Sleepover Stakeout (9780545443111) Read Online Free PDF

flicked back and forth in the darkness. “Two choices. Walk toward Maya’s house and find out who or what is over there. Or head into the woods and hide.”
    I didn’t like either of those options.
    But soon the choice was taken away from us. The footsteps quickened, got louder and closer. It was too late to hide in the woods. We were frozen to the spot. And a dark shadow emerged from between the houses, the way we’d come.
    â€œAnya?” Maya’s trembling voice called out.
    â€œNope,” the voice in the darkness said. A mean-sounding boy’s voice.

The tall, dark figure emerged from the shadows and let out a mocking laugh.
    A laugh that I recognized.
    â€œHunter?” I asked shakily.
    He clicked on a flashlight and held it under his chin, illuminating his face. Yep. It was Hunter Fisk, seventh-grade mean kid. My fear morphed into annoyance. But at least he wasn’t a man-eating animal or an alien or anything else Darcy had brought up.
    I hadn’t even realized I’d been digging my fingernails into Darcy’s skin until she said, “How about you take your talons out of my arm before I start bleeding?”
    â€œOh, sorry.” I let go and brought my hands down to my sides.
    She whispered, “It’s okay. I was kind of scared, too.” She added with a wink, “But I’ll never admit it.”
    Then she turned to Hunter, and her voice went from soft to hard. “What are you doing out here?”
    He took the flashlight from his face and shined it into our eyes. “I should be asking you that. This is my house.”
    I knew that Hunter lived on Maya’s street. He’d been teasing her on the way home from school a while back, and Zane had started walking her home to protect her. Which meant that Zane also lived in one of these houses, but I tried to focus on the subject at hand.
    â€œWe heard something and we were just checking it out,” I said. “We’re on our way back in now.”
    I started to move, but Hunter said, “Wait.” He seemed suddenly intrigued. “What did you hear?”
    I paused a moment for Maya to explain, but when she didn’t, I said, “It was a mysterious voice. Asking for help.”
    â€œMale or female?” he asked.
    â€œWe couldn’t tell,” Darcy said. “Too much static.”
    Hunter moved closer. At least we could all see one another better with his flashlight bouncing around. “One voice or lots of voices?”
    â€œWe don’t know,” Darcy replied again. “There was interference. It was muffled.”
    Hunter stared at us suspiciously. I silently scoffed. Like we were the untrustworthy troublemakers in this circle? Puh-leeze.
    â€œSo you really heard this voice all the way inside Maya’s house?” he asked.
    We all shared a look. Silently trying to decide whether we should tell him the truth.
    Maya gave in. “We heard it over the baby monitor. Sometimes those things can pick up other electronic devices, so we came out to see if any of the neighbors were watching TV.”
    Hunter furrowed his eyebrows. “Well, I was playing video games, but there was no talking. Just shooting aliens.”
    Something about that didn’t make sense. I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him. “Then what are you doing out here?”
    â€œMy TV faces that window.” He pointed and we all looked up at the now dark window that faced the backyard and the woods. “I thought I saw something out there in the dark. So I shut the game off and went up real close to the window to see if it would happen again, but then I heard voices. That’s when I came out and found you guys creeping around outside.”
    â€œSo the voices were probably us,” Darcy said. “But what did you see before that?”
    He looked down and shuffled his feet back and forth, as if he was embarrassed to say it.
    â€œCome on, Hunter,” I said.