Revenge of the Cheerleaders (2 page)

"Okay, Mom, I'll check on campus."

She let out a breath, composing herself. "Thanks, Chelsea. I'm glad I can count on you, at least."

Sometimes being the responsible daughter is the pits.

Chapter 2

I
'd already hung up before I remembered that I'd left my car at Samantha's house. I trudged off to ask her to take me back to her home. She was busy text messaging Logan, her boyfriend, asking if he could get off work early to come to the party. They'd been going out since last spring and were still in that giddy-in-love-can't-be-separated-from-you stage. The rest of us simultaneously endured and envied the way Samantha floated around in his presence.

Apparently the news from Logan wasn't good, because when I explained the situation, she said she'd drive up to campus with me. "Two pairs of eyes are better than one and besides, you still can't drive with those wings."

I knew she didn't really want to come. She was just being nice about it. All the way up to campus she chatted happily with me like it was a normal thing for us to spend Halloween night trying to track down my missing sister.

Part of me worried that something bad might have happened to Adrian. A section of my stomach balled itself into a knot and wouldn't be reassured no matter how many times I told it that Adrian hadn't been abducted, she was just being her usual thoughtless self.

The farther we drove, the madder I got at her for doing this to Mom and me. I mean, Adrian didn't care how many knots she tied in my stomach or the fact that Mom was near tears or that our house would probably be egged by angry trick-or-treaters. Adrian didn't care as long as she got to do what she wanted to do. By the time Samantha and I had parked and walked to the CUB, I was ready to grab Adrian by her witch wig and yell, "Forget Dorothy, you better worry about me dropping a house on you."

We walked inside the building and followed the noise up the stairs. Yep, it was Rick's band all right. I recognized the tune. Rick had given Adrian a CD
of
his songs, so I am frequently forced to listen to them vibrating through her bedroom wall.

We walked toward a table that stood by the door to the ballroom. A girl and two guys—respectively, Little Bo Peep, a wizard, and Clark Kent—sat in front of a money box.

Great. I hadn't taken into account that I needed money to get into this and I didn't have any. I glanced at Samantha. "Do you have cash on you?"

"Just a couple of dollars and some spare change."

I walked up to the table anyway, keeping my eyes on Clark Kent. Which wasn't hard to do because, hey, the guy looked like Clark Kent. His white-collared shirt was half open to reveal a blue T-shirt with a large red S printed on it, and judging from the guy's build, it was truth in advertising.

I smiled at him. "Hi, um, have you seen any witches lately?"

"Does my chemistry teacher count?" He flashed a set of perfect teeth that made him look even more attractive. I nearly had to steady myself against the table.

"No, actually I'm thinking younger and greener."

Clark Kent considered this for a moment. "I guess we've had a few of the broom-stick persuasion come by tonight."

"Could we go inside and check?" Samantha asked. "We're just looking for a friend."

Bo Peep's expression stiffened. "It costs five dollars to get in."

"But we're not here to dance," I said.

"Pity," Clark Kent said, and for a couple of seconds I forgot about Adrian, forgot that I had to get in, and smiled at him again.

"If they just want to look around—" the wizard started, but Bo Peep cut him off.

"It still costs five dollars. We already said no exceptions."

Clark Kent shrugged an apology in our direction. "We're raising money for the homeless."

"What luck," I said. "Because I happen to be homeless. Instead of sending me money, can you just let me go inside and—"

"No," Bo Peep said, and glared at me. This is what happens, I suppose, to people who tend sheep all day. They lose their sense of humor.

Still, I was not about to give up. "We would be happy to pay you," I said with a sigh, "but angels don't use money and medieval princesses always barter with land. The best we can do is to bestow a few blessings or give you some prime real estate in the parking lot."

Clark Kent laughed. His eyes turned warm and they struck me as familiar somehow. I'd seen those eyes before. Where? I stared at him trying to figure it out, which probably wasn't polite, but he didn't seem to mind. He stared back at me with a grin.

Samantha held out a hand imploringly. "It would really only take a few minutes, and we have a couple of dollars. Could two dollars buy us a few minutes?"

Samantha opened her purse, but Bo Peep shook her head so that her store-bought curls bounced angrily around her head. "It's five dollars. No matter how long you go in."

I really had the urge to tell her to go look for some sheep, preferably off a steep cliff, but I didn't.

Clark Kent leaned forward and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. Before I realized what he was doing, he took a ten-dollar bill and handed it to me. My fingers tingled from where he touched them.

"I want a blessing for this," he said, looking at me intently.

"What kind?" I asked.

"I want to dance with an angel."

For the second time that night I completely forgot about my sister. "I think I could arrange that."

A grin stretched across his face. "Good. After you find your friend let me know."

Oh yeah, Adrian.

I handed the money to Bo Peep. "Do we need our hands stamped or something?"

She picked up a stamp from the table and pounded orange pumpkins onto our wrists. "All right, go in." You could tell it hurt her to say the words. We'd only walked a few feet away when I heard her turn to Clark Kent and say, "You're such a sucker for a pretty face."

"Hey, helping damsels in distress is my job," he said.

We walked into the ballroom, and it took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dark. Rick stood on a platform, decked out as Dracula and grabbing his electric guitar with such force that it looked like he was trying to wind the thing up. One of his band-mates sat behind a set of drums, the other stood off to the side with a bass guitar.

