[Fear Street 34] • What Holly Heard

Holly Silva not only has a big mouth, but ears like satellite dishes. If there's a rumor, juicy piece of gossip, or scandal anywhere in Shadyside High, Holly can and will dig it up and spread it like peanut butter on bananas. New inklings of romance, BFFs on the outs, cheating, fights...Holly hears it all. Once she does, it's a short trip from her brain to the brains of Miriam and Ruth, her closest friends.

Usually Holly's gossip doesn't amount to anything exciting, but this time is different. Rumor has it Mei Kamata's involved in an on-going feud...with her own mother. The cause of strife is long-haired bad boy senior Noah Brennan, the guy Mei will no longer be dating if her parents have anything to say about it. When Holly walks by the pair in the parking lot after school one day, she hears the unimaginable: Mei tells Noah she's going to kill her mother.

Ruth and Miriam don't exactly see this as the jaw-droppingly incredible insight into teenage female psychology that Holly does. After all, how often to kids threaten to unleash exaggerated bodily harm on their parental units? It isn't until Mei's mom takes a fatal tumble down the stairs of her home that the three girls realize they might know more than they should. *Somebody* knows what Holly heard and is taking steps to ensure none of the girls hear the wrong thing again. Steps up to and including murder.