Page 48 of Haunting the Deep

Iwalk down the hall toward history class and pull out my phone. There’s a reply from Alice in response to my rant over the bowler hat.

Alice:Either both packages were actually sent by a generous dead relative, or someone wants you to think that. I almost hope it’s the first, because the second means there is some hidden agenda. Not good.

Me:I know. Agreed. We need to make a plan today.

Alice:As opposed to not making one? Brilliant thinking.

My shoulder collides with someone and I drop my phone. It slides a few inches and stops near a pair of guy’s shoes. Matt stares at me with an amused look and bends down to retrieve it.

“Sorry,” I say.

He hands me back my phone. “Truthfully, I wasn’t watchin’ where I was goin’, either. It wasn’t all you.”

I check my phone for damage.

“You’re Sam, right?” he says.

“You know I am,” I say flatly. This line is usually followed by a question about the woods or me seeing spirits.

He laughs. “Amazin’. You care almost as little as I do.”

There is a beat of silence. “So you’re the exchange student staying with Blair,” I say, not sure how to respond. “How are you liking Salem?”

“Who do you think this school gossips about more: you fa bein’ able to see ghosts and do magic, which I can only assume is complete rubbish? Or me, for ’avin ’ad multiple kamikaze-style endin’s to my relationship wif Niki?”

I laugh. No one ever calls out the rumors like that, at least not to me. “I’m leaning toward you, considering those hallway screaming matches you guys have had recently.”

“Hmmm. Well, there’s always time fa you to catch up. Just turn a teacher into a frog or somefin’. Be’er yet, turn Niki into one.”

“So you say now. But come next week, I bet you two will be all over each other again.”

Matt smirks. “Do I detect a li’l jealousy?”

“What? No,” I say quickly.

His smirk widens. “Relax. I’m kiddin’.” He pauses. “Do you mind if I ask you somefin’?”

“You don’t seem like the asking type.”

“Good point. So then, why did you run away from me and Niki the other day when we were outside? You looked seriously bothered by somefin’.”

“Oh, um, yeah. It was a bad day.”

“Also, you were talkin’ to an empty bench.”

I laugh awkwardly. “It’s like you said, I don’t exactly have a reputation for being normal in this school.”

Matt smiles. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” The bravado has left his voice. “Believe me, as someone who didn’t grow up ’ere, I don’t think you should want to fit in. You’re way be’er as you are.”

I look at him, shocked by how genuinely nice that was.

“Anyway, the bell’s about to ring. See you around,” he says, and continues down the hallway before I can reply.

I open the door to AP History. Niki’s sitting on Jaxon’s desk.

“You guys should come over again tonight. Kick off the weekend,” Niki says.

Wait, he went to her house last night after we fought? I sink into my hard seat.