Don't Drink the Punch! Read online

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  About P. J. Night

  ‘What a Doll!’ Excerpt

  PROLOGUE

  Mr. Talbert yawned as he tried to hold a stack of uncorrected lab papers and his coffee cup in one hand and unlock his classroom door with the other. Feeble early-morning light filtered through the high windows and reflected off the surfaces of the lab tables. He flicked on the overhead, flooding the room with harsh fluorescent light. He yawned again as he headed for his desk, wondering if he’d have time this Friday morning to finish grading all the labs before first period.

  He plopped the stack of papers down on his desk. Then he scratched his head quizzically and regarded the life-size skeleton next to his desk. The skeleton’s head was cocked at a jaunty angle. It stared back at him with its shadowy, unseeing eyes.

  “Did I just see what I think I saw?” he asked the skeleton.

  The skeleton didn’t answer.

  Mr. Talbert took three backward steps. He turned toward the bug terrarium that sat on the counter running the length of his classroom. The counter was cluttered with mineral samples, animal skulls, and fossils.

  The lid of the terrarium was askew. He crouched down to peer into it.

  The day before it had contained a bustling little ecosystem, filled with at least a dozen large green scarab beetles, scientific name Chelorrhina polyphemus, crawling around on the sandy bottom and gnawing on the bits of apple his middle school students had dropped in. But now the terrarium was empty. The beetles were nowhere to be seen.

  Mr. Talbert turned back to the skeleton. “They can’t have climbed out on their own,” he said. “Someone’s taken them!”

  The skeleton didn’t answer.

  CHAPTER 1

  “Um, Jess? No offense, but that hat?” Alice mock-shuddered. “So last year.”

  Jess reached up and touched her hat, smiling ruefully at Alice. “I know, I know. But it was so cold this morning when I ran out of the house, and I left my good one in my locker at school.”

  “I always buy two of everything,” pronounced Pria. “That way I have a spare.”

  Kayla, who was picking her way along the icy sidewalk a step behind the other three girls, furrowed her brow. She liked Jess’s hat. It was a dusty rose color with a folded-up brim that set off Jess’s delicate features and wide-set green eyes. But Kayla would never dream of piping up and disagreeing with Alice. No one wanted to invite Alice’s criticism if they could help it. Kayla wondered if Pria was serious about buying two of everything. Like that would ever happen in Kayla’s house. She glanced down at her winter boots, which were very definitely so two years ago. Her mom had found them last year at an end-of-season clearance sale, and Kayla had been delighted with them.

  “Brrrr!” said Jess, hunkering deeper into her luxurious down coat. “It must be negative a hundred degrees today. Probably a record low for Fairbridge, Minnesota.”

  “Even Buttercup looks like he feels cold, which is a miracle considering all the natural insulation that dog has,” said Alice, gesturing to the dog at the end of the rhinestone-studded leash she was holding in her gloved hand. “My mom says she’s going to put him on a diet.”

  “It’s the wind,” said Kayla. “That’s what makes it feel so cold.”

  As if to emphasize Kayla’s point, an icy gust of crystallized snow sprang up and swirled around the girls. All four put their heads down to shield their faces against the needlelike blast. Kayla could feel the icy snow blowing down the back of her coat collar and up her coat sleeves, which were getting a little too short for her.

  “Buttercup! Slow down, you dumb dog!” said Alice, lunging forward from the force of the dog’s tugging. Buttercup kept straining at his leash.

  Kayla usually liked dogs, but Buttercup had to be the ugliest dog she’d ever seen, and he was not especially friendly, either. His snout was all pushed in, as though he had run face-first into a glass patio door. His tail curled up and around backward, so that it practically formed a circle. He didn’t walk so much as he waddled, his round belly shifting from side to side. Alice had told her that he was a very rare and valuable breed. Whatever.

  Pria adjusted her fuzzy pink earmuffs. “Please tell me why we’re out here again?”

  “I’m behaving like the model citizen,” said Alice with a half smile. “I’ve offered to walk Buttercup every single afternoon so my parents will stick to their promise to let me have the party.”

