Your Worst Nightmare (3 page)

“I'm extremely disappointed, Mr. Hendricks,” Mr. Tanaka said sternly as he grabbed the matchbooks out of Tim's hand. He shook them in Tim's face. “You just broke a big school rule, young man. I
know
you know that matches are prohibited at all times. I have no choice but to send you home. Let's go call your parents. You can explain to them why they have to come pick you up.”

“No—” Tim croaked.

“And then I think we'll call Principal Bryer,” Mr. Tanaka continued.

“Mr. Tanaka, wait,” Kristi said. She was so scared that Mr. Tanaka would find out that she had a matchbook too—she could practically feel it burning in her pocket—but she couldn't let Tim get in trouble for this. “It's not his fault. We got these grab bags—”

“I bought one. For everybody,” Bobby interrupted her.

“And they were all filled with, like, really freaky weird things,” Kristi spoke over Bobby. “Like mine had all these clown-head erasers. And Tim's was stuffed with
matches. But he didn't know that until he looked inside.”

“Is this true, Tim?” Mr. Tanaka asked.

Tim nodded vigorously. “Yeah. I had no idea my grab bag was full of matches. I would never bring matches on a school trip, Mr. Tanaka. Or buy them or anything like that. I know the rules. I promise,” he said in a rush.

Mr. Tanaka was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “Okay, Tim, I believe you. I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. But I'll be taking these, if you don't mind”—the matches made a rustling noise as Mr. Tanaka took the bag from Tim—“and I think I'll have a word with the hotel manager about the contents of these, uh, ‘grab bags.' ”

“Thanks, Mr. Tanaka,” Tim said gratefully. “I never wanted them to begin with.” As soon as Mr. Tanaka had turned away, Tim sighed with relief.

“Man, I'm sorry about that,” Bobby said right away. “So sorry, dude.”

“Whatever,” Tim said. He shrugged, like it really didn't matter, but Kristi could see that he still looked pale. “Not your fault. No big deal.”

“No, it is,” Bobby argued. “You could've gotten in serious trouble.”

“But I didn't,” Tim replied, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. “Can we drop it?”

“Bobby, what's in your grab bag?” Kristi asked quickly.

“Oh. Right. I almost forgot to look,” Bobby said. He shook the bag gently. “Whatever it is, it's pretty light.”

The three other kids watched as Bobby peered into the bag. It was hard to read the expression on his face. Finally, he looked up. “Nothing,” he reported, holding the bag upside down and shaking it to prove that it was empty. “What a rip-off.”

“At least they were only a quarter,” Olivia pointed out. “Come on, it's almost time to meet for dinner . . . or whatever they're serving in that diner.”

As the friends wandered out of the gift shop, Kristi drifted toward the back of the group. She paused as they passed by the cashier; then, in one fast motion, Kristi dropped the clown heads, the moth, and the book of matches onto the counter. The cashier gave her a curious look.

But Kristi didn't even notice. She didn't want anything to do with the “gifts” in those grab bags.

At dinner Kristi ordered the meat-loaf sandwich, hoping that it would be halfway decent. One bite told her that she was wrong. She scraped the soggy gray meat off the sandwich and ate the bread instead, thankful for the generous portion of French fries and coleslaw on the side of her plate. When Kristi glanced around the diner, she saw that most of the other kids had done the same.

“This molasses cookie is actually awesome,” Olivia said during dessert. “I'll be honest, I'm surprised.”

“Well, it would be hard to make anything taste worse than that meat loaf,” Kristi joked.

Afterward, Mr. Tanaka, Ms. Pierce, and the chaperones herded everyone into a conference room on the
second floor for the most ridiculous game of charades that Kristi had ever played. A few of the kids from the drama club got really into it, but everyone else seemed bored—or at least pretended to be.

“How long are they going to keep us here?” Olivia whispered.

