What If ... Your Past Came Back to Haunt You (19 page)

MOVIE MARATHON

Two's company, three's a crowd, four's a double date, and five is just awkward.

“R
ini, this octopus is genius.” Shaun leaned against the steel counter in his parents' modern kitchen and admired his new tattoo. “I love him! I call him Octopus Prime.” He flexed his bicep, then waved his tattooed forearm for all to see. “Octopus Prime! All bow before him!”

“I'm glad I went with the armband style,” Irene said. Even though it was snowing outside, she wore a T-shirt with sleeves cut off at the shoulders to show off her tattoo: a satiny red ribbon interlaced with barbed wire. “Tough yet feminine.”

Haley put a bowl of popcorn into the microwave and pressed the Start button. She gazed out the large glass windows into the Willkommens' backyard. It had been snowing since the night before, eight inches already, and the snow was coming down harder than before now. Her long-wished-for snow day had come at last.

“If this keeps up they could cancel school for the rest of the week,” she said.

“Which would mean no school until after the holiday break!” Irene said. Their holiday vacation was only two days away. If only it would keep snowing, they could have three whole weeks off from school.

“Which would so rock,” Shaun said. “Though I have to say I'm looking forward to introducing Octopus Prime to the student body. I could parade him through the courtyard, then cut all my classes.”

“Octopus Prime will still be there in January,” Irene said. “He's going to be there for the rest of your life. Good thing you like him.”

“I love him!” Shaun roared.

Haley stirred water into a powdery brownie mix. “Devon's late. I wonder if he got stuck in the snow.”

The doorbell rang. “That's got to be the Dev-ster. I'll get it!” Shaun barreled down the stairs and opened the front door. A few seconds later he ushered Devon into the kitchen—but Devon wasn't alone. Devon's shadow, Darcy Podowski, aka the fifth wheel, was with him once again. Haley couldn't remember the last time she had seen Devon without the blond freshman. It was getting old. Fast.

Everyone else seemed happy to see her, however. “Hey Darce,” Irene said, displaying her tattoo for the newcomers to see. “Check it out. All healed.”

“Nice,” Darcy said. “You're going to be so glad you got it, Irene. It's like this really cool way of telling the world, This is who I am, man. Deal with it.”

Haley turned away so that no one could see her roll her eyes. She took the popcorn out of the microwave and put the pan of brownie batter in the oven.

“Time for the movie marathon,” Shaun said. “Everybody downstairs. Bring the popcorn. Take the cannoli.”

They settled on the orange L-shaped couches in the media room. “Everybody comfy? Okay. The first movie, well three movies, in the Shaun Willkommen Snow Day Movie Marathon is a classic. The Godfather trilogy.”

Irene groaned. “Again?”

He started the first film on the large flat-screen TV. Haley would have enjoyed it more if she could have stopped peeking at Devon and Darcy, who sat together. Were their hands touching? Were they playing footsie? It was driving her crazy.

Haley's cell buzzed in the middle of the movie. She pulled it out of her pocket and discreetly checked the message. It was from Coco De Clerq: “Don't go to Sasha's Christmas Eve party. Come to my house instead—amazing double date w/Spencer & Matt.”

That's odd,
Haley thought. A double date? With Matt Graham? What was Coco up to?

Across the room, Devon and Darcy giggled. Haley sighed. She thought of Darcy as the fifth wheel, but the truth was that Haley was the fifth wheel here.

So are Devon and Darcy a romantic thing or not? Is Devon that annoying type who likes to keep things “loose”—in other words, vague and undefined? Maybe what he needs is a nudge—or a shove—in the right direction. If you think Haley should get Devon something special for Christmas to show she really cares, turn to,
PRESENT TENSE.

Maybe you think that ship has sailed and Haley should move on. What about Matt Graham? No question he's cute, but is that enough for Haley? If you think she should find out what Coco's double-date plan is all about, go to,
HOME ALONE.

Finally, if you think Haley should forget both boys and spend Christmas Eve at Sasha's festive party, turn to,
UNDER THE MISTLETOE.

TOUCH FOOTBALL

If you want to play, you've got to pay.

W
hen Haley woke up, her room seemed strangely quiet. She looked out the window and—miracle of miracles!—she saw a winter wonderland. The snow was more than a foot deep. Even the roads were covered. School was most definitely canceled!

She dressed in thick socks, snow boots, corduroys, a ski jacket and hat—perfect gear for playing touch football. After twenty minutes of convincing arguments, her mother agreed to drop her off in front of Matt's large stone house on a beautiful, rolling slice of the Hillsdale Heights. “I'm so glad I let your father talk me into this hybrid SUV,” Joan confided as the car skidded a little but basically kept her in control.

