Free Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man by Wendelin Van Draanen Page A

talk to Marissa, Dotty? She looks lonely.”
    I turn toward Dot and roll my eyes, but before you know it I’m going down the back hallway alone with the Doberman.
    Heather gets some towels from a closet near the end of the hall, and then opens the door to a room nearby. She says, “Give me just a sec,” then goes over to a full-length mirror and plays with her hair and rearranges her chains a bit while I stand in the doorway watching.
    It doesn’t take me long to figure out that this is Heather’s bedroom. There are posters all over the walls—mostly of rock stars and movie stars. Her bed’s not very big, but it looks big because it’s got a king-size black-and-white fuzzy cowhide bedspread hanging clear down to the floor. An end table by the bed is covered with the same material, and sitting on it is a music box and a twelve-inch plastic cow. And I’m wondering what the deal is with
cows
when I realize that the one on her end table isn’t just a knickknack—it’s a phone.
    I guess Heather saw me staring at all her cow stuff because she says, “I used to think it was cool, but now I’m sick of it. I’m trying to talk my mom into letting me redo my room, but she’s being her usual tight self.”
    “Your mom seems pretty cool to me …”
    Heather snickers. “My mom’s a joke. She’s forty years old, and I swear she thinks she can still pick up twenty-year-olds.” She blows some air out the side of her mouth. “She’s probably out there right now, flirting with an
eighth
grader.” Then she laughs and says, “With my luck she’s trying to pick up Jared.”
    I can’t resist. “Jared? Is that your boyfriend?”
    That makes her little chains jingle. “Don’t I
wish
. No, but he’s the cutest guy at school, and knowing my mom, she’s probably out there asking him to dance.”
    I didn’t think I could ever laugh at anything Heather Acosta said, but the thought of Heather’s mom with her tornado top and spandex bottom dancing with Mr. Cool was enough to make
anyone
laugh, even me.
    And when I started laughing, so did Heather. So there we are, the worst enemies in school, cracking up together. When we wind down I ask, “So why don’t
you
go ask him to dance?”
    She crosses her eyes. “Because
Amber’s
here.”
    “Amber?”
    “His girlfriend. She is such a witch. No one can even
talk
to Jared without her grabbing his arm and trying to get him alone. I wish I could—” A smile spreads across her face. “C’mon.” Then she does something that makes every hair on my body shoot straight out. She links up with me. She’s got the towels in one arm, and she links her other arm through mine and yanks me along. And I’m stammering, “What? … wait …,” but the next thing you know she’s delivered the towels to her mother and we’re in the den, standing in front of Jared and Amber.
    Jared’s dressed up like a baseball player, and he’s slouched on the couch looking pretty bored. Amber’s perched on the armrest, with the tail of her cat costume and one arm wrapped over his shoulders.
    Heather says over the music, “Hi, guys! Are you having a good time?”
    They nod, but you can tell—they’re not.
    “This is my friend Nikki.”
    They barely look at me. “Hi.”
    So we stand there, looking around, and Heather says, “So why aren’t you dancing?”
    Jared shrugs. Amber twitches her tail.
    “You’re not letting this Sammy thing get to you, are you?”
    Jared snickers. “
I’m
not.”
    Amber hits him with her tail.
    I pipe up with, “What Sammy thing?”
    Heather laughs. “Sammy …” She looks at Jared. “What can you say about Sammy?”
    Jared just laughs through his nose and shrugs, but Amber puffs out like a cat ready to fight. “Well, I can tell you this—she’s strange.”
    Jared grins. “But she’s got good taste.”
    Amber whacks him with her tail again.
    “How’s she strange?” I ask. Like I really want to know.
    Amber rolls her eyes. “She wears green