Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf by Wendelin Van Draanen Page A

…!”
    The tardy bell rang. And Heather must’ve thought it was a bomb going off, because she about spiked the ceiling, then threw her hand on her heart like she was trying to keep it from popping out of her chest. She gave me a really dirty look and turned her back on me, but all through homeroom her eyes kept darting in my direction.
    I didn’t notice until I was getting my books out of my desk that I got a present, too. An ornament. It was a white angel dangling from a red ribbon, and at first I didn’t realize that it was made out of uncooked noodles. A piece of manicotti for the body, a piece of bow-tie pasta for the wings, and macaroni for the arms. The face was painted with a felt-tip marker and looked like it was caroling.
    I peeked around the classroom to see if anyone was giving away that they were my KK. I figured I could eliminate boys right off. I mean, no boy would be caught dead leaving pretty painted pasta in someone’s desk.
    Brandy Cavaletto was looking in my direction, and she looked away, all right, but she might have been checking out Derrick Stern next to me. It was hard to say.
    Tawnee Francisco smiled at me, but she didn’t look
caught
or anything. And besides, Tawnee smiles at everyone. Cassie Kuo was looking at me through her bangs, but Cassie’s kind of shy and always looks at people that way. Even when she answers questions, she does it right through her bangs.
    Then there was Monique Halbig, staring straight at me. And the minute I caught her eye, she gave me a fluttery little smile and looked away. So I figured, okay. It was probably Monique. I took one last look at the pasta angel, put it in a safe corner of my desk, and closed the lid. Then I went back to staring at Heather.
    After homeroom I followed her again. All day. And any chance they got, Marissa and Holly did it too, giving her steady, angry stares. And whenever she’d see me, I’d make that tick-tocking sound—like the crocodile in
Peter Pan
stalking Captain Hook. Then I started doing it
before
she spotted me, which worked even better. She’d hear me ticking, then grab on to Tenille or Monet like they were buoys in the ocean, and dive into a classroom.
    At lunchtime we caught Dot up on what had happened that morning, and we all agreed that we should keep harassing Heather. So we went into the cafeteria to make her nervous from across the room, but she wasn’t there. We checked the patio tables, but she wasn’t there, either. Finally we split up. Holly and Dot went to look behind the bleachers, and Marissa and I went to check the locker room.
    The side door to the locker room was wide open, so we tiptoed in, and right away I knew they were there. I could smell the cigarette smoke. We sneaked past two sections of showers, then ducked into an alcove of lockers. There was a full-length mirror across the corridor, and we could see the reflection of Heather huddled up in a corner with Temile and Monet, passing a cigarette around. Heather was saying, “She knows. I tell you, she knows!”
    “So what?” Monet squeaked back. “What can she do about it?”
    Tenille laughed at Monet and said, “You don’t know Sammy very well, do you?”
    Heather dragged on the cigarette, then passed it to Monet. “She’s working on something. Something big.”
    Monet took the cigarette. “Oh, what’s she gonna do—put acid in your gel?”
    I looked at Marissa like, Oooo, that’s a good one! and she about busted up.
    “I’m talking something big. Really big.” Heather took the cigarette back from Tenille and whispered, “I think she’s planning to kill me.”
    They both blinked at her. “
Kill
you?” Monet added, “Like with a knife or something?”
    “I don’t know! How am I supposed to know? She’s acting so weird!”
    Tenille snickered. “Yeah, even for Sammy.”
    Monet shook her head. “
Kill
you? Isn’t that kinda like … drastic?”
    “Well,
you
tell me what she’s up to, then!” Heather snuffed out the butt.