Pretty Little Monster E-Book

Johnson ID

• Herausgeber: ID Johnson
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

It’s all fun and games until a body washes up….

Beth Monroe just wants to make it through the summer baseball season without being the constant target of her brother Shane’s jokes, but he is relentless, and she’s ready to lock herself in her room and hide.
Until the new girl shows up.
Halley appears in small town Barryville like a ghost. No one knows where she came from or anything about her past, not even her last name. When she gives Beth a piece of unsolicited advice that,  “It’s what’s on the outside that counts,” Beth changes everything about herself.
By the time Beth realizes she’s becoming a monster, it might be too late, and Halley has already sunk her claws into Beth’s best friend Ryan—who might’ve been something more if Beth had opened her eyes a little earlier.
As Halley’s past catches up to her, Beth realizes there’s more to this mysterious girl than she realized. Can she stop Halley from revealing her true, monstrous nature to Ryan before it’s too late?

Leseprobe

Pretty Little Monster

ID Johnson

Copyright © 2018 by ID Johnson

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover by The Graphics Shed

Created with Vellum

For Barbara and Barbara. Thank you for all of your support!

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

A Note From the Author

Also by ID Johnson

Chapter One

The first baseball game of the season was always memorable, though this summer it would be mundane compared to what the rest of the hottest months of the year had to hold. Later, as they pulled the body out of the lagoon on the east side of the ball park, Beth Monroe would remember back to that first game, when everyone was innocent and her worst worry was whether or not her shorts made her thighs look big. By then, Beth would long for the simplicity of life in small town Barryville 1993, before everything came unraveled.

Before the new girl appeared, out of thin air, out of the shadows near the parking lot, out of a nightmare, Beth Monroe had thought her biggest problem was the fact that her older brother Shane, a senior, captain of the football team, and the shortstop on the Babe Ruth baseball team their dad coached, was an asshole who did everything he could to humiliate Beth to the point that not a single guy in their entire high school would ever dare ask her out because she was such a loser. But once this apparition appeared out of the shadows, the menial problems of high school life burned off like fog under a midday sun, and Beth longed for the days when avoiding ridicule was her priority instead of simply staying alive and accounting for all of her friends.

“Was that a ball or a strike?” Lexy Ellis adjusted her glasses and stared at the machine in front of her as if she’d never kept score before. Beth Monroe tried not to let out the harsh words crowding her tongue. It had been nearly a year since Lexy had operated the scoreboard for her while she kept score in the official scorebook, and it was bound to take a little time for the rust to shake off. Still, it wasn’t that complicated. If she’d just stop talking to Andi Jones and pay attention.

“It was a ball,” Andi chimed in, reaching over and setting the scoreboard to match Beth’s book. “Pay attention or old man Cooper’s going to yell at us again.”

“Old man Cooper’s going to yell at us anyway,” Beth reminded them, keeping her voice down so that the ump didn’t hear her. The set up was different this year; they were perched in a scorekeeper’s room above the concession stand, which in theory sounded like a good idea, but it actually made it more difficult to see. Sure, she had a good view of the entire infield, but it wasn’t so easy to see through the window if the ball was hit into the outfield, and forget about trying to catch it if anything important was happening in the dugouts.

“Beth!”

She hopped to her feet, sticking her head out of the window, straining to reach over the table in front of her and look almost straight down. Her dad’s face was only about five feet below her, but at this angle, he wouldn’t be able to tell she’d heard him otherwise, and she wasn’t about to yell out the window at him. “Yeah?”

“We’re putting Michael in at left field next inning. Moving Robby to right, and Tom’s going to pitch.”

“Got it.” She smiled at her dad as he nodded and then resumed her seat as Richard Monroe headed off to give the scorekeeper for the other team the changes. Beth made note of them in the scorebook immediately and checked she hadn’t missed a pitch. “Strike, right?”

“Of course it was a strike,” Andi groaned, as if she had any stake whatsoever in the game. “Joe just stands there and watches them fly by.”

