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I tear off the tape over my mouth.
They think they’re going to be something that happens to me. I’m done with that.
“Farrow, right?” I ask, meeting the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror as he looks up from his phone. “I know you. Football star, team captain…” I pause and then say under my breath, “But that’s not fair, since you were also captain your senior year…which…was…last…year.”
A gleam hits his eyes, and I wonder if he blew off last semester just so he could play another season.
I turn to Coral Lapinski at my right, dropping my eyes to the necktie wrapped around her wrist over and over again like some kind of bracelet. “I watched you run last spring in the Regionals. One of the fastest miles in the state.”
She’s been offered scholarships, but I hear she has no interest in college, not even if it’s free.
She keeps her eyes forward, not acknowledging me. Her long, blonde hair is flipped over to one side, blowing across her face in the gust coming through the crack in the window. Everything from the tops of her ears down isshaved off.
I face the guy in the front passenger seat, half of his grin turned toward me. “Calvin Calderon?” I say, but then I fall quiet for a second. “I honestly don’t know much about you, except that I heard you think all dogs are boys and all cats are girls.”
Farrow shakes with a laugh.
“How good do you want to know me?” Calvin asks over his shoulder.
I cock an eyebrow. “Howwell…” I correct him.
And last but not least, I look to my left, to the dark-haired girl with the three roses tattooed on her hand. Aro’s told me about her. She’s the youngest of four.
“Mace, right?” I ask. “You—”
“I don’t give a shit what you think you know about me.”
Her brown eyes loom over me like a storm cloud, and I flash my gaze to the hand, the three roses flexing as she balls her fist.
I turn away. “Understood.”
“And you’re the daughter of Jared Trent,” Calvin calls out.
I stare at the back of his head. “It won’t be what you remember.”
Mace throws something in my lap, followed by a pen. “Sign it,” she says.
I pick up the sheet of paper, my handcuffs jiggling as I squint at the words inside the dark car. “I can’t read it.”
Coral brings up the flashlight on her phone, hovering it over the document. I scan the list of conditions, realizing it’s a permission slip for my enrollment at Weston High and my boarding here. “My parents are supposed to sign this.”
“Will they?”
I meet Farrow’s eyes in the rearview mirror. They probably would’ve signed it a year ago. They’re mad at me a lot more these days.
Wrists still bound, I pick up the pen and scribble my dad’s name and hand both back to Mace.
She only takes the pen. “Drop off the slip in the office tomorrow at school.”
I fold it up and work it into my pocket.
“When am I getting my clothes?” I ask Farrow.
We’re not heading in the direction of Shelburne Falls.
His phone lights up on the dash, and he swipes, then clicks out of the notification.
“I need things,” I tell him when he doesn’t reply. “My charger. My laptop and toothbrush. My pajamas.”
