From Bad to Cursed (3 page)

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Megan’s taking us home,” I said. “Kasey’s worn out.”

His brow furrowed. “I can leave now if you need me to.”

“No, don’t worry,” I said. “You stay. Schmooze up some votes.”

Megan stared at the road and tilted her head thoughtfully. “Do you think Elspeth—”

“Megan,
no
,” I said, trying to use the tightness of my voice to remind her that Kasey was in the backseat. “Seriously.”

“What?” she said, pausing at a stop sign. “There are ghosts everywhere. You know it as well as I do. And so does Kasey.”

“But we don’t have to be their friends!” I said. “
Rule one:
Don’t be friends with ghosts.”

“She was
nice
, though.”

“That’s what I thought.” Kasey’s weary voice came from the backseat. “About Sarah.”

Megan was stunned into silence, and I was, too. I’d never heard Kasey mention Sarah—the evil ghost who’d possessed her the previous October, thirteen years after murdering Megan’s mother.

“Thank you, Kasey. See?” I said. “Kasey thought Sarah was nice. And look where it landed her. You want to spend a year in a mental institution?”

I
TURNED AWAY FROM
the brightness of the muted television and rested my eyes on the ceiling. The glow from the screen made the whole room flicker like a rainbow campfire.

And then I heard it—

A footstep in the hall.

I froze. All my concentration shifted to listening for another sound. The flashing TV hovered on the outer fringes of my awareness. I felt like I was seeing, hearing, breathing out of my ears.

Another step.

I was on my feet and standing at the entrance to the hallway so quickly I felt a little light-headed. I balled my empty hand into a fist.

Kasey stood perfectly still in the middle of the hall, her body angled toward our parents’ bedroom door. Her long, old-fashioned Christmas nightgown hung to her ankles, still creased from being folded in its gift box for eight months.

I’d seen her like this once before—silent. Waiting. Plotting.

Against our parents, against me.

Slowly, hesitantly, she raised her hand.

“Kasey!” I said.

She jumped about a foot in the air and landed hunched over, clutching her chest.

“
God,
Alexis!” she hissed. “You scared the crap out of me!”

I didn’t move any closer. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“Going to the bathroom,” she said. “What are
you
doing out of bed? It’s one o’clock.”

I shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“So you’re playing security guard? You think I’m going to try to kill everyone?”

“No, of course not.” Although…hmm. Maybe that
was
what I was doing.

Kasey reached for our parents’ doorknob.

“Wait,” I said.

“I need to
pee
, Lexi,” she said. “Do you have to analyze every detail of everything I do?”

“I’m not trying to analyze you,” I said. “I’m trying to keep you from peeing on Mom and Dad’s carpet.” I pointed to the door on my right. “Bathroom.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Everything looks the same in this place.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

I went back to the couch, feeling virtuous for not pointing out that it was, after all,
her
fault that we’d had to move to Silver Sage Acres.

A minute later, Kasey drifted into the room and sat on the loveseat, her arms crossed in front of her. “Why’s the sound off?”

I shrugged. We stared at the silent infomercial.

As I started to nod off, Kasey spoke. “How about we skip school tomorrow?”

“I don’t really do that anymore,” I said. “Besides, everybody knows you never skip your first day.”

She curled her knees under herself. “Maybe I can catch chicken pox between now and eight o’clock.”

“It’ll be fine,” I said, trying not to think of the bazillion things that could make it not fine. “I’ll help you.”

“I wish I hadn’t missed the first week. Everybody else knows each other, and I don’t even have my schedule yet.” She went pale—or maybe it was the blue light from the TV. “I don’t know where anything is.”

“Mom can take you a little early,” I said. “They’ll have somebody show you around, point out where all your classes are.”

Kasey clamped her mouth shut and gazed at me through her wide blue eyes. She seemed to be a tiny ball of a person—even her toes curled inward. “Lexi? Is there any way I could ride with…you?”

All weekend I’d been waiting for some bit of my little sister’s personality to work its way out from under her odd, fragile shell. And now, with that one question, she was being herself for the first time—her old, wheedling self. Mom and Dad used to call her “Slick,” and Dad always said Kasey could sell a broom to a vacuum salesman.

