Chapter 13
Casting Call
Brooke
Brooke beat the others to the foot of the stairs, but once there, she hesitated. Left or right? Where had the scream come from? In that moment of indecision, Alex shot right past her, heading in the direction of the front room. Brooke and Maryanne followed hard on her heels.
In the front room they found a trembling Kassidy being cross-examined by Mrs. Betts.
“I’m telling you, there’s something out there!” Kassidy said.
“Something?”
“Okay, someone! And he was looking in that window.” Kassidy pointed to the bow window. “He was looking straight at me! I’m sure of it. I saw him standing right there.”
Brooke rolled her eyes. Kassidy and her peeping Tom story again. Had someone finally gotten so tired of hearing it, they’d decided to fulfill her fears? Or maybe that should be fantasies. The girl did seem to want to be the focus of attention.
Mrs. Betts sighed. “Don’t you think this is getting a little old, Kassidy? This is the third time you’ve raised this type of alarm, yet we’ve never been able to find any evidence of anyone skulking around.”
“Well maybe if you actually went out there to look instead of standing in here accusing me of making up stories to gain attention, you might actually find some evidence!”
Brooke grinned. Way to go, Kassidy! Mrs. Betts’s face now resembled a thundercloud. Okay, that wasn’t too far off her normal expression, but it was still worth the price of admission.
Before Mrs. Betts could retort, the front door opened and Mr. C. W. Stanley stepped inside, followed quickly by John Smith.
“What’s all the ruckus in here, Mrs. Betts?” C. W. removed his trench coat. “I heard a female screaming from clear across the lawn.”
“My apologies, Mr. Stanley,” Betts said, rushing to take Mr. Stanley’s coat. “Miss Myers here imagined that she saw someone peering in through the bow window.”
Both men glanced at the large window, which looked out on the sidewalk side of the house, not the river side.
“I can assure you,” Mr. Stanley said, “that no one was stirring out there. At least not in front of that window. Mr. Smith and I would surely have had a good view of him, if we’d had an intruder. Isn’t that so, Mr. Smith?”
Smith solemnly agreed.
“But I saw something!” Kassidy protested. “I really did. And it was definitely looking in that window.”
Mr. Stanley smiled that smarmy smile. “Well, now, it must have been a goblin, then. I can’t imagine what else could have slipped by us, eh, Mr. Smith?”
“Yes sir, it would have to be a goblin to have gotten past us.”
Brooke rolled her eyes again. Could the old caretaker be any more subservient?
“Except it’s too early for that,” Mrs. Betts chimed in. “Halloween is still weeks away!”
Everyone chuckled.
Well, the adults did. Kassidy on the other hand, looked poised for a serious melt-down.
“I’m telling you, there was something there!” Her voice shook with fury. “You can laugh if you like, but it doesn’t change anything. I know what I saw!”
Kassidy turned and dashed out of the room. Maryanne had to dodge quickly to avoid being clipped as the other girl shot past. Alex, with a frown on her face, hurried after Kassidy.
Brooke snorted. “Well, that was interest—”
A knock sounded at the door, and Mrs. Betts, with an apology to Mr. Stanley, broke away to answer it. “What do you want, young man?” she said.
Young man? Brooke moved to see who the caller was. She recognized him—that gangly, geeky Ty Piper, from her Math class. For a second, she had a horrified flash that he’d come to see her, but then she remembered the HPV payback she’d laid on Seth. By now, it would have gotten around the whole town. No way was anyone going to come looking for her. Especially not this painfully shy specimen.
“I was hoping for a word with Maryanne Hemlock,” Ty said, sounding ridiculously formal. God, between Mr. Smith bowing and scraping to the Lord of the Manor and Ty’s gentleman caller routine, she felt like she’d fallen into one of her mother’s historical romance novels.
“This is a ladies’ residence.” Mrs. Betts drew herself up to her most intimidating. “If you’re expecting to be invited in, you are sadly mistaken.”
But Maryanne had already heard him and moved to stand by Mrs. Betts in the open doorway. “I’m right here, Ty. What can I do for you?”
He cast a nervous glance at Mrs. Betts. “Can you step outside?”
“No, she can’t,” came Mrs. Betts’ brusque reply. “We’re in the middle of something here. Just say your piece and be on your way.”
Brooke rolled her eyes. As if Ty couldn’t just step outside and phone or text Maryanne. Or catch her at school tomorrow. She fully expected him to do so, but then he turned to Maryanne.
“The Halloween dance,” he said. “You know, a week from Friday. Would you like to go with me?”
