“Oh,” she said. “I guess I just missed him.”
His dark gaze landed on me along with a playful grin. “Where you been? You missed Mr. Parton’s lecture on how not to write a five-page essay.”
“No way.” I rolled my eyes. “I can’t believe I missed it. I’d been so looking forward to the lecture.”
“It’s the talk of the town,” he said. He took an apple out of his backpack and took a huge bite. “Okay, I’m out of here. Gotta change out of this crap before dinner.”
Dinner was one of the few places we could appear at the school out of uniform, but we still had strict guidelines to follow, so even there everyone dressed way too nice for my peace of mind. I just stuck to my uniform. I saw what happened to students who didn’t follow the guidelines. They were immediately singled out and escorted to the headmaster’s office. I’d rather die from a thousand ant bites than be singled out in a room full of rich kids with nothing better to do than laugh at me.
“I wonder what we’re having tonight,” Crystal said, referring to what awaited us in the dining hall later as Wade jogged off. I fought the urge to call him back. He didn’t need to know about the notes I’d been getting, the death threats. But it would have been nice to have him close.
“Oh, I hope it’s pizza with shrimp,” she said as we started for our room again. “I love pizza with shrimp.”
There were two very cool things I was learning about Maine. One, the landscape was incredible. It was gorgeous and had shades of green I’d never seen before. Two, the food was amazing. I’d never had so much seafood in my life, and I loved it. Seafood in Riley’s Switch was canned tuna on rye.
I started to almost feel normal again, talking about food and dreaming about landscapes, when we turned a corner and ran into my newest archnemesis.
“Hey, Pratt,” Kenya said. She was leaning against a wall, checking out her black nail polish. For the first time since I’d arrived at BFA, her presence was welcome and oddly comforting. At least with two other people around, the odds of someone stabbing me to death diminished.
I straightened and feigned normalcy as I walked past, praying she’d follow. Praying she’d torment. “Hey, Kenya. It’s too bad about your hair.”
She didn’t care in the least what I thought about her hair, which had been bleached so many times, it had the same texture as that fake spider webbing they sold at Halloween. She smirked and fell in line behind us.
I pocketed a relieved smile.
“You seem pale,” she said, matching our strides.
Crystal glared over her shoulder and wrapped an arm in mine. I’d veered to the left a little, the ground tilting beneath my feet.
“I’m fine,” I said when I’d regained my balance. “You’re not worried about me, are you?”
She snorted. “Not likely. But I have to admit to a certain amount of curiosity about you.”
“And why would you be curious about someone like me?”
“Exactly. Which makes it all the more curious.”
* * *
The minute I got to my dorm room, I tore through my drawers, looking for a weapon, anything I could use to defend myself. Crystal sat atop her bed and watched me. I reconsidered my refusal to take the note to the headmaster like Crystal said for about five seconds before coming to my senses. That would only draw attention. I was here to be incognito, keep to the shadows, not focus a spotlight on myself.
I tried my grandparents again, but got the voice mail for the third time. Which was beyond strange. They always carried that phone. At least one of them had it on their person at all times, day and night. Receiving no answer, I gave up on the whole incognito thing and tried their regular cell phones. Nothing. Then the store landline. Nothing again.
I grew more worried by the minute. Should I try Brooklyn? Glitch? Maybe the church?
No one but my grandparents knew where I was. How would I explain everything to my best friends if I were to call them? Would they be happy to hear from me? Angry I’d run? I just couldn’t imagine, though I’d enacted our reunion a thousand times in my head. Brooklyn and I would see each other from across a field of green grass. She would run to me with open arms. Glitch would do the same, only he’d trip on something—quite possibly air—and spill his whipped almond toffee cappuccino with nonfat milk all over my flowing white dress, the one I’d bought for running across a field during my homecoming. Cameron would stand to the side and scowl like we were all crazy and he regretted ever meeting us. And Jared …
Jared would smile. He would cross his arms while waiting for my best friends to get their greetings out of the way, and then he’d walk forward, pull me into his arms, lower his head—
“Lorraine!”
I snapped back to the present and blinked at Crystal.
“I’ve got it!” she said, her wide eyes full of enthusiasm. “We can put the note in the headmaster’s office and pretend like it was sent to him.”
“Oh, that wouldn’t get us expelled. And, more than likely, arrested.”
“No, it’s perfect. If there’s a death threat against the headmaster, the authorities will use all their resources to find out who sent it.”
“Exactly. Jail time. For us.”
She rolled her eyes right before I dived under my bed for the canvas bag I’d brought with me from home.
“No, they’ll check the paper for fingerprints and stuff.”