Claws! (6 page)

I gasped and tried to see where he was pointing.

Miss Harris stared at Aaron. “You really see a cat?” she demanded.

“No, actually, I don’t,” Aaron said. A grin spread over his round, freckled face. “Just messing with you!”

The class erupted in a riot of laughter. Kids hee-hawed and bumped knuckles. A bunch of kids started meowing.

Miss Harris trotted back to the front of the room. She raised her hand in the Quiet signal again. And a few seconds later, the noise stopped.

I saw Amanda staring at me with an unhappy scowl on her face. She motioned with both hands for me to sit down. So I did.

Aaron punched me on the shoulder. “Just funning with you,” he said. He giggled.

I forced a smile. I didn’t want to fight with him. I didn’t want any more trouble of any kind.

Miss Harris sat on the edge of her desk. She glanced up at the big wall clock behind her. “Almost lunchtime,” she said. She snapped her notebook shut. “I guess the Civil War will have to take a break till this afternoon. Thanks to Mickey’s invisible cat.”

Kids stared at me. I lowered my gaze to the floor.

They could stare and laugh all they wanted. Something very scary was going on here, and I was the only one who knew about it.

Even Amanda thought I was going nuts. I had to talk to her. I had to tell her about the shadow on the wall last night. And what happened to my poor fish.

The bell rang. I packed up my stuff and hurried to the lunchroom. Kids meowed at me all down the hall. I laughed and pretended it was all a big joke.

I searched for Amanda in the crowded lunchroom. But she wasn’t there yet.

The room smelled of hot dogs and beans. My stomach growled. I could have gone for two or three hot dogs. But Dad packs my lunch every morning. It’s always a ham sandwich or tuna salad, a box of juice, and an apple. I throw away all the apples.

I sat down at a table in the corner at the back of the room. No one else around. I watched the door for Amanda.

A huge red-and-yellow poster was strung along the ceiling. It read:
support the snakes!
That’s our team name—the South Middle School Rattlesnakes.

Our yearbook is called
The Venom.
Really.

Everyone loves snakes at my school. I think it’s kind of weird.

I waited another five minutes. The lunchroom was filling up with kids. I still didn’t see Amanda.

I opened my backpack to get my lunch bag. I gazed inside.

My breath caught in my throat. I started to choke.

I stared into the backpack in shock.

Stared at the orange cat gazing up at me.

And as I stared, the cat’s eyes began to glow— until they blazed bright red. The lips pulled back, baring yellowed fangs. And the cat opened its mouth wide in a furious
hissssssss.

“N-no!”

I tried to scream, but my cry came out in a choked whisper.

The glowing red eyes seemed to burn my face.

I jumped up. Sent my chair toppling onto its back. I staggered away from the table, my eyes on the open backpack.

I spun to the door and saw Amanda enter the lunchroom with two or three other girls. I ran to her, stumbling over a kid’s backpack.

“Hey, watch out!” he shouted.

Some kids meowed. Someone threw an empty milk carton at me. It bounced off my shoulder.

“Amanda!” I called breathlessly. “Come here. You—you have to see this. I found the cat!”

I pulled her away from her friends. She gave them a helpless wave. “Catch you later,” she called to them.

She turned to me. “What’s your problem, Mickey? Why are you freaking out? Are you having a total meltdown?”

“Don’t talk,” I said. I pulled her through the crowded aisle between tables to the back of the room. “Don’t talk, Amanda. Just look.”

I grabbed the backpack off the table. I held it up to her and pulled it open so she could see inside.

She lowered her eyes. Blinked a few times. Gazed into the backpack. And uttered a startled cry. “Wow,” she murmured. “Mickey—wow.”

“I don’t see anything,” Amanda said. “Am I missing the joke?”

“J-joke?” I stammered. I jerked the backpack away from her and gazed inside.

I saw my binder, a few books, and my brown lunch bag.

“But—but —” I sputtered. “There was a cat in there. Listen to me, Amanda. When I opened it, I—I saw an orange cat. It must be the one I kept hearing in class. And —”

“Sit down,” she said sharply. She grabbed my arm and pulled me down to a chair. Then she dropped into the chair beside me.

“What’s up, Mickey? You’ve been totally berserk all morning.”

I slid the backpack closer and dug my hand around in it. “I’m not making it up,” I said.

“Just tell me what’s going on,” Amanda insisted.

