Holt Mcdougal Literature Interactive Reader Grade 7 May 2026

I decided to dig. I went to the building’s creepy basement and found old mail in a rusted filing cabinet. Most of it was junk, but one envelope stopped me cold. It was addressed to an apartment —which is my apartment. The name on it: Eleanor Vance.

She stepped backward into the wall. The plaster sealed itself. The room warmed up. And the only sound left was the quiet hum of my digital clock.

Do you think Leo will try to pull Eleanor back? Would you? Why or why not? That night, at 2:17 a.m., I didn’t hear a whisper. Holt Mcdougal Literature Interactive Reader Grade 7

Find a line where Leo changes from being scared to being curious. Write it here.

That afternoon, I grabbed a piece of chalk from the sidewalk and wrote on my bedroom wall: I decided to dig

There was no letter inside. Just a photograph. A girl, about my age, with her hair in two braids, standing right in front of my bedroom door. She was smiling. But her eyes looked tired. Lonely.

I blinked. “What?”

I heard a knock. Thump. Thump. Thump.