The Tale of Tessa Crane (Halloween Chronicles #2)

Chapter One: Star-Crossed Enemies

My hometown of Sleepy Hollow isn't known for much, just a silly little ghost story. Of course everyone knew the tale, or at least they knew the gist. Most people knew that there was a man named Ichabod Crane who fell in love with Katrina Van Tassel and Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt didn't like that so he played a prank. It was a mean-spirited prank. Brom decided to dress up as the Headless Horseman and scare Ichabod out of town. Of course, being a Van Brunt, he got the girl. It doesn't say Brom jerkwad Bones actually did the prank in the story, it's implied, but I knew he did. I also knew what happened next because the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" wasn't fiction. Most people thought it was just an entertaining tale, a story to tell around a campfire, but I knew it was all true.

Being a Crane in Sleepy Hollow sucked.

Especially when you were an actual descendant of Ichabod Crane. He was my too-many-greats-I-always-forgot grandfather.

When I was younger, I enjoyed all the extra attention my famous last name got me. One of my favorite things to do was to go to the small bakery down on the corner every Friday. The owner, Mrs. Towner, would give me whatever delicious treat she had prepared for the day. She always had the dessert waiting for me when I barreled through the door on my way home from school. It was wrapped in colored cellophane, usually orange, and tied with a ribbon, usually black. I'd carefully set it down on one of the white tables, gingerly pull at the ribbon and smooth out the cellophane. I'd take my time, savoring every bite. When I finished, I tied the ribbon onto my backpack. They were mostly black, it was Sleepy Hollow after all, but there were spots of colors mixed in. Rainbow stars in a black sky.

I never had to pay for my treats and I wasn't sure whether that was because I was a Crane or because she was just a sweet, old woman. I just knew that she never made me feel like a Crane, which meant a lot to me. I tried to start paying for my treats, but Mrs. Towner wouldn't let me so I cut back on my visits drastically. I felt too guilty about the free treats. Not guilty enough to avoid the bake shop all together. Mrs. Towner made the best caramel apple bars in all of Sleepy Hollow.

Now that I was seventeen, I didn't feel that way anymore. Being a Crane was more of a nuisance than anything else. I couldn't even count how many selfies I had been asked to be in or how many conversations abruptly ended when I walked in a room. Eyes always darted away and smiles were just a little too big to be genuine. I could never seem to escape the whispers, they followed me everywhere.

And that was just at school.

The adults of Sleepy Hollow were not much different, except unlike their children, they were less subtle about it. It wasn't uncommon for me to be stopped on the street and asked personal questions about my life and my family. They always focused more on my family thankfully. I always hated the questions about my love life because usually it was followed by a description of their son who they knew was just "perfect for me." My least favorites were when they invited my family over for dinner or when they tried to arrange hangouts with their children. We very rarely accepted dinner invitations and I never accepted the "play dates." It always just so happened that their children were the ones that were spreading the gossip about me and my family around school. I tried to politely excuse myself as quick as possible, but that wasn't always an easy feat. Some adults were very persistent. Luckily, it was easy to pretend to always be busy. After all, who wouldn't believe that the Cranes were very popular people?

The absolute worst part of being a Crane I learned at a young age. I discovered making friends was more trouble than it was worth. Everyone wanted to say they were friends with Tessa Crane, but no one actually wanted to be my friend. Thankfully, Amanda Redding wasn't like everyone else.

Amanda and I became friends in fifth grade. By that point, I had completely given up hope that I would ever have any true friends. I thought I was destined to either have shallow friends who only cared about my last name and what it could do for them or be alone. So, when Amanda first came into my life, sitting with me on the bench outside of school as I waited for my mom to pick me up at the end of the day, I ignored her. I kept on ignoring her for four straight days, not saying a peep, not even looking in her direction. Amanda was undeterred though. She apparently didn't need another person to have a conversation with, she just talked and talked and talked. It was mostly nonsense really, but some of it was serious stuff.