Harper and I make our way to Naomi Kapoor, the fourth member of our four-person friend group. Twig and I merged with her and Harper in junior high and while we’ve been friends ever since, neither Harper nor Naomi have any clue what really happened on Halloween night. I glance at the bulletin board next to Naomi’s locker, where a Night of the Howl flyer has been pinned. When I see the name listed under storyteller, a thrill of excitement thrums through my extremities.
Walt was right.
And Night of the Howl is next weekend. If Mistress Bramble doesn’t answer her door betweennow and then, surely I can track her down at Willowmere Park and force her to speak with me there.
I nod at the flyer. “Look who’s telling the story this year.”
“Miss Coraline Bramble,” Harper reads. “Who’s that?”
“MistressBramble,” I say, with meaning.
“The witch?”
Naomi hangs up her coat “She’s not a witch, Harper.”
The hum in the hallway turns into an audible buzz.
Lainey walks down the hallway laughing with Griffin, glowing in the spotlight. Several classmates stop her as she goes. They squeeze her hand or give her a hug like she’s some sort of celebrity.
“I can’t believe she’s here.” Naomi shuts her locker. “If I did what she did, my parents would lock me in my room and ground me for life.”
“I’d never hear the end of it from Jake,” Harper says.
Jake is one of Harper’s older brothers. He’s also the newest—and youngest—officer on the Foggy Hollow police force.
“He wouldn’t stop ranting last night. I swear, if he had the grounds, he’d arrest her on obstruction of justice.”
“He thinks she’s lying?” I ask.
“Of course she’s lying.” Harper looks at me like she can’t tell if I’m being serious. “She didn’t know people were looking for her? She didn’t realize Ivy was missing? There’s no way that’s true.”
“Right,” I say.
It isn’t true at all.
“According to my brother, they used a lot of resources on her search and rescue. They should have been using all of it to focus on Ivy.” Harper worries her bottom lip. “He doesn’t think they’re going to find her.”
Stubborn refusal wells inside me.
If Lainey is alive, then Ivy has to be alive, too. And if Ivy is alive, I will find her.
I watch as Griffin stops in front of Lainey’s locker, takes her backpack, and kisses her neck.
Lainey giggles.
It’s the most bizarre thing—seeing her like this, acting so totallyLainey.
Naomi wrinkles her nose. “She has no shame.”
“Neither does he,” I mumble.
As far as Griffin knows, Lainey left town. Took off with another guy. Now she’s back and he’s looking at her like he’s the luckiest man on the planet.
Twig’s sister, Kate, joins them. She wraps Lainey in a tight hug, pulls away, then hugs heragain. Kate’s boyfriend, Harrison, hugs her too while everyone else gawks. The foursome have become the sun in our student body universe.
“I’m surprised Kate isn’t angry with her,” Naomi says.
“Seriously,” Harper agrees. “If either of you took off with a guy for a week without telling me, I’d be really upset.”
