Missing Evidence

Chapter 8

Kate's POV

I had just put the finishing touches on Carrie's room and barely made it downstairs when Susan arrived home, singing.  

Now if we were in a movie I might not have found this weird, but we're not. This is real life, and Susan sings like a dying pig. 

"WHAT IS THAT SCREECHING!" Elaine demanded as she poked her head out of her room. 

"What?" Susan stopped singing to ask.

"It's just Susan singing mother," Carrie said.

"Excuse me, but I have a beautiful voice. That's why I'm going to win the talent show next week."

Carrie and I shared a look. That was one of the few things we could agree on, Susan could not sing to save her life.

"Where were you two? And what's with the singing?" Elaine asked as she came down the stairs.

"Susan left me waiting by the car for forever," Carrie whined. 

"I got a date," Susan said in a sing-song voice. 

"Really? A boy took pity on you?" I asked. Susan had a date like every night, before Josh moved here that was. "Wait, you didn't-"

"A DATE WITH JOSH WILSON, he is not just a boy, and he did not take pity on me."

"That is enough with the screaming and singing," Elaine said, "I can already feel a heachache coming on." 

That was enough to send us our separate ways.  Susan went to get ready, Carrie went to go sulk and me? I went up to my room to ponder this. How could the Josh I had been getting to know, possibly like Susan? Even the sound of Carrie's screams wasn't enough to drag me out of it. 

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"We have to do something, you can't just sit by and let him get tangled up with her!" Sava said later that night after I called her and told her the news. 

"Why should I?" I asked. 

"Because unlike most of Susan's other victims, Josh is a decent guy, and he doesn't deserve this." 

Sava was right, but I didn't want to admit it. I didn't want to admit that I was starting to think that Josh was pretty cool, that he-

"I have an idea!" Sava said, interrupting my thoughts.  

Snap out of it Kate, I told myself. You're not going down that road. 

"What?" I asked. 

"Get ready, I'll meet you at your house in twenty minutes." And with that she hung up. 

It didn't take me long to get ready, especially since I didn't know what we were doing yet. I threw my shoes on and went to the kitchen, planning to snitch a snack. 

"I heard what you did to Carrie's room," Elaine said as she appeared from the shadows. 

"What?" I asked as I picked up an apple. The key to these situations was to act like I knew nothing. 

"The rubber snake in her bed, and the fake rats on her dresser and desk. What were you thinking?"

"You're right, that was cruel to the poor creatures, that's probably why the real rats ran off before you found them."

"There were real rats too?" She asked, her eyes darting  around, trying to see if they made it downstairs. 

There weren't but I wasn't about to tell them that. 

"Yeah, cute hairy ones, I named the littlest one Goliath," I said as I bit into the apple. 

 "You ungrateful brat, you're grounded, go to your room," She ordered. 

Smiling I made my way to the stairs, I knew how to sneak out, I'd done it plenty of times. 

"And Kate, if you do something like this again, you will be sleeping outside." 

That halted me in my tracks for a moment. She couldn't be serious could she? I turned around and saw her face. She was serious. 

"I guess then I might be able to call Child Protective Services, that would give them some evidence against you," I said, hoping that would be enough to discourage her. 

"Yes, it might, but then I would finally be rid of you at least, you ungrateful brat. Your father spoiled you and then he had to die and leave you with me. Thankfully you are almost 18, then you will no longer be my problem." 

She was right. I am almost 18, and as soon as that day comes, I'm out of here.