Framed & Dangerous (9780545443128) Read online

  Jealousy rose up inside me. The fist bump was our thing. A hollow in my heart ached, the empty space where my best friend belonged.

  Then Darcy noticed me, straightened in her seat, and stared. My nerves went crazy, from my stomach to my fingers, and I thought there was a real chance that I would lose my breakfast right there in front of everyone.

  Then she looked away.

  The seat beside her was empty. What would she do if I sat there? Yell at me? Ignore me? Or … maybe we’d make up. Maybe she felt just like I did.

  I stood frozen for a moment, not knowing what to do. I decided to make a deal. If she looked at me again, I’d go over there.

  Look at me. Look at me.

  A voice behind me said, “Norah, over here!”

  Fiona Fanning waved at me with one hand, while using the other to save the seat beside her. Fiona was the prettiest, most popular girl in school. Today, her long brown hair fell in stylish waves along the shoulders of her red cashmere sweater. Meanwhile, my dark-blond hair hung limply down the back of my gray hoodie. I was an astronomy-obsessed nerd and she was destined for the fashion runway. But we’d bonded over a Partners in Crime case and were unlikely, but real, friends.

  That budding friendship had caused a rift to form between Darcy and me. But our fight also involved miscommunications and other best-friend drama. None of which was Fiona’s fault.

  I adjusted my glasses on my face and made my way over to the seat beside Fiona. Before I could whisper hello, Principal Plati immediately walked to the podium.

  “As you all know,” he began, “our brand-new field house has been destroyed. The brave firefighters did their best against the flames, but we will need to completely rebuild. The area around the field house is roped off. It is unsafe. And the fire department is investigating. So no student is allowed near what’s left of the building. Is that understood?”

  We all nodded.

  Principal Plati cleared his throat, as if the next part was harder to say. I squirmed in my seat.

  “Mr. Gray, our school janitor, was there early yesterday morning and saw the building in flames. He called 911 and rushed to the field house to try to help put the fire out with an extinguisher. Unfortunately, he was hurt and is being treated in the hospital now for smoke inhalation and other injuries.”

  A hush fell over the crowd. This was even worse news. The field house was just a building. It could be replaced. Mr. Gray was a person. And a nice one, at that. He always smiled and waved as you passed by. My eyes got all watery at the thought of him lying in a hospital bed. How could something like this happen?

  As if he knew that would be the next question, Mr. Plati said, “We’ve been told from the fire department that there’s a chance this was arson.”

  Fiona leaned in and whispered, “What does that mean?”

  I knew the term from watching Crime Scene: New York with Darcy. “It means it wasn’t an accident,” I whispered back. “Someone tried to burn down the field house on purpose.”

  I felt eyes on the back of my head, like someone was watching me. I turned in my seat and found Zane staring at me with a worried look on his face.

  Normally, I’d be excited to catch Zane staring at me. But his expression made a shudder go down my spine.

  I remembered the e-mail he got.

  You’ll be blamed.

  That didn’t have anything to do with the fire … did it?

  Fiona and I walked out of the auditorium together. Zane had left with his soccer team friends, after giving me one last desperate look over his shoulder.

  Fiona threw her hands in the air. “This is terrible!”

  “I know.” I shook my head sadly. “Poor Mr. Gray.”

  Fiona arched an eyebrow as if she’d forgotten the fact that Mr. Gray was currently in the hospital fighting for his life. “Well, yes, that’s horrible, too,” she said. “But I was referring to the tragedy of our new field house being destroyed.”

  I shrugged, not getting why she was being so over-dramatic. “They’ll rebuild it.”

  Fiona opened her mouth wide like I’d said the dumbest thing on earth. “Not in time! They can’t build a new field house in two weeks.”

  “In … two … weeks?” My mind searched for what could possibly be so important to her. Fiona was a cheerleader for the football team. They played outside.

  “The school dance, Norah!” she said, exasperated.

  Oh. That. I’d seen new posters for the dance hanging in the hallway just that morning, but I hadn’t given a thought to the dance yet. “It can be in the gym,” I suggested.

