Free Blue Is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz

addition.
    Chad pulls the hockey mask back over his face and breathes like Darth Vader. "This was just my way of getting you guys back after your failed attempt at scaring me. Better luck next time."
    "What are you talking about? We didn't try to scare you."
    He lifts the mask from his face. "You didn't?"
    I shake my head.
    "Then who put the jersey in my mailbox?" He tugs a sheet of notebook paper from his back pocket. "This was attached to it."
    I take the note. There are large block letters written with red marker across the page: STAY
    AWAY FROM HER. I'M WATCHING YOU.
    "Whatever," he says. "Probably just one of the guys, playing a joke. Look, I gotta go before security catches me. Maybe I can come in some other time."
    "Maybe," I nod, still clutching the note in my hand. "Can you just tell Drea I can't make it for breakfast after all? Hockey practice."
    I swallow down the ball of impending doom I feel lodged in my throat, and manage a slight nod.
    "Tell her Donovan's gonna be in the room, so she can just e-mail him the assignment, and I'll have him print it out and give it to me before class."
    My head fuzzes over with questions, but instead of asking any I just say "Okay"
    "Thanks, Stacey. Tell Dray thanks, too. I owe her big time. Oh, and can you tell her to make sure she changes her answers around a bit? Wouldn't want the teacher to think we're cheating." He winks.
    I wave goodbye before shutting the window and locking it.
    There, it happened. He canceled. The cards predicted correctly.

Eleven
    I vvhip the door of the shower room open and boog it acr.oss the red clay floor in search of Drea.
    There are a few girls waiting in line for a shower stall, their arms full of fruity shampoo and bars of soap, but no Drea. I visually

    lur the pairs of feet sticking out from beneath each cursco in search of Drea's pink jelly shoes. I notice a pair of tail
    Osi:ar the Grouch flip-flops, standing in the last stall. ,Ainber? Is that you?" I jiggle the curtain.
    "Get lost," says a throaty voice that definitely isn't Amber's.
    I round the corner by the sinks and there's Drea, in front of the mirror, scrunch-drying her hair with a blow dryer. She clicks the dryer off. "What's wrong?"
    'Are you okay?" I'm all out of breath. I look over her shoulder at Veronica Leeman, who pretends to brush her teeth a few sinks away even though it's so completely obvious that she's eavesdropping.
    'Are you okay?" Drea asks.
    "Get your stuff and let's go," I say. "We need to talk."
    "What-ev-er." Drea focuses back in the mirror and plucks a salmon-pink lipstick from her makeup pouch. She smears it on and blows obnoxious air kisses toward Veronica. "Chad just loves this color on me."
    Everyone knows Veronica would give up using hair spray for a whole year just to have one date with Chad. Drea smiles at me, proud of her own bitchiness.
    'Actually, Chad can't make it for breakfast," I say, savoring every syllable. I can be a bitch too.
    Veronica spits a mouthful of toothpaste out in Drea's sink, a speck of peppermint spooge landing against Drea's cheek.
    "Watch it!" Drea squeals, swiping the dribbles with a cotton ball.
    Veronica gets right up into Drea's face. "If I catch you and your loser friends flashing my dad again, you'll have me to answer to."
    "What are you talking about?" Drea asks.
    "That was my father last night outside your room," Veronica continues. "He was lcoking for my room, and un- fortunately found yours. Your room is the one on the ground floor, all the way to the right, facing the lawn, isn't it? Are you girls that hard up that you have to resort to middle-aged men?"
    "Is your father that hard up ihat he has to resort to peeping in the windows of teenage girls?"
    "Screw you," Veronica says "For your information, he works the late shift and had to swing by my room to pick up some keys. There wasn't anyon2 working the front desk."
    rerfume in Veronica's direcDrea
    squirts a few puffs of tion to ward her off. "Well, he oust have liked what