"Dad, look!" I said, and showed him my phone.
CHAPTER THREE.
I woke up with a nervous stomach. My mom made homemade chocolate chip waffles, I could only eat a little bit.
I went to school and my dad drove Chanda and me, as usual. My mom was going to pick me up since my backpack was so heavy. They didn"t want me to start having back problems so early in life. Five textbooks and five notebooks weighed a lot.
I kept looking around the school to see if anyone was watching me, everyone looked busy going to school and doing their own thing.
At lunch, I told my friends about the mean text message I got last night. They didn"t understand it either. It seemed like this person hated me, not liked me, I didn"t know why they would stalk me.
My mom came and picked up Chanda and me. It was a big ha.s.sle because all of the seniors had cars now and they were leaving at the same time.
"I know this is a real pain, Mom. I am sorry," I said.
"Not your fault," my mom said.
"Did Whitney tell you about the text she got last night?" Chanda asked my mom.
"No," my mom said.
I shot Chanda a look. She mouthed "sorry" to me.
"No, she didn"t. What did this one say?" my mom asked me.
"Just the word, *Witch,"" I said. "I showed Dad."
"I really don"t like this," my mom said, visibly upset.
"I don"t either," I said. "Why are they doing this?"
"Well, at least we made a police statement," my mom said.
"I have been thinking about that," I said, "maybe I shouldn"t have done that. It really seemed to upset the person stalking me."
"We are not going to let this person control us," my mom said.
"Okay," I said.
We arrived home and Chanda and went to her house to get her history notebook for me to copy, I had finished copying the English notebook last night.
My parents, Jacob, and Jordan went out to eat. My stomach was in turmoil, so I wasn"t hungry, I told my parents I would have a TV dinner at home.
Our phone rang on our land line, I picked up. Someone said, "Your parents aren"t home," and then they hung up.
I looked to see who called and the caller I.D. showed "unavailable."
By then, I was really scared. I went around the house and locked all the doors, I turned on all the lights, I even made sure the windows were locked. I was sitting in my dad"s chair with every light on in the house when my family came home. I let them in.
"Why in the world is every light on?" my father asked me.
I motioned for him and my mom to come to my bedroom. Jacob and Jordan took off to the living room to play their video games. When we got to my room, I told my parents about the threatening phone call.
"He is really messing with your mind," my dad said.
"How does he know so much about me?" I asked fearfully.
"He might have driven by and seen that the car was gone," my mom said. I started shivering.
"Oh, honey, it will be okay," my dad said, hugging me.
"I am more than a little scared. Do you think he might hurt me?" I asked my parents.
"I don"t think so," my dad said, "but I don"t know what he is thinking either."
"I personally think it is some kid who has a crush on you," Mom said.
"What a way to show it," I said.
"What a way to show what?" Jacob came in my room.
"This is a private conversation," I said to him.
"Fine, I will leave," he said, then he farted, he left, laughing.
"Jacob, that was rude," my mom called after him.
We all decided to leave the room because of the smell.
I was still nervous from the phone call, so I never ate dinner. I decided I had a new diet. The stalker diet.
I got some Febreze air spray and sprayed my room. Then I started on the history notebook Chanda gave me.
This stalker thing was such a pain because it was starting to get warmer out and I was afraid to open my curtain and my window.
I finished the history notebook but I didn"t go over to Chanda"s. It was dark and I was scared, I would get a new notebook tomorrow. I had gotten new books from the school so I had homework to do and I decided to get right to it.
While I was working on it, Jordan came to my door and knocked and I told him to come in.
"What is going on here?" he asked me.
Jordan was always very sensitive.
"I don"t want to freak you out," I said.
"I won"t freak out," he said.
"Some guy has been stalking me, and leaving weird messages on my phone," I said.
"Have you seen him?"
"No, and that is the creepy part. He is like some phantom that sees me and I cannot see him," I said. "I don"t know who it is."
