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

“Oh, yeah.” Jamie wrinkled his nose. “It’s no big deal. Our parents don’t spend a lot of time with us, that’s all. They’re really busy at work,” he added hastily. “I’m used to it, but Hailey gets mad sometimes.”

“Oh,” I said. “What does your mom do?”

“Have you heard of Head Turner?”

Immediately, I pictured the stack of magazines that used to sit on our coffee table, each one featuring an impeccably dressed, flawlessly beautiful model on the cover. They disappeared sometime in July, although I’d never asked Dad what he did with them.

“Fashion magazine, right?” I asked lightly, and Jamie nodded.

“My mom’s the editor in chief.”

“Wow, that’s really cool.” I winced at how perky my voice suddenly sounded.

“She and Dad both travel a lot for their jobs,” Jamie went on. “So, you know . . . We don’t see them a lot. And even when they take us, like this trip, they just . . . They’re always busy, so we still don’t really see them much.”

I made a face. “That sucks, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Jamie said, a little too quickly. “Hailey’s still upset that they missed open house at our school last month. They usually take turns with school stuff, but they got it mixed up this time. Dad thought Mom was going, Mom thought Dad was going . . .” He trailed off, shrugging. “Stuff like that’s been happening more lately, that’s all. Hailey can’t stand it.”

“It doesn’t make you mad, too?” I couldn’t help asking. “They’re your parents. They’re supposed to be there.”

It came out louder than I intended. Pressing my lips together, I stared down at the table.

“Yeah, they are,” Jamie agreed. “But . . . I don’t know. Being angry about it isn’t going to change things, is it?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. He was right, of course. But like Hailey, I had a hard time just letting go when something made me mad. The best I could do was pretend the problem didn’t exist in the first place.

Hanging out with Jamie and Hailey turned out to be the perfect distraction from my phone call with She Who Must Not Be Named. We checked in with their dad when we got back to the hotel and found him on a call. He handed Jamie a handful of bills for the vending machines and waved us out of the room without lowering the phone from his ear. Hailey rolled her eyes but said nothing as we headed to see how the crew was doing.

Room 301 had been transformed into a makeshift production control room. Jess paced between the beds, barking questions and commands left and right. Lidia and Mi Jin kept scribbling, erasing, and scribbling again on this giant dry-erase board they’d propped up by the TV. Roland sat hunched over the laptop, reviewing footage and editing, a pile of sucker wrappers on the floor surrounding his chair. Next to him, Sam lounged in an armchair, occasionally interrupting Jess with comments like, “Sonja would prefer the first shot; it’s more atmospheric.”

“That was just lens flare,” Jess said impatiently, and Roland snorted, choking a little on his sucker. I watched him closely, wondering if even now he was plotting his next anonymous post on the forums. Or if he’d managed to get in touch with Emily yet.

On Roland’s screen, Sam and Lidia walked slowly through the tunnels. Lidia was rubbing her arms, like she had a chill. Roland rewound a few seconds and hit play again.

Sam tilted his head, watching the footage of himself. “That cold spot right there, that was where I felt Red Leer’s presence most strongly,” he mused. “Hopefully I can find it again when I go back down.”

Jess sighed loudly. “Sam, we’re not going back. We don’t have time.”

“Not to shoot,” Sam said, his expression suddenly frustrated. “Sonja moved on, I’m sure of it—but Red Leer is still here. I might be able to help him.”

Jess’s lips were a thin line as she turned away from Sam. “Jack, did you find a few minutes we can trim out of the interview with the restaurant owner?”

“Yeah, I’ve marked a couple of places here . . .” Dad glanced up from a binder he was studying and noticed me hovering near the doorway with Jamie and Hailey. “Kat!” He hurried over, jumping aside as Lidia stepped back from the dry-erase board. I felt a sudden surge of panic at the concerned expression on his face. Was he was going to ask about the phone call in front of everyone?

“Hi, Dad!” I said in a pointedly cheerful voice. “How’s the episode coming?”

Dad studied my face closely. I stared back without blinking. “All right,” he said at last. “Good. Lots of material to work with.”

“Even with you three getting in my shots,” Jess added, wagging her finger at us. Her voice was light, but I heard a tinge of irritation in her tone and felt another rush of guilt.

Next to me, Hailey fidgeted. “Why couldn’t you use those shots, though?” she blurted out. “I mean, if all of our parents gave permission, couldn’t we be on the—”

“This isn’t Nickelodeon,” Roland yelled without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Hey, having kids on the show would probably help us bring in a younger audience,” Jess joked, causing Roland to groan loudly.

Sam was watching me with a thoughtful expression. “That’s not such a bad idea, actually. Children are often more receptive to messages from the spirit world,” he said, and I shifted uncomfortably.

Shaking her head, Lidia stepped back from the dry-erase board. Her oversize lenses magnified the shadows under her eyes, and I couldn’t help wondering if she should be working this hard after . . . whatever it was that happened to her last night. “Would you guys mind checking on Oscar?” she asked. “I think he’s up in our room—I haven’t heard from him in a while.”

“Sure.” As I turned to go, Dad put a hand on my shoulder, his raised eyebrows asking the question he didn’t want to say out loud. I shrugged his hand off.

“You’d better get back