Sometimes I really hate Ms. P.
At the top of the stairs, I run straight into Parker Rodham. She’s lounging in the hall with two of her clones, blocking the way to my door.
“Miranda, there you are,” Parker says, her lips curling up into an unfriendly smile. “Broke curfew already. Did Ms. P give you more toilet duty?”
I try to climb over her clones, but instead of letting me pass, the clones spread out even farther, completely blocking the route to my room.
“None of your business,” I say.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Someone’s not in a good mood at all,” Parker says, pursing her lips. “Is it because of the little friendship that’s developed between me and your sister?”
I feel my anger start to simmer and I clench my hands into fists.
“Parker, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but if you hurt my sister…” I trail off, not quite knowing what I’m threatening to do exactly.
Parker’s evil smile only gets bigger. She’s clearly not at all intimidated by me. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll make you regret it,” I finish. It sounds lame, but I can’t think of anything better. Her clones giggle and whisper to each other.
Parker pulls herself up from the wall, slowly and deliberately, taking a step closer to me so that we’re nearly nose to nose. My heart is pounding. I’ve never actually been in a girl fight before. The closest I’ve come to fighting is taking a kickboxing class. And I doubt there’s room in this hallway to do a good roundhouse.
“I don’t think you’ve got the balls to fight me,” Parker says.
“Well, you’d be right there,” I say. “I am a girl. Girls don’t have balls, but then you might not know that. Didn’t you flunk biology last year?”
“I got a C minus,” Parker breathes, furious. She’s starting to turn red. Academics are not her strong suit, which is probably another reason she keeps Lindsay around.
“Really? That is a surprise.” I shared biology with her last semester and her idea of dissecting a frog was to let her lab partner do it while she gave herself a French manicure.
“If I were you, I’d be a little more concerned about your little sister’s baby crushes.”
“What are you talking about?” I snap.
“In case you haven’t noticed, she’s completely and pathetically in love with Ryan Kent,” Parker practically purrs. She’s enjoying this a little too much. I want to punch her. “Ryan thinks it’s so sweet, of course, but he’s sworn off dating virgins. I hear he had a bad time of it with you.”
I feel the blush creep up my neck. My face feels like it’s on fire. I can’t believe Ryan Kent’s been blabbing about my virginal status. And to Parker Rodham, of all people. This is some twist. Last semester, everyone thought I was the campus whore, and now here Parker is smirking at me because I’ve not managed to give it up yet. I want to kill them both: Ryan Kent and Parker Rodham. Not necessarily in that order.
“Are you finished?” I ask her, managing to stay calm. It takes every ounce of willpower, but I do it.
“All I’m saying is poor, poor Lindsay. He says he’s going to let her down easy,” Parker says. I suppose this is why Parker doesn’t care that Lindsay has a crush on him. As long as he doesn’t reciprocate, I guess it’s fine.
I actually feel relieved. Relieved that Ryan is going to tell my sister to take a hike. And, yes, this does make me a bad sister. But still, part of me feels like Lindsay is getting what she deserves. You go after your sister’s ex, bad things should happen to you.
But why am I so happy? It can’t just be that Lindsay is getting what was coming to her. I’m happy that Ryan is still single. What does this mean? Just an hour ago, I was kissing Heathcliff, and now I’m happy that Ryan isn’t going to make the moves on my sister. I am far beyond confused.
“Good for him,” I say, trying to keep my voice neutral, but Parker senses the relief in it. She frowns at me. Part of me wonders—too late—if this whole conversation was designed to test whether I still have feelings for Ryan.
“Oh, and another thing,” Parker adds. “I saw you and Heathcliff on the commons tonight. You seemed awfully cozy for a couple that isn’t supposed to exist. It would be a shame if Ms. P had to hear about it.” She pauses a delicious second and then adds, “Or Ryan.”
My heart drops in my stomach. I’m not sure which is worse, the faculty sending Heathcliff off because he overstepped his bounds, or Ryan knowing that I’m making out with Heathcliff.
