Dead Is Just a Dream - [Dead Is - 08] (2 page)

“Evan got me a really cool Godzilla tee when he was on vacation. I’m going to wear that with a pair of shorts. At least I have some new sandals.”

“Maybe I’ll go with shorts and a tee too,” I said. “What do you think of this shirt?” I held up a top I had borrowed from my sister Sarah.

“I think the pink one is cuter,” she replied.

“With my red hair?”

“Why not?” Eva said. “You look great in pink.”

“Maybe,” I said. “What about this one instead?” I held up a dark green top. “It’s a little dressier than a tee, but it’ll look good with these shorts.”

Eva lost interest in fashion. “So what did you and Dominic do after the bonfire?” she asked. “Was it romantic?”

“It was,” I admitted. “Until his ex-girlfriend showed up. But that doesn’t change the fact that, sooner or later, he’s leaving.”

“That’s not for ages. And besides, he’ll be back. In the meantime, why not enjoy what you have?”

“You’re right,” I replied. “I’ll try.”

“We should go on a double date tonight,” Eva said. “Does Dominic have a gig?”

“No. We were just going to rent a movie.”

“Let’s do something different,” she said.

“Like what?” I asked.

“There’s the art exhibit.”

“What art exhibit?”

“Ms. Johns told me about it last time I was at the library,” Eva said. “It’s Jensen Kenton. There will be other art displayed too, but Jensen Kenton is the big draw.”

“The landscape artist? Not even my grandparents like his stuff.”

She shrugged. “It’s something to do.”

“I’ll talk to Dom,” I said.

“Good,” she replied. “Now try this on.”

She tossed me a T-shirt with a galloping horse on it. I frowned. “This reminds me of the ghostly horse we saw last night.”

“Give it back, then.” She held out her hand. “I can’t wait until you find out what that’s all about.”

We decided to go to the art show, so Dominic picked me up and we drove to the library. The exhibit had been set up in the community room. Eva and Evan were waiting in the hallway. They were staring at something in one of the glass cases that lined the walls.

“Sorry we’re late,” I said. “I couldn’t find my phone.”

“Jessica, come check out these marionettes,” Eva said. “They’re amazing.”

Row after row of wooden marionettes filled the cases. They were amazing all right, but kind of disturbing. Some were just puppet heads mounted on thin metal sticks. There were princesses in elaborate ball gowns, unicorns and elves, elephants and zebras, and even some clowns. In the next case, there was a troupe of skeletons, dressed in mariachi outfits.

“Wouldn’t this one be perfect for a horror movie?” Eva said. She was pointing to an all-black figure, its face concealed by a mask holding the strings of an even smaller marionette. I gave it a closer look. The title was “Master Manipulator.”

The exhibit was crowded, but I was relieved there was no sign of Dominic’s ex-girlfriend.

“I didn’t expect to see so many people here,” Dominic commented.

“Me, neither,” Evan said. “Just goes to show there’s not much to do in Nightshade on a Saturday night.”

If he only knew. It had been quiet in Nightshade all summer long, but it wasn’t going to last. I could just feel it. Of course, I had an advantage that Evan didn’t. My whirlwind tattoo had sounded an alarm at the beach, which meant trouble was on its way.

Most of the crowd was gathered in front of a huge landscape painting. There were gasps and muttered comments as they stared. Dominic grabbed my hand and said, “Let’s see what all the fuss is about.”

The nighttime scene seemed innocuous until we looked closer and discovered the hidden images.

“What’s that standing in the shadows?” Dominic leaned in and pointed. Upon closer inspection, I saw werewolves whose fangs were dripping with blood.

Another painting was of a large red mouth, crammed full of glistening cockroaches.

“Gross!” I said.

The next display held four paintings. They were just as bad. On the surface the first one looked like a relaxing ocean scene with waves crashing on the shore, but underneath the waves was a huge horse nibbling on a dead whale.

“This is different from Jensen Kenton’s previous work,” Eva said. “Very different.”

An older man in jeans and an Andy Warhol tee overheard her. “You like it? I thought the residents of Nightshade might appreciate my new direction.”

Eva looked at the next piece, which was a city engulfed in flames while a demon roasted what looked like a man on a spit. “Uh, you have an unusual idea about what people like.”

“It’s supposed to represent the four seasons,” the man explained.

