The Secret Language of Girls (6 page)

Kate groaned. Marylin gave her a look she hoped would say everything she was thinking. She hoped it would say,
Okay, it’s obvious inviting Kayla was a big mistake, but she was not my first pick, remember? Anyway, we’re stuck with her, and maybe if we watch her do her dance routine, she’ll stop talking about throwing up and then we can get on with the party. If you could not be a big pain in the butt about this, I would really appreciate it.

Kate appeared to get the message. “Okay, guys, let’s watch Kayla dance and then we’ll order pizza.”

All the girls but Kayla crowded together on the couch.

“You’ll really like this,” Kayla said, beaming, now that everyone’s attention was on her. “Everyone loves to watch me dance.”

Elyse Cassill had a fishy look around her eyes, Petey decided, and that brother of hers was
definitely up to no good. What did they have planned? Some sort of heist, probably. Was there a black market for sleeping bags? Sure, Petey had watched Elyse’s brother drive off in his beat-up old car, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be back later. Petey could just picture Elyse shoving stolen merchandise out the downstairs bathroom window and into her brother’s greedy hands.

Oh, he’d be keeping an eye on Elyse Cassill tonight, you could count on it.

Petey could see everything from his spot halfway down the stairs, where he could poke his nose through the railing and nobody would ever notice. He watched that girl Kayla dance. She wasn’t a very good dancer, which made Petey suspicious. Maybe she was trying to distract the other girls while Elyse Cassill’s brother snuck in the back door and grabbed all their stuff.

Petey eyeballed the rest of the girls. Who
else was involved in this scheme? There was that Brittany girl, who had stolen French fries from Petey at McDonald’s once when she thought he wasn’t looking. She was a pretty shady character. And one time Ashley had borrowed some socks with cow spots all over them from Marilyn and never given them back.

Overall, it was a crowd you’d be dumb to leave alone with your fancy silverware. Except for Kate. Petey planned on marrying Kate someday, though he hadn’t mentioned that fact to her yet. Kate wasn’t like other girls. She was reliable and a good basketball player. Petey thought Marylin was dumb to hang out with that bossy Flannery when she could spend all day with Kate if she wanted.

Maybe Petey should write Kate a note to let her know that something suspicious was going on down there, right underneath her nose. He’d hate to see her become a victim of a crime. He tiptoed up to his room for a sheet of
paper and a pencil. But as soon as he opened his door, he heard it: the sound of a dilapidated car engine, the very sort you’d find in Elyse Cassill’s brother’s car, puttering on the street outside his window. He turned out the light and climbed onto the top bunk, his binoculars in hand.

The plot, he was pretty sure, had thickened.

After they finished eating pizza, braided one another’s hair, and watched
Ghost
twice, the girls decided to hold a séance and see if the spirit of Marilyn Monroe had anything to say to them.

“Are you here among us, Marilyn Monroe?” Kate asked in her spookiest voice, the one she reserved for séances and ghost stories. “Give us a sign, O great movie star.”

The thump from overhead was loud and clear.

“That was not Marilyn Monroe,” Marylin
said, trying to stop everyone from screaming. “That was Petey falling out of bed. He does it all the time.”

“That didn’t sound like a body-falling-out-of-a-bed sort of thump to me,” Ashley said. “It was a lot more like a spirit trying to contact us from the other side. It was exactly that sort of thump!”

Elyse Cassill started to cry. “I hate séances! They’re so dumb!”

Brittany handed Elyse a Hershey’s with almonds. “Eat some chocolate, Elyse. You’ll feel a lot better.”

“Ssh!” Kate said in a loud whisper. “I hear something. Maybe Marilyn Monroe is in the room with us.”

The basement door burst open, which made everyone scream at the top of their lungs. Elyse jumped into Brittany’s lap.

“It’s only me!” Marylin’s mother called. “I wanted to let you know that the noise you
probably heard was Petey falling out of bed. What on Earth are you girls up to?”

“Nothing, Mrs. McIntosh,” Ashley said in the voice she used to butter up parents. “Just telling ghost stories. Elyse got a little carried away.”

“I did not!” Elyse shouted through her sobbing.

“It’s time to go to sleep, guys,” Marylin’s mom said firmly. “It’s past midnight. No more ghost stories, okay?”

Marylin went to the laundry room to get Petey’s newly germ-free sleeping bag out of the dryer. She wondered if she should spray it with Lysol so it would smell especially disinfected. Who would have guessed that Kayla Townsend would be the sort of girl who worried about germs? Marylin’s mom was always saying you shouldn’t judge people by appearances, and Marylin was beginning to think that maybe she was right. Maybe they
should have invited Elinor Pritchard after all.

When Marylin got back into the rec room, the other girls were rolling out their sleeping bags and arguing over who would sleep next to whom.

“I’m sleeping next to Marylin,” Ashley said in a bossy voice.

“I want to sleep next to Marylin too!” Elyse yelled. “I get to be on her other side!”

Marylin handed Kayla Petey’s sleeping bag. “Where do you want to sleep?” she asked.

