Chapter 12

The black posters plastered throughout the school hallways pictured a translucent white ghost who hugged a pumpkin with a carved grin.

Pinewood High School's Halloween Party

October 31

8:00 p.m.–12:00 p.m.

Yummy treats, costume contest, music, and plenty of scares!

Don't forget your costume!

This could be Lilly's only chance to mingle with other people in over a month. She could wear a mask, maybe Jason's or Scream's, and no one would recognize her, and she could talk to someone other than the Stewarts or Oliver for a change.

Lilly whirled around and grabbed Miley's arm. "Boo!"

Miley winced, pressed a hand against to her mouth, and giggled.

"Are we going together?"

The giggle faded into a sigh. "I'm not into dressin' up."

"You don't want to go because of the others, do you?"

Miley raised a shoulder in a half-shrug. "Every Halloween, I watch Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask on video."

"Scary."

"It is if you watch it alone."

"There would be two of us, so… "

Miley gave another shrug.

Lilly was going to the party, and she was going to find a way to get Miley there, even if it meant dressing up as a cop and dragging her behind her as a shackled bank robber.

Two days later Lilly bumped into Jackson under the living room doorway and knocked the plastic Viking helmet off his head. He was on his way to The Book Nook, Crowley Corner's only bookstore, where a Halloween store was set up every year for two weeks. He didn't want to dress up as a Viking every year, so he needed another costume for the party at his usual honky-tonk, where the beer would be served in one-and-a-half-gallon witches' cauldrons.

"Sick. Is it okay if I tag along?"

His eyebrows shot up in unison with the corners of his lips. "To booze?"

Lilly laughed. "Bro, I wish, but no, just to the bookstore."

In the bookstore's back corner, walnut bookshelves decorated with artificial cobwebs displayed Halloween items—plastic skulls and pumpkins, knight's helmets, witches' cauldrons, and jars filled with glittery green and purple slime glistened beneath warm overhead lighting.

When Jackson squeezed a fist-sized rubber spider, it squeaked.

Lilly ran her fingers through the synthetic curls of a blond wig that sat on a black bust between a clown mask and a werewolf mask. If she straightened it and trimmed the bangs, it would be enough to make Miley look like Hannah Montana. Everyone at the party would go insane if they saw her, possibly so much that they would forget about the incident with Mikayla.

Lilly bought a musketeer hat, a matching eye mask, and a plastic rapier for herself. At home, she styled the wig to look like Hannah's hair and donned her musketeer hat. With an "En garde!" she kicked open the half-open bedroom door that banged against the wall, and swung the rapier above her head.

Miley, who lay sprawled on her stomach on the bed, jerked her head around to face Lilly. Her eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets.

"You look as if I actually challenged you to a duel." Lilly offered her a crooked grin and thrust the blade through the air.

Miley leaped out of bed on the opposite side and slung her arms around herself.

What the hell? Was she afraid of swords, or what? "The rapier is made of plastic." Lilly sat on her floral bed covers. "You don't have to worry about me slashing you by accident." She placed the rapier on her bed and rustled around in the plastic bag that hung around her arm. "I've got you something less scary and much cooler." She pulled out the blonde wig and held it out for Miley to take.

Miley remained quiet and motionless.

"Don't you want to try it on?"

"We-we're not even goin' to the party."

"I was hoping you'd change your mind after seeing the costumes."

Miley shook her head.

Jeez, Lilly had spent her entire month's allowance on the wig alone. They simply had to attend this party. She swapped her hat for Hannah's wig. "Then I'll dress up as Hannah and you as a Musketeer." Lilly circled the bed and placed the hat on Miley's head. "You look cool."

"I don't know… "

Lilly thrust the rapier into Miley's grasp, and as if the plastic had turned to red-hot iron, Miley tossed it away, and it clattered to Lilly's feet. "I-I can't. Sorry." She pivoted on her heels and dashed into the corridor. Footsteps clomped down the stairs, the front door slammed shut, and the screen door rattled.

Oh God, Lilly had only wanted to have a little fun and share it with Miley. What was it with her all the time?

Miley returned later in the evening, after Lilly had gone to bed, and offered her wine gum licorice spiders. This didn't make Miley's constant emotional swings any easier to bear, but she couldn't say no to candy.

When Lilly reached for her buzzing cell phone on the nightstand the next morning, she touched thin wooden sticks. She brought them up to her face and blinked at a tiny chestnut body resting on eight long snapped-off shashlik skewer legs. She jerked up and flung the chestnut spider figurine to the ground, where it clattered against the floorboards.