“I don’t get it,” Evan said.

“I don’t like it,” Eva said. I nudged her. I had a hunch we were talking to the artist himself, which was confirmed when the guy held out his hand.

“I’m Jensen Kenton, and you’re not supposed to
like
it,” he said. “It’s supposed to make you think.”

“It’ll probably give me nightmares,” I said.

The comment seemed to please him. He smiled widely. “It’s been a pleasure, but now I must meet my other guests.”

Dominic waited until Mr. Kenton had left and then said, “Why don’t we blow off the rest of the exhibit and get a burger at Slim’s instead?”

“Sounds good,” I said. “I should check in with Flo about what happened on the beach last night anyway.” Flo, who worked as a waitress at our favorite diner, had a tattoo that matched mine. And Raven’s and Andy’s. Actually, Flo had several tattoos, one for every year she’d been a virago. I figured Dominic’s mom had some, too, but we never talked about it.

“We should leave now or we might not have any appetite left,” Eva said.

On our way out, we saw a sad-looking clown torturing balloons into animal shapes in a corner.

“Who would bring a kid to this exhibit?” Dominic asked.

“Maybe he’s a performance artist,” Eva suggested.

“Or maybe just the regular kind,” I said. I pointed to the wall behind the clown. It was covered with sad-eyed clown paintings.

“Ugh. Clowns,” Eva said.

I agreed with her. Clowns gave me the creeps.

The disturbing paintings stayed with me even after we’d left the exhibit.

The diner was busy, and we grabbed the last open table. Slim’s was the most popular place in town. It was decorated with lots of stainless steel and red leather. Flo’s brother, Griffin, owned the place, but everyone called him Slim because of his semitrans-parent nature.

Connor Archer came over to take our order. “I didn’t know you worked here,” I said. Connor was a year ahead of me in school.

“Hi, Jessica, everybody,” he said. “I just started, so go easy on me.”

Dominic grabbed my hand under the table. I gave it a reassuring squeeze. He didn’t have anything to worry about. Connor used to have a bit of a crush on me, but had been dating Selena Silvertongue for the past few months.

“Flo would kill us if we didn’t behave,” I told Connor with a smile.

“How are the guitar lessons going?” he asked me.

“Good,” I replied. “How about you? I haven’t seen you at Mrs. Minerva’s lately.” Mrs. Minerva was our extremely strict guitar teacher.

“I had to change my lesson time,” he said. I wondered if Selena had made him do that so he wouldn’t run into me, but I dismissed the notion as egotistical. Besides, Selena, a budding sorceress, would probably put a spell on anyone who looked twice at her boyfriend.

After Connor took our order, I looked for Flo so I could give her a report.

I found her filling water glasses behind the counter. Her T-shirt read
I’M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE
. Flo’s bad attitude had decreased only an infinitesimal amount since she’d gotten married to Vinnie, the drummer for Side Effects May Vary.

“We saw a demon horse at the beach the other night,” I said.

“I know,” she replied. “Andy already told me.” Figures. Andy was Flo’s pet.

“Ever heard of anything like that?”

She shook her head. “I’ll ask Lydia about it.” Dominic and Raven’s mom was now the most experienced virago in town.

I had been dismissed, but I stood there. Flo wasn’t going to like what else I had to tell her.

“Anything else?” she asked.

“I have to miss practice on Wednesday,” I said. “Mom’s making us take horse-riding lessons and I can’t get out of it.”

I expected her to scold me, but she said, “Horse riding, huh? Where?”

“Phantasm Farms,” I replied.

“Could be useful.”

I waited, but she didn’t elaborate, so I headed back.

I stopped by the kitchen to say hi to Slim. “How’s married life?” I asked him.

A few months ago, everyone had been hopeful that Slim would stop being invisible and return to normal. Unfortunately, he’d kind of frozen midway. The left side of his face was back, but the rest remained invisible.

His wife, Natalie, didn’t mind, but Slim did. He had wanted to be visible for the wedding. “For once, I’d like a good photo,” he had joked. “I haven’t had one since my high school graduation.”

I wanted to ask Flo how Slim had become invisible in the first place, but I wasn’t sure she’d tell me. It was more likely that she’d tell me to mind my own business.

The wedding had been beautiful anyway.

“Married life is amazing,” Slim said. “Natalie is amazing.” The gooey look in his one good eye convinced me it was time to return to my table, so I said goodbye.

