Hell's Belles

by Megan Sparks

  “How about mummified gingerbread men?” said Annie.

  “I like it!”

  Half an hour later, Dad had a list of horrifyingly delicious treats to add to his repertoire. He wasn’t too sure about Lexie’s idea for cupcakes with vomit filling (apple sauce with chunky chocolate chips and coconut flakes stirred in), but he promised to think about it.

  “Thanks for all your help,” he said, tucking the napkin with his notes into his shirt pocket. Then he leaned back in his chair with a wistful expression on his face. “Annie, do you remember the first time Mum and I took you trick-or-treating in London?”

  Annie nodded. “I went as a lobster, right?”

  Dad nodded. “Mum was a real trooper. She knew the neighbors would think we were nuts. Still, she went along with it anyway, patiently explaining to all our confused neighbors why we were standing on their doorsteps asking for candy, with our three-year-old daughter dressed up as a crustacean.” He laughed, but his eyes were sad. “No one had any candy to put in your bag, but I remember Mr. Harrison gave you a handful of cough drops. And old Mrs. Bentley gave you some shortbread she’d just baked.”

  Annie closed her eyes. She could almost smell that shortbread, sweet and hot from the oven.

  Not for the first time, she wondered if Dad missing Mum was a first step toward them working things out.

  Then she sighed. Of course, the fact that Mum hadn’t even called for a week didn’t bode well for that possibility.

  There was a lump in her throat as she brought her mug to her lips.

  “You sure made an awfully cute lobster,” Dad said softly. Then he sighed and stood up abruptly. “All right, girls. I’ve bothered you enough. I guess I’d better start looking up recipes for these devilish desserts.”

  “Good luck,” Lexie called after him. “Can’t wait to taste the final treats.”

  He was halfway to the door when he turned to look over his shoulder at Annie.

  “Oh . . . and about that vampire outfit, Beanie,” he said casually. “If you shave a good three inches off the length of that slit, and maybe bring up the neckline a bit, I might actually consider letting you wear it.”

  For the second time that evening Annie almost gagged on her hot chocolate.

  “Oh . . . um . . . right . . . okay,” she managed to choke out. “We’ll see what we can do.”

  “Good,” said Dad. “Or else you’ll be going as a lobster again.”

  At that, Lexie burst out laughing.

  But Annie had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t kidding.

  The next morning, while Annie stood at her locker searching for her biology textbook, she was amazed at the swirl of dance-related gossip that filled the hallway.

  Not surprisingly, it seemed that most of the cheerleaders had been asked to the dance by soccer and football players. The drama club kids appeared to be more excited about what costumes they’d be wearing than who they’d actually be going with. An uber-shy sophomore boy had asked a very popular senior girl, and to everyone’s shock she’d agreed to go with him!

  Annie finally found her book and set out down the hall toward class. She had to dodge a few ladders along the way, since the social committee was hard at work hanging up posters for the dance.

  One huge banner caught her eye. It was painted in black and orange and had a picture of Freddy Krueger on it.

  GET YOUR SCARE ON

  AT THE HALLOWEEN DANCE.

  MISSING IT WOULD BE A NIGHTMARE!

  The time and date were written beneath the picture in dripping, blood-red letters. This triggered something in Annie’s mind, but she was too preoccupied with the dance gossip buzzing around to make any real connection.

  When Annie reached the science classroom, she slid into her seat and tried to imagine what it would be like to go to the dance with Tyler. He was going as David Beckham. Maybe she could go as Victoria Beckham! All she would need would be a little black bobbed wig, a really sexy dress, and super-high heels.

  “Open your texts to page twenty-seven,” Mr. Dinkins, the biology teacher, instructed. “Today we will be diagramming plant cells.”

  Dutifully, Annie began sketching. She drew the blob-shaped outline, careful to differentiate the cell wall from the cell membrane. But try as she might, she just couldn’t focus on mitochondrion and Golgi vesicles.