"Poor Squiddy." Miley leaned forward from her cross-legged position on her bed and picked up the figurine.

"You put the spider on my nightstand?" Lilly supported herself on her underarms.

"Spider?" Miley giggled as she stuck a leg that had fallen off into the chestnut body. "This is supposed to be an squid because you're missin' the ocean an' all." Miley paused. "There are squid in the Pacific, aren't there?"

"Yeah, but tentacles don't bend like that. They tend to hang down or splay off to the side."

"But that looked stupid with the skewers."

"And when you bend them like that, they look like spider legs. Have you tried regular toothpicks?"

"Jackson used 'em all up on his food-encrusted teeth." Miley wrinkled her nose.

Lilly squinted at the spider squid Miley clicked back on the polished wood of her nightstand. It looked eerily similar to the dragonfly Mikayla had found in her locker. Either Miley wasn't the only one with bad taste, or she had placed the dragonfly in Mikayla's locker. But why would she? "Happy Halloween I guess."

On Monday, a teacher replaced the Halloween party posters on the school's walls with the usual cheerleader, anti-bullying, and school rule posters.

Miley pushed all her books into Lilly's hands and vanished behind a group of students. During their lunch break, Miley had noticed Lilly's loud sipping from the one-liter bottle. She had even commented, You're goin' to town on that orange juice. Did she think all that juice would just vanish into thin air? But Lilly couldn't blame Miley for not asking her to accompany her to the restroom. The first few times Miley had asked, she had made fun of her.

Ethan, one of Lilly's friends had once asked, Yo, Truscott, why do chicks always have to go to the restroom together?

Lilly had shrugged. Fixing each other's makeup? Wiping each other's asses? Dude, how should I know?

As it turned out, nothing. They did their own thing and then left.

Lilly unloaded her and Miley's books into her locker and went to the girls' restroom. Nancy took a wide stance in front of the door and motioned a group of girls down the corridor. Lilly exhaled slowly and approached Nancy. She brushed past her and grabbed the door latch. Nancy stepped to the side and squeezed Lilly's arms between herself and the door frame.

"Do you think I'm just standing here for fun?" Nancy leaned back and rested a hand on her hip.

"Actually. No." Lilly mimicked Nancy's movement, feigning confidence. "You got a new job as a loo attendant, am I right? That must be why you're carrying this mob around." Lilly paused for dramatic effect. "Oops, my bad. It's just your hair."

Nancy let out an exaggerated haha. "A toilet clogged, and the entire restroom is flooded. Principal Keith has asked me to stand guard here to make sure that no one comes in. I'm supposed to direct each student to the restrooms near the entrance."

When Lilly returned to her locker, Miley was still missing. Lilly grabbed her English textbook and left Miley's school supplies in the locker. She would've to lend some of hers to Miley for the next class.

Miley was also not in the classroom. The timetable in Lilly's notebook indicated that she was in the right room at the right time. Weird.

Mrs. Dawson strode into the class, silk scarf billowing behind her, followed by Nancy and Chelsea, the latter thudding the door behind her shut. Lilly's gaze returned to Miley's empty seat. She had never been late before, except for the first day of school. Mikayla's seat also remained empty. Minions without a leader were always a little aimless, and as long as Lilly stayed quiet and followed all rules, Mrs. Dawson wouldn't make a mockery of her in front of the entire class.

After the attendance check, Mrs. Dawson collected the homework. Miley still hadn't arrived. But she was probably okay. She could have forgotten she had given Lilly her school supplies and was now scouring her locker for them.

"I did my homework." Lilly turned around when she heard Chelsea's nasally voice, which sounded like two whales had been shoved into her nostrils. "I swear. But… " As her gaze met Lilly's, Chelsea's lips twitched with a sneer. "Lilly ate them."

A tidal wave of laughter crashed over Lilly, and she slid further down her chair, crossing her arms over her chest.

Mrs. Dawson spent the next twenty minutes analyzing a poem: Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.

"What is the poet attempting to convey in this sixth verse?" Mrs. Dawson picked a boy who had put his hand up.

"It's about slavery." He puffed out his chest as if expecting praise on his brief analysis.

"Yes, Travis, it is still about slavery, just like the previous five verses." Mrs. Dawson puckered her lips in a sour expression, her sharp gaze shifting over the rows of seats. "Anyone else?" She indicated someone behind Lilly. "Yes."

