Tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap. The Rain on my window kept beat with my depressed thoughts. Fired, fired, fired. I have just been fired. True, it hadn’t been a job I liked, but it was still depressing. This job had been my way to save for college. I pressed my small nose against the window and breathed a sigh, watching as it fogged up the window. As the window cleared, I could make out a faint reflection of my pale face. My blue eyes were depressed and my black hair hung down around my face with my bangs making a straight line above my eyebrows.
At least I don’t have to clean anymore toilets, I thought, trying to cheer myself up, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. That had to be the worst part of janitorial work; cleaning up after others. No more ‘stinky’ remarks from Joe! I realized with a smile. My brother was forever teasing me about my job. Well, now I’ll be able to get a job he can’t tease me about. I could get a job at Dad’s clinic or at the library with Mom.
A noise downstairs caught my attention. It sounded like someone was in the kitchen. It must be Mom, I thought with a sigh. I got up to talk to her stepping into the hall and looking over the railing into the entry way. “Mom?” I called down. “Mom, is that you?” The noise stopped suddenly, and then I heard a crash as what sounded like a glass fell to the floor. “Mom?” I called again. Nobody answered.
Tibbs, I thought. Dumb cat is on the counters again. I went down to clean up and hoped Mom wouldn’t be too upset about losing another of her good glasses to my tabby cat. But as I passed the front door I could see Tibbs, my big orange-yellow tabby, through the screen outside asleep on the front porch rug. I even remembered shutting and locking the inside door when I got home. Someone was in the house with me.
Fear shot up my spine and I ran to the closet under the stairs to get the broom. If a burglar is in this house he is about to meet with pain! I told Mom we needed a security system!
I checked the kitchen and the garage first. No cars but mine were home. I then left the mess of broken glass on the floor to search the rest of the down stairs. I realized how silly I was being when I looked in the washer and dryer and decided to stop. I headed to the closet again to grab the dust pan and clean up the glass when I heard the sound of the patio door closing.
I rushed to the kitchen again, but no one was there; I could hear someone in the garage and jiggling the door knob. I pressed myself against the wall by the door and waited, holding my breath. The door opened slowly and when a head came into view, down came the broom.
“Ow!” cried my brother; dropping the grocery bag he had been carrying. “Marie! What was that for?” He towered over me rubbing his head.
“Joe?” I gasped in relief. I pushed past him to look in the garage. I could see Joe’s blue Jeep behind my red Ford. “I- I thought you were someone else.” I dropped the broom to help gather the groceries on the floor.
Joe’s gray eyes glared at me; he was still rubbing his head. His spiky brown hair was pushed flat where I had hit him “Who’d you think I was?” he asked. “The Boogie Man?”
I chuckled nervously and stood up with the grocery bag. “I guess so. I just thought I heard someone in the house earlier.”
He took the bag and put it on the counter. “It was probably Tibbs,” he told me. “Either that or . . . a rat.” He gave me an evil grin as I swatted at him with the broom I’d just picked up, feeling a little better. He was most likely right, but I couldn’t help remembering the open front door.
“What happened in here?” he asked. He had found the broken glass on the other side of the counter. “I was just about to take my shoes off.”
“Let me take care of it.” I told him. “I don’t know what happened. I was in my room when I heard it. But Tibbs was outside when I came down, so it probably was a rat.” I shuddered. I hate rats!
Ember Reed, my best friend and cousin, came to the patio door and knocked. Isn’t that door locked? I thought as I waved her in, but she had no problem opening it. “Don’t come over here where we are.” I warned her. “We’ve broken a glass. Joe, can you get me the dust pan please?”
“Sure,” he shrugged. But as he turned away I caught him looking at Emmie and blushing.
“How was work?” asked Emmie, sitting on a stool. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the counter, her blond hair falling over her shoulders. “Were you able to get our birthdays off?”
“I didn’t have to.” I grumbled. “Randy said that he was letting me go ‘to enjoy the rest of the summer.’ He also said that they wouldn’t need me during the school year.”
“What?” Emmie’s golden-hazel eyes widened. “Why? I thought they were going to offer you a part time, afternoon job.”
“Not really. They said if they liked how I worked, they would give me the job. I guess they didn’t like how I worked.”
“Well, that stinks!” she grumbled.
“At least you don’t have to work on your birthday,” Joe pointed out, coming back with the dust pan. “So, what are you Birthday Girls planning to do anyway?” That’s the funny thing about Emmie and me. Our birthdays are right next to each other. (I’m older by only one day.)
“Aunt Karen is going to take us and a bunch of our friends up to their lodge.” I told him. Emmie’s family had an old lodge up in the canyon that had been there since the colonial days. They had remodeled it to modern standards before her dad had died in a car accident.
“Have you talked to mom about it?” asked Joe. He was looking skeptical about it. “I’m sure she didn’t tell Dad.”
