“No problem,” Fiona said. “That works better for our observations anyway.”
“Your what?”
“Observations. That was the plan for today, remember?”
“So you’ve snuck into my school to observe me?”
“We didn’t sneak in,” Keira said, sounding bored. “We enrolled.”
“I don’t care how you got here. If you’re just observing me, why did you blow the whistle at all?”
“To see what happened, of course,” Fiona said.
“To see what happened? What happened is you made me lose a lot of friends!”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. If you lost any friends because of today then they weren’t really your friends, were they? What we learned is so much more important. I do want to ask you one thing, though. Just before you ran into that other boy, did you feel anything…um…unusual?”
Eric hesitated, then said, “It happened too fast.”
“So you didn’t feel anything.”
“No, I did. It happened too fast. I shouldn’t have been that close to him, but all of a sudden, I was.”
Fiona nodded. “That’s what I thought. Don’t worry. We’ve seen that before. It’s normal.”
“Normal?” Eric said. “There was nothing normal about that.”
Maggie, whose head had been moving back and forth as she tried to keep up with the conversation, finally said, “This is ridiculous. Whatever’s going on with Eric is just…I don’t know…just what happens. We all have times when things don’t go our way.”
“That’s true. Life is full of that. Even ours. But Eric’s case is definitely different.” Fiona glanced at Eric. “Did you tell her about the phone book?”
“What phone book?” Maggie asked.
Keira turned the page in her manga. “That answers that question.”
“Look, I don’t know who you people think you are,” Maggie said, “but I think you’re just trying to trick Eric so you can get something out of him. He’s been having a little bit of bad luck lately, that’s all. You’re just taking advantage of him. Maybe he can’t see it, but I can. I think you should leave him alone.”
“Are you trying to say we’re running a scam?” Fiona asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. A scam. You’re running a scam at him.”
“On him,” Fiona corrected her. “If you’re going to use the word, use it correctly.”
Eric’s best friend looked like she was about to explode.
“Maggie, it’s okay,” he said. “There’s no scam.”
“How do you know? You’re not even yourself lately. You can’t tell.”
“You nearly hit it on the nose,” Fiona said. “He is still himself, but if we aren’t able to stop his troubles, he won’t be for long.”
“Ugh!” Maggie threw her arms in the air and took a step back. “I’m not going to listen to this any more. In fact, I’m going to go to the office right now and tell them who you really are. Scam people.”
“Scam artists is the term you’re looking for,” Keira said.
Maggie’s cheeks flushed. She opened her mouth to speak but shut it again, spun around, and marched off toward the office.
Eric watched her go but didn’t attempt to stop her. It wouldn’t be any use anyway. And even if Maggie did as she threatened, he had the feeling nothing would happen to the Trouble sisters.
Once Maggie was out of earshot, Eric said, “You said you learned something important from watching me.”
“Very,” Fiona said.
“What?”
“Can’t tell you that yet.” She glanced around. “What I really need to do right now is report in. This new data should give us enough to finish the plan for getting your old life back.”
She gave Eric a hang-in-there smile and started walking away. Without looking up, Keira turned and followed her.
“Does what you learned have anything to do with Makers?” Eric asked.
Both girls froze mid-step, then, as one, they turned back around. Keira was no longer looking at her book.
“Where did you hear that?” Fiona asked.
“I didn’t tell him,” Keira said quickly.
“Your brother,” Eric said.
Fiona took two big steps back to him. “He told you about the Makers?” She sounded shocked.
Mr. Trouble had only mentioned the word Makers but Eric said, “Some.”
Keira moved in beside her sister. “What did he tell you?” she asked, her intensity surprising, given how uninterested she’d seemed all other times.
Fiona was studying his face. “Well?”
“He told me…he told me they were…” He took a breath. “The cause of my problems.” That was an easy enough guess.
“He did not!” Keira said.
“Yes, he did,” Eric countered. “How else could I have heard of them?”
Keira looked at her sister. “That’s true.”
Crossing her arms, Fiona said, “I can’t believe he talked to you about the Makers. That’s completely against our guidelines.” She seemed lost in thought for a moment, then her eyes snapped back into focus. She leaned forward until she was just inches away from Eric’s face. “You can never talk about them to anyone else.”
“What about Maggie?” Eric asked. “He told her, too.”
“Unbelievable!” Keira said.
“Then you need to make sure she doesn’t say anything to anyone, either,” Fiona said. “Eric, this is very important. Can you do that?”
He held his tongue for a few moments, then said, “Yeah, sure. I guess so.”
She took a step back. “Keira. Keep an eye on him.”
“Where are you going?” Keira asked.
“I need to talk to Ronan.”
9
For the first few minutes after Fiona left, Keira watched Eric as if he might suddenly disappear. But then her interest seemed to fade and soon she lifted up her book and started reading again.
“How did you get that?” Eric asked.
“What?”
“Noriko’s Revenge #11. It’s not even out yet.”
She glanced over the top of the book. “You read Noriko’s Revenge?”
“Sure. It’s only the hottest manga around.”
She shrugged. “It’s not bad.”
He was about to tell her it was a lot more than just not bad, but then he caught sight of Peter Garr walking toward them. Peter wasn’t alone, either. With him were two other guys — Tommy Bird, the kid Eric had smashed into during P.E.; and Kyle Sanders, another member of the bully squad.
None of them were smiling.
“I think we might have a problem,” Eric said.
Keira grimaced. “Don’t take everything so seriously. I was kidding. I like the books, too.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
That got her to look up.
“Behind you,” he said.
He could tell she’d done this kind of thing before, because instead of immediately looking back and making it obvious what she was doing, she pretended she’d dropped something on the ground and didn’t take a look until she leaned down to pick up the imaginary object.
“Isn’t the guy on the right the one you knocked over during P.E.?” she asked.
“Yeah. But he’s not the main problem. The guy in front’s the one who came after us at Maggie’s house last night. He was also the one at the library the day I called you guys.”
Keira nodded, her face serious. “The air-sniffer.”
“Yeah.”
“And the third one?”
“One of his jerk friends,” Eric said.
“How far away are they now?” she asked.
“Maybe a hundred feet.”
Keira pulled the strap of her backpack forward and turned her mouth toward it. “Fiona. We’ve got a situation.”