Super Freak by Vanessa Barger

“According to Ms. Widdershins, that’s exactly what you were doing.”
    Shock jolted through me like an electric current. “What?”
    “You left some rather rude drawings all over the side of her house.” Dad couldn’t seem to decide whether to be angry or sad.
    “What are you talking about?” I said. “We went and looked in a window and we left. We didn’t even have any spray paint. Besides, she hates me as it is. I don’t need to encourage her!”
    Dad held up a hand. Anger deepened the lines around his mouth. My dad didn’t get upset often, but when he did, I paid attention.
    “I didn’t believe it either. But it was written in lavender paint. And the can of touch up paint for your room is missing.”
    My jaw dropped. Someone set me up. They must have. But who? Diana and Leo were the only people I’d really made friends with, and even they had never been to my house yet. It didn’t make any sense. Unless Ms. Widdershins set me up herself.
    The longer I thought about that, the more right it sounded. One look at Dad’s expression told me to keep it to myself. Somehow, I didn’t think he’d see things my way. I sank into the seat. “Honest, Dad, I didn’t do anything. I know we shouldn’t have been sneaking around her house, but we wouldn’t be nasty.”
    He didn’t believe me. I could see he wanted to, but he decided we were guilty before I ever got home. My nose burned with unexpected tears. I’d been in trouble plenty of times. But I’d never gotten into serious trouble, and never had my dad refuse to hear my side of the story.
    As I sat there, listening to Dad lecture me about personal property, respect, and the horrible situation I’d put everyone in, I focused on what I knew. Whoever did this knew I was looking for information about the curse and my house. And they didn’t want me snooping around. But they didn’t know me very well if they thought this would stop me.
    I would find out who set me up, and I’d prove to everyone I was innocent. And in the process, I was determined to find out about the curse as well.

Chapter Nine
     
     
    Sleep didn’t come easy. I’d been grounded within an inch of my life, and told if I screwed up again, Mom would probably turn into a tree with grief. Her words, not mine. I thought it was a little over dramatic but whatever. Now I was trapped here, whether I liked it or not. At least I still had my cell phone. No contact with the outside world might have killed me.
    My parents had already called and arranged for Leo, Diana, and me to head to Ms. Widdershins’ house tomorrow. Being a weekend, we were now contracted out as her slaves for a day. Once we apologized and spent our time scrubbing and repainting the entire house, we were then, assuming we had any energy or daylight left, to do whatever she asked us to do. Not my idea of a fun weekend.
    No one told me yet what the supposed graffiti said. When I asked Dad, he just crossed his arms and glared. I guess he thought I was being smart since I instigated the entire thing. How exactly everyone came to that conclusion, I’ll never know. I doubt Diana pointed fingers at me. Couldn’t say for sure about Leo, but he didn’t seem like he’d be that big of a pain.
    I’d spent all evening, after choking down dinner at a silent and angry table, racking my brains to come up with some explanation for how we’d been framed. It just didn’t make sense. Especially how they’d managed to get the paint out of my house. My parents worked from home. If a stranger walked into the house, they’d have ended up hanging from the ceiling, wrapped up in a million layers of roots.
    My parents might look like hippies, but they were never pushovers. Nothing looked broken into, at least nothing I had seen yet, but I hadn’t exactly been allowed to wander the house in search of answers after dinner. I was supposed to be doing my homework. Math sat at the desk, waiting. I groaned and plopped down in front of the open book.