“I thought he did,” Maria said. “Why else would he have let us leave on our own?”
“Because he feels sorry for you.”
“Oh.” The syllable fell out of her mouth like a heavy, dead thing.
“No, I mean, because of … this week.”
“I know what you meant,” she said. Her voice was clipped.
“Well, either way, as long as we make it back in an hour, we should be good. Is the surprise supposed to happen before then?”
“I think so. And if not, I’m sure that could be arranged.”
“Okay. I’ve got my phone just in case we run late.”
“We might need to use it as a flashlight soon.”
It was a few minutes past six thirty, and the last hints of sunlight had vanished into the February air. When she thought Derek wasn’t looking, Maria slipped the ring out of her clutch purse and slid it onto her finger. If you’re listening, she thought, please show us the way before we get lost.
The familiar warmth of the ring was welcome in the chill, and Maria sensed the spiders before she saw them. It was as if the blades of grass at her feet weren’t tiny but massive, quaking with the vibrations stirred by the creatures’ approach. Her eyes went right to them — two, then a few, then a multitude of spiders, weaving and scuttling through the grass and the leaves.
She tried to follow them without being too obvious. She didn’t want Derek to know the full extent of the ring’s powers, for reasons she couldn’t fully explain. She used to feel like she could trust him with anything.
When they came to the next fork, Maria eyed the line of shiny silver spiders at her feet and said to Derek, “It’s a right here. I’m positive this time.”
Sure enough, after they cleared one final bend around a corner of trees, they could see the lights of the pool house and the house beyond it. The spiders veered off into the woods beside them. They must have decided Maria didn’t need them anymore, now that she could see where she was going. But when Maria peered into the trees, she could swear she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her, hovering in the shadows, beckoning for her to follow.
“Come on, Maria,” Derek said, standing at her side. “What are you looking at?”
The eyes were gone, although Maria hadn’t sensed any movement. Maybe she’d imagined them after all.
“Nothing, sorry.”
Maria and Derek hurried up behind the pool house. Really, it was more like a poolside house, small only in relation to the McCormicks’ mansion on the other side of the yard. There was even a little kitchen visible through the back window. Pressing her face against that window and peering through to the front, Maria could see the large mass of kids from school, crowded on a glass dance floor over the pool, just as Claire had promised. A few people danced, but mostly people stood around in clumps, like they were at a dance in the school gym. The blue glow from the pool and a string of lights overhead made everyone look like they were underwater. The effect was dazzling.
“I think we might be the only kids in our grade not at this party,” Derek said.
For a frightening moment, Maria couldn’t breathe. The sight of everyone she knew having such a good time without her struck her like a punch in the stomach when she wasn’t ready. She had known in her head that Claire didn’t like her, and it had been easy to say that she didn’t care. But this felt like a real, physical pain — one she couldn’t control with words. What had she done to deserve this? Nothing, that’s what. Claire was a mean girl, end of story.
“You okay?” Derek asked.
“Sure,” Maria said, breathing in, then out, the way Grandma Esme had taught her to do during yoga. “I’m getting more and more excited to see the surprise.”
But when Maria scanned the crowd for Claire, she found her standing off to one side, not smiling or talking to anyone in particular. She actually looked a little nervous, as if after working so hard to plan the perfect party, Claire had no energy left to enjoy the party itself. The playlist she’d made echoed over four speakers surrounding the mass of guests. It looked like people were having a hard time hearing one another.
“Honestly, it doesn’t seem all that fun,” Derek said, echoing her thoughts. It was almost revenge enough to know that Claire’s perfect party wasn’t so perfect after all. But only almost. Because Maria had a feeling that come Monday, Claire would somehow remember that the party had been amazing — that Maria had missed out on the time of her life — and she would bully everyone else into remembering the same thing.
No, Maria needed to bring Claire off her fairy-princess pedestal, so that she’d never be able to bully her the same way again. She needed to do something that no one would be able to forget.
After at least ten minutes of watching the party unfold, during which Derek kept looking anxiously at the clock on his phone and asking Maria when the surprise was going to happen, Maria finally saw Claire’s mom coming out of the house, carrying a birthday cake with thirteen candles lit on top.
The crowd parted to let Mrs. McCormick through, and after the music was brought to an abrupt stop, the whole party joined in on a loud rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.” Maria could almost feel the force of their voices on her skin, and it made her want to hurry, to stop the singing. She clasped her hands together, twisting the spider ring around her finger. She spoke to the spiders in a frenzy, under her breath — asking, then begging, for them to come and help her.
Mrs. McCormick reached the table that held the rest of the food and set the cake down next to Claire. Smiling thinly, Claire moved her hair behind one ear and bent over the cake.
The party sang for Claire. Wishing her a happy birthday.
Then three things happened all at once:
The seventh-grade chorus hit the last to you like a train crash, a cacophony of notes and at least three animal noises from the sillier boys in their school.
Claire took a deep breath and prepared to blow out her candles.
And a brown mass of spiders skittered quickly up the table onto the cake and Claire’s dress.
Chaos erupted. Claire screamed like Maria had never heard anyone scream before. Other people screamed, too, some because they were in the front and could see what was going on, the rest because they couldn’t see at all and were afraid of what must be happening just out of sight.
Through all the shouting, Maria could hear the steady undercurrent of another sound, distinct and distinctly not human. It was the spiders talking. They sounded eager, proud.
“No way,” Derek said, no longer bothering to be quiet. “Maria, how did you know — oh my gosh, Maria!”
Derek grabbed her by the shoulders and shook. The force of his grip registered as if from a dream. She blinked and tried to focus on him, realizing that her vision had gone blurry.
“Maria, your eyes were black,” Derek said. He sounded more angry than scared.
“That’s crazy,” Maria said, but she was hardly paying attention to him. She walked around to the side of the pool house — she couldn’t see well enough through the windows.
The screaming had stopped. Claire was lying faceup on the glass floor, and for a second, Maria’s heart stopped. She couldn’t be …
But no. Maria distinctly heard Mark Spitzer say the word “fainted,” and Mrs. McCormick only looked mildly worried as she shook Claire’s shoulders. Maybe this had even happened before, some other time when Claire had seen a spider. At least, that’s what Maria was telling herself now, so she wouldn’t feel so panicked.
“You did that,” Derek said. “Claire’s brother wasn’t even outside.”