Today, I, Annabelle Charlotte Howard, snuck a cat into Bevton. It’s a good thing our estate, Bevton, is big enough for me to hide it. I think I will name my new cat Estes, after our town. My family and I moved here to Estes Park, Colorado about a year ago because Father heard word of gold in this land and being the competitive man he is, Father decided to come to Estes Park as quickly as possible. It’s been an amazing transition. We used to live in Tennessee, so this is a nice change from war. This war is horrible, sadly my brother got drafted shortly after we got settled here in Estes Park.

I just realized, I haven’t told you about how I found Estes. I was walking down Cheshire Lane and I heard this strange “Meeerrrrr” sound and decided to investigate. The sound seemed as if it was coming from near the schoolhouse. I picked up my pace and scurried to the schoolhouse. As I got closer to the schoolhouse the sound got louder and louder until I ended up near the trash cans by the back door of the schoolhouse. At first I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but as I looked closer I saw a cat, thin as paper and dirtier than trash.
Out of pity I decided to bring the cat back to Bevton. I snuck him in through the back door and took him to my dwellings. I drew a bath and bathed the cat. It was a hassle to get the cat into the bathtub, but since the poor thing was so weak from starvation I finally got him into the bath….
~~~
“Harley!” Carolynn yelled from down the school hallway with Justin at her side. “Hey bestie.” Carolynn said once she was an arms length away from me.
“Hola,” Harley said putting the old, dusty diary she had found while cleaning her house’s attic over the weekend, in her backpack and standing up to hug her best friends (and trying to not show her annoyance that she was interrupted from her reading) and said, “How was your guy’s weekends?”
“Boring as usual,” Justin said unenthusiastically. Justin is an athletically built boy with piercing blue eyes, a perfect smile and lazily combed, black hair.
“My sister came home this weekend and we went shopping in town,” Carolynn said. Carolynn is a well dressed, pretty girl with an affinity for clothing and perfect blonde hair and light blue eyes. “How was your weekend, Harley?”
     “It was fine. My parents made me clean our attic, but in doing so I found this cool old diary of girl that lived there in 1864!” Harley said excitedly.
Harley opened up her tie-dyed backpack to get the diary. At the same time she adjusted her floral skirt. As she did so Justin caught a whiff of Harley’s wheat colored hair. It smelled like vanilla and lavender. Once Harley got the diary and started passing it around, Justin noticed her eyes looked like honey.
“Man, I thought my weekend was boring,” Justin said teasingly while he looked at the diary. “Let me guess you did homework too?”
“Actually yes,” Harley said defiantly. “I don’t know how you get such good grades if you don’t do your homework over the weekend.”
“Ugh! You two are ridiculous! At least you get good grades!” Carolynn said flustered, as she gave Harley the diary. “I barely passed last semester with C’s!”
Harley hugged her best friend, feeling bad about the way she talked so openly about her grades knowing Carolynn was sensitive about her grades. Harley let go of Carolynn and said, “We’ll make you a deal,” Harley said wagging her finger between herself and Justin. “If you spend as much time as you do on studying---”
“As you do shopping,” Justin said cutting in.
“Then, we will tutor you this year,” Harley ended with a gigantic smile.
Carolynn took a minute to process their offer. “Okay, I agree to the terms of the deal, but you guys have to be patient with me. Somethings I can understand just by looking at them and others I have to have explained to me a lot.”
“That’s doable,” Justin and Harley said in unison.
DING!
There was a loud “UGH!” that came from just about every person in the hallway, each ready for the day to be over, even though it just started.
~~~
...Once Estes was clean I gathered some extra blankets from the linen closet and snuck downstairs to the kitchen to gather milk and canned sardines. I am so glad that it all worked out and I can help this poor old cat.
Sincerely,
Annabelle Charlotte Howard
_________________________________
May 10, 1864
Yesterday I was discovered. My mother’s handmaiden, Bella, came to summon me to my mother’s chambers and sadly she saw me playing with Estes. When the door opened and Bella entered Estes got frightened and ran out into the hallway. When I rushed to the door and looked down both sides of the hall I saw his shadow running up the stairs to the attic. I ran after Estes, but when I got to the top of the stairs the attic door was open and Estes was nowhere to be seen. I was frightened. I had always thought the attic was haunted and perhaps I was right because the door suddenly slammed itself and I ran screaming to Bella.
Bella told my mother about what happened. My mother sent the gardener, Thomas, to look for Estes in the attic and then had a stern talk with me about not to bring animals into the house. After an hour Thomas came back with a very apologetic look on his face and told us that there was a window open in the attic and he couldn’t find Estes in the attic so he suspected Estes went out the open window. I burst into tears and my mother comforted me.
Later that night I heard cat-like footsteps above my bedroom. I snuck up the stairs to the attic and put my ear against the door to listen for any sign Estes was in the attic. After fifteen minutes I gave up on hearing anything and went back to my chambers.
I heard the same thing tonight and went to check if Estes was in the attic, but still I heard nothing.
Fearing the worst,
Annabelle Charlotte Howard
_________________________________
May 26, 1864
Every night since Estes left I have heard the footsteps, but when I go to investigate I never hear anything. I even gathered the courage to open the door for Estes to escape, but he never came to the door, even when I left the door open all night I still heard the footsteps the next night. I fear I am just letting my imagination get the best of me.
From,
Annabelle Charlotte Howard
~~~
DING!
Harley looked up from her book happy that the school day was over. Harley had study hall for her last period and seeing as it’s only the second week into the new school year, she had no homework so she decided reading was a better way to spend the end of her school day, but when the bell rung relieving her of her duty as a student for the rest of the day she jump out of her seat, stuffed her book into her backpack and hurried to the place Carolynn, Justin, and herself always met after school.
