From Bad to Cursed (2 page)

N
INE MISSED CALLS
.

I lobbed my useless cell phone at the couch. “It was on vibrate.”

Mom’s hands were pressed against her forehead like she was fending off a headache. “Your father and I were gone for twenty minutes, max. We had to sign some papers at the school.”

About thirty seconds after I self-defensed my sister into submission, my parents came tra-la-laing through the front door to find me still sitting on her. High jinks ensued.

I tried to apologize to Kasey, but she slunk off into her room.

“But
honestly
,” I said. “She’s at Harmony Valley for ten months and you had
no clue
she’d be coming home three weeks early?”

Mom did a palms-up shrug. “Honey, we didn’t know for sure. I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

“Hopes,” I repeated.

The flatness of my voice made my mother cringe. “Alexis…you’re happy about this, right? Not the—the tackling part, but—Kasey coming home?”

We both caught the pause before my answer. “Of course,” I said. “Mom, I was
surprised
. I get back from hiking with Carter, thinking the house is empty, and Kasey comes trotting out, all, ‘Oh, hey, remember me, your sister from the mental hospital?’ I thought she
escaped
.
”

Mom shuffled through the stack of papers in her hand, her faux-casual attitude giving away how upset she really was. “I just really want this to work for her. I want her to make friends, and find her way around school, and—what if she doesn’t?”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “She will.”

Kasey being home meant she was going to Surrey High, where I’d spent two years building up and then dissolving a variety of enemies and alliances.

She wasn’t just a freshman; she was Alexis Warren’s little sister.

And that meant it was my job to make sure she didn’t crash and burn.

Even though Mom didn’t mean to make me feel responsible for Kasey, we all knew that
my
reputation preceded her. I’d mellowed way out, but there were still a lot of people who would never see me as more than the rebellious punk I’d once been.

Cyrus Davenport was one of them.

“Oh”—he sneered at me over the cheese tray on the snack table—“Alexis. I didn’t know Cecilia invited
you
.”

“Hey, Cyrus,” I said. “How’s UCLA?”

“I assumed you’d be in juvie by now,” he said, pursing his lips and turning away.

“Okay…good to see you, too,” I said to the air where he’d been standing. The low buzz of the Davenports’ first-week-of-school party closed in around me.

“So Cyrus is still a drama queen,” Megan said, appearing at my side. “Nice to see college doesn’t always change people.”

Kasey stood a few feet away, clutching a bottle of water in her hands like a security blanket. She was wearing stiff, brand-new jeans and a shirt she’d borrowed from our mother, this gold silky blouse that made her look about forty. “Why does that boy hate you?”

Carter slipped his arm around my waist. “I’m a little curious, myself.”

“It’s one of Alexis’s bad girl moments,” Megan said. “I’m sure you guys wouldn’t be interested.”

Carter lowered his chin. A smile played on his lips. “What did you do, you monster?”

I glanced at my sister, whose eyes were as round as quarters, not sure if I wanted her to hear this story. “Well…two years ago—you were still at All Saints, Carter—I was going through one of my…phases. I hacked into the drama club website and switched some casting decisions for
The Sound of Music.
I mean, their password was
password
. They were asking for it.”

“And Cyrus got the part of…”

“Fräulein Maria,” Megan said.

“Turns out it was the one role he always wanted,” I said. “He’s hated me ever since.”

Carter pulled me closer. “Know what I always wanted? A girlfriend who was a junior.”

“Aww,” I said. “I always wanted a seventy- to three-hundred-millimeter zoom lens. With macro.”

He gazed into my eyes.

Even though we’d been a couple for almost five months—since the April prom night when we officially admitted our feelings for each other—a battalion of happy butterflies still launched in my stomach when he looked at me like that. He wrapped his hands around mine, and it was like we were in our own little world, not a single angry thespian in sight.