At Matt's, there was a whole crew of workers stringing Christmas lights along the roof and in the maple trees in front of the house. A team of housekeepers was hanging wreaths and holly leaves in the windows inside.

“Beautiful decorations,” Joan said. “But what a waste.” The Millers usually made do with a single wreath on the front door.

Haley jumped out of the car and headed to the backyard, where the football game was already in progress.

“Haley, you made it!” Cecily waved to her from her side of the scrimmage line. She was teamed up with Drew and Matt and two preppy boys. Spencer was on the other team with a few of his other boarding-school friends, Max, Jake and Todd.

“Haley's on our team,” Matt announced.

“No way, you've already got five,” Spencer said. “Haley's with us.” He turned to Haley and added, “No kidding around now—we play serious touch football. You with me?”

“Got it.” Haley joined Spencer's team and jumped right into the game. On the first play she caught a pass for a first down. She ran the ball and missed Cecily's block. Near the end of the game Spencer handed the ball off to Haley, who faked out Cecily and Drew and ran deep. She sprinted full speed, bobbing and weaving between the boys on the other team. Luckily, she had good speed thanks to stints on the track and soccer teams. The end zone was in sight. She was going to make a touchdown! But just before she got there Matt tackled her into a snowbank. They rolled around in the snow together, fighting over the ball until it rolled into a drift.

Haley sat up, laughing, with snow in her face and hair and down the front of her jacket. “I thought this was touch football,” she said. “As in no tackling?”

“The rules change when you play with girls,” Matt said. “With girls there's always tackling.”

The ball was out of bounds, and Haley's team scored on the next play. Twenty minutes later, she was shivering, wet with melted snow. Her fingers were numb.

“You look like you're freezing,” Matt said. “Why don't I take you inside to warm up? The others can play without us.”

Haley should certainly go inside and get warm; the question is, how does Matt define “warming up”? If you think she should let Matt help her kill that chill, turn to
UP FOR GRABS.

If you think Haley's had enough and is ready to go home and spend Christmas Eve with her cute neighbor, one Reese Highland, turn to,
HIGH HOLIDAY.
Finally, if you think Haley is more interested in attending Sasha's holiday bash, where everyone will be all dressed up in festive party clothes, go to,
UNDER THE MISTLETOE.

SPIES LIKE US

The line between truth-teller and tattletale is as thin as a razor and cuts like one too.

I
t's my moral duty,
Haley decided.
Spencer Eton is up to no good, and as Coco's friend I've got to let her know.

She sneaked away from the SIGMA party in the basement and slipped into an upstairs bathroom, where she locked the door and dialed Coco on her cell phone.

“What's up?” Coco said.

“I'm at Spencer's house,” Haley whispered. “You're not going to believe what's going on here.”

“Say no more,” Coco said. “I'll be right there.” She hung up, leaving Haley thinking,
Uh-oh. What have I done?

Haley stayed in the bathroom, afraid to come out. Forty minutes later she heard the front door burst open. She ran to the hall and peered down into the foyer. Coco had arrived, and she wasn't alone. She'd brought Spencer's mother, the governor of New Jersey, with her. And they both looked like they were ready to kill. They marched down to the basement, while Haley crept downstairs and sneaked out the front door. Before she left she heard Spencer's voice drift up the stairs. “Coco . . . Mother . . . What are you doing here?”

“Everybody out—now!” Mrs. Eton said sternly.

Haley watched the aftermath on the Internet the next day. Someone at the party had a digital camera and posted pictures on the Hillsdale Hauntings Web site for all to see. There were shots of kids smoking, drinking and making out, and of the governor personally throwing them—some of them half dressed—out of her house. One shot showed her holding up her son's stash of weed.

Within twenty-four hours the photos were printed in a local newspaper with the headline
TEENS GONE WILD AT ETON'S HOME
. The underage drinking, illegal gambling and drug use started a political scandal and permanently damaged Mrs. Eton's reputation as governor. Coco and Spencer broke up, and Mrs. Eton packed her son off to military school. The gossip also prevented Spencer from getting into Yale—or any decent college, for that matter.

Word got around school that Haley had narced on Spencer, and soon she was ostracized by everyone—including Coco, who dropped her as soon as it became clear that associating with Haley was equal to social death. Even the outcasts didn't trust her. She had no friends, and no one ever invited her to a party ever again.

One little phone call—that's all it took to start this disastrous chain of events. Perhaps there was a better way for Haley to handle the situation?