Even if it was her needy side that came back first, it was a glimpse of Kasey.

The
real
Kasey.

The first glimpse I’d seen in a really, really long time.

Megan didn’t even blink when she saw my sister standing beside me in the foyer the next morning. “Hi, guys. Ready to go?”

By the time we were all buckled up, Kasey looked liked a prisoner about to walk the green mile.

“There’s nothing wrong with being nervous,” Megan said, looking at her in the rearview. “You’ll be all right.”

“I’m
not
nervous,” Kasey said, but her voice wobbled, betraying her.

We had to maneuver a little to get her out of the backseat with her shortish, tightish denim skirt on. When she was safely on solid ground, no risk of flashing her underwear to the entire parking lot, I started walking toward the double doors with Megan.

After going about thirty feet, I got the distinct feeling that we
weren’t
being followed. Sure enough, Kasey was rooted in place by the car, gazing back out at the road like she might make a break for it.

“Um,” I said to Megan, “I think I’d better go with my sister.”

She shaded her eyes to look back. “Seems like it,” she said. “See you in Chem.”

I walked over to Kasey, who held her backpack in front of herself like a shield.

“Kasey,” I said, “you have to go
inside
. Otherwise it doesn’t count as going to school.”

“I changed my mind,” she said, her voice an octave higher than normal. “I don’t want to be here.”

“The good news is, nobody asked.” I gave her a gentle push.

As we walked toward the front office, I saw a bunch of people I knew. But Kasey didn’t seem to recognize any-one—not even the kids she’d gone to school with for years. Nobody acted like they knew her, either. Maybe her generation had shorter memories than mine. I blamed texting.

Kasey couldn’t stop gaping at the kids in their happy, animated groups. She gradually slowed to a stop in the middle of the corridor.

I raised my eyebrows and waited.

She took a breath and held it, her chest rising without a fall. “I don’t have a locker.”

“They’ll assign you one,” I said. “They’ll even give you a lock.”

“Near yours?”

“No. Near your classes.”

Kasey started gnawing on her fingernails. Why did she look so childish? She was fourteen—only two years younger than me.

“Listen.” I pulled her fingers out of her mouth. “It’s going to be fine. I’ll help you. I can show you where—”

“Stop acting like I’m a baby!” she said, yanking away from me.

People peered at us curiously. Kasey was pretty, maybe even beautiful, even with her hair in a hurried ponytail, and her denim skirt, Minnie Mouse T-shirt, and Converse tennis shoes.

I lowered my voice. “Kasey, it’s only high school. If I did it, you can do it.”

As if her shoes were made of lead, she pushed one forward, then the other, and we were walking again. When we got to the front office, I pointed at the registrar and leaned in to hug her.

She jerked back.

“Okay,” I said, stepping away. “Have a good day, then.”

“No, wait, I didn’t mean…” She flapped her arms helplessly. “At Harmony Valley, we weren’t allowed to touch each other.”

“Well, news flash, Toto,” I said, stinging from her rejection. “You’re not in Kansas anymore.”

“Nice camera,” the girl said. “How many megapixels?

Mine’s twelve-point-one.”

“Oh, it’s not digital,” I said. “I shoot film.”

She blinked. “But how many megapixels?” She pressed a button and the flash shot open, startling her. The dozen-megapixel beast took a hard landing in the grass.

I watched her wipe blades of damp grass from every part of the camera except the lens. When she was finished, she looked up, still waiting for an answer.

“Um…nine-point-seven?” I said.

“Cool.” She smiled. “Let’s go to the library. I really like the bricks there.”

I followed without protest.

During one of their many Kasey-themed phone calls with the Surrey High guidance counselor over the summer, my parents had slipped up and mentioned my photography hobby. This prompted said guidance counselor to mention the school’s photography class, which prompted said parents to bug me endlessly about enrolling in it.

I’d given in partly to make them happy and partly out of curiosity.

But it was a massive mistake.

That day, I’d been paired with a senior named Daffodil or Delilah or something, and sent out to take some exploratory photos. Never mind that there was nothing worth exploring at Surrey High, but Daffodil/ Delilah insisted we hike all over the campus, examining tree bark, sidewalk cracks, and now the bricks in the library wall.

