You Can't Come in Here! (9 page)

Emily snatched up her cell phone and started tapping out a text message to Hannah. She had no intention of telling anyone about what she had just seen, but she did want her other friends to know that Drew and Vicky would not be coming to the party.

HEY, HANNAH. THINGS DID NOT GO SO GOOD AT DREW AND VICKY'S. THEIR PARENTS REFUSED TO ALLOW THEM TO COME TO THE PARTY. THEY DON'T EVEN WANT ME TO HANG OUT WITH THEM ANYMORE.

Emily sent the message. A few seconds later she got a reply:

SORRY, EM. I KNOW YOU LIKED THEM (EVEN IF I DIDN'T!).

Emily wrote back:

THANKS. THE REALLY WEIRD PART IS THAT DREW AND VICKY DIDN'T EVEN SEEM TO MIND. GUESS I'VE SEEN THE LAST OF THEM. CU LATER. . . . E

Emily felt better that she had at least told Hannah something. She felt bad about lying to her, but she didn't know what to make of all this herself. She was not about to try to explain what she had seen to Hannah or Ethan or especially to her parents. She was too embarrassed about everything. She could say that she had gotten into a fight with Drew and Vicky. She could say that Mr. and Mrs. Strig didn't want their kids hanging out with her anymore. That would get her mom's back up. She would have a hard time believing that anyone wouldn't want their kids hanging out with her daughter.

Emily smiled at the thought of how loyal her mom was.
She began to feel a little better. The burden of trying to get Drew and Vicky to fit in with all her other friends, plus the pressure of getting the Strigs to meet the Hunters before the party, had obviously been weighing on her more than she realized. Having all that lifted off her shoulders felt like a real relief. Emily began to relax. She slid down, stretched out on her bed, and dozed off.

Bing-bong! Bing-bong!

Emily awakened to the sound of the doorbell ringing. She glanced at her clock and saw that it was eight fifteen. The sun had already set. She had slept the afternoon away.

Emily tiptoed down the stairs, dreading the two people she knew would be on the other side of the door. Franklin stood at the top of the stairs, hissing, his back arched.

“Emily, it's Vicky!” Vicky shouted as she began banging on the door.

“And Drew!”

“We finally talked to our parents, and it's okay. They want to meet your parents, and they're going to let us come to the sleepover party. Just open up and let us in.”

Emily ignored them.

They pounded on the door. “Emily! Emily!” they called urgently from the other side. “Let us in! Please let us in!”

Emily felt a small pang of guilt. After all this time, Drew and Vicky finally wanted to come over. They wanted to come to the sleepover, and now she was the one resisting.

Then the image of the coffins popped into her mind, and a cold chill ran down her spine.

No. The friendship was over. Whatever was going on in that house, she had no intention of being part of it any longer.

Finally, after a few minutes, the knocking stopped. Emily peeked through the curtains and watched as Drew and Vicky headed back across the street and into their house.

Emily walked back up to her room and grabbed a funny book from her shelf. She just wasn't in the mood to watch a scary movie as she waited for her parents to get home.

When dinner was finally ready at nine o'clock, Emily slunk down the stairs and into her seat. She didn't even complain that dinner was especially late tonight. Her
mother and father hadn't gotten home until just a few minutes before.

“You okay, honey?” her mom asked as Emily pushed some take-out pasta around her plate.

“I'm fine, Mom. I just don't think I'll be hanging out with Drew and Vicky anymore.”

“Did something happen today?” her father asked.

Emily took a moment to gather her thoughts. She knew she had to tell her parents something, but she wanted to make sure that it was the same story she had told Hannah.

The last thing she wanted was to get caught lying to the people she cared about the most.

“Their parents said that they didn't want them to come to the sleepover,” Emily said. “And the thing that upset me the most was that Drew and Vicky didn't seem to mind.”

“I'm sorry, honey. That's no fun,” her mom said. “But maybe someday Drew and Vicky will come around and you can all be friends again.”

“I doubt it,” was all Emily said in reply.

After dinner, in her room, Emily was listening to music, trying to put the unreal events of the day
behind her. Her cell phone sounded with a text message alert.

The message was from Vicky:

HEY, EM, WHAT'S GOING ON? HOW COME YOU DIDN'T ANSWER YOUR DOOR? . . . V

A few seconds later a message came in from Drew:

EM, MOM AND DAD SAID OKAY. WE CAN COME TO THE PARTY! . . . D

Emily sat with her thumbs poised above her phone's keys. A hundred things she wanted to say flashed through her mind. Finally she tapped out:

WHAT'S UP WITH THE COFFINS?

She stared at the message and decided not to send it. She really didn't want to have anything to do with Drew and Vicky, starting right now.

But another message came in just a few seconds later:

ARE U MAD AT US? . . . D

“How do I answer that?” Emily wondered aloud. “I'm not mad at them, that's not it. I just don't really want to be friends with people living in half a house filled with coffins and parents who exist only on tape.”

Emily knew that she had to send them some kind of
explanation. She typed out a new message:

I SAW THE COFFINS. PLEASE DON'T BOTHER COMING TO MY PARTY. YOU'RE NOT INVITED ANYMORE. LEAVE ME ALONE.

She sent the message.