Some girls from our class waved to her at the next table. But she kept her eyes locked on me.

I shoved the backpack across the table. “I—I don’t know what’s going on,” I stammered. “It started last night.”

I told her how I kept hearing a cat meow in my room. And how I searched everywhere and couldn’t find it. I told her about the shadow. And about my goldfish. How I found chunks of fish floating at the top of the tank.

Amanda made a disgusted face. She stuck out her tongue.
“Bleccccch.”

“It’s not a joke. It really happened,” I said. “And I didn’t tell you the weirdest thing of all.”

She squinted hard at me. “You’re not making this up? You’re not trying to scare me?”

I raised my right hand. “I swear.”

She pressed her hand to my forehead, pretending to take my temperature.

“Then I kept hearing a cat in class this morning,” I said. “That’s why I jumped up like that. Maybe it was the cat in my backpack. I’m not making any of this up. I’m totally freaking out, Amanda.”

She stared at me. “You’re just stressed and upset,” she said finally.

“Upset?”

“Yes. Because of the switch we pulled with Bella,” Amanda said. “First, the cat was killed.
The cat we were responsible for. That’s very upsetting, right?”

“Right,” I agreed.

“Then you stole a black cat from the pet store.”

“
I
stole it?” I cried. “I thought
we
stole it.”

“Yes, but
you
did the actual running out the door stealing thing,” Amanda replied. “And I think you’re very messed up about that.”

“True,” I said. “And then the new Bella acts totally weird. Sweet and gentle one minute. Then like a fiendish monster the next minute.”

Amanda nodded her head. “Yes. And it all has you totally wired and freaked out,” she said.

“So?”

“So … that explains why you’re hearing cats all the time, Mickey. And why you’re seeing cats everywhere.”

“I get it,” I said. “You think I’m crazy.”

“Not crazy. Stressed,” she replied. “Totally stressed.”

“You’re wrong, Amanda,” I said. “I’m not imagining any of these things. What about my goldfish? Do you think I chewed my own goldfish to pieces? I’m not imagining any of this. It’s real. It’s all real.”

She stood up. She patted my shoulder. “If it’s all real, Mickey, how come you’re the only one who heard the cat in class this morning?”

My mouth dropped open. I wanted to answer that. But I had no answer.

“I have to get some lunch,” Amanda said. She patted my shoulder again. “Take a deep breath. You’ll be fine.”

I rolled my eyes. “Awesome advice,” I muttered. But she was already on her way to the lunch line.

Okay
, I thought,
so she doesn’t believe me.

She’d believe me if I showed her what was floating in my goldfish tank.

I started to feel a little angry. I mean, this whole cat switch was Amanda’s idea. And now she didn’t want to hear what was really going on. She just wanted to believe that I was imagining things.

I realized my stomach was growling again. I slid the backpack closer. I peered inside before I reached in and tugged out the brown paper lunch bag.

I started to unfold the bag. But I stopped when I felt something weird. Something lumpy and hard inside the bag.

A sour aroma floated out. Something
stank.

I reached inside and wrapped my fingers around it. I tugged it out—and tried to scream.

But it’s impossible to scream and gag at the same time.

A dead mouse.

My hand was wrapped around a dead gray mouse.

Its body was stiff and hard. Its eyes had sunk into their sockets. I saw deep bite marks on its back.

The smell was sickening.

The mouse fell from my trembling hand. It thudded on the table and bounced onto the floor.

I jumped to my feet. Was the dead mouse a gift from the cat? It was the kind of present a cat would leave.

I couldn’t think straight. I knew I couldn’t eat. I smelled my hand. It reeked of dead mouse.

I tossed the lunch bag in the trash. Then I hurried out of the lunchroom. I heard Aaron calling me. I just waved to him and kept walking.

I didn’t really know where I was going. I needed to find someplace quiet and try to figure this out.

Or maybe I needed to tell someone what was happening. Maybe tell my parents the whole truth.

I had gym right after lunch. I wandered into the gym. But no one was there yet.

Two volleyball nets had been set up in the middle of the floor. Bright lights made the polished floor gleam.

For a moment, I thought I saw someone sitting in the bleachers at the far end. But it was just a blue jacket someone had draped over a bench.

I made my way to the locker room to change into my gym clothes.

I pulled open the door and stepped inside. About twenty degrees hotter in here. The locker room air smelled damp and sweaty.

