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Amanda didn’t utter a word. The strong, silent type. She was a sphinx. Just like always.
Briefly Ellie thought of Carmen and Bailey . . . the “B” and “C” of the group since grade school. Those five girls had practically run West Knoll High School when they were students. They were the popular clique that had moved like a tsunami through the school, swallowing up anyone who dared defy them, leaving them bared and broken in their wake, like Ellie herself. She’d long ago recovered from the mean snub, had made her way in the world to a place of respect, but she would never forget.
“Are you going to be reporting on this?” Zora asked her.
“No,” Ellie said curtly. No, she would not be reporting. That was a sore point. But she would be investigating on her own . . . and she was going to start with Dee.
“I just thought—”
“Let’s wait till we find out what happens,” Amanda cut in.
The three of them then stood in silence, each wrapped in her own thoughts.
But all they could hear above the frantic efforts to save Dr. Tanner Stahd’s life was the ominous monotone of the flatline.
PART ONE
The Five Firsts
Chapter 1
West Knoll School
Fifteen Years Earlier
Delta Smith slammed her locker shut with such force that the sound reverberated down the empty school hallway like a gunshot. She slammed it shut even though her books and belongings were still inside. If she didn’t have to run the combination again, she would yank it open and smash it closed again. She was so angry she could spit. Or let loose a primal scream. Damn that bitch, Amanda! Damn that smug, cheating bitch. Her friend. One of her best friends! Well, no more. You didn’t steal somebody’s boyfriend and get to stay friends. Ever!
Delta swore a blue streak under her breath as she furiously tried to reopen the locker, messing up the combination enough times that she slammed her palm against the metal door and shrieked in total frustration.
How? How had this happened? Amanda knew Tanner was hers. She knew. They all knew. There were rules. And you didn’t mess with the rules!
Taking in and releasing several deep breaths, Delta was finally able to reopen her locker, her heart racing with fury, her breath coming fast, her face hot. She couldn’t stand it. The idea of going outside the school and running into anybody—because the whole school knew! They all knew!—didn’t bear thinking about.
She grabbed her books and purse and cell phone—her mom’s, because her parents didn’t trust her to not lose one of her own. “Be careful with it,” Mom had warned. Delta turned the phone on now and called home. “I need a ride,” she choked out to her mother. Outside the window at the end of the hall, the one that looked toward the parking lot, Delta could see groups of kids heading to their cars or their rides or starting the walk to their nearby homes.
“Thought Tanner was bringing you home.”
Tanner.
“No,” Delta said, steeling her mind against the quaver that wanted to infect her voice.
“Well, I’ve got a couple of things to do, so I can’t be there for half an hour at the earliest. Maybe you should see if someone else can drive you?”
The hopeful note in her mother’s voice was the last straw. “I’ll wait,” Delta answered, clicking off, then broke into silent, angry tears.
She moved blindly toward the girls’ restroom, where she locked herself in a cubicle to wait the half hour Mom had said it would take before she could pick her up. Hopefully all the other kids would be gone by the time she headed outside.
She cried silently for another few minutes, wiping the tears away with her right index finger as soon as they reached her eyes, infuriated by the sculptured nail of her pointer finger with the tiny red and gold flower painted on it. Just like Amanda’s. And Carmen’s. And Bailey’s. And Zora’s. All of the members of their group, the Five Firsts, the most popular clique in school. They’d all gotten the little red and gold flower on their right index fingers, their colors—the colors of West Knoll Grade School, where they’d all met and realized their initials were A, B, C, and D. They’d been friends with Ellie, too, then, but she was such a judgmental whiner that it had been Amanda’s idea to have Zora take her place, tacking on a Z for the First Five’s last member. Bailey, the peacemaker, had suggested maybe they could invite Ellie and be six, but the First Six? The alliteration hadn’t really worked, and Amanda had said no, and when Amanda said no everyone listened, because Amanda’s family was rich. Richer than Zora’s, even. The Forsythes had that swank house above the West Knoll River and all that property for acres, damn near miles, around it. Their class was supposed to go there next month for a big senior day trip and barbeque, and maybe overnight, if the would-be classmates’ parents allowed them to, with some of the faculty as event supervisors.
Delta choked out another sob. But how could she go now, with what she knew about Tanner and Amanda? Zora had caught them making out at her house last weekend after Delta had left the impromptu party early because she had to get up early and work at the store for her mom before school.
She hated the grocery store. Smith & Jones, the mom-and-pop place at the corner that her parents owned, formed from her dad and mom’s last names, Smith and Jones. It was almost embarrassing, even though all her friends loved to stop by and talk to her dad, who always gave them free stuff, even though Mom constantly chided him for “giving away your daughter’s education.” Delta didn’t much care. She planned to marry Tanner as soon as she could. They’d met in junior high, and all the girls had fallen head over heels for him, but he’d shined his smile on her. Delta Smith! Oh, man. She’d glowed under the attention. And she
could feel the way the other girls glared at her when they thought she couldn’t see. It was just so perfect. Tanner was so perfect. And he was captain of the football team. Quarterback and team captain with an academic scholarship to the University of Oregon. Delta was trying hard to keep her grades up and save her money so she could go to Oregon, too.
But now . . . all her dreams were dust.
Had it been thirty minutes yet? Probably not. She was loath to leave the bathroom. She looked at her blotchy face in the mirror and could have cried again. After turning on the tap, she cupped water in one hand and dabbed it on her hot cheeks with the other.
