After two hours of flipping through every page of the Washington West High School yearbook, not only was Amelia familiar with almost every student, but she also knew way too much about the love lives of half of them.
She decided that she’d take the kids to school the next day instead of letting them take the bus. The idea that there had to be therapists and counselors on the premises made Amelia nervous. The last thing she wanted was to have some stranger evaluating her kids and finding something wrong with them that required a pill or two.
“I’m not going to any counselor,” Adam said while they drove to school. “I wasn’t the one who got conked on the noggin.”
“What about you, Meg? Do you think you want to talk to a professional?” Amelia asked.
“I doubt it. Unless it gets me out of algebra class.”
“Algebra is easy,” Adam teased.
“Yeah, for people who don’t have anything else in their pitiful lives. Don’t forget I have art club tonight, Mom.”
“Right.” Amelia took a deep breath as they pulled into the parking lot. It was obvious from all the cars that many parents had had the same idea. “You guys want me to walk you in?”
Meg said yes. Adam said no.
“We’ll compromise. I’ll walk Meg in, and Adam can go ahead.” Before the car was parked, Adam was out and heading to a group of guys waving to him, and they disappeared inside the school.
Before Meg was even out of the car, her friend Katherine was at her side.
“Hi, Ms. Harley. Can you believe what happened yesterday?”
“I know. I heard. It’s terrible,” Amelia replied. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine. It’s a little creepy. I wonder if the ghost of Brian Richtman will haunt the gym. That’s what’s got me freaked out. I’ve heard that when a person meets an unnatural death, their spirit is doomed to plague that spot until a Catholic priest is called in to exorcize the place.”
“I believe it,” Meg chirped. “Gosh, I never thought about that. I was scared that the killer might come after us, but now that you mention it, a ghost or restless spirit is way worse.”
“Way worse,” Katherine said seriously. “I also heard that they can take over a person’s body if they aren’t getting any attention. Like, if you use a Ouija board or something.”
“I’m not touching one of those things. I didn’t talk to Brian Richtman in real life. Why would I want to talk to him when he’s dead and can’t take me to prom?”
Amelia had to bite her tongue not to laugh. As she stepped into the school with her daughter, she remembered how she always liked the way schools smelled. It was a mixture of paint, paper, and books, and it always took her back to her own teenage years. The pressure of turning in homework and taking tests was over for her. Memorizing major exports of countries she never planned to visit or trying to solve for X always popped into her mind and made her thankful her academic career had come to an end. But some of the memories were fun. It wasn’t that she liked school or was a good student. She fell in the average category. As she looked back on it now, she realized that was probably why she excelled at a career in baking.
But the memories of dramas about who said what about whom, which boys were the dreamiest, and which teachers were so unfair or smelly or both were the most important topics of the day. Actually, Amelia had to admit it was a little embarrassing to think back to that awkward time of life. How often did she think she knew it all at the age of fifteen only to find out years later that her mother was right?
“Boys are like streetcars,” her mother repeated more than once. “If you miss one, another will be along sooner or later.” It was one of her mother’s favorite sayings. She usually followed it up by saying, “You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find a prince.”
She had been right all along. Darn her.
Those years were such an innocent time. Especially compared to now. The death of a classmate was a hard pill to swallow. As Amelia looked around, it was obvious that there would not be a single discussion on anything other than the death of this football player.
“Amelia!” someone said from the direction of the principal’s office.
When Amelia looked up, she saw the familiar face of Reggie Moss, the assistant vice principal. He was as bald as Yul Brenner and as big as Orson Wells. He was a regular on the weekends at the Pink Cupcake, and on those rare days off, he never missed the first fresh cupcakes of the morning. Amelia felt a little bad serving him since he was so big and obviously could stand to lose a few pounds. But then she saw him take off running after a guy who tried to swipe a woman’s purse. Darn it all if Reggie Moss hadn’t run like the wind and tackled the guy.
As it turned out, Reggie played college football and almost made it to the pros. As with so many aspiring athletes, an injury brought the whole thing crashing down. As crazy as it might seem, he did not coach the school’s football team. He didn’t coach anything. He was the vice principal and sometimes substituted for the science teacher, Miss Higgins.
“Meg, Katherine, you guys want to come and talk to Vice Principal Moss with me?” Amelia teased. “He’d probably like to know you’re doing okay.”
Both girls rolled their eyes and turned away, hiding behind their backpacks and cringing with embarrassment.
“Meg, you’ll be all right?”
“I’ll be fine, Mom. Thanks for walking me in.”
Amelia smoothed her daughter’s hair and kissed her on top of the head. Then she did the same to Katherine and watched them walk close together down the hall, whispering to each other the entire time.
She turned back to Reggie then smiled and walked down the hallway, weaving in and out of students who were displaying a sea of varying emotions.
“Hi, Reggie. How are you holding up? I’m so sorry about what happened.”
“Can you believe it? Brian was a good kid.”
“That’s what I heard.”
“Now that the press is satisfied and the police have just about wrapped things up, we might be able to get back to normal around here.”
