Whispering Pines

by Heidi Lang

  “Oh good! Want to get ice cream with me instead? I’m supposed to be cleaning, but if I’m showing the new girl around, my mom can’t really get mad at me.”

  “Oh, so you’re using me?”

  “Just a little.” Brandi flashed another gap-toothed smile. “Want to come anyhow?”

  This time Rae managed to smile back. “I’d love to. Let me just check with my mom.”

  “I’ll wait.”

  Rae turned and hurried up the driveway, her earlier hesitation gone.

  It was time to reinvent herself here in this strange little town. Out with the old Rae, and in with the new.

  2. CADEN

  Caden Price walked carefully backward, tossing handfuls of salt in a line around his house and muttering the protection spells he’d memorized years ago. He usually liked doing this chore—it made him feel safer—but his thoughts kept slipping away from words of power, sliding instead toward the new girl across the street.

  She’d seemed nice. He should have waved back.

  Caden gritted his teeth and kept going. His mom had worked with him on shielding spells when he was in first grade, and since then he’d become pretty good at them. The key was a focused mind. He couldn’t keep out negative energies if he was planning what to eat for lunch, or worrying about homework, or running through what-if scenarios. Like… what if he’d been more friendly and gone over there, like Brandi?

  Stop it, Caden told himself firmly. It wouldn’t have mattered how friendly he was anyhow. As soon as the new girl got to school and heard all the rumors, she would want nothing to do with him. Better not to even try.

  He took the remaining three steps back until the end of the salt line met the beginning. It reminded him of the ouroboros: the ancient symbol of a giant serpent eating its tail. His mom had told him that it represented the endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth. He used to believe that cycle encompassed everything. Now he knew better.

  He closed up the large leather sack with the remaining salt just as an unfamiliar car pulled up his driveway. Caden paused near the front door and watched as a middle-aged couple got out. The man walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk, moving slowly and stiffly, his dark suit hanging on him as if he’d recently lost a lot of weight. The woman waited by the front of the car in a dark green dress that fit her perfectly, her graying hair carefully styled, but Caden was close enough to see the mascara smeared beneath her red-rimmed eyes. And he could feel the grief surrounding her in swirls of a bruiselike bluish purple.

  They must be new clients, which was good. Business had slowed down for the Prices this year. Caden wasn’t sure if it was because of the rumors around him—nothing like having the police come by your house multiple times to make people suspicious of you and your family—or if it was because his mom had stopped trying to get more work, but she’d gone from very busy to maybe one or two visits a week in the past nine months.

  The man pulled a cardboard box out of the trunk and shut the door, then strode toward Caden. “Hello,” he said, his voice deep and scratchy. “We’re the McCurleys. We had an appointment?”

  “My mom is—” Caden began, just as the front door opened and his mother stepped out, her silver-and-blue striped skirt swirling around her bare feet, her black hair tumbling long and loose down her back. She must be really trying to make an impression; she was even wearing a pair of large dangling pentagram earrings that Caden knew gave her a headache.

  “Laura,” she said, clasping the woman’s hands. “And Rob. Please, come inside.” She didn’t even look at Caden, just left him there on the doorstep.

  Caden ran a hand over the pendant he always wore around his neck. His mom had given it to him for protection on the day he’d realized he was different from other kids, back in first grade. It had been one of the worst days of his life, but the pendant reminded him that even if no one else wanted to be around him, he’d at least always have his family. Only now his brother was gone, his father was working increasingly long hours, and his mom…

  His mom wanted nothing to do with him. Caden couldn’t blame her.

  He glanced across the street. The new girl had already gone. He took a deep breath, then headed inside.

  “… has it been since your son disappeared?” Caden’s mom was asking the couple as Caden entered the kitchen.

  “Nine months to the day tomorrow.”

  Caden stumbled, catching himself on the coatrack. Nine months tomorrow? It had to be a coincidence. When he glanced at his mom, her face gave nothing away, but he noticed a flicker of deep, dark brownish red hovering around her, like an old bloodstain. It felt like guilt, or something deeper. Shame.