“She did,” I assured him. “In fact, Aunt Karen talked to both of them herself.” I threw away the glass I had just swept up and threw him a glare. Brothers, why do they have to be such a pain sometimes?
“Whatever.” He opened the fridge to put the groceries away.
“Don’t mind him,” whispered Emmie, as she took me by the elbow and steered me from the kitchen. “Let’s go up to your room and plan for this weekend. It should be a lot of fun even if we can’t have any boys up there with us.”
I smiled as we went up the stairs. Emmie was always talking about boys these days. Not that I blamed her. I noticed a lot of boys at school too. But I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. I was sure that Emmie would spend all her time with boys and none with me. They were taking my best friend away. I then remembered the blush that my brother gave when Emmie came. I wonder if he likes her. Except for the fact that they’re cousins, that wouldn’t be so bad. My smile turned into a grin.
“What’re you smirking about?” Emmie stepped in front of me before I could enter my room.
“Nothing,” I lied.
Emmie frowned up at me. “It can’t be ‘nothing,’” she told me. “You have that ‘I know something you don’t’ look in your eyes. C’mon, spill it!” I just grinned wider and side stepped into my room.
“If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.” I replied in a singsong voice. Emmie hates it when I do that. I bounced onto my bed with a sigh. “Now, who’s coming to this thing anyway?”
Emmie dropped down next to me in exasperation. She knew that she couldn’t get a secret out of me very easily. “Mom’s only letting us invite two girls each, so we might as well make it just the girls in our group.” Emmie looked disgusted. She loved parties, big ones too. Her philosophy was, “If you can’t have a big party it might as well be a funeral.” Of course I was the exact opposite. I liked small groups, the smaller the better.
“That makes sense.” I said. “We’re going to be up in the mountains anyway, right? I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t have been able to come if it were any bigger. I think our group of girls will be fine.”
“Yeah, but what are we going to do up there?” she whined. “It’s only an over nighter and there isn’t much to do.” I smiled and shook my head.
“Don’t you have that TV and Play Station 2 up there? I can bring the dance pads and DDR Max and we’ll have a dance competition. C’mon Emmie. You act like if there weren’t some guys, it wouldn’t be a party. We can have a party without guys you know? We’ve done it before.”
“Oh all right!” she growled. “But I don’t have to like it.”
I laughed. “You’re always like this. And then when the party comes, you have too much fun to remember that there weren’t any boys there.” Emmie just stuck her tongue out. I leaned over my bed and grabbed the cordless phone off my nightstand. “Here,” I tossed it to her. “Why don’t you call Amy first and ask if she can come? I’m sure she’ll have some ideas.” We then spent the rest of the afternoon calling the girls and deciding what we were going to do.
Mom and Dad came home and took us all out to dinner. We went to my favorite Chinese restaurant. We talked about the classes we were going to take when school started the next week and the upcoming party. At the end of the meal I grabbed a fortune cookie and tore it open. The fortune read: “You will pass a difficult test that will make you stronger.” I read it aloud and we laughed over it, trying to predict what it might mean. Joe stated the most obvious saying it was tests in school. Emmie and I looked at each other and groaned.
By the time we got home, after taking Emmie home, I had totally forgotten about the noise I had heard earlier in the house. I just curled up in my bed with Tibbs at my feet. The last thing I thought of as I fell asleep was that I still hadn’t told my parents about losing my job.
* * * *
The next four days went by quickly and the day of the party arrived. I was now officially seventeen. I woke that morning with Tibbs lying on my chest. No wonder it was hard to breath! I nudged him off sleepily and sat up. I had had a weird dream; I was running in the dark with someone following me. I shook my head to clear it as someone knocked on my door. Without waiting for an answer, Mom came in carrying a breakfast tray.
“Morning Birthday Girl!” she sang cheerfully. She quickly put the tray on my dresser. Her dark hair was falling out of her bun and she stopped to look in my mirror to replace it. I look a lot like my mom except her eyes. Her eyes are gray-blue. Joe got the gray, I got the blue. “You'd better get a move on and get up. Emmie'll be here soon to pick you up.” She told me as she walked back out my door. I groaned and lay back down. I didn’t want to get up yet.
I soon found a pillow thrown into my face and someone tickling me. I screamed, rolling away from my attacker and rolled off the bed. I could hear Joe laughing above me as I lay with my back on the floor.
“When did he come in?” I grumbled to myself as I stood up.
“Why is it,” I asked him grumpily, “that you are so awake this morning?”
He looked me over with a grin plastered on his face. “Because you look funny.” he said impishly.
I glared at him. “Out!” I demanded. “I refuse to be pestered this early in the morning on my birthday!” He threw one of my stuffed animals at me before ducking to avoid my pillow.
“It’s not morning,” He added before running out of the room, slamming the door.
“Don’t slam the doors!” I heard Dad yell.
I slowly made my bed and got dressed. Why am I so slow? I thought glumly. Then the doorbell rang. I looked at the clock; it was just after
“Marie? You ready to go?” Mom called. “Emmie’s here to get you.”
