After school, Kureha hurried through the halls without talking to anyone. She heard kids laughing and whispering. She knew they were laugh at her.
Word had spread all over school that Kureha Suzuka had eaten a worm at lunch.
Kureha, the scaredy-cat. Kureha, who was frightened of her own shadow. Kureha, who was so easy to trick.
Takeru and Ranmaru had sneaked a real worm, a fat brown, into a sandwich. And Kureha had taken a big bite.
What a jerk!
Kureha ran all the way home, three longblocks. Her anger grew with every step.
How could they do that to me? They're supposed to be my friends!"
Why do they think it's so funny to scare me?
She burst into the house, breathing hard. "Anybody home?" she called, stopping in the hallway and leaning against the banister to catch her breath.
Her mother hurried out from the kitchen. "Kureha! Hi! What's wrong?"
"I ran all the way," Kureha told her, pulling off her blue windbreaker.
"Why?" Mrs. Suzuka asked.
"Just felt like it," Kureha replied moodily.
Her mother took Kureha's windbreaker and hung it in the front closet for her. Then she brushed a hand affectionately through Suzuka's soft blonde her. "Where'd you get straight hair?" she muttered. Her mother was always saying that.
We don't look like mother and daughter at all, Kureha realized. Her mother was a tall, chubby woman with thick curls of coppery hair, and lively gray-green eyes. She was extremely energetic, seldom stood still, and talked as rapidly as she moved.
Today she was wearing a paint-stained gray sweatshirt over black Lycra tights. "Why so grumpy?" Mrs. Suzuka asked. "Anything you'd care to talk about?"
Kureha shook her head. "Not really." She didn't feel like telling her mother that she had become the laughingstock of Machida Middle School.
"Come here. I have something to show you," Mrs. Suzuka said, tugging Kureha toward the living room.
"Come on!" her mother insisted, and pulled her across the hallway. Kureha always found it impossible to argue with her mother. She was like a hurricane, sweeping everything in her direction.
"Look!" Mrs. Suzuka declared, grinning and gesturing to the mantelpiece.
Kureha followed her mother's gaze to the mantel - and cried out in surprise. "It's - a head!"
"Not just any head," Mrs. Suzuka said, beaming. "Go on. Take a closer look."
Kureha took a few steps toward the mantelpiece, her eyes on the head staring back at her. It took her a few moments to recognize the straight, blonde hair, the blue eyes, the short snip of a nose, the round cheeks. "It's me!" she cried, walking up to it.
"Yes. Life size!" Mrs. Suzuka declared. "I just came from my art class at the museum. I finished it today. What do you think?"
Lureha picked it up and studied it closely. "It looks just like me, Mom. Really. What's it made of?"
"Plaster of Paris," her mother replied, taking it from Kureha and holding it up so that Kureha was face to face, eye to eye with herself. "You have yo be careful. It's delicate. It's hollow, see?"
Kureha stared intently at the head, peering into her own eyes. "It - it's kind of creepy," she muttered.
"You mean because I did a good job?" her mother demanded.
"It's just creepy, that's all," Kureha said. She forced herself to look away from the replica of herself, and saw that her mother's smile had faded.
Mrs. Suzuka looked hurt. "Don't you like it. "Don't you like it?"
"Yeah. Sure. It's really good, Mom," Kureha answered quickly. But, I mean, why on earth did you make it?"
"Because I love you," Mrs. Suzuka replied curtly. "Why else? Honestly, Kureha, you hve the strangest reactions to things. I worked really hard on this sculpture. I thought - "
"I'm sorry, Mom. I like it. Really, I do," Kureha insisted. "It was just a surprise, that's all."
Kureha took another long look at the sculpture. Its blue eyes - her blue eyes - stared back at her. The blonde hair shimmered in the afternoon sunlight through the window.
It smiled at me! Kureha thought, her mouth dropping open. I saw it! I just saw it smile!
No. It had to be a trick of the light.
It was a plaster of Paris head, she reminded herself.
Don't go scaring yourself over nothing, Kureha. Haven't you made a big enough fool of yourself today?
"Thanks for showing it to me, Mom," she said awkwardly, pulling her eyes away. She forced a smile. "Two heads are better than one, right?"
"Right," Mrs. Suzuka agreed brightly. "Incidentally, Kureha, your duck costume is all ready. I put it on your bed."
"Huh? Duck costume?"
"You saw a duck costume at the mall, remember?" Mrs. Suzuka carefully placed the sculpted head on the mantel. "The one with all the feathers and everything. You thought it would be funny to be a duck this Halloween? So I made you a duck costume."
" ," Kureha said, her mind spinning. Do I really want to be a stupid duck this Halloween? she thought. "i'll go up and take a look at it, Mom. Thanks."
Kureha had forgotten all about the duck costume. I don't want to be cute this Halloween, she thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. I want to be scary.
She had seen some really scary-looking masks in the window of a party store that had opened a few blocks from school. One of them, she knew, would be perfect.
But now she'd have to walk around in feathers and have everyone quack at her and make fun of her.
It wasn't fair. Why did her mother have to listen to every word she said?
Just because Kureha had admired a duck costume in a store didn't mean she wanted to be a stupid duck for Halloween!
Kureha hesitated outside her bedroom. The door had been pulled closed for some reason. She never closed the door.
She listened carefully. She thought someone breathing on the other side of the door. Someone or something.
The breathing grew louder.
Kureha pressed an ear to the door.
What was in her room?
There was only one way to find out.
Kureha pulled open the door - and uttered a startled cry.