  “It’s so awesome that you’re going to have a coed Valentine’s party,” said Pria.

  “Yeah, I’m psyched. The girls get to sleep over, and the boys will all leave at eleven,” said Alice.

  “Will you guys help me find a cute party outfit at the mall today?” asked Jess.

  “I’m going to buy at least three outfits,” said Alice, ignoring Jess’s question. “Then I’ll be able to choose whatever I’m in the mood for on the day of the party.”

  “Speaking of shopping,” said Pria, “have you noticed the stores on this block? I mean, who shops here? Especially considering there’s a perfectly good mall nearby.”

  “Clearly no one, from the looks of these places,” said Alice with a sniff.

  Kayla clutched the collar of her coat and looked up, squinting as another blast of icy wind sprang up.

  It was true. For a generally swanky town like theirs, this seemed to be the one-block-long low-rent district. It was doubly strange that such a run-down block existed in this part of town, of all places, because Alice lived just four blocks away, on one of the fanciest streets in Fairbridge.

  They passed an antique store, with a dimly lit storefront displaying a jumble of threadbare old armchairs that looked like they’d seen much better days. Next door was a discount clothing store called Dressed Best, displaying mannequins with no heads or hands, modeling unfashionable dresses. And just past that was a shop with a sign reading ESOTERICA: SPIRITUAL SUPPLIES • CANDLES • OILS • SPELLS. The snow on the sidewalk seemed undisturbed in front of the shops, as though no one had gone in or out in some time.

  “Buttercup! I told you to stop pulling, you awful little thing,” said Alice. “After thousands of dollars of obedience training, he’s still the most annoying dog!” She lurched as Buttercup bounded forward, barking his head off at something the girls couldn’t see, something behind the recessed door of the dress shop.

  “It’s a cat,” said Pria.

  Just then Buttercup managed to slip out of his collar, leaving Alice holding the empty leash. He moved much more quickly on his short legs than Kayla would have thought he could, dashing toward the doorway and yapping furiously.

  A black cat streaked across the sidewalk, heading toward the road. Kayla watched, stricken, as it leaped over the mound of plowed, grayish snow and into the road, just as an oncoming car was passing. The cat landed right in front of the car, and the girls couldn’t see whether one of the car’s tires rolled over it. The driver, a man talking on his cell phone, kept going, apparently unaware of what had happened.

  Buttercup struggled to mount the ploughed snowbank, still in pursuit of the cat, and Alice was able to grab him and snap his collar back on. Then she peered over the edge of the snowbank at the place where the cat had fallen.

  “Is it dead?” J
ess called to Alice in a small voice.

  “Maybe,” Alice replied grimly.

  The other three girls moved closer to look, peering fearfully over the snowbank.

  The cat lay unmoving in a pile of slush.

  “Let’s get out of here,” said Alice. “I so don’t need to deal with this right now.”

  “But what about the cat?” asked Kayla, staring down at it in horror.

  “It was probably just a stray,” said Jess. “I agree. Let’s go.”

  “It’s wearing a collar,” Kayla pointed out.

  “Come on,” said Alice. “My mom said she’d take us to the mall as soon as we got back, and it’s freezing out here.”

  The other two girls turned to follow Alice. Kayla stood there. “I’m going to check on the cat,” she said. “I’ll catch up to you in a minute.”

  Alice scowled. “Whatever. But hurry up. I can’t guarantee that my mom will wait very long.”

  Kayla watched the other three girls hurry away through the swirling, misting snow. After making sure no cars were coming, she stepped gingerly over the snowbank and looked down at the cat. Its body lay stretched out, its head facing her, its limbs sprawled in an awkward, uncatlike way.

  She was afraid to touch it. Was it breathing, or was that just the wind stirring its fur? She crouched down. “Sorry, kitty,” she whispered. “I’m sorry about that dumb dog.”