It was true—Joe was one of the worst players on the team, and Beth was surprised her dad hadn’t taken him out. But it was only the fourth inning, and they were up by six. She knew her dad tried to be as fair as possible with playing time without purposely putting the team in a situation where they might lose. And they were playing Silverton, which was good practice for some of the larger towns in the area, ones that might actually give her hometown of Barryville a run for it. Summer league had different rules for who could play, and her dad had recruited players from several other small towns that weren’t big enough to have their own summer league Babe Ruth teams. A lot of these kids would be back on the farm in the morning, and to her dad, that meant work ethic. And muscle. Beth was well aware that muscle was what had her friends volunteering to help her out with the score, even as Kyle watched strike three fly by and old man Cooper called him out, and Lexy reluctantly reached for the microphone to announce the next batter, a job all three of them hated.

Before she said anything to the crowd of thirty or so, she asked, “It’s Sammy, right?”

Beth nodded, trying not to make a big deal out of the fact that the most beautiful specimen known to humanity was about to take his turn at the plate. Lexy snickered, though. She was well aware of Beth’s three-year-long crush. As her friend flipped on the mic, Beth held her breath. Surely, Lexy wouldn’t say anything embarrassing.

“Now batting, number five, Sammy Burk.” She flipped the mic back off before she started giggling. Despite having no amplification, the space between themselves and home plate was relatively small, and Beth didn’t miss the inquisitive look Sammy flashed in their direction before her dad shouted at him to keep his eye on the ball. The batter adjusted his uniform and placed one foot in the batter’s box and turned to check with the third base coach, which ordinarily would’ve been her dad if they weren’t so far ahead, and he wasn’t making roster changes, and then Sammy turned to face the Silverton pitcher.

“Way to go, Lexy,” Beth muttered, recording the first pitch as a ball.

“What? I didn’t say what I wanted to say.” She had an evil grin on her face as she tossed her curly reddish-brown hair over her shoulder and pushed the switch for the first ball down on the machine before her.

“Don’t ask what that was,” Andi warned her, and Beth straightened her ponytail before returning her stare to the batter. Sammy caught the outside of the ball with the tip of his bat and sent it over the fence behind and to his left, and Fred Cooper stated the obvious, that it was a foul ball.

“He is cute.” Lexy’s voice was quiet—for once. “It’s just… come on, Beth. Aren’t you wasting your time?”

Beth pulled her eyes off of the blond with the bat, her mind lost in his hazel eyes. Not that she could see them right now as he was looking the other direction, staring down the pitcher, no doubt. But the memory of how they’d sparkled the last time she spoke to him was fresh in her mind. She could stare into them all day if only she could get him to look at her that long….

“How do you figure she’s wasting her time?” Andi asked, jumping to Beth’s defense. She had long brown hair, a few shades darker than Beth’s, and her bangs were still perfectly fanned into a flower shape, like Lexy’s, which Beth thought was crazy since it had to be over a hundred degrees even after the sun had set. Beth’s hairspray had given out long ago, leaving her hair a mess. While there was a small fan in the back of the booth, they couldn’t move it any closer without it drowning out the game. It was a typical Missouri summer—sweltering and full of mosquitos, and Beth felt like a sweaty blob with her hair a mess and her makeup practically melted off.

Lexy continued with her argument, and Beth tried not to get sucked into her negativity. “I mean, he’s one of the best looking boys in school. He’s a year older than you, Beth, and everyone knows he has asked Amber James out more times than one person can count. She’s… different than you.”

Beth turned and glared at her friend, but the crack of the bat had her eyes readjusting as Sammy connected, sending the perfect pitch flying toward the fence in center field. Clearly, the opposing team hadn’t been sprinting in practice because it seemed to take forever for the Silverton field man to get himself to where the ball had landed. By then, Shane, who’d doubled before Kyle came to bat, was jogging into home, and Sammy was rounding second.

Holding her breath, Beth set her pencil aside and watched the third base coach, one of the other dads, wave Sammy to third. Finally having retrieved the ball, the center fielder, whose arms were as big around as barrels, rocketed the ball to his cutoff man. It was going to be close.

