Leaping at Shadows Read online

  She touched her neck again and tried to control her breathing. It was just her imagination. A big house, a bad ballet class, a complete and total life change … Everything would be just fine. Plus, September always started to get creepy toward the end, with dead leaves and long shadows. She just needed to get her head together. She was probably hungry too. Having not eaten since lunch.

  After slowing her breaths, she decided she needed to eat. Some food in her empty stomach would make things normal and erase the last few minutes. She decided to head down to the dining room to see if she could scrounge for some food. A quick look at the clock in her room told her it was only 7:20. Perfect timing—there would probably still be food around but no girls ready to hate her. She could open that door, go out into that hall, and get herself some food. There was nothing there. Nothing at all.

  It was just a hallway. Even if her goose bumps were starting up again.

  Madeleine realized she should put on her necklace for courage. It would remind her why she was here.

  Walking over to her dresser, she started to feel better already. She laughed at herself—how could she have let her mind get away from her? There was nothing wrong with this school. The danger was all in her mind.

  She scanned the dresser for her necklace. And then frantically scanned it again.

  Nothing. Her necklace was gone.

  Chapter 4

  “I know it was you.”

  Madeleine was spitting fire.

  She had been up all night, chewing on her hair and waiting to confront Ophelia in the morning. She had sprinted to dance class early so she could talk to Ophelia before the whole class came. At her old school, Madeleine loved getting to class early anyway, just to get her mind in the right place for practice. But today she was on a mission.

  Ophelia walked in at 5:42. Evidently, Madeleine wasn’t the only ballet dancer who liked to arrive before start time. Madeleine stood up, one pointe shoe half tied and the other half on.

  Ophelia jumped when she heard Madeleine. Then she put her hands on her hips and said, in a snotty voice. “What?”

  Madeleine didn’t think she’d ever heard so much venom injected in a word. She swallowed. This was important. This was her family’s necklace.

  “I know you stole it. And I want it back. Now.”

  For a moment, Madeleine thought she saw real confusion in Ophelia’s face. It turned to disgust.

  “Why would I ever steal anything of yours, freak?”

  Ophelia threw down her bag in another corner, then took out her pointe shoes and warmers and started dressing like she didn’t have a care in the world. She bent over one leg in a long stretch. Madeleine knew she’d been dismissed. The fire in her belly grew.

  She stomped over to Ophelia. “That necklace has been in my family for years! You saw it yesterday, and you’re mad that I’m a better dancer than you. So you stole my necklace when I left my room. And I want it back. Now!”

  Ophelia sat up slowly. “A better dancer than me?”

  Madeleine could see the veins in Ophelia’s neck. “Just because you can jump high doesn’t make you a better dancer. You better watch yourself around here. You’re not in some podunk town anymore, scholarship girl. There are real dancers here.”

  Madeleine became vaguely aware of other dancers trickling in, felt their stares. Scholarship—she had thought that was a secret. She lifted up her chin.

  “Yeah, well, there are real jerks here too, evidently. And real thieves.”

  Ophelia’s friends drifted over to her corner. Out of the corner of Madeleine’s eye, Madame Puant came in, followed by Patrick, the pianist. Madeleine glanced back at her bag. She needed to get ready.

  “All I know,” she said, “is I’d better get that necklace back. And you better do it soon.”

  Ophelia narrowed her eyes. “I’m. So. Scared.”

  Madeleine glared at Ophelia one last time, and some of the girls around her giggled. She didn’t care. She’d never been so mad in all her life. When Madame started them on barre exercises, Madeleine threw herself into the warm-ups, trying to use the fire for her dancing. After classes ended, she would find a way to get Ophelia back.

  “Madeleine, there’s an empty seat by the wall. There you go.”

  Madeleine made her way to the back of the class, feeling all eyes on her. She had already been introduced to everyone, of course. They’d all been at ballet practice too. But even so, Madeleine still felt the shame of the first-day student.