  She saw no blood, thank goodness, but then, it would be awfully hard to see blood on a coal-black cat like this one. She grew more certain that it was dead. She looked up at the row of stores. Was anyone looking out the window? Even if they were, they wouldn’t be able to see the cat’s body, which would be hidden by the bank of snow. She saw no one. She stared back down at the cat.

  “I wonder what your name was,” she said sadly. And then, as if to answer her, its eyes flew open.

  CHAPTER 2

  Kayla jumped up. “Oh!” she gasped. “You’re alive!”

  The cat fumbled against the snowbank and tried to sit up.

  “I need to get you out of the street,” said Kayla. Luckily, it was a quiet street. Not a single car had passed since the one that had knocked down the cat.

  The cat managed to sit up. It shook its head rapidly back and forth, as though trying to shake out the cobwebs.

  “Can you walk, kitty?” asked Kayla.

  As though it had understood, the cat rose shakily onto its feet. It took a tentative step and collapsed nose-down in the snow. It let out a low growl.

  “It’s your front leg, isn’t it?” guessed Kayla.

  The cat sat down on its haunches and blinked at Kayla. It raised its right front paw into the air, almost like a dog might offer its paw to shake.

  Kayla glanced up again at the shops. No one was emerging. She looked across the street. Practically the whole block was taken up by a restaurant supply store, but it had a sign that said CLOSED: LOST OUR LEASE on the door.

  “Will you let me carry you?” she asked the cat. She took a step toward it and reached gently underneath it to pick it up. It let out a longer, more ominous growl, but it allowed her to do so. She was careful not to touch its front leg.

  It was a large, heavy cat. Kayla held it close to her chest and turned to clamber back over the snowdrift, hoping she wouldn’t slip. Her boot sank deeply into the snow, and a chunk of ice slipped into the back of it.

  “Let’s try the antique store,” she said to the cat, and made her way carefully over to the doorway of the first shop. Crouching awkwardly, she managed to turn the rickety knob without dropping the cat. She pushed the door, hearing a little bell tinkle.

  The inside of the store smelled musty, like old leather boots, but at least it was warm. The shelves were crammed with old bottles and dusty china figurines, and a display case in the middle held cheap costume jewelry. The wares looked more like they should be at a flea market than at an antique store, Kayla thought.

  “Help you?” said someone in the back. A large woman emerged from around the back counter, regarding Kayla suspiciously. “We don’t allow pets in here,” she said, eyeing the cat over the tops of her glasses.

  “Um, hi,” said Kayla. “This isn’t my pet. I saw this cat get hit by a car, and I wondered if you might know who it belongs to. It’s not dead or anything, but I think its paw is hurt.”

  The woman looked again at the cat in Kayla’s arms. “Not mine,” she said with a shrug. “And not Betty’s next door. She’s always complaining about her allergies.”

  Kayla drooped. “Well, thanks anyway,” she said, and turned to leave.

  “You might try two doors down at that hocus-pocus shop. I never have laid eyes on the owner—he’s certainly not a friendly chap—but I seem to recall seeing a cat wandering around outside the store from time to time.”

  Kayla nodded. “Okay, thanks,” she said, and opening the chiming door, she stepped back outside into the swirling cold.

  The cat was not a cuddly sort of cat. It allowed her to carry it down the short block, but it felt like a dead weight in her arms. They were beginning to ache with holding it.

  “I hope this is your owner,” said Kayla as she opened the door to the mystical store. “I need to get back to Alice’s house.”

  This shop smelled like cinnamon and musky perfume and something Kayla couldn’t identify—a faint, acrid smell that reminded her of the time she’d accidentally set a tendril of her hair on fire when she was blowing out her birthday candles.

  “Hello?” she called out. “Anyone here?”

