Light as a Feather, Silent as the Grave

Chapter 3

"See that? Glenn said they're putting in one of those cookie stores that makes the giant birthday cookies."

The next morning, I coerced Mom into driving me to the supermarket by insisting that I had an irrepressible craving for sweet potatoes. Even though she was definitely suspicious about my request, an hour later she pulled her grocery shopping list off the fridge and slipped it into her purse. It was not a coincidence that I'd asked Violet to meet me in the frozen food aisle. With Easter just two days away, I'd figured it would be pretty easy to talk Mom into a trip across town to the food store. She'd always been a sucker for coloring hard-boiled eggs and hiding a basket of candy for me on Easter morning.

The tiny strip mall across the intersection from the grocery store that used to only boast a Remax real estate office and a JC Penney catalog outlet that had been shuttered since I was in junior high was suddenly bustling. A fancy new pet grooming salon had opened next to the storefront that used to house the catalog outlet, and a Coming Soon! sign had been hung in the window of the storefront next to the laundr-o-mat.  It made me feel both overly protective of my small town and eager to leave again, seeing how much it had changed in the two and a half months I'd been gone. Willow would always be my hometown, but I already felt an urgency to get back to somewhere else.

As if she could read my mind about feeling so out of place in my own home, Mom asked, "Have you been making friends at school in Florida? Your dad says you're reticent on the topic."

I fought the urge to exhale in exasperation. This was my mother's subtle way of picking a fight with me. "Not really, Mom. I'm just trying to focus on grades. I know you're really worried about me getting into college." Making new friends in Florida was a topic I preferred to avoid with both of my parents. Florida, to me, was a temporary situation. I wasn't sure what would follow it, but I sure as heck wasn't planning on going to college there or being there for even a minute longer than necessary after high school graduation. There was a very good chance I'd be making my escape from Florida as soon as that summer, although I couldn't have told either of my parents about my plans.

"Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to make a few friends down there. It wouldn't kill you to go to the movies once in a while with some normal girls your own age."  Mom flipped on her turn signal at the intersection near the grocery store parking lot.

Her subtle jab at the friends I'd made at the beginning of the school year at home in Willow put me on edge.  She just had no idea whatsoever how much it had meant to me to be welcomed into Olivia's tight-knit circle after having been bullied and avoided for all of elementary school and junior high. It wasn't even as if Olivia Richmond and Candace Cotton had been stereotypical popular girls before their deaths. Olivia had been generous and polite, and had encouraged me to run for student government. Candace had been outrageously funny and I would have trusted her with my deepest secrets.  And Mischa, well, I had to hand it to my mom, Mischa probably wouldn't have fallen into anyone's definition of normal once you got to know her, but she was still every bit as good a friend to me as Cheryl, Erica, and Kelly had been before junior year. After everything Mischa and I had been through together—the night we played the game of "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board" at Olivia's party, driving up north in the middle of a blizzard to pick up a hitchhiking ghost, contacting Olivia's spirit on a Ouija board—Mischa was more like a sister than a friend.

"Mom," I snapped. "I can either be popular or get good grades. It's one or the other, not both, and I don't think you get that all normal kids my age want to do is drink and smoke weed. I'm trying to stay out of trouble, so just leave it."

She exhaled loudly after we pulled into the parking lot. "Fine, you're right. I trust you to make your own decisions."

I spotted what I assumed was Violet's tiny gray car in the parking lot as Mom roamed around looking for a spot. It was a Friday morning and the kids in Weeping Willow didn't have the week off for Spring Break like I did; their school break was the week after the holiday. I hadn't really thought about it until we were on our way to the store, but Violet was cutting class to meet me. Whatever she wanted to discuss related to those files she'd emailed me had to have been seriously important. Violet may have been basically a murderess, but she was also a model student, not to mention Junior Class President.