by Ruby Vincent
I looked around at their handsome, and determined, faces. They would come with me if they had to stalk me.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
I SAID IT WOULD BE easy, but it surprised me how much. I returned to the dorm to get the hammer and then the five of us went into the quad and found a quiet spot to sit and watch the hours tick by. Five o’clock came and went, but we stayed. We did not move until the clock struck thirty minutes past.
“Ready?” I asked.
They answered by getting to their feet. Together, we entered the main building. I tried the handle for the admin door and it didn’t budge.
“Stand back.”
“Do we have to do it like this?” Ezra asked. “Everyone will know someone broke in.”
“I told you I don’t have a breaking-and-entering kit. I can’t pick the lock so I have to break it.” I waved them back. “Go on, guys.”
Reluctantly, they stepped aside. I didn’t waste the precious time we had. I raised the hammer in the air.
Smash! Smash! Smash! Clang!
The handle clattered to my feet. I kicked it aside as I shoved the door open and padded across the room to the headmaster’s office. I gave it the same treatment as the boys followed behind.
The headmaster’s lock was made of sturdier stuff. It took eight hits to finally get the thing off.
“We’re in,” I whispered. “Search everywhere.”
“Why are you whispering?” Ryder asked in a normal tone. “We’re the only ones here.”
“Just hush,” I snapped as the others snickered. “Find the yearbooks.”
“I did say I liked them bossy,” Ezra mumbled as he passed by me.
My cheeks warmed as memories of our night in the hotel flooded my mind.
Now isn’t the time.
The guys fanned out. Ryder took his desk. Ezra scanned the bookshelves. Maverick and Jaxson began opening file cabinets. “Maverick, let’s switch. Listen to make sure no one comes. If they do, they’ll notice the broken door.”
“Okay.”
Maverick moved outside and I took his position. The four of us were quiet while we searched. My cabinet was full of student files, but I checked each one thoroughly to be sure. I was reaching for the final cabinet when I heard—
“Here they are.” Jaxson stuck both hands into the cabinet and pulled out as many as he could lift. Different colors, styles, and sizes, but all of them said Evergreen Academy Class Of. We found them.
Ryder and Ezra crouched on the floor as Jaxson took out the rest.
“As quick as you can.” I reached into my bag and pulled out notepads and pens. I passed them out to the guys. “Write the names that keep coming up. We’ll compare them after.”
I pulled the recent years to me and we got to work. We didn’t speak as we searched, but one by one, I saw the boys write down names. My own pad was still blank by the time I reached Shaun Roundtree. My former professor was no less handsome as a young senior. His toothy smile glittered on the page.
I kept flipping. Carefully, I scanned over the names until I found one. Then another. My eyes were beginning to cross by the ’90s, but I forced myself to focus.
Almost done. This is it. We’re so close.
I reached for the second-to-last book on the stack and started with the seniors. The pages whispered in my hands as I revealed row after row of grungy clothes and old-fashioned haircuts. My eyes had reached the bottom of the fifty-third page when I stopped.
Wait.
“That’s the last one, Val. Let’s put these away and get out of here.”
I jerked my head up. “What? Oh, right. Here. I’m done too.”
I passed over the books as Jaxson hurriedly put them back in order. He reached for another stack in my hand when the door flew open.
We jumped as Maverick appeared in the doorway. “We have to get out of here. Now!”
“Hey! What happened to this door?!” The shout was muffled, but there was no mistaking Gus. “Who’s in there?!”
Jaxson snatched the books out of my hand and threw them in. Maverick slammed the drawer shut as we scrambled to our feet, looking for a way out.
“Quick,” Ezra cried. “Out the window.”
We didn’t spend another second thinking about it. Ezra practically ripped off the latch and threw the window open as the admin door banged against the wall.
“Who’s in here!?” Gus bellowed.
Ryder and Maverick grabbed me and tossed me unceremoniously out the window. I landed in a heap on the grass, coming down hard on my elbow, but I ignored the pain as I scrambled out of the way. The boys leaped out and we bolted as Gus burst into the headmaster’s office.
We ran and didn’t stop until we reached our fountain. I practically collapsed on the rim of the basin, willing my heart to slow. “I’m not cut out for the life of a burglar,” I wheezed.
“Let’s see if it was worth it,” said Ryder.
Ezra, Ryder, and Jaxson pulled out their note papers and handed them to me. I calmed as I took them. Finally, we would end this.
The boys sat down at my feet as I read, cross-checked, and marked out names. They had come up with over sixty, but the further I went through time, the more I was able to eliminate. I set the pen down after writing the last name.
“One, two, three...” I counted until I hit upon the number. “Thirteen.”
My hands shook as I handed over the paper. “This is it. These are the Spades.”
“Not all of them,” Ryder said. “Not Shea.”
“No, not you,” I agreed.
“But look at these other names,” said Ezra. The sun was beginning to set. It cast a dusky light on his harshly pale skin. “This can’t be true, can it? They can’t all be Spades.”
“I’ll find out if it’s true. I know everything now. The Spades don’t know it yet, but they’re done.”
“ARE YOU SURE, VAL?”