  She looked around. What kind of store was this, anyway? The walls were painted a deep red, so despite the overhead light, the place looked dark and shadowy. A bloodred velvet curtain hung in the doorway to the back, near the register. The walls were lined with shelves from floor to ceiling, and the shelves held neat rows of bottles, each labeled by hand in the same swirly cursive writing. Kayla couldn’t make out what any of the labels said from where she was standing. There was one of those sliding wooden ladders she’d seen in old movies, the kind that could move on a rail so the shop owner could reach things up high. Along the back wall were hand-lettered signs: SPELL CANDLES: LIGHT ONE TO MANIFEST YOUR INTENTIONS AND DESIRES; HEALING CRYSTALS: HANDPICKED FOR THEIR BEAUTY AND HEALING ENERGY; ELIXIRS: POTIONS INFUSED WITH HERBAL ESSENCES; MAGICAL OILS: AROMATHERAPY OIL BLENDS TO SUPPORT TRANSFORMATION.

  Kayla was stooping down to read the label on a bottle (LOVE POTION: WIN THE PASSION OF THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE!) when she heard footsteps. She stood up hastily, shifting the cat a bit in her arms. The cat growled in protest.

  A girl stood at the other end of the store, regarding her. “May I help you?” she said. “Hey, what are you doing with Jinx?”

  “Oh! So this is your cat?” asked Kayla. “He got knocked down. By a car. I think he’s okay, but his front leg is hurt.”

  The girl frowned and strode across the store. She took the cat from Kayla’s arms. Kayla took a small step back and blinked at her.

  The girl was about Kayla’s age, although a good six inches shorter. She seemed familiar. Wasn’t she in Kayla’s grade at school? They weren’t in any classes together, but Kayla was sure she’d seen her around. Was it Madeline? Melinda? She wore huge, owlish glasses. Her straight, bluntly cut bangs hid a good part of her face.

  “Jinx never goes into the street. Something must have spooked him. What happened?” the girl asked Kayla. She looked up accusingly, her bangs parting like a curtain and revealing a nose that was somewhat too large for her thin face.

  “Nothing. I mean, I don’t know,” Kayla stammered. “He ran into the road and bumped into the side of a car that was passing by.”

  The girl snorted, then carried Jinx over to a glass display table that housed some sparkly stones. She set the cat gently down on the table. It immediately began licking its paw, slowly, as though assessing where it hurt.

  “Do you work here?” asked Kayla, looking around.

  “It’s my after-school and weekend job,” said th
e girl. Her tone was gruff and unfriendly. “The owner lets me work the register because I’m very responsible.” She leaned over the cat, blowing her bangs away diagonally with the corner of her mouth so as to see more closely, and ran her hand down the animal’s back, then down each paw, gently pressing as she went, as carefully as a trained veterinarian. “Looks like a simple radial fracture,” she muttered, more to herself than to Kayla or the cat.

  Suddenly she stood up and wheeled on Kayla.

  “He didn’t just run into the road, did he? Something scared him. Your dog, maybe?”

  “No!” Kayla said quickly. “I mean, maybe. My friend’s dog might have . . . might have startled him a little.”

  “Get out of here,” the girl said in a low, ominous voice.

  CHAPTER 3

  Kayla backed away and turned to search for the doorknob. This girl freaked her out. She pulled the door open. Cold wind howled and swirled into the shop, setting several sets of chimes tinkling.

  “Wait,” the girl called. The tone of her voice was strained but suddenly friendly.

  Kayla shut the door again and turned.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Kayla Evans.”

  “I’m Matilda Warner. You go to Fairbridge Middle, don’t you?”

  Kayla nodded.

  “And you’re friends with that horrible Alice Grafton and her social-climbing friends, aren’t you?”

  “I—that’s not very—”

  “You moved here last year?”

  Kayla nodded, wondering how Matilda knew so much about her. She wanted to get out of there. “From Texas.”

  “What does your mother do?”

  Kayla was perplexed by Matilda’s sudden interest in her. But she answered, “My mom got a job at Fairbridge Academy, in the admissions office, so we moved.”

  “Oh. No wonder those girls are your friends. No doubt they think your mother can help get them into the academy for high school,” said Matilda.

  Kayla felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. She had been trying so hard to make friends in this new town. She didn’t want to think that they were just using her.