She stops Leif, who sighs, between Jet and Hannah. “Because of this, Earth, the moon, and the sun will only line up perfectly to form a solar eclipse about twice a year.”
Jet, Leif, and Hannah give their models back to Miss Humala and return to their seats. Leif drops his head on his desk with a groan. I scan Miss Humala’s face for any sign that she knows what we’re up to. That we know what her mother is doing. But she’s busy passing out a worksheet on solar eclipses.
“Are you ready for a really awkward trivia competition?” Talib whispers to me.
“Miss Humala, Brandon, and the three of us all in the auditorium after school? Yeah, it’s gonna be great,” I say.
Maria Carmen turns and whispers, “Neither of you think it’s weird that Miss Humala is teaching us about solar eclipses today?”
I shrug. “It’s probably just because one is coming up.”
I stare at Miss Humala as she towers over a student and glares because he forgot to put his name on his worksheet. She’s canceled our last three trivia club practices. Most of the time, she just stands by the window in her classroom, staring into the woods.
Yesterday I spotted a spiderweb tangled in her hair.
“It’s been seven years since the continental United States saw a total solar eclipse,” Miss Humala continues. “The next one will occur in five days and will pass directly through central Texas.”
I think about what Abuela told us about the tule vieja, or whatever Miss Humala’s mother really is. She said that the witch is most powerful during the eclipse. That means in five days, all the animals in the woods and in New Haven will be in danger.
We have to do something.
But first we have a trivia competition to win.
* * *
Talib keeps pulling on the collar of his shirt, mirroring a student from Crockett Middle School in Austin across from us—his tie looks like it’s a second away from strangling him to death. The three other students from Crockett look annoyed to be spending time in a town like New Haven. I guess they’d rather be back in Austin forming a band. Or starting their own tech companies. I wonder if Crockett forces its kids to join the quiz team instead of doing detention.
“This animal defecates on itself to keep cool and will vomit as a defense mechanism,” the quiz bowl moderator says.
Talib buzzes in and shouts, “Turkey vulture.” He winks at his parents, sitting in the front row of the auditorium. Talib’s mom gives him a wide smile, and his dad holds out a thumbs-up.
I mutter a quick prayer that no turkey vultures are in the woods for the tule vieja to bite. No way am I going up against a pooping, barfing witch.
The moderator awards us 100 points, and Talib and I smile at each other as we answer the bonus question correctly as well. Our team is doing great, thanks to Brandon keeping silent. His face is as white as an albino alligator, and he’s bitten all his nails down to nubs.
The moderator, the same high-pants-wearing man from our first competition, clears his throat into the microphone and knocks on the podium with his knobby hands.
“Children, this light-sensitive animal, native to the lakes and rivers of Mexico, can regenerate limbs and even body organs,” Mr. Highpants breathes into the microphone.
Maria Carmen buzzes in and says, “Axolotl.”
Her mom claps from the front row. I pretend not to see her scowl at me directly after as Talib answers the bonus question.
“Well done, New Haven. You are up two hundred sixty to zero,” Mr. Highpants says, holding up a new card. “Next question. This primate can catch human colds and other illnesses.”
Maria Carmen and Talib search each other’s faces as if the answer might be written on a pimple somewhere. Brandon chews on the drawstring of his hoodie while the team from Crockett pulls on their ties. One of the girls has managed to twirl her frizzy hair so tightly around her finger, it’s gotten stuck. They won’t be buzzing in any time soon.
I hit the buzzer in front of me. “Gorillas.”
No one is in the front row of the auditorium to give me a thumbs-up.
“I thought your abuela was going to come,” Maria Carmen whispers next to me while Mr. Highpants awards us more points.
“She wanted to. But I told her if she still wasn’t feeling well, she should rest,” I say.
With Dad always gone and Mom working long hours, I’m used to being on my own at school functions. That doesn’t stop me from scanning every chair in the auditorium.