  Her mind — and her pencil — began to wander and before she knew it, she’d doodled “Tyler Erickson” in block print, bubble letters, and loopy script all over her margins.

  She even drew a heart with their initials inside!

  When she realized what she’d done, she quickly erased it.

  I need to stop being so soppy over a boy who barely knows I’m alive, she chastised herself, brushing the eraser crumbs off her notebook.

  She spent the rest of the lesson determinedly memorizing the function of the vacuole membrane and pushing Tyler’s green eyes and heart-melting smile out of her mind.

  The rest of her morning classes passed in a similar fashion. In history, she struggled to pay attention, but every time the teacher told them to remember a particular date for the upcoming quiz, her mind flew directly to the other kind of date.

  In French, she gave up working on verb tenses and instead conjugated the verb danser: to dance.

  In algebra, they had a substitute teacher who gave them an easy worksheet and told them they could talk quietly among themselves when they’d completed it. When Annie returned to her seat after dropping her finished worksheet on the teacher’s desk, the girl who sat behind her leaned forward. Her name was Emily and she was on the girls’ soccer team.

  “So what are you going to be for Halloween?” Emily whispered.

  “Not sure yet,” said Annie. On the chance that Emily might attend the Liberty Belles’ themed bout, she didn’t want to spill the beans about the entire team dressing up as vampires. “How about you?”

  “Well . . .” Emily sighed. “I’m torn between going as a cowgirl — you know, with boots and a hat and all — and a mermaid.”

  “It’ll be too hard to dance in a mermaid tail,” said the girl next to Emily. Her name was Jessica and she had also tried out for cheerleading. She hadn’t made it at first, but Annie’s resignation had bumped her up to a place on the squad. For this reason, Jessica (unlike the other cheerleaders) seemed to feel beholden to Annie and treated her nicely.

  “She has a point,” Annie agreed, giggling. “What’s your costume, Jessica?”

  “My boyfriend and I are going as Frankenstein and his bride,” Jessica grumbled. “His idea, not mine. I was hoping for something cuter, like maybe Cinderella and Prince Charming, but . . . oh!” Suddenly Jessica’s eyes lit up. “Speaking of Prince Charming . . . Annie, you know who you should go as, don’t you?”

  Annie shook her head.

  “Kate what’s-her-name. You know, the one who married Prince William!”

  “Kate Middleton?” Annie asked.

  Emily nodded enthusiastically. “It’s perfect! I mean you look kind of similar! Same hair, and you’re tall and slim like her.”

  And Tyler would make the perfect Prince William, she thought, blushing. Quickly, she shook her head. She really needed to stop daydreaming about that.

  When the class bell rang, Annie headed directly for the cafeteria to meet Lexie and Lauren.

  She made it through the hot lunch line in record time and put her tray down across from Lexie, who was biting into a tuna sandwich. “Pizza,” Lexie observed, nodding at Annie’s lunch selection. “Brave choice.”

  Annie frowned. “Why’s that?”

  “Well, for one thing, there’s enough grease in one of those pepperoni slices to keep the acne cream manufacturers in business until the next millennium. And that cheese . . .” She shook her head slowly. “Probably not actually cheese.”

  “Don’t listen
to her,” Lauren said. “She’s kidding.”

  Annie glanced at Lexie, who laughed.

  “Yeah, I’m just joking,” Lexie said. “The pizza is actually one of their better offerings. However, do yourself a favor and avoid the fried fish sandwich at all costs.”

  Lauren grinned. “The tartar sauce alone could kill you.”

  “Well, if you’re sure it’s safe . . .” Annie gave them a teasing look, then opened her mouth as wide as she could and took an enormous bite of her pizza. She was only being silly — usually her table manners were better than this. The pepperoni was yummy, the sauce was tangy, and the cheese — real or not — was gooey and delicious.

  Suddenly, Lexie’s eyes went wide. “OMG,” she whispered. “Tyler is walking over!”

  Annie kept chewing her huge mouthful and rolled her eyes.

