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“Wow, Elspeth, how incredibly helpful,” I said, patting the pointer as if it were a dog.
Kasey slapped my hand. “Be nice!”
“I don’t want to be nice,” I said, feeling my face begin to flush. “She’s messing with us, Kasey!”
“I’m sure she can explain,” Kasey said, shifting her body slightly away from me. “Elspeth, please tell us something so we’ll know you’re on our side.”
“Like she couldn’t just lie,” I sniffed, crossing my arms and turning away.
But as she began spelling again, I turned back.
A-B-A-N
Staring down at it, I realized that I was holding my breath, bracing for some sort of impact. And then, before I could stop myself, all of that energy focused into a little bomb of anger, and I brought my fist down on top of the pointer.
Kasey gasped. “Why’d you do that, Lexi?”
Her eyes were wide, wary.
“I don’t know,” I said. Another flush was spreading through my cheeks, but this one was embarrassment. Avoiding my sister’s eyes, I focused on collecting dust bu
“She wasn’t yanking us around—she was giving us answers! To questions we asked! And now she’s gone.”
Kasey flopped sideways onto the carpet. I turned away, just in time to hear her inhale sharply. “Lexi, what’s going on with the board?”
I looked down at it. Seeping out of its seams, almost like an oozing wound, was a thick black goo, chalky and opaque.
“What is that?” Kasey asked. She started to reach her hand toward it, but I grabbed her arm.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But don’t touch it.”
As the black stuff reached the edge of the planchette, the little wooden piece gave a startled jolt and tried to move away. It struggled to get across the board, but with a sizzling sound, the substance bubbled up and covered it completely. It was like one of those nature shows where the crocodile grabs a zebra at the watering hole. Kasey and I watched breathlessly as all of the blackness on the board converged on the big blob in the center. It pulsed lightly, like it was breathing, and then made another furious bubbling sound and evaporated, revealing the undamaged pointer.
Kasey reached down and touched it timidly. “Elspeth?”
She tried a few more times, but Elspeth was gone.
“What was that?” Kasey asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. But there was something familiar about it. The way it absorbed light absolutely, without any luminance of its own. The creature in Lakewood had been that same kind of shadowy black. I almost said something, but Kasey spoke first.
“I hope she’s okay.” Kasey stared down at the lifeless planchette. “That kind of looked like it hurt.”
I was relieved when she began to box up the Ouija board.
Elspeth wasn’t helpful, anyway—another gut feeling.
“I’m not sure if it’s worth it, to be honest,” I said. “She was just joking around! She even said so. And we don’t want to know what happens if more of that black stuff shows up.”
Kasey shook her head slowly. “No,” she said. “I guess not.” She carried the box to her closet and buried it under a pile of clutter.
My childish anger had melted away, leaving me feeling slightly guilty. “Anything else you want to try?”
She shook her head and looked up from behind her hair. “I think I’m done for the day.”
My heart began to flutter in my chest. “That’s too bad,” I said.
But it was a lie.
Because something inside of me was glad.
THE NEXT MORNING, I sat down next to Carter. Was it just me, or did he seem distant? Distracted?
“Carter,” I said, just wanting his attention. When he looked straight at me, I regretted it, imagining how grotesque I must look—my wide, shiny face washed out in the sunlight, revealing my yellow teeth with every word I spoke.
“Did you floss this morning?” he asked.
I reared away—was he trying to hint at something?
“I’ll be right back,” I said, hurrying toward the girls’ restroom.
I leaned in to inspect my teeth in the hazy mirror. They were the color of old mayo
Then I recalled my fictional dentist appointment. I sighed, blotted my skin with a paper towel, and went back outside.
Carter was talking to a girl.
As I got closer, I recognized Zoe. At the party I’d found her dull, but now she struck me as beguilingly wholesome. Her pale blond hair reached almost all the way down her back, glowing in the sunlight like corn silk. Her skin was peachy and fresh, and her features were elfin. I felt like an elephant trundling across the courtyard toward them.
Carter held his hand out to me when I got close. But I didn’t take it. Instead, I stuck my hands in the pockets of my skirt to hide my ragged fingernails and sat down.
“You guys haven’t officially met, have you?” Carter asked. “Alexis, this is Zoe…Zoe, my girlfriend…Alexis.”
“Hi, Alexis,” Zoe said, smiling like a skin-cream model.
Zoe, my girlfriend was all I heard. Why would you ever want Alexis, my girlfriend if you could have this beaming, healthy young thing?
I felt something rise in my chest as humiliated tears pricked at my tear ducts. I wiped them away and stared at the sky, trying not to hear the happy lilt of Carter and Zoe’s conversation.
“I have to go,” I said, standing abruptly. In answer to Carter’s questioning look, I added, “—talk to my sister.”
“Okay,” Zoe said. “Nice to meet you!”
Even her voice was sweet and springlike. I wanted to knock her down.
“Hey, Lex, you’ve got a spot,” Carter said, grabbing my shirt to hold me still. I looked down to find a dark gray smear on the side of my jeans.
“Oh, no! You should probably try to wash that off,” Zoe said, clucking with fake concern.
“It won’t come off,” I said, pulling my shirt out of Carter’s reach. “See you later.”
Now I had a giant sloppy stain on my pants, which was reason enough to flee. But more than that, I wanted to get away, hide my hideous self from Carter before he had the chance to realize the enormous mistake he’d made when he decided to be my boyfriend.
I got up early the next morning and spent an extra twenty minutes picking out a cute skirt and white shirt, wrestling with my hair, and slathering on makeup. I pictured Carter’s face lighting up when I found him, enchanted, enthralled, captivated—all the Disney princess words.
But he hardly even looked up from his book.
“No cavities?” Carter asked.
This time, I remembered the lie. “Nope,” I said, sitting down, trying to spread my skirt out beneath my legs so the grit of the wall didn’t touch my skin.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “You seem…”
“I’m fine,” I said, sucking in my stomach.
“Looking forward to di
“Oh,” I said. “Yeah.” Another chance to gain a pound or two. Just what I needed.
“Hey, do you mind if I pick you up at seven instead of eight?” he asked. “I kind of need to get home early so I can finish my speech.”
Right. Student government speeches were tomorrow. That meant an assembly in the auditorium, bright lights, me in the front row. Everybody looking at me.
I shook my head. “Not at all,” I said.
Finally, he lowered the book and turned to me. “Lex, what’s wrong? All week you’ve been kind of out of it. Is your sister doing all right?”
I told myself to focus and gave him as much of a smile as I could muster. “Kasey’s good. I’m good too.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ve just been worried.”
Worried how? I wanted to ask. Worried that when the school sees the drab chubster you’re dating, it will make them question your judgment and cost you the election?