  Mr. Barnes, the English teacher, gave her a kind smile. He was the same man who had stared at her at practice the other day. He still looked untidy and a little like he never slept, but Madeleine was just grateful that someone was showing her some kindness. He winked a fatherly wink and then suddenly put his hand up to his nose. “Just a minute, everybody. You’ll have to excuse me.”

  He left the class to murmurs and quizzical looks. Oh great, thought Madeleine. The first person to be nice to me sprints out of the room.

  The girl in front of Madeleine turned around and said, “Mr. Barnes is new. He leaves class, like, three times an hour. It’s weird. But he’s still super cool. I think he’s my favorite.”

  Madeleine was so startled that someone her age was talking to her that all she said was, “Oh.”

  The girl smiled. “I’m Kayley.”

  Madeleine recognized Kayley as one of the girls that hung around Ophelia. Was this a trick?

  As if Kayley had read Madeleine’s face, she said, “Yeah, I’m friends with Ophelia. But she’s not that bad, really. She was just jealous of you. Don’t let her get to you. You’re a really good dancer, and she’s used to being the best. It’s good for her to have to work harder.” She grinned at Madeleine.

  Madeleine couldn’t help but smile back. She always liked to hear she was a good dancer, but more importantly, this person didn’t hate her! She snuck a peek at Ophelia and saw she was looking over at them. That made her smile too.

  She turned back to Kayley, who had taken out a pack of Twizzlers and started gnawing on one.

  “I think Ophelia stole my necklace,” Madeleine blurted out. She swallowed, embarrassed she’d said that to one of Ophelia’s friends.

  Kayley’s face scrunched and she just shook her head. “No, that doesn’t sound like her. If she doesn’t like you, she goes cold, not hot. She’d just freeze you out and pretend you didn’t exist.”

  It did seem like Ophelia was cold, Madeleine thought. And for whatever reason, she felt she could trust Kayley.

  Before Madeleine could reply, Mr. Barnes walked in again. Even from the back of the class, Madeleine could see a red smudge under his nose. He looked terrible, possibly worse than before.

  With a hoarse voice but a big smile he said, “OK, my favorite class! Catcher in the Rye. Who read it? Any phonies in here? If you’re faking, I’ll spot it.”

  Madeleine smiled at him. She’d read the book so she caught onto the joke. And Mr. Barnes actually sounded like he would teach a fun class. Maybe class here wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  After class—a fun one, like Madeleine thought—he called her name as everyone else left.

  He looked at her with soft, compassionate eyes. “Madeleine, how has your first day been?”

  Without warning, a lump formed in her throat. “It’s been OK,” she said. She put her hand up to her collar, but the lack of a necklace almost made her lose it completely.

  Mr. Barnes shifted his briefcase and tapped his hand on his leg. He looked at Madeleine with such kindness that a tear actually escaped her eye.

  “First days are always hard,” he said. “It will get better here. I promise. We are all here to keep you safe. You can always talk to any of the teachers. Anytime.”

  Madeleine nodded.

  “I mean it,” Mr. Barnes said. He smiled again. Madeleine couldn’t help but smile back. Then he turned on his heel and left.

  Even though the day had started off pretty badly, at least she had a good teacher to coun
t on. And a possible—she wouldn’t let herself think probable—friend in Kayley.

  As Madeleine walked to her room, she thought about what Kayley had said about Ophelia. Her gut told her to trust the girl. But if Ophelia hadn’t stolen her necklace, then who had?

  Chapter 5

  Madeleine was exhausted after the second ballet class of the day. She’d had to do eight—eight!—fouettés in a row, and she and Ophelia had been the only ones able to complete them all. She was also exhausted from all the hard stares she and Ophelia had been exchanging. Her legs were sore and so was her heart. Still no sign of her necklace.

  Soon, smells from the kitchen wafted under Madeleine’s door, and she sat up. No way was she going to miss dinner tonight. She was way too hungry. She put on her fluffy boots and went downstairs. At two minutes until the official mealtime, no one else sat in the dining room. Madeleine went to the buffet area, loaded up her plate, and then chickened out. Taking the stairs two at a time back to her room, she managed to avoid anyone coming out for dinner.