I’d taken four photos. Film is expensive.

But digital is free, and Daffodil couldn’t get enough. She had me scroll through eighteen identical images of a pinecone so I could tell her which one was the best. I chose one at random.

“That’s my favorite, too!” she said.

I wished I could be charmed by her enthusiasm, but the words that kept creeping to the edge of my tongue were dangerously noncharming. So I opted for silence, under cover of which I plotted out the main points of the argument I’d use to get unenrolled from the class.

As we changed course to head for the bricks, something across the courtyard caught my eye—a late- arriving student and her mother. The mother was young and pretty, sitting in a wheelchair. The daughter was a study in awkwardness. She wore denim overalls over a shiny, cheap-looking pink shirt, like a dance recital leftover. Her stringy hair hung loose around her face, with an enormous fake sunflower pinned above one ear.

I thought there was something odd and stilted about the way she moved until I noticed that she walked with a cane—like, an actual old-people cane.

I snapped a couple pictures of them and then noticed that the girl was looking right at me. I blushed and turned away, the camera still hiding my face.

L
UCKILY, THIRD PERIOD WAS
English with Mr. O’Brien, who knew me from sophomore year. He saw my pink hair and occasionally prickly attitude as evidence that I was one of those temperamental creative types. In other words, I got away with a lot in his class.

I asked if I could go to the office about a personal issue. He said he hoped everything was okay and wrote me a hall pass.

When I told the office secretary I needed to talk to Mrs. Ames about my schedule, she sat back in her chair and gazed at me through her reading glasses, which magnified her no-nonsense glare.

“It’s the sixth day of school,” she said. “You think the principal has nothing better to do than listen to you complain?”

“That’s all right, Ivy.” There was no mistaking Mrs. Ames’s voice, deep and resonant in the way only school principals’ voices are. She appeared at her doorway. “I can spare five minutes. Come in, Alexis.”

During my more, shall we say, “impetuous” period, I’d sat on her scratchy old couch about once a week. Now I got upgraded to the guest chair. Looking around, I saw an unfamiliar, possibly fake, plant in the corner, and a new diploma on the wall—a master’s degree.

“When did you get that?” I asked.

“Just this past June,” she said, putting her reading glasses on. “Thanks for noticing.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, and we sat and stared at each other. Apparently, apart from my misbehavior and its consequences, we didn’t actually have much to talk about.

Then we both spoke at once.

“You’ve been on my mind this morning,” she said, just as I said, “I have to get out of Photography.”

She sat back. “And why is that?”

As calmly as I could, I gave her a rundown of how thoroughly I detested the class. I led with the fact that we never actually spent any time in the darkroom because everyone else shot digital, and ended with an impassioned visual critique of the brick wall. Mrs. Ames nodded from time to time, seemingly content to listen to as many complaints as I could dredge up.

“If there was moss growing on it or something, that would be one thing,” I said. “But seriously. They’re
bricks
.”

Finally, out of ammunition, I gripped the armrests of my chair and waited.

She folded her hands and sighed. Then she tilted her head to the left and the right, stealing glances of something on her desk. “School district policy,” she said, “does not allow transfer out of an enrolled class without pressing circumstances. Which don’t traditionally include students’ opinions on the aesthetic merits of building materials.”

I started talking as soon as I could get another lungful of air. “But Mrs. Ames—this class is incompatible with my skill level. I truly believe that I will become a
worse
photographer every day I’m forced to participate.”

She held up a hand. “All right, Alexis. Calm down.”

“Please,” I said. “I didn’t even want it on my schedule. My father found out about it and wouldn’t leave me alone until—”

“Stop.”
She gave me a sharp look. “While you’re ahead. I liked your arguments better when you weren’t blaming other people.”

I shut my mouth. But not for long. “There’s no chance, then?”

She was still studying whatever was on her desk. “It’s so serendipitous that you came in here this morning,” she said, as if we’d finished the discussion and were moving on.

“Why?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.

She handed me a sheet of paper.

LOOKING FOR THE NEXT GERNERATION OF SUPERSTAR PHTOTGRAPHERS,
read the heading at the top.
ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ANNUAL “YOUNG VISIONARIES” CONTEST.

