INTRUSION (Whitney Holmes Series) (4 page)

“
Is it here with you today?” he asked.

“
No, I usually only use it to bring my heavy books to school and back when we have a big test or something,” I said.

“
I want you to bring your backpack tomorrow and not use your locker anymore. We will issue you new books tomorrow. I know they will be heavy, but I think this is best,” he said.

I almost groaned, I didn’t want to have to carry those books around with me all day, it was such a pain.

“Another thing. We will not charge you for these wet ones,” he said smiling.

“
Thank you so much,” I said.

“
Chanda, do you think Whitney could copy your notes when she gets some new notebooks?” the principal asked her.

“
Yes, of course,” Chanda said.

“
You will be as good as new tomorrow. I will write you a note to give your teachers to explain what happened,” he told me.

“
Thank you,” I said.

“
I don’t want to see tears in your brown eyes anymore. If this stalker is trying to hurt you somehow, we won’t let him,” he said.

“
Okay,” I said, trying to smile.

“
Just leave all this here. I guess it is sort of evidence, I will put it in storage,” he said.

I thanked him again and I also thanked Alice. The principal went in his office and wrote a couple of notes and he gave me one and one to Chanda then we left.

“Wow,” Chanda said, “he was so nice.”

“
Yes, he’s great,” I said.

“
If you go after school and get the notebooks, you can start copying my notes,” Chanda said.

“
Tonight, I have to go down to the precinct and give my fingerprints,” I said glumly.

“
I know, but come over to my house afterward,” Chanda said.

“
Okay,” I said.

“
Is your dad going to be upset about all your stuff getting destroyed?”

“
I don’t know. I know it was this stalker guy trying to send me some kind of message. I think it was because I talked to the police,” I said.

“
I don’t understand how he knows so much about you,” Chanda said.

“
I have been thinking about that, and I don’t either,” I said.

I walked to my first period class and told Chanda goodbye, she waved and I hoped she didn’t get into trouble because she was majorly late to class.

When I showed my note to Mrs. Simpson, my English teacher, she gave me a disapproving look and said, “Okay.”

That was pretty much how the day went. I sat in class and listened I had to borrow paper and a pencil from my friends.

After school, I walked home with Chanda. Nothing else happened at school.

When I got home, my dad was waiting for me. I told him all about my locker, books, and notebooks getting ruined.

He said that he was grateful to the principal for not charging us for the books.

“
Are you ready to go to the police precinct?” Dad asked me.

“
I guess so,” I said.

My dad got his keys from the little leaf bowl that my parents keep their keys in.

“Let’s go then,” he said.

“
Where are you going?” Jacob asked coming out of the kitchen eating a fudge pop.

“
Whitney and I have some business to tend to,” my dad said.

“
What business?” he said slurping.

“
My own business,” I said leaving the house.

We could hear Jacob yelling “Mom!” as we got in the car.

It took us ten minutes to get to the police station.

We parked and got out and there were police cars everywhere.

My dad held my hand as we walked up. His hand was dry but mine was sweating. It had been a long time since my dad had held my hand…not since I was a little girl.

“
Don’t be worried, honey, this is the easy part,” my dad said.

“
Okay,” I said.

We walked into the police station and, for as many cars as were out front, the station looked a little deserted, my dad went to the front clerk and explained why we were there.

The man asked us to sit and wait. Officers Malcolm and Mitchell would be right out.

They both came out of the same office so I guess they worked together. They came over and shook our hands.

Officer Mitchell said we would first fill out a complaint. My dad said he had more to tell about, that my locker was vandalized and all my books and notebooks were ruined by water damage.

“
This is getting more serious,” Officer Malcolm said.

“
Yes, he or she is getting angry now. By calling the police, you have made them angry. Also the vandalism is more serious. I think schoolbooks are about fifty dollars each, and you said you had five. This is coming close to petty theft and if they are caught, they might have to serve community service,” Officer Mitchell said.

“
It’s harassment,” Dad said and they both nodded.

I always kind of knew the officers weren’t taking my stalker seriously before, but they seemed to now.

“Let’s fill out the complaint, then let’s fingerprint Whitney,” Officer Mitchell said.

My father filled out the complaint form with some prompting from me. Then the officers took me to a room where there was a digital fingerprinting machine.

“We do this the modern way now,” Officer Malcolm said.

“
Yeah, no ink,” Officer Mitchell said.

Officer Malcolm took each one of my fingers and rolled them on a digital card. Then he had me do my four fingers at once on each hand and then my thumbs, it was quite easy.

After we were finished, the officers thanked us and said they would get back to us to see if there were any other prints on the note other than mine.

My dad took me to McDonald’s for dinner and we sat in a booth and talked.

“What are you going to do about not having your books and things not vandalized again?” my dad asked.

“
I guess I will keep everything with me in my backpack,” I said. “The principal will give me a new locker, but I don’t want to take any chances that this might happen again.”

