Dead Air by Michelle Schusterman (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

smiles that makes you smile back like a reflex. And not that I’d thought he was bad-looking before or anything, but his whole face kind of lit up, and . . .

. . . it was a nice smile, that’s all I’m saying.

“So, tonight maybe we can contact Sonja Hillebrandt!” Hailey exclaimed. “And Red Leer! See, I know the names and all about the history of Crimptown because—”

“Hailey,” Mr. Cooper said with a sigh.

“Hold that thought, sweetie.” Smiling, Jess ruffled Hailey’s hair. “Tom, we’ve got the conference room all ready—should we meet you there in ten minutes?”

“Sounds good. I’ll get our room key.” As Mr. Cooper headed over to the desk, the rest of the crew filed slowly across the lobby. I snuck a glance at Dad, but his inner anchor had taken over—he didn’t seem nervous at all. Everyone else looked a bit on edge, though. (Well, except for Sam, who wore his usual glazed “my mind is in the realm of the spirits” expression. He started wandering into the breakfast room until Roland grabbed his sleeve and led him down the hall.)

As soon as the adults were out of earshot, Oscar turned to me. “Why’d you lie?”

“Excuse me?”

“The message, the one that printed—you said it was a bunch of gibberish. It wasn’t.”

“So you did type it up, then,” I said triumphantly.

Oscar smirked. “Uh, no? You told me yesterday, right after the camera freaked out.”

“Oh, right.” Dang. I pressed my lips together, aware of Hailey and Jamie looking back and forth between us like this was a ping-pong match. “It’s nothing. I just didn’t want to bother Lidia and everyone else with it.”

“So there really was a message? What did it say?” Hailey asked, her eyes round. Glancing over to make sure their father was still preoccupied, I pulled the paper from my pocket and unfolded it. Hailey, Jamie, and Oscar huddled in to read.

“Keep her away from the medium,” Hailey whispered slowly, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. “Whoa. So it’s about Sam; he’s the medium . . . who’s the her?”

I shrugged. “No idea.”

“And it wasn’t on the screen? It just printed out?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s with thirteen Xs?” Jamie asked, and I gave Oscar a sidelong look. But either he was innocent or he had a killer poker face.

“Camera malfunction,” I said carefully. “It showed up on the viewfinder for a minute or two.”

“This is excellent!” Hailey clapped her hands in delight. “You should add this to your blog post, Kat. Like, take a picture of it or something. Oh, oh, oh, you should take a camera down to Crimptown tonight, too!” she cried, and I felt a pang of longing at the thought of all the potential eerie pictures. “I bet the fans would love to see photos before the episode comes on.”

I laughed. “Fans? Like, two people from the forums left comments, that’s it.”

“Yeah, but . . .” Hailey’s eyes darted over to her father.

Jamie cleared his throat. “We found your blog yesterday when they started talking about it in the forums, so we started hyping it up to Dad a little.”

“A lot,” Hailey corrected him. “Not that he listened. He never . . .” Jamie shot her a look and she fell silent, glowering.

“Why were you telling him about it in the first place?” I asked curiously.

“Well, because it could bring more fans in, and that couldn’t hurt . . .” Jamie trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

Oscar shoved his hands in his pockets. “You think your dad’s going to cancel the show, don’t you.”

Jamie winced. “Well . . . maybe. Fright TV is talking about making the Halloween episode the last one. They’ve got some new series about vampires they want to put in P2P’s time slot.”

“But that’s the next episode,” I said, struggling to keep my voice low. “In Brussels.”

“It’s not definite yet,” Jamie assured me. “That’s what they’re meeting about. When Dad called to tell Lidia, she swore they’d figure out a way to improve the ratings. And he said they’d have to try something new, because what they’ve been doing isn’t working. So Hailey and I thought maybe your blog might be the ‘something new’ that saves the show.”

I laughed dryly. “Thanks, but doubtful. That blog’s really just for my grandma and a few friends.”

“Let’s go, kids!” Mr. Cooper was heading toward the elevator, pulling his suitcase behind him. “I promised your mom we’d call when we got in.”

Jamie picked up his suitcase. “See you tonight?” he asked, looking from me to Oscar.

“Definitely,” I said, and Oscar nodded. Jamie smiled, I smiled back—seriously, reflex—then he and Hailey followed their dad onto the elevator.

The doors slid closed, leaving Oscar and me alone in the lobby.

“It’s over,” he said, pulling an iPod out of his pocket. “Two episodes, then we’re going home.”

“Positive thinker, huh?”

“Just realistic.” Oscar plopped down on one of the armchairs. “Can’t run away from your mom forever.”

It was a few seconds before his words sank in.

“Excuse me?” I stared at him until he looked up. “What do you know about my mother?”

Oscar shrugged. “Yesterday you said your mom left, and you seemed pretty bitter about it. If you go home, you’ll have to deal with her getting . . .”

I crossed my arms. “Getting what?”

For a second, I could have sworn I saw a flicker of guilt in his expression. Then he rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Getting on your case about wearing all those stupid T-shirts?”

My mouth opened and closed a few times before I managed to speak. “How did you convince Lidia the reason you got expelled for fighting was because you were bullied?” I snapped. “Obviously it was the other way around.”

Without giving him a chance to respond, I crossed the lobby and jabbed the elevator buttons, fuming all the way back to my room.

CHAPTER TEN

FROM BEYOND THE OUIJA BOARD

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected], [email protected]

Subject: stuff

I’m spending the night in the “haunted” tunnels tonight, so I figured I should send you guys one last e-mail before Red Leer gets me.

Mark—sorry you got grounded. And I’m pretty sure there’s no way they’d let me actually be on the show. Trish—I haven’t gotten