Sudden Superhero

16. Unknown Secret

I WAS FROZEN. All I could do was stare at Dana, with my mouth slightly open in fear. I let my backpack fall to the ground.

"Wow," she said, blinking. She looked surprised, but she was smiling, obviously thrilled that she'd caught me. "Goody two-shoes Peter Maguire snuck out in the dark." She backed up one step. "I wonder what your Mom would think of that."

My eyes widened. No. Mom couldn't find out. If she asked me what I'd been doing, what would I say?

But before I could protest, Dana was already on her way down.

"Dana, wait!" I called, running after her.

She was halfway down the stairs when she stopped and turned around. I was two steps above her, but I didn't dare go any closer. "Dana, please," I whispered. I could hear everyone singing Happy Birthday to Aunt Lisa, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ben standing there awkwardly. I shook my head. "Please. I don't want to worry her."

She raised an eyebrow. "Worry her? Maybe you shouldn't have snuck out."

I was silent. She had every right to think that I was out doing something stupid, or out doing nothing at all other than getting away from here, and how could I convince her otherwise? I couldn't. I could only hope that she had a heart somewhere underneath all that ice.

"Please," I repeated, shaking my head. "Don't."

Maybe it was the tone of voice I was using, or the scared, nervous look on my face, or maybe it was neither of those things, but Dana's face softened. The bear-bee, who had smirked at me and sneered at me and called me names and made fun of me, was looking at me with an expression that didn't betray bitter hate.

She went up one more step so that we were eye-to-eye. "I'll keep this a secret," she said softly, her tone threatening, "if you keep mine."

I blinked. "What secret?"

She laughed. "Oh, don't play pretend. Do we have a deal?"

"I'm not pretending," I said, shaking my head. "What secret of yours do I know?"

"Peter?"

We both turned our heads at the sound to see Mrs. Edgar standing there, looking at me with an eyebrow raised. "Where have you been?" she asked. She was holding two paper plates with slices of cake on them, and she held them out to us.

Dana and I were still on the stairs, partially hidden in shadow, and I was thankful that Mrs. Edgar wouldn't be able to notice that I was slightly wet. I turned to Dana. She turned to me, her eyes narrowed just a little, and I mouthed the word please.

"We were upstairs," she said, never taking her eyes off mine, daring me to say otherwise. "Figuring out a math problem for school."

"We lost track of time," I said carefully. "I'm sorry for missing the cake cutting. I'll apologize to Aunt Lisa."

Mrs. Edgar looked back and forth between us, clearly confused. As far as Ben had told them, I had been in the bathroom, but she probably thought that I had worked with Dana afterwards when she went upstairs. She just shook her head and looked down at the plates.

Dana and I both declined the cake.

"I'm going on a walk," Dana declared, and she went the rest of the way down the stairs and grabbed a light jacket from the coat rack. "Do you want to come, Peter?"

I really didn't, but judging by the forced smile she was throwing in my direction, I didn't have a choice. I grabbed my jacket and followed her out the door into the dark once again, except this situation was actually scarier than climbing out her window to track down some criminals.