  Tomorrow. Tomorrow she’d go to dinner with everyone else.

  After she finished eating, she got out her phone and looked at the photos she had taken over the last couple of years, a lot of them from her house and with her mom. As an only child from a single mother, she was crazy close to her mom. She reached again for her necklace and only felt her empty chest where the necklace was supposed to sit. She started to cry.

  She didn’t realize chasing her dream would be so lonely.

  Then, in an instant, she was asleep. The drain of the day and the deep homesickness she felt had taken their toll, and her eyes just wouldn’t stay open. When she jolted awake, the room was completely dark. The illuminated lights on the alarm clock said eleven thirty.

  She lunged upright when she heard a loud bump just outside her window. Her second-floor window?

  The bump came again, and her window rattled.

  Her heart pounding, Madeleine moved slowly toward the window. With a shaking hand, she reached out to pull open one of the drapes as a loud thunk sounded. Madeleine screeched and jumped back.

  The thunk turned into a pounding, and she heard a voice say, “Let me in, let me in. Hurry.”

  This was definitely not something supernatural. This was one of her fellow students.

  Scenarios rushed through her mind: a serial killer on the loose and stalking ballet students; a rabid dog mauling someone on the grounds; the statue of the ballet dancer, twisted and shadowy, coming to life and menacing a classmate …

  She threw open the window and saw a long leg climb over the ledge, then another, until the figure had entered her room. And then she stood face-to-face with Ophelia.

  Madeleine narrowed her eyes. “You.”

  Ophelia glanced back through the window and waved her hand for something outside to get going.

  “So this is how you got in to steal my necklace?” Madeleine said.

  Ophelia blew out a gust of air and checked over her shoulder again. “Oh for the love of god, I didn’t steal your necklace. Why would I care?”

  Before Madeleine could respond, a knock sounded on the door. Madeleine’s heart sped up again. Who would be knocking at this hour? Ophelia hurriedly closed the window and drapes and then flipped around, giving Madeleine a look she didn’t quite understand.

  The knock came again. Madeleine rushed to the door and opened it.

  Madame Puant stood in the hallway in a robe and slippers. Madeleine was startled. Not just because Madame had shown up at her door at eleven thirty but because Madame was wearing something else other than leggings and gauzy scarves.

  Madame looked past Madeleine to Ophelia, who sat on the bed with an innocent expression on her face, one of Madeleine’s textbooks open in front of her. She chirped, “Hi, Madame.”

  Madame narrowed her eyes. “Curfew is at ten. No exceptions, even for homework. If that’s what you’re doing.”

  Madame turned the full force of her stare to Madeleine. “It seems someone saw one of our students getting out of a car and running into the building. I don’t suppose either of you would know anything about that.”

  Madeleine turned to Ophelia. Ophelia’s eyes were just a bit too bright. She said, way too cheerily, “No, Madame. We haven’t seen anything.”

  Madame turned to Madeleine, squinting at her as if trying to get into her very soul. “And you, Madeleine? Have you seen anyone? Remember that to lie to an administrator at this school is to be expelled.”

  Anger flared up inside Madeleine. Not only had Ophelia stolen her necklace and made her first three days miserable, she also just put Madeleine in a position to be expelled. She couldn’t lose her scholarship. She just couldn’t. Now would be the time to get Ophelia back.

  She straightened her back and prepared to tell Madame the truth. And then her heart sank.

  Madeleine was just not that person. She wouldn’t rat Ophelia out, no matter how awful the girl had been.

  She cleared her throat and looked at the floor. “No. I haven’t seen anything, Madame.”

  When she looked back up, Madame’s stare drilled a hole in her. But Madeleine saw something else too. Something that looked suspiciously like respect.

  “Very well, then,” Madame said. “I’m sure you girls would let me know if something was amiss. At Dario, we take integrity very seriously. Curfew must be followed. And we are a team of dancers—no matter what competition entails. We must work as a group and depend on one another. I’m glad to see you girls finding that sense of teamwork. Even after curfew. Ophelia, I expect you in bed no more than five minutes from now. If I catch you out of curfew again, there will be severe consequences.”