  “No!” cried Lexie. “I’m serious.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Lauren confirmed, quickly reaching out with a napkin to wipe a glob of tomato sauce from Annie’s chin. “He’s walking right toward us. I mean . . . you!”

  Annie’s stomach flipped.

  Why would Tyler be heading toward her? And why had she chosen this moment to experiment with visual comedy by taking a glutton-sized chomp of her pizza?

  She stopped chewing and looked up to see Tyler standing beside her.

  “Hi, Annie,” he said.

  If she opened her mouth, an avalanche of half-chewed pizza would have spilled out. So she gave him a closed-lip smile and nodded. Lexie and Lauren looked torn between feeling sorry for her and bursting out laughing.

  “Listen,” he began with that winning smile. “I should have asked you this the other day when we were talking about costumes and all. I really hope someone hasn’t beaten me to it.”

  Since Annie still couldn’t speak without sputtering globs of cheese and pepperoni all over the place, she raised her eyebrows and inclined her head in a curious gesture.

  “Would you like to go to the Halloween dance with me?” he asked.

  It was all Annie could do to keep from jumping out of her chair and throwing her arms around him. Between the giant mouthful of pizza-flavored mush and the shock of being asked out by Tyler, she was lucky she didn’t choke to death!

  The answer, of course, was a resounding yes. She only wished she could say it!

  What to do?

  Nod? No, way too impersonal.

  She considered picking up a napkin and spitting the offending mouthful into it, but what could possibly be more disgusting than that?

  Annie could feel her face turning pink as Tyler looked down at her expectantly.

  Luckily, she was spared, because at that moment, one of Tyler’s buddies appeared at his side.

  “Dude, let’s jet,” he said, throwing a friendly punch to Tyler’s shoulder. “We’ve got class on the other side of the building. One more tardy and we both get detention and miss the game.”

  Tyler gave Annie an adorable shrug. “Gotta motor. Let’s catch up later and we can talk about it then.”

  When he was gone, Lauren hastily handed Annie a napkin and Annie spit the horrible wad of half-chewed pizza into it.

  “Well, that was romantic, wasn’t it?” Lexie teased.

  Annie groaned and dropped her head onto the table. “Tell me that really didn’t happen.”

  “Oh, it happened,” said Lauren. “And judging from the way Kelsey is staring daggers at you from the cool lunch table, there are witnesses who can testify to it.”

  Annie lifted her head and sneaked a glance at Kelsey. Lauren was right. Kelsey had seen Tyler talking to Annie, and she obviously had a good idea of what he was asking her. She looked furious.

  “Call me crazy, but I would call that an upside,” said Lexie.

  Annie had to admit, she did feel a tiny thrill of victory at being chosen over the head cheerleader. Especially by Tyler.

  But truthfully, that was the least of it. She genuinely liked him. And he liked her! At least enough to want to take her to the dance.

  A dazed and happy look must have come over Annie’s face because Lauren giggled and Lexie rolled her eyes.

  “I don’t know if you can hear me over the violins playing in your head,” Lexie teased, reaching across the table toward Annie’s plate. “But something tells me I might as well finish your pizza.”

  Pizza?

  What pizza?

  She was going to the Halloween dance with Tyler!

  Dodgeball. Without a doubt the stupidest American sport ever invented.

  In fact, in Annie’s opinion, it shouldn’t even qualify as a sport. As far as she was concerned, it was mean-spirited and aggressive, with no redeeming athletic qualities whatsoever.

  She mentioned this to Lexie for the fifteenth time as they stood with the rest of their team on one side of the gymnasium.

  “I find it hard to believe that the same school that sent home a six-page letter about its zero tolerance policy on bullying actually allows this behavior.” Annie tossed the red rubber ball half-heartedly into the cluster of opponents whose job it was to dodge it. “Kids intentionally hurling things at other kids? What do they call that?”

  “They call it Phys. Ed.,” said Lexie, ducking to avoid the ball. “All in the name of personal well-being and good health.” The minute the words left her mouth, a skinny boy named Travis took a ball to the face, resulting in a minor nosebleed.

