Fear Street 5 - The Fire Game (2 page)

Jill searched for Diane and Andrea, but they both had classes on the other side of the school. I'll bet Diane's really freaking out, Jill thought. If she was scared of a couple of lighters in the library . . .

The library.

Terry Ryan, one of the boys in her class, nudged her just then. "Look!"

he said. "The fire's in the library!"

Jill raised her eyes to where he was pointing and saw the smoke billowing out the second floor windows beside the library stacks. Immediately she realized what must have happened.

Two fire fighters, their faces dark with soot, were coming outside now, dragging a large, blackened trash basket. The contents of the basket had been doused with water, but tendrils of smoke still curled up from the charred mess.

It was the library trash can.

The one Andrea had dropped the burnt folder into.

"Hey, I didn't know it was still on fire," said Andrea. She sucked the rest of her root beer through a striped straw, then reached for a french fry from the double-order sitting in front of Nick. "Yuck, these are so salty! Hey, Nick, you ever consider just eating directly from the salt shaker?"

"If you don't like them, order your own," said Nick, pulling the plate away from her. "Besides, I thought you were on a diet." He always ordered doubles of everything but stayed as skinny as a stick.

"I've got to keep my strength up," cracked Andrea. "In case they arrest me for burning the school down."

"Lighten up, Andrea," said Max. "No one knows it was your fault."

"It was Nick's fault anyway," added Jill. "And Max's. Admit it, guys, you planned the whole thing so we wouldn't have the geography quiz."

"It worked too," said Max.

"Well, maybe you can do it again next week so I won't have to turn in my research paper," said Jill. "That's Wednesday at nine-forty."

"I couldn't believe all that smoke," said Andrea. "Just from one little wastebasket fire."

"Fires are so frightening," said Diane in a small voice. It was the first time she had spoken, except to order a Coke, since the five friends had gone into Pete's Pizza.

"What's your problem?" asked Max. "No one was hurt. There was no damage."

"There could have been," said Diane. She shuddered.

"You know," said Jill, "Diane's right. Fire can be a very scary--"

"Look!" said Diane suddenly, cutting her off. "Look who's here!"

Jill glanced up, half expecting to see the fire chief. The door had just swung open, and a tall, muscular boy stood framed in it against the setting sun. He was dressed in faded 501 jeans and a gray rugby shirt.

His thick, sandy hair curled above a broad, handsome face.

"Gabe! Over here!" Diane wriggled out of the booth and ran over to give him a big, friendly hug.

"Who's the new dude?" asked Max.

"Obviously a friend of Diane's," said Nick.

"She wasn't kidding," Andrea whispered to Jill, checking out the new arrival. "That guy is gorgeous."

Diane came back to the booth, leading Gabe by the arm. "This is my good friend Gabe Miller," she said, beaming. Her face had turned from serious to sparkling, and Jill was aware again of how pretty Diane was when she smiled.

Smiling herself, she felt a little shiver pass through her as her eyes met Gabe's.

He was the handsomest boy she had ever seen outside the movies, and his eyes were just as green as Diane had described--a clear bottle green, with a sparkling intensity almost like fire.

Gabe held her gaze a moment longer, then turned to each of the others, an ironic half smile on his lips. "How you doing," he said as Diane introduced each in turn.

Why did Jill have the feeling that Gabe didn't really want to be there?

"Hey--here's a chair," said Max. He pulled one over from an empty table.

Gabe turned the chair around so that its back was against the table; then he straddled it, facing the others. "Thanks," he said without glancing at Max. Instead he kept staring first at Andrea, then back at Jill, a slow secret smile on his face. "So this is where it's all happening," he said sarcastically.

"Come on, Gabe," said Diane. "Shadyside is okay. You're going to like it here. I promise."

"I don't know about that," said Gabe with a shrug.

"Diane said you're from Center City," said Andrea.

"Yeah?" said Gabe. "What else did she tell you about me?"

"She said you're into music," said Jill. "That you write your own songs."

"I fool around a little," said Gabe with the same strange smile.

"Really?" said Nick. "Maybe you could help me with the guitar."

"Oh, get real, Nick," said Andrea. "You only know two chords."

"Well, that's why I need help," said Nick. "You play guitar, Gabe?"

