Trouble Magnet (10 page)

I rolled over and pointed to the spider. “See my new roommate?”

“Want me to get it for you?”

“No, he just sleeps.”

Mom leaned against the counter that ran along one side of my new room. She crossed her arms and looked up at me. “There's a sweet
girl under Stella's rough exterior, Calvin. I think she just needs to get to know us.”

“She doesn't talk much.”

“Give her time. She comes from a … well, a difficult situation. Her parents are struggling now. Her mom thought sending her here would help everyone, including me, and she's certainly right about that.”

“Okay.”

“You're old enough to take care of yourself now. But Darci needs someone at home while I'm at work.”

“Stella could do the garbage,” I offered. “That would free me up to cut the grass.”

Mom laughed, a real, deep laugh. She pushed herself away from the counter and reached up to squeeze my hand. “I just don't know what I'd do without your good humor, Cal.”

She kissed me good night and left.

I looked up at the spider. “What was so funny?”

T
he next morning, Sunday, I was jolted out of my dreams.

“Calvin!”

I squinted at my clock. Eight-fifteen.

“Calvin! Get in here this
minute!”

Mom didn't sound happy.

I slid off my bunk. I put on yesterday's
shorts and T-shirt and stumbled through the garage.

Mom stood in the kitchen with her arms crossed. “I told you to fix that lock on your door.”

Oops. “I … forgot.”

“Yes, you forgot, and now Stella is stuck in her room. What are you going to do about it?”

“Um, I can get it open.”

“So get to it!”

I ran to my old bedroom and knocked on the door. “Uh … Stella?”

“Unlock this door!”

“It's just supposed to pop open when you turn the knob.”

“Well, I'm turning and it's not popping. Your mom said you could get it open, so do it. I need to go to the bathroom.”

I tried the knob.

Locked, all right. “Uh … try turning and lifting at the same time.”

Stella huffed and grunted, then banged her fist on the door. “Get me out of here!”

“Wait. Be right back.”

I ran to my room, grabbed my pocketknife, and ran back. “Look by your feet.” I slid the knife under the door.

“What's this for?”

“Stick the blade in the slot on the thumb lock, then turn it. That's how I get it open.”

I could hear her working the knife into the doorknob. “You better not be joking around with me.”

“I'm not. Turn it like a key.”

“I'm not kidding, buster, if you're—” She banged the door again. “It! Doesn't! Work!”

“Okay, wait! I'll be back.”

“I've had enough of this, buster!”

I raced out to the garage. Boy, she was getting mean. Could I help it if the lock always got stuck?

“Did you get it open?” Mom asked as I ran through the kitchen.

“Not yet.”

“Where are you going?”

“Hammer and a screwdriver.”

“You're not going to break down the door, are you?”

“I'm going to take it off its hinges. Julio did that once.”

I started toward the garage.

“Wait,” Mom said. “The hinges are on the inside.”

I hesitated. “They are?”

“Of course they are. What good is a lock if they're on the outside? Anyone could just do what you're planning to do.”

“Oh.” I slumped against the doorjamb. “Then I think she's going to have to climb out the window.”

Mom put the palm of her hand to her forehead. “If you could just for once have shown a little responsibility and fixed that lock, we wouldn't be having this problem.”

“Sorry.”

Mom sighed. “Go tell her.”

Darci called as I passed her room. She was sitting in her bed rubbing her eyes. “What's all the noise?”

“Stella's stuck in her room. She has to climb out the window.”

Darci leaped out of bed. “I want to see!”

“Calvin!” Mom called from the kitchen.

“Yeah?”

“I have to leave now. I'm supposed to meet Ledward at Costco, and there's no way I can contact him. Get Stella out of that room, you understand?”

“Yeah, Mom. I'll get her out.”

“I'll be home sometime this afternoon. You and Darci do everything Stella tells you. She's in charge while I'm gone, is that clear?”

Great.

“Yeah, it's clear.”

The kitchen door banged shut. I heard the car start.

Then Julio showed up.

“Calvin,” he called from the front door. He cupped his hands around his eyes and looked through the screen. “Come out.”

I ran to the door. “Wait … I have to do something first.”

“I'll be out back on Darci's swing,” Julio said.

I crept up to Stella's door. “Stella?”

“What.”

“Um … you have to, uh, to climb out the window.”

Silence.

“Stella?”

“You did this on purpose, didn't you?”

“What? No!”

“You're going to pay for this.”

“But I didn't—”

“What's your favorite color?”

“What?”

“Color, your favorite color.”

“Blue?”

“I'll tell everyone to bring blue flowers, then.”

“Bring them to what?”

“Your funeral. When I get out of here, you're dead.”

D
arci followed me out the sliding patio door. The rusty chain squeaked as Julio slowly kicked back and forth over the muddy puddle beneath the swing. “Something going on?”

“Stella has to climb out the window,” Darci said.

Julio looked at me. “Lock stuck again?”

Stella was at the window, scowling.

“Calvin was supposed to fix it.”

“Hey, you!” somebody called. “Calvin Coco-dork.”

Tito and Frankie Diamond had pulled themselves up on the back side of our fence. Their heads and hands were all I could see.

“Go in the house,” I said to Darci. “Talk to Stella through the door.”

“Why?”

“Just go.”

Darci left, glancing back at Tito and Frankie Diamond.

Julio jumped off the swing.

“You and me still got business to settle,” Tito said.

“Why?” I said, which was probably the dumbest thing I could ever have said at a time like that.

Tito scoffed. “You owe me a new shirt, that's why… Oh, and I owe you a broken face.”

Tito pulled himself higher, as if he was going to jump over into our yard.

But he stopped when Stella banged the screen off the window. I turned to look back. Stella poked her head out, then pulled herself up and hung out over the windowsill on her gut.

I whipped back around to see if Tito was coming over the fence to get me. No. He was gaping at Stella.

I turned to Stella just in time to see her tumble headfirst out the window in her hot-pink shortie pajamas. She flipped and fell flat on her butt in the muddy grass.
“Ooof!”

I winced.

Stella staggered up and brushed herself off. Her face went bright red when she saw four boys staring at her.

No one peeped.

Stella glared rusty razors, mostly at me, then headed inside through the sliding patio door. I flinched when she slammed it shut.

“Holy bazooks,” Tito said. “Who was
that
?”

I didn't answer. I was busy wondering: How mean could Stella get? And who's going to kill me first? Tito or Stella?

“Hey!” Tito snapped. “I asked you a question. Who was that? Your sister?”

“No, uh … she—”

“She just moved in with them,” Julio said. “Her name is Stella.”

Tito grinned. “Stel-la,” he said, slow. “I like that name.”

Frankie Diamond dropped out of sight behind the fence.

Tito said, “Ten minutes, Coco-dork. Then I
come your front yard and we can finish our business. And tell Stel-la come out … after I mess you up I might ask her for go beach. Least you could do for me, ah?”

Tito let go and vanished.

Julio shook his head. “Hoo, glad I'm not you.”

“I'm dead.”

“Yeah, and you're dead again when you go in the house. Either way, you're history.”

I paced. “You think the army takes nine-year-olds?”

“No, but the undertaker does.” Julio laughed.

While Julio was enjoying his own bad joke, I ran to Stella's window and dropped over the sill into my old room. My pocketknife was on the floor by the door. I grabbed it and worked the blade into the slot on the knob. The lock popped. Jeese. That was easy. I opened the door and ran back to the window before I got caught in there.

Stella burst out the patio door seconds after
I tumbled from the window. She had a towel around her waist now and was looking for revenge.

Me and Julio took off to the front yard like spooked mice.