“
Your poor back.” My father smiled.

“
Oh, by the way we need to stop at Staples so I can get some new notebooks,” I said.

“
Okay.”

We stopped by Staples and I got five notebooks in different colors and they were pretty cheap because it was toward the end of the school year.

When I got home, I went over to Chanda’s and borrowed her English notebook. I figured that was one of the most important ones. Chanda had beautiful writing and it was almost like calligraphy. I thanked her for the notebook and went home and I knew I had my work cut out for me in the next few days.

I went into the house and all my family were there. I could tell that my dad had told my mom about the vandalism because she had a strained look on her face. Jacob and Jordan were playing some video game where an assassin kills everybody I thought their video games were so lifelike. Sometimes, a cuss word rang out and my dad would threaten to turn the whole thing off if it happened again.

I went in my room and started copying Chanda’s notebook and I had a cool desk. My dad got it for me from a thrift store it was really sort of a huge table.

My phone rang and the number showed as blocked. I didn’t take the call, of course just one word showed up in the text.

It said, “Witch,” and that was all.

This guy was really getting on my last nerve.

“Dad, look!” I said, and showed him my phone.

CHAPTER THREE

I woke up with a nervous stomach. My mom made homemade chocolate chip waffles, I could only eat a little bit.

I went to school and my dad drove Chanda and me, as usual. My mom was going to pick me up since my backpack was so heavy. They didn’t want me to start having back problems so early in life. Five textbooks and five notebooks weighed a lot.

I kept looking around the school to see if anyone was watching me, everyone looked busy going to school and doing their own thing.

At lunch, I told my friends about the mean text message I got last night. They didn’t understand it either. It seemed like this person hated me, not liked me, I didn’t know why they would stalk me.

My mom came and picked up Chanda and me. It was a big hassle because all of the seniors had cars now and they were leaving at the same time.

“I know this is a real pain, Mom. I am sorry,” I said.

“
Not your fault,” my mom said.

“
Did Whitney tell you about the text she got last night?” Chanda asked my mom.

“
No,” my mom said.

I shot Chanda a look. She mouthed “sorry” to me.

“No, she didn’t. What did this one say?” my mom asked me.

“
Just the word, ‘Witch,’” I said. “I showed Dad.”

“
I really don’t like this,” my mom said, visibly upset.

“
I don’t either,” I said. “Why are they doing this?”

“
Well, at least we made a police statement,” my mom said.

“
I have been thinking about that,” I said, “maybe I shouldn’t have done that. It really seemed to upset the person stalking me.”

“
We are not going to let this person control us,” my mom said.

“
Okay,” I said.

We arrived home and Chanda and went to her house to get her history notebook for me to copy, I had finished copying the English notebook last night.

My parents, Jacob, and Jordan went out to eat. My stomach was in turmoil, so I wasn’t hungry, I told my parents I would have a TV dinner at home.

Our phone rang on our land line, I picked up. Someone said, “Your parents aren’t home,” and then they hung up.

I looked to see who called and the caller I.D. showed “unavailable.”

By then, I was really scared. I went around the house and locked all the doors, I turned on all the lights, I even made sure the windows were locked. I was sitting in my dad’s chair with every light on in the house when my family came home. I let them in.

“Why in the world is every light on?” my father asked me.

I motioned for him and my mom to come to my bedroom. Jacob and Jordan took off to the living room to play their video games. When we got to my room, I told my parents about the threatening phone call.

“He is really messing with your mind,” my dad said.

“
How does he know so much about me?” I asked fearfully.

“
He might have driven by and seen that the car was gone,” my mom said. I started shivering.

“
Oh, honey, it will be okay,” my dad said, hugging me.

“
I am more than a little scared. Do you think he might hurt me?” I asked my parents.

“
I don’t think so,” my dad said, “but I don’t know what he is thinking either.”

“
I personally think it is some kid who has a crush on you,” Mom said.

“
What a way to show it,” I said.

“
What a way to show what?” Jacob came in my room.

“
This is a private conversation,” I said to him.

“
Fine, I will leave,” he said, then he farted, he left, laughing.

“
Jacob, that was rude,” my mom called after him.

We all decided to leave the room because of the smell.

I was still nervous from the phone call, so I never ate dinner. I decided I had a new diet. The stalker diet.

I got some Febreze air spray and sprayed my room. Then I started on the history notebook Chanda gave me.

This stalker thing was such a pain because it was starting to get warmer out and I was afraid to open my curtain and my window.

I finished the history notebook but I didn’t go over to Chanda’s. It was dark and I was scared, I would get a new notebook tomorrow. I had gotten new books from the school so I had homework to do and I decided to get right to it.

While I was working on it, Jordan came to my door and knocked and I told him to come in.

“
What is going on here?” he asked me.

Jordan was always very sensitive.

“I don’t want to freak you out,” I said.

“
I won’t freak out,” he said.