"It's not only about slavery." That was Chelsea again. "It's also about bullying and how to overcome it." Chelsea read aloud from the chalkboard, "You can shoot me with your words, cut me with your eyes, and kill me with your hatred, but I'll still rise like air."

"I would normally object to you reading something aloud because we all have eyes. However… " Mrs. Dawson cast a sharp look at Travis as he crouched behind his raised book. "I appreciate you helping all of the… analphabets in our class."

"It's just that the verse spoke to me. Bullying is so wrong." Chelsea's voice trembled with feigned concern.

Lilly imagined her putting on a plastic expression to match the tone of her voice and fought the urge to turn around and give her the middle finger.

"It is, indeed." Mrs. Dawson's face revealed a frown that did not match her constant pinched mouth. "It is for this reason that I founded the anti-bullying organization."

In the two and a half months Lilly had been here, she had seen only one expression on Mrs. Dawson's face: the resting bitch face. Mrs. Dawson could be one of those people who were bullied in school and then unknowingly became a bully themselves.

"That's why I support your wonderful project, Mrs. Dawson."

"And I'm grateful for that."

Lilly's gaze returned to Miley's empty seat. Miley had gone to the restroom and vanished—the same restroom where Nancy had blocked the way. And since Mikayla was also missing… This could only spell trouble. Lilly raised her hand. "Mrs. Dawson."

The teacher turned around, her sharp eyes cutting over her glasses at Lilly.

"I was wondering… " Lilly could almost feel the annoyance flowing off Mrs. Dawson. She smoothed the crumpled page of her open book. "I need to use the restroom."

Mrs. Dawson whisked her glasses off her nose and scrubbed them with her sleeve. "Lilly, you're familiar with the rules."

"But… " Lilly paused and wriggled in her seat, more because everyone's attention was drawn to her than because she really needed to go. "I really need to go."

"How unfortunate." Mrs. Dawson put her glasses back on and returned her gaze to the blackboard.

Freaking Mrs. Umbridge clone. The minute hand of the clock above the blackboard ticked forward five more digits before Lilly put up her hand again. "Mrs. Dawson."

"No." Her chalk jabbed a dot behind a verse on the board.

"Please, just let her go," a boy quipped up.

After all, she wasn't as unpopular as she thought. Lilly smiled at the boy with warm, downturned eyes that sat beneath thick brows.

He smirked back at her. "It has to be all the fiber from the paper."

The laughter that exploded throughout the classroom burned Lilly's face hot, and she whirled around, her gaze fastened on the open book. Trying to break Mrs. Dawson's rules was the dumbest idea she had ever had.

"Go." Mrs. Dawson drew her brows together and nodded to the door. "Before you wreak further havoc in my class."

Lilly pushed the door handle to the girls' bathroom down. As she had feared, it wasn't locked or flooded. Three mirrors hung above three sinks. A red I flourished across the mirror at the back of the room, followed by an am on the next, and an ugly on the last. Lilly's stomach dropped, and her accelerated breath echoed into the dimness of the white-turmeric-tiled room. She ran a finger across the y, brought it up to her nose, and inhaled.

Waxy. It was only lipstick.

The mirrors reflected the closed toilet stalls behind her. Wasn't that Miley's handwriting?

A whisper of a sob bounced off the walls.

Lilly swung around and took a step towards the stalls. "Miley?"

One water faucet plink-plinked into the heavy silence.

"It's me, Lilly."

The door latch on the middle stall clicked open, and Lilly found herself staring into bloodshot cobalt eyes. Miley's dripping wet hair clung to her face and darkened her sweater-clad shoulders.

"Oh, Miley." Lilly reached for her hand and led her out of the stall. Despite being half a foot shorter, Lilly dipped her head as she searched Miley's eyes for answers.

"They-they shoved me—" A sob ripped through Miley's body, and she threw herself into Lilly's arms and buried her head in her shoulders.

The chemical stench of toilet deodorizer burned Lilly's nostrils. Drops of water trickled down her neck and seeped into her sweater, and she grimaced. She wriggled free. "Did you write this?" She nodded towards the mirrors.

"She-she made me do it."

"Who? Mikayla?"

Miley nodded, rubbing a hand over the lipstick-drawn line that ran from her temple down her cheek to her chin.

"Where's she now?"

"I reckon she left together with Chelsea… I-I'm not sure."

Lilly knelt down and peered under the stalls. They were all unoccupied. "Have they done anything else to you?"