“You two are gross. I’m going to mingle.” Megan gave her dark shoulder-length hair a shake and scanned the crowd. “Want to come with me, Kasey?”

“What?” Kasey asked, choking on a mouthful of water. “No, thank you.”

“Yes you do,” Megan said, herding her away. “Because the alternative is staying here with Edward and Bella.”

When we were alone, Carter’s expression darkened with concern. “Everything okay with her?”

I nodded. “She still flinches whenever I walk into a room, but she accepted my apology.”

His hand rested lightly against my lower back, almost like he was trying to prop me up. “I’m surprised she came.”

“Me too.” In fact, I’d only asked her because I was sure she’d say no.

But then she said yes, and the night became less about having a good time and more about making sure nothing disastrous happened to her.

I began to get the feeling that having a good time in general was about to get a lot more complicated.

As things began to wind down, Carter got stuck in a conversation about Student Council elections and I got up to find Megan. I found her in the kitchen—alone.

I tapped her on the shoulder. “Where’s my sister?”

“Oh, I’m not sure,” Megan said, like it was no big deal.

I looked around, panic rising inside me.

“Lex,” Megan said, putting a hand on my arm, “she’s not a two-year-old lost at Disneyland.”

“But she’s never been to a party like this before.” I knew most of the kids there, but not
all
of them. A couple were even in college. What if somebody spiked my sister’s drink? Lured her away from the crowd?

Seeing my face, Megan relented. “All right,” she said. “Commence Operation Find Kasey.”

We wove through the house, finally ending up in the hallway in front of a closed bedroom door. Sloppily taped on it was a handwritten sign that said,
BAGS IN HERE.

“You check that room,” Megan said. “I think there are some people in the garage. I’ll go look out there.”

I opened the door.

“Kasey?”

No answer.

The room was dark, but it wasn’t empty. Three kids—none of them my sister with her golden ponytail—sat on the floor, with flickering candles scattered around. My pulse perked up at the sight—we Warrens weren’t big decorative flame (or any kind of flame) folks anymore. Watching your house burn to ashes sort of reduces the appeal.

On the floor between them was a Ouija board.

“You know, those aren’t toys,” I said, trying to keep my voice as light as possible.

“Oh, really?” replied a voice I knew. “Because I bought it at a toy store.”

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw Lydia Small in the central position. Her long dyed-black hair was in a deliberately messy updo, and her brand-new eyebrow ring glinted in the candlelight. Her fingertips rested lightly on the planchette, a little wooden piece that moved around the board, and the other two girls had their fingers on either side of hers.

Lydia and I were friends for freshman and part of sophomore years. But lately things were pretty strained. She couldn’t get over the fact that I could possibly prefer to hang with anyone besides her and the rest of the pretentious, black-clad Doom Squad. And I couldn’t get over the fact that she was insufferably annoying.

“Hurry, ghost of the Ouija board,” she said in an oogie-boogie voice, “tell us something interesting before scaredy-cat Alexis runs away.”

The other two giggled. I stood with my back to the wall.

“What was that?” Lydia said, lowering her ear to the board. “What did you say?” Then she looked up. “The ghost wants to know if you’ve always been boring, or if it’s something that happened when you started hanging out with clones—hold on, I’ll answer.”

I sighed. “Grow up, Lydia.”

She leaned down to talk to the board. “The answer is B,” she said. “Clones.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I should try harder to be unique…like you and the other fifty people at school exactly like you.”

The door opened, letting a slope of light fall across the room.

“Lexi?” my sister’s voice asked. Her hand groped the wall and flipped the light switch, blinding us all and bringing forth groans of protest from the girls on the floor.

The light popped off again. Kasey stepped in, with Megan behind her.

“What is this, a Losers Anonymous meeting? You guys are totally killing the mood,” Lydia said, getting to her feet. “I’m going to get something to eat.” Her minions followed her out.