“Ugh, I don't know. Until lights out?” Kristi guessed. She glanced at her watch. It was only eight thirty. That meant they could be stuck playing charades for another hour!

“We're not babies,” Olivia replied. “They don't need to entertain us every second.”

“It could be worse,” joked Kristi. “At least we're not playing heads up, seven up!”

Finally, at nine o'clock, Mr. Tanaka told everyone that they could go to their rooms and get ready for bed. “But remember, lights out is in half an hour,” he reminded them. “And we
will
be checking.”

Kristi and Olivia walked down the hall to their room.

“That was so lame. And I'm not even tired,” Olivia said. “I can't believe we're supposed to go to bed at nine thirty. Isn't this, like, supposed to be a vacation?”

“Well, Mr. Tanaka said ‘lights out,' ” Kristi said slowly as she opened the door to their room. “He didn't say ‘go to sleep.' ”

Olivia grinned at her. “Good point! We can still text people and stuff, huh?”

“Yeah, I don't see—” Kristi began.

Suddenly the hotel phone on the nightstand rang. Both girls jumped.

“Who do you think it is?” Olivia asked. “Should we answer it?”

“I guess so,” Kristi replied. “What if it's somebody from home?”

She lifted the receiver and said, “Hello?”

There was a long silence. Then an unfamiliar male voice said, “Kristi Chen?”

“Yes, this is Kristi,” she replied.

“This is the hotel manager. You know why I'm calling, don't you?”

“Um, no,” Kristi replied as her heart started to beat a little faster. She racked her brain, trying to think of anything she'd done that might get her in trouble. “I honestly have no idea.”

“I think you know.”

The matches,
Kristi suddenly thought.
Somebody saw me put the matches in my pocket and they think I stole them. And they're gonna tell Ms. Pierce and Mr. Tanaka, and Mom will have to pick me up from here and she'll be so mad at me—and everyone will think I'm a thief—

Kristi cleared her throat. “Please,” she replied. “Please tell me.”

There was a long silence. Then the person on the other end dissolved into giggles—and hung up the phone!

Kristi stared at the phone in her hand for a moment before she started laughing too. Then she hung up.

“
What
was that about?” Olivia asked.

“Prank call!” Kristi exclaimed. “I can't believe they got me. I wish I knew who it was! I totally didn't recognize the voice at all.”

“Maybe it was Tim.” Olivia guessed.

“Maybe,” Kristi said. “I wonder if he has that voice-disguise app on his phone?”

“Oh, he totally does,” Olivia said, nodding vigorously. “I know it for a fact.”

“How rude!” Kristi said—but she wasn't really mad.

The phone rang again.

“Let me get it!” Olivia cried as she lunged for the phone. “Hello? Hello?”

With a slight frown, she hung up. “Nobody's there.”

Then there was a loud knock at the door. Both girls had silly grins on their faces.

“Okay, this is getting ridiculous,” Olivia said. “I'm going to tell them to leave us alone—”

“Wait, don't answer it!” Kristi exclaimed. “Not until you look through the peephole.”

“Oh, right,” Olivia said. She peered through the little hole in the door, then turned around and walked back to the bed. “Nobody's there. Again.”

There was another knock, and goose bumps spread down Kristi's arms.

“This is getting kind of weird,” she said. “Should we—should we call Mr. Tanaka? Or Ms. Pierce?”

“Don't get freaked out over nothing,” Olivia replied. “Just ignore it.”

But when the knock came a third time, Kristi couldn't resist. She strode over to the door and flung it open.

Sure enough, there was no one there. But there was
something
there.

A brown paper bag, sitting in the doorway.

Not another grab bag,
Kristi thought with dread. She still hadn't totally recovered from those creepy clown heads.

Her name was printed on the bag, in thick block letters.

“What is it?” Olivia asked as she came up behind Kristi.

“Another grab bag,” Kristi replied. “I don't even want to open it.”

“But you have to,” Olivia said. “It has your name on it.”