  “Yes, Madame,” Ophelia said quietly.

  And then Madame shut the door. Madeleine stared at the black, old-fashioned doorknob and lock. She took a deep breath, barely registering her blank white walls and her secondhand suitcases with duct tape still on the scuffed wooden floor. Her dressing table and mirror had only one picture: she’d put one up of her and her mom.

  She sat still for a minute, trying not to scream at Ophelia.

  When she turned around, Ophelia was standing up, the haughty look she normally wore completely gone.

  “Why did you do that?”

  Madeleine gave up any more thoughts of a fight. She was too tired to worry about anything anymore. She sat down at her dressing table chair and shrugged.

  “I don’t tell on people. Even if they do suck.”

  To Madeleine’s surprise, Ophelia laughed. “OK, I’ll admit I’ve been pretty sucky to you since you got here.”

  Her blue eyes wide and sincere, she continued: “But you have to believe that I didn’t steal your necklace. In fact, that’s why I was out tonight. Someone stole a ring of mine. I’m pretty sure. I thought maybe I’d left it at a friend’s house the last time I snuck out. But it’s not there either. And I believe my friend.”

  “Maybe you just lost it,” Madeleine said, shrugging.

  Ophelia’s haughty look returned instantly. “Maybe you just lost your necklace?”

  “OK, good point. But was your ring a family heirloom? Or worth a lot of money? My necklace wasn’t, but it is … important to me.”

  Ophelia nodded. “Mine isn’t an heirloom, but it’s special to me, like your necklace is to you. My grandma gave it to me. It’s cheap and costumey, so I don’t know why anyone would steal it. But it’s gone. And just like your necklace, I know I didn’t lose it. I would never.”

  Madeleine nodded. She believed Ophelia. For the first time since Madeleine had met her, Ophelia looked downright vulnerable.

  She slumped down. “Is there a thief at Dario, do you think?”

  “I think there is,” Ophelia said. “This school … well, it’s got a personality of its own, that’s for sure. Things are not right here.”

  Madeleine was about to agree when a knock sounded at the door.

  Madame’s voice thundered through the wood. “Back to bed, Ophelia.”<
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  Both girls jumped, and Ophelia grinned. “Better get going.” She opened the door, then looked both ways down the empty hallway. Madeleine wondered how Madame Puant could move so fast.

  Ophelia turned back to Madeleine. “We need to find our stuff and who is taking it,” she whispered. “Tomorrow night we are exploring this place.”

  Madeleine raised an eyebrow. “Like in people’s rooms?”

  Ophelia shook her head. “I don’t think it’s our classmates stealing these things.”

  “Then who?”

  Ophelia’s eyes flickered along with the hall’s antique lights. “I think it’s the house itself. I think we’re dealing with a ghost.”

  With that, she disappeared down the red carpet, leaving Madeleine to shiver alone in her room.

  Chapter 6

  Madeleine didn’t believe in ghosts. At least that’s what she told herself all night alone in her room.

  It didn’t work. She barely slept a wink. She kept remembering the hallway’s strange shadows and the footsteps she had heard on the other side of the curtained French doors. She remembered looking out the window and seeing the bronze dancer twisting grotesquely in the shadows.

  For a while, she wondered if Ophelia was just messing with her. But she had always trusted her instincts, and they told her that Ophelia owed her one and knew it. And she had a feeling that not only did Ophelia not want to owe her but also that she might even want to be her friend.

  The thought brought a smile to Madeleine. Maybe the academy wouldn’t be so horrible after all. She had two maybe-friends, at least one great teacher, and a helluva grand jeté. This could be a great school.

  Even with a ghost.

  The next morning, Madeleine walked shyly into the studio, ten minutes later than she normally did, her eyes a dark baggy mess. A quick look at Ophelia and Madeleine knew she hadn’t slept well either. When their eyes met, Ophelia said, “Madeleine, put your stuff here.”