“It’s a photography competition,” she said. “The grand prize is a scholarship and a paid summer internship.”

“Ah.” I tried to hand the flyer back. “Thanks for thinking of me.”

She wouldn’t take it. “You’re not even going to consider it?”

I shrugged. “Not like I could possibly win.”

“Why not?”

Because I’m not going to enter. Because I have better things to do with my time than compete in some cheesy contest, sur
rounded by overachieving college-application padders.

Mrs. Ames turned her attention to rearranging the pens in a mug by her phone. “You don’t just send your work in and either win or lose. It’s more of a process than that. There are interviews, social functions…but the deadline for applications is tomorrow.”

“Contests aren’t really my thing,” I said, reaching for my bag.

“That sounds like a groundless line of reasoning to me.” Her chair let out a loud creak as she swiveled toward her computer. “But I know you, Alexis. And I imagine no amount of money could entice you to do something you don’t want to do.”

“Wait,” I said. “How much money?”

She smirked but tried to wipe it off her face before she turned around. “I believe the scholarship is five thousand dollars, and the internship is paid—probably minimum wage.”

“Oh,” I said, and then, “Oh.”

So, okay, before you call me a sellout, here’s the thing:

My parents have decent jobs, but even with our health insurance, I suspected they’d had to lay out a bundle of money to keep Kasey at Harmony Valley instead of the county facility. College didn’t worry me—I figured I’d get a summer job and save up enough money to go to a state university, hopefully with some kind of “Hey, at least you tried” academic scholarship.

But there was just one little variable:

I wanted a car.

I mean, I really, really wanted a car. Bad.

And if I got a scholarship, maybe Mom and Dad would shave a few dollars out of my college fund and apply it to something pretty with four wheels and a gas tank.

Mrs. Ames was watching me.

I examined my fingernails. “The only thing is…I’m not sure I would have time for all that,” I said, “what with all the extra time I’m spending on photography class.”

I folded the paper in half and set it on her desk, trying to look both angelic and apologetic.

“That’s a shame,” she said softly.

I raised my eyes to meet hers.

“I would just
hate
for an elective class to get in the way of your ambitions.”

“I totally agree,” I said, my voice almost disappearing.

“Do we understand each other?” she asked.

Afraid to drop my gaze, I nodded.

She smiled but tried to hide it. “Better head back to class.”

I stood up, reaching hesitantly for the flyer and tucking it into the pocket of my bag.

Before third period ended, an office runner came into the classroom with a slip of paper. He handed it to Mr. O’Brien, who said, “Warren,” flapping it at me. I yanked it from his hand and read it right there, at his desk. It was a memo from the guidance office:
Class substitution: Alexis Warren, Period 2, report to Library Study Hall, Miss Nagesh.

Mr. O’Brien looked up. “Good news?”

I pressed the slip to my chest like it was a telegram bearing news of a soldier’s homecoming. “You have no idea.”

* * *

Surrey High has two separate lunch hours, with all four grades mixed together. Megan, Carter, and I had second lunch. I wasn’t sure which one Kasey ended up with.

Megan plunked her stack of books down on our table and headed for the lunch line.

Dad always packed my lunches—and now Kasey’s, I guess—so I never had to brave cafeteria food. I saw a flash of blond, and Carter came in, carrying a dark green metal lunch box that matched my purple one. His mother got them for us as back-to-school presents. They were made by some Danish designer who was known for his “artisanal metalwork.” I was tempted to look them up online, but I had a feeling they cost about a hundred dollars each, and I wouldn’t be able to look Mrs. Blume in the eye if that were true.

“Hey,” Carter said, pressing his lips to my forehead. “How’s your sister?”

“Don’t know. Haven’t seen her.”

“Hi, guys!” Emily Rosen set her tray down across from us, a smile on her heart-shaped face. “Happy Monday!”

“Hi, Em.” I turned back to Carter. “I’m sort of hoping she miraculously made some friends or something.”

“She didn’t,” Carter said, smoothing his cuffs over his wrists and pulling a sandwich from his lunch box.

I blinked. “Why do you say that?”

“She just walked in,” he said. “Alone.”

