LOT'S MOUNTAIN

CHAPTER EIGHT: High School and Other Not-So-Natural Disasters

The next thing I know, I'm back in the woods. I reckon the Old Bone Woman was right about being able to get me out of her place. After I get back to Roger, I feed him a bunch of excuses. I hate lying to him, but it's not like I can tell him the truth about Belle Lake or everything that I saw. He grumbles a little, but then drops me off at the Shermans' place.

Diane's still up. She doesn't say anything to me, though, except to remind me that school starts in the morning.

That bracelet is like a freaking boulder wrapped around my hand. For a while, I just sit in my room and stare at it, waiting for another piece to disintegrate and for me to get closer to the Glass Man.

There has to be a way to stop the Glass Man from getting what he wants, a way that won't leave me dead. If there isn't, then all of it was pointless—seeing Belle Lake, meeting Grim, and almost having a mer-horse tap dance on my face.

No. Belle Lake isn't pointless and neither is Grim. For a while, I shove all the doom shit away and think about how the water lapped against the shore. And yeah, the Ladies, too. It's hard to forget them.

Around three in the morning, or at least that's the time I remember looking at the clock on my desk, I drift off to sleep and have a dream that I'm buried alive under heaps of wet concrete. There's no Bill-thing in the dream and no cryptic warnings. When I wake up, Nameless is on my face. I guess sometimes dreams can give you warnings and sometimes you get up with a cat sprawled across your face. The world is real funny like that.

After the sun comes up and I'm sure Tim's already left for work, I head downstairs to grab some juice or a handful of pretzels before I head off to school. But Diane's got a huge plate of bacon and eggs, with two thick slices of toast on the side. There's even blackberry jelly to go with the bread. Man, Diane's going all out this time, like it's my last meal or something.

I pull my jacket sleeve down to make sure that it covers the bracelet that the Old Bone Woman gave me. Three more broken and I'll meet the Glass Man. Makes me want to lock myself in my room with Nameless. Would it have killed the Old Bone Woman to be a little more specific? One thing's for sure, something's coming for me and it's coming soon.

How do I know what I'm supposed to do?

"Just remember to be normal," Diane says all of a sudden, as she turns back to the sink. I'm pretty sure that she's washed the same dish about four times now. She fakes a smile and says, "You'll be okay. I know you will do great today."

When I slice into my fried egg, the yellow oozes out and leaks onto the bacon.

Then Diane adds, "And because this is your first day of school and it's a new school, someone is coming over to walk with you to the bus stop."

Then it happens. Something worse than maniacs and monsters—Mindy.

I know the girl that bursts in on us is named Mindy because she has it printed in big bubble letters on the front of her shirt with an exclamation point behind it. I agree with her shirt. She really is a Mindy! instead of a Mindy.

"Hi, Dylan. Dylan ... I don't know anyone else by that name. That's cool," she says as she twirls her too-white blond hair around her finger.

I try to say something, but she's already talking again. "I wanted you to feel welcome at our school. Or WE-elcome. Get it? WE-elcome."

"Huh?" I put my fork down.

"The WE in welcome. You know, you and me. That makes us a WE and not just a you or a me. Today is going to be so great." She bounces around and barely misses the dishes that Diane's been scouring. Yeah, Earthquake Mindy is a 9 on the Richter scale. "And I think I have a lot of classes with you. Did you know that?"