Now You See Me.pdf

CHAPTER ONE “It’s the scariest story ever,” Casey Slater said in a voice barely above a whisper. She leaned back on the pillows on her best friend Jillian Morton’s bed, holding a fuzzy plush pig in her hands. As she spoke, Casey squeezed the pig tightly. “Tell me,” said Jillian, frowning down at her nails. She was sitting cross-legged on her white bedroom carpet, painting her fingernails traffic-cone orange. The two friends were hanging out in the apartment where Jillian lived with her parents and brother, catching up on gossip from school that afternoon. Casey shook her head. “I don’t even want to say it out loud.” 1 This time Jillian looked up. “Casey,” she said with exasperation. “What?” Casey’s large brown eyes widened innocently. “You always do that. You always say, ‘It’s the scariest thing ever,’ and then you won’t say what it is.” “Well, this is really scary,” Casey told her. “Just tell me!” “Okay. But you asked for it.” Casey took a deep breath. “Today I was checking my e-mail during library time. Jaycee Woodard sent me a story about this girl in New Jersey who got killed.” “Killed how?” asked Jillian, as Casey knew she would. “Some girls at her school were teasing her,” Casey explained, “and they pushed her down a man- hole into the sewer —” “They pushed her into a sewer?” Jillian inter- rupted. “That’s not teasing. That’s, like, seriously warped.” Casey raised her eyebrows as if to say, Do you want to hear the story or what? 2 “Sorry,” said Jillian. “Go on.” “Well, she never