“What did I miss?” I asked Eva, whose eyes were glazing over. Dominic and Evan were deep in conversation.

“Nothing much,” she said. “They’re debating the world’s fastest runner’s time or something equally thrilling.”

Our boyfriends were both on the Nightshade High track team.

“It’s nice they have something in common,” I said.

“It would be nicer if my boyfriend paid some attention to me,” she said.

Evan looked up with a distracted air. “What did you say?”

Eva laughed. “Never mind.”

He scooted closer to her. “Have I been neglecting you? Sorry.”

She leaned in for a kiss. “You’re forgiven.”

Connor came back with our food and I took a giant bite of my burger. “I’m starving.”

Dominic leaned over and snagged a fry. “Did you run this morning?”

“Not today,” I replied. “Flo canceled, so Eva came over.” Flo usually made all the viragoes go for a long run every Saturday. “What did you do?”

What I hoped he’d say was that he had said goodbye to his ex-girlfriend, but instead he shrugged. “Nothing much.”

“So she’s still here?”

“Who’s still here?” Evan asked. Eva elbowed him in the ribs.

“Dominic’s ex-girlfriend is staying at his house,” I said.

“Don’t make it sound like that,” Dominic objected.

“It’s true,” I snapped.

“C’mon, Evan,” Eva said. “Let’s put a quarter in the jukebox.” She was making an exit so Dominic and I could fight.

Rumor was that the jukebox used to be possessed, but local psychic Daisy Giordano had exorcised it somehow. It was just a regular jukebox now. I kind of missed its old unpredictable ways. It used to play “The Warrior” every time I stepped into Slim’s.

“Why is she here in the first place?” I demanded.

He hesitated. “To see me.”

“That’s just great.”

“We’re just friends, Jess.”

“How long is she staying with you?” I asked.

“She’s not staying at Aunt Katrina’s. There isn’t enough room, but even if there were, I’d want her to leave.”

“You would?”

“Of course,” he said. “I know it would make you as uncomfortable as it would make me. She’s staying at Harmony’s.”

“She knows Harmony Clare?”

“Their moms are old friends,” he said. “Now can we stop talking about Tashya and enjoy the rest of the night?”

I nodded but my tattoo tingled, and I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t exactly a tattoo, because the whirlwind moved sometimes, but I didn’t know what else to call it. When the weird mark had appeared on my arm, my life had changed. Maybe it was about to change again.

Eva and I met
at the bus stop before school the first day. “I figured Dominic might pick you up,” she said.

I bumped her shoulder with mine. “There’s no way I was going to miss our first-day-of-school ritual.”

She whipped out her handheld video camera and pointed it at me. “Smile!”

“No way,” I replied. “You get in here too.” I draped an arm around her and dragged her closer.

Eva did her usual commentary with the date, time,
etc.
Only this time, she felt compelled to add something about the current state of our love lives.

I tried to wrestle the camera away from her. “That’s enough of that.”

“What’s the matter? Don’t you want the world to know you’re dating a future rock god?”

“Everyone in Nightshade already knows,” I reminded her.

“Like Dominic will stay in Nightshade for long,” she said, then saw my face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

I shrugged. “It’s true. He’s bound to leave.”

Eva gave me a hug. “I didn’t mean to depress you,” she said. “Going back to school is depressing enough. How much do you want to bet that Mr. Krayson assigns homework on the first day?”

I wasn’t taking that bet. Mr. Krayson was Nightshade High’s least popular teacher and Eva and I both had him for first period.

The first day of school went smoothly, but the teachers didn’t bother to ease us back into things. I had a pile of homework already and not just in Mr. Krayson’s class.

At the end of the day, Raven, Eva, and I walked to chorus together. There was a bulletin board outside the music room and Eva went over to check it.

She came back with a red and gold flyer in her hand. “A circus is coming to town,” she said.

“I don’t like seeing the animals in cages,” Raven said.

“Me, neither,” I replied.

“I don’t like the clowns,” Eva said.

“Me, neither,” I said again.

We all giggled.

“So we’re definitely going, then?” Eva asked.

“I don’t see how I’ll be able to get out of it,” I admitted. “At least not once my little sisters find out about it.”

In the music room, Dominic was surrounded by his fans as usual, but when he saw me, he broke free to say hi.