-5-

The next day, school was disconcertingly normal.  Penny wasn’t surprised that Eric completely ignored her.  Well, not completely--he had managed to look sufficiently annoyed when they had inadvertently made eye-contact in the hallway during a passing period.  True to form, he had elbowed whatever idiot he was walking with, nodded in her direction, and the two of them stifled a laugh.  She had immediately made up her mind not to meet him at the library after school.  Stupid, she thought.  Stupid to think he actually might be different today.  Everything about the day made her wonder if she had somehow fantastically dreamed the whole scenario from the day before.  But then she sat next to Tina in Earth Science, and knew it had all been real.

“So are we going to talk about yesterday?” Tina gushed.  “I mean, I was thinking about it, and it still seems so weird.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Penny murmured, feigning interest in her science book.  

“I mean that freaky scream!” Tina did not look sufficiently scared, Penny decided, and she was not going to say anything that might make Tina think she was insane..  

“Oh, that was just me.  I was trying to creep Eric out.  He’s not exactly my bff, you know.”  Penny wondered just how much Tina had noticed.  “I mean, he’s like, so cute, and like, so popular…” She adopted an airy, vapid tone and fluttered her eyelashes at Tina, and then pretended to gag.  Tina giggled.  

“Oh my gosh, you sound just like Madelynne--” Tina broke off abruptly as Ms. Scholtz tottered up to the podium.  “Poor Ms. Scholtz.”  

For a second, Penny didn’t understand why Tina was being so sympathetic toward the nearsighted, diminutive woman.  But then she spotted the tiny print at the top of the white board and coughed to stifle her shocked laughter.  

Miss Scholtz is short.

She glanced around the room and saw one of the taller boys trying to hide a red face behind his textbook, his eyes bulging with squelched giggles.  Several of his friends were attempting to sit up straight and tall, their faces grave, as if Ms. Scholtz’s droning lecture about sedimentary rock was the most riveting thing they’d ever heard.  
 Ms. Scholtz adjusted her thick glasses and squinted at the class.  Penny figured the woman had been hired when the earth’s crust was still cooling, and had never caused enough of a stir to lose her position.  She was definitely a terrible teacher, but Penny felt pity for the old lady anyway.  Not like she was going to say anything, but still.  These guys were like five year olds.  

Class wore on, and eventually Ms. Scholtz instructed them to spend the last ten minutes working on their homework.  She puttered toward her desk, passing right by Penny’s desk.  

“Uh, Ms. Scholtz?” Penny asked quietly.  “Do you need help, uh, cleaning the board or anything?”  Penny almost fell out of her seat when Ms. Scholtz winked at her from behind coke-bottle lenses.

“What, and ruin their fun?”  She gave a low cackle.  “This isn’t my first rodeo, kiddo.”   Penny gaped.  “What,” the gravely old voice drawled quietly.  “You think I’m going to let a bunch of middle school boys hurt my feelings?”  She chuckled.  “Close your mouth, girl.  If you want to erase the board for me after class, go right ahead.  You’ll save me from falling off my chair and breaking my hip. ”

The bell chimed.  The boys raced loudly from the room, shoving each other and hardly believing their good luck.  Penny loitered afterwards and easily reached the top of the board to erase the ridiculous comment.  Maybe Ms. Scholtz wasn’t so terrible after all.  

“Ms. Scholtz,” Penny called, “how long have you lived here in town?”  Regroup and research, she couldn’t help thinking.  Maybe the science teacher knew something about the old house and the kids that had been murdered.  

“Oh, for about a billion years,” the older woman joked.  Penny stifled a laugh. “Nah,” she continued, “but I have been here my whole life. Sixty-nine years.  Graduated from this same school.  Probably messed with my science teacher too, back in the day.”

“Do you know anything about that old house on Third Street?”  She tried to sound casual.  “I walk past it every day on my way to my aunt’s apartment, and I just wondered what happened to it.”    

“Still telling stories about that house, huh,” Ms. Scholtz muttered.  “We loved to scare little kids with stories of witches and ghosts when I was in school, but truth is, that house still gives me the willies.”  She gave a little shiver.

“Why?” Penny asked eagerly, momentarily letting her guard down.  

“You starting to feel like you’re getting your feet back under you?”  Ms. Scholtz abruptly changed the subject and shuffled a thick stack of papers on her desk.  Penny was startled.

“Uh, you mean, m-moving?”  she stuttered, taken aback.  

“I know it’s been a big adjustment,”  Ms. Scholtz paused, peering down at the stack of papers with a aggravated look on her face.  “Now where are those hall passes?” she muttered, pushing her glasses back up her nose, and then sighing.  “Think your next teacher will take an ‘unofficial’ note from me?  Or would you rather just take the tardy?”  

“Um, Mr. Kincaid is usually pretty chill about whatever,” Penny answered.  She was still feeling confused at Ms. Scholtz’ avoidance of her question.  “You were saying something about that old house?”

Ms. Scholtz looked up from her desk, her eyes sharp and focused.   “Best to not poke around in the past,” she said flatly.  “If it were up to me, they’d tear that house down and put up a Kwik Mart.”  

“Uh, okay,” Penny said, hesitantly.  The whole conversation had taken an awkward turn, and she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to leave now, or what.  Ms. Scholtz’ expression softened a bit.  

“I meant it when I asked if you were adjusting okay.  New town, new friends--it’s a lot when you’re in seventh grade.”  Penny didn’t say anything, images of Sadie and Trevor flashing through her mind.  The skyline of Denver, the mountains crisp and dark to the west.  Then, without warning, the chaos of the wreck.  The limp forms of her parents in the front seat.  She blinked hard against tears that seemed to appear out of nowhere.  A knot was forming in her throat, and she knew if she tried to speak, she might burst into tears.  Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought.   

