Variant

I interrupted, anger swelling in my chest. “There are only two possibilities: She was hit by a car on our road-but that makes no sense because no car came here-or she walked all the way to the main highway in one night. Which is it?”

Other kids were chattering around me, but I stared at Laura and waited for her to answer.

“We don’t know the circumstances,” she repeated.

“Yes, we do,” I snapped. “The note says she was hit by a car. So, Laura, explain it to me. Take a guess.”

She seethed, her lips tight together. “Maybe there are other roads in the forest.”

Without even realizing what I was doing, I stood up and began shouting, “You know what pisses me off the most about this? If you’d caught her before she got over the wall, Laura, she’d be just as dead as she is now.”

Before I could finish the room erupted in chaos, some people shouting at Laura, but most of them yelling back at me. The Havoc kids were on my side, barking angrily at the Society. I glanced up at the security camera, actually hoping someone was watching this time.

“Take your seat, Benson,” Laura was yelling, trying to be heard over the crowd.

I touched Jane’s back and coaxed her up. As she stood, I could see her wet, red eyes.

“Take your seats,” Laura shouted.

“No.” I took Jane by the hand and led her out into the hall. As soon as we got outside she stopped and wrapped her arms around me, sobbing and shuddering.

The classroom door fell closed, but I could still hear the muffled shouting on the other side. No one came after us.

I held Jane, my left hand on her back and my right cradling her head while she cried into my chest.

I wanted to tell her that everything would be fine, that I’d get us both out of Maxfield Academy, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. And she wouldn’t want to hear it anyway. It wasn’t true.

No one could make it out of this place alive.

She was trying to calm herself, taking deep breaths between sobs. “I am so sick of this, Benson.”

“I know.”

“Two and a half years.”

“I know.”

Chapter Thirteen

We stood in the hallway for a long time. The noises from the class died down, and I listened to Jane breathe and felt her body slowly grow calm. I wasn’t worried about punishment for missing class. We’d lose points, but right now I didn’t care about that at all.

Finally, Jane looked up at me. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her mascara streaked down her cheeks. “Come on.”

She took my hand and we walked in silence, heading down the large staircase to the first floor. The corridor was quiet, all the students still in their classrooms. She led me to the cafeteria, and we let ourselves in. It was dark and empty.

Once again I wished we had the groundskeeping contract. We could get outside and run. I was surprised the Havoc kids hadn’t already tried it. Actually, since the Society had the security contract, it was just us V’s who couldn’t leave the building. Maybe it was time the V’s bid for one of those contracts.

The decorations were already in place, though they looked strange and shoddy without any lighting. The lunch tables were still set up as usual. We had planned to move them later, before the dance.

“We should cancel,” I said. “I know that they want us to have a dance, but how can we?”

Jane shook her head, her face set. “No. We’re not going to cancel. Here, help me.” She climbed up on a chair to reach one side of the banner we’d painted and hung the night before. I went to the other side and helped take it down.

We’d had trouble coming up with a good slogan for the banner. This wasn’t a regular high school, so this dance wasn’t like a regular dance. There was no theme. It didn’t have a name-it wasn’t homecoming or junior prom-so our sign just said maxfield academy dance.

I laid the banner down on a lunch table while Jane rummaged through the decoration supplies. She came back with a smaller sheet of butcher paper, glue, paint, and two brushes.

Following her lead, I trimmed the paper and then glued it to the banner, covering the words Maxfield Academy. Jane sketched new words in pencil, and we finished them with paint. Ten minutes later we stood back and looked at our work.

“‘Lily Paterson Memorial Dance,’” I read. “The Society’s going to be pissed.”

Jane smiled and took my hand. “I hope so.”

Chapter Fourteen

I waited on the fourth floor by the unused common room, absently staring out the window as night fell. The windows faced east, and the pine forest below me was glowing orange, reflecting what must have been a magnificent sunset in the west.

Nothing had been scheduled after class, and dinner was postponed to be included with the dance. We’d had nothing to do but sit in the dorms. Fortunately, anticipation seemed to quell the earlier unrest. I hadn’t seen Isaiah all day, and even Havoc was calm.

Almost all of the V guys were just wearing their uniforms to the dance, though most were a little more cleaned up than usual. Curtis had bought a sports coat and wore it over his usual shirt and tie.