“Did the police find out what happened already?”
“Well, I’m not at liberty to say, so if you tell anyone you heard it from me, I’ll deny it. But they suspect foul play.”
“Really?” Old news, Reggie. Give me something I can work with.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they discovered it was that Mast boy.”
“Who’s that?”
“Guy Mast.” Reggie shook his head. “I’ve been trying to get that kid out of the school for over two years. He’s a drug dealer and a punk. We just haven’t been able to catch him with anything yet. He’s no dummy. But he and Brian had more than a couple arguments. Very public arguments.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. In fact, they threw a couple of punches at each other in the lunchroom just a couple of weeks ago.”
“Over drugs?”
“Drugs or a girl. Who knows?” Reggie shrugged. “Normally, we have a zero-tolerance rule for fighting, but they are both seniors, and I don’t think either one of them landed a punch.”
“I wonder if they know how funny that is.”
“You’re right.” Reggie chuckled. His entire body shook. “I can just imagine them swinging away like windmills with their eyes shut and not a single swing landing.”
“You know how it is when the hormones are raging.”
“Yes. But Guy Mast is a little more than just hormones. I’ll bet dollars to donuts that he won’t be in today. Conspicuous by his absence.”
“Well, if you are right about this kid, then the police will probably catch him in no time.”
“I hope so. It’s going to be a nightmare today. We’ve got counselors on standby. I was thinking of talking to one myself.”
“Well, Reggie, if it’s any consolation, I thought that with Meg being in the art club this year, I’d offer to organize the bake sale for the art-department fundraiser.”
Reggie’s eyes popped wide, and he smiled.
“I can’t think of a person more qualified. Thank you, Amelia. I’ll get you a list of parents who might be willing to help out.”
“That would be great, Reggie.”
Suddenly, a loud discussion among a couple students began taking place behind Amelia.
“Speak of the devil,” Reggie said as he looked past her. “That boy is skating on thin ice. Would you wait in my office, Amelia, while I give Guy Mast a stern talking-to? What he needs is a boot in the backside.” Reggie whispered that last part.
“Sure.” Amelia turned around and saw the boy Reggie had been talking about. He was surrounded by a group of girls who had taken serious offense at something he’d said.
“You shut up!” Guy shouted in some blond girl’s face. “No one cares what you think!”
“Just get out of here, Guy!” she shouted back.
“You want to make me get out of here? What are you going to do? Have your boyfriend come try to kick my ass? Oh, that’s right. He dumped you for Kerri Smith!” He snickered happily.
“Guy Mast!” Reggie shouted.
The look on the boy’s face said it all.
“Man, she started it!” Guy pointed to the blonde, who quickly scurried away with her girlfriends before Reggie could ask for license and registration.
Guy Mast was exactly what Amelia would expect based on Reggie’s brief description. His dark-brown hair was long. He kept shaking his head to get it away from hanging in his eyes. Because he let his hair hang around his face, his skin was shiny, and red spots of acne peppered his cheeks.
He wore a flannel shirt over a white T-shirt and plain blue jeans that were baggier than they should have been. His Nike shoes looked brand new and had to cost over one hundred dollars. He didn’t carry any books.
“My office, Guy. Now! Like we haven’t had enough trouble without you starting up first thing in the morning.”
“Fine! Take her side! What else is new?”
Guy didn’t look at Amelia as he shuffled into Reggie’s office. Instead, he smirked and bounced his eyebrows at a couple of kids dressed in similar flannel shirts who were standing at the other end of the hallway.
“Sorry, Amelia. Duty calls.” Reggie rolled his eyes.
“Of course. Where does this kid hang out? I’d hate to have Meg or Adam run into him when he’s in a bad mood.” Amelia felt a little funny about using her children as pawns in her attempt to gather information, but she couldn’t say what she said to Reggie was a complete lie.
“You know kids like to hang out wherever there are no adults. Rogers Park. Spinster’s Grove.”
“Sure. Okay. Well, I’ll let you get back to things, and will I see you this Saturday at Food Truck Alley?”
“Unfortunately.” He patted his belly. “You will.” He waved pleasantly, but Amelia saw as he turned his head he replaced his jolly demeanor with a scowl. “It’s not even eight fifty, Guy. Are you serious?”
He shut the door, preventing Amelia from hearing any more.
As she exited the school, the thought of going to Spinster’s Grove was daunting. Not only did that area have a reputation for being a hangout for kids like Guy, but there were also rumors of devil worshipping, animal sacrifices, and as-of-yet-undiscovered mass graves.
Right then, as the sun was shining and the day was just beginning, the idea of people in black robes roaming in the woods was as likely as a UFO landing in the middle of town. But when the sun started to set and the shadows crept over more and more of the woods, those things started to become more and more believable until every crunch of leaves, every howl of wildlife became a diabolical entity determined to snatch up a soul by the stroke of midnight.
“Nice, Amelia. Freak yourself out a little more,” she said as she drove her sedan to Food Truck Alley.