Free Dead Is the New Black by Marlene Perez Page A

pyramid. I just had to smile while I supported the entire squad on my back.
    And speaking of getting to the bottom of things, I had some sleuthing to do. I wanted to find out what the jewelry meant. After finding out from Rose that the ankh was associated with resurrection and the afterlife, I had a hunch I wasn't going to like the answer.
    I didn't like wearing it, but there was no way I could take it off now, standing in front of the whole school.
    We stood in formation while Principal Amador droned on. I thought my leg was going to cramp and bent down to rub it. Samantha frowned at me and shook her head. I quickly straightened.
    Ryan and the rest of the football players sat in the first row. Great—he'd have a perfect view if I made a complete fool of myself.
    The music started, and that was our cue. I hoped I would remember the routine. Thankfully, Samantha put me near the back, so no one noticed when I stumbled. No such luck. Penny smirked at me. A few minutes later, she nearly crushed my hand when she stepped on it climbing on my back for the pyramid.
    As soon as the pyramid had formed, a figure dressed in a short black skirt and top darted in front of us. I saw a flash of red hair. Peering out of the corner of my eye, I was stunned to see that it was the missing dead girl.
    I made an involuntary movement and Samantha, in the row above me, said through gritted teeth, "Daisy, don't you dare move. If you do, we'll all come tumbling down on top of you."
    She didn't say "you idiot," but she didn't need to. It was still a struggle to remain still as a statue while the figure whirled and twirled and finally went into an impossibly long set of cartwheels and wheeled herself right out of the gym.
    The room rang with applause.
    I searched the stands for Ryan. He looked confused by my shocked expression, but he didn't recognize the show-off as the dead girl—only I had seen her in the morgue.
    I wished I could run after her, but there was nothing I could do but watch her slip away. I caught Poppy's eye and she mouthed, "What's wrong?" from her seat in the stands.
    It was too late. I just shook my head. She gave me a big thumbs-up, probably thinking I was just nervous about my performance.
    Dedicated dieters or not, I felt like my back was going to break under the weight of the other cheerleaders. Finally, we got out of the pyramid formation.
    Mr. Amador said, "Please give a round of applause for Coach Rainer Wullf and the Nightshade Sea Monsters varsity football team!"
    I stood in a straight line with the other cheerleaders and shouted to get the crowd fired up, but my mind wasn't on "Go, Fight, Win"—it was on the dead girl's appearance at my school.
    After the rally, the cheerleaders decided to change and grab something to eat. It wouldn't do to get anything on the uniforms, not before a game.
    Sam and I were the only ones left in the locker room changing into street clothes when Mrs. Devereaux swept into the room in a cloud of Chanel.
    What was she doing here? Mrs. Devereaux was usually too busy trying to make the San Francisco society pages to pay any attention to her own daughter. Or at least that's what my mom, who rarely said anything negative about anyone, had told me.
    But there Mrs. Devereaux was in all her couture glory.
    "Samantha," she said, kissing the air a few inches from Samantha's face.
    "Mother, you made it to the pep rally!" Sam's face lit up.
    "No, dear, I was in town for a meeting with our bankers," Mrs. Devereaux said.
    Samantha's smile disappeared.
    "What is that atrocity you're wearing?" Mrs. Devereaux said, after looking Samantha over. "You look absolutely ghastly."
    Ghastly? Sam had changed into a flowing dress in gray. It looked like someone had draped a huge spiderweb over her, but it wasn't the strangest outfit I'd seen her in lately. And Sam still looked gorgeous.
    I was surprised to see a look of satisfaction on Samantha's face. Could it be that she was adopting the ghoul look just to irritate