“I need to sleep in the middle of everyone,” Kayla said. “If my legs get cold, I won’t be able to dance my best tomorrow.”

“We could all pile up on top of you,” Brittany offered sweetly.

Kate came to the rescue. “Okay, here’s how it’s going to be,” she said in her army-general voice. “Ashley, Marylin, and Elyse, line up your sleeping bags next to each other. Then Kayla, you put your sleeping bag so it runs across the
end of Ashley, Marylin, and Elyse’s. Then Brittany and I will put our sleeping bags next to yours. Then everyone can live happily ever after.”

“I don’t want to sleep at people’s feet,” Kayla complained. “Marylin, you guys put your sleeping bags so your heads are at my side.”

Ashley started to protest but then thought better of it and did as she was told.

When all the sleeping bags were rolled out, they formed a squished T. The girls slid into their bags and rustled around until they were comfortable. Elyse let out a big yawn and said, “I’m pooped.”

Kayla sat up. “I’m not,” she said. “I’m bored. Let’s do something! Where’s the phone?”

“There’s one in the kitchen,” Marylin said. “But I don’t think it’s such a great idea to make any calls. My mom would probably hear you.”

Later, when Marylin thought things over, she would realize that it was at this point the party
started to spiral completely out of her control.

Ashley sat up. “I know a great prank phone call we could do!”

Kayla grabbed Ashley’s hand. “Come on! Let’s go call someone! Let’s call Robbie Ballard!”

Robbie Ballard was the cutest boy in the sixth grade. Well, Marylin thought, at least Kayla has good taste.

Kayla and Ashley rumbled up the stairs to the kitchen, leaving Marylin, Kate, Elyse, and Brittany to stare at one another.

“You’re probably going to get in big trouble for this,” Elyse said, sounding sympathetic.

“Yeah,” Kate agreed sadly. “Your mom has ears like an elephant.”

“Whose idea was it to invite Kayla, anyway?” Brittany asked.

Marylin and Kate looked at each other. “Both of ours,” Kate said, patting Marylin’s shoulder. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Ashley’s and Kayla’s giggles filtered down
from the kitchen. Marylin could hear them making loud
sshh
ing noises at each other. It was only a matter of moments before Marylin’s mom would descend the staircase and ground Marylin for life.

Marylin stood up. It was time to let something happen. “Everybody get dressed!”

“Get dressed?” Elyse look confused. “I just put on my nightgown. Besides, we’re supposed to be asleep.”

Marylin began pulling on her jeans over her pajamas. “That’s right, we’re supposed to be asleep, but we’re not. And in a few minutes my mom will come downstairs and find those guys in the kitchen making prank calls and we’ll all get in trouble.”

Everyone nodded. That was a rule when it came to sleepovers. If the mom in charge got mad at one person, she got mad at all of them. It saved a lot of time in the long run.

“Well, if we’re all going to get in trouble anyway,”
Marylin said, wiggling her head through the neck of her sweater, “we might as well get in trouble for something good.”

Petey tried to roll over, but he was trapped. Elyse Cassill’s older brother! How had he gotten into Petey’s room? Petey wrestled with all his strength, but his arms were pinned to the bed. “Get off of me, you jerk!” he cried. “Don’t think you’re going to get away with this!”

The bedroom door opened, light from the hallway flooding in. “What’s all this yelling?” Petey’s mom stood in the doorway. She did not look like a mom who was concerned that her son was fighting for his life. She looked like a mom who was seriously annoyed. She walked over to the top bunk and yanked at Petey’s sheets.

“You’re having a dream and you’re all tangled up in your sheets,” she told him. “One minute you’re falling out of bed, the next minute you’re
being choked to death by your sheets. I should make you sleep on the couch.”

Suddenly something outside Petey’s window caught his mom’s attention. Elyse Cassill’s brother! Petey knew it! “He’s been there all night, Mom,” Petey informed her. “Just waiting for his chance.”

Petey’s mom struggled to open the window, then gave up. “Get in bed, Petey, and stay there,” she said, stomping out of the room.

“But I am in bed,” Petey called after her, jumping down from the top bunk. He grabbed his binoculars and peered out the window. Where was that scoundrel? At last, the jig was up, thanks to Petey. Even if Elyse Cassill’s brother managed to make a getaway, Petey had already ID’ed him. He wondered if the police department would offer him a job as a junior detective.

Petey didn’t see Elyse Cassill’s brother anywhere. He’d gotten away! But there were Marylin and Kate, plus Elyse and Brittany,
standing in the middle of the McIntoshes’ snowy front yard. Marylin and Kate were leaning toward each other, whispering.

Petey smiled. He couldn’t be happy about the heinous crime, whatever it was, committed here tonight by Elyse Cassill and her brother and the rest of that shady crew, but he was happy to see his sister and Kate best friends again. He sat down on the lower bunk, his eyes growing heavy. Detective work sure could take it out of you, he thought, leaning back against the pillow. “Call me when the police get here,” he said, or at least he thought he said it. He was too busy running down his street after some guy whose arms were full of sleeping bags to be sure.