Chapter 1: New Kid on the Block
"Come on Noah hurry up!" Carly Beth calls from the bottom of the stairs.
"Don't rush him, Carly Beth," her mother scolds her. "If he hurries, he might forget something."
"But Sabrina is waiting for me."
"She can wait a few extra minutes."
"Plus, I bet Steve and Chuck that biking to school was faster than taking the bus."
"How much is at stake?" her mother asks.
"All of my Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Fudge bars."
"I thought you weren't going trick or treating this year."
"I'm not, but Katrina's family is holding a Halloween Party and they always give out the best candy bars as prizes."
"Oh, that's right, Noah got invited too. I was hoping that you might be able to take Noah to it."
Carly Beth groans. "Mom… it's bad enough I have to take him to school but on Halloween. All my friends are going to be there, and I'll be the only one who has to his baby brother along."
"I'm not a baby!" her brother says, finally coming down the stairs.
"It's about time," the girl groans, grabbing her helmet and slinging her backpack over her shoulder. "I'm going to lose the bet."
"Carly Beth, you know your brother is not a baby," her mother scolds her. "I want you to start taking more responsibility around the house and keeping an eye on your brother is one of them."
"Why do I always have to be the one who has to be watched?" Noah grumbles, crossing his arms as his mother kisses his head and zips up his backpack.
"Because you're a pipsqueak that's why" Carly Beth teases before going outside to grab her bicycle.
"CARLY BETH!" her mother shouts, hurrying after her daughter. "You take that back, that was a mean thing to say."
"It may be mean, but it's the truth," she says, putting her helmet on.
"IS NOT!" Noah shouts back, going to get his own bike.
"Carly Beth, Noah is the only brother you're going to have one day when the odds are stacked against you, it's a good idea to have someone who will have your back."
"Yeah, yeah," the preteen says, pedalling down the driveway. "Hurry up Noah!"
"Carly Beth wait for me!" the youngest sibling calls out, trying to catch up with his sister.
"Gotta be fast pipsqueak!" she calls back, biking through the piles of the thick piles of leaves that lined the sidewalks.
All the trees in the neighbourhood were shedding their vegetation in preparation for the coming winter. Red, yellow, orange, and brown piles of leaves were mounded across people's lawns and on the surrounding sidewalks. In addition to the bare trees, there were ghosts, pumpkins, bats, spiders, gravestones, and witches being added to everyone's windows and porches in preparation for the coming holiday. While Carly Beth liked this time of year, Halloween had long since been a holiday that she just had to get through. After her encounter with the infamous Haunted Mask and nearly being a monster for the rest of her life, she had long since learned that scaring people was not worth it; that real evil was out there and how dangerous it could be. She knew Steve had learned a similar lesson just last year. Both were still shaken up by their experiences and knew better than to use something they didn't understand.
As she pedals down to the end of the street, she spots her best friend Sabrina waiting with her bike.
"Where were you?" Sabrina asks as she tries to match her friend's speed. "Steve and Chuck will surely beat us now."
"Not if we hurry. Anyways, Noah took forever again this morning."
"Oh my gosh," Sabrina says. "Not again."
"I know, be lucky that you don't have any siblings Sabrina, they are such a pain."
"CARLY BETH WAIT UP!" she hears far behind her.
"Sorry Noah, we've got a bet to win!" she calls back.
As the youngest sibling pedals hard to try and keep up with his older sister, he becomes too tired and has to slow down to rest. He looks miserably down the street where his sister and her friend have already cut through the park towards the schoolyard. He leans against his bike to catch his breath when he notices a big orange and white truck pull into the driveway of a house with a for sale sign in front of it.
The house was big and kind of scary looking, at least from a little boy's perspective. It had been empty for as long as he and Carly Beth could remember. Their mother told them that a nice family used to live there… well, the mother and father were nice; the son was another story. There had long since been rumours circulating in the town that the father kept the son locked in the house because he was so ugly that anyone who saw his face would faint or have a heart attack. Their mother dismissed the rumours as nothing, but tall tales made up by nosey and gossiping people and that the son was shy and just had trouble making friends, so he stayed where he was comfortable. But his mother assumed that the son had likely long since moved out because she never saw him at all. She also told her children that the mother died several years after Carly Beth was born and the father just after Noah turned two and the house was put up for sale. Again, the rumours went around that the son had long since left the home like their mother suggested or that he stayed in the house, deep in the basement where no one could see his hideous face.
The young boy continues to watch as movers begin unloading things from the back of the truck. A woman with long dark raven-hair came outside in an apron and propped the door open with a chair for the movers to bring things in.
"I'm so glad the furniture is here," he heard the woman say. "Adriana hurry up you're going to be late for school."
