There is something odd about Carlos Garcia's new house. From the outside, it's a normal looking split level with blue siding and black shutters and two Norwegian pine trees in the front yard. It's the inside that makes my hair stand on end.
One day Carlos' little brother, Antonio, waved at me from his bedroom window. I waved back. But when I knocked on the front door, Antonio opened it.
"Man, Antonio!" I exclaimed. "You must have flown down those stairs! I waved at you upstairs a moment ago."
"Huh?" Antonio gave me a blank stare. He turned and yelled toward the kitchen. "Carlos! Logan's here."
"I'll be there in a sec," Carlos replied from the kitchen. "I forgot my math book."
Antonio disappeared into the kitchen and I waited in the vestibule. I heard someone in the living room. I peeked in, thinking it was Carlos' mom or dad. But there was no one there. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Hey," Carlos said as he adjusted his backpack on his shoulders. "What're you doin' in here?"
"I heard someone. I thought it was your mom or dad."
"Mom went to work," Antonio said. "And Dad isn't home yet. He worked the night shift."
"Oh," I said.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Carlos asked. "You seem a little distracted."
"Chemistry test," I said. "Mr. Collins is a real stickler for those theorems. I'm nervous I'll forget one."
Carlos clapped me on the back. "You got nothing to worry about, Logan. You always do well on tests."
We walked to the school bus stop. I didn't ask any questions about the kid waving from the bedroom window or who- or whatever it was I heard in the living room. I tried running chemistry theorems through my mind as Antonio chattered about his middle school hockey team.
I'm Logan Mitchell, and I'm Carlos' best friend. We met in the third grade when I helped him learn his multiplication tables. (I'm really smart and I have not received anything less than an A in any of my studies since I met Carlos.) Carlos and I joined a peewee hockey league that same year where we met James Diamond and Kendall Knight. The four of us shared an affinity for ice hockey ever since. We're sophomores at Apple Valley High School and we play for the junior varsity hockey team.
"Movie night at your house tonight, Carlos!"
James clapped Carlos' back as we approached the bus stop.
"Should be a ton of fun," Kendall said.
"They always are," Carlos said.
"We gotta break in your new house," James said.
"You pick a good movie Kendall?" Antonio asked. He was four years younger than Carlos. But we included him when we had movie night at Carlos' house.
"Sure did!" Kendall mussed up Antonio's hair. "It's about a hockey team."
"Oh, boy!" Antonio exclaimed.
It didn't take much to excite Antonio, and I had to admit I was looking forward to movie night too. We have one every Friday night. It's our way of relaxing after a hard week of school. We each host a movie night. Last week it was at Kendall's house, and the week before it was at my house.
"Why so glum, Logan?" James asked.
"Chemistry test," I said. The truth is I was apprehensive about movie night at Carlos' house. Weird things happened every time I was in that house, and I prayed nothing strange happened at movie night.
The school bus came and I ran through more chemistry theorems. I didn't give movie night a second thought until I was in Carlos' kitchen opening a bag of popcorn.