I felt something soft under my shoe.

“Ohhh!” What did I step on?

A cat?

No.

I jumped back. A balled-up pair of gym socks.

Take it easy, Mickey.

Maybe Amanda is right about you.

I heard water dripping in the shower room. “Anybody in here?” I shouted. My voice echoed off the tile walls.

No reply.

My locker was near the back, across from the shower room. I stepped up to it and grabbed
the combination lock. I started to turn the combination—then stopped.

I knew what I’d find inside the locker. A cat.

I started to tremble. I just stood there with both hands on the combination lock. Afraid to turn it. Afraid to open the little gym locker.

I took a deep, shuddering breath. I forced my hands to stop shaking. And I spun the dial to the three combination numbers.

Another deep breath. Then I tugged off the lock and swung the locker door open.

“Noooooo!”

I screamed as it came tumbling out.

It jumped out—bounced off my chest—and onto my knee.

No. Not a cat.

Not a cat. One of my black-and-white gym sneakers.

It bounced off my knee and thudded to the floor.

“Oh, wow.” I shook my head. I balled my hands into fists. I felt so angry at myself for being in a total panic.

Even a gym sneaker
terrified
me.

I dropped onto the nearest bench and waited for my heartbeat to slow down to normal. I picked up the sneaker and rolled it around in my hands.

Weird. Something was tucked inside of the shoe.

Oh, nooo.
Something feathery and gray.

I pulled it out. And with a loud cry, tossed it across the locker room.

A dead bird. A sparrow with its head dangling by a thread.

Another gift from a cat?

I jumped to my feet, tossed the sneaker into the locker, and slammed the door shut. The sound echoed through the empty room.

Then I heard a cat’s yowl. A long, shrill
yeeeooow
that sent a chill down my back.

“No! Shut up!” I screamed.
“Shut up!
Go away! Leave me alone!”

“Yeeeeoowwwwww.”

Right behind me.

I spun around. No cat there.

“Leave me alone!” I cried. I clapped my hands over my ears.

But even with my ears covered, I could hear the yowls and cries of the cats. Not just one. Several cats now. All meowing and yowling at once.

The terrifying cries rang from all around me.

I pressed my hands tighter against the sides of my face, as if trying to force them away. But it seemed to only make their cries louder and more frightening.

“Where
are
you?” I screamed. “Why are you following me?”

I had to get out of there. I had to find help.

I lurched toward the locker room door. But I tripped over something.

A cat? A cat I couldn’t see?

I landed hard on my knees on the concrete floor. Pain shot up my legs.

Meeeeeyowwwww!

And then the yowling turned to hisses. Angry hisses all around me.

So close. So close.

The hisses came at me in a steady rhythm. As if all the invisible cats were breathing together.

I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t breathe. Or move.

Invisible cats. I was surrounded by angry, invisible cats.

I shut my eyes. I wanted to be far away.

When I opened them, the cats were standing in front of me. I could SEE them!

How many were there? Eight? No. Ten? More! Scrawny. Their fur matted and tangled, with patches of skin showing through holes in the fur.

Their eyes glowed bright yellow. Like monsters in a horror movie. Their open mouths revealed pointed yellow fangs.

They formed a circle around me. Their backs arched. Their fur stood on end.

I raised my arms to shield myself. But what could I do against so many hissing, angry cats?

They all pounced at once.

Flung their claws in the air and leaped at me from every side.

“HELP me!” I managed to scream before I went down. Before I sank to the floor beneath the hissing, snapping, clawing attackers.

“HELP me! Can anyone HEAR me? I need HELP!”

On my back now, I wrestled with them. Struggled to push them off me.

Their fur was dry and bristly. And their bodies felt COLD.

“Help me!” I tried to choke out a scream. But a cat leaped onto my face and pressed its cold belly over my mouth and nose.

I shoved it away. Sucked in a deep breath.

And heard a pounding sound. Someone pounding on the locker room door.

“Who’s in there?” a man called. “Who locked this door?”

I recognized his voice. Mr. Weston, the gym teacher. Mr. Weston is a big guy with a huge stomach, shaggy long hair, and a bushy mustache. He’s totally out of shape. He doesn’t look anything like a gym teacher.

But I was sure glad to hear him out there.

His fists boomed on the door again. “Who locked this? Open up!”

