Kureha Suzuka: The Haunted Mask
Chapter 1
"What are you going to be for Halloween?" Sakura Rokujo asked. She moved her fork around on her lunch tray, but didn't take a bite.
Kureha Suzuka sighed and shook her head. The overhead light on the lunchroom ceiling made her straight blonde hair gleam. "I don't know. A witch, maybe."
Sakura's mouth dropped open. "You? A witch?"
Well, why not?" Kureha demanded, staring across the long table at her friend.
"I thought you were afraid of witches," Sakura replied. She raised a forkful of macaroni to her mouth and started to chew. "This macaroni is made of rubber," she complained, chewing hard "Remind me to start packing a lunch."
"I am not afraid of witches!" Kureha insisted, her dark eyes flashing angrily. "You just think I'm a big scaredy-cat, don't you!"
Sakura giggled. "Yes." She flipped her pink ponytail behind her shoulders with a toss of her head. "Hey, don't eat the macaroni. Really, Kureha. It's gross." She reached across the table to keep Kureha from raising her fork fork.
"But I'm starving!" Kureha complained.
The lunchroom grew crowded and noisy. At the next table, a group of fifth-grade boys were tossing a half-full milk carton back and forth. Kureha saw Takeru Inukal ball up a bright red fruit rollup and shove the whole sticky thing in his mouth.
"Yuck!" She made a disgusted face at him. Then she turned back to Sakura. "I am not a scaredy-cat, Sakura. Just because everyone picks on me and - "
"Kureha, what about last week? Remember? At my house?" Sakura ripped open a bag of tortilla chips and offered some across the table to her friend.
"You mean the ghost thing?" Kureha replied, frowning. "That was really stupid."
"But you believed it," Sakura said with a mouthful of chips. "You should of seen the look on your face when the ceiling started to creak, and we heard the footsteps up there."
"That was so mean," Kureha complained, rolling her eyes.
"Then when you heard footsteps coming down, your face went all white and you screamed," Sakura recalled. "It was only Takeru and Ranmaru."
"You know I'm afraid of ghosts," Kureha said, blushing.
"And snakes and bugs and loud noises and dark rooms and - and witches!" Sakura declared.
I don't see why you have to make fun of me," Kureha pouted. She shoved her lunch tray away. "I don't see why everyone always thinks it's so much fun to try to scare me. Even you. my best friend."
"I'm sorry," Sakura said sincerely. She reached across the table and squeezed Kureha's wrist reassuringly. "You're just so easy to scare. It's hard to resist. Here. Want some more chips?" She shoved the bag toward Kureha.
"Maybe I'll scare you some day," Kureha threatened.
Her friend laughed. "No way!"
Kureha continued to pout. She was eleven. Nut she was tiny. And with her round face and stub of a nose (which she hated and wished would grow longer), she looked much younger.
Sakura, on the other hand, was tall, dark, and sophisticated-looking. She had straight pink hair tied behind her head in a ponytail, and enormous, dark eyes. Everyone who saw them together assumed that Sakura was twelve or thirteen. But actually, Kureha was a month older than her friend.
"Maybe I won't be a witch," Kureha said thoughtfully, resting her chin on her hands, "Maybe I'll be a disgusting monster with hanging eyeballs and green slime dripping down my face and -"
A loud xrash made Kureha scream.
It took her a few seconds to realize that it was just a lunch tray hitting the floor. She turned to see Ichiro Hanazano, his face bright red, drop to his knees and start scooping his lunch off the floor. The lunchroom rang out with cheers and applause.
Kureha hunched down in her seat, embarrassed that she had screamed.
Her breathing had just returned to normal when a strong hand grabbed her shoulder from behind.
Kureha's shriek echoed through the room.