Where was Adrian? She had to be close by; somewhere in the Rick adoration zone. I didn't walk through the dance floor, I couldn't maneuver around people with my wings, so we walked around the circumference of the room, looking. In the darkness, sports figures, monsters, genies, and more cats than you could count—probably because WSU's mascot is the cougar—all moved to the music. I spotted a witch, but it was just a freckle-faced coed who wore a pointy hat, not Adrian.

I saw one man without a costume and he looked so out of place that I stared at him for several seconds before I realized he was a security guard. He stood in the back of the room, arms folded and looking bored.

I made my way up to the front of the room. Samantha followed but we didn't talk. The music didn't allow for it.

I suppose it was too much to hope that Rick wouldn't notice me. After all, it's pretty hard to overlook a girl towing mammoth-sized wings on her back.

Between songs Rick went to the mike and said, "Hey, great costumes, everybody. I especially like yours, Chels, because what says Halloween better than a giant anemic butterfly?"

I ignored him and kept looking around for Adrian.

"Anybody got a jumbo-sized can of Raid?" he called.

Some people shouldn't be allowed access to microphones. Especially people who don't like me. A few people in the crowd stared at me and chuckled.

Rick leaned in closer to the mike and added, "Why aren't there ever any six-foot tarantulas around when you need them?"

This pretty much sums up my relationship with Rick. It's been this way since last year, when Rick and Samantha both ran for school president. He was a jerk during the campaign, and by the time the election was over, we hated each other. Which makes the fact that my little sister dates him that much more annoying.

I moved away from the front of the room. Adrian wouldn't be up by the stage anymore—not after Rick had drawn attention to me. Now that she knew I was here, she'd be hightailing it to somewhere less visible. Where? Deep in the crowd? The bathrooms, maybe?

Then I saw her. I recognized the hat, wig, and green makeup. She strolled toward the refreshment table in an unconcerned manner.

So maybe she hadn't been paying attention while Rick asked for volunteers with insecticide—either that, or she didn't care that I'd come after her. I quickened my step and followed after her.

"Adrian!"

She didn't turn around. She either didn't hear me because of the music or she ignored me. Probably the latter.

I gritted my teeth together and went faster. "Adrian!" I shouted.

Now she and several other people glanced over their shoulders at me. I have to admit, she'd done a good job with her makeup. Her putty nose curved down and her chin pointed up so that they almost met. Several warts grew on her face and she'd done something to her cheekbones so that they looked exaggerated. If I hadn't been with her when she bought the costume, I wouldn't have recognized her.

Without answering me, Adrian turned back around and went on.

"Don't you dare walk away from me," I said and pushed my pace. "You know you're not supposed to be here."

She glanced over her shoulder again, looked at me nervously, then walked faster.

Samantha trotted up to my side. "Do you want me to talk with her? Maybe if we call your mom and tell her we'll stay here and chaperone Adrian—"

"No," I said. "Adrian has to learn that she can't treat people this way. She can't just worry us, and make us run all over town looking for her, and pretend it doesn't matter." I turned away from Samantha and watched Adrian's retreating back. "Hey," I yelled again. "You had better turn around and come with me right now."

She glanced back at me again with wide eyes, but instead of stopping and waiting for me, she took off in a sprint.

Without a word I hiked up my dress and ran after her. "Don't think you can get away from me!" I yelled. I knew I could catch her. I've always been faster. True, I wore white ballet slippers which had roughly the same traction as cotton balls, but my determination gave me extra speed.

Adrian ran to the refreshment table, then made a sharp left. I followed. Okay, actually I bumped into the table, and as I turned to go after her, my wings knocked over a large stack of paper plates and several cookies. They fell to the ground and scattered in my wake as I hurried after Adrian.

I heard someone from behind the table yell, "Hey!" and I called out, "Sorry!" but didn't slow down. A few moments later I had gained on my sister again. Her black cape fluttered out behind her, almost within my grasp.

"You are so dead!" I called out.

"Leave me alone!" she called back. At least I think that's what she said, because Rick crescendoed into a loud part of the song just then and it muffled everything out.

She ran behind the platform that the band stood on. It was darker back here and a bunch of cables for the electrical equipment snaked from the platform to the wall. I slowed my pace so I didn't trip on them. Adrian didn't and managed to snag one of them with her foot. I know this because suddenly both the electric guitar and Rick's voice stopped booming across the room.

An overall improvement, really.

I didn't have time to stop and plug it back in. Adrian dashed out a side door and I turned and followed her into the hallway. Well, technically I slid into a bunch of people who stood by the doorway chatting, but after that I followed.

Stumbling out into the hallway, I struggled to regain my balance, then set out after Adrian again. As Adrian weaved in between groups of people, Samantha ran up beside me and called out to her, "We just need to talk to you!"

Adrian didn't slow down and I was losing patience and ground. My wings kept knocking into people, which jostled me back and forth in the hallway like a pinball. "Just grab her!" I told Samantha.

And so she did. She dashed forward to close the gap, and grabbed hold of her arm. Adrian tried to jerk away, which pulled Samantha into her. They fell to the ground in a heap.

Samantha's tiara rolled across the floor and Adrian's witch hat and wig flipped off.