Sammy slid into third, a plume of dust clouding Beth’s view as the third baseman, a lanky guy whose curly hair stuck out around his cap in every direction, reached in for the tag. The ump was right there, and gave the signal as he shouted, “Safe!” and Beth cheered, along with everyone else in attendance. Of course he was safe. She’d never doubted it for a moment.

Standing up and dusting his hands across his white and navy blue striped uniform, Sammy took his hat off, ran his hand through his blond hair, and recomposed himself. For a second, Beth thought maybe he was looking at her as his eyes weren’t quite fixed on the batter, but then they drifted back down, and Lexy breathed in deeply before announcing Tom Black at the bat.

“We scored,” Andi reminded Lexy as soon as she turned the mic off.

“So?” Lexy asked, confused. “I know.”

“It’s nine to two now.” Andi reached across Lexy and changed the scoreboard, and someone down in the bleachers shouted up a snide, “Thank you.”

“Gotta make sure you’ve got the score right,” Beth reminded her friends, trying to keep the annoyance out of her own voice. Her book was right, she’d made sure of that, and now she had a few moments to stare at Sammy while he attempted to trick the pitcher into thinking there was a chance he might try to steal home. Of course, that wouldn’t happen without a wild pitch, but it was fun to watch him take a huge lead off the bag and then scramble back each time the pitcher looked in his direction.

“Sorry,” Lexy muttered in response to her comment. “I guess I should stop staring down the third base line and do my job.”

“Hey!” Beth said turning to look at her friend. “Scorebook is right.”

Lexy laughed, loudly, and Beth shook her head. “Whatever, Lexy. We all know that you’re not here to keep me company. You know, I’ll see Michael at practice tomorrow at the batting cages, and you won’t be there. Maybe I’ll mention….”

“If you do, you’d better never put me on the microphone again.” Lexy’s eyes were narrow behind her glasses, and Beth grinned, making sure her friend knew she was just joking around. She wouldn’t say anything to Michael Splinter unless Lexy wanted her to, even though of all the guys on the team, he was about the only one who ever had anything to say to her, except to ask for a piece of gum. The rest of them seemed to think of her as Shane’s lame little sister.

There had been that brief exchange with Sammy, though, at practice a few days ago. He’d been nice to her, and she’d appreciated being spoken to as a person who had been around baseball her whole life and had some knowledge of how the sport was played. He’d asked her who she thought was going to win the World Series this year, and when she’d said the Blue Jays, he’d been surprised, noting he’d assumed she’d say either the Royals or the Cardinals. She hadn’t had time to go into her thinking, but she hoped she’d have a chance to talk to him about it again soon. Maybe after the game. Tonight.

“It’s four hundred degrees in here,” Lexy groaned, clearing the scoreboard at the end of the eighth. It had looked as if Barryville might win in a mercy rule in the sixth, but Silverton just kept hanging on. Now, with the score twelve to four, it seemed Lexy was ready for Silverton to throw in the towel and chalk it up to a bad opening game.

“When do they play again?” Andi asked.

“Thursday. In Mineral Mines.” Road games were either awesome or horrible. Her dad almost always let her take a friend, and this time of year Beth was very popular with the other girls in the group of four or five she hung out with during the school year. Everyone wanted to ride with her in the off chance one of the cute boys from the team would need a ride, which was usually the case. Sometimes her mom’s mini-van would be full of ball players, and since Shane had to sit in the front on longer trips due to his car sickness, it often meant an uncomfortable ride for Beth next to one of the guys in the middle seat. At least if she had a friend with her, she could sit in the way back and have someone else alongside her who likely didn’t mind squeezing into the back with a guy they hardly knew. The town was small, but Shane was two years older than her, and most of these guys were his age and had heard for the last fifteen years that Beth Monroe was a brainiac, a nerd, and a total loser, thanks to her brother’s propaganda. Few of them wanted to sit in the back next to her….

“Beth, did you hear me?”

Andi was literally jostling her arm, and Beth had to check the scoreboard against her book, not sure if she’d recorded the last few pitches, before she said, “Uh, no. What?”

“I said, who are you taking?”

“Oh, right. I… I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait and see if we have an extra seat.”

“I call dibs,” Andi said, staring at Lexy like a fight might break out if she dared to toss her own name into the hat.

