The Curse on Spectacle Key by Chantel Acevedo

Author:Chantel Acevedo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Connie Is Good at Names

When I woke up the next morning, Connie was curled up on the rug beside my bed. She didn’t even have a pillow. Mary Shelley was snuggled beside her, with Bernard sitting between her paws.

Some friend I was.

Without making a sound, I got up to take a shower and put on fresh clothes. When I returned to my room, Connie was looking through my closet.

“What’s up?” I asked.

Slowly, Connie raised her eyes to the ceiling.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “It means what are you up to?”

“Oh,” she said. “Might I borrow your clothes? I think I’m quite ready to stop looking like a one-hundred-year-old.”

I didn’t tell her that I sort of liked her dress and her boots. They made her unique. Instead I said, “Sure,” and helped her pick through my T-shirts. Connie settled on a green shirt with a white alligator on the front. The words See you later, alligator were printed on the back. I’d gotten it last year on a trip to the Everglades with Pop-Pop. Connie slipped the shirt on over her dress.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Cool,” I said.

Connie looked puzzled. “Actually, I’m feeling a bit warm today.” She cinched the T-shirt around her waist with a shoelace I’d left on the floor. “Perfect,” she said, smoothing out the material.

Perfect, I thought, and gave her my biggest smile.

The T-shirt made me remember an experiment I’d thought up the day before. “Come with me,” I said. Connie followed me up the stairs to where Papi was working on the lantern.

“Buenos días,” Papi grumbled. There was a flashlight between his teeth while he tried to wrench a screw into place.

“Hey, Papi, check out my friend’s new outfit,” I said. Connie looked confused, but she grabbed the ends of the T-shirt and curtsied.

Papi looked our way and sighed. “M’ijo, you’re too old for imaginary friends. I know Mom thinks that—”

“Bye, Papi!” I interrupted; then I grabbed Connie’s hand and led her back to my bedroom.

She scowled at me. “What was that for?”

I sat on my bed and smiled, feeling very proud of myself. “An experiment to see if your invisibility extends to the things you touch. My Everglades shirt, your plate at the buffet, anything you actually hold, can’t be seen by anyone but me.” I thought for a minute. “But you did hold my hand and Papi didn’t say that—”

“Frank Fernández!” Connie shouted. “Wipe that smug look off your face this instant. I am a person. A PERSON. Not an experiment for you to play scientist with.”

“Play scientist?!” I repeated, my cheeks burning.

“Indeed,” Connie said. She stomped both her boots, gave Bernard a vicious swipe that knocked him off the windowsill, then sat down.

Here’s the thing about not having had many friends: I didn’t know what to do when one of them was angry with me. I wasn’t playing scientist. I was trying to learn as much as I could about Connie’s situation. First my parents were bickering, and now me and

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