The whispered hush sounded loud in the cramped space where I was crouching. My knees scraped against something rough as I covered my nose and mouth with my hands. I was breathing too loud and too fast. I had to be quiet.
Something solid blocked my front and something sharp and jagged was poking my back. I needed to see what was going on, but there was only darkness. Even though it was nearly impossible, I tried to move. A hand clamped down on my arm and it hurt.
Pop! Pop, pop!
The explosions were so loud, so close, that my hands flew to my ears. My dad’s face appeared out of the darkness, right in front of me. His nose was practically touching mine and his eyes were wild with fear. He whispered a single word: “Run.”
I began to shake. I tried to jerk away from the person holding me down because I had to run. Even though I had no idea where I was, my dad had told me to run.
“Hey,” a gentle voice said. “Kid, wake up.”
My eyes flew open.
Mark was sitting on the side of my twin bed, studying my face. He squeezed my shoulders. “You’re okay.”
I shrugged out of his grip and sat up.
“Did you have the nightmare again?”
I nodded and took a deep breath, willing my heart to slow down.
He pursed his lips. “Anything new?”
“No.” I ran my fingers through my hair, loosening the sweaty strands stuck to my neck. “Exactly the same as always.”
He exhaled and ran his hands along his jeans. “It’s been a while since you’ve had it.”
“Yeah.”
“I wonder why it happened now.”
Yesterday. Jason. My mom. Take your pick. “I don’t know.”
I hugged my knees, waiting for the pinpricks of unease in my chest to settle. It was the same feeling I got every time I had the nightmare, every time it felt like someone was watching me. And the same feeling I’d had for a split second two nights ago when I thought I saw that flash on the school’s brick wall. I frowned. “It wouldn’t make a difference if I did remember something, would it? I mean, not now that they have the confession, right?”
“It wouldn’t change anything if you remembered.” Mark smiled but his voice was almost too confident, like he was trying to convince himself of that fact instead of me.
I took another deep breath.
“Well,” he said as he stood, “I’ve got to get to work.” A grin played on his lips. “And you, my friend, are late for school.”
I glanced at my alarm clock and winced. I must’ve slept straight through the alarm. “Shoot! Why didn’t you wake me?”
He made a circling gesture around my room with his finger and stopped when he was pointing at a box of tampons sitting on top of my dresser. “Because I don’t want to see stuff like that. I only come in here if you’re yelling ‘Run!’ at the top of your lungs.”
“I wouldn’t have to keep that in my room if you’d rented a house with more than one bathroom,” I grumbled as I jumped out of bed. “I missed the bus. If I’m ready in five minutes, can you drop me off at school?”
He pretended to shield his eyes and fumble his way out of my room. “Why do you think I rented a house with one bathroom? So there was so little space it would force you to corral all of your girly stuff in the one place I never have to enter. No more opening drawers in bathrooms to find curling irons and pink razors and weird things that look like torture devices but I think have to do with eyelashes.” He peeked his head around my door frame. “What exactly is the purpose of bronzer? I’ve always wondered.”
I threw one of my Chucks at him. He easily ducked out of the way.
“We’re leaving in four minutes!” he called from down the hall.
* * *
I swallowed the last of my Pop-Tart as I shoved my way through the crowd of almost five hundred seniors buzzing with excitement in the school’s outside courtyard, grateful the scavenger hunt hadn’t started yet. Now all I had to do was find my team.
I inched my way around a group of girls wearing matching Everyone Loves a Cheerleader T-shirts, craning my neck to search for Sawyer, Livie and Jason. I spotted them across the courtyard. Both Sawyer and Livie had their backs to me, but Jason was almost facing me. He bit his thumbnail as his eyes jumped from person to person.
“Jason!” I called over the hum of conversation.
His head snapped in my direction. He exhaled and smiled.
I sidestepped a puddle left over from the morning’s rain and took a deep breath as I crossed the courtyard. You can do this, Sloane. I held my hands up in apology when I reached the three of them. “I’m sorry I’m late. I overslept and literally had four minutes to get ready.”
“You got ready in four minutes?” Livie asked.
I self-consciously smoothed my ponytail, which already had tendrils of hair escaping around my face. I hoped the Chucks, jeans and white tank top I’d thrown on after brushing my teeth and splashing cold water on my face in record time didn’t look too horrible. “Um, yeah.”
Livie smiled. “I could never look that good in four minutes.”
Sawyer leaned toward me. “If I told you you had a great body, would you hold it against me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you know the meaning of moderation?”
Jason coughed at the same time Sawyer said, “Huh?”
“It’s too soon, Sawyer. I’m still traumatized from the Harry Potter lines yesterday. You have to space them out more. When they come rapid fire like this, they lose their effect.”
“Huh,” Sawyer repeated, like the thought had never occurred to him.
Livie threw an arm around my shoulder. “Thank God you made it. They just announced we can’t have teams this year. Apparently, last year the teams were too big and everyone split up their lists and sent people off individually and the whole scavenger hunt was done in, like, eight minutes. We’re only allowed to work in pairs this time, and we were afraid one of us was going to have to go solo if you didn’t show.”
So that’s why Jason looked so worried.
Livie stepped away from me and next to Jason, the back of her hand brushing against his.
Crap. The ramifications of pairs suddenly dawned on me. I was going to be stuck with Sawyer and his pickup lines.
Sawyer shook out the T-shirt he had crumpled in one hand and held it out to me. “We can still match though.”
I