Brooke saw Maryanne’s answer instantly in the subtle hunching of her posture, and knew Ty wasn’t going to be pleased with it. Clearly Mrs. Betts saw it too. This was one suitor she wasn’t going to have to chase off. Nevertheless, the housemother aimed a frosty look at Ty and another at Maryanne. “Three minutes,” she said, then left the two of them there in the doorway to rejoin Mr. Stanley and Mr. Smith.
Brooke’s gaze swung back to Maryanne, who still hadn’t managed to stutter out an answer. She clearly didn’t want to go out with Ty—probably didn’t want to go out with anybody—but knowing Maryanne, she probably didn’t want to be hurtful, either. So Brooke bailed her out.
“Oh, Maryanne, you can’t go with someone else!” She rushed up to the other girl and laid a hand lightly on her back. “You promised me and Alex that we’d all go out together, just us girls. Remember? And we’ve already got our costumes figured out. You know it won’t work without you.”
Brooke literally felt Maryanne wilt with relief beneath her hand, but for Ty’s benefit, the other girl grimaced.
“She’s right,” Maryanne said. “I really can’t back out now. But thanks for asking.”
“Okay, how about this Friday night, then?”
Maryanne bit her lip.
Brooke did a mental shrug. She couldn’t help Maryanne with that. Couldn’t be expected to provide an out for every day of the week. Maryanne was just going to have to dish out the bad news.
“I’m sorry, Ty. I don’t think so. I just... I’m not... I mean... the whole dating scene... it’s been a tough year, and I’m just not into—”
“Forget it,” he said, angry slashes of color staining his cheeks. “Just forget it.” He left then, yanking the door shut behind him. But not before both Brooke and Maryanne heard his muttered parting shot. “Bitch!”
Alex, who’d gone after Kassidy a few moments ago, rejoined them. “Was that Ty Piper?” Her eyes narrowed on Brooke. “And why did he just call you a bitch?”
Brooke shot Alex an indignant look. “What? You hear ‘bitch’ and naturally it has to be a reference to me, right?”
“Well, duh.”
Brooke dropped the indignant act. “Okay, so I am a bitch. But for your information, it was Maryanne he was slagging. Honest.”
Alex turned surprised eyes on Maryanne, who blushed. “Why?”
“I told him I didn’t want to go out with him.”
“And he didn’t take it kindly. Got it.”
“Hey, what’d Kassidy have to say for herself?” Brooke asked.
Alex sighed. “The usual. Everyone is watching her. These two juniors are following her at school, hoping for a crotch shot when she gets in Trevor Haynes’s car at lunch time and after school. And the vice-principal has the hots for her, and the cute guidance counselor keeps nagging her to make another appointment, not because he thinks she has problems but because he’s clearly in love with her.”
Maryanne shook her head. “Wow. Just... wow. That makes
me feel so well-adjusted somehow.”
Brooke snorted. “God, Maryanne, when people look up well-adjusted in the dictionary, they see your name.”
Maryanne’s eyes shot wide as though in protest of that characterization, though why being called well-adjusted would offend anyone, Brooke couldn’t imagine. Or wait, maybe she could. Maybe it was like the way nice people hated being damned with that ‘nice’ label. Maryanne opened her mouth, but Brooke cut her off before she could claim hidden, dark depths or produce a troubled-teen membership card or something.
“Hey, I don’t mean that in a bad way. Well-adjusted is good! But point taken about Kassidy. Classic narcissist. When her supply runs low, she needs to generate some more attention.”
“Brooke?”
Brooke turned to Alex. “What?”
“You are such an asshole.”
She grinned. “No, I’m a bitch. I thought we’d already established that. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go grab a nap. You know, so I’ll be nice and fresh when I cast—”
“Brooke!” Alex hissed, glancing toward the clump of adults who’d drifted over toward the fireplace.
“What?” She batted her lashes innocently. “I was going to say when I cast myself on my mother’s mercy. I need to persuade her to dump some more cash in my account.”
Holding back a laugh at Alex’s expression, Brooke headed for the stairs. She didn’t have to look back to know the other two girls were right behind her.
And she didn’t need to look at them to know something else. When it came to deciding if they would cast out tonight, Alex would vote against it. She would want to hold off. There was something hinky about that. Hinky as that whole straight-edge act Alex was trying to pull off. Hinky as the way she’d come in the other night, all quiet and withdrawn when Brooke and Maryanne had been bouncing off the walls. But Alex’s vote wouldn’t matter because it would be two to one. Maryanne would definitely be on board. If the girl actually did have dark depths, that’s where they lay, clustered around this casting thing. The prospect of casting out again was calling Maryanne as powerfully as it called to Brooke.
Brooke smiled to herself.
Get ready, Mansbridge. Get ready for the Hellers.