What If ... Your Past Came Back to Haunt You by Liz Ruckdeschel Read Free Book Online Page A

it?”
    â€œMrs. Metzger and Mr. Von?” Haley tried to take in this news. Nora Metzger was Dave Metzger’s mother. Dave Metzger was Annie Armstrong’s boyfriend. Mrs. Metzger was pretty much the most neurotic and uptight person Haley had ever met. She saw danger everywhere and had Dave convinced he was allergic to just about everything under the sun. She would have kept him in a bubble if she could. She was the last person Haley would imagine getting serious with anyone, much less the eccentric loosey goosey Rick Von, with his rumpled clothes, stubbly beard, whispery rasp of a voice and oddly lopsided walk.
    On the other hand, maybe they made a weird kind of sense as a couple. They were both oddballs; at least they had that in common.
    â€œSo wait,” Alex said. “You’re saying they moved in together? So that means Dave Metzger is . . . living in Mr. Von’s house now?”
    Joan nodded. “Blythe told me that Annie’s been over to visit several times.”
    â€œI can’t believe Annie hasn’t told us about this yet,” Haley said.
    â€œYou know Annie and her obessions,” Alex said. “Right now she’s so obsessed with saving the planet that she sometimes forgets to go to the bathroom.”
    â€œApparently the house is very rustic,” Joan said. “Full of fascinating antiques and relics from the sixties.”
    Haley tried to imagine the household: Dave Metzger, nervous, sweaty, breaking out in hives at even the thought of strawberries, blueberries, apples, shellfish, regular fish, milk, all dairy products—in fact, pretty much anything but rice cakes—holed up in his new bedroom in Mr. Von’s cobweb-filled house, taping his podcast, “Inside Hillsdale,” and spouting his bizarre conspiracy theories while his mother and Mr. Von made out or whatever downstairs. How would Mr. Von treat Dave at school? Would he act all fatherly or pretend nothing had changed?
    Haley looked at her own mother and shuddered. Thank God her parents were still married. There’d been plenty of strange parental pairings in Hillsdale over the past year or so, some of them not so bad, like Sasha Lewis’s father and Whitney Klein’s mother. But a few of them struck Haley as crimes against nature. She couldn’t imagine having to move in with one of her teachers—especially Mr. Von.
    â€œSo what did you think of Perry’s movie so far?” Joan asked Alex, mercifully changing the subject.
    â€œImpressive,” Alex said. “And a little scary. I have to admit he makes a good case.”
    Haley smiled at him. “So you’re going to rethink your whole global-warming-is-a-myth stance? Maybe forget about the club? Maybe even join Planet Please?”
    â€œI didn’t say that,” Alex said, grinning wryly.

    Has Haley worked her magic on Alex and his anti-environmental views? Results inconclusive. But there are hopeful signs. It was good of her to try, anyway. But even the fate of the Cape May warbler is easily trumped by local gossip like Joan’s—no wonder Haley and Alex were distracted.
    Dave Metzger, Mrs. Metzger and Mr. Von together in the same house? It boggles the mind.
    Haley has a good imagination, but even she can’t quite picture it. To send her chez Von to see the weird menagerie for herself, go to ( GARAGE BANDWIDTH ). Dave is sure to be video-podcasting, and that’s usually an event in itself.
    So how are things going with Alex? Frankly, it’s hard to tell. Do you think he’s too conservative for Haley and that she’ll never change him no matter how much film footage Perry shows him? Maybe she and Alex just don’t have the right chemistry. But if they don’t, whose molecules do have Haley’s atomic number?
    If you think Haley’s still daydreaming about Devon McKnight go to ( TAKE THE LEAD ).
    Maybe you think Haley should forget about Dave and Devon and leave her