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still hasn't done the grocery shopping," I said.
    "She's been really absentminded lately," Poppy commented.
    "I hadn't noticed," I said. I had, but I wasn't going to tell Poppy. She'd just use it as ammo the next time she and Rose got in a tiff. They always made up, but then they somehow always ended up mad at me.
    "Where's Mom?" I asked.
    "She called earlier and said she's working on a case with Chief Mendez. She said they'd grab something out," Poppy told me. "Oh, and I forgot to mention. Samantha Devereaux called."
    "She called here?" My incredulity was clear. She really must be dead, because that was the only way she'd get caught calling me.
    "I thought you were friends," Poppy said.
    "No, we're not friends," I said shortly.
    "But you were," Poppy persisted. "She used to be here all the time."
    "Yeah, back in sixth grade." I took a gulp of milk. "When I didn't know any better," I added under my breath.
    "She left her number." Poppy handed me a slip of paper. "She said it was urgent."
    What did the queen of the dead want now? Whatever it was, I'm sure it involved plenty of pain and humiliation. For me, of course.

Chapter Five
    I forgot about Samantha's call until after dinner, when I went upstairs to tackle my homework. I decided not to call Her Deadness back. Whatever it was, it could wait until school tomorrow. Unlike the rest of the student body, I wasn't going to jump when she snapped her fingers.
    Bad decision.
    The next day, I was at my locker right before lunch when Samantha strode up, wheeling her backpack-slash-minicoffin behind her.
    "Tryouts are in five minutes," she said. Her cheerleading uniform had been dyed black and she wore blood red ribbons in her hair.
    I raised an eyebrow. "New school colors?"
    "Principal Amador gave me permission," she said. "Not that it's any of your business."
    Then the part about tryouts sunk in. My stomach took the express elevator to my knees, which began to shake.
    "But it's lunchtime," I whined. "And nobody told me tryouts were today. Ms., I mean Miss, Foster said they'd be next week."
    "Cheerleaders don't eat lunch," she said. "And plans change. Rachel King is in the hospital and two other girls on the squad just came down with mono or something."
    "Rachel's in the hospital?"
    "That's what I said," she snapped.
    I glared at her. "What's the matter with her?"
    Her expression thawed. "They don't know what's wrong yet, but she won't be back in time for regionals. Miss Foster is flipping out. She's insisting we have three alternates instead of just one."
    "Who else is sick?"
    "Mindy Monson and Kelsey Sebastian. Kelsey and Mindy can't even have visitors. Now quit stalling. Let's go." She started to walk away.
    I didn't follow her. My brain was too busy processing all the information she'd given me. It worried me that so many girls on the squad were ill.
    I felt a little ill myself at the thought of cheerleader tryouts. Samantha whirled around and walked back to where I stood rooted to the spot.
    "Let's go," she repeated.
    "I can't," I said. "I didn't have time to practice."
    "Well, you would have if you had called me back yesterday." She softened when she saw my face. "Don't look so scared. Look, I know we haven't been the best of friends or anything lately."
    Or anything? What a vast understatement.
    "The team needs you," Samantha continued. "You don't think I remember, but I do. You were a gymnast, a good one."
    My gymnastics career ended early, when an enormous growth spurt put me out of the running. Good gymnasts weren't tall, at least not any I knew.
    Now the only gymnastics I did was when Poppy "accidentally" locked me out of the house and I had to climb up the trellis to my bedroom window to get in.
    "I'm out of practice," I said. "And I don't want to try out in front of a bunch of people." The football players often sat in on cheering tryouts. What if Ryan saw me? I'd be a nervous wreck.
    "Miss Foster convinced Principal Amador that this was an emergency situation," Samantha