The Slither Sisters

THREE





Later that morning, when Robert arrived at school, the main lobby was filled with seventh- and eighth-graders. There appeared to be some kind of pep rally. Robert was greeted by a girl carrying a tray of cupcakes.

“Success has a price!” she exclaimed, pushing a cupcake into his hands. “Vote Sarah Price!”

There were muffins and brownies and cookies, too—all arranged on a table festooned with balloons and streamers. Sarah and Sylvia Price were chatting and laughing and dishing out treats. The PA system was blasting pop songs. Robert had never been to a real teenage party with music and dancing, but he imagined this was what they looked like.



Sarah climbed onto a chair and shouted, “Lovecraft students are the best! I love you guys!”

“We love you too, Sarah!” someone shouted back.

“I love my sister!” Sylvia exclaimed. “Go Sarah! You’re awesome! Go Lovecraft! Wooooo!”

Robert pushed his way through the crowd. He found Glenn Torkells and Karina Ortiz watching from a distance, far from the other students.

“What the heck is going on?” he asked.

“Sarah’s running for student council president,” Glenn said.

“Why?”

“It’s a smart move,” Karina said. “Tillinghast wants to take over the school, so he’s starting at the top. Once Sarah controls student council, she can lead all the students right into his trap.”

Karina was Robert’s only other friend at Lovecraft Middle School—and the only other person who knew the secret of the Price sisters. Karina had died in Tillinghast Mansion at the age of twelve and her spirit was imprisoned behind its walls for thirty years. Robert and Glenn helped her escape to Lovecraft Middle School, where she passed herself off as a living, breathing middle school student. You’d never know she was a ghost unless you accidentally bumped into her—which is why Karina always lingered on the edges of crowds, far from the other students.

“Do you think she’ll win?” Robert asked.

“Of course she will. She’s pretty and popular and all her friends are going to vote for her.”

Sarah certainly had tons of friends, judging from the crowds in the hallway. “Who’s running against her?”

“I forget his name,” Glenn said. “Harold somebody.”

He pointed to a boy sitting alone at an empty table, holding a mug full of No. 2 pencils. This was Howard Mergler, a boy from Robert’s Social Studies class. Howard had been in a car accident three years earlier, and now he walked using forearm crutches and wore orthotic braces on his knees. If you got stuck behind him walking down a flight of stairs, you were guaranteed to be late for class.

“Hey, Howard,” Robert said.

“Good morning!” Howard held out the mug. “Would you like a pencil?”

“Sure.”

“Sharpened or unsharpened?”

“Um, I don’t care.”

Howard gave him one of each. The pencils were inscribed with the words FOR SMART & RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP VOTE HOWARD MER.

“Howard Mer?” Robert asked.

“There was only space for fifty characters,” Howard sighed. “No one told me when I placed the order. I should have just made cupcakes.”

“Who wants cupcakes?” Sarah shouted.

“Who wants brownies?” Sylvia cheered.

“Wooooooooooo!” they hollered together.

Howard ignored them. “If I’m elected president,” he promised Robert, “I’ll keep school computers at the forefront of technology. And I’ll bring more nutritious lunches into the school cafeteria …”

Someone cranked up the dance music. A pounding bass shook the metal doors of the lockers: thump, thump, thump-thump-thump. Robert couldn’t hear a word Howard was saying, but he realized the words didn’t matter.

In an election against Sarah Price, a candidate like Howard Mergler didn’t stand a chance.