Just when I was beginning to think that being forced to leave my old life to live in the sticks of Muskoka wasn’t the end of the world after all, I had a nasty encounter with the school nutcase.
It happened while walking from homeroom to my first class. My new friends, Mindi Roberts and Stacey Payton, were telling me about some hot guy in their music class while Cori Stedman was shooting me daggers. Cori blames me for her family issues. It wasn’t my fault her father got caught walking on the wrong side of the law. It can be tough being a ninth-grade detective.
Stacey had just said, “Hey, Mindi, Roy’s hot, don’t you think? I’ll bet he asks you to the dance before the end of the day.”
“Ugh! Leave my brother out of it!” I yelled, sidestepping towards Stacey as if to give her a shove. That was my first mistake. My geography text slid loose from the massive pile of books in my arms and fell to the floor with a smack that would deafen an elephant.
“Oh, crap,” I mumbled.
Stacey laughed as I stopped and bent over to scoop up the fallen book. That was my second mistake. With the perfect timing of destiny — or fate, or whatever you want to call it — my fingertips barely touched the book when a fishnet stocking–clad leg plowed into my side. I was knocked down onto my hands and knees, a weight rolling over my back accompanied by a shriek that echoed all the way down the hall. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the hard floor with a strange-looking girl in a messy tangle of limbs.
“You tripped me!” she yelled, her eyes fiery.
“Sorry! I dropped my book,” I explained, as we disentangled ourselves and struggled to our feet. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay!”
I clutched the offending book to my chest. The hallway, once teeming with bodies rushing off to their classes, was suddenly quiet and still.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I didn’t mean to …” Then I stopped. I hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d run into me.
I looked around at the crowd that had gathered, their faces curious. The girl glared at them through darkly lined eyes. Some people looked away or left. She did look a little scary. The rest of her face was as heavily made up as her eyes, leaving her true appearance largely up to the imagination. Her hair was dyed black and red and pulled into stubby pigtails exposing the shaved lower half of her scalp. A silver stud pierced the skin under her bottom lip, silver loops lined her ears, a silver-studded choker clasped her neck like a dog collar, and countless silver bracelets jangled at her wrist. She wore a short-sleeved, skin-tight black T-shirt that showed off the tattoos on her upper arms. Her legs, mostly visible due to the ultra micro miniskirt she was wearing, plunged into tall black boots.
Her eyes met mine. “What are you looking at?” she asked, sharply.
I turned away and mumbled yet another apology.
“What did you just call me?” she asked, taking a step closer.
Confused, all I could do was stutter. “I — uh —”
She leaned in and gave me a push. Not hard, but enough to force me to take a step backward. Someone gasped. Then another person yelled, “Cat fight!” and a crowd quickly gathered again.
“How do you like to be pushed?” the girl snarled, giving another shove, this one harder than the first. Again, I stumbled back a step.
I didn’t think it was a good time to point out that I hadn’t actually pushed her. That in fact, she was the one who’d fallen on top of me. If anything, I had more right to be angry than she did. I kept my mouth shut.
“Well? How do you like to be pushed?” she repeated. This time, I was ready for her. When she stepped in to give me another shove, I ducked to the side. She was caught off guard and actually stumbled when her hands glanced my arm, very nearly falling on her face yet again. A few giggles rippled through the crowd.
Not cool.
If she’d been mad before, she was steaming now. In hindsight, I should have just let her push me around a bit more. She would have gotten tired of it soon enough and it would have been over. But no. I had to go and cause her more embarrassment.
“You picked the wrong person to mess with,” she said.
I held my hands up in protest. “I don’t want to mess with you. This is just one big misunderstanding.”
“Are you saying I’m stupid? That I don’t understand what’s going on?” she asked, her face darkening.
“No! I — uh …”
Before I could say anything more, she raised her left hand and crooked her first two fingers, pointing them at me. With her black-lined eyes narrowed, she mumbled strange words under her breath. Confused, I appealed to the crowd. Most people were staring in fascination. A few looked at me in sympathy.
“What are you doing?” I asked. Behind me, Mindi gasped.
The strange girl ignored me and carried on with her odd recital so that I wondered if she was ever going to stop. She did. But she wasn’t done with me. She jabbed my chest with those long fingers, punctuating each jab with a word. “Never. Come. Near. Me. Again.” Then, she stormed off, the crowd silently parting to let her through.
In a matter of seconds, the hall was loud and bustling once again with students on the move, streaming around me like water around a rock. The show was over.
“What just happened?” I asked.
“I think you were cursed!” said Stacey. She looked horrified.
I made a face. “Cursed? What do you mean?”
Mindi stepped closer and whispered, “That was Garnet Hopper.”
“So?” I asked.
Stacey’s eyes were wide. “I’ve heard about Garnet cursing people, but I’ve never actually seen it. Everyone says she’s a devil worshipper, you know.”
“Oh, come on!” I snapped.
“It’s true,” insisted Mindi. “She is. And her parents are in the Mafia.” Stacey nodded furiously in agreement.