  She met his eyes, and the color vanished so completely Caden could have been imagining it. “Don’t you have homework to do?” she asked him.

  “Just making some tea first.” There was no way he was leaving now, not after that. He walked around her and started up the kettle.

  “Thirteen?” Laura asked Caden.

  He nodded.

  “Our boy, Peter, is the same age.” She smiled, her lip quivering. “You probably didn’t know him. We homeschooled.”

  “Oh,” Caden said. Then after a beat he added, “I’m sorry he’s missing.”

  Laura sniffed. “The police have stopped looking. They think he just ran away.”

  “But you know he didn’t,” Caden’s mom said carefully. A statement, not a question. She’d taught Caden about the importance of that kind of phrasing, back when she’d been training him and his older brother to help with the family business.

  People come to us when no one else in their life believes them, she had said. Therefore you never want them to think you doubt their story.

  “It was the first snowfall,” Laura explained. “Peter wanted to test out his cold weather camping gear. He wasn’t going far, just to the woods in back of our house.”

  “He loved the outdoors,” Rob added. His wife shot him a look, and he amended hastily, “Loves the outdoors.”

  “He’s not dead. He’s not.” Laura’s voice caught. Caden’s mom handed her a box of tissues. She took one, dabbing gently at her eyes and nose. “You—your family, you’re our last hope. If you can somehow find him.” She held out her hands to Caden’s mom. “Please.”

  “I promise to try. Do you have anything of his? Something he valued?”

  Rob opened the cardboard box he’d carried inside and pulled out a battered navy blue baseball cap with a picture of a large white dog balancing a basketball on one paw on the front.

  “The Malamutes are his favorite team,” Laura said, her voice a little stronger. “He never went anywhere without that hat. He wouldn’t have left without it.”

  “The police found it out in the woods,” Rob added, with another sidelong glance at his wife.

  She pressed her lips together and didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll need some time,” Caden’s mom told the couple. “Give me a week, and I’ll see what I can discover.”

  “Thank you.” Laura clasped her hands together. “And if you need anything else, anything at all…”

  “Laura,” her husband warned. “Remember what they said about making promises that—”

  “I don’t care! I know our Peter is hardly the first child to go missing in this town, but… I just want him back,” she sobbed.

  “I understand,” Caden’s mom said quietly. “I would do anything to get my son back too.”

  Caden felt the full weight of her gaze on him and wondered if she knew the truth: that he was the reason his brother, Aiden, wasn’t here.

  Silence filled the small kitchen until the shriek of the kettle shattered it. Caden turned off the stove. “Tea, anyone?” he asked.

  3. RAE

  Rae waited in the front office of Dana S. Middle School, reading the bulletin board and trying to pretend she wasn’t nervous. She’d never been the new student before. And everything in Whispering Pines seemed so… alien. Including this place. Fifth g
raders were in middle school here, and the hallways were all enclosed like some sort of prison instead of being open to the sunlight like her school back in California. And then there were the school rules.

  A small sign in the corner of the bulletin board read: PLAY IT SAFE, AND “LEAF” THE WOODS ALONE. Next to it the rules were written in black Sharpie:

  Curfew begins at sunset. No students out after dark. Parents or recognized guardians MUST pick up students from school following any after-school activities.

  Garlic is to be eaten, not worn.

  Absolutely no chalk allowed.

  The second field is closed due to a sudden sinkhole appearance. All outdoor activities will now be scheduled on the first field only.

  No wearing red. This includes shirts, pants, hats, and lipstick.

  No cell phone use within school grounds.

  Rae frowned at them. They seemed a little random, with the exception of the cell phone rule.

  Below the rules was an announcement about an upcoming assembly with something called “Green On!” followed by the caption, “Join the Green family, best deals in clean energy!”

  “Rae Carter?”

  Rae turned. A tall woman with short, ferociously styled blond hair and a perfectly pressed navy blue pantsuit came out from behind the office in back. She carried a clipboard in one hand, and everything about her screamed careful control, from the thin line of her mouth to the rigid way she stood.