“As sure as I can be.” I picked up two apples and put one on her plate. The sun had dawned on Monday morning like it was another normal day, but nothing could ever be normal again. “There are no yearbooks of the actual first class, but these same thirteen names appear in most of the yearbooks. Thirteen, Sof. That’s not a coincidence.”
We accepted our breakfast plates and moved off the line. We had gotten up early and beaten most of the dorm to the cafeteria. It gave us a chance to talk without being overheard.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked. Her hand tremored as she picked up her milk. I took it from her and gripped her fingers. She squeezed tight.
“You know what I’m going to do,” I said. “You know the plan. Everyone knows the plan. I’m not going to deviate.”
“What if they deviate? You can’t predict what they’re going to do? No one in their wildest dreams would have imagined they would attack you and leave you in the bayou.”
“Maybe I can’t predict their every move, but I know Ace is no idiot. I’m thinking like them and this is what I would do if I were Ace.”
“Okay, okay, I just—” She took a shuddering breath. “I wish there was more I could do.”
“We’re always a team, Sof. No matter what happens.”
She gave me a smile that wobbled, but a smile it was. After a minute, we picked up our forks and dug into our roasted pear and quinoa porridge. The cafeteria filled up as we ate. Soon, Kai, Zane, and the boys were setting down their trays.
Zane pulled Sofia’s chair closer to him and gave her a kiss that heated up the lunchroom. The two had been hotter and heavier since the video almost broke them up. I think Zane realized what he could have lost.
Paisley was the last to arrive. She had just dipped into her porridge when the cafeteria doors flew open.
“Attention, class,” Evergreen announced. Markham trailed him as he crossed to the center of the room. “There will be an emergency assembly in ten minutes. Finish your breakfast and go straight there. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wha
t’s that about?” Paisley asked after he left. “What did we do now?”
Ryder and I shared a look. We picked up the pace and finished breakfast. As a group, the second senior class walked the short distance to the hall and filled in the back rows. The other class came in behind minutes later.
Whispers echoed through the hall. “What did we do now?” was on every tongue. Evergreen stepped up to the podium with an expression that said it wasn’t good.
“Good morning, seniors. I will be speaking to all grades to make clear that the student or students who broke into my office...”
I tuned the headmaster and his promises of severe punishments out. Our immediate summons to the hall meant that I still had my phone. I took it out of my pocket and pulled up my contacts. No more waiting. It was time to face Ace.
My phone buzzed like crazy when I unblocked their number and the flood of texts poured in. I ignored their hateful words as I typed in my own.
Thirteen last names.
Burned as they were in my memory, I did not need to look at the list as I spelled out the final name and hit send.
I put the phone back in my pocket. I didn’t need to say more. Ace knew that I knew. It was their move now.
Chapter Ten
“The guy finally decides to punish us all and it’s the one time we’re innocent.” Kai roughly stabbed at a piece of trash. “Why do we have to pick up garbage because some jokers broke into his office?”
“We’re taking over as janitors every week until the people involved confess,” said Zane. “Anyone have something to say?”
He was joking, but I kept my head down as we moved across the lawn. I felt bad that everyone was being punished for what we did, but it had to be done. I sent that message and then went to class after leaving the assembly. All day my thoughts returned to the phone box until finally the bell rang, but when I took it out, the phone didn’t buzz.
It did not buzz while I did my homework. It didn’t buzz while I changed for trash duty, and it didn’t buzz while I tromped through the grass. There was no reply from Ace and the guys threw me worried looks that night as we readied for bed.
“Why haven’t they replied?” Maverick asked.
“They will,” I said.
Jaxson took my arm and drew me in. His hand was warm on my back as he trailed his fingers up my pajama buttons. “When they do, tell us immediately. No repeats of last year and the almost strip show.”
“We’re long past the point of hiding things.” I rose up on tiptoes and kissed him. “Night. I love you.”
I said good night to each of them and then headed up to bed. The covers enfolded me in their cool embrace and I welcomed sleep.
Ezra awaited me in my dreams. He was naked as Dream Ezra tended to be and doing things to my body that he’d done to me in reality as well.
“I love you more than strawberry root beer and peanut butter brownies.”
“I love you too. More than—”
“Wake up!”
Rough hands seized me and dragged me out of the dream and my bed. I tumbled from the sheets and fell to the floor. Figures that were only blurs in my vision gripped my shoulders and held me down.
Benjamin!
I screamed as fear flooded my mind and overwhelmed all reason. A hand clapped over my mouth.
“Quiet,” a voice hissed. It was impossible to make them out in the dark room, but I knew that voice. “You know who we are, yes?”
Breathing hard through my nose, I nodded as my sense returned. It’s not Benjamin. He’s dead. He can’t hurt you.
“Then you know why we’re here. You’re not going to scream. You’re not going to run. You will walk calmly out the door and follow us so the cameras don’t pick up anything wrong. Got it?”
I nodded again.
“Good. Let’s go.”
Just like that, they released me and I sucked in lungfuls of air, trying to slow my panic enough to give them the calm they wanted.
“Get up.”