Hang your head and go back to
GOODNESS GRACIOUS.

ALL ABOUT AUDREY

Some days there's nothing more fun than keeping the boys at bay.

“
H
ola,
Haley. Happy snow day!”

Mia was lounging stylishly on the couch in Whitney and Sasha's TV room. School was canceled, and Haley had gone to the Klein-Lewis house to spend the day off watching movies with the girls.

“
Hola,
Mia,” Haley said. “It's good to see you looking so . . . relaxed.”

“I am relaxed, thanks to you,” Mia said. “And your help with my leetle
problema.
”

“So no more Philip Fogelman?” Sasha asked.

“He is vanished from my life,” Mia said. “Your mother's legal letter scared him off for good, Haley. Please tell her thank you for me. And thanks to the three of you, too, for being such loyal friends.”

“I'm so relieved all that video craziness is over,” Whitney said. Principal Crum, of all people, had gotten to the bottom of the mystery of the Hillsdale Hauntings Web site. He found out that the Troll, a classmate of Haley's who worked at a video-transfer shop, was the lamebrain behind most of the racy video postings. He'd even been paid off by Philip to include the Mia footage on the site. Principal Crum closed it down for good and suspended the Troll from school.

“I'm glad no one will watch me go ‘boob tubing' ever again,” Haley said. “And if I never see another inner tube it will be too soon.”

“Let's forget all about that terrible episode in our lives,” Sasha said. “Today we're going to watch good movies. I rented every Audrey Hepburn flick in the store. We'll start with
Roman Holiday,
then
War and Peace, Sabrina, Funny Face, My Fair Lady—
”

“People always tell me I look like Audrey Hepburn,” Mia said.

Sasha laughed. “Mia, you're beautiful, and you're a brunette, but sorry, you look nothing like Audrey Hepburn. Even you aren't that pretty.”

Mia looked stunned for a second. She obviously wasn't used to having her looks disparaged. But then she smiled. “Ha,” she said. “I always thought so too—I don't look like her at all! But people said it, so I thought it must be true.”

“I wish I had Audrey's accent,” Whitney said. “You know, kind of British, kind of American, kind of something else?”

“I wish I had a perfect American accent,” Mia said. “So everyone would not know right away I am Spanish.”

“But your accent's sexy,” Sasha said. “It drives the boys wild.”

“No, I think I sound more sexy when I espeak Espanish.”

“Girls, hot cocoa's ready!” Mrs. Klein called from the kitchen.

The girls trooped upstairs to get their mugs of cocoa. Whitney's mother, Linda Klein, and Sasha's father, Jonathan Lewis, were making latkes for Hanukkah. Mr. Lewis reached for one and Mrs. Klein playfully slapped his hand away. “No tasting yet!” she said.

“Can I just try them?” Mr. Lewis said, and kissed her quickly on the lips.

To Haley's surprise, Whitney and Sasha took this public display of affection in stride. They didn't seem to be grossed out by it at all.
They must be so used to it by now,
Haley thought.

“Sasha and Whitney, how would you like to light the menorah together tonight?” Mrs. Klein asked

“Sounds good, Mom,” Whitney said. “After the first leg of the movie marathon.”

The girls took their cocoa back to the TV room and settled in for
Roman Holiday.

“Wow, the menorah?” Haley asked.

“I get to celebrate two holidays now,” Sasha explained. “Hanuk kah and Christmas. By the way, my mom's having a party at her house on Christmas Eve—I hope you're all coming. She's making crepes and she hired a jazz trio to play live.”

“We can meet here first, if you want,” Whitney said. “I've got fabulous presents to give all my BFFs before the party. And that includes all of you.”

“Even me, Whitney?” Mia said.

“Um, sure,” Whitney said. She'd come a long way, from despising Mia and thinking she was having an affair with her father to letting her into her little circle of friends. “Girls have to stick together. Besides, I want you to model for my spring campaign. My clothes will look amazing on you.”

So, now that all the scandal has died down, another side of Mia appears. She may be a little spoiled by the constant attention her supermodel looks bring her, but it seems she's actually pretty nice underneath. Maybe even a new friend for Haley.

Now Haley has to cement her holiday plans. So many parties, so many choices! If you're positive Haley will not miss a night of live jazz and Christmas Eve festivities at Sasha's mom's cozy bungalow, turn to,
UNDER THE MISTLETOE.
If you think Haley wants to stick around her neighborhood and hang with Reese, turn to,
HIGH HOLIDAY.
To find out what Coco's up to on Christmas Eve, turn to,
HOME ALONE.