“I can move over,” Emily said, gathering her stuff. If they gave out prizes for niceness, she would be the model for the figurine on top of the trophy. We’d gone to school together since first grade, and Emily had swept the citizenship awards every year. I’m relieved to be able to say I’d always liked her, even during the brief two-year period when I made it a point not to like anybody.

After Megan and I started sitting together at lunch last year, Emily ended up drifting to our table. We have kids from almost every clique. Kind of like high school stew.

“Thanks, but no,” I said. “I might give her a minute. I’m sure there are plenty of freshmen who still have room at their tables.”

But I was wrong. Every table seemed occupied by a fully formed group, and there was clearly an unspoken rule that forbade sitting down with strangers. Kasey was like a rat in a maze, thwarted at every turn, and we were the scientists watching from above.

To make matters worse, it seemed like stories about my sister’s year in a mental institution were making their way around. Crowds parted wordlessly for her; kids fell silent as she passed, then put their heads together, whispering and casting sly looks at her back.

“There’s lots of room,” Emily said.

“She has to learn to make her own way, right?” I asked. “Survival of the fittest? Sink or swim?”

Carter, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of her, said, “Sink.”

Kasey had found an empty table. It was the worst spot in the whole cafeteria. It was next to the trash cans and smelled like garbage (especially by second lunch), not to mention the constant danger of someone’s poorly aimed trash landing in your food.

Kasey glanced around nervously, then opened her lunch bag and pulled out her sandwich. I winced as an older boy walking by slapped the tabletop.

“All hail Queen of the Janitor’s Table!” he crowed, walking past.

My sister ducked her head, and my resolve weakened. I focused all of my attention on getting my wonky apple to balance. Carter’s breath warmed my ear.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

No, I wasn’t. How could I be? None of my life experiences had prepared me for this situation.

But then the decision was made for me.

“
Lex
—” Carter’s voice held a warning note, strong enough for me to instinctively look over at Kasey, who was shrinking in her seat like a hand puppet without a hand.

Mimi Laird stood over my sister, hands on her hips. I was too far away to hear what she was saying, but it carried outwardly to the tables around them, drawing tons of attention.

I bolted to my feet. “I’ll be right back.”

Mimi Laird had been Kasey’s best—and last—friend. She was loyal up until the moment that my sister, in the beginning stages of her possession, broke Mimi’s arm in a confrontation over one of Kasey’s precious dolls.

Kasey spent eighth grade at Harmony Valley; Mimi spent it clawing to the top of the social ladder. Now she was top-tier, even as a freshman—her expensive clothes, well-maintained appearance, and haughty attitude made it clear that she was not to be messed with.

As I came closer, I could hear random words:
pos
sessed, psycho, stalker—
and see my sister cowering under Mimi’s ranting. People at nearby tables were watching and listening; any drama is good drama.

This would have to be handled delicately. Mimi’s big sister, Pepper, was a prominent fixture in my social circle. I couldn’t blast Mimi the way I once would have, but I planned to make her stop—in no uncertain terms.

I didn’t get a chance, though. As I opened my mouth to call her name, I was interrupted.

“Hey, Mimi, why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?”

Lydia Small approached them, her hands on her hips. Mimi turned around, blushing furiously; for all her beauty rituals, she wasn’t what you’d call a petite girl.

Lydia was six inches shorter than Mimi and probably forty pounds lighter, but she waltzed right up to her.

“Could you please keep your mooing at a more appropriate volume?” she asked sweetly. “People are trying to eat.”

Mimi let out a squeak of rage as the tables around them tittered.

Lydia feigned alarm. “Why would you even do this now?” she asked. “Do you realize you’re missing out on valuable cud-chewing time?”

“Go away!” Mimi countered feebly.

Lydia put her hand on the table and tipped her head to one shoulder in an over-practiced pose. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said slowly. “
You
go away.”

At this point, one of Mimi’s friends swooped in and dragged her back to their table.

I went over to my sister. “Kasey,” I said. “Are you all right? Come sit with me.”

Kasey looked intently at her brown lunch bag. “I’m okay, Lexi.”

Lydia smiled brightly. “Oh, hi, Lexi! You’re
so
welcome for saving your sister from Moomoo. She could have been eaten, you know. High school is a very dangerous place.”