Nine Doors by Vicki Grant

Author:Vicki Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Young Adult, JUV000000
ISBN: 9781554696772
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Published: 2009-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

door number six

Mom called from the car to say she wasn’t coming home for dinner after all. She was frazzled after sitting in traffic for hours. She decided to stay in town and catch a play with her friend Cara.

That was fine by me. If she wasn’t going to be there, I didn’t have to bother eating any vegetables. I cut myself a piece of lasagna. I was hungry, but after a couple of bites I didn’t feel like eating any more. I kept on thinking about Bebi—which was kind of nice—and Richard—which wasn’t. How did he do it? Even when he wasn’t around, he managed to weasel into my brain.

I had to get out of playing Nicky Nicky Nine Doors with him that night. I know I’d been telling myself that all day, but I was serious about it now. I truly hated the game. It was mean, it was stupid, it was dangerous and, worst of all, it was potentially embarrassing. If anyone I knew caught me playing, I’d never live it down.

It should have been so easy to pick up the phone and say I’m not going. But this was Richard I was dealing with. He wouldn’t just say, “Sure. Whatever. No problem.” One way or another he was going to talk me into playing again. I knew it. I could feel it in my stomach. It was like running a race with the world’s fastest man or something. You know you’re going to lose even before the starter’s gun goes off. It kind of takes the fight out of you.

I tried not to let that bother me. I told myself, “Be a man. Call him. Tell him you quit.” I’d get all revved up to phone, but somehow I always ended up putting it off. I guess I kept hoping something would happen. His mother wouldn’t let him stay over, say, or a big thunderstorm would hit, or Richard would actually develop a conscience and decide he didn’t want to do it either.

I scraped the rest of my lasagna into the compost bin and started playing video games instead. At least I knew how to defeat those enemy mutants.

That took my mind off things. I forgot about Nicky Nicky Nine Doors for a while. I have no idea how much time had gone by when the doorbell rang. I was sort of annoyed. The universe would have soon been mine. I got up anyway and opened the door.

Bebi must have thought I was an idiot. I just stood there staring at her with my tongue hanging out.

“Hi,” she said.

She probably expected me to say “Hi” back—or to at least nod or blink or something.

She said, “You okay?” and looked at me in such a worried way I felt almost obliged to snap out of it. I gave my head a little shake to get my brain started up again.

“Yeah,” I said. “I just, um...” I started searching for some reason to be acting so lame. I noticed something down the street.

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