“Okay.” Beth cleared her throat. Sammy was playing first base, and her eyes lingered there a little too long. She thought somehow he had noticed, even though she realized the angle from first up to the booth had to be a difficult one. It was like he could feel her looking at him.

“That’s not fair,” Lexy muttered. “I call the next away game, then.”

The girls were discussing whose turn it was to go with her, but Beth was too busy staring at Sammy to even notice. She knew he wouldn’t need a ride. His dad was a member of the coaching staff, and his parents never missed a game. One good thing about the booth was that Mrs. Burk couldn’t possibly notice how intently Beth was staring at her son. She was an elementary school teacher, known for her sternness, and her husband, who owned a furniture store in town, was a bit kooky. They were an odd couple, and one of the first things Beth’s mom had said when she, unfortunately, became aware of her daughter’s crush was, “Think about what you’re marrying into,” and rolled her eyes. Evelyn Monroe was as honest as the day was long, and while Beth rarely got along with her mother, she had to give her a little credit for that one.

A car drove by blaring “Whomp, There It is,” causing the batter to zone out a bit, and Beth recorded another strike as the first base coach screamed at him to keep his head in the game.

“I love this song,” Lexy declared, flipping the switch on the scorekeeping machine. “Whomp! Fat ass! Whomp Fat ass!” she sang, rocking her head back and forth.

Beth looked up from the scorebook and caught Andi’s eyes across their friend. They both broke out laughing hysterically, and Lexy looked up, confused. “What?”

“Do you seriously think that’s what they’re saying?” Andi asked as soon as she could breathe.

Beth reached over and cleared the board as the hitter headed back to the dugout, but it was too late to avoid Mr. Cooper’s wrath. “Ladies, pay attention, or we’ll have to find someone who can!”

“Sorry, Mr. Cooper!” Beth shouted back down to him. Normally, she’d show him the book was correct, but that was impossible now that she was ten feet above the ground. While her friends might be off-task or distracted, Beth had been keeping score since she was nine years old and had it down. Rarely did she make a mistake, and when she did, it was usually Sammy related….

Andi had schooled Lexy in the correct lyrics of the new hit by Tag Team while Beth appeased the plumber by day, umpire by night who still didn’t seem happy with their performance. Luckily, it was the final inning, and they’d all be out of there soon enough. She was ready to get in the minivan and crank up the air conditioning, not that she wouldn’t have to stand around and wait for her dad to load everything up and go over the game with his assistant coaches for a half an hour before he finally headed home. She desperately wished her dad would just let her take the car. She’d had her permit for a few months. But her parents would never let her drive the car by herself until she was fully licensed. Next year, her dad had told her. But then, next year her brother would be in college. This was likely their last summer for Babe Ruth League ball. A pang of sadness hit the pit of her stomach, and her eyes automatically searched for Sammy. This was the summer to make something happen. There wasn’t much of a chance her dad would coach next year without Shane on the team.

Once the game was over, Beth collected her book and her extra pencils, made sure all of the electronics were switched off, and the three of them headed down the ladder, Lexy in the middle so she didn’t fall. Besides her creative interpretation of song lyrics, she was a bit of a klutz, and her friends naturally took precautions to keep Lexy safe in these sorts of situations.

A breeze greeted them when Beth’s feet hit the concrete, and while she enjoyed the cooling effect after being trapped in the stuffy scorekeeper’s box for almost three hours, the fact that it was blowing in from the east meant it smelled a lot like raw sewage.

“God, who ever thought it was a good idea to put a lagoon next to a public park,” Andi noted, shaking her head as Beth turned to secure the ladder back into the floor of the booth. Beth knew it was because a branch of Muddy Creek meandered its way along the east side of the park, making it a logical place to build the lagoon, and she thought it had been there longer than the baseball diamonds, but she didn’t feel the need to get into that all right now.

“At least there’s wind,” Lexy reminded them. “Maybe I’ll just sit down here on the bleachers next time there’s a home game.”