“Coming!” I called back. I quickly grabbed a piece of toast from the tray on my desk and stuffed it in my mouth. I put an orange in my pocket, grabbed my bags by my door, and rushed down the stairs.
“Marie, your hair’s a mess,” Mom said as I went past.
“I’ll fix it in the car!” I called, dragging Emmie with me. “I’ll see ya sometime tomorrow!” I opened the door to the Reed’s SUV and stuffed my things in. I then climbed in after them, slamming the door shut.
“What happened to you this morning?” asked Emmie as she got in. She was looking at me with a funny look.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
Aunt Karen looked in the rear view mirror as she backed out of my driveway and smiled. “Interesting hair style, Marie.”
Confused, I got into one of my bags and searched for my compact. When I had it, I opened it and saw what they meant. On my forehead, written in ink was “Happy B-day Sis!!!” My dark hair was in shiny, sticky dread locks.
“JOE!!!” I yelled as Emmie burst out laughing.
“Why didn’t you wake up when he did it?” she asked when the giggles had died down a bit.
“How should I know?” I shot back as I dug around in my other bag. Joe is going to pay for this tomorrow, I thought as I pulled out my baseball cap. “Aunt Karen? Can we stop at your place so I can wash my hair? It should only take me about ten minutes.”
She gave me a sympathetic look. “Sure thing.” She said as she pulled out her cell phone. “Emmie, you call the girls and say we’ll be a little late.”
“It’s a good thing its only mousse,” said Emmie. “Or your hair would stay that way.”
“Just call ‘em already.”
* * * *
I had to wash my hair three times to get all the gunk out of it. The writing hadn’t come completely off in the shower. It was past one in the afternoon when we were on our way again. Emmie drove so her mom could put my hair in braids in the back seat. Our three friends (Andrea couldn’t make it) had to hide smiles when they saw my forehead, so once Aunt Karen was done with the braids, I put on my cap to cover the writing.
It was a two-hour drive to the cabin and most of us slept on the way up. Rain clouds started to gather as we unloaded the car. “Aw,” moaned Cassie. “It wasn’t supposed to rain!” I felt a few drops on my head and arms.
“Strange, the weatherman said it wasn’t going to rain.” Aunt Karen replied. We hurried inside as the clouds let the rain go. Fifteen minutes latter it was a down pour.
“Well, so much for the river today,” said Amy, as she watched the rain through the window. Her long brown hair was in a braid down her back. She held her swim suit in the hopes that the rain would stop.
We were all gathered in the main room of the cabin. The power was out because of the storm so Becky, Cassie, Emmie, and I were all playing card games. Aunt Karen was in the kitchen trying to get the oven to light. We had been planning to go down the river that runs by the cabin on some tubes, but the rain now made that impossible. We could hear a slight roll of thunder in the distance.
“Well, now what?” sighed Emmie as she threw down her cards. She had just lost the third game in a row. “The TV doesn’t work so we can’t play DDR and it’s raining so we can’t go tubing or hiking!”
“We could talk about boys and the homecoming dance,” suggested Becky. She gathered all the cards and started to shuffle them. “Its two weeks after school starts.”
“Please, not around my mom!”
“But your mom’s in the other room, she wouldn’t be able to hear us.”
“Hear what?” Aunt Karen walked in carrying a tray of mugs full of steaming hot cocoa. She set it down next to us on the floor. “Talking about boys? Or the school dance?” I grinned. Aunt Karen doesn’t miss much.
“Neither,” Emmie moaned. “We’re just bored.”
“Then lets start the fire early instead,” Aunt Karen then went to the door to grab a jacket. “Emmie, you and Marie clean out the fire place. Becky and Cassie, go get the blankets from the other room. Amy, grab another coat and help me with the fire wood.”
Everyone got to work and we soon had the fire going merrily. Aunt Karen dug some hotdogs and chocolate out of the freezer and some marshmallows from a cupboard. We were talking and having so much fun that we didn’t notice it get dark outside until we were all so full we didn’t want to move.
“How about a ghost story?” asked Cassie. She reached for a flashlight by her blanket and, switching it on, pointed at her face. “On a dark stormy night…” she began in what she thought was a scary voice, before Becky took it away.
“Not from you, thanks. No offence, Cass, but your ghost stories are always so corny.”
“Aw, but I have a really good one about zombies.”
“Heard it!” We all chorused.
“Fine!” she said in a mock hurt voice. “I’ll just have to bore you all with my sisters dating stories.”
“That would be scary,” muttered Becky, playing along.
“Please no!” cried Amy, while the rest of us laughed.
“Well I have one,” Aunt Karen put in. “It’s about witches.” She said the last part in a whispered tone. I couldn’t help but feel a chill go up my back.
“This is a story that has been in our family for generations.” She began. “In fact, your mother, Marie, knows this story very well.
“It all started when my great-great-great grandmother came to
