Chapter Three “Abby, get up. You have to go pick up Amber, remember?” my mom shrieked into my ear. I got up and swung my legs off my bed.  Walking to the bathroom I looked to see if my brother was awake.  His bed was empty, so he was.  I brushed my teeth and washed my face quickly.  I headed back to my room and brushed my tangled hair.  My closet was packed with clothes, but I was able to pull out a black skirt and an orange top. I quickly got dressed and checked myself out in the mirror.  My dark brown hair hung loosely around my shoulders. My blue eyes went perfect with my dark complexion. I picked up a coral lipstick and stuck it in my bag.  Hopping down the stairs I told my mom I wasn’t able to eat and left the house.  Driving to Amber’s house was difficult this morning.  Traffic backed up. Finally reaching her house I honked the horn and waited for her to come out of her house. Instead Josh, Trevor, and Amber came out. “Were you throwing a party or something?” I asked as I unlocked the doors. Trevor and Amber jumped in the back as Josh jumped in the front with me.  He leaned over and gave me a peck on the cheek. “These guys came over this morning asking if they could get a ride with me, but my car broke down. So, I just figured that you wouldn’t mind giving them a ride too.” She pulled a bucket hat on quickly. She usually does that only if she didn’t bother combing her hair before going to school. “Its no problem. I almost didn’t make it here. There’s a lot of traffic around my house.” I turned on the radio to 102.1 and Amber’s song was playing. “Turn it up. Turn it up.” I reached over and blared it. Amber sat back there and lip-synced the whole song.  Josh started head banging in his seat and Trevor followed up on head banging.  Turning into the school parking lot, I turned off the radio and parked.  We climbed out of the car and headed toward the school entrance.  Amber and I headed to our lockers and Josh and Trevor went to their first period classes.  We climbed the stairs and nearly knocked down a teacher. “Sorry.” We said in unison. Our lockers were right beside our first period class.  I stuffed my bag in my locker and grabbed my books. Locking it, I walked over to Amber. “Did you see Tyler yet?” I whispered to her. “Nope. I was looking for him, but couldn’t find him.” She grabbed her books and slammed her locker shut. We walked into class and took our usual seats at the back. The class was started to get quite when the teacher walked in. “We got a substitute.” The teacher was tall with broad shoulders. He had gray intense eyes, and sandy-blond hair. He was pretty cute for a teacher.  He walked to the front of the class and started lecturing us on how he wanted to be treated with respect and crap like that.  I turned to Amber and whispered to her. “What are you doing after school?” “Trevor and I are going to my house to relax and do some homework. Why?” She picked up a pencil that was lying on the floor. “Me and Josh are going to up to that house that everyone says is haunted. We wanna check it out. I was just wandering if you guys want to come along.” I faced the front as the teacher began walking around the class. “I don’t know. I’ll ask Trevor if he wants to go. I’ll tell you by lunch.” Amber and Trevor had almost every class together, except for this one. Me on the other hand, had only one class with Josh. We all had the same lunch.  The first two classes went by fast.  I was walking to the café as Amber and Trevor were calling me to slow down and wait for them. “Where’s Josh?” I asked glancing around. “He said he’ll met us in the café. He said he has a surprise for you two.” Trevor started to smile, but stopped him self before he full could. “I don’t trust you guys with surprises.” Amber said pulling her hat down more on her head. We walked in and sat on our usual spot on the stage.  I glanced around and tried to look for Josh, but no luck. “Where is he? What surprise does he have for us?” I could tell that I was getting anxious on what the surprise was, and just like Amber I don’t trust these guys with surprises. Once they said they had a surprise for us and told us to meet them in the park. We agreed to meet there. We waited and waited and then we finally saw them with backpacks on.  They opened their bags and pulled out water guns and balloons.  Amber and I started running. No use they caught up with us and drenched us from head to toe. The teachers wouldn’t let us in class, so we had to go home and get a change of clothes. Except the fact that we didn’t go back to school and missed half of the day, that day sucked. I glanced around the café and saw Josh coming down the stairs holding paper bags from McDonalds. He glanced around and spotted us on the stage. “Here’s your surprise. Non-cafeteria food. For each of us” He handed out the meals to each of us. Mine was the big-mac meal. My favorite. We headed out to the park to eat.  Some other people were gathered at the park. We headed to the bleachers and sat down. “ThanKS Josh for the grub.” Amber said in between bites. “Your welcome.  I thought it would be a nice change from the café food.  Here’s your car keys back Abby.” He reached into his jean pocket and handed them to me. “So, that’s why you wanted my keys.  I thought you just had to get something out of the car. Oh well.” I stuck the keys in to the pocket on my skirt. “Oh, Trevor. Abby and Josh want us to go to that haunted house on Sandy Dr. Do you want to go with them or just chill at my house instead?” she asked Trevor. “Sure, we can go. But Josh and me have to go home first. Right Josh?” he gave him a wink as if he thought we didn’t notice. Just catching on Josh responded. “Yeah, we got to go home first. We’ll meet you there at 7. Ok?” “Yeah I guess so. Why do you guys got to go home?” I asked them. “Umm…we have to drop off some things and pick up some things.” Trevor responded quickly and not looking at us.  