"Okay, well, basically, it's a stupid and pointless ritual wherein we all cheer for our stupid, pointless basketball team. We'll shout some stuff, the cheerleaders will do a dance, and then the mascot will come out and we'll shout some more."
"That sounds...dumb."
Romy nodded. "It is. Intensely. But it's better than history, I guess."
At that, the basketball team, all wearing their warm-up suits, jogged out into the gym and everyone started hooting and clapping like these weren't the same guys we saw every single day. About half the kids in the bleachers even leapt to their feet, but since Romy, Anderson, and Dex all stayed seated, so did I.
The band started up, and I saw Adam on the very edge, playing his drum. I'd kept a close eye on him since the locker thing, but so far there had been no sign of Mary. I wasn't even sure what she was planning for him. Snyder had gotten the frog with the bashed-in head, signaling that he was about to get his head bashed in. Beth had gotten the mangled Barbie a few days before she was nearly hit by a car. Adam had gotten an explosion. A month ago, I would have said a ghost making someone blow up was pretty much impossible, but if Mary could wield a killer microscope and manipulate a car, what was to stop her from sending Adam sky high? Still, I wondered how she was going to manage that, exactly?
Dex leaned closer to Anderson. I heard him murmur something, and all thoughts of Adam were forgotten.
Maybe I could try to talk to Dex on the bus. Tell him...I don't know, I'd lied about not having a boyfriend. And then I'd felt guilty about the kiss, and that's why I'd spazzed out. He was probably too smart to buy that, but it was worth a try. God, why were boys so complicated? I suddenly wished I had a ghost to fight right that second. Or a vampire. A werewolf. Heck, I'd even take a gollum, no matter how messy killing one was. Anything to make me feel like me again.
I sat there brooding through the rest of the pep rally. It worked pretty much exactly like Romy had said, and I had nearly tuned it out by the time the giant hedgehog rushed onto the court.
On the other side of Romy and Anderson, Dex snorted, and in that moment I wanted nothing more than to be sitting beside him, hearing whatever snarky comments he undoubtedly made about the mascot.
I hadn't realized I was staring at him until he turned his head and looked at me. Romy and Anderson were talking, their heads close together, but for a second it was like there wasn't anyone but me and Dex. A little smile drifted across his face, and just when I was thinking about returning it, there was a shout from the gym floor.
The hedgehog was wheeling out a big "cannon." As one of the cheerleaders handed him a sparkler, I leaned over and asked Romy, "What's the deal with that?"
She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, this is the big finale every time. He pretends to light the fuse, and then it shoots out glitter and confetti while we all ooh and ahh and pretend he hasn't done it a million times. On the upside, it means this stupid pep rally is almost over."
"So it's not a real cannon?" I asked.
Romy shook her head. "Nope. Just an air cannon."
"But..." I leaned forward. "It looks like a real one. Like that one that's outside the front of the school."
The hedgehog took the sparkler as the student body stomped their feet, chanting, "M! E! H! S!" He lit the fuse, and it kindled, smoking.
I sat up straighter. "Did he just really light that?"
Squinting, Romy peered down. "Huh. Yeah. Maybe this is a new part of the routine."
But the cheerleader who'd handed the mascot the sparkler was staring at the fuse in confusion. Then she started backing up, saying something over her shoulder to one of the other cheerleaders. And the hedgehog, suddenly looking a lot more malevolent than I'd ever thought a hedgehog could, pushed on the barrel of the cannon until it was pointing straight at the band. Or, more specifically, straight at Adam. I saw him drop his drumsticks, face wrinkling in confusion. A group of kids cheered, obviously expecting glitter and confetti, like Romy had said.
Shooting to my feet, I tried to make my way down the bleachers, but I was too high up and there were too many people. Distantly, I heard Dex call my name, but I was too busy trying to get to the floor.
One of the cheerleaders was shouting and pointing at the cannon, and I heard a chorus of shrieks go up from the gym floor. I wasn't going to make it.
But then, a basketball player darted from the first row of the bleachers, throwing all his weight onto the cannon. The sound its wheels made on the hardwood was awful, but the deafening boom that followed was much, much worse.
Thanks to the basketball player, the explosion pounded into the far wall of the gym instead of Adam-and all the kids within fifty feet of him. But it didn't matter. Everything descended into complete pandemonium as kids screamed at and shoved each other, trying to get off the bleachers and out of the gym. I hung on to the railing, inching down the side of the bleachers. Down on the floor, one of the basketball players was holding the hedgehog's arms behind its back as another boy reached up and tugged the mascot's head off.
The suit was empty.
As the boy holding the head staggered back, the suit slid through the other player's arms, pooling onto the floor.
I only thought there had been panic before. The screaming got louder, people started shoving harder, and the entire building seemed to quake.
Fear-thick, choking waves of it-rushed through the gym. More than fear, really. Terror. Horror. Dread. All of it pulsing in the air, and somewhere, I knew, Mary Evans was getting stronger.
Much stronger.