"No." It was a whisper.

"That's good." Lilly swallowed the lump in her throat. "I mean, they could have flushed the toilet when they pushed—" Lilly paused. Where was she even going with that?

"But… " Miley hung her head, her wet locks dangling in front of her face. "They did."

Shucks, she was stupid. Lilly gnawed on her lower lip. "You should probably rinse your hair."

While Miley dipped her head under the stream of water, Lilly ripped tissues from the dispenser, dampened them, and wiped them across the mirrors, leaving red waxy streaks all over them. With another wad of tissues, she tried to rub Miley's hair dry, but it only resulted in her hair being covered in itsy-bitsy shreds of tissue paper.

"This isn't how I imagined it."

"I'm goin' home anyway." Miley wrapped her arms around herself. "Are you comin' with me?"

"I can't."

"Please?"

A strong gust of wind howled around the building and the outline of a bush behind the frosted glass pane jerked to the side.

"My bag's still in the classroom, but I could accompany you to the principal's office."

"No, it's fine."

"You don't want to report Mikayla's bullying?"

Miley lifted her shoulders and let them fall.

Mikayla was the model student at Pinewood High, only getting A's and B's and supporting the anti-bullying campaign. "You won't be able to convince Principal Keith that Mikayla is a bully on your own, but what if we both try?"

"I-I can't."

"Why? If you don't do something, she'll never stop. "

"It's com—"

A crack of thunder cut through the raindrops, tip-tapping on the roof above.

"Complicated. Yeah, I got it. Keeping secrets is healthy, right?" Lilly sighed and held her hands up in appeasement. "This school's fucked up." This entire student exchange was, but Lilly had gotten herself into this hot mess of student exchange. "I need to get back to class or Mrs. Dawson will give me an F, if she hasn't already. Take care of yourself on the way home, okay?"

"Today is goin' to be fantastic." Miley walked down Old Mill Road beside Lilly with a spring in her step. "I'm feelin' it."

Miley had been playing fetch with her two Border Collies when Lilly got home from school yesterday. Miley had giggled as one of the dogs had pushed her to the ground and licked her face.

Was the bullying just a jumbled figment of her imagination? "Someone seems to be on herbs."

"Hmm." Miley tilted her head to the side. "Daddy made me turmeric tea this mornin'. That might be it."

Herbal tea? Really? "I was more thinking along the lines of Mariju—"

Miley's childlike gaze shifted to her.

"Nothing."

They were on their way back to their lockers after lunch when Miley stopped. "I have to go to the commode."

"I know. I also need to snag my books." Lilly went on to her locker.

"Wait." Miley tugged at the hem of her cardigan. "Can't you come with me?"

"Our lockers aren't that far away. I'll make sure you're not kidnapped or anything." Lilly grinned in what she hoped was a reassuring way.

"But… " Miley peered at the girl's restroom door.

"To the restroom?" Miley dipped her chin in a nod.

"I thought you meant your locker." Lilly shrugged. "Sure." She fell in step with Miley. And she thought she was smart for participating in a national rather than an international student exchange. "I need a freaking southern dictionary."

The whole day, the Fakettes avoided her and Miley, and Lilly suspected it was Mikayla's attempt to appear insusceptible after the restroom bullying.

After school, Lilly and Miley descended the steps leading from the entrance. Oliver leaned against the trunk of a pine tree a little further down the meadow, zipping his navy blue winter parka up. When their gazes met, he straightened, looked around, and beckoned her closer before he disappeared behind the trunk. They hadn't spoken since the pig accident on his farm. On the evening of the lunchroom bullying, she had received a text from him, but instead of asking how she was, he had just sent her one of his usual platitudes: I was thinking about you. Was everyone in Crowley Corners a secret nutjob?

Lilly and Miley dipped their heads beneath the low-hanging needle-covered branch where Oliver was hiding. The light minty and lemony aroma of pine trees lingered in the frigid air.

"Hey." Oliver cracked a smile and reached for Lilly's hand.

Miley squinted at Oliver and turned away.

"Hey." Lilly squirmed her hand free.

"Is everything okay?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know." Oliver rubbed his neck. "You have time to hang out?"

"I did during lunch break."

"Is this the problem? You know I can't."

"And now you're hiding behind a tree so no one can see us together."

Oliver pffed, waving Lilly's accusation off. "Nature fascinates me, is all." He inhaled deeply as if to emphasize his point. "The fresh air, the unexplored forests, and the wild animals. That's all a man needs to be happy."

