The Mapmaker and the Ghost(2)

“Hey,” she said once she was right beside him.

Charlie looked confused, as if it was taking his brain some time to understand the one word she had spoken. His mouth gaped open a little, showing his soda-stained teeth and tongue.

Goldenrod took this opportunity to address her brother. “Hey, little bro. Got yourself in trouble, huh?” She smirked. “Serves you right, twerp.”

Birch looked mortified, like he couldn’t believe his own sister was turning on him at this very humiliating, likely to be physically painful, moment. Even the freckles on his face seemed to redden.

“This is your brother then, huh, Mold-and-rot?” Charlie asked.

Goldenrod knew Charlie must have heard that lovely nickname from one of the other kids—he was definitely too stupid to have come up with it himself.

“Yeah. Take him for whatever he’s got. He deserves it. See you, dunderhead,” she said to Birch and turned around to leave.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Charlie said, finally starting to catch on. “You mean you actually want me to mess with your little brother?”

Goldenrod shrugged. “He’s a brat. Always getting me in trouble at home.”

“Hey, Charlie.” Goldenrod turned to see Jonas Levins, Charlie’s trusty sidekick and—most obviously—the brains of their operation. “Hey, man. If Mold-and-rot wants you to mess with him, you better leave him alone.”

“How come?” Charlie asked.

“Because,” Jonas said a little impatiently, “why would you want to do anything that would make that weirdo happy?”

“Oh. Yeah.”

Jonas took Birch’s limp hand in his own and shook it. “Keep up the good work, kid. It must be hard, having that loser for a sister.” He started to laugh and Charlie joined in with his big, wheezy chuckles.

Goldenrod almost walked away. Really, she did. Later on she would tell the school principal this. And her parents. She wouldn’t bother telling Ms. Barf, though, because let’s face it, it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.

But just then the sight of those two horrid kids standing there, filling her little brother’s head with nonsense about her—stuff he didn’t ever have to know, really—got the best of her. Yes, she had expected that pretending she wanted them to bully Birch would make the kids leave him alone. But now they had taken it too far. She knew the kids thought she was a weirdo; the last time Jonas had thought she was cool was probably in kindergarten, when they actually still played together at her house. Up until a few months ago, though, at least she was a weirdo with a friend and it didn’t matter so much what anyone else thought. Now that she was on her own—well, she just couldn’t have her little brother turning on her too.

With one hand, Goldenrod grabbed a sharpened pencil from her case; with the other, she grabbed onto Charlie’s backpack and started to shake it, hard.

“What are you doing, you dork?” Charlie shrieked as he tried to pull away.

But before he had the chance to, Goldenrod had stabbed the pencil right into the heart of his backpack. There was a great, loud pop, and suddenly a fountain of orange energy soda shot out of the top of Charlie’s half-open backpack and showered down all over his head. Goldenrod, Birch, and Jonas got out of the way just in time. Kids in the hallway started to roar with laughter.

Goldenrod smiled. But the smile wouldn’t last long.

“Goldenrod Moram!” a deep voice boomed.

Of course Ms. Barf had to have seen the whole thing. She was pointing a shaking finger at Goldenrod.

“Five minutes! Five minutes before the end of your career here at Pilmilton Elementary, and this is how you choose to send yourself off. I don’t know why I should be surprised. To the principal’s office, you no-good hoodlum!”

Jonas was the one laughing now, though Charlie still looked too shaken up by his sticky encounter to fully appreciate what was going on.

Birch stared awestruck at Goldenrod. “What about Mom…?”

“Yeah, she’s probably going to have to come pick me up now. You can tell her,” Goldenrod said softly as she followed Ms. Barf down to the hallway she knew so well.





2

THE MAPMAKER


As the first Monday morning without school dawned for hundreds of kids all over the town of Pilmilton, Goldenrod was stuck in her room. She was starting her summer vacation grounded for a whole week.

She didn’t think that her punishment would have been quite so harsh if Ms. Barf hadn’t personally called up her parents and used the words “hoodlum” and “lack of parental discipline” so many times. She had also made a point of calling Goldenrod’s crimes “damage to personal property” and “attack with a sharp weapon” and then saying that she wouldn’t be surprised if “the victim’s” parents took legal action. The thought of Charlie Cookman and his muscles being a victim of anything other than a math test almost made Goldenrod laugh.

Almost, because although she could handle the other kids being mean to her and she was even used to Ms. Barf’s anger, what she really hated was hearing her parents say they were disappointed in her. Which is exactly what they did say before grounding her for a whole week.

So, as the sun shone brightly outside, Goldenrod spent that Monday lying belly-down on her bed, poring over her books—almost all of which were atlases—and thinking about Charla.