The competition proceeds, and we continue to trounce Crockett. They do manage to answer one question correctly when Tie Boy accidentally hits the buzzer trying to smash a gnat flying around his table. He mumbles, “Annoying gnat,” which happens to be the answer to “Which insect has hairlike antennae and is known for causing fungus in mushrooms and the roots of potted plants?”
Mr. Highpants doesn’t even bother facing the Crockett team anymore and directs the last question to us. “During World War II, Americans tried to train this type of animal to drop bombs.”
Maria Carmen and Talib shrug and look at me. Brandon’s knee bounces up and down as he gnaws on his thumbnail.
I raise my arm high in the air and bring my hand smashing down on the buzzer.
“Bats!”
Thanks, Dad.
We gather onstage after the competition. Miss Humala congratulates us briefly before hurrying out the back doors behind the stage. I raise my eyebrows at Talib, and he shrugs. Brandon shuffled out of the auditorium the moment the competition was over. Maria Carmen’s mom gives her a kiss on the cheek and tells her, “Felicidades, mija!” Talib’s parents ask Maria Carmen to take a picture of them with Talib, the three of them smiling broadly.
And I stand there with my hands in my pockets.
When I was in first grade, at Fort Benning in Georgia, my school had a Donuts with Dad event every month. I’d spend the morning sitting with Andre, whose dad died before he was born, and Isabel, whose dad moved to Argentina after her parents divorced. They’d both give me sympathetic smiles that made me want to shout that I had a dad who was alive and well and loved me. Eventually, I just sat by myself.
Maria Carmen turns to me, flipping her braids. “Mami and I are going to the pharmacy for ice cream. Wanna come?”
Before I can respond, Ms. Cordova puts her hand on Maria Carmen’s shoulder. “I’m sure he has better things to do, mija.”
The way her lips press into a tight line and her eyes narrow tells me I should turn down this particular invitation.
I scuff my feet on the stage floor. “That’s okay. I need to get home to Abuela.”
Maria Carmen shrugs and mouths “sorry” to me as she and her mother leave.
Talib shuffles over to me and mumbles, “I wanted to invite you over, but my parents said no.” He won’t look me in the eye.
“It’s my abuela, isn’t it? They think she has something to do with all the missing animals, too?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
I slap him lightly on the arm. “It’s okay. I get it,” I lie.
Talib steps in closer to me and whispers, “We’ll get that tule vieja, Nestor. Don’t worry. We’ll get her, and then people will see that your grandma is innocent.”
I smile at Talib and head out of the auditorium.
I’ve never stayed anywhere long enough for people to form an opinion of me. By the time they decide my obsession with Pokémon cards is weird, I’m already packing my bags.
But it also means I’ve never had to stay somewhere long enough to endure people hating me.
CHAPTER 19
“WHY SO BUMMED, KID? You look like someone pooped on your Pringles,” Cuervito says as he soars above me.
“You want a list?” I kick an acorn across the trail through the woods.
“Bring it.”
I hold up my fingers. “There’s a witch stealing all the animals in town. Everybody thinks it’s my abuela. My friends’ parents hate me. My dad is thousands of miles away. And I’m probably
going to have to move again in a few months. Is that enough for you?”
Cuervito glides down and lands on the path in front of me. “Huh. Yeah, I think I’d be bummed, too.” He hops slowly across the path and lowers his head. “In fact, I’m feeling pretty sad right now.”
I smirk and shake my head. “You’ll get over it.”
“Nope. Not with that crazy witch in the woods. She wants to pluck my feathers and boil me for dinner!”
I take Dad’s compass out of my pocket and rub my thumb over its face.
“Your dad’s, right?” the raven asks.
“Yeah. I wish he were here. He’d know what to do.” I watch the needle swing back and forth until it rests on north. “Maybe it’ll point to the tule vieja.”
Cuervito tilts his head at the compass. “It should point at the best roadkill.”
“You’re disgusting.”
A twig snaps behind us, and I jerk my head to scan the trees. Each time I walk through the woods, I notice more claw slashes on tree trunks and more smashed cacti.