  Fiona looked offended. “That nasty old place? It smells like dirty socks!”

  She started walking quickly, letting her fingers trail along the lockers. I rushed to keep up with her as she chattered on.

  “I suppose you’re right, though,” she said. “The Dance Committee barely has enough money for decorations. We can’t afford to have it anywhere off school property. We’ll have to do it in the gym.”

  The words poured out of her mouth in a stream of anxious babbling.

  “The Dance Committee is really going to need some creative ideas now. People have the most unrealistic theme suggestions, and now I have to deal with this mess.” Then, like a lightbulb had lit up in her head, she stopped and pointed at me. “You.”

  I put a hand to my chest. “Me?”

  “Yes, you.”

  “Me what?”

  “You need to join the Dance Committee.”

  Did she have smoke inhalation? The Dance Committee was made up of all the most popular girls in school. Girls who wouldn’t bother to even speak to me, never mind listen to my ideas. Fiona must have been insane. I started to back away. “Uh, no thanks. I’m, uh, busy.”

  “Wait.” Fiona grabbed the sleeve of my hoodie. “I need you, Norah. You’re smart, creative, and organized.”

  “But I don’t really —”

  Fiona started hopping in place, repeating, “Please, please, please, please, please.”

  “Fine, fine,” I said, mainly to make her stop. “I’ll go to one meeting and see how it is.”

  “Great!” Fiona clapped her hands together. “It’s right after school in Room 111.” She lowered her voice and added, “Maybe after the meeting we can talk about how to get Zane to ask you to the dance.”

  She wagged her eyebrows at me, spun around, and walked away.

  I hadn’t even thought about that as a possibility. A little grin spread across my face.

  I was suddenly a lot more interested in the school dance.

  After the assembly, classes were held as normal. I tried my best to focus even though I was anxious about ten thousand different things. I’m a worrier by nature, so this isn’t exactly breaking news, but I didn’t usually have so much to obsess about at once. The fire, Darcy, Zane, why I’d agreed to join the Dance Committee …

  When the bell rang for lunch, I realized that I’d have to face Darcy. It was easy to ignore our fight in class. I paid attention to the teacher, as usual. But in the lunchroom we always sat together and talked. Every day. I stopped and stared at the kids rushing through the open doorway, excited to eat and join their friends. It felt like there was a giant boulder sitting in my stomach.

  If I walked in and she was sitting at our usual table, did I just go and sit next to her? Or … if I went in and she wasn’t there yet, did I sit in our regular spot?

  I didn’t know what to do.

  I took a deep breath and stepped into the large, noisy room. My eyes went directly to our usual spot. Maya was there, but Darcy wasn’t sitting with her. Where was she? Did she make a new friend already, or was she eating alone in the library to avoid me? How could she be so cold?

  My mood swung from nervous to angry. I bet Darcy hadn’t even cried over our fight like I had. She never cries. Not even when she broke her arm in fourth grade. I tried to harden my heart. She’s a robot. Who wants a robot as a friend anyway?

  But she was also hilario
usly funny. And smart. And easy to talk to.

  On the surface we seemed like opposites. She dressed to stand out, I liked blending in. She got in trouble so much that Principal Plati had her mother on speed-dial, and I was a goody-goody. But we did have a lot in common. We lived next door to each other. We were both only children. We were nerds and proud of it. Hanging with Fiona and Maya was fun, but no one understood me like Darcy did.

  I suddenly missed her so much it felt like someone was squeezing my heart.

  I had to get out of there. I spun around, left the cafeteria, and headed for the computer lab. I was pretty sure it was empty during our lunch period. I could quickly eat my sandwich and then try to get to the bottom of Zane’s weird e-mail.

  I peeked my head into the room. Empty. Yes! I chose the closest computer and entered my school user name and password. While it loaded I pulled my sandwich out of my paper lunch bag and took a big bite.

