Stalking Shadows (Scary Mary) Read Free

out?”
    “Yes, of course I knew because I’ve been secretly stalking Vicky all this time. I have a small shrine to her in my closet. Every night, I burn bubblegum incense and cuddle a Kleenex she once sneezed into while I Photoshop her picture onto the covers of Glamour and Vogue .”
    Mary slumped and picked at her sandwich, tearing off small pieces of crust and throwing them into the grass. “So, you don’t know if this was their first date or their fifth?”
    “If they were a couple, Vicky would’ve had T-shirts made. It was probably their first date, and she tricked him into going. He probably thought he was taking her grandpa to the airport or something, and she gave him directions to the movie theater instead, and since she already had pre-purchased tickets, why not go see the movie anyway because both of Vicky’s grandfathers are dead.”
    “Nah, she probably shot him with a tranquilizer gun and drove him to the movie theater, and he came to as the credits rolled.”
    “Even more likely. So see, not as bad as you think.”
    “I don’t know. He’s obviously worried about her, which means he cares, which means he likes her, which means they’re totally a couple. Right this moment, he’s probably hanging out by Vicky’s bedside like Prince Charming hovering over Sleeping Beauty, and I’m the evil fairy trying to train some flying monkeys to whisk him away.”
    “Wasn’t the Sleeping Beauty villainess named Maleficent? And she didn’t have flying monkeys. That was the Wicked Witch of the West.”
    “I’m sure the Wicked Witch of the West would’ve loaned her some flying monkeys. They were probably pals, trading potions and stuff.”
    “So I’m the Wicked Witch of the West?”
    “No, I always imagined you more as a Mad Madam Mim.”
    Rachel stared at her for a few blinks. “You’ve thought about this?”
    “The villains are more interesting.”
    “Let’s focus on something else.”
    “What?”
    “Well, I’m gonna flunk biology and be disowned by my father.”
    “I told you taking that AP class was going to be tough. You should’ve stuck with CP like me.”
    Rachel fell back onto the grass. “I know, but Dad was going on and on about how I have to take some advanced placement courses, and I wasn’t about to try AP History or AP English.”
    “And you wanted to dissect stuff.”
    “Dissecting stuff is cool. I need to take these classes if I’m going to be a coroner.”
    Mary shivered. Rachel had recently decided her life's goal was to be a coroner, and it freaked Mary out. She dealt with ghosts, so she knew a good bit about death, but she didn’t want to know the science of it. She didn’t want to face the physical evidence. The spiritual evidence was enough for her.
    “If you need help studying, I can quiz you. I may be only in lowly college prep, but I do know how to read.”
    Rachel lifted her head and grinned. “Thanks. Maybe we could get together Wednesday. I have a test on Thursday, and I have to ace it to start getting my grade up.”
    Mary nodded. Helping Rachel would keep her from obsessing over Cy.
    “So Kyle told you about Cy and Vicky?”
    She was surprised that Rachel was going back to that topic. “Yeah, he found me during TAB. He was upset, too that Cy hadn’t told me about the accident.”
    “That was nice of him.”
    “Yeah, it was better hearing it from him than overhearing it in the hallway or something.”
    “He’s been pretty nice to you since Ricky.” Ricky was the nasty ghost that had possessed Kyle and made him try to kill her. After all that, she’d figured he’d avoid her like the plague or maybe pick on her more, but instead, he said hi to her in the hallways and openly talked to her. It surprised her because she could count on one hand the number of people who were nice to her.
    “Yeah, he’s still grateful that I helped him. I figure it’ll die down in a while.”
    “I don’t know. He doesn’t seem so much grateful as interested in