“Thanks.” Beth shook her head and rounded the concession stand, knowing Lexy was just kidding. Besides, the group of preppy girls sitting on the bleachers was enough to make Lexy change her tune even if sitting near them would mean avoiding the warmer temperatures in the booth.

The gaggle of girls had been impossible to see from the scorekeeper’s perch, but Beth had had a feeling all along that they were there. She managed a small smile as she and her three friends skirted around them. None of the girls even acknowledged them, which wasn’t surprising. Even Shane’s girlfriend didn’t speak to her, though, to give her the benefit of the doubt, she wasn’t looking in Beth’s direction. Beth decided not to hold it against her since ordinarily Tiffany Parker would at least say hi. Although, with those other girls around, there was a chance she might not have. Maybe Beth was just as embarrassing to Tiffany as she was to Shane.

Beth opened the door of the minivan and dropped the scorebook on the dash. It was too hot to get inside while her dad was still packing up gear. She saw Shane shove a bat in one of the bags before abandoning the job to one of the other guys and sauntering toward Tiffany. Beth prayed there would be no PDA as that always made her stomach roll.

“Gross,” Andi muttered, leaning back against the sliding door as Beth closed the passenger side. “Tiffany’s okay, but those other girls are so…”

“Slutty?” Lexy finished.

“I was going to say rude, but sure.” Andi shook her head.

“Mindy Caraway, Jessica Swan, Amber James, and what’s the other girl’s name?” Lexy asked, adjusting her glasses, like that would somehow help.

“Oh, come on, Lex. That’s Carly Lyles. She’s Amber’s best friend,” Andi reminded them, not that Beth didn’t already know exactly who each of them was. Wearing cut-off shorts and T-shirts, their makeup perfect, like they hadn’t been sweltering in the same summer heat as the rest of them, not a hair out of place, the girls greeted Shane and told him what a great game it had been. Beth bet none of them even knew the rules. She shook her head, folding her arms and trying not to stare.

“I should’ve brought more hairspray,” Andi mumbled, and Beth agreed, pulling a loose lock of hair in front of her nose and whiffing the comforting scent of Salon Selectives.

“We should go help your dad,” Lexy suggested, brushing her hair off of her shoulder.

Beth turned to see Michael talking to her dad as they finished packing up the last of the bats. “I think they’re done.”

Lexy sighed loudly. “Next time, we should go right over and help your dad.”

“Don’t you think that would look a little obvious?” Andi asked.

“Hey, maybe that’s what we need. Clearly, we don’t look like them… but we’re pretty enough.” Lexy nodded her head once, for emphasis.

“Sure. If my parents could afford to buy my entire wardrobe from The Limited and I only weighed ninety-five pounds.” Andi looked down at her own figure and shook her head.

“You’re beautiful, Andi,” Beth assured her friend. While both of her friends were a little curvier than the other girls, that didn’t make them unattractive. They certainly weren’t overweight. Beth knew how they felt, though. It didn’t matter that she was a perfectly healthy body weight, maybe even a bit on the skinny side. Her brother loved to make jokes about her weight, always had, and it was easy to let those negative thoughts sink into her head. She was sure her friends had heard similar comments from their siblings, or in Andi’s case, possibly her own parents who tended to think mean was funny.

Before anyone could say more, Beth realized Sammy was headed past them, toward the group of giggling girls on the bleachers. She inhaled, filling her lungs, thinking this may be her last breath. The scent of perspiration mingled with the same cologne he always wore, though she wasn’t sure what it was, and Beth held on to it, certain he wouldn’t notice them lingering in the shadows of her mother’s Caravan.

So when he stopped walking, her knees buckled a little bit. “How’d you like the scorekeeper’s booth? I bet it’s hot up there.”

Beth stared, the breath she’d inhaled now choking her. Even in the dim light, his eyes still seemed to be twinkling. He had a smear of dirt on the side of his handsome face, just above his perfectly squared off jaw, and the idea that she could reach up and rub it off had her grasping her hands together to prevent any ridiculous behaviors. Not that she could control her limbs right now since she had some sort of paralyses all of a sudden.

A subtle but sharp shove in the middle of her back from Andi made her gasp. “Uh, yeah. No, I mean… we had a fan.”

