Teaser Tuesday: The Haunting of Pemberly Brown

Just in case you guys have forgotten about the inimitable Kate Lowry, we thought we'd post a little reminder. Everyone needs a little Kate in their life. Especially on a Tuesday.

This is an excerpt from THE HAUNTING OF PEMBERLY BROWN. It's a flashback scene where Kate's bestie Grace has just found out that she can go to the big school  bonfire, but only if her parents drive them. Unfortunately Maddie has other plans...

            “No way, Grace,” Maddie replied flipping her curly black hair. “We’ve got a ride with Bradley Farrow.”

             Grace and I stared at her, mouths hanging open. Bradley Farrow was, well, Bradley Farrow. He was Pemberly Brown’s resident BMOC (Big Man on Campus). He was only a third year, but was already captain of the football team and school president. Oh, and he was gorgeous. Perfect mocha skin, eyelashes like paintbrushes and a shaved head that every girl at Pemberly was dying to get her hands on.

            “Bradley Farrow? How did you end up with a ride from Bradley Farrow?” Grace couldn’t hide her shock.

             Maddie rolled her eyes. “Oh, sorry, didn’t realize that it’s such a stretch that a girl like me could get us a ride from a guy like him.”

             “Come on Maddie, you know what she meant. It’s Bradley Farrow, he’s practically a god around here.” I jumped in to save Grace.

             “Well, if you must know, Naomi and I are in study hall together 2nd period and she said he’d take us if we wanted.”

             “Oh, so basically his parents are forcing him to take Naomi and because she has no friends she asked us?” Now it was Grace’s turn to look annoyed.

             “She has friends…”

             “Yeah, if you count those caterpillars she calls eyebrows,” Grace quipped.

             “Enough!” I went into peacemaker mode and turned to Grace. “Naomi is super nice and she’s…well, really good at tennis, so lay off.” Next I turned to Maddie, “You know we can’t ride with Bradley, why don’t you ask Naomi if she wants to come with us?”

             Maddie stuck out her lower lip like a petulant child, “That totally defeats the purpose. I mean this is Bradley we’re talking about here.”

             “Uh, actually this is your best friend we’re talking about here. Come on, we’ll ride with Bradley some other time.” Grace shot me a grateful look. I knew how important it was to her to at least pretend she had a normal social life and there was no way I was going to let Maddie’s attempts at social climbing ruin this for her.

             “Yeah, yeah. You’re right. As usual. This is starting to get a little irritating, Kate.” Maddie elbowed me in the rib cage as we started down the hall to our next class.

             “Well, they don’t call me Kate the Great for nothing.” I glanced down at my bag and realized that I'd left my Latin notebook in my locker. “Crap, forgot something. I’ll see you guys at lunch.” I rushed back to my locker, twisted the combination lock and reached in to grab my notebook.

             But sitting on top of my messy pile of books and school supplies was a pristine cream envelope with my name written in calligraphy on the front. I grabbed the card and looked around the crowded hallways. This definitely hadn’t been here 10 seconds ago. Who could have slipped this into my locker so quickly?

             The paper of the envelope felt creamy and expensive beneath my fingertips. I opened the envelope carefully, not wanting to rip it.

             The text on the invitation was hand written in the same gorgeous calligraphy as my name:                        

Kate Elizabeth Lowry your presence is requested at Pemberly Chapel at dusk on Friday the 13th of September. Come alone. Tell no one.

             Looks like I was going to have more important places to be the night of the bonfire.