See Me (2 page)

Brynne giggled.

“Shh. This is serious.” Nicole kept her eyes closed, straightened her spine, and hummed in an eerie way. “Spirits who are here, we’ve gathered this evening to ask you important questions.” Her voice was low and she stretched out each word she spoke. “We respect that you’ve passed on and thank you in advance for your guidance.”

A chill zipped through me and my other eye popped open when the candle flame wavered for no apparent reason. My mouth went dry and I swallowed the mass of fear creeping up my throat. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. . . .

“Please use this Ouija board as a portal so that you, friendly spirits, may share your wisdom with us.” Nicole opened her eyes and gestured to the board. “Now, let’s place our fingers lightly on the planchette.”

Brynne’s forehead wrinkled. “Huh?”

“The pointer thingy,” I whispered, placing the tips of my fingers on the planchette, being careful not to touch the clear window that would cover the letter the alleged spirit wanted to convey. In middle school, I’d been the queen of moving the planchette around the board to freak people out at the slumber party with words like “I’m here” and “Help me.” But right now felt different. The air hummed around me and this suddenly felt all too real, making me shudder.

“P-Planchette.” Brynne stuttered, then cleared her throat. “Oh, I didn’t know the pointer had a real name.”

Looked like I wasn’t the only one who was spooked.

“What should we ask first?” Shadows flickered over Nicole’s animated face as she glanced from Brynne to me.

“Ask about Amy’s date with Alex, right?” Brynne shifted her fingers.

Nicole nodded, then closed her eyes. “Friendly spirits, guide our fingers and let us know if Alex Decker will be on time for their date this evening.”

The pointer glowed an eerie white in the dim candlelight. It didn’t move.

We eyed each other in silence.

Nicole took another deep breath. “Friendly spirits, enter and guide us to the answer. Will Alex show up on time?”

The little pointer wiggled and slowly inched upward on top of the word “YES.”

I gulped.

“Thank you, friendly spirits.” Nicole rolled her shoulders and sucked in a breath. “Will Alex Decker kiss Amy Love after their date tonight?”

A chill crawled up my spine, but my gaze fixated on the planchette—on the answer I hoped for.

The pointer swooped to the center of the board, circled twice, and then slid upward to cover the word “YES.”

I turned to Brynne, chin tucked into my chest. “Did you make it move to that word?”

Her blue eyes widened and she slowly shook her head.

I squinted at Nicole. “Do you swear on your black boots that you didn’t move the planchette?”

“Don’t be so suspicious.” Nicole smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “Thanks, friendly spirits. You’ve been very helpful. Now a final question. . . Amy, you ask something.”

Was it possible the spirit world was really communicating with us? Could it see my future? Would I ever fit in the world as much as everyone else seemed to?

My palms turned clammy and I concentrated on touching the pointer as lightly as I could to ensure I wouldn’t subconsciously move it. “Um, friendly spirits? Can you tell me if . . .” My voice trailed off. I wanted to ask if I was kidding myself entering the
Maisy’s Meow
contest, but my friends didn’t know I’d been writing my own comics. What if they asked to see them? What if they thought I sucked? I bit my lip, my belly roiling. Better to go with my back-up question. “Is, uh, Alex Decker my true love?”

My fingers twitched and I held my breath as the planchette swung in an arc toward the center of the board. The tension built, my heart thumping, as the pointer slid left then right and then. . . .

A loud
bang
clattered from behind me. “Agh!”

Brynne and Nicole and I simultaneously screamed at the top of our lungs as the pointer skidded off the board.

Something banged against my door again, followed by the sounds of juvenile laughter.

My face heated as I stood, flipped the lights on, then yanked my door open. “Jimmy, that better not have been you or so help me . . .”

My freckle-faced brother grinned, showing his two missing front teeth. “Some dude is downstairs waiting for you. I bet he heard you scream. Ha!”

“You are so busted.” I turned him around, then guided him toward the stairs. “Mom!”

“Jimmy, come help Mommy in the kitchen.” My mother’s impatient voice drifted up the stairs.

“Unbelievable.” I pushed my door closed, leaned back against it, and gaped at my friends, who were sitting motionless around the Ouija board. “Do you think Alex heard all that?”