I stared at them. It seemed crazy, but they were serious. “Cori. You don’t believe this stuff, do you?”
She nodded. “I heard her family’s here in Muskoka because they’re in a witness protection program. Her dad ratted out some of his Mafia friends a few years ago, and they’ve been after him ever since.”
I shook my head. “It sounds like a load of stupid rumours.”
“It’s not, Sarah!” insisted Mindi. “Everybody says it’s true.”
“Look,” added Stacey, “the bottom line is … everyone knows better than to get Garnet mad at them. In fact, most people just stay away from her.”
“And you go and trip her!” added Mindi, alarmed.
“Of all people …” cried Stacey, looking like she was going to faint.
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” I protested. “She fell over me!”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Cori. “She hates you now. You sure know how to pick your enemies.”
The corners of her mouth twitched up ever so slightly. She was enjoying this.
“What exactly does it mean to be cursed by Garnet?” I asked Mindi at lunchtime as we headed for the cafeteria. “What do her curses do? Will my hair fall out? My teeth? Will I grow a third eye?”
Mindi frowned. “No! Uh … I’m not sure. You just don’t want to get in Garnet Hopper’s bad books.”
“Too late.” I snorted.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “There’s something else you should know. Rumour has it that a couple of years ago, she was under investigation for murder.”
“What?” I exploded.
“She wasn’t convicted or anything …”
We arrived at the cafeteria. Every head turned our way as I walked self-consciously towards our usual table. It seemed to take forever to reach it. I swear I could hear my name being whispered all around me.
“Who did she supposedly kill?” I asked as soon as we sat down. I was hoping she’d say somebody’s cat. It’s not that I had anything against cats, but given the alternative …
She leaned close and answered quietly, “William Tremball.”
“Please tell me that’s a cat.”
She just looked at me.
“Okay, I guess not.” I stared down at my unopened lunch, speechless for once in my life.
After a moment, Mindi said, “No matter what you think about all the rumours, I think you need to lie low for the next little while and give her time to forget about you.”
“You want me to go into hiding? Isn’t that getting a little bit carried away?”
“Well … I don’t think …”
Our conversation was interrupted by the noisy arrival of Roy, Chris, Cori, and Stacey. Mindi brightened at the sight of Roy. Inwardly, I groaned. Why did my best friend have to fall for my brother? What did I do so wrong in this life to deserve that?
The only good thing about Roy was that he brought Chris LeBlanc with him. Now he was worth paying attention to! Unfortunately, before I knew what was happening, Garnet and I were the talk of the table. Of course it was Roy who brought it up.
“Did you hear about the poor sap Garnet Hopper beat up and cursed this morning?” he asked. “I heard she was so scared she practically filled her pants.”
“That was Sarah!” Cori squealed, only too eager to share the great news. Roy’s mouth dropped open. Chris turned and stared at me like I was some kind of deformed bug.
“I did not get beat up!” I protested, sounding whiny even to my ears. “And I wasn’t scared.”
For the next eternity, I had to endure a reliving of my entire ordeal as told by Cori, Mindi, and Stacey. All the while, Roy and Chris were staring at me in morbid fascination. I should have just left. The only good thing about it was that I learned Chris went to the same elementary school as Garnet (though he was a grade behind). I pounced and ran an interrogation my father would be proud of.
“Is Garnet a devil worshipper?” I asked, cutting to the chase.
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. At least that’s what people say.”
He shrugged. “I remember what she was like before people said that about her. Back when we were in Muskoka Public, Garnet was always popular. In Grade 8, she bragged about going out with guys in high school. That’s when she went out with Will Tremball.”
“The guy she killed?” I asked.
Roy looked startled. “She killed someone?”
“Yeah. Goes right along with being a devil-worshipping, witness-protected Mafia member,” I said.
Chris raised his eyebrows. “So you’ve heard all the stories.”
I nodded. “What’s true and what isn’t?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “All I know is that after Will drowned, I didn’t see Garnet again until I started high school, two years later. By then, she was a lot different. Like she is now. And I hadn’t seen her brother, Byron, either until this year, when he started coming here too.”
“She has a brother? In Grade 9?” I turned to the girls. “Do you know him?”
“Yeah. He came to our school in Grade 7. He’s not very friendly; I don’t think he’s ever said two words to me,” said Mindi.
“His locker’s right by mine,” said Chris. “I’ve tried saying hi and talking to him, but he doesn’t want to talk. He never used to be like that. He used to have friends, but now he’s always by himself.”
“Sounds like they’ve both changed,” I said. “So, William drowned?”
Chris nodded. “People say that Garnet just stood by and watched. That she didn’t try to help him. The police did an investigation, and she was never arrested or anything. But it was enough to convince people that she did something wrong. There wasn’t much official information, but Will’s family would have been kept informed, and Will’s brother, Nathan, has never kept it a secret that he believes Garnet killed his brother. He told everyone that the police didn’t have enough evidence to press charges, even though they thought she was guilty. He’s how most of the police information got leaked.”
We were quiet for a moment. I tried to imagine what it would be like to watch someone drown and not try to save them. I couldn’t.
