was he speaking of God?

  "There's a tremendous amount of meaning, uniqueness, and complexity in each person, in nature, for it to be otherwise."

  Raylee was in awe. She'd never heard someone speak in the manner that he did, so eloquently, so wisely. He seemed to harbor an intelligence that surpassed most teens, superior, like Dostoyevsky. It was obvious that everyone was taken with Billy Thurman.

  By the time chemistry was about to start, Raylee was in a daze.

  Just outside the classroom, on the banner hanging in the hallway, the homecoming queen candidates for the dance were pasted in their school colors--silver and blue--, like Katy told her. Just three names: Gina Sanders, Jennifer Dewey, and Crystal Jordan. That sinking feeling hit her, the inadequacy.

  Crystal herself now came parading down the hallway with her clique as if they owned the school. Other students scurried out of their way, certain to be swept away by the group if they didn’t.

  Raylee wished she were invisible right now, but instead all she could do was stand in a paralytic state as they stampeded her way, her back glued to a locker door.