I stood on knees that wobbled. They let me stumble to the other side of the room and jam my shoes on, then I followed them to the door. They pulled it open and the hallway lights revealed what I didn’t want to be true: the Spades hiding among us.
Juliet Cochran poked me in the back. “Go on.”
I did as she said, falling in behind Genesis as she led the way downstairs. Both of these girls had walked out of the lunchroom with me. They both cried and said they couldn’t stomach the evil of the Spades. They both lied to my face.
I kept my expression clear as we made our way out of the dorm. On the second-floor landing, I chanced a look at Ryder’s closed door.
“Don’t even think about it, Moon,” Genesis hissed.
I turned away and continued walking.
The night air chilled my cheeks when we stepped outside. The pajamas I chose were thick, but not thick enough to keep out the cold. They led me across the lawn with one in front and one behind. The three of us had rounded the main building and entered the quad when I spoke.
“Where are we going?”
“Where do you think?” Genesis replied.
I bristled. I never much liked her but I bought her change of heart. It was good to know my first instinct about her was right. “That’s not an answer.”
“That’s all you’re getting.”
I let it go. I would find out where we were going soon enough. As we walked soundless through the quad, I flashed back to the night in the swamp.
It was them. They tied me up. They threw me in that water. They—
“Eric,” I cried. “Where is Eric? What did you do to him?!”
Juliet scoffed. “You should be worrying about yourself right now.”
“If you’ve hurt him—”
“You’ll what?” Genesis asked. She peered at me over her shoulder. “Please, tell me. Amuse us.”
My lips curled into a snarl. “You’re a twisted bitch, you know that?”
She laughed. It was a harsh, mirthless sound. “Yeah. I know.”
I had no reply for that. I quieted again as the sports complex loomed in front of us. I assumed we were going inside, but at the last second Genesis veered off and we went around the back. I realized where we were going before she grabbed the door handle.
“Why are you taking me to the roof?”
“We like hanging here,” Genesis said. “Ezra did a great job fixing it up for us.”
“That wasn’t for your crazy ass.”
“All of this is for us, Moon. I’d have thought you’d realize that by now.” Genesis yanked open the door and pointed up. I went in without argument.
I had climbed these stairs so many times before—nights laughing with Sofia, connecting with Ezra, or breaking through walls with Ryder. Something else entirely awaited me up there.
I reached the roof entrance and went through without prompting from Genesis. Eight pairs of eyes fell on me as I slowly strode before the group. They were everywhere—on the couch, sitting on the ledge, standing by the coffee table. I met each of their gazes in turn.
They’re here. They’re all here except one.
No one spoke, so I decided to be first. “Hey, guys. Nice of you to drag yourselves out of bed to see me, but we haven’t all met. How about introductions?”
They didn’t so much as twitch.
“Don’t all jump up at once. I made a list so I’ll go through it for you.” I shifted around and leveled a finger on a familiar face. “Let’s start on this side and work our way around. Natalie Bard, Darren Rosewood, Penelope Madlow.” I turned to the people on the couch and by the table. “You must be the underclassmen Spades. That would be Barbara Williams, Timothy Davis, Rebecca Chang, Reed Morris, and Victor Cinco.” I clapped. “How did I do?”
“You’re not impressing anyone,” Juliet said as she stepped around me. “We know that you know who we are.”
“Not all of you,” I shot back. “There are ten of you, but we’re missing three. There’s Eric Eden
and Ryder Shea, but there was also a final name to show up over and over again in the history of the academy. The most obvious name: Evergreen.”
Stoic faces looked back at me.
“Twelve Spades have walked the halls of this school led by Ace. In the end, I didn’t have to find Scarlett’s father in the yearbook because I found Scarlett herself under her maiden name: Scarlett Evergreen.”
I thought that would get a response, but still they stared at me. Anger lit a fire in my gut. Why were they just sitting there? What were they waiting for?
“I know she was Ace,” I pressed on. “Eric told me so there’s no point in denying it. She was Ace, but now she’s gone, and was taken over by the psycho tormenting me. I want to know which one of you it is.” I narrowed my eyes on them as my fists clenched. “Which one of you fuckers blackmailed me, marked me, and threatened me. Who is Ace?!”
“I’m afraid it’s none of them.”
I went rigid as a voice sounded behind me. Wait. Is that...
“None of them could be Ace, Val. That right belongs to me and me alone.”
I couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe as horrible realization washed over me.
“N-no.”
Ciara walked out in front of me, a pleasant smile on her face. “After big sis left, it was up to me to take over as Ace.”
“Big sis?” I repeated, although the words did not make sense.
“That’s right. I guess it’s my turn for introductions.” She stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you. My name is Ciara O’Brian-Evergreen.”
I made no move to shake. “But— But that— That can’t be right.”
She dropped her hand, but not the smile. “Why not? Because you fell for my little performance at the hotel?” She adopted a high-pitched tone. “Staying silent was just as bad and I won’t do that anymore. I won’t ask you to forgive me either, but... blah blah blah.”
“No,” I rasped. Shaking my head, I backed away until I was stopped by the door. “You were in the video. They outed you for smoking. Why—”
“I put that in there so you wouldn’t suspect me.” She shrugged. “It’s not like Daddy would expel me.”