Dead Air - Michelle Schusterman (the read aloud family txt) 📗

to work,” I said, smiling at him before turning and following Hailey and Jamie into the hall.

“They really should use the footage with us in it,” Hailey muttered once the door was closed. “Especially you, Kat—do you think Jess got there in time to film Sonja shoving you into the cell? I mean, can you imagine how much the fans would freak out if they saw that?”

“My blog post,” I said suddenly. “There were a bunch of comments this morning, but I forgot to read them! Were they all people from the forums?”

“Mostly,” Jamie replied, punching the button for the fourth floor. “They started a thread about it, too. They’re pretty obsessed with the photo—you should check it out.”

Oscar looked mildly surprised when he opened his door and found the three of us standing there. “Um, hi?”

“Lidia said to check on you.” Hailey brushed past him without waiting for an invitation, and I struggled not to laugh.

“Can we come in?” Jamie asked loudly and pointedly, but Hailey was already sitting down at the desk and didn’t seem to hear him.

Oscar shrugged and stepped aside. “Sure.”

“Are you okay?” I squinted at him. His eyes were shiny and pinkish. “You look kind of . . .” I trailed off, reluctant to say it out loud. Kind of like you’ve been crying. “Tired.”

“So do you,” Oscar said, arching an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”

We stared at each other and for a moment, I felt like my mask had slipped. Oscar knew. Somehow, he knew about my mom’s “news.”

Then I shook it off. Just my imagination. It had to be. There was no way he could know.

The four of us spent almost an hour combing through the comments on my Crimptown post, then the forum thread AntiSimon had started about the photo of Lidia. It was just like Roland predicted—a lot of them thought the outline of the boy ghost was faked (as if I knew how to edit photos like that). Some of them believed it was the show’s ghost . . . or wanted to believe. But I could tell most of them were still just a little bit skeptical, even the really hard-core fans.

Not that I could blame them. I would be, too, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. And even so, a small part of me regretted being so honest. I’d published a post claiming to have seen the ghost of a woman killed hundreds of years ago, possessing Lidia until some random boy ghost helped her move on. Trish and Mark left comments that made it clear they thought I was joking—or at least, that they hoped so. (Grandma completely believed it, though. Shocking.)

While Oscar and Jamie raided the vending machines, Hailey and I flipped through the limited TV channels. Hardly anything was in English, so I hurried down the hall to my room to grab the Invasion of the Flesh-Eating Rodents DVD Grandma had given me. We’d just gotten to the extended shower scene (not nude—the shower curtain and careful camera work hid everything important, thank you) when Mi Jin stuck her head in.

“Just checking in on you guys . . .” Glancing at the screen, she squealed and let the door close behind her. “Edie Mills, oh my God! I love her!” Mi Jin sat on the edge of the bed where Hailey had sprawled out with a pile of candy bars. “Flesh-Eating Rodents—classic. Vampires of New Jersey is my favorite Edie movie, though. I was Maribel Mauls for Halloween a few years ago. Used a whole can of hairspray.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Vampires is your favorite? Seriously? It’s so cheesy!”

“That’s why I love it!” Mi Jin leaned forward, squinting at the TV. “Hang on . . . I don’t remember this scene! Are those guinea pigs?”

“Yeah, this is a special edition,” I told her, holding up the case with Never-Before-Seen Footage! blazoned in red across the top, right above Grandma’s wide, horror-filled eyes.

“Whoa, when did this come out?” Mi Jin grabbed the case and flipped it over to read the back. “I have all of her movies. She’s the best.”

“I don’t think it’s been officially released yet.”

“Then how’d you get a copy?”

“My, um . . .” I closed my eyes briefly. Good job, Kat. “My grandma gave it to me.”

Jamie shot me a curious look. “How’d she get it before it came out?”

“She’s, uh . . . she’s Edie Mills.”

Four heads swiveled in my direction. “What?” Mi Jin yelped.

Oscar reached up from his spot on the floor and pressed a button on the laptop we’d connected to the television. On the screen, Grandma froze midscream, a rabid guinea pig gnawing at her neck. Everyone stared at me expectantly, and I sighed.

“Yeah, so, Edie Mills is my grandma.”

“Um.” Jamie squinted at me, then at the screen. “You and your grandma kind of don’t . . . look alike?”

“She’s white,” Hailey added bluntly, and I bit back a laugh.

“She’s my mom’s mom. I look more like my dad. Er, obviously.”

“Oh, wait!” Hailey lunged for Oscar’s laptop and sent the candy wrappers flying. “The comments on your blog—there’s an Edie, right? There is!” She turned the laptop so we could see the screen, a triumphant smile on her face. “Edie M! She comments on every post! She’s the one always asking for pictures of Sam!”

At that, Oscar burst out laughing. Mi Jin clapped both hands to her mouth, her eyes round with shock.

“Oh my God, Edie Mills is seriously your grandmother? Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“Well, it’s not like she’s that famous,” I said. “Most people have never seen her movies. I didn’t know you had.”

“Are you kidding? She’s, like, my idol!” Mi Jin exclaimed. “No, for real—when I was in middle school, I only auditioned for the cheerleading squad because I wanted to be like Kimmy Kickwell in Mutant Cheerleaders Attack. They got mad when I brought fake blood to the first game to use during a routine, so I quit. And when I was sixteen, I was a cannibal clown for Halloween, and my friend Laura dressed up as Tina Soares—she even made this trapeze