“Let's open it together,” Kristi suggested.

Olivia shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.”

Kristi carefully opened the bag. At the same time, both girls peered inside it. Then they started laughing. The bag was filled with rock candy!

“Well, that's a relief,” Kristi said.

“Totally, except we can't eat it. It's all dusty. It's probably been in that gift shop since our grandparents were kids!” Olivia giggled. “Hey, look—there's something else written on the back.”

It was a short note, in the same block handwriting.

SORRY THE GRAB BAGS WERE LAME.

“Whoa. You know what this means, right?” Olivia asked. “This is from
Bobby
! Bobby got this for you! I bet Bobby
likes
you!”

“Shut up. He does not,” Kristi said as she felt the back of her neck get hot.

“He so does!” crowed Olivia. “It's obvious! I mean,
my
grab bag was really lame too, and he didn't bring
me
any candy!”

“Yeah, because he figured we would share!”

“But
my
name isn't on the bag,” Olivia pointed out.

“Liv. Please, please, please don't tell anybody, okay?” Kristi begged. “Let's just—let's just forget it.”

Olivia immediately grew serious. “Of
course
I wouldn't tell anybody!” she exclaimed. “I would never do that to you. God, how embarrassing. Bobby Lehman, like,
loves
you. Don't worry, nobody will find out from me.”

“Good. I'm gonna go brush my teeth,” Kristi said.

In the bathroom, Kristi stared at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. Her mind was racing.
Is it possible?
she wondered.
Can Bobby really have a crush on me? I hope Olivia won't say anything to anybody . . . and I really hope she didn't guess that
I
kind
of
like
him,
too
.

After Kristi finished in the bathroom, there was
another
knock at the door—but this one was quickly followed by Ms. Pierce's voice. “Lights out in five minutes, girls!” she called through the door.

“Okay!” Kristi and Olivia replied.

“So . . . do you want to text Tim?” Olivia whispered after the girls had climbed into their beds. “And tell him that his prank call was totally stupid?”

“Ehhh . . . you can,” Kristi replied. “I'm really tired. I might just go to sleep.”

“Oh,” was all that Olivia said, but Kristi couldn't miss the disappointment in her voice. “Okay. Night, Kristi. See you in the morning.”

“Night, Liv,” Kristi replied as she turned out the light.

The soft glow from Olivia's phone illuminated the room. Kristi was glad. Sometimes, when she was home alone at night because her mom was working late, Kristi went to sleep with the hall light on. And tonight, lying on a lumpy, musty mattress in the Ravensburg Motel, Kristi felt that same gnawing loneliness in the pit of her stomach, even though Olivia was just a few feet away.

She suddenly missed the familiar sounds of her
own house, the familiar smell of her own sheets, the familiar feel of her own bed.

Kristi squeezed her eyes shut tight . . . and fell asleep faster than she expected. Instantly, she began to dream. . . .

She was in an unfamiliar place—a place that was equal parts shadow and rock, neither indoors nor outdoors. Not sure what to do, she started to walk. One step, then another, the empty echo of her footsteps was the only sound she could hear.

Where am I?
she wondered.

Kristi had no idea.

The intensity of her longing to escape, to go home, was unexpected. It wasn't such a bad place—wherever she was. It was quiet. It was cool, but not cold. She was alone, but that wasn't so bad.

Was it?

Then, suddenly, Kristi stopped. She thought she heard something—there it was again—

Footsteps.

Someone was walking behind her.

Someone who stopped when she stopped, moved when she moved. That someone didn't want her to know that she was being followed, but she knew. She knew. And that was enough to make Kristi start running. She didn't turn around to see who
was chasing her. Somehow she had figured out who it was, and if Kristi caught a glimpse of that white face, that wig, that jagged grin, that horrible makeup, she would be too terrified to move. But some locked-away corner of her mind was jangling with unease, because this did not match her memory, not at all: She was definitely not in the fun house.