  I’d asked Zane to forward the e-mail to me so I could take a closer look. I logged into my e-mail and clicked on the anonymous message. It had no subject line and only those three threatening words in the body. It was sent early Monday morning, when the field house was on fire. I examined the sender once more. The address was ZM at some free e-mail service. “I wonder what ZM stands for,” I said, thinking out loud. But as soon as I said it, I realized those were Zane’s initials.

  The computer lab suddenly felt as cold as the Arctic Circle. I shivered uncontrollably. It certainly seemed like someone had created an e-mail address just to send Zane one crazy e-mail. Using his initials in the address made it even more menacing in a way. Like someone was out to get him.

  I’d been hoping to type the person’s e-mail address into Google and find some information about him or her. You never know what will pop up with an e-mail address search. But now I knew … this one would turn up empty. I tried anyway and got nothing.

  I let out a long sigh. Okay, Norah. What would Darcy do?

  She’d find out more about the e-mailer.

  I searched “how to find out who sent an e-mail” and wasted the rest of the lunch period reading articles that made no sense to me. E-mail tracers, ISP providers, IP addresses — I didn’t know what any of that meant. I ran my fingers roughly through my hair.

  Totally frustrated, I logged out of the computer and threw the rest of my sandwich away.

  This was going to be harder than I thought.

  I waited outside classroom 111, where the Dance Committee meeting was being held. It hadn’t started yet, but I could hear all the squealing and chatter inside. I stood in the hall, out of sight, and nervously toyed with the end of my ponytail.

  I’m not usually a big joiner, though I was, briefly, the president of the Astronomy Club. (We only had one meeting. Darcy was the sole person to show up, and that was just because she felt bad for me.)

  The Dance Committee had a much bigger turnout. I took a peek through the open door, then pulled my head back out. Just as I had suspected. All the popular girls. Fiona was there, too, but that still didn’t make me comfortable enough to join in.

  Suddenly, an arm reached through the opening, grabbed the sleeve of my hoodie, and pulled me inside.

  “Maya?” I gasped, surprised.

  She stood with a sheepish grin. “I thought it would be fun to join the committee. What do you think?”

  “Yeah, totally. This will be great.” I said the words, but I didn’t know if I believed them.

  But I was glad Maya was there. When she first moved to our town a few weeks ago, she was so shy she barely spoke. Now it was clear she was becoming braver.

  “Why weren’t you at lunch?” Maya asked. “It was just Darcy and me at the table.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Darcy showed? She must’ve been in the lunch line when I’d looked at the table. A guilty lump formed in my throat.

  “Darcy and I are, um, in a little fight,” I said. I quickly summarized the implosion of our friendship, and Maya frowned.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said softly. “I can’t imagine you guys as not being joined at the hip.” She shook her head. “Maybe that’s why she seemed even moodier than usual.”

  Before I could dwell too much on that, Fiona waved at me from across the room. I started plowing her way through the crowd.

  “I’ll save you a seat in the back,” Maya said, and scurried off.

  “You’re here!” Fiona said when I reached her. “I thought you were going to back out of your promise.”

  I wanted to, I thought. But I plastered on a half smile and said, “Yeah, I’m here. Ready to go.”

  Fiona gave a little clap. “Great. I’m sure whatever you’ve come up with is awesome. Here’s how it’ll work. When I ask for theme nominations, you raise your hand, then I’ll call on you to come up to the podium and present your idea.”

  My mouth fell open. “I didn’t know you were going to put me on the spot.” I had solved some seriously creepy mysteries, including one in the woods at night in the dark, but the thing I was most frightened of was standing up and speaking in front of the class. I’d rather clean every toilet in the whole school. That’s how much I hate public speaking.

  “Well, duh,” Fiona said. “I told you, we need creative ideas. And you’re smart. I knew you’d come up with something great. You’ll be fine.”

  I didn’t want to break it to her that — between all the drama with Darcy and Zane — I hadn’t thought about any ideas for the dance.

  “You’re not going to let me down, right? Amanda and Violet have the most ridiculous idea, and I don’t want everyone else to just go along with them.” Fiona blinked her giant green eyes at me and made a pouty face.