“Really?” He folded his arms and looked down at her, shaking his head. “Couldn’t hear it.”

“It was across the room.” Beth thought she should smile or find something interesting to say. Instead, she stared at him, like he was an insect and not the guy she’d been dreaming about for years.

“It was a thousand degrees up there.” Lexy inserted herself into the conversation. “It was like keeping score on the sun.”

Sammy made a noise like he was trying not to laugh, and Beth heard Andi mutter something under her breath that sounded like, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Beth’s eyes flickered over to Lexy and then back to Sammy, wondering if he’d acknowledge her friend’s ridiculous statement. He took a step forward so that he was only a few inches from Beth now, and she felt her heart lock up on her. Almost in a whisper, he said, “Well, you still smell really good,” and then turned and walked away before she could even begin to formulate a response. By the time she realized she should’ve said, “So do you,” or “Thanks,” or “Will you be my boyfriend?” he was over near the bleachers inserting himself into the conversation with the popular girls, one of which, Carly Lyles, was actually hugging him, right there in the park. Beth didn’t know if she should rejoice that he’d spoken to her or storm across the field and punch Carly right in the face.

“What the hell?” Andi asked, shoving Lexy. “Why did you say that?”

“What? It worked. He spoke to Beth, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he was already speaking to Beth. You just made it sound like she was a sweaty pig.”

The argument continued, even though her dad was approaching the van and the girls piled in. Shane had his own car there, and who knew when he might head home. Unlike Beth, he had no curfew. Their mom insisted Beth had to be home by 11:00 unless she was with her dad, of course. Shane could stay out later because, as Evelyn put it, he, was “less likely to get into any trouble.” Beth had no idea how her mother had come to that conclusion since Beth was a straight A student who still went to church with her family most Sundays and didn’t even curse in front of her parents, but Evelyn Monroe was a tough nut to crack.

“Well, that was a good game,” Richard noted, starting the van. Beth’s friends concurred, but her eyes were still glued to Sammy. He had his arm around Carly, and the whole group was laughing. Her dad clarified that both of the girls needed dropped off at Andi’s house since Lexy was staying over. Andi confirmed that he’d remembered correctly, and he pulled out of the parking spot, causing Beth’s head to swivel back to reality.

Chapter Two

The stairs creaked beneath her feet as Beth felt her way along the bannister, a can of Dr. Pepper in her free hand. Whoever decided it was a good idea to put the light switch at the top of the stairs had been an idiot, and while Beth realized said idiot probably died over a hundred years ago, she really wished the people who’d renovated their house right before they bought it five years ago would’ve considered fixing this problem with the light.

And put a bathroom on the second floor.

She reached the top step and fumbled for the cord that hung from the ceiling in the narrow hallway that ran past Shane’s closet of a bedroom to hers. Finding it, she gave it a tug and then breathed a sigh of relief at having reached the top without tripping and tumbling to her demise. Of course, the way the stairway curved, she would’ve probably hit a wall before she broke her neck, but reaching the top of the stairs always felt like a feat that had been conquered.

Shane was likely still sitting on the bleachers with his girlfriend and her gaggle of groupies. Or they might’ve gone downtown to circle the square endlessly. Since it was only 10:30, he probably wouldn’t be home for a few more hours. Beth was glad his bedroom door was closed, though. Since he had absolutely no windows in his room, it was pitch black in there, and Beth didn’t even like to walk by it. The room wasn’t even a fourth of the size of her bedroom, but he seemed to like it that way and hadn’t protested at all when her parents had given her the big bedroom in the front of the upstairs, with three windows and plenty of room for all of her junk. She imagined it had more to do with the pink wallpaper than herself being the favorite of the older children, but Beth didn’t care. For once in her life, she’d gotten a leg up on Shane.

She flipped her own bedroom light switch on and then went back to turn off the hall light. If it was up to her, the light would always be on up here so no one died summiting the stairwell, but it wasn’t her decision, and Evelyn was very particular about wasting things—electricity, food, the opportunity to chastise her oldest daughter. Besides, leaving it on would mean Shane wouldn’t have to transverse the stairs in the dark the way that Beth just had, and that really wouldn’t be fair, would it?