“You’d better not,” I sputter before I can stop myself.
Parker grins. She’s got something on me and she knows it.
“So it’s Heathcliff you’re gagging for?” Parker’s lips curl into a slow, evil smile. “Or is it Ryan? Which boy are you going to tease with your virginity? I’m guessing neither one will be interested, once they realize you’re not giving it up.”
“Shut up, Parker.” This goes even deeper than she knows, since I suspect Ryan broke up with me because he couldn’t handle the Virginity Thing.
“Who’s going to make me?”
“How about me, Barbie Doll?” We both look up to see Blade standing at the end of the hall. “I thought I smelled overpriced perfume,” she says, clomping toward us in her Doc Martens.
Instinctively, the clones shrink back from Blade. She is a bit intimidating, what with the nose ring, the black-and-red spiky hair, and her heavy kohl eyeliner. Besides, Parker’s clones act like Goth might be contagious. As if letting Blade touch them would instantly turn their fingernails black.
“Anyone want to see a dead rat?” Blade asks, holding up a paper bag. She pretends to toss it at one of the clones, who flinches. “You scared of rat blood? I caught it in the cafeteria. It was eating off our old plates.”
The clones look a bit pale. Even Parker seems a tad grossed out.
“It might have rabies, wouldn’t that be cool?” Blade asks, swinging the bag closer to the clones. They shrink back and one lets out a little girly squeal.
“Whatever. I’m so done here,” Parker says, as if leaving was her idea. She turns and heads back to her own room. Her clones follow, as if on a string.
“Thanks,” I tell Blade after they’ve gone. “I owe you one.” Blade just shrugs.
“Bunch of Barbie Doll wimps,” she says, smiling.
“Do you really have a rat in there?” I ask her.
“Are you kidding? I wish,” Blade says, opening the bag for me to see. It’s full of red Gummi Worms.
“My cousin from home sent a care package,” she explains. “She hid candy in hollowed-out books and shipped them off. I have tons of Sour Patch Kids, too, if you like them.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Maybe later.”
“Anytime, my LIT sister,” she says, patting me on the back.
Just then, Hana comes out of the bathroom wearing her PJs, with her hair wet. She looks surprised to see us. I guess my confrontation with Parker didn’t carry over the shower.
“You’re a little late for the action, missy,” Blade says.
“What did I miss?” she asks, cocking her head to one side as she swipes her hair with a towel.
“Just about everything,” I say.
Twelve
“So who do you think those guys were last night?” Hana asks me, for the hundredth time as we settle in for morning assembly. Ever since I told her about the pirate kidnappers, she’s been peppering me with questions. I have the same questions, just no answers.
“I really don’t know,” I say. “They looked like cast-aways. Some of them didn’t have shoes.”
“Great, now we’ve got shoeless pirate ghosts,” Samir says, and sighs. “I swear, I’ve had it with this school. I’m going to transfer this year. I promise.”
“We’ll believe it when we see it,” Hana says.
“Ditto,” Blade agrees. “And you’re sure the kidnapped guy is the one from the bulletin board?”
“Positive.”
“But what would they wan
t with a Bard student?”
“I have no idea,” I say. I glance over a few rows and see Parker sitting practically on Ryan’s lap. Figures. I look over to Parker’s clone posse, thinking I’d see Lindsay there, too, but she’s nowhere to be found.
Weird. I wonder if this has to do with Ryan telling her he wasn’t interested, or worse, Parker sending her off on some crazy errand that will get her into trouble. I have a nagging feeling that something might be wrong. Lindsay would never miss a chance to brown-nose the teachers, which is what she does after every morning assembly.
The teachers file into the chapel, taking their places at the front with Headmaster B. Ms. P brings up the rear, and I notice something different about her. It takes me a minute to realize she’s smiling. Ms. P never smiles, not about anything, ever. Makes me wonder if she’s managed to get a student expelled. That might be the kind of thing she’d be happy about.