CHAPTER 29
Since the school had been evacuated, we held the emergency meeting of PMS at Romy's house. Romy's mom had gone overboard with the snack options, laying out three different kinds of chips on the counter, as well as two kinds of soft drinks.
Once we'd gotten our food we followed Romy up to her room.
Romy immediately clambered onto her bed, sitting cross-legged in the middle. Anderson sat next to her, while I took the desk chair and Dex folded his long body onto a bright green beanbag chair.
"Okay," Romy said, dusting crumbs off her hands, "I think we can all agree there's some seriously crazy stuff going on at Mary Evans High."
"I don't know, Rome," Dex said, crossing his ankles. "Hedgehog violence is a lot more common than you'd think."
"What I still don't get," Anderson said, grabbing a handful of chips, "is why she went from floating some chalk to this whole reign of terror thing."
"There never was a haunting before," I said, finally getting it. "Floating chalk, locker doors opening, all of that was BS, just stories people told." I was too freaked out and thinking too fast to even pretend I didn't know much about the paranormal. "This is the only haunting Mary Evans High has ever had, and it's because someone used magic and freaking summoned a ghost."
All three of them stared at me, but I didn't care anymore. This had gone too far, and after what had happened in the gym today, Mary would be stronger than ever. We didn't have any more time.
I took a deep breath. It had come to this. "And I think I know who."
I walked over to Romy's desk and pulled out her bracelet, dangling it on one finger as my other hand fished in my pocket for the charm I'd found in the cave. "This belongs to you, doesn't it?" I asked her.
Very carefully, Romy put her can of soda down. "Yeah. What are you saying?"
I could feel Anderson's and Dex's eyes on me as I said, "You run a ghost-hunting club, but you didn't have any ghosts to hunt. So maybe you stumbled across a spell somewhere. Hedge magic," I said. "You just thought you'd call up a couple of local spirits. Nothing too dangerous, nothing that could hurt anyone. But hedge magic can be tricky, and something went wrong. And people are getting hurt, Romy."
Her face was a mask as she took all of that in. Finally, she got off the bed and snatched the bracelet out of my hand. "That is my bracelet, and yes, that is my charm. But I lost it weeks ago. I certainly wasn't hanging out in a cave, conjuring up 'hedge magic.' And what does that even mean?"
"It's something-"
"Don't say you read it on the Internet."
"You do say that a lot," Dex said, and for once he didn't sound like he was joking. In fact, I could swear that was actual suspicion on his face as he watched me. "First the salt thing, now witches summoning ghosts...'"
Romy was looking at me weird, too. "What salt thing?"
Glaring at Dex, I said, "It was nothing. And besides, it didn't work."
"All this stuff did start happening when you showed up," Anderson said, his voice very quiet. I threw up my hands.
"What the heck? You said you'd been investigating the Mary Evans thing since Mr. Snyder. And that was months ago."
"There weren't any hedgehogs trying to blow up the gym months ago," Anderson offered.
"It has nothing to do with me," I insisted, but even as I said it, a shiver ran down my spine. That was true. They'd had one incident before I came here. Now all hell had broken loose. Had I somehow unleashed all of this?
"You seem to know an awful lot about ghosts for someone who claims to not care about the paranormal," Romy spit out.
Anderson was nodding slowly, and even Dex seemed troubled. "The thing with the salt," he repeated. "The day after that, Beth ended up nearly becoming roadkill."
"I was trying to trap Mary's ghost," I fired back. "Not help her kill Beth."
It was the wrong thing to say. Anderson's face went hard. "You saw her at the graveyard the night before Beth nearly got mowed down?" he asked Dex.
Dex nodded. "She did say she was trying to keep the ghost in the grave."
"Which clearly didn't work."
"If I were trying to get Beth killed, why would I have saved her life?"
"Like you said, you didn't want anyone to get hurt," Romy said. "You felt guilty."
"No, I didn't!" I said. Or rather, yelled. Romy actually flinched. Trying to soften my tone, I added, "I didn't feel guilty because I have nothing to feel guilty about. I didn't call forth any ghosts. You did."
"No," Romy said through clenched teeth, "I. Didn't."
"Okay, fine," I said, so frustrated I wanted to shake her. "You didn't. Some other person came in here and stole your bracelet and started doing spells all over the place. The point is, we need to stop it. This ghost is dangerous, Romy. And you can't stop her with a blinking box and a tinfoil hat."
Romy swung an accusatory glare at Dex. "Stop talking about the hat."
"That's what you're choosing to be upset about?"
"If our blinking boxes and tinfoil hats are so stupid to you, Izzy, maybe you shouldn't be in PMS anymore," Anderson said.
I was surprised at how much that stung. And even more surprised that Dex stayed quiet. When I looked over at him in the beanbag chair, he was staring at the carpet, chewing his thumbnail.
"Fine," I said, wishing my voice hadn't wavered. "Go ahead. Deal with the crazy, murderous ghost on your own. I was just trying to help."
"We don't need your help," Romy said, and to my horror, my eyes started watering. Before the group could see that, I grabbed my backpack and, with as much dignity as I could muster, walked out of Romy's room, closing the door behind me.