Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series by Vaiya Books

afterwards had only made things far worse. Now he was certain
that Kenn not only held a grudge against him, but also utterly
hated him. And the worst thing about it was he still couldn’t
figure out why.
    Climbing up higher, forcing Kenn’s demeaning
words out of his mind, Ian reflected back to his conversation
earlier that day with Coach Sandler and knew one thing … there was
no way he could help him out now. If he did badly in front of all
those spectators, he would rather die. Far better to never join
than to lose and embarrass the whole team. He could only imagine
Kenn’s words for him then, and Kenn would definitely have words for
him, as Kenn was one of the seven runners on the coach’s team.
    Embittered, he opened the door to the
exercise room, and, once safely inside, closed the door for
privacy, somewhat surprised that the lights were already on. It was
a spacious place, a full-fledged workout room. There were
treadmills, weight sets, benches, jump ropes, exercise bikes,
dumbbells, and weights of different sizes stacked on racks next to
the wall to the right of him. Hazel’s dad sure must be in shape, as
he couldn’t imagine Hazel spending much time in here, at least not
on the weight benches. Not that she was weak; it just seemed
strange to picture her lifting weights. If she did anything in
here, it was probably the exercise bike or the various jump ropes
that took up her time.
    Curling a ten-pound weight with ease and then
setting it back down onto its appropriate rack, he saw a small
skateboard ramp in an adjacent room through a pair of sliding glass
doors. The room branched off into several hallways and likely lead
to many other rooms.
    But Ian wasn’t interested; seeing the
skateboard ramp rekindled his bad feelings for Skyler, working his
emotions into a whirlwind.
    Though it was clearly Skyler’s own fault for
breaking his ankle, Skyler had blamed Eddy for his foolish
accident. And then, as if that weren’t enough, Skyler had further
decided to punish Eddy by even going so far as to give him the
silent treatment.
    Just about to become infuriated with Skyler,
he abruptly stopped himself and wisely reflected over the
situation. Though Skyler was definitely in the wrong and had been
unusually cruel to his friend, nothing good could come from
dwelling on his bad attitude--he was sure of that--for if he kept
thinking negatively, he’d be up here for the rest of the party
trying to snap out of his bad mood. Besides, with Eddy’s shameful
action towards Alan earlier, it seemed that Eddy deserved having
Skyler mad at him.
    With those thoughts in mind, his rage towards
Skyler rapidly declining, Ian moved deeper into the weight room,
scanning for anything interesting, anything unusual, when he
spotted a small hallway in the very back of the room that had an
old stone staircase on its right.
    Curiosity penetrating into his heart, he
suddenly felt a deep urge to find out where it led.
    Before he’d even gone two feet though,
Hazel’s words rushed into his mind like a Mercedes Benz, answering
his question, as he realized that the staircase undoubtedly led to
the attic, the place that Hazel had said was supposedly
haunted.
    Gripped with a sudden burning interest, Ian
was determined to either prove the previous owner of this house
wrong or else have an exciting story to tell Hazel. Either way
though, he couldn’t lose--this was going to be a fun
experience.
    Smiling, as he imagined how amusing it would
be if he actually did heard a noise in the attic, he bolted through
the hallway, his adrenaline rising, and then turned right, climbing
quickly up the dimly lit staircase.
    After climbing up nearly fifteen steps,
brushing his way through large cobwebs, he finally reached the top
and gazed at the old wooden door in front of him. So this was it.
This was the attic.
    Feeling strangely unsettled, he reached out
his hand and gripped the doorknob rather confidently, just wanting
to get a glimpse inside so as to get