“How much do you know?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“Whatever anyone tells you, they’re not vitamins, Stanley. And they’re not organic or biodynamic, either.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“All I can tell you is they aren’t what they seem. They aren’t for you. They aren’t for people at all.”
Aren’t for people? Were they made for animals or what?
“Stanley, I’m going to talk to you man to man. Can you tell me what really happened in that locker room?”
I shrug. “I don’t think so. I’d like to, but—I mean, I didn’t do anything to him. I just went in there to clean up. And then...”
Mr. Piper waits for me for a moment to finish my sentence. “And then?”
I just sit there.
“Just tell me this. You’re leaving a whole lot out, aren’t you?”
I nod. “Don’t want to say anything crazy, do I?”
“Like about turning into some kind of animal?”
Mr. Piper stares at me for a while, waiting for an answer. That’s when I notice something strange about a book on his desk. When I look at it directly, I notice that it’s a yearbook from ten years ago. But when I look at it from the side, it’s a lot older. Something’s fishy here. That’s not a yearbook. Yearbooks don’t have weird gold lettering that shimmers.
I look back at Piper. “Do you think I turned into an animal?”
“The world is a strange place,” Mr. Piper says. “All I can say is that you’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Everything carries its price.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” I say.
“Good,” he says, nodding. “Now off to class with you. I’ve got other fish to fry.”
Outside his office I see Carolina, sitting in a chair, waiting. She’s in my English class, but I don’t know her very well. All I know is she’s new and she hangs out with Meredith, who I used to hang out with in elementary school. Carolina and I have never talked before, but now she looks up at me from her chair. We lock eyes for a moment, and she winks at me, like we’re sharing a secret.
But if so, what’s the secret?
I want to talk to her, but I need to get to class, and she’s already being called into Mr. Piper’s office.
Chapter 13: I’M FAMOUS
In the halls I catch people looking at me. Old friends from cross-country start talking about me when I pass by. But they get quiet when I look at them.
r /> In English we work in groups. Today Meredith and Carolina are working with Jonathan and me. We’re supposed to be writing a Halloween story together. But I don’t think Meredith and Carolina came over to our group because they are interested in our writing skills. They want to find out what happened to Gary.
Meredith is tall; her hair is long and straight and black, pulled back into a pony tail. Her eyes are huge and brown, her lips are red and full, and I think I’m staring at them just as she nudges me under the table.
I’ve known Meredith since elementary school. I think she even came to my birthday party in fifth grade. I’ve had a crush on her for years, since we were little. But she hasn’t talked to me for just as long, as I became weirder and she became more popular.
Carolina though just moved from Salem with her parents. It’s just like an hour and a half from Lansfeld, but I’ve never been there. Which is weird, I guess, since my mother is a witch.
That’s not all that’s weird about Carolina, though. I catch her look around quickly and then take a bite out of something. Swallow. I don’t have to see it clearly to know what it is. I can smell it. It’s meat. Beef jerky. Carolina catches me sniffing, or looking, and for the second time today our eyes meet. For a moment I feel her hunger, feel the moon, the call of the forest. I want to get out of this building and run out into the trees behind the school.
I want to hunt.
Pull yourself together, Stanley. I shake my head to clear it. Meredith nudges me again, and I look at her blankly.