“Who cares?” Nicole jumped to her feet and pinched my cheeks. “We already know he’s going to kiss you goodnight. Better take along some breath mints.”

A kiss was great, but I’d rather know if he was my true love, or if we’d break up like my parents had. My eyes automatically drifted to the Ouija board, where the pointer sat facing upward in the middle of the board.

A chill crept across my chest. I distinctly remembered the planchette flying off the board. So, how did it get back there? I shook my head. Nicole or Brynne must have put it back when I wasn’t looking. . . .

“Do you think spirits were really talking to us?” I whispered to Brynne as Nicole opened my bedroom door.

Brynne shrugged. “Forget about it. Go have the night of your life. If you marry Alex, I expect to be a bridesmaid at your wedding.”

Nicole laced her arm through Brynne’s as they headed for the stairs. “She’s sixteen, Brynne. Not thirty.”

Left alone in my room, I slid my purse strap over my shoulder, reached for the light switch, and took one last glance over my shoulder.

The pointer’s circular window now covered the word “NO.” My breath caught in my throat. My heart pounded and pins pricked along my arms. The pointer had been in the center of the board a moment ago. I’d just seen it. I stared at the word encased by the plastic circle.

NO.

How had the pointer moved to the word “NO” all by itself? My brain searched for a logical explanation. Brynne must’ve kicked the board when she got up. Yeah, that had to be it.

I flipped off the lights and pulled my door shut.

It wasn’t like the spirit world cared about me or whether my date was going to kiss me. It’s doubtful there even was a spirit world.

Unfortunately, those thoughts didn’t ease the distinct feeling I had that someone was watching me.

****

After an embarrassing Q and A session from my parents on where Alex planned to take me (the movies) and what time he planned to have me home (before midnight), he and I were finally on my front porch. Alone at last.

“You look nice,” he said, then reached for my hand.

“Thanks.” My heart skipped a beat when his fingers laced through mine. I couldn’t help noticing that he looked extremely gorgeous himself with his thick head of blond hair styled up in front, a black long-sleeved shirt that fit snugly over his broad shoulders, and a shy half-smile meant solely for me. Wow. After fantasizing about him so long, it was hard to believe this was actually real.

We were ambling down the cement path toward his black sports car parked at the curb when I spotted movement behind the rear tinted windows. What the . . .? Every muscle in my body tightened. Maybe my mind had fabricated the “being watched” feeling, but there’s no way I was imagining the outline of a figure in the backseat of Alex’s car. I stopped in my tracks and threw my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream.

Could that really be one of Nicole’s “friendly” spirits?

My eyes bugged and I tightened my grip on Alex’s hand, chills skittering down my spine. “Something’s in the backseat of your car. No joke.”

“Right.” He tugged me along toward his car and then released my hand to fumble with his keys. “That’s just Todd and Josh. They’ve been wanting to see this movie too, so I said they could come.”

Relief washed over me that it wasn’t a ghost, but my forehead wrinkled as he opened the front passenger door so I could get in. I gaped up at him. “You brought your friends along?”

He shrugged like he didn’t see what the big deal was. “Yeah. They’re cool, huh?”

I stared at him, debating what to make of this. I’d thought he’d asked me out to spend time with me, not to hang out as one of the guys. Then Alex did that swoon-worthy half-smile thing and I decided that, even with a few tag alongs, all hope of a relationship wasn’t lost. “Sure. It’s fine.”

I slipped into the front passenger seat and he closed the door behind me. Todd and Josh mumbled greetings as I pulled my seatbelt across my chest. “Hi, guys,” I said, trying to sound perky and not like I thought it was (totally) weird they’d want to come on our date.

“Hi,” Todd said.

Josh patted my shoulder. “Hey, Amy.”

Okay, it’s not like spending Friday night with three of the hottest guys in school should be considered a drag, exactly. But I did want a
real
date. Ending with a kiss like the Ouija board promised. And, hello? If you’re interested in someone, you don’t bring your buddies with you. Right? If only there were a sly way to text Brynne to get her thoughts.

Shoot, if I’d known this was a group thing, I could’ve brought her and Nicole along, too. Nicole would’ve been ecstatic since she had a thing for Todd lately.