Then Stacey brought up her favourite topic, the upcoming Halloween Dance. She’s one of the organizers and, I’m sure, one of the keenest. I let their conversation drift around me, lost in my own thoughts.
I was late getting home due to basketball practice and was hoping to smell meatloaf coming from the kitchen. Instead, when I yanked open the door, my ears were assaulted by a screeching racket like I’d never heard before — well, not since my brother, Roy, made his first attempt at shaving. I dropped my jacket onto the floor and kicked off my shoes.
“Hey! What’s going on?” I yelled.
“We’re in the den, Sarah!” called Roy.
I burst into the room to find Mom kneeling on the floor, wrestling with a tiny, squirming pig who seemed to be doing its very best to free itself from her arms.
“I finally got my pet pig!” announced Mom, beaming. She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and readjusted her hands around the frantic little bundle of joy.
“Why’s it in the house?” I asked.
“Exactly!” said Dad, with a clap. “See, Gina, Sarah agrees with me: pigs belong outside.”
“I told you, Edward,” explained Mom. “I want a house pig. Amber’s clean and hypoallergenic …”
That’s right, she said hypoallergenic.
“… so we wouldn’t have to worry about Roy’s allergies, and that’s why she’d make such a good house pet,” finished Mom.
“Wait a minute, don’t drag me into this,” said Roy. “I wanted a dog.”
“So did I, son,” said Dad with a nod.
Mom frowned. “You’re both gone all day. I’m the one stuck here all alone day after day and I want a pig!” she said, her voice rising.
“So get a job,” said Dad.
“There are no jobs! Don’t you think I’ve tried?”
“Then at least get a pig that lives outside,” said Roy.
“I wanted an indoor pig so I got an indoor pig!” said Mom, clenching her teeth. “Don’t start telling me the kind of pet I should get when I need some company here at home.”
Whoa. Roy needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut. I felt sorry for Mom; it was two against one.
“I think she’s really cute. What’s her name again?” I asked.
I couldn’t hear Mom’s answer over the sudden high-pitched squealing coming out of the cute little pig’s mouth. Roy clamped hands over his ears.
Dad scowled. “Is she going to do that all the time?” he asked. “Like when we’re trying to sleep?”
Mom set the pig down. Immediately, the noise stopped and its stumpy little legs went into high gear. Before you could say “Charlotte’s Web!” it was snuffling and grunting behind the rocking chair in the far corner of the room, eyeing us all with suspicion.
“Isn’t Amber the sweetest little thing?” Mom’s eyes had a dreamy look as she gazed at her new pig.
I nodded. “Yeah. She just seems a little scared, that’s all. So you can really keep a pig inside, huh?”
“Yes! I read all about pot-bellied pigs and they make really good indoor pets. You can take them for walks” — she gave Dad a look here — “just like a dog, and they can learn to use a litter box, just like a cat. You can train them.”
Just then, Amber bumped into an end table and Mom’s favourite vase toppled and smashed onto the floor. Amber let loose with a round of squealing that would be worthy of the Queen of Pigs. Academy Award material.
Mom took off after her, crying, “It’s okay, Amber. Relax. Everything’s fine!” As if Amber understood English. Dad put his head in his hands and groaned.
It seemed like a good time to bring up the topic of Garnet Hopper. If anyone knew what to do, it was my dad, the OPP detective. “Dad, were you aware that an alleged murderer attends our high school?” I asked him.
He looked up. “An alleged …? What are you talking about, Sarah?”
“I’m talking about Garnet Hopper. I just found out today that she’s an alleged murderer, a devil worshipper, and a Mafia escapee in a witness protection program. And she goes to our high school every day. Roy and I don’t feel safe,” I explained.
“Hey! Leave me out of this. I wasn’t the one who got beat up and cursed,” said Roy.
Dad’s eyes widened. “I think you’d better fill me in.”
That’s what I did.
When I was done, Dad look puzzled. “Let me get this straight. You don’t feel safe at school because some girl pointed her fingers at you and said some mumbo-jumbo you couldn’t even understand?”
“Everyone says she’s a devil worshipper! She cursed me! Why shouldn’t I feel threatened?”
He frowned. “What exactly do you think the curse is going to do to you?”
“I have no idea, that’s why I’m so worried. She’s obviously capable of anything.”
“Really. Roy? Do you know anything about this girl?” asked Dad.
“Sure. She’s a freak of nature. She’s nasty to just about everyone. And nobody talks to her,” he said.
“Do you think Sarah should be worried?” he asked.
“Don’t forget, Dad,” I interrupted. “This girl has murdered — probably for less than what I did to her.”
“Don’t start jumping to conclusions,” said Dad.
“I’m just saying that you might want to think about providing me with some protection or something …”
He made a face. “Give me a break.”
“So you don’t care if I’m in danger every minute I’m at school?”
He just looked at me. Beside him, Roy smirked.
“I’m so lucky to have such a caring family!” I stomped out of the room.
Behind me, Roy was laughing.
I stomped harder.