I knew something was up.  They always acted this way when they had something up their slves.  I pulled Amber away from them and told her that I don’t trust them with why they’re going home.  She agreed with me and told me to meet here in class in about 10mins.  I pulled Josh from the bleachers and dragged him to my locker. “What are you guys planning?” he seemed nervous by that question. “Nothing. Why do you always think Trevor and me are up to something?” he asked while he slipped his arm around my shoulder. “Well, since you guys always have something up your sleeves. I just have to presume the worst all the time.”  I put my arm around his waist, and pulled him close to me. “Don’t worry this time.  We have nothing planned.” He stopped off at his locker and opened it.  His locker was bare but a pic of him and me and one of Katie Holmes. I didn’t mind that pic of Katie, because he’s pretty all right with my pics of Joshua Jackson in my locker. I looked at the pic of him and me. That was last year when we went to the Valentine’s Day dance.  It was so nice. Amber and Trevor were there too.  That Valentines was special. We had celebrated our one-year anniversary that day.  Amber and Trevor celebrated theirs too.  Amber and Trevor started to date before Josh and I. I actually met Josh through Trevor.  Josh quickly closed his locker after dropping off his books.  We headed to class as the bell rang. This class all four of us had together. The guys don’t sit with us though. They sit in the front with the rest of the guys. I sat down in the back and waited for Amber to get to class.  She then walked in with Trevor. Trevor walked to where Josh was sitting, while Amber came back to the back.  This was our film study class. We were going to watch a movie today that documented a young film artist. “What did you have to talk to me about?” I turned to Amber when she finally sat. “The guys are to something, and I know it. I say we fight back with something. I say after school we plan something to scare the shit out of them. What do you say?” she seemed excited. “Ok, sure I guess. What do you have planned?” I asked. “Ok, what scares them the most? Unexplained noises, right?” she asked. It’s true. The boys didn’t like any noises that they couldn’t explain. “Yeah, so…” I wanted her to finish. “We could go to my house and tape a bunch of noises that are freaky. Then we’ll tell them to meet us there, but we’ll be there early so that we can hide. When they come we’ll play the tape and watch them get scared shitless. It’ll be so fun.” She started to talk louder, but noticed and whispered again. “It’ll be like the whole Blare Witch thing.” “Ok, I’m loving it so far. What if they get too spooked and get pissed off?” I asked while glancing at them. They were whispering something to each other. They looked over at us, but noticed we were looking back. They glanced away. “Who cares if they get scared. And why would they get pissed, they scare us everyday with those faces. So, why not get them back.” She started to laugh at her own remark about their faces. They weren’t ugly. Actually a lot of the girls in grade 11 hit on them. We tell them off, of course.  They don’t want to get the point that they have girlfriends, so we have to put it through their heads.  We once poured soda on this girl that was trying to hit on our guys and wouldn’t back off.  We both lost friends over this too. They wanted Josh and Trevor, and couldn’t understand why they chose us. So they ditched us. I opened my Power Puff Girls notebook and started to write down noises we could record. 1. Door opening 2. Squeak of a door 3. Pulling back of a chair 4. A moaning sound 5. A scream 6. Footsteps (running) 7. Footsteps (a slow walk) 8. A door slamming shut 9. Rustling of paper or something 10. Chains dragging on the floor 11. Banging sound 12. Psycho music I handed Amber the list. “That’s all I can think of you have to think of more.” I told her. “Are you sure they won’t get pissed at us?” “I’m sure. Stop worrying. Are you going to come over after school to record these?” she asked stuffing the list into her pocket. “Yeah I guess. I have nothing better to do, but I need to go home and drop off my bag. Ok?” “Yeah sure. I’ll come with you right after school, then we’ll head to my house.” “Ok. They better not plan anything messy. Remember that time they covered you with Mayo?” I started to laugh. “It’s not funny. They did it on my new outfit too. I was so pissed at them.” She lowered in her chair and glared over at Josh and Trevor. “Yeah, but you got everything out of your clothes.” I said. “Still…argh!” she groaned and straightened up. She pulled out her notebook and started writing a note down from the board. I looked at the board and copied it down. The teacher turned off the light and started the movies. Oh well, I’ll get the note from Amber, Josh, or Trevor.  The teacher stood in front of the class. “Ok, class. Today we’ll be watching a movie that I rather enjoy. The Matrix. This is not done by a young filmmaker, but I thought it would be nice to enjoy something else. So, settle down and I’ll get the movie started.” He moved to the VCR and turned it on. The movie started and the class went silent. “Just meet me at your car after school. Ok?” Amber asked. “Yeah, sure. You better not take long at your locker, though.” “I won’t. Just meet me there.” She sat back in her in her seat and watched the movie.

Chapter 4...