I shrugged and slumped down to the floor, sitting cross-legged and watching them. “It has to be her, who else could it be? She’s just trying to scare me; she’s trying to get a reaction as payback for me calling her a dirty tramp at the party. She’s a freak.”
Suddenly Beth put the box down and shook her head. “We shouldn’t be touching this. It’ll be contaminated with our fingerprints now.” She set it on the side, looking at it worriedly. “You have called the police, haven’t you?”
Okay, I knew this was coming. “Er, no. I’m not going to, and I don’t want anyone else to know either. She’s just doing it to make me look like an idiot, so I’m not giving her the satisfaction.” I lifted my chin confidently. I wasn’t going to the police, not over a beheaded teddy bear and a couple of prank phone calls, I’d get laughed right out of there.
Beth’s lips pressed into a hard, disapproving line. “Maisie, this is serious, what if it’s not her sending it? What if it’s not a joke? You have to tell the police.”
I flinched; I refused to think about that scenario. “It is her,” I assured them. “I don’t want a load of people to know about it, but I needed to tell someone. I definitely don’t want Alex or Luke to know about this, they’ll go all caveman on me and insist that I don’t go anywhere alone, you know what they’re both like.”
Charlotte sat forward, leaning her elbows on her knees as her blue eyes locked onto mine. “But why would she go that far though? Sure, she’s minion of the devil, but why would she even bother with you now anyway? She’s got what she wanted, you and Luke have split up, she’s free to make her move on him if she wanted. So why would she start sending you stuff like this? She’s already won, it doesn’t make sense.”
I groaned in frustration, wishing I hadn’t told them. The fact that they were making a big deal out of this was making it worse, I was hoping they’d both just agree with me, and we’d laugh about how stupid Sandy was and then burn the teddy in some kind of voodoo ritual or something. “When has she ever made sense? She already told me that us breaking up wasn’t enough for her,” I countered. “Look, I only wanted to get it off of my chest. I don’t want to go to the police; I don’t want a big deal made out of it. That’s what she wants to happen.”
Charlotte nodded slowly. Beth still looked like she disapproved of the whole thing. “You should call the FedEx people and see who sent it, they have records and stuff. Or maybe I could find out another way,” Charlotte suggested. There was a mischievous little glint to her eye and a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth which signalled that she was up to no good.
I raised one eyebrow. “How would you do that?”
She sat back and clasped her hands together, smiling in full now which only meant one thing - she was going to do her computer thing again and hack FedEx to see who sent it. “I need my laptop,” was all she answered. I rolled my eyes. Beth looked at Charlotte with apprehension clear across her face, she didn’t approve of anything illegal and usually shied away from Charlotte once the laptop came out. “I’ll look as soon as I get home, shouldn’t be too hard to crack their security. We have the tracking number on the box, so it should be a breeze.” She looked almost excited as she said it. Computers were her thing so she relished anything that posed a slight challenge to her.
I sighed and nodded. “Okay, but it won’t make a difference, that’ll just show that it was sent from her, I still don’t want to do anything about it. She’ll get bored soon enough and she’ll move on to someone else.”
Beth still didn’t look convinced. “All right, but if anything else happens then you should report it, or at least tell your parents. Prank calls and stuff like this is no joke, even if it’s only meant to scare someone.”
I nodded in agreement. I already decided I’d do that anyway, if something else came along then I’d tell people, but for now I was happy just sweeping it under the carpet. I had too much other stuff going on at the moment; I was still struggling to deal with the fact that Luke had shattered my heart. I didn’t want to have to acknowledge that yes, for a few minutes, I was actually scared when I opened that box, and that yes it had actually crossed my mind that someone was, in fact, threatening me. It was easier to pretend like it wasn’t happening.
“Once I get the proof that she sent it, we should all jump her or something,” Charlotte suggested thoughtfully.
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “I don’t like violence.”
She raised one eyebrow. “The girl sent you a mutilated teddy bear; I think violence is justified in this situation.”
I chuckled at the hopeful glint in her eye. “You sound just like Zach.”
“Ooh, and that’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Charlotte said, eyeing me curiously. “What’s going on with you two? Personally I don’t think he’s a good fit for you, he’s too… badass, for you. But you seem to be getting on well,” she mused.