  “I’m Ms. Lockett, the vice principal here at Dana S. Middle School. Welcome to Whispering Pines.”

  “Thank you,” Rae said. Even though that “welcome” had been said with about as much warmth as a New England blizzard.

  “We don’t generally get new students… and especially not a month into the school year. It makes things messy. However, I understand our principal made an exception for you.” Her lips twisted, like she’d bitten into something sour.

  Rae wasn’t sure if she should apologize. But then, it was hardly her fault.

  “Seventh grade is a tough year,” Ms. Lockett continued. “Particularly at our school. We expect a lot from our students. You’ll need to work hard to catch up.”

  “That’s fine. I’m not afraid of working hard.”

  Ms. Lockett studied her. Rae hated when people looked at her like that, like they were digging into her brain and running their fingers through all her thoughts. “I’m sure you’re eager to prove yourself somewhere new,” Ms. Lockett said finally. “Especially considering what happened with your father.” She shook her head. “Sad business.”

  Rae’s heartbeat pounded in her head, and she dug her nails into her palms. No one here was supposed to know about her father.

  After he’d disappeared at the start of sixth grade, she’d told her best friend, Taylor, the truth about what happened to him. Taylor hadn’t believed her. Even worse, she’d told everyone Rae’s secret, turning it into a joke. Rae could still hear Taylor and the other kids in her school laughing while she cried in the bathroom, could still see the horrible pictures they’d drawn and stuffed in her locker and remember the names they’d called her. Rae had spent the rest of sixth grade alone.

  But this was a new school, and she was a new Rae. One who had learned to keep her secrets to herself. “I don’t know what you heard,” she said, her voice barely shaking. “But it wasn’t a big deal.”

  Ms. Lockett’s eyebrows lifted.

  Rae made herself shrug. “Lots of people’s dads run off. It sucks, but it happens.” It hurt to say the lie, but she kept her face blank, her tone casual. She’d practiced this before they moved. She’d practiced lots of things.

  She planned to blend in here. She wasn’t going to be the school outcast again.

  Ms. Lockett sniffed. “Well.” She glanced down at her clipboard like she was looking for a script to tell her how to respond.

  Someone coughed.

  Rae looked up.

  A girl as tall and slim as a javelin leaned against Ms. Lockett’s open office doorway, her shiny blond hair pulled up in a high ponytail, her arms crossed. She was staring hard at Rae, her eyes like two ice chips.

  Rae shivered.

  “This is my daughter,” Ms. Lockett said. “Alyssa, meet Rae Carter.”

  “Hey.” Alyssa bared her teeth in the world’s most unfriendly smile.

  “Alyssa will be showing you around today,” Ms. Lockett continued.

  “Oh, that’s okay,” Rae said quickly. “My next-door neighbor said she’d do it.”

  Ms. Lockett frowned down at her clipboard. “And who might that be?”

  “Brandi Jensen?” Rae said. “She’s an eighth grader here.”

  “Brandi… isn’t here right now.” Ms. Lockett tapped her clipboard, her lips pursed.

  Not here right now? Rae tried not to be too disappointed. She’d really liked hanging out with Brandi this weekend, and knowing she’d have a friend to ease her in on her first day had made the prospect of school much less terrifying. Now she was on her own.

  “Do you have any other questions?” Ms. Lockett asked.

  Rae shook her head.

  “Good. Because I’m very busy. And I doubt you’ll stick around here for long.”

  “What? Why?” Rae asked.

  “Most outsiders move back out within a few months. If they get the chance, that is.”

  Rae blinked. Now that didn’t sound ominous or anything.

  First bell rang outside, loud and obnoxious.

  “And you’re about to be late,” Ms. Lockett added.

  “Let’s go.” Alyssa opened the office door and waved Rae through it. Other students had begun slowly trickling into the school, their noise echoing off the painted brick walls. Rae glanced at the mural next to her. A giant diving eagle, drawn cartoonishly. “Eighth-grade art,” Alyssa explained. “They get to paint all the walls.”