“How about more walking, less talking. Yeah?” Cuervito says, and I quicken my pace home.
We crest the hill and head down into Abuela’s backyard. Mom comes out onto the porch, her arms outstretched.
“There you are! How was the competition? I bet you trounced them,” she says, a huge grin on her face.
I nod and smile, giving her a hug.
“Victory selfie before I have to go!” Mom says, holding out her phone. She snaps a quick photo that cuts off our foreheads.
“Where are you going?” I ask, shoving my hands into my pockets.
Mom slides her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “Nursing conference in Dallas. First time I’m going to one. It’s exciting!”
She gives me another hug, and I don’t let go. I’m used to Dad being the one that leaves. This is the first time Mom has ever gone somewhere without me.
Mom breaks our hug and looks me in the eyes. “Hey, you’ll be fine. You’re the man of the house now, right? Take care of your abuela for me.”
Giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, Mom heads back into the house. I slump down on the porch steps and pick at the hem of my shirt.
I scan the edge of Abuela’s backyard and spot the strangest parade marching toward me: Val, Chela with her fawn, and three squirrels, all looking at me.
“Is there a convention in town I don’t know about?” I ask Cuervito as he sails down and hops next to me.
He squawks. “It’s a ‘there’s a witch in the woods and we need your help’ convention.”
I get up and walk over to Chela. She nods. “Hello, Nestor.”
“Hi,” I say. “So thanks for helping my abuela the other day. I didn’t get to say that … with everything going on.”
“You’re very welcome, and now we need your help,” Chela says. “Something has to be done. Your grandmother was doing what she could for us, but now she can’t help. And I’m afraid helping cost her too much. We’ve heard a lot of talk from the people in town about her. They think she’s responsible for all the missing animals. They don’t realize that she was only helping us.”
“What was she doing?”
“She was giving us places to hide, marking those traps that vile boy set.”
Val hops up to me. “Thanks for getting rid of those, by the way.”
I look at the coyote’s back leg. A red scar circles it just above his foot. “Glad to see you’re doing better.”
The squirrels scamper over one another. “Gotta get rid of the witch. Gotta get rid of the witch.”
“What is she exactly?” Chela asks.
“Oh, I know this one! I know this!” Cuervito screeches. “She’s a turnip violet. No, she’s a toilet vittle. Yep, that’s it. Toilet vittle.”
I shake my head. “She’s a tule vieja. She bites animals so she can get their powers and turn into them.”
Cuervito bobs his beak up and down. “Yep. Just like I said.”
The tumble of squirrel fur shouts, “Don’t like that! Nope, definitely don’t like that!”
“So how do we stop her?” Chela asks, inching closer to her fawn.
“I’m figuring that out,” I tell her. “Whatever we do, we have to do it soon, though. My abuela says she’ll be able to turn into any animal she bites during the solar eclipse.”
“When’s the eclipse?” Val asks.
“In five days.”
The animals stare at me. I know they’re waiting for me to tell them my brilliant plan to stop the tule vieja for good.
But I have nothing.
I feel a sharp smack on the back of my head and see an acorn roll on the ground next to me.
“Intruder!” Cuervito cries, flapping his wings and flying into the air.
I turn to see Brandon stomping down the hill toward Abuela’s backyard. He reaches down and picks up another acorn, launching it at me, and I duck, the acorn bouncing off Chela’s side.
“What is your problem?” I shout, searching the yard for something I can throw back at him.
Val scampers in front of me. “Don’t worry, Nestor. We got you.”
Cuervito soars above Brandon. “I pooped on you once, kid. I’ll do it again!”
Brandon runs closer to me, his face pale. He’s got dark circles under his eyes and scratches along his arms. “Stop. You have to stop,” he mumbles as he enters the yard.
Val lunges at him, snapping his small, sharp teeth. Cuervito swoops down, brushing the top of Brandon’s head with his wings.
This breaks Brandon out of his trance. He blinks and shakes his head.
“Nestor, you have to stay away from the witch.”