“Honey,” Ms. Scholtz’s gravely voice broke through her thoughts.   “It’s gonna be terrible for awhile.  But then it will be less terrible.  And then one day, it’s actually a little okay.”  She hugged Penny awkwardly from the side.  “Now, get on to whatever class they have that hottie Kincaid teaching.”  She winked again, and Penny scrubbed at her eyes with her palms and took a deep breath.  

“Thanks, Ms. Scholtz,” Penny mumbled, but she meant it.  People usually said stupid, empty things like “Everything happens for a reason” or “You’ll see them again someday.”  It was refreshing to hear someone say life was just going to suck for awhile.  She made her way to her locker; the halls were beginning to clear out, and Penny knew she was going to be late to pre-Algebra.  Might as well take my time, she thought.  The last thing she wanted was for Eric and his pals to see her face all blotchy and gross from crying.  She started thinking about her conversation with Ms. Scholtz--the part where the teacher had started to tell her about the house and then had randomly decided to make a seventh grade girl cry.  Clearly the house had a history beyond just the current urban legends, if someone as old as Ms. Scholtz had been scared of it as a kid.  Maybe Eric had been right about the murders after all.  

Penny’s aunt didn’t have a computer--she basically used her phone for everything--so if she was going to seriously look into the house she’d need to go to the school library.  Or maybe the city library.  Then she’d have to get a library card, though.  She closed the door to her locker and gave a little scream when she found Eric calmly lounging against the locker right next to hers.  How had she missed him?  Oh crap.  My face, she thought.  She cast her eyes downward and hissed, “What are you doing here?  Aren’t you afraid someone might see you slumming it?”

“Relax, I’m not going to stay here long enough for anyone to notice.”  His brown hair hung across his face, and she couldn’t help notice that his almost-black eyes and dark skin were as close to flawless as was humanly possible.  She rolled her eyes at this thought.

“Fine.  What is so important that you had to risk social suicide to speak to me?”  she demanded.

“I found out something last night.  I didn’t get time to really google much because my dad is a total hard-case when it comes to ‘screen time.’” He sounded annoyed, and then looked sharply in her direction.  “You’re not telling anyone about this, right?”  

“Easy, Martinez.  It’s not like I want to world to know I’m talking to you either.”  She slung her backpack over her shoulder.  “And I could care less about how much ‘screen time’ you get.”  

“Whatever.  I told him we had a history project to work on together, so he won’t pick me up till four.  If you get to the library before I do, just google ‘O’Hallaran House’.”  They were approaching a split in the hallway.  “Look.  Don’t bail on this.  I’ll tell you more later.”  

“Fine,” she muttered.  O’Hallaran House.  Clearly Eric thought yesterday’s drama was real.  He had actually looked a little scared again.  And he had practically begged her to meet him at the library.  Penny had tried to avoid thinking about the little girl she’d seen, or the zombie-guy.  He’d reminded her of those bodies scientists dug up in the desert or the swamp--perfectly preserved but sucked dry.  She reminded herself that she would have to confront the reality (or unreality) of them sooner or later.  Maybe during band.  Penny had played bass guitar at her old school, but they didn’t have one here, so she was relegated to the bass drum.  Despite what her teacher said, Penny still didn’t agree that they were “practically the same.”  

Just as she had predicted, Mr. Kincaide flashed her a wide smile, asked where she’d been, and just as breezily, waved her to her seat.  She knew all the girls, including Tina, thought he was cute, but she thought he was trying too hard.  And any guy trying to be cool to middle schooler girls was a creeper in her book.  Pre-Algebra flew by, followed by PE, and then band.  

Absent-mindedly thumping the bass drum, Penny carefully considered her encounter from the day before.  She had touched the door--the glowing door--and then had met the girl.  She had touched the next door--also glowing-- and then had confronted the zombie.  Then she and Eric had opened the closet door--alright, enough with glowing doors!--and then the girl again.  A girl and a zombie.  Three doors.  Maybe the girl was actually two girls?  Didn’t Eric say an old man had killed twin sisters?  That would make sense of the one girl being sad and the other girl being freaky.  

She registered the fact that she was still playing and everyone else had stopped.  Mrs. Dunwoody was looking at her with annoyance.  “Sorry,” Penny called.  “Missed the cut off.  This gosh-darn music is just so complicated.”  She grimaced dramatically, and the rest of the band tittered. The band teacher just rolled her eyes.  

“Right, Penny.  Just try to pay a little better attention for the rest of the period, please?  You are the tempo-keeper for the rest of us--that’s an important job.”  She shifted her attention to the remaining restless middle schoolers.  “Okay, guys, I know we’re almost done for the day, but do your best to stay focused.  Let’s pick back up at measure sixteen.”

Rather than keep annoying Mrs. Dunwoody, who was actually pretty nice, Penny focused on playing and the last twenty minutes of class went by faster than she expected.  Soon she was fending off twenty questions about her day from Tina and trying to explain why they couldn’t walk home together.  

“I, uh, just gotta use the school computers for something,” Penny said evasively.

“Oh, well, I’ll just tell my mom I’ll be home by four and I’ll work on stuff too,” Tina answered dismissively.  

“Well, I don’t really think--” Penny started to say, but then sighed.  She knew a hopeless cause when she saw one.  “Fine.”  Eric would just have to deal with it.