  “Oh.” Rae looked at the next mural. This one depicted a vampire complete with dripping fangs. It reminded Rae of the weird rule about garlic. “So… what’s up with those school rules?” she asked.

  “What about them?”

  “Like, not wearing garlic?” Rae said.

  “Oh, you know. It doesn’t smell very good.”

  Rae couldn’t tell if Alyssa was mocking her, but she forged on. “I mean, did you have a lot of people wearing garlic, then? Enough that you needed a rule against it?”

  “Yeah, it was a problem for a while. Last year, Terence showed up at school with bite marks on his neck, and then Sophie the day after, and people went a little bonkers. Especially after someone found Emmett totally drained of blood and stuffed in a locker.”

  Rae stopped walking. “What?”

  Alyssa didn’t stop. “You don’t want to be late on your first day,” she called over her shoulder.

  Rae hurried to catch up. “Who is Emmett?”

  “Emmett was a rabbit. The fifth-grade science classroom pet.” Alyssa shrugged. “They haven’t replaced him. Pets don’t seem to do well here… kind of like new kids.”

  Rae frowned. It almost sounded like Alyssa was threatening her. Fantastic. Her first day of school and she’d already somehow made an enemy. “I don’t plan on getting my blood drained,” she said.

  “I’m sure Emmett didn’t plan on it either.”

  Rae had to admit, that was probably a good point.

  “Alyssa! Hey, wait up!” a girl hollered after them.

  Alyssa and Rae turned as a short, slender girl with long black hair and a truly enormous backpack sprinted over to them. “Whew, you were booking it!” the girl said. “I could barely catch you!”

  “Only because you insist on carrying that thing.” Alyssa poked at the giant backpack. “Why, I’ll never know.”

  “And I’ll never tell.” The girl flashed her a smile, then turned it on Rae. It was such a wide, easy expression that Rae found herself smiling back too. “I’m Vivienne. You must be the new girl. The mysterious Rae.”

  “That’s me,” Rae said. “Super mysterious.�
��

  “Marvelous. I love a little mystery. Makes things exciting.”  Vivienne looped her arms through Rae’s and Alyssa’s, like the three of them had been besties forever, and started marching them down the hall. “I hear Ms. Lockett stuck you in our homeroom. You are in for a treat!”

  “Really?” Rae said, letting Vivienne pull her along.

  “No, not really. We have Mrs. Murphy, and she. Is. The. Worst.”

  “She’s not the worst,” Alyssa said.

  “Whatevs, lady. You just like her because her son is hot.”

  Alyssa tugged her arm free, her face scrunched. “I don’t care about her son.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Vivienne said. “Too soon? Please tell me you’re not still pining after Jeremy, are you?”

  “Jeremy?” Rae tried to keep up with all this gossip. She used to be good at this sort of thing, but a year without friends had definitely slowed down her social reflexes. “Is he, like, an ex-boyfriend or something?”

  “Or something,” Vivienne agreed. “He’s over there to the left—no, don’t look!”

  It was too late. Rae had already looked.

  A lanky boy with large brown eyes, curly blond hair, and a green plaid button-up shirt looked back at her, his expression bored. “ ’Sup?” he said.

  “Oh, stop trying to pretend you’re cool, Jeremy,” Vivienne huffed, pulling Rae past him. “We don’t talk to him,” she said.

  “I think Alyssa talks to him,” Rae said.

  Vivienne whirled around. Alyssa was standing in front of  Jeremy, her arms crossed awkwardly. She laughed at something he said, and Vivienne sighed and pulled Rae farther down the hall. “She’s lost to us. Poor lovesick fool. But don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.”

  “Um, thanks, Vivienne.”

  “Anytime. You can call me Vivi, by the way. I heard you wanted to join cross-country?”

  Rae blinked. “Um, yeah.” She’d always been good at running; she’d planned on trying out for the team back at her old school before everything went bad. “How’d you know?”