Carolynn was the first one to be at the “Spot”, as she and her friends called it. Justin and Harley arrived a few moments after Carolynn.
“Hey,” Justin said after waving goodbye to a few of his friends from the school’s football team.
“What’s up?” Harley asked not really expecting the question to be answered.
“The sky.” Justin said hiding a smile.
“Wow. That was bad,” Carolynn said. “Hey, are you guys doing anything tonight? You said you would help me out this school year and I need help studying. Ms. Bowers is giving us a huge test next class.”
“Oh, man. That totally sucks,” Harley said.
“You got Bowers?! Man, your social studies class must horrible!” Justin said astonished.
“Yeah, yeah,” Carolynn said with a “I have heard this all before. Can we get on with the conversation now?” look. “Now, let us talk about my dilemma. I need to get a good grade on this test, sooooo… can you guys help me study tonight?”
       “Sure,” Harley said happily. “But can we go to my house?”
“I’ll have to call my parents. Can your mom pick all of us up, Harley?” Justin said. Carolynn nodded her head in agreement.
  “Sure,” Harley said. “My mom doesn't care when I have friends over.”
~~~
“So, kiiiiiids how was school?” Harley’s mom, Mrs. Quinn, said putting an emphasis on the kids part as if she had a hard time understanding that Harley, Justin, and Carolynn were in 8th grade and next year they’ll be able to drive!
“It was fine,” Harley said uninterested.
“It was great,” Justin said unintentionally sitting straight up, as he always did in front of the parents of the girl he liked.
With a roll of the eyes toward Justin Caroline said, “Ms. Bowers is giving my social studies class a huge test next class. That's why Justin and I are coming over tonight, so Harley and Justin can help me study.”
“Oh, you have Ms. Bowers? I am sorry. All of the parents in PTO have heard of her most of us are scared of her…” Mrs. Quinn said trailing off. Carolynn rolled her eyes.
She's not that bad! She might be a little feisty, but she's a good teacher. Carolynn thought to herself.
~~~
“It's seven o'clock,” Justin said checking his watch.
“Wow,” Harley said. “We have been studying for three hours!”
“Oh my gosh!” Carolynn said. “I’m so----”
CREEEEEEEEEEEAK!
“What was that?” Harley asked.
“I do not know. It's your house!” Carolynn said.
Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle.
“It sounds like a cat.” Justin said. Harley’s mouth fell open and she went very pale.
“Harley, what’s wrong?” Carolynn asked.
“You know that diary I was telling you guys about this morning?” Harley said.
“Yeah,” Justin and Carolynn said in unison, wide-eyed.
“Weeell,” Harley said hesitantly. “The girl that owned it wrote about this cat that she found in her town and brought it back to this house and then she lost it in the attic and every night since she lost the cat she heard exactly what we just heard.”
Justin raised his eyebrows and Carolynn crossed her arms.
“I’m serious,” Harley said. “Here read the diary and you’ll see.”
She pulled out the diary from her backpack and gave it to Justin. Justin opened the diary and started reading. Carolynn read over his shoulder. Once they were both done Harley looked at them full of hope that they would believe her. Carolynn became wide-eyed when she looked up and Justin looked as though he was contemplating what he had just read.
Finally, Harley asked, “Well? Do you believe me?”
“Yes,” Carolynn said.
“Yes and no,” Justin said. “I want to see if anything is up there.”
Carolynn’s mouth was wide-open in astonishment.
Harley’s eyes became wide and said, “Are you kidding me?” then her expression completely changed. She looked as though she had an idea. “Actually, yeah, let’s go up there. I want to see this ghost cat.”
With a confident smile she stood up and walk out of the room followed by Justin. Carolynn hesitantly got up and followed them.
They got to the attic door and Harley opened it trying not to show how scared she was. They walked into the room together. Shoulder to shoulder almost holding hands.
Whooooooosh!
A cold air blew across their faces. Harley closed her eyes and took Justin’s hand in fright. Carolynn stood frozen.
Harley realized what she was doing and let go off Justin’s hand and said, “It was only the wind.”
Justin blushed as Harley moved past him and around the wall of boxes. Carolynn and Justin heard a little squeak from Harley and rushed to her side. They were taken aback by what they saw.
Sitting there in the center of the circle of boxes was a glowing cat. The cat sat calmly and looked at them with big glowing eyes. Almost as quickly as she rushed to Harley’s side, Carolynn ran to Harley’s bedroom. Justin followed her, but Harley stayed.
“Oh my gosh! I cannot believe that worked!” She whispered to herself as she turned of the projector on the top of some boxes.
Justin and Carolynn sat in Harley’s room worried the ghost cat had done something to their best friend. They both got a wave of relief and surprise when Harley came into the room laughing. They looked at each other trying to send messages with their eyes asking what they thought happened that was so funny.
Finally, Justin said, “What’s so funny. We just saw a ghost cat in your house. Shouldn’t you be freaking out?”
Harley smiled devilishly and said, “Nope. This was all a prank. I set it up over the weekend since it’s getting so close to All Hallow’s Eve 2016 edition, I thought I should give you a little scare. I didn’t know I would be giving you a scare so soon after I set everything up, but it’s okay.”
“HARLEY QUINN!” Justin and Carolynn yelled in unison. Then, they looked at each other with a look of realization: their best friend, bookish, smart Harley, just pulled a really good prank on them. It was a never before seen side of Harley. They were proud.
Justin smiled and said, “I hope you realize what you just started.”
“Trust me, I do. And It was worth it seeing the look on your guys’s faces. It was priceless” Harley said giggling.
As the three friends sat on Harley’s floor, they laughed at the fun they would be having for years to come.
The End