Chapter 4

Janey

The words in front of Janey seemed like a pile of mush. Every third word, she had to turn back to the end to look up what Shakespeare meant. They had to read two of his plays that semester...the whole things, not just part. Bambi, the cheerleader who talked to Janey sometimes, had made a big fuss about wanting to read Romeo and Juliet, but their teacher had insisted on Macbeth and Richard the Third. The witches seemed kind of cool in the one she had started reading, and the second play was supposed to have some kind of hunchback for a king. She just wished it made more sense.

As she looked up what a thane was, a note dropped onto her desk. She peeked around the girl in front of her and saw James sneak a look back. He rubbed his arms again, like he had been doing all day, then turned back to his book.

She nearly groaned out loud. Was he adding more torture to what he had done the day before? Crumpling the note up and throwing it at his head sounded like a good idea, but the little voice in her head urged her to read it. With a sigh, she unfolded it.

JAMES IS REALLY SORRY. WOULD YOU GO TO THE DANCE WITH HIM?

Below that were two check boxes. YES and NO WAY IN HELL!

The note had to be a joke, but she just knew it wasn't. The way he had looked at her, the strange way he was rubbing his arms and even his feet like they hurt, it all told her that he felt bad and meant it. As she picked up her pen, another note arced over the aisle and skittered across her desk. She caught it before it fell to the floor and looked to where it had come from.

A few students glanced over at her, including Eun Kyung and Bambi. One boy, though, made a firm point of keeping his eyes on his book. It was Curtis. She had always liked how he let the tight black curls of his hair grow out a bit long. She looked away and opened the note.

WOULD YOU GO TO THE DANCE WITH CURTIS?

She looked down at both notes. Last night she had thought she'd never go to another dance in her life and then two boys had asked her. One was popular, good looking and played football with the seniors. The other was shorter than she was. She looked over at Curtis again. It looked like he was reading the play without having to check the end notes at all.

That was weird. But maybe not a bad kind of weird.

She put James' note on top, wrote NO, BUT THANKS FOR ASKING ME.

Then, she put Curtis' note on top. She looked over at him once more, smiled. The top buttons of her shirt hung down over the note as she checked the YES box.

Chapter 5

Twister

In the shadows under the bed, Twister's button eyes gleamed and she smiled.

She settled back into her place under the bed and thought that maybe, tonight, she wouldn't have to fight, that maybe she could begin to relax.

But as she faded back to sleep, she thought of all the missing doll posters she had seen on the kiosk and how Bounce hadn't been guarding his post. She worried that somehow, those things meant that she would have a lot more work to do if she was going to protect Janey.