Baseball Jerseys

Meghan

Meghan

Every middle of the night, since I can't sleep, I walk downstairs to eat some snacks. I guess no one in my family can sleep either, because they're always downstairs too.

Maybe they were all afraid of what I was thinking of.

Julia was murdered. She was a McArty. How do we know someone is trying to kill the entire McArty family? I'm a McArty. Chloe's a McArty. Deanna, Maria, and Laurie are McArtys. Mom and dad are McArtys. We're all McArtys. That could be dangerous.

It was only one in the morning, so I stumbled back upstairs to my room.

I tossed and turned the whole night, flinching at every sound I heard.

The sun rose, and I looked at my alarm clock. It was only 5:30 in the morning. I didn't sleep a wink. Memories of my dead sisters flooded back to me every time I closed my eyes.

It's been a week since Julia's body was found murdered. Also since Mel died in the car crash that was my fault.

People started calling it the McArty Horror month, which didn't help matters.

I trudge downstairs to the kitchen I look at the ground and gasp.

Deanna was laying on the kitchen floor without movement.

"Dee!" I scream in surprise! "Dee, are you okay? Dee? Dee!"
My entire family rushes down the stairs to join me in the kitchen.

Dee opens her eyes.

"Huh?" she asks groggily. "What's going on? What's wrong?"
I let out a sigh of relief.

"I thought you were murdered," I reply. "I saw you lying on the floor."

Dee looks around, slightly confused. Then she looks back at me then shrugs.

"I guess I fell asleep in the kitchen last night when I got hungry," she replied.

"Oh," I say, helping her up to her feet. "I guess I was just being paranoid, then."

Maria walks into the kitchen, wearing a princess nightgown.

I saw a big, red scratch on her arm, and a few trickles of blood.

"Oh, what happened," mom gasps, pointing at the scratch. "Did you fall off the bed or get a paper cut, Maria?"

Maria shrugs.

Chloe looks closer at the scar on Maria's arm and frowns suspiciously.

"There's something written here in black ink," Chloe says.

"Maria can't read or write," dad points out. "What does it say?"
"Dear McArty Family," Chloe reads. "You better watch out."

Everyone gasps then stays silent, staring at the pen ink.

"That's a threat," Mom says. "Someone sliced Maria's arm and wrote us a threat note. We have to call the police."

Mom dials the police number and explains Maria's arm and the pen note.

A minute later, she slams the phone down, hanging up. She seemed furious.

"The person on the phone refused to help me," she fumed. "They said to wait for 'further notice'. Can you believe that?"

Dad walks outside and stood on the front porch. We suddenly hear his voice.

"Aw, man," he whined. "Someone spray-painted the words 'Still the McArty Horror Month' in big letters on our house!"

"Who would do that," hissed mom. "What a jerk! A jerk would do that to us!"
"It was probably those three neighbourhood girls," I say, eyeing Chloe. "Allie, Bri, and Lexi. Real troublemakers. Jerks, too."

Chloe rolls her eyes and mutters something under her breath.

I'm still pretty ticked at her for being on the bullies' side.

"Actually," I say, in a loud voice. "Chloe is friends with those girls. Say, Chloe, do you know anything about this vandalism?"

All eyes are Chloe. She gulps and glances around at everyone.

"You couldn't possibly think that I had something to do with this," she growls. "Because I know nothing about it."

"No, that's not what I'm saying," I reply. "I'm asking if you know if they did it or not."

Chloe straightens her spine and points her thumb in between my eyes.

"No, I don't," she hisses. "If they DID, it's your fault you're such an easy target."

"Chloe," dad says firmly. "You're not being very nice to your sister."

"Meg needs to stop accusing me," Chloe whines. "They're MY friends, and she acts as if there's something wrong about it."

I turn around and stomp back into the house, then run to my room.

Nobody understands me.

I have no friends.

My siblings don't understand me.

My parents don't either.

The only people that understood me were T.J. and Melissa.

No, if this is what you're thinking, I'm not selfish. I love my family.

But someone is targeting us, the McArty family, like we haven't been through enough.

And I'm going to find out who.