Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen (26 page)

Grams held my arm. “It was just a dream.”

I was still panting. My eyes were darting all around. It felt so…
real.

“What was it?”

“Oh!”

“Tell me!”

“I was, um, I was stuck in an elevator…” I didn't want to tell her it was the Heavenly Hotel's elevator, but that's what it was, clear as day. “With Heather… and her friends.”

“Oh,” she laughed. “That
was
a nightmare.”

I was having trouble catching my breath. I felt so claustrophobic. It was like I was still trapped in the elevator with them. I couldn't run, and they were all over me. Hissing. Clawing. Yanking my hair.

Grams sat down beside me. “Sweetheart, you look white as a ghost. It was just a dream…”

“I know.” I got up and paced around. I couldn't seem to shake the feeling of… terror.

“Did something happen to make you dream about her? Is she causing you trouble at school again?”

I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself together. I hadn't told Grams what had happened after school because I knew she'd have a fit and maybe even call the school. But I was so out of sorts from my dream that I wasn't thinking fast enough to just say, Nah. Everything's cool. And then she noticed my neck. “Samantha? How'd you get those scratches?”

“Uh…” I was still wiped out from my dream and couldn't seem to think of a single Grams-worthy excuse. So after blinking at her a minute, I just gave in and said, “Heather happened to my neck. Actually, Monet did.” Then I told her the whole story—how I was listening to a CD, how they ambushed me, how she pinned me down and tried to steal my horseshoe.

“Your horseshoe? Why your horseshoe?”

“Because she thinks it's bringing me good luck.”

“But Samantha, that's ridiculous. To go through all that for a lucky charm? What am I missing?”

“Well… Casey gave it to me.”

“Ohhhh,” she said.

“But it's more than that. You should have heard her when she attacked me. She said I ruined her birthday— that I
stole
her birthday—and that Mom is now stealing her dad.”

“What?”

“See? She's
losing
it. She said her dad is all ‘enchanted' by Mom.”

Grams shook her head. “That girl is poisoned by jealousy. And she
attacked
you.” She stood up. “I'm going to call the police!”

“Grams, Grams, whoa, whoa! The police have already been called.”

“And…?”

“And they're not going to file any charges or anything against me.”

“Against
you?
Why on earth would they file charges against
you?”

I was starting to feel a whole lot better. Talking to Grams was like finding a way out of the elevator. So I shrugged and said, “Because I beat the three of them up.”

“You
what
?”

So I gave her the blow-by-blow of the fight and told her about Casey showing up. And when I got to the part about Officer Borsch stopping by Hudson's, she said, “But how did he know to find you there?”

“He's seen me there before. I think he knows I hang out there.”

When I'd finally gotten the whole story out and had answered all Grams' questions, she turned my head to the side and tisked over my neck. “Those catty girls.”

Dorito hopped into my lap, and I stroked him, saying, “You're nothing like that, are you, boy?”

So, okay. I couldn't say Heather and her bratty friends hadn't put a scratch on me, but when I saw Tenille and Monet before school, I had to laugh. I mean, I wore a collared shirt, so you couldn't really see the marks on my neck, but even an inch of makeup couldn't conceal the black eye I'd given Monet, or the dark circles under
both
Tenille's eyes.

“Oh my
god
, Sammy!” Marissa said when she saw me on campus. “Everybody's saying you broke Tenille's nose! And you
did
break Heather's arm!”

“Oh, I did not….”

“You did! She's wearing a cast. I saw it with my own two eyes!”

I said, “Yeah, right. It's probably like the cast she wore on her nose, remember that?” because way back in September I got in a whole lot of trouble when she pretended I'd broken her nose.

“No! This is for real! And she's totally milking it! She's telling everyone you attacked her! Sammy, what happened? Why didn't you call me?”

Then Holly and Dot descended on us and started telling me exactly what Marissa had just told me. So I let
out a big sigh and explained what had happened. And when I was all done, Marissa didn't focus on Casey coming to my rescue, or ask me anything I sort of expected her to ask. Instead, she said, “So wait a minute—the buses came by while they were ganging up on you?”

“Yeah.”

“So there you go—you have nothing to worry about.”

“What do you mean?”

“Kids saw! They know!”

“Yeah,” Holly added. “Just stay cool and say Heather started it.”

Dot nodded. “By the end of the day everyone'll know what really happened.”

“Fat chance,” I snorted.

But all day my friends hung close, and
they
told people the truth. And by lunch I noticed something very strange—kids were whispering about me, but it wasn't a backstabbing kind of whispering. It was more like they couldn't believe that someone as scrawny as me could take down cats as wild as Heather and her friends.

Then at lunch Vice Principal Caan came out to the grass where we were eating, and instead of shooing us back to the lunch tables, he took me aside and whispered, “Is it true?”

“Is what true?” I asked him, not really knowing what angle he was coming from.

“Did you really neutralize all three of them?”

I laughed. “I like the way you put that.” Then I nodded and said, “I swear I didn't start it—they ganged up on me.”

He nodded. “That's the word in the halls. And the bus drivers confirmed it.”

My eyebrows went up. “Really?” And then my jaw dropped when Mr. Caan chuckled and whispered, “When is that girl going to learn?”