Kasey stood motionless, staring down at the Ouija board. After a second, her body gave a little jolt and she looked up. “Megan said you were looking for me?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I am,” she said. “Just tired.”

I knelt, grabbed a candle, and blew it out, then reached for another. “I can’t believe they would leave these burning.”

“Um…Lexi? You should maybe…see this.…”

While I’d been focused on the candles, Kasey’s eyes were locked on the board itself.

I looked down and froze.

The planchette was moving.

It glided from letter to letter, making a light scratching sound against the board.

Megan breathlessly rested her hands on my shoulders, bending down to watch.

“It already said B-E,” Kasey whispered.

The movements seemed feeble, but it was perfectly confident about where it was headed.

C-A-R-E-F-U-L

“Will do,” I said, trying to figure out how to get the three of us as far from this situation as possible in the smallest amount of time. “Let’s go, you guys.”

“No, Lex, wait,” Megan said, grabbing on to the leg of my jeans. She knelt on the floor.

Kasey was standing with her palms flat against the floral wallpaper. “It’s not my fault,” she whispered. “I didn’t do it.”

“I know, Kase. It’s all right—we’re leaving.
Megan,”
I said, looking pointedly at my sister. “Come on.”

“Shh,” Megan said, not moving her eyes from the board. “Be careful? Why? Who are you?”

The pointer wobbled and began to move again. Megan grabbed the pad of paper and little wooden pencil from the open box and wrote down each letter.

In spite of my eagerness to go, I found myself watching its progress.

E-L-S-P-E-T-H

Enough. I tried to tug Megan toward the door, but she leaned forward, her eyes blazing. The bow from the front of her shirt dangled almost to the board. I had a horrible vision of something reaching up and grabbing on to it.

“Elspeth,” she asked, “why do we need to be careful?”

E-X-A-N-I-M-U

I yanked my arm free and slapped my hand on the planchette, holding it still. Under my palm, it pulled insistently, trying to get away. I turned to look into Megan’s indignant eyes.

“We talked about stuff like this,” I said. “About
not doing it
, remember?”

“This could be important, Lex,” Megan said. “She’s trying to tell us something.”

“We don’t even know who she is!” I protested. But before we could get into a debate, the door opened with a crash.

Lydia and her followers came back in, smelling vaguely of cigarettes. “Oh, whoa,” one of them said. “It’s dark.”

But my darkness-adjusted eyes could see fine.

And what I saw was: the pointer turning around and around, faster and faster, until it spun in place like a top.

Just as Lydia turned on the light, I backhanded the spinning planchette across the room. It hit the wall with a clatter.

“What are you doing?” Lydia demanded. “That’s not yours!”

“Relax,” I said, relieved that no one else had noticed the spinning.

“They blew out all the candles!” one of the girls whined. “That sucks.”

“Alexis sucks in general,” Lydia said. She looked at Megan, who was still clutching the paper and pencil. “And
that’s
mine too!”

“Let’s go,” I said, my hand on Kasey’s arm.

We were on our way out when Lydia called to me.

“Hey!” She stared at the pad of paper, which Megan had handed back to her. She looked at us, half-questioning and half-accusatory. “Elspeth? Why did you write that down?”

“Nothing,” I said. “It’s nothing.”

“What’s the matter, Lydia, are you
scaaaaared
?” one of the girls asked.

Lydia scowled. “Shut up! I’m returning this stupid game. I’m going to get my money back.”

“No you’re not,” the second girl said, laughing. “Look, this piece fell in a candle and melted.”

“Sorry, Elspeth!” the first girl cackled, and they dissolved into a fit of giggling.

I could feel the heat of Lydia’s glare on my back as we closed the door behind us.

Megan checked her phone. “My curfew’s ten thirty. Are you guys staying, or do you want a ride?”

Staying was the last thing I felt like doing. I found Carter at the end of the hall, still surrounded by preps. I heard the words “outreach” and “social consciousness,” but he abandoned the conversation to draw me close to him.