Miss Aldridge baked a chicken, pot pie in the oven and boiled some broccoli on the stove in the kitchen. Ryan poured himself a glass of cherry soda.
"Mom, can I go to Sloan's tonight?"
"As long as you don't sleep over again."
"I won't."
Shawn sneaked out of Grace's room with a duffle bag and ran out the living room, door. Ryan grinned.
He called Sloan in his room with Miss Aldridge's smartphone and asked him to cover for him if she called.
Miss Aldridge served the pie and ate dinner at the kitchen table with Ryan and Grace.
"Mom, Shawn's picking me up at seven-thirty. He's dropping Ryan off at Sloan's. Then we're going to the movies."
"Will you have enough time?"
"Yeah, the movie starts at eight-twenty."
"What are you seeing?"
"Adventure Riders."
"Oh. The trailer looked really good."
---
Shawn tooted the car horn outside and Grace got in the front. Ryan sat in the back seat of the green sedan near the duffle bag. Shawn drove off and Ryan unzipped it. Then he changed into a pair of red, crop pants and a pink bra.
"Stuff that bra good," said Grace.
Ryan grabbed the white, gym socks from the bag and filled each padded cup. Then he tossed a white blouse over his head.
"Now load your eyelashes with that mascara. Don't poke your eye out," she said.
Ryan found the compact and used the mirror, applying the mascara awkwardly. Shawn turned a corner and Ryan hit his eyelid with the mascara stick.
"Use those wipes if you mess up," said Grace.
Ryan cleaned his eyelid, taking off the smear.
"How do I look?" he asked.
"You need more mascara on your left eye and you forgot the lip gloss."
The mascara clumped, but Ryan added more and smeared the shiny, pink stick all over his lips.
"Makeup is so gross," he said.
"You want in or not? Put the wig on."
Ryan took the blonde wig with the bobb cut and squeezed it on his head.
"It's tight," he said.
"Comb it out with your hand."
Ryan smoothed it down and stepped into flat, black shoes.
"The shoes are a little big."
"Don't run in them."
Shawn pulled into the parking lot crowded with cars at Bean Gene's Cafe.
"Down here," said Shawn, hurrying into an alley behind the cafe. Grace and Ryan followed him.
He knocked on a back door. A muscular man with a balding head opened it slightly.
"Name?"
"Shawn Woods."
"Come in." He held his hand out. "ID?"
Shawn showed him his driver's license and Grace and Ryan walked in.
"They're sixteen," said Shawn. "This is my girlfriend, Grace and that's my cousin, Cindy."
YOU ARE READING
Sing Today Die Tomorrow
Mystery / ThrillerSomething wants him to die. Something else wants him to misbehave and another something wants him to hear lies. And he just turned thirteen. Ryan Ross doesn't understand what on earth is haunting him until a mysterious stranger leads him to a secret...