“No way. She hurt my abuela. And she’s going to do a lot worse if we don’t do something about it.”
Brandon stomps his foot on the ground. “You have to stop looking for her. I told her I wouldn’t help her anymore, and then … she…”
“What?”
“She took my dad.”
CHAPTER 20
“IF I WANTED TO BE IN A GROUP with the world’s worst person,” Maria Carmen hisses at me, “I would’ve asked Brandon to join us. Oh, wait. You already did.”
She narrows her eyes as Brandon sinks lower in his chair. He pulls his ratty fatigue-green jacket tight around him, his knuckles as white as his face.
“Group work is one thing, Nestor, but c’mon,” Talib says, pulling his desk next to mine. Maria Carmen shoves her desk next to Brandon’s, our four desks making a square.
Miss Humala stands at the front of the room, pointing to a map of Texas projected on the board. “Make sure you label each section of the state with the percentage of eclipse totality. Then, for our area, label the time for the phases of the eclipse.”
I notice a bandage wrapped around her arm and wonder if it’s covering a wolverine slash—just like the one on my abuela’s forehead.
Maria Carmen, Talib, and I huddle over our map. Brandon chews on his fingernail.
“Look, I get it. We don’t have the best history,” I tell them.
“Try World War III with pudding and rocks,” Talib snorts.
Brandon mumbles under his breath, “I had to.”
Maria Carmen’s head snaps in his direction. “You were a jerk long before this tule vieja came into town, and you know it.”
Brandon’s mouth drops open as if he were about to say something, but he ends up just staring at her.
Miss Humala claps as she stands by the window at the back of the classroom. Her eyes dart toward the woods. “This is due at the end of class, so make sure you’re working diligently.”
Talib rolls his eyes and slides our paper onto his desk, beginning to fill out how much of the eclipse each part of Texas will be able to see. New Haven is directly in the path of the total solar eclipse.
“Yes, he’s been a jerk. He won’t deny it,” I say, pointing at Brandon. He purses his lips and nods. “But this is different. His dad is gone. The tule vieja took him.”
> Maria Carmen’s eyebrows scrunch together. She grips her pencil so tightly it starts to crack. “How long have you been on your own?”
Brandon sighs, and his stomach grumbles loudly. “Four days.”
Talib stops writing on our paper and looks at Brandon. For a moment, I think he’s going to reach out and put his hand on Brandon’s arm, but he presses his hands on his desk instead.
Miss Humala hovers over our desks. “Busy at work?” she says, raising her eyebrow into a pointed arch.
Maria Carmen flips a braid over her shoulder and clears her throat. “Miss Humala, is it true that some cultures think that eclipses have special powers?”
I dig my fingernails into my palms. I’m certain Miss Humala is aware we know her mother is the tule vieja. Maria Carmen needs to be more careful.
Miss Humala gives a strained laugh. “Oh, dear. This is science class. That’s a better question for Ms. Cheng in English class. You know, for when you read mythology. Or fairy tales.”
She grips the back of Talib’s chair, her red fingernails digging into the hard plastic. “You know, Principal Jelani’s rule about students not going in the woods is still in effect. Make sure you’re following it.”
The group next to us starts arguing about how long the total eclipse will be visible in New Haven, and Miss Humala snaps from the death stare she’s giving us to walk over to them.
“Next time, why don’t you just ask her where her mother is and how we can stop her,” Talib mumbles, head in his hands.
A smile creeps from the corner of Brandon’s mouth.
“We need to figure out two things,” I tell them.
“What’s that?” Maria Carmen asks.
“Where Miss Humala’s mother is. And how we can stop her.”
Talib slams his forehead down on his desk.
A chuckle erupts from Brandon’s throat, and we stare at him. He looks at us and shakes his head. “She’s hiding in the quarry. That’s where she took my dad.”
“Did you see her?” Maria Carmen asks.
Brandon shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Yeah, I ran after them. But then this stupid raven stopped me. Almost pecked my eyes out.”
The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez Page 11