So things at school turned out a whole lot better than they might have. What I
was
sort of worried about, though, was Casey. I hadn't seen him all day. I even looked for him between classes and at the beginning of lunch, but I didn't spot him anywhere. I kept hoping he'd come by the lawn where he'd found us before, but finally I got fed up with hoping and said, “I'm gonna go find Casey.”

Marissa bit down a smile. Dot did, too. And Holly looked away.

“Knock it off,” I told them. “I just want to find out how much trouble he's in at home.”

“Right.”

“Sure.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Shut
up
!” I said, but they all just laughed.

I ran over to the cafeteria, but I didn't actually have to go inside. Casey was coming out just as I got to the door. “Oh hey!” he said. “I was just coming to see you.” He looked over his shoulder, into the cafeteria. “Were you…?” He looked back at me. “Are you getting something to eat?”

I felt myself turning red, but I said it anyway. “No, I was looking for you.”

A little smile smoothed out his face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I want to know what happened with your parents. Are you in trouble?”

“Nah.” Then he added, “Well, with my mom, yeah. And my sister”—he rolled his eyes—”majorly… but what else is new?” Then he grinned and said, “But I live with my dad, not them, so it's cool.”

We started walking. And I don't even know where we were going. We just kind of walked around. Talking.

Laughing.

And I couldn't help feeling that I
was
lucky.

Really lucky.

How else could I explain a friend like Casey?

It was Friday, so after school Marissa, Holly, and I all went to the mall. And while Marissa shot up aliens and other Creatures of Darkness in the video arcade, Holly and I sat nearby and traded off listening to CDs. And even though we were there a long time, I still didn't feel like going home when Marissa had to leave.

There's really not a whole lot happening in a seniors building.

So when Holly said, “You want to come over for a while? I'll probably have to do some chores, but…,” I jumped on it. “Sure! I don't mind. Let's go sweep up some fur!”

She laughed and off we went. And I did call home to let Grams know where I was, but pretty soon I was calling her again, because Vera and Meg invited me to stay for pizza. Pizza! I love pizza. I hardly ever get it, though, because Grams is into steamed fish, broiled chicken, and broccoli. I don't care what you do to steamed fish, broiled chicken, or broccoli, it's never going to taste like pizza. And please, don't put those things
on
a pizza. That's like having to do homework at the movies.

Anyway, Meg and Vera ordered an extra large, extra
cheese, extra sausage pizza. And it turned out to be an extra fun dinner. We didn't bother with anything but pizza and soda, and we played rummy while we ate.

And then, when the pizza was about gone, Vera looked at Meg and said, “Remember how you used to have pajama parties when you were their age? Your girlfriends would come over and you'd giggle all night?”

“Sure,” Meg said, breaking into a smile. “Some of the best times of my life.”

Vera made little twitching faces at her. “So?”

Meg figured out what Vera was twitching about, because she said, “Say… I think that's a great idea.” She turned to Holly and me. “What do you two think about having a slumber party tonight?”

Holly and I looked at each other and said, “Cool!”

So I called Grams
again
, and since she thought it was a fine idea, Holly and I set up sleeping bags on the floor in front of the TV while Meg and Vera cleaned up and then made themselves scarce.

Now, we didn't start off by watching TV. We played cards and talked, played backgammon and talked some more… and we covered everything from cats at the pound to “cats” at school. We even made a list of girls we thought were card-carrying members of the Cat Club.

Top of the list, of course, Heather.

But there were a lot more girls on the list than just Heather and her friends. And when we sat back and looked at it, Holly laughed and said, “Half these girls
hate
each other.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Could you see them calling the meeting
to order? It'd be like,
Rrrrrarrrrh! Rrrreeeerrrrh! Rrraaaahrrr!”

“And
Hsssss! Hsssss! Hsssss!”
Holly said, putting up claws.

“A real claw-your-way-to-the-top club!”

“Yeah!”

So we laughed about that some, then Holly whispered, “I'm snacky, are you?”

I grinned. “Always.”

“I wish we had some popcorn. We could stay up late and watch old movies or something.” She flipped through the TV listings, and after a minute she said, “Hey! There's an
I Love Lucy
marathon on. You like her?”

“Sure.”

She went into the kitchen and started rummaging though the cupboard. “We've got to have popcorn.”

But they didn't. So I said, “Crackers are good.”

“Nah. They fill you up too fast.”

“How about those?” I said, pointing into the cupboard.

“Rice cakes?” She pulled a face. “Besides, I think they've been in there for, like, a year.”

“Well, Maynard's is right down the street, but I've only got about thirty-two cents on me.”

“That's not a problem.” She opened a cookie tin and pulled out a five-dollar bill. “Let me ask Vera.”

When she came back a few minutes later, she whispered, “They're both sacked out!”

“Really?” I looked at the clock—it was almost nine.

She nodded. “They get up at five, so they usually crash early—I guess I didn't know it was this late.”

“So do you want to just forget it?”

“I'm not ready for bed… are you?”

I shook my head.

“So let's go.”

She scrawled a note and we tiptoed down the stairs, through the Pup Parlor, and out the front door. And as we passed by Slammin' Dave's, I said, “Looks like they're closed for the night.”

“Thank God,” Holly muttered. “I sure hope Officer Borsch is right about today being El Gato's last day.”

“He seemed real… determined about that.”