"It's one of my instruments," said Gabe.

"What're the other ones?" asked Max.

"I play lots of instruments," said Gabe, appearing to lose interest in the conversation.

"For heaven's sake, Max," said Andrea. "Gabe just got here. Give him a break."

"What I want to know is how come you're here now," Diane said to Gabe. "I thought you and your mom weren't coming till next week."

"Yeah, well, the people who bought our house wanted to move in early, so here I am."

"Not as exciting here as in the city, I guess," said Max.

"It's different," said Gabe.

"Actually, we had quite a bit of excitement today," said Jill. She found herself wanting to defend Shadyside, for no reason she could think of.

"Yeah?" said Gabe, gazing at Jill with interest.

"What Jill means," said Andrea, "is that we had a fire at school. It was really no big deal."

"Hey," said Nick. "I call it a pretty big deal since we got geography canceled."

"You mean you started the fire?" said Gabe. He sounded more interested.

"Well, sort of," said Max. "Nick set a folder on fire. It was just a goof. And Andrea tossed it in a wastebasket before the fire was out."

"That's it?" said Gabe. "You set a wastebasket fire?"

"Well, yeah," said Nick.

"And the fire trucks came and everything?"

"Yeah, they did," said Nick. "It was awesome."

For a long moment Gabe didn't answer, then he shook his head. "So what you're telling me," he said to Max, "is that the most exciting thing that's happened around here is a wastebasket fire that was an accident?"

"We told you it was no big deal," said Andrea. "But it was a little exciting."

"You know," Gabe went on, almost to himself, "it takes guts to set a fire deliberately."

"Yeah?" said Max. "You ever set one?"

Gabe didn't reply, just shrugged, a strange smile on his face, his green eyes staring into the distance.

Jill stared at him, confused. What is he talking about? she wondered.

Does he set fires deliberately? She stared at her friends, startled by the excitement on their faces.

Then she turned to Diane. Diane had her serious face on again. She was staring at Gabe, slowly shaking her head as if sending him a message.

What's going on? Jill wondered. Does Diane know more about Gabe than she wants us to know?

"Happy pizza day!" said Nick, carefully setting his overloaded tray down on the lunchroom table.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Jill. "Nick, you have six slices there!"

"It was all I could afford," Nick cracked. He opened his mouth and began to shovel in pizza.

Max, sitting next to Nick and across from Jill, was staring down at a big salad, while the three girls and Nick ate pizza.

"I'm so glad it's Friday," said Jill. "And not just because it's pizza day in the cafeteria."

"I second that!" said Andrea. She turned to Max. "What's your problem?

You usually have as many slices as Nick."

"I'm just not too hungry today," said Max, picking at his salad.

"He's trying to lose weight," said Nick. "To look more like Gabe."

"Lay off!" said Max, his ruddy face flushing even redder. "There's nothing wrong with trying to take care of yourself a little."

"If you want to look like Gabe, it's going to take a lot more than a salad," said Andrea.

"Well, I think it's just fine if Max wants to try to lose some weight,"

said Diane. "Good for you." Diane was always coming to the rescue of anyone who got teased too much.

"Speaking of Gabe," Andrea went on, ignoring her, "I haven't seen him all day. Is he in school?"

"His parents' furniture was supposed to be delivered today," said Diane.

"Maybe he stayed home to--Oh, there he is now." She stood up and waved so that Gabe would see her.

Gabe ambled over to the table and sat down next to Jill, favoring her with his slow smile. Jill felt flustered and unsure of what to say.

"I was just in the gym doing some extra crunches and chins," Gabe said.

"You know, the phys. ed. program here is pathetic. They must be trying to turn out couch potatoes."

"That's not true," said Nick. "We've got one of the best swimming programs in the state."

"Not to mention a great gymnastics program," said Jill. "You know, Andrea's going to be All-State this year."

"Is that right?" said Gabe. He gave Andrea an appreciative glance.

"Well, I don't know if I'll actually get to the championship," said Andrea. "But that reminds me. I've been meaning to ask you--"

"Let's not talk about that now," Diane interrupted. "Gabe, did your parents' stuff get delivered okay?"

"Yeah, the movers came first thing yesterday morning," said Gabe. "So I guess that means I'm stuck here in good old Shadyside."

