Wake the Hollow

Chapter Three

"Doesn't your school give you a free pass while you're here?" Bram asked.

"Yes, but the only way my dad would let me come was if I dual-enrolled temporarily. To keep me busy, I guess."

"Or out of trouble, you troublemaker." Bram laughs, sticking out his tongue at me.

I give him a flat look. He knows I'm a perfect angel. 

"What she's telling us..." Jonathan's knee bounces up and down. "Is that Daddy's got it all covered. She doesn't need a crappy job at a coffeehouse, like us losers." 

Silence bubbles on my skin like acid. "That's not what I said at all. Resentful much?" 

Jonathan grins. "Of what exactly?"

I shoot Jonathan a look then glance at Bram for support. Ugh, so happy to be back.

"John," Bram warns, pointing a spatula at his nose. "Don't."

"Forget it. I didn't say anything." Jonathan holds up his hands, and I think that will be the end of that, but then he leans forward and I swear, I can almost smell his hatred through the haze of weed. "So, how about that missing Irving journal, Micaela?"

I put down my fork and cross my arms. "What missing Irving journal?"

"John..." Bram's voice darkens. "I said, cut it out."

Jonathan sniffs to conceal a smile forming on his furry face.

"What journal?" My stare shifts from Jonathan to Bram. "Can someone please answer me?" 

Bram clears his throat and shrugs. "Nothing, Princess. Just a thing that happened over at the library a few months ago. John, she just got here, you moron. Leave her alone."

I want to ask Bram more about this half-baked insinuation, but I'll wait until Fur Face Enger is gone. 

Bram does his best to defuse the situation. "Well, if you won't work at the coffee shop, you must, without question, come with us to the HollowEve meetings. John and I are head assistants for the decorations committee this year."

Jonathan plucks a mask of a bloody ghoul from a duffel bag by his feet and puts it on. He doesn't look all that different from before. "That's right. Full control of this year's thrills and chills, baby. Grrr."

"Wow. HollowEve," I murmur. "That's a name I haven't heard in years."

The annual event transforms Philipsburg Manor, another historic home in the Hollow, into an eerie landscape with more jack-o-lanterns, tombstones, and costumed characters than the world has ever seen. They also boast an annual Legend of Sleepy Hollow reenactment with an appearance by a fake Headless Horseman.

"What parts are you playing this year? Brom Bones and his boon companions?" I snicker. Jonathan takes off the mask and smirks at me. 

Hand pressed to his chest, Bram says, "I am hoping for the coveted horseman's role, if you must know. I've wanted it since I first rode Apple." 

Apple—now that's a name I haven't heard in years. I remember his grandfather's horse and how Bram would go to his ranch every weekend to ride her. 

"Felix, the usual guy, just moved away, so they're looking for someone new," Bram adds. 

"We'll see about that." Jonathan huffs. "A lot of people want that role. People older than you who've been volunteering even longer."

"Don't get your hopes up, buddy." Bram claps him on the shoulder. "You're too short."

"And you're too ugly."