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"You didn't with me."
"I wanted those pages."
"Why? Because they said your parents had been murdered? How come that's a secret?"
I waited for her to explode. How come that's a secret? Would I want everyone knowing my parents had been murdered? Would I want them asking questions? Looking at me funny? Wondering what exactly I'd seen?
She didn't say any of that, just scowled and started to walk away.
"What else was in those pages?" I called.
She stopped, her shoulders tensing.
"There was more, wasn't there? Something you didn't want me to see."
She turned, then, and gave me this look that made me shiver. A figure appeared around the bend, bearing down fast.
Sam opened her mouth, as if to say something, then wheeled to walk away--and smacked into Daniel.
"D-Daniel."
"You going to take a swing at me, too, Sam?"
Sam stammered denials and Daniel told her off, but I wasn't listening. Last night, I'd started to remember something Serena said about Sam before she died. Now seeing her with Daniel, it came back.
Serena had been at my place, holding down a rabbit while I changed its dressing.
"I had a run-in with Sam last night."
"Sam?"
"Yeah. I was at the Blender with Nicole, when you and Daniel were taking this little guy to Dr. Hajek. There were a couple of summer boys there, college guys hiking the island. They came over and flirted with us. Nicole got shy, like she always does, and I was trying to show her how it's done."
"Uh-huh."
She laughed. "Okay, I was kind of flirting back. But you know me. I don't mean anything by it. Even Daniel only gives me hell for teasing the poor guys. Anyway, I'm flirting and Sam stops in to grab a burger. Acts like she doesn't know us, of course. I talk to the guys a bit more, then Nic and I leave."
"Okay."
"I cut through the woods to Daniel's place. I'm by the ridge, and who pops up? Sam. She tears a strip out of me for flirting with the summer boys. Says it's disrespectful to Daniel. I tell her to mind her own freaking business. She gets really pissed. Calls me a blond twit who doesn't appreciate what she's got. She said someone needed to teach me a lesson. I laughed, which was the wrong thing to do, because she gave me this look, this really ... scary look."
Serena tri
ed to laugh, but it came out shaky. "I know that sounds dumb, but it spooked me. Then Daniel got there. He heard us fighting. I told him what she was mad about--that I'd been flirting with summer boys. He just shrugged and said, 'So?' but Sam gives me that look again and stomps off."
Was Rafe right that Sam had a crush on Daniel? I'd never thought so, but maybe she just didn't express her feelings the way most girls did. Sam didn't do anything the way most girls did.
I remembered my dream, about Serena being pulled under. She had gone down so fast she did seem to be dragged. And I had felt something grab my leg.
How angry had Sam been with Serena? How jealous over Daniel? Jealous enough to "teach her a lesson" that had gone very, very wrong?
But how would she do it? Slip into the water at the wooded edge, then swim under it and hold Serena down long enough to drown her?
That was crazy. No one could hold her breath longer than Serena.
Daniel brushed past Sam like she wasn't there and came to me. He leaned down to whisper, "She do anything?"
I shook my head as the bell rang. We started back toward school.