"Well, I will keep my eyes open," he said.
I gave him a hug, I loved both my brothers the same, but Jacob was younger and not so sensitive to my feelings as Jordan.
That night, I woke up around two in the morning with my heart pounding. I was really afraid. I took a blanket and a pillow and I went in the boys" room and slept on their floor. It wasn"t very comfortable, but at least I didn"t feel so alone.
The next morning, Jacob stepped on me when he got out of bed. He screamed, I screamed and my mom came running in from the kitchen. She was holding a spatula.
"What in the world?" my mom asked.
"I got scared last night and came and slept on Jacob and Jordan"s floor," I said.
"My poor baby," my mom said.
She walked over and awkwardly gave me a hug.
I got up and grabbed my blanket and pillow.
"You know Jacob and I still have our BB guns," Jordan said looking at me.
"No BB guns," my mom said.
Last summer, the boys had accidentally hit a bird, so my parents had put the guns away.
"Thank you, Jordan," I said.
"No problem," he said winking at me.
We all trooped into breakfast, which was burning pancakes, I ate some burned pancakes with syrup. I was too hungry to mind.
Later, my dad took Chanda and me to school, I had my stupid backpack full of books, and I felt like a huge turtle. Cla.s.ses were okay I had to keep getting the right book out of my bag, which was a ha.s.sle, in American Government I was asked a question I didn"t know the answer to, because I didn"t have that folder. I tried to explain to the teacher later why I flaked out and he didn"t seem to care that I had a serious reason.
I usually liked school but I kept getting the feeling of being watched. I would turn suddenly, but no one would be there and I had goose b.u.mps on the backs of my arms.
My mom came and picked up Chanda and me.
Later, in my room, I was taking out my books when a note fell out of my bag. It looked just like the other one with cut-out letters from a magazine. It said, "I decided to forgive you for calling the police." That was it.
I dropped it like it was on fire and my heart was pounding like crazy.
I went to my kitchen where my mom was starting dinner and I told her, "I got another note."
"A note, what do you mean?" she asked distractedly.
"From that weirdo. I got another note," I said impatiently.
She stopped measuring water in a pan and looked at me.
"You don"t have a locker anymore," she said.
"I know, he put in my backpack," I said.
She turned white.
"He got close enough to you to put something in your bag and you didn"t see him?" she asked.
"I guess so," I said and then I burst into tears.
"Aw, honey, it will be okay," wiping her hands on her shirt and coming over to me to hug me.
"Should I be scared?" I asked her.
"I really don"t know," she said.
"I feel scared," I said.
"Well, when Dad gets home, we will show him the note. He will know what to do," Mom said.
"Okay," I said.
"Where is the note now?" she asked.
"On my floor," I said.
"Well, pick it up and put it in this baggie," she said, going over to the cupboard and getting out a baggie.
I went in my room and put the note carefully in the baggie where someone could read it.
We had dinner and the boys were being silly. They had sort of a game they played on each other when the other one gets in trouble. They kind of put their hand over their faces and close it and call out, "Facial!" I don"t know how it started, but I sometimes do it to them and they go nuts with laughter.
My father came home and had dinner and after dinner, my mom and I told him about the note. He said he would go late into work tomorrow to take it to the police station. I asked if I had to go and he said he didn"t see why I should.
When it was time for bed, I was scared, so I asked the boys if they wanted to sleep in my bed. I had a double bed. They both said no. I told them I would tell them a really good story so they said okay.
After we put on our pajamas, we went to bed. I started telling them a Cinderella story but then it got nice and gory about how the mom died. Then, when I got to the kissing part at the end, I called it, "Mooey, Mooey," which is a funny thing to them, they laughed and we all went to sleep.
The next morning, we all woke up tangled around each other, I loved sleeping in a dog pile.
My mom took Chanda and me to school since my dad was going to the police station. I told Chanda in the car all about the note and she looked scared.