A beetle crawled down the tree trunk behind him.

"Oh, yeah?" Lilly smirked. "Does that include bugs too?"

"I'm afraid of nothing—"

Lilly pointed a finger behind him.

Oliver wheeled around and stumbled away from the tree. He let out a screech that was a few octaves too high for a boy.

Lilly's smirk widened.

"Okay." Oliver jammed his hands into his parker side pockets and shook his bangs out of his face. "Maybe I'm hiding. But I promise not to while we hang out, okay?"

Lilly gave a quick shrug. "Okay."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but let's hang at the playground." Lilly cast a glance across the street, through the gap formed by two needle-covered branches, at a row of trees with a slide protruding from behind them.

"The playground isn't all that great." Oliver plucked needles from a branch. "Let's do something else."

"You mean it's too close to the school. It's the playground or nothing."

"You can't be serious."

"I am." Lilly blew a huff. "How about you?"

"I told you I'm not going to that stupid playground."

"I'm talking about us."

Oliver rubbed his brow before he threw his hands in the air. "Okay, the playground it is, but… " His gaze flicked to Miley, then back to Lilly. "Just the two of us, please."

Miley kicked against one of the fallen pines, muttering gibberish under her breath.

"What?"

"I said bless your heart," she snapped.

"See." Lilly motioned to Miley. "She's nice to you even though you don't want her with us."

"You mean bless your heart?"

"Yeah."

Oliver's brow furrowed. "You think telling me to fuck myself is nice?"

"Oh." Yeah, she definitely needed a southern dictionary, and… "No." But understandable. He had been playing the same hide-and-seek and hot-and-cold game with Lilly that he had been playing with Miley for the past two years. Then he also dismissed Miley's feelings for him.

Hot pink flashed in the distance. Mikayla, dressed in a neon fuchsia tracksuit, strode out of the school building, arms hooked through Chelsea and Nancy's, who flanked either side of her.

"I can't let Miley go home by herself."

"I'm sure Miley can find her way without your hel—"

"—You have no idea what Mikayla did yesterday." Lilly glanced over at Miley, who was frowning at her shoes. "It went way beyond ignoring her and making stupid jokes."

"I didn't know. I… " He shook his head slowly to himself before he took a deep breath. "Okay."

The air of the empty playground was thick with the earthy smell of moss and timber. Miley tossed her backpack onto the grass and plopped down in the wet chair of a swing. The rain rolled off the hood of Lilly's black wool coat. Lilly had never experienced the season before. She expected to despise the rain, cold wind, and gray skies, but it gave her the perfect excuse to stay at home. In Malibu, she felt compelled to go outside all year, because the weather was almost always nice. She leaned against the frame of the swings, the cold metal pressing through the fabric of her jacket.

"I thought you came here to play?" Oliver rested his hand on the frame.

"I'm sixteen, not six, and even if I were, it's too cold and wet."

"So, why—"

"—You ignored me during lunch break."

"Not again." Oliver groaned. "I can't, okay? They'll bully me."

"So you'd rather watch your girlfriend get bullied?"

"Oh." Oliver scratched his throat. "That lunch break. I'm truly sorry, I really am, but what was I supposed to do?"

"Calling me later to see how I was doing would have been the bare minimum."

"I noticed you were fine so… "

God, what a douche. She should have ended their relationship the moment she discovered Miley was in love with Oliver. "That thing between us isn't working."

Oliver clasped Lilly's hand between his two and searched her gaze with his brown almond-shaped eyes, but Lilly kept her gaze fixed on her raindrop-coated vans. "If I'd a choice, I'd sit with you all the time at lunch. I swear."

"You do have a choice."

"I… "

The wind whizzed across the playground, shaking the swings and making the rusty roundabout squeak.

"I really don't, but—" Lilly jerked back, but Oliver tightened his grip on Lilly's hand. "But if they bully you again, I promise I'll step in, okay?"

The swing's metal braces rattled as Miley pushed her feet into the sand, stopping the movement.

Lilly forked her fingers through her hair and sighed before a tiny smile flitted above her lips. "I take your word for it."

Miley's thumb made its way into her mouth. Her slitted eyes glowered at Oliver, then at Lilly, and she bit down on a nail.

Lilly flinched inwardly. Agreeing to go out with Oliver was clearly a bad idea. Of course, Miley must have lied when she said she wouldn't mind.