Beth’s mind was in the clouds once again as she walked to her house. The fading sun left slightly cooler temperatures in its wake, and Beth was walking faster than she had on her way to her grandmother’s. It wasn’t until a loud banging sound caught her attention that she realized she was walking past Phoebe’s place.
Normally, she would’ve avoided this block, but she hadn’t been looking exactly where she was going, and now it was too late, as she was just about right in front of the old Victorian. The banging was the lid of a trash can, however, and when Beth peered into the shadows cast by the large building over where the garbage receptacles were located, she could hardly believe her eyes.
It was Halley, digging through one of the trash cans. Beth watched, her mouth hanging open but not making a sound, as she noticed Halley pull something out of the trash and slip it into the pocket of her jean shorts. Though Beth couldn’t tell what it was, she could see it was small, and it seemed to make a jingling noise when Beth first picked it up, like maybe she was purposely rattling whatever it was before she dusted her hands off and headed back to the house.
Halley peered around for a moment, clearly looking to see if anyone was watching her. Beth dodged behind a nearby tree, holding her breath. She could see Halley pause, going up on her tiptoes to look in the direction where Beth was hiding. There was nothing she could do now except for pray that she wasn’t detected. If she’d announced herself to begin with, maybe Halley wouldn’t have thought it odd she was watching her, but now, she’d been too sneaky, and if Halley saw her, she’d have no way of explaining herself.
“Hey! Get back in here!” she heard an older woman shout. “Olive needs her britches changed!”
“I’m coming, Aunt Phoebe,” Halley yelled back, and Beth sucked in a mouth full of hot air, hoping Halley couldn’t hear it. The other girl kept walking, and once she was sure the coast was clear, Beth slowly backed up the way she’d come, thinking it was the best way to avoid being seen. She crept back down the block and then circled wide, the way she’d intended to go home in the first place, so that she was far away from Phoebe’s place and soon on her own street.
Once Beth could see her house, she broke into a sprint. She couldn’t believe that Halley was actually living at Phoebe’s place! That she was Phoebe’s niece! She wondered if Ryan knew any of that. She had to let him know. Running through the front door, she ignored her mother’s cries and took the stairs two at a time, not concerned with tripping on the turns in the waning light.
“Keep it down!” Shane shouted from his room as Beth sprinted down the hallway.
“Why are you even here?” she called, thinking he’d be over at Tiffany’s on a Saturday night. They usually hung out alone together for a while before they went out.
“None of your damn business,” he replied. “Just shut the hell up!”
Beth decided it was best to ignore him. She shut her bedroom door and immediately flew over to the window, pulling up her blind and opening it up. It took her a second to get the storm screen off, but she managed. She looked around for something to throw at Ryan’s window since she didn’t have an aquarium. She found some pennies in her old piggy bank and began to toss them across, careful not to throw them too hard since she’d never done this before, but she didn’t want to alert anyone who might be downstairs on this side of the house.
He didn’t answer. A glance at the clock told her she’d have to hurry if she was going to be ready when Carly pulled up. Beth groaned in frustration and tossed a few more pennies across the way but then gave up, rushing to get her costume on. Once she was satisfied that she looked the right part, she gave Ryan a few more tries. When Carly’s horn blurted out it was time to go, Ryan was still either ignoring her or not home. Beth assumed it was probably the former. With a heavy heart, she put the screen back on and shut the window but left her blind up as a reminder that if she didn’t get a chance to talk to him while they were all hanging out, she’d need to tell him when she got home.
As she hurried downstairs, Beth contemplated what to do with this information. Ryan was right; if the other girls knew that Halley was related to Phoebe, that she was living there, it could destroy her reputation, especially if Beth painted it in the right light. She wasn’t sure she’d crossed over to the dark side far enough to do something so hurtful, but it was an interesting position to be in. Regardless of who else she chose to tell, she felt compelled to let Ryan know. There was just something that wasn’t right about all of this. She had never trusted Halley, but now, the realization that they had no idea who she was or what she was capable of was terrifying
Tyler wouldn’t be showing up that night with a Jeep full of beer, and most of the kids got bored hanging out on the square, talking, and listening to music, by about 10:00. When Halley and Ryan still hadn’t shown up a few hours into their excursion, Beth contemplated who to ask about their absence. She’d already learned from a heartbroken Tiffany that Shane was actually grounded for two weeks, something Beth could hardly believe. She’d pretended like she was already aware of the situation, but it had been hard. How had her dad finally convinced her mother to pull back on the reins a little bit? Maybe they’d realized Shane was completely wasted again the night before when he came in.