At the sound of his voice, the cats froze. They all stiffened as if frightened. Their glowing eyes dulled until they were dark. The eyes appeared to sink into their sockets.

The cats scrambled off me. They ran with their heads down, scraggly tails trailing behind them. Into the shower room at the back wall.

I sat up. I brushed myself off furiously. Cat fur flew into the air.

I was gasping for breath. Breathing so hard, my chest hurt.

Mr. Weston pounded again on the locker room door. Each blow thundered through the room. “Who is in there? Who locked this?”

I forced myself to my feet. I staggered to the door on trembling legs.

I turned the lock. The door swung open fast. I had to jump back to keep from being hit.

The gym teacher stood staring at me. Several kids were bunched up behind him.

“Mickey?” He couldn’t hide his surprise. “What’s going on? You look a mess. What were you doing in here?”

“Cats,” I managed to say in a tiny, weak voice. “The cats —” I pointed to the shower room.

He squinted at me. “Cats?”

I turned and motioned for him to follow me. I led the way to the shower room.

Of course, I knew the cats wouldn’t be there when we looked in.

And they weren’t.

I waited for the other guys in my class to change their clothes. When they ran to the gym to play volleyball, I stepped up to the locker room mirror.

To my surprise, I had only a few scratches.

I pulled a wad of orange cat fur from my hair. It made me shudder. I glanced around the locker room, expecting the hissing cats to return.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Mr. Weston gazed down at me. “Mickey, are you coming out for class?”

“I—I don’t think so,” I said. “I … don’t feel too great.”

He nodded. “Well, you can come out and watch,” he said. “Or do you want to see the nurse?”

“The nurse can’t help me,” I muttered.

He nodded again, turned, and walked out of the locker room.

The nurse can’t help me
, I thought.
Who can?

Who can I talk to about my cat problem?

Amanda was the only one who knew about Bella and what we did at Cat Heaven. But even she didn’t believe me when I told her I was being
haunted
by cats.

I knew I had to talk to her. She had to help me. She had to believe me.

The afternoon dragged and dragged. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion.

Miss Harris started the Civil War again. I tried to take notes, but I just couldn’t think straight.

Every noise made me jump. Every high voice or cry or laugh in the classroom made me think the cats were back.

I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t stop shaking my legs and tapping the desktop with both hands. I kept alert, gazing under chairs and desks, looking for cats. I expected a cat to attack me any moment.

I’d never been so stressed and jumpy in my life.

When the bell rang, I left my books and backpack and ran across the room to Amanda. “We—we need to talk,” I said breathlessly. “About the cat.”

“Not now,” she said. She turned away and began to stuff things into her backpack. Then she began to paw through her big canvas bag. “Where did I put my bus pass?”

“Bus pass? Where are you going?” I cried. “I’m desperate. I have to talk to you.”

She made a face at me. “You know I have my flute lesson today.”

“Skip it,” I said.

“I can’t skip it,” she insisted, pulling out the bus pass. “Our recital is Sunday, and I’ve got to practice. Bach is really hard, you know.”

“I don’t know about Bach,” I said. “I only know I’m being haunted. I think—I think we have to take Bella back to Cat Heaven.”

“No way!” Amanda said, pushing me away. “Later, okay? Save your ghost stories for tonight. You’re going to make me late.”

She tossed both bags over her shoulder and ran out of the classroom.

I stood there staring until she disappeared.
Ghost stories?

This wasn’t a ghost story. This was real. This was my life.

Shaking my head, I gathered up my stuff and headed out into the hall. Some guys at their lockers turned and meowed at me.

I laughed, pretending it was funny. Showing them I’m a good guy and can take a joke.

Some joke.

The sound of their meows made my stomach tighten.

I walked past a group of cheerleaders in their red-and-yellow uniforms. They were practicing a cheer as they walked to the gym.

I stepped outside into a cool, gray afternoon. Low clouds overhead. I felt a raindrop and then another raindrop on my forehead.

I was walking past the soccer field, nearly to the street, when I saw the three men in gray work uniforms. Lou and his two buddies. Standing together on the grass.

I glanced around. I was out in the open. Nowhere to hide.

Did they recognize me?

Yes.

All three men began waving wildly as they came racing across the soccer field toward me.

“Hey, you!” Lou shouted. He stuck his arm straight out and pointed at me. “Freeze! Stop right there!”