A minute passed, then five, then ten. Emily dozed off an hour later, having received no reply from either Drew or Vicky. It was over. She'd let them know that she had seen the weirdness that was their life and wanted no part of it.

The following morning, Friday morning, the last day of school, Emily checked her phone. No messages. She could turn her full attention to the party, which was now only a day away.

On Saturday morning Emily woke up and looked at her alarm clock.

“Six thirty!” she groaned. “That can't be right.” She was wide awake, her brain buzzing.

On school mornings she could hardly drag herself out of bed at seven, and that was with her alarm set super loud. On weekends she barely budged before ten. But now here she was at six thirty on the first day of summer vacation, awake, alert, and positive that there was no way she was going to fall back asleep.

She threw off her covers and slipped out of bed. “Six thirty,” she muttered. “Even the birds don't set their alarm clocks for this early.”

Over breakfast, Emily ran through the checklist of
stuff she had to do that day. “Let's see—decorate the home theater, set up trays and bowls for munchies, go with Mom to pick up the pizza and ice cream.”

Emily's mom drove her to several stores. By the time they got back, Hannah and Ethan had shown up to help with the preparations.

“I am so excited that this is really happening!” Hannah cried, hugging Emily.

“So we have to turn this house into a jungle?” Ethan asked as he stepped inside and looked around.

“Not a jungle, Ethan,” Emily said, giving him a hug. He returned a halfhearted pat on Emily's back. “A forest. And not the whole house, just the home theater downstairs.”

“Hello, Hannah, Ethan!” Emily's mom said, stepping into the entryway. “Thank you so much for coming over to help Emily.”

“No problem, Mrs. Hunter,” Hannah said. “The three of us cooked up this idea together, and we're going to see it through as a team.”

“I came up with an idea for eating really gross food,” Ethan said proudly. Then his expression soured. “But the girls voted it down.”

“That's a shame, Ethan,” Emily's dad said, joining the group. “I know that's always my favorite part of camping out.”

“When did you ever camp out, Dad?” Emily asked skeptically.

“One time in college, when I locked my keys in my car and had to spend the night in a parking lot,” Mr. Hunter said defensively.

“That's what I figured,” Emily said, heading for the door leading down to the basement. “We've got work to do! See ya later, Dad.”

“Have fun making your jungle,” Mr. Hunter said.

“Dad! It's a forest!”

Hannah and Ethan followed Emily downstairs and they got right to work. In keeping with the theme of camping out, they took branches from trees that had recently been trimmed and hung them from the ceiling with clear fishing wire. They placed a few large potted plants around the room to act as the bushes. Emily then placed her collection of stuffed animals in and around the potted plants. The indoor wildlife included assorted bunnies, cats, and a polar bear.

“So, give me the details of what happened with Drew
and Vicky,” Hannah said as she carefully placed a stuffed cougar into a tall plant to make it look as if the cougar was hiding as it stalked its prey.

“You know, Hannah, I don't really know,” Emily said, feeling bad about continuing her fib. Maybe one day she would tell her friends the whole story. Or maybe not. What she did know was that if she told the whole story to them now, it would be all they could think about, and that would ruin the party for them. “I think it has a lot to do with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Strig refused to allow Drew and Vicky to come to the party. They had no interest in meeting my mom and dad. But the thing that made me realize that Drew and Vicky were just not worth all the trouble was the fact that they couldn't have cared less that they wouldn't be coming to the party. In fact, it seemed to me that they didn't care about whether or not we were even friends.”

“And who needs friends like that?” Ethan added as he placed the stuffed polar bear on the couch. “Especially when you have great friends like us who come over and help you set up a forest—er, complete with a polar bear.”

Emily giggled. “Thanks, Ethan,” she said. “You guys
are real friends. You'd never do anything to make me feel bad.”

A short while later the decorating was all finished.

“This looks amazing!” Emily said, glancing around her former home theater and current private campground. “Thank you, guys, so much for helping.”

“And now, I've got to scoot home and change for the party,” Hannah said as the trio headed up the stairs.

“Change?” Ethan asked, sounding truly baffled. “I have to change?”

Hannah and Emily both turned around and stared at Ethan. He was dressed in a shirt that might have once had sleeves and a collar, but now looked like it stayed on Ethan's body only because it was too tired and tattered to care enough to fall to the ground. He wore gym shorts—last year's gym shorts, which were so faded the school logo was illegible. On his feet he wore sneakers with no socks. His big toe peeked out of the side of the left sneaker.

“No,” Hannah said dryly. “You look fine.” Then she and Ethan headed for the front door. “See ya tonight, Em!”

When Hannah and Ethan had gone, Emily went
back downstairs. The room really did look like a small forest. She headed back upstairs to help her parents prepare the food. Soon everything was ready. Now came the hard part—sitting around waiting for the guests.

Six o'clock finally rolled around. The doorbell rang. Emily ran for the door, followed by her parents. It was Hannah, of course. Emily knew she would be the first guest to arrive.

“Welcome to the campout!” Emily cried, opening the door and giving Hannah a big hug, as if she hadn't seen her in months.

“Can you believe it's finally here?” Hannah squealed joyously. “This is going to be so great!”

“Nice to see you again, Hannah. Long time, no see,” Emily's mom joked.

“Come on in,” her dad added.