I laughed incredulously. “Nothing’s going on. I’m tutoring him, and for some reason he seems to like hanging out with me. Nothing more than that. He’s a nice guy actually. I don’t think he’s as badass as he likes to make out he is. He’s a pretty complicated person.” I frowned, thinking about some of the things he’d said to me, he was definitely complicated and had a lot more going on than he liked to show people. Cocky and arrogant seemed to be an image he liked to portray to people so that they’d stay at a distance. Underneath it all I would bet that he was more sensitive than he let on.
Charlotte pursed her lips and nodded. “I’d sure like to work him out. If only he hadn’t called me sweetness, I’d be all over him like a rash.” We all burst out laughing and talk turned onto boys and school rather than Sandy and police, for that I was immensely grateful.
As soon as I stepped out of Alex’s car on Monday morning, I was instantly met by Charlotte who looped her arm through mine, leaning in conspiratorially. “So I tried everything to find out who sent that package, but I couldn’t find anything at all. The records for it seem to be a mystery; the ID of the sender was never logged. I did find out that the office that sent it was in the next town over though. I tried to look through their security footage to see if Sandy was caught on camera sending it, but there was nothing. Either they don’t have security cameras, or it was deleted,” she told me, raising one eyebrow.
I frowned at that. “The ID wasn’t logged?”
She shook her head and shrugged. “Nope. Trust me, if it had been logged and then deleted, I would have seen it, but there was nothing there at all, not even ghost record entries. The sender was left blank,” she confirmed. “I reckon she slipped them a few bucks to keep her name off of it so no one could prove it was her if you did decide to go to the police.”
I sighed dramatically. She’d gone to so much freaking effort just to send me that package. It was a little scary really. “Let’s just forget about it. I’m not giving her the satisfaction of a reaction about it.” I lifted my chin confidently as we walked towards the school building together. As we got to my locker I spotted Sandy. She was further up the hallway, chatting and laughing animatedly with her little group of likeminded airheads. She didn’t even look in my direction. She’s obviously intent in not giving herself away and pretending like she doesn’t know anything is going on. Witch.
Beth marched up a minute later, talking about how she was going to flunk algebra because she hadn’t done her assignment for class. I smiled and tried my best to get into the conversation, but my mind kept wandering back to the note and the box. You’re next. I suddenly doubted my plan to ignore it. As I glanced up at Sandy again the anger built in my stomach. What I really wanted to do was strut over there and finish what I’d started the other day. She looked up at exactly the same time, her eyes met mine and a small smug smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. I frowned, barely holding in my anger because she’d ruined everything and she seemed to be enjoying it so much.
A tap on my shoulder made me turn my attention away from Sandy. Zach smiled down at me, though his eyes seemed concerned. “Hey. You okay? You look tired,” he asked, raising one eyebrow.
I sighed and shrugged. “I’m fine. Didn’t sleep too well over the weekend that’s all.” Last night I hadn’t managed to get much sleep either. Alex was in the house so I wasn’t worried about being on my own, but the box, Sandy, my ill grandad, and Luke were running through my mind practically all night long. Sleep had unfortunately eluded me again.
“How come?”
I waved my hand dismissively, not wanting to get into it all. “My grandad’s not well. My parents went to make sure he’s alright, so that was stressing me out a little. He’s okay though. He’s got pneumonia apparently but he’ll be fine. My parents are staying down there to help my nanna out for a couple of days.” I reached into my locker and pulled out my books for the morning classes.
“Wow, that sucks. Hopefully he’ll get better quickly,” he replied, leaning against my locker and watching me curiously.
“Hopefully. So, are we studying at my place or yours tonight?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Mine if that’s alright, Olivia’s still keeping tabs on me.” He chuckled darkly as he stood up straighter. “I actually have something I need to do straight after school though so I’ll have to pick you up after I’m done. Maybe you could just hang out here at school and I’ll pick you up when I’m done, I’ll be about half an hour I guess.”
I shrugged and nodded in agreement. Alex was going straight to the gym after school to train for his upcoming kickboxing match. I’d already told him I was going home with Zach and wouldn’t need a ride. “Sure, I’ll just hang in the library for a while until you get back. I need some new books to read anyway.”