Chapter One
The House That Was Waiting
The last day of school was supposed to be amazing. Especially the last day of seventh grade. Peter had been looking forward to turning in his last homework assignment, saying goodbye forever to Mr. Hall's Earth Science class, getting his yearbook signed, and maybe even winning an award at the end-of-year assembly. The hallways of Harbor Heights Middle School were filled with restless energy, playful scuffles, and an abundance of careless litter. Everyone was ready for summer. The beach. Freedom.
But the school day had quickly turned into a major grind. Peter had been forced to spend eleven minutes of his morning break helping Mrs. Gannon move classroom furniture, an honor he was given for "talking too much" during 3rd period. He'd somehow lost his math homework for Mr. Trujillo's class, so he had gotten a zero on his very last assignment, destroying his perfect record. And then Charlie Turner spilled chocolate milk all over Peter's new sneakers. His new white sneakers.
At lunch, his friends gathered for their usual flag football game and although he managed to pull off one very lucky diving catch, his team was still losing the game 14-7. Whoever won this game would have bragging rights all summer. They needed to score.