“You think it’s more fictional characters on the loose?” Samir asks, dragging my attention back to the conversation at hand. He looks a bit worried.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” I say. “Who are the famous pirates in literature?”
“There’s Long John Silver,” Hana says.
“The fried seafood guy?” Blade asks as the music starts, signaling the start of morning assembly.
“No, from Treasure Island,” Hana corrects, lowering her voice to a whisper as we all stand for the Bard school song. “Robert Louis Stevenson?”
“Sure, whatever,” Blade says, pretending to sing but talking instead. “Next you’re going to say it’s Captain Hook.”
“Well, it could be,” Hana says. “He’s also a fictional character.”
“None of the men I saw had a hook for a hand,” I say.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Heathcliff walk in through the side doors, with his dark curly hair a ruffled mess and dark smudges on his Bard uniform. It looks like he hasn’t changed from last night’s skirmish and he hasn’t slept, either. When his eyes find mine across the room he sneaks into our row, just as the music dies down and the students all sit.
I mouth to him “what’s up?” silently, since Headmaster B has started her morning announcements.
“It’s your sister,” he tells me in a forced whisper. “She never came back to her room last night. And when I went out to look for her, I found this in the woods.”
He drops a half-torn spiral notebook in my lap. It’s Lindsay’s. I’d recognize it and her Ryan Kent love declarations anywhere.
I flip open the cover and she’s made a few diary entries. They’re mostly about how she loves Bard Academy and how it’s so much cooler than her old school.
Heathcliff motions for me to skip to the end.
I flip through her chicken-scratch writing and settle on the last page. At the top, it has yesterday’s date. She’s also drawn a map of the island, and what appears to be a trail to Whale Cove.
She’s underlined the last lines on the page three times:
She says if I find Whale Cove, I can have Ryan all to myself. She thinks I can’t do it, but I can. I’ll find it.
Find what? And who’s she talking about? I flip the page, but there’s no more after that. I skip backward a page, but her last entry doesn’t shed any light on it, either. It’s just her talking about how cool Parker’s hair is. There’s not even a mention of Ryan breaking the news. I wonder if he even got a chance to talk to her.
I glance up and happen to meet Parker’s eye. She gives me a smug little smile, and I get the strong feeling she’s involved in this somehow. What if Ryan never had any intention of telling Lindsay he wasn’t interested? What if Parker, knowing this and being jealous, sent my sister on a wild-goose chase, to make sure she’d be far away from Ryan?
The notebook does say “she thinks I can’t do it.” Lindsay must be talking about Parker. A dare from Parker would send Lindsay anywhere, even the forest. And by the look of this map, she was planning on heading all the way to the other side of the island.
The seriousness of this hits me. Lindsay—alone in the forest with pirate kidnappers on the loose—trying to find her way on an island that’s really purgatory for a bunch of ghosts, not all of whom are happy to be here. It’s a recipe for disaster.
“What’s wrong? What is it?” Hana asks me, even as Headmaster B dismisses the students, signaling the end of morning assembly.
My friends lean over and read Lindsay’s diary, which is still open in my hands.
“Hey—Whale Cove! Does Lindsay know about the buried treasure?” Samir asks, starting to get excited. But before he can say more, the tower bell rings three times, signaling another missing person. My throat goes dry.
“It’s Lindsay,” I manage to stutter, even as I try to push my way through the crowd to get outside and to the bulletin board. I don’t need to even look. I know I’m right.
“Oh, snap,” Samir whispers as my friends see the picture at the same time I do.
It’s sitting next to the photo of the first runaway—the blond, shaggy guy. It’s Lindsay, before her Parker makeover, with her retainer in and her hair in pigtails.
“So the little sister doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Ms. P says, coming up behind me.
“What if she didn’t run away?” I ask her. “She could’ve been kidnapped. Even if she did start out on her own, she might not have made it far before—”
“I’m afraid we investigated your reports of, uh, men in the forest,” Ms. P says, interrupting me. “And we didn’t find anything conclusive. I’m afraid we have to assume Lindsay ran away on her own volition. And in twenty-four hours, if she doesn’t return, we’ll have to contact your father.”