"Oh, come on," said Jill, suddenly exasperated. "You haven't been here long enough to give Shadyside a chance."

"I've been here long enough to know the pizza's terrible," Gabe said, dropping a half-eaten piece onto his tray.

"What do you expect?" said Diane. "This is the school cafeteria. You ought to try the pizza at Pete's."

"I ordered in from there the other night," said Gabe. "Definitely second-rate."

"Well, all right, maybe the pizza doesn't live up to your big-city standards, but Shadyside has a lot of good things," said Nick.

"Like what?"

"Well, Dobie's has the best ice cream I've ever tasted," said Jill. "I bet even you would agree it's--excuse the expression--first-rate."

"Well, at least I won't starve here," said Gabe. "Just probably die of boredom."

"There's lots of stuff to do here too," Jill went on, wondering why she was spending so much effort on defending Shadyside. "We've got Red Heat, a great dance club, and the bowling alley, and--Well, okay, you've probably got things like that in Center City, but I'll bet you don't have as many outdoor places as we do."

"Wow! I dont know if I can take all the excitement," cracked Gabe.

"Oh, Gabe," said Diane and sighed. "Can't you even try to like it here?

If you just gave it a chance, I know you'd be happy."

"Hey, I'll try," said Gabe. "But it's not easy. Can you name one thing that Shadyside has that Center City doesn't?"

"We have a haunted street," said Max.

"You have a what?"

"Fear Street," said Jill with a little shiver. "But that's not exactly one of the great things about Shadyside."

"Fear Street? You have a street called Fear Street?"

"It was named after Simon Fear, one of the first settlers here," Max added. "You can still see the ruins of his mansion. Some of the houses on the street are supposed to be haunted."

"What is it?" asked Gabe. "Some sort of theme park?"

"No," said Andrea, for once sounding serious. "It's not a joke. At the end of the street there's a creepy old cemetery surrounded by woods.

Weird things have happened around Fear Street. People have disappeared there, and there've been a number of unsolved murders."

"Fear Street sounds interesting," said Gabe. "I'd like to see it."

"How about this weekend?" said Diane suddenly. "My parents just bought a cabin on the lake in the Fear Street woods. It's really beautiful out there."

"Your parents bought a haunted cabin?" asked Gabe.

"Of course not!" said Diane. "The woods are sort of creepy, but the cabin's cool. Let's do it! We could all go for a picnic."

"Nah," said Gabe. "I'd like to, Di, but I promised my folks I'd help them unpack this weekend."

"The whole weekend?" asked Andrea.

"I think so," said Gabe.

"Too bad we can't just get this afternoon off," said Max.

"Right," said Jill. "'I'm sorry, Mr. Molitor, I can't come to algebra because I have an emergency picnic to go to.'"

"Hey," said Gabe. "What if there really was an emergency?"

"What do you mean?" asked Jill.

"Well, remember what you told me last week, about starting a wastebasket fire? And how it got you out of a geography quiz?"

"That was just an accident," said Jill. She had a feeling she didn't want to hear what else Gabe had to say.

"Yeah, well, what if we set a real fire? One that's bad enough to cancel classes?" Gabe said it as casually as if he'd suggested going back for seconds on lunch.

"Oh, right," said Max. "Or why don't we call in a bomb threat to the principal?"

"Or--wait--I've got it," cracked Andrea. "Why don't we kidnap the principal?"

"Right," agreed Nick. "And bring him along on the picnic. He'd probably like the afternoon off too."

By now everyone was laughing.

"They're all good ideas," said Gabe, "but I vote for the fire."

"Me too," said Max. "We already know that works."

"Yeah, but who's going to set it?" said Andrea.

"Someone with guts," said Gabe. He was smiling a mocking smile, and Jill suddenly thought that he might be serious.

"Are you serious?" blurted out Max as if reading Jill's thoughts.

Gabe shrugged. "Didn't you just say you'd like to take the afternoon off?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't mean--"

"Didn't mean what?" said Gabe. "Would you like the afternoon off or not?"

"Well, sure I would. But--are you saying we should set a real fire?" Max looked dumbfounded.

"Not we," said Gabe. "You."

"Me?" Max's voice suddenly squeaked. "Why me?"