I watched Alex climb behind the wheel, then my arm prickled, causing the hairs on my right forearm to stand at attention. Heat radiated across my right shoulder so I flipped my gaze toward the window to scan outside. Goosebumps stampeded up my neck, once again giving me that bizarre feeling that someone was spying on me. But when I surveyed the area, all I saw was our three-car garage and the front walkway.

Nobody there. At all. This had to be lingering ick from using the Ouija board. I shuddered. Never again.

Swallowing my fear, I tried to shrug off the weird feeling, and turned toward my date. Unfortunately, Alex started up a conversation about football (yawn) with his buddies right before he put his foot to the pedal and we sped down the street.

****

On Monday morning, I sat at my desk in English class and tried to ignore the feeling of something pressing against me. You’d think that’d be easy since I couldn’t see anything besides my classmates hunched over their desks and the teacher reading his book. The freaking spirits were here, but nobody else in class seemed to notice them.

That or I was losing it.

After sensing them on and off all weekend, the feeling had gotten stronger last period during history class. Trying to get my mind off Alex and what a let-down our date had been, I’d been reading my new-to-me first edition
Maisy’s Meow
comic book I’d picked up at a thrift store last week when I had that feeling that someone was watching me. At first, I thought Mr. Gillespie had caught me—that he’d take away my new book—but it wasn’t Mr. Gillespie.

It was Nicole’s spirits.

I mean, what else could it be?

Now, in my seat, directly behind my English teacher’s desk, the spooks were pulling at me again. A tug of invisible emotion. Willing me to acknowledge them. My heart thudded in my chest and I sucked in a breath, but nobody else seemed aware of what was happening to me. The other students continued scribbling their five-page essay for Mr. Coleman on
The Scarlet Letter
.

My forearms prickled. I didn’t know what the spirits wanted and didn’t care. They just needed to go into the light, or wherever spirits went, and leave me alone. I bit my lip and refused to acknowledge them as I scribbled my concluding paragraph.

They didn’t like being ignored.

The feeling of ice-cold thumbtacks pricked over my chest and into my neck. They pleaded for my attention, but San Felipe High didn’t teach sixteen-year-olds how to deal with the invisible.

“Go away,” I muttered, then did the only thing I could do. I wrote the final sentence of my essay, then added a period. As I pressed the pen hard against the paper, willing the spooks to take a freaking hike, the ink seeped out, making my period look more like a comma.

Without warning, the pen jerked from my grip. It whipped across my paper and spiraled to the center of the page, spinning dark, loopy lines over my second supporting paragraph. What the . . .?

I blinked, wondering if I should pinch myself. My palms were flat on the desk, yet the pen stood upright in front of me, frantically moving on its own. I stopped breathing and watched as it traced a harsh line down the center of the page, heading straight for me.

Then, the pen stopped abruptly and dropped sideways onto the desk with a
clink
.

“You find that amusing, Miss Love?”

Heart pounding, I whipped my head up to where Mr. Coleman’s pinched face glared down at me. “W-What?”

He crossed his arms. “If you think I’m interested in reading through your chicken scratch, you’re quite mistaken.”

I glanced down at the strange markings my pen had made. That
they
had made because yeah, spirits really did exist. There was no denying it now. I certainly hadn’t made that scribble. Although, this wasn’t exactly a positive revelation. “But, I didn’t do anything, Mr. Coleman.”

“And I didn’t do this.” He removed a red pen from his pocket protector and drew a giant “F” next to my header, “How Hester Prynne Got Screwed.”

“That’s not fair!” I’d worked my bootie off on that essay—after staying up until midnight reading the Cliffs Notes—and I deserved at least a “C” on it.

“What’s fair is that you remain in here during the break and recopy your essay word for word. You will write every letter neatly to show proper respect to your English class and to me.” He made eye contact with the students who dared to watch our exchange. “There’s a lesson here, people. I will not tolerate practical jokes in my class, no matter how boring you find the subject matter.”

I gripped the edges of my desk. “But—”

“Time’s up.” Mr. Coleman zipped to the front of the classroom. “Pencils down. Class dismissed.” He peered at me in the back row. “Everyone except Amy Love.”