I go stock-still. If Dad knows about this, it’ll mean juvenile detention, for the both of us. Because I know Lindsay, and she’ll find a way to blame me for all this somehow. That is, if Lindsay is okay.
“But what if we find her and bring her back? Before then?” Blade asks, suddenly stepping up from behind me.
Ms. P considers Blade and then the rest of us.
“You know I can’t sanction the lot of you going on an expedition,” Ms. P says.
“But…”
“But nothing,” Ms. P says. “Let the faculty sort it out.”
“You can’t just give us a wink and say you won’t report us if we bring back Lindsay with no fuss?” Samir asks.
Ms. P gives him a severe look. “Do I seem like one of those teachers who doesn’t mind bending the rules?”
“Um, yeah?” Samir ventures.
“No,” Ms. P says. “Students shouldn’t explore the island unsupervised, and that includes you. At any time. For any reason.”
“We’re losing time,” Heathcliff says, breaking the silence suddenly. “If we don’t look for her now…”
“Let us handle it,” Ms. P says, more curt than usual, her eyes sharp as she cuts Heathcliff off in midsentence. “And I believe all of you have classes to go to.”
Once Ms. P has left, I turn to Heathcliff.
“What did you mean? About losing time?”
Heathcliff meets my gaze, his eyes guarded. “The forest isn’t safe for a girl alone,” he says.
“You mean the men we saw?”
Heathcliff shrugs. “Among other things,” he adds mysteriously, but doesn’t elaborate.
“Um, I’m not going to lie to you, you’re freaking us out a little,” Samir says to Heathcliff, but he just stares at him.
“Do you think you can lead us to her?” I ask Heathcliff.
Heathcliff nods. “I know where Whale Cove is,” he says.
“Wait a second, you can’t go after her,” Samir says. “Ms. P just said…”
“I’m in,” Hana says.
“And me,” Blade adds.
“Have you all gone crazy?” Samir looks at all of us as if we all just sprouted second heads. “I mean, didn’t you hear Heathcliff? There are things in the forest. Dangerous things, am I right?” Samir glances over at Heathcliff, who n
ods. “See? He’s even agreeing with me. It’s not safe.”
“All the more reason I have to find my sister,” I say, determined. “She doesn’t know about the island or about the school. She has no idea what she’s in for.”
“But Ms. P said the faculty was on top of things. They’ll find her. They’re ghosts. They know everything.”
“They don’t, actually,” Hana adds.
“Well, at least they’re already dead,” Samir points out.
“Come on—didn’t you want to find your buried treasure? Maybe this is your chance,” Blade tells Samir. He considers this for a moment and then relents.
“Well, I guess it might be okay then. But only if I get eighty percent of what we find.”
“How soon do we leave?” I ask.
“Now,” Heathcliff says.
Thirteen
Heathcliff gives us just enough time to grab a few supplies from our rooms (snacks, bottled water, and a blanket) and make our way out toward the woods. I also leave a note for Ms. W in my room. I figure if she comes looking for me, she’ll find it. I trust her, and am pretty sure she won’t call my parents unless she has to, and if we aren’t back by the time she comes looking for me tomorrow, then we might need her help.
That is, if we ever leave.
Getting to the woods is easier said than done, since the campus is crawling with Guardians and faculty and it happens to be broad daylight. You don’t just walk straight into the woods without attracting some attention. That is, unless you’re with the crew team, which practices by the river every afternoon. Hana decides that going separately and meeting up by the river is the best course of action, as one or two of us won’t attract as much attention as all five.
I’m supposed to make my way behind the library and into the woods, but before I even round the bend of the library I find myself staring at Parker and Ryan Kent, who are both sitting together on the library steps.
“Miranda,” Parker says, looking a little annoyed. I must be mucking up her one-on-one time with the campus’ hottest new singleton.
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