  Annie felt sorry for him, but truth be told, it would be difficult for anything — dodgeball and bloody noses included — to interfere with her good mood right then.

  She was still flying high over the idea that she would be attending the Halloween dance on the arm of Tyler Erickson. All that was left was to officially accept his invitation, which she planned to do the next time she saw him.

  Here come Posh and Becks, she thought, imagining their costumes.

  The gym teacher blew her whistle and the teams switched places. “Keep your head in the game,” Lexie advised. “I know you’re all dreamy over Mr. Wonderful, but you don’t want to wind up with a black eye or a fat lip.”

  True. That would definitely clash with her glamorous Victoria Beckham look.

  She managed to keep from getting hit by a ball for the first five minutes of play, but she got distracted when she spotted some social committee members climbing the bleachers to hang up yet another poster advertising the dance. This sign didn’t have a creepy horror movie character on it; it was simple and to the point.

  DON’T MISS THE HALLOWEEN DANCE

  LIBERTY HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM

  SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 8 P.M.

  Annie froze where she stood on the gym floor.

  Saturday?

  October 31st!

  That’s what had been niggling at her when she’d seen the first banner that morning.

  “Oh no,” she said. “No, please tell me that’s a misprint!”

  “What’s the matter?” asked Lexie, ducking to avoid being clobbered by a ball.

  “I thought the dance was going to be on Friday night!”

  Lexie followed Annie’s horrified gaze to the sign on the wall. “Saturday’s the night of your Halloween bout, isn’t it?”

  Annie nodded.

  “I didn’t realize,” said Lexie, sidestepping another ball. “I guess I didn’t pay any attention to the signs since I was never planning to go.”

  Annie couldn’t bring herself to move; she just stood there staring at the sign.

  Which was why she didn’t see the ball zooming toward her.

  It hit her in the stomach so hard, she actually doubled over.

  “You’re out!” called the gym teacher, with a blast on his whistle.

  That was fine with Annie. Clutching her gut, she made her way to the rows of seats and plunked herself down next to Travis, wh
o was sitting with his head tilted back and a pile of tissues pressed to this nose.

  Annie’s stomach hurt, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the impact of the ball or the thought of now having to choose between the Halloween bout — which had been her idea — and slow-dancing in the arms of her dream guy.

  She turned to Travis, who smiled weakly from beneath his clump of tissues.

  “I hate gym,” he said.

  “Hear, hear,” Annie said with a sigh.

  As she watched the last few minutes of the sadistic ritual known as dodgeball, she made a mental list of pros and cons and weighed her options:

  The bout was an important event for the Liberty Belles.

  The dance was important, too, as a rite of passage for a teenager new to the United States.

  The team needed her.

  Tyler wanted her. At least as his date for that one evening . . . but if they hit it off, who knew where that might lead?

  There would be plenty of other bouts this season.

  There would be only one Halloween dance.

  She pictured herself bombing around the track as lead jammer, scoring points for the Liberty Belles.

  She pictured herself cuddled up against Tyler, swaying to soft music.

  Should she follow her heart? Or her conscience?

  “No?” Tyler repeated the word back to her, as if she was speaking a foreign language.

  “I’m sorry, Tyler,” she said. “I would love to go with you, I just . . . can’t.”

  They were standing outside the gymnasium.

  When Annie had emerged from the gym, she’d spotted him immediately. Her first thought was that she should have spent more time fixing her hair after her disastrous dodgeball experience. She was probably all red in the face and still a little sweaty. Definitely not the way she wanted to look around Tyler.

  Tyler had surprised her after class, which was actually very sweet. He’d gone through the trouble of finding out which class she had so he could be waiting for her when she got out.

  She had a feeling that now he wished he hadn’t bothered.

  “I don’t understand,” he was saying. “I thought you and I . . . I thought we . . . ya know . . . were kind of giving off vibes or whatever.”