A girl with hair matching her mother comes out in a jean jacket and wears brightly coloured tights underneath a jean skirt. She carries what looks like a skateboard under her arm and a helmet in her hand.
"Mom, I told you to call me Adi," the girl says.
"I'm sorry Adi…"
"See you later sistwerp," a voice from inside the house calls out.
"Mom!" the girl practically whines.
"Michael don't call your sister that," the mother scolds, shouting into the house. She then turns to her daughter and gives her a kiss on the head. "Have a good first day."
"I'll try," the girl says.
What she does next amazes Noah. She jumps off the porch on to her board and ducks under a bench that the movers are carrying. Once she's on the road, she does a full 180 degree turn on her back wheels before doing a reverse kickflip and heads down the road towards the schoolyard.
Noah stares in awe for a moment before he pedals after the girl.
Meanwhile, Carly Beth and Sabrina race to the tetherball pole, which was their designated meet up point to see who would win their bet. She can see that Steve and Chuck's bus has just arrived and they were running down the hill towards the meetup point.
"Come on, Sabrina!" the blonde girl pants, pushing herself and her bike as best as she could.
She weaves around a few of her classmates as the tetherball pole approaches faster and faster. She puts her one hand out ready to touch the pole.
"CARLY BETH SLOW DOWN!" Sabrina calls.
The girl realizes that she's just about to crash into Steve and Chuck and tries to apply the breaks. But she's out of control, she tries to stop but her bike makes contact with a dirt patch in the field and all she can do is scream as she flips over her handlebars and right into Steve and Chuck. The three kids land in front of the pole in a heap.
"OW!" Chuck shouts as Carly Beth's elbow makes contact with his stomach.
"What the heck Carly Beth!" Steve moans, pushing the girl's long blonde hair out of his face.
The girl rubs her elbows, knees, and side, which is how she landed in the dirt. Steve stands up first and helps his friend to her feet, not noticing redness coming to his cheeks. "I'm sorry guys, I lost control."
"You did that on purpose, so you could win the bet," Chuck accuses her angrily.
"I did not!" Carly Beth says firmly, brushing off the knees of her now torn jeans. "It was an accident."
"Well, I won anyway," Sabrina says from behind them, having touched the tetherball pole. "So, you guys have to give us your Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Fudge bars."
Carly Beth lets out a loud cheer and goes to hug her best friend.
"But it wasn't fair," Steve says, wiping dirt and sweat off his face. "She crashed into us."
"Are you being sore losers?" Sabrina teases.
"We are sore, but not losers," Steve responds, stretching out.
"I'm sorry Steve and Chuck, I guess I got overexcited and should have watched what I was doing."
Steve shrugs and gives her a smile, which the girl returns generously. Chuck, however, is not as forgiving.
"We deserve a do-over, it wasn't fair."
"Was too!" Sabrina snaps back.
"Was not!"
"Carly Beth!" Noah calls, biking towards the group of friends as fast as he can.
The preteen rolls her eyes and picks up her backpack from the dirt. Her brother stops in front of them, having not lost control of his bike like his sister. He looks down at her pants.
"Mom's gonna be mad," he points out.
"Don't you dare tell her!" his sister snaps.
"Why not?" Noah says, sticking his nose up. "You called me a baby and a pipsqueak."
"That doesn't give you the right to tell Mom what happened."
"Does too!"
"If you tell Mom, I won't take you to Katrina's party."
"You can't do that!"
"Can too!"
The two siblings begin bickering between each other while Sabrina, Chuck, and Steve just look on in annoyance.
"Whoa… who's that?" Chuck says, pointing across the schoolyard.
Everyone turns, their pointless squabbles forgotten as a girl with long raven pulled back into a ponytail, which was under a bright green helmet. The girl is riding a skateboard as she approaches a round of stairs.
"Is she actually going to grind?" Chuck asks in shock.
What she does next, answers his question. She launches herself and the skateboard onto the rail of the stairs, slides down it with much ease and sticks the landing as if it were the easiest trick in the book. It seemed like every kid on the playground was watching her as she flips her board into her hand, blows a big bubble with her gum and then heads into the school.
"Did she seriously just…" Chuck asks, almost completely speechless.
"Y-Yeah," Steve says. Both boys were incredibly amazed by the girl's trick.
"Who is she?" Sabrina asks.
"That's what I wanted to tell you, Carly Beth, her family just moved into the house on Keelbolt street," Noah says firmly.
"That old creepy place that leans to the left?" Sabrina asks.
"Yeah."
"Who was desperate enough to buy that old place?" Carly Beth asks.
"A new kid on the block I guess."