The Curse of the Berinstein Manor by Forest Ostrander (scary books to read .TXT) 📕

***Forest's POV***

I sat in my first period class, I had to share rooms with the boys I had met earlier, James and Alexander had argued over a seat next to me but in the long run James managed to get it while Alexander sat on the opposite side of the room glaring back at James when the teacher wasn't looking. Wow, they are really taking this thing seriously I thought to myself, this was a huge first for me as I never had boys show me this much attention before let alone fight each other over me. My friends won't believe this when I tell them! I thought to myself and snickered a bit, I knew this would be the talk of town when they get ahold of this juicy piece of history in my life. Of course paying attention in this class with two good looking boys fighting over you for your affection would make any girl swoon with happiness but it made me totally uncomfortable, I had only been joking around with them and didn't expect them to really take the bait but now that I have two cute looking fish on the line I didn't know what to do with them. I guess I just have to let it all play out and see who really wants me the most I guess. Wow, I really am out of practice with this kind of thing, I wonder what Michelle would do in a situation like this? She was always the one who knew what to do when two boys were fighting over you I thought making me miss them even more. I had never really been away from my friends for very long and now that I had moved away from them I was really feeling the pain of not having them around. Who knew a strong girl like me had heavily relied on her friends for support and companionship? I had thought that it wouldn't be this bad without them but I haven't even been her for a month and already I want to move back to them. These school years are going to suck majorly if I can't cope with this I thought to myself and made myself focus on my history assignment. When the bell rang signaling that class was over I packed up my stuff and was about to pick up my backpack when Alexander came up to me before James could even react and threw my backpack over his shoulder.

"I can carry that myself you know," I said feeling totally out of place without my backpack. I had come to think of it as a really good friend since we had been through everything together.

"Why should I let you bother yourself with carrying your backpack when I'm here to help?" He asked and I see James glare at him. I sighed and shook my head, this was going to be a long headache and I had unfortunately brought it all on by myself.

"Fine, but don't ever carry my bag again, I can do it just fine," I said storming out of the room with the two boys hot on my heels. What the fuck did I just get myself into and most of all how the hell do I get out of it? I was really hating myself now, I would have probably have had a peaceful, stress free life if I had only kept my big mouth shut and not egged them on. When I had gotten to my locker James stepped in front of me preventing me from getting to my locker.

"Allow me Miss. Ostrander, you should not bother with opening these things, allow me to assist you," and before I could protest he had my locker open and my lunch bag in my hands before I could even blink my eyes.

"How...How did you know my combination?" I asked him, now I was totally freaked out.

"I looked at your schedule when you weren’t looking and mesmerized you locker number and combo. I also know you have lunch this period which I so happen to have as well," he said taking the backpack out of a stunned Alexander's hand and gave him a winning grin.

"You're going to be late for you class Alexander," he said steering me in the direction of the lunchroom.

"What was that all about? What has gotten into the both of you?" I asked totally not understanding why they were going out of their way to treat a girl like me the way they were. I was not used to all this boy attention so I felt totally out of my element but a deeper part of me was enjoying it.

"It's nothing, I just don't want you hanging out with that guy, he's bad news."

"Bad news? How?" I asked.

"Just trust me on this one ok?" He said looking at me with the most serious expression I have ever seen on any guy in my life and something inside me told me that I should listen to him but another part of me could not believe what he was saying was true. How can Alexander be bad? What has he done to make James act this way? I wondered, could there be something more going on between these two that I don't know about? I knew I was probably sticking my nose into something that wasn't my business but I couldn't help the curiosity that rose in me to find out the history between James and Alexander and why they were going out of their way of being so nice to me.

Once we were in the cafeteria, James’s mood changed dramatically, he was laughing and being more like how he was when I first met him as if the confrontation between him and Alexander had never happened; I of course was toying around with the thoughts in my head that he was hiding something from me and the detective side of me told me that I should investigate if not for the sake of my curiosity than for the sake of my safety. What could he be hiding from me that he doesn't want me to know about? Did Alexander do something so bad and got him involved in it and now he doesn't want to talk about it? Surly he wouldn't be the one to do that kind of thing? I was so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed James staring at me until he spoke.

"Is something wrong Forest?" He asked snapping me out of my daydream.

"Huh? Oh no, what makes you say that?" I asked faking a smile.

"You were staring at your food and haven’t even taken a bite of it. What's on your mind?" I knew he was catching on to me and that made my defensive side kick in.

"What makes you think something is wrong? Why is it whenever I'm deep in thought someone always assumes that there is something wrong with me?" I knew I was probably over-reacting but I had to defend myself, I felt like James was prying into my life and I didn't like it which come to think of it made me sound like a total hypocrite; here I was planning on digging through his life to find out what was going on and yet when he tried to pry into my life I didn't like it.

"Well sorry for disturbing you. I didn't think your thoughts were so important to keep to yourself," James said a bit angrily but I could also hear the faint tone of sadness which surprisingly broke my heart.

"I'm sorry James, I just have a lot on my mind right now and I just don't feel like talking about it just yet, please forgive me?" I asked looking him dead in the eye hoping he would take my apology and we can

go back to being friends. James stared back at me for the longest time and I dreaded that he might not forgive me but when a smile graced his lips I knew we were in the clear.

"All right, I'll forgive you but on one condition," he said; I didn't like the sound of that and dreaded what he might have planned.

"What's that?" I asked putting my guard up instantly, I was becoming a pro at this.

"A kiss." My mouth dropped open at what he had said. A kiss? He wants a kiss?! My mind couldn't wrap around what he had said and I felt like a total idiot just sitting there staring at him.

"What? Too sudden?" He asked giving me a quizzical look. I snapped out of my stunned silence and shook my head trying to clear it of its jumbled thoughts.

"N-No, not really...well I mean actually ya it was, I was not really expecting that kind of request," I said admitting that I was totally caught off guard with his request. Why should I be shocked by this? Hadn't I been daydreaming beforehand of kissing his lips? Why am I getting so defensive now? Come on girl! Get with the program! This might be your only chance of ever kissing a boy again in your entire life!

"Oh. I'm sorry if I come on too aggressive," he said lowering his eyes and once more I felt heart broken. Oh damn it all! How is it he can get away with that kind of look? I sighed inwardly and hated myself for leaping at the thought of being able to kiss him, I shouldn't be this easy to get ahold of; my mother was right, I guess when your heart does feel love it will totally take over both mind and body and boy did my heart really want me to kiss him.

"No it's ok, just one kiss you wanted?" I asked sheepishly and inwardly kicked myself for sounding a bit hopeful that he would want more.

"Why? Do you want more than one?" He asked winking at me. Oh great, he's enjoying this! That cheeky devil! I thought but I had to hand it to the boy, he was persistent and that had to earn him some points.

"I think one will do just fine, we did just meet today you know. I don't want you to think that I'm one of those sissy girls who you can kiss any time you want, from now on you have to earn that right like anyone else," I said making sure he got it through his brain that this was a onetime only deal and if he ever wanted more he had to earn them like any other guy would.

"All right, that sounds fine with me," James said grinning from ear to ear and I just shook my head, this was indeed going to be a long and very interesting kind of day. I wonder what my mother would say if she found out about this? Would she be happy? What would my father say? The thought of my parents made me miss them once more, I had been doing such a good job at forgetting about their deaths for the moment that I did not expect them to come rushing back to my mind and making me feel vulnerable all over again, I had to literally fight back the tears that threatened to leak out of my eyes and betray what I was truly feeling. I hated crying, to me