  “Um, yeah,” I said. “I won’t let you down. My idea rocks.”

  I just had to think of one. Like now.

  But it was hard to concentrate. Somebody smelled like they’d taken a bath in perfume that morning. I wriggled my nose and held back the urge to gag.

  “You’re going to the dance?” a snarky voice said over my shoulder.

  Fiona took a step back to make room for Amanda and Violet to join our conversation. I knew who they were, but I didn’t think they’d ever spoken to me before. They were popular, but not in Fiona’s inner circle.

  Amanda’s long, silky black hair cascaded down one shoulder. She looked up at me with wide hazel eyes. Everything about her seemed soft. Violet had similar hair, but it was more bluntly cut. And she had a little nose that turned up at the end, like it was disgusted with everyone.

  Violet was the one who’d spoken to me, barely disguising her disbelief that I was interested in the school dance.

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to force confidence into my voice. “I’m going.”

  “With who?” Violet asked. It sounded like a challenge.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know yet. Maybe just with friends.”

  Violet smirked at Amanda. But Amanda didn’t smirk back. Instead, she waited for Violet to look away, then gave me an apologetic smile. I was glad to see she wasn’t as mean as her friend.

  “That’s cool,” Fiona chimed in. “There’s nothing wrong with going stag. Who needs boys?”

  “Says the most boy-obsessed girl in the school,” Amanda joked.

  We all chuckled. The mood seemed to be lightening at least.

  “Besides,” Fiona said. “Like I’ve said before, I’m pretty sure someone is going to ask Norah.”

  Oh no. I glared at Fiona, willing her to keep quiet. I didn’t want her telling everyone that Zane was going to ask me. Then what if he didn’t? I’d look like an idiot. Though, it sounded like she might’ve already told people. I gritted my teeth.

  Fiona, thankfully, understood my look and said, “Anyway, time to start the meeting!”

  I sat next to Maya while Fiona confidently strode up to the podium. She pulled out a glitter-covered gavel and banged it twice. I held back a giggle, imagining what wisecrack Darcy would say about that if she were here.

 
Mrs. Haymon, a teacher who taught an accelerated math course I was taking, was correcting tests in the back corner. Every club has to have a teacher-advisor present at all meetings. But Mrs. Haymon didn’t need to do anything to gain control of the crowd. Fiona seemed to be on top of that.

  Fiona cleared her throat. “Welcome, Dance Committee members. First, whoever came in early yesterday morning and hung the posters for the dance, thank you, but it would’ve been better to wait until after we had a theme. Now we’ll just have to re-hang new ones after we vote.” She paused and looked around the room. “Who hung them?”

  No one raised a hand. I actually didn’t blame them. Who’d want to be put on the spot like that after having made a mistake?

  Fiona rolled her eyes. “Okay, well, thanks ghost poster hanger. Moving on.” She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “The destruction of the brand-new field house is not going to ruin our dance. We’ll have to have it in the old gym, yes, but we’re going to have an amazing theme that will make up for it. Agreed?”

  Everyone clapped and whooped. I was impressed. If a career in fashion didn’t work out for Fiona, she could always be a politician.

  Fiona banged her gavel once to silence the crowd. Mrs. Haymon called out, “Keep the budget in mind!”

  Fiona nodded. “Yes. When thinking of ideas, remember our budget is small. We need something that’s doable.” She seemed to stare right at Violet and Amanda as she said it. Then she looked back at the rest of us. “Anyone with an idea for a theme can come up and present it. After all nominations have been heard, we’ll bring it to a vote. Who wants to be first?”

  Fiona looked straight at me, but I didn’t raise my hand. I looked away, down at the floor, up at the lights, anywhere but back at her. Kind of like when a teacher asks a question and you don’t want to be called on, and you convince yourself that you’re invisible if there’s no eye contact.

  I was scared that she was going to call on me anyway, but then Violet shouted, “Us! Us!”

  Breathing a sigh of relief, I watched Violet and Amanda approach the podium. Good. This would give me time to come up with my own idea.