The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family

like it.
But I think I can make it even better.
Three dots popped up on the screen, signaling that Micah was still typing something. Caroline had begun to think of them as the dreaded dots of uncertainty. She leaped up from her desk chair. While she waited for the rest of Micah’s plan, she paced. Caroline counted six steps when a new message popped up.
Do you think Marissa is afraid of blood?
She frowned deeply. Although she’d started to get used to Micah’s more unusual ideas, she couldn’t begin to guess how blood connected to her pen-color-switching scheme. She quickly tapped out a response:
??
Truly, Caroline could have typed more than two question marks. She certainly had more than two questions. Did Micah’s plan involve hurting Marissa? How did he plan to do such a thing without getting caught? And, most importantly, was it at all possible to talk him out of it now? Or at least to back out of it?
A stream of new messages appeared soon enough.
Don’t worry
It’s not real blood
I saw some videos about pranks that use pens
One of them showed how to make a pen drip fake blood
Like the stuff for Halloween
My dad’s taking me to the Halloween store this weekend
Marissa’s going to get it all over her drawings
Bet she doesn’t know the difference between real blood and fake
Caroline allowed herself a tiny sigh. Knowing that they were not, in fact, scheming to physically injure Marissa came as a relief. Still, was it really fair to sabotage Marissa’s artwork like that?
Sure it is, came a voice from Caroline’s head. It’s exactly what she did to you.
Even so, Caroline’s hands shook a bit as she wrote out her response to Micah.
Okay.
She already knew she wasn’t going to sleep well tonight.
*   *   *
LOCATION: Breakfast table, 7:00 a.m.
EVENT: C. checked her phone a bajillion times (approximately speaking). Did not respond when I very nicely asked her to pass the milk.
QUESTION FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION: Why is my sister keeping secrets from me?
Lara had so wanted a distraction from her discoveries about Dad. For better or worse, she now had one. Caroline was most definitely up to something. The first clue was the way Caroline kept checking her phone over breakfast. Not that this was unusual. Ever since school had started, Caroline’s phone had practically been glued to her hand. Normally, she wore a bright grin as she tapped away at it, talking to this mysterious friend of hers. Today she still stared at the screen, but her responses were brief. The corner of her mouth twitched every time the phone pinged.
Very suspicious indeed.
The second clue was the way Caroline reacted to Dad and Ima—or rather, her total lack of reaction. Barely a dozen words passed between the parents throughout the entire morning, and six of them were Ima’s very cool announcement: “I’ll take the kids to school.”
Dad nodded. He didn’t even bother glancing up from his phone.
By instinct, Lara glanced over to Caroline so that they could have one of their wordless conversations. But she too kept her eyes fixed on her phone, seemingly unaware of everything else.
It all just irritated Lara. Was she the only one who cared about Dad and Ima and the catastrophe that was unfolding between them? What could possibly be so important to Caroline that she would just ignore the rest of them in favor of her phone?
She didn’t like it even a little bit.
When Ima finally dropped them off at school, Caroline didn’t bother saying goodbye to any of them before heading off who knows where. It was then that Lara made a decision. She was going to follow Caroline and figure out what, exactly, had so captured her sister’s attention.
Today, Lara’s first class was orchestra. The teacher didn’t seem to notice Lara much, thanks to her complete lack of musical talent. So she probably wouldn’t notice Lara slipping in late. That left plenty of time for her mission.
The real trick, she knew, would be to observe Caroline without Caroline observing her. Lara tried to imagine what Georgia Ketteridge would do, but the books were sadly lacking in detailed instructions on how to spy on your sister.
She did her very best to look normal as she walked over to the main sixth-grade hallway. It teemed with kids laughing, talking, and in one case, practicing an energetic dance routine. On the plus side, all the people made it easy to avoid being spotted by Caroline. On the minus side, the people made it difficult to actually see Caroline.
Lara took in a deep breath as she wove through the masses. She narrowly avoided being kicked in the chest by a dancer who clearly had no manners. Lara clenched her jaw and scanned the sea of people. Where was Caroline?
Ah! There she was—standing at the corner of a corridor talking to a boy with thick glasses and an X-Men T-shirt. So this must be her new friend.
Lara narrowed her eyes at him. They were talking about something—or rather, the boy was talking excitedly, hands flying about. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but Lara couldn’t help but feel suspicious of the mysterious boy who had started sucking up all of her sister’s time and attention.
She had to get closer to them.
It was risky, she knew, but Lara pushed through more people. Soon, Caroline and her friend were only five feet away, then four. Caroline’s back faced Lara, so Caroline did not notice anything amiss. Probably.
Lara leaned up against a locker and tried her best to look like she wasn’t eavesdropping.
“. . . so I got a whole bunch of fake blood,” the boy was saying. “This is gonna be great.”
Lara’s first instinct was to shudder at the mention of blood—even fake blood. Her second was to frown. What did her sister need with fake blood? It was almost two months until Halloween! Exactly what kind of an influence did this boy have on Caroline?
She could not make out Caroline’s response. Annoying! Luckily, the boy had a habit of talking at a rather loud volume. Lara