The radio sprang to life as she turned the knob, and Whitney Houston’s beloved, “I Will Always Love You,” poured through the speakers. It was hot up here, despite the air conditioner since the house only had one unit, and the cool air tended to pool downstairs, but with the help of her ceiling fan, at least she could breathe. Sometimes Beth would close her vent and open all three of the windows, but she decided to stand right below the vent for a few minutes and hope that at least her armpits would dry out that way. She’d had no idea just how sweaty she was until she’d caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the bathroom. Thank God when she’d spoken to Sammy she was standing in the shadows.

The pitter-pattering of rocks against her window tore her mind away from her favorite baseball player, and a smile broke out across Beth’s face. She paused at the radio to turn it down a little bit before flying to the window on the north side of her house and pulling up the shade. Through the glass, she could see her neighbor’s familiar face, and her smile somehow managed to widen. He was replacing the storm window he’d had to remove in order to toss rocks at her window.

Beth’s window stuck a bit, but she managed to yank it open. All three of the windows in her room were low to the ground and swung in, rather than pushing up like normal windows. “Hey, there,” she shout/whispered, plopping down cross-legged on the carpet as the night air cooled her even more than the AC had done.

“Hey, there yourself. How was the baseball game?”

Ryan Wilson was only two months older than Beth, and they had been in the same grade-level since starting kindergarten a decade ago. But it was only when Beth’s parents had bought this house right next to his that they’d become such good friends. While both of their houses were fairly large and on big lots, for some reason, they hugged the property line here, and Ryan’s bedroom window was less than five feet from her own. Since Shane had no windows, and her parents’ and baby sisters’ rooms were downstairs on the other side of the house, it didn’t seem to bother anyone just how neighborly the two teens could be. Her folks had no idea they spent many evenings talking to each other over the sliver of yard, and Beth was sure that Karen and Justin Wilson were just as oblivious to the arrangement since they practically kept Ryan in a bubble.

“The game was okay.” She managed a smile, though she knew he could see right through it.

Ryan’s window had a built in seat, and he dropped onto it now. He had always been tall, but for the first time, Beth noticed he seemed to have grown a foot in the last few months. He had been lanky as well, though she noted he was filling out this summer. Her dad had noted on more than one occasion it was too bad he couldn’t play basketball. “He’d make an excellent point guard,” Richard had said whenever he caught a glimpse of Ryan coming home from church earlier in the year.

“Just okay?” Ryan asked, running a hand through his sandy blond hair. It was a lot darker than Sammy’s, and Beth wondered what it might be like if Ryan ever got to spend any time outside. Would the sun bleach it so that he looked like a surfer dude, or would it say the same dirty blond color regardless?

“Uh, yeah.” She realized she wasn’t paying attention, but she was a little surprised her mind hadn’t lingered longer at the thought of Sammy. “I mean, it was hot as hell up in the new scorekeeper’s box, and Lexy and Andi were distracting as usual.”

Ryan laughed. He knew Lexy and Andi well, though not like he knew Beth. “What’s a scorekeeper’s box?”

“Oh, right.” Beth realized he’d have no way of knowing they’d added a booth for the scorekeepers above the concession stand since he hadn’t left his house since school ended two weeks ago. She explained the set up to him, and he listened intently, glad to have any news of the outside world. “How are you feeling?” she asked, trying not to spend too much time talking about herself, attempting to avoid any questions about Sammy or the other baseball players.

“I feel good,” Ryan assured her. “I mean, trapped, of course, but… hey, I get to go to the doctor on Thursday, so that’s something.”

“At least you get to leave the house.” Beth smiled, hoping it looked cheerful enough. “Is it Dr. Keller or do you have to go to St. Louis?”

“My dad’s actually taking me to a new specialist, one in Kansas City,” Ryan explained. “He heard of some new… medication. It’s supposed to make the risk of endocarditis less likely or some shit. I don’t know.” He shrugged, and Beth got the impression he just didn’t want to talk about it. There was a slim chance Ryan didn’t actually know exactly what the medication would do for his condition.