Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(10)

“Like I said, come with me.”

It was tempting. And more tempting still when he pressed his lips against her neck.

But fifteen minutes later, Andrew left for Woodstock and Terry left for her dorm. This was the path she’d chosen and she intended to stay on it.





2.


A few days later Terry showed up at the psych building to find a van waiting. Familiar, gleaming and black; she was almost certain it was one of the same ones that had been parked at the curb the first time she came here. The windows were tinted, but only slightly. It had government plates.

Vans everywhere.

Terry stifled a laugh. If Andrew was here, he’d tease her about her sudden prejudice against vans. Although this was more like a church van with a dark color scheme than a hippie hangout or murder palace on wheels.

She hoped Andrew and company had made it safely to New York. The festival had started earlier that week, covered in the news. Two hundred and fifty thousand people were estimated to have overtaken the sleepy hamlet of Woodstock. Photos everywhere of mud-covered people with enormous pupils smiling like they’d reached the promised land. She hadn’t spotted Andrew in any of them, and she wasn’t sure she’d recognize anyone else besides Dave. Janis Joplin had reportedly done one of the best sets of her life. Meanwhile, Terry’s intersession class defined boring.

So this better be worth it.

She lurked at the curb instead of going over to the van, and had to smile when a beat-up muscle car screeched into the parking lot and Alice emerged from it. Grubby as in their first meeting, once again in smudged coveralls.

“I’m not late?” Alice said, not bothering with a hello.

“Right on time,” Terry said.

“Why are you just standing here?” Alice asked.

The van door swung open at that exact moment and Ken said, “Why are you guys just standing out there?”

Was that more of his “I’m psychic” shtick? Alice and Terry exchanged an eyebrow raise, then moved to get in. Gloria was already there, on the bench seat behind Ken. She was as perfectly stylish as before, this time in a sea-foam green knee-length skirt and blouse with a white polka-dot pattern. Terry slid in beside her, and Alice shot her a look that said, Thanks for sticking me with this guy, as she took the open seat beside Ken.

Terry shrugged.

The beefy man behind the wheel sported an orderly uniform and extremely hairy arms. He picked up a clipboard resting on the empty front seat beside him. “I need to check your names for security purposes.”

Ken interrupted by holding up a hand. “This is all of us. I already read your list.”

The orderly didn’t seem to like it, but he set down the clipboard and turned to the wheel. The van started up with a gentle roar.

“You mean you had to look at the clipboard?” Terry asked Ken. “You didn’t just know what was on there?”

Ken’s mustache turned down as he frowned over his shoulder. “I didn’t expect to be judged here. I am psychic, always have been. But…that’s not how it works.”

Alice was giving Terry a look that she couldn’t decipher.

“I’m sorry?” Terry said, and found she was. “I didn’t mean it as an insult. I was joking.”

Ken paused to consider. “All right then,” he said with a nod.

Gloria finally made a noise. When she spoke, it was low. “You really expect us to believe you’re psychic?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Ken asked, putting a hand to his chest so his fingers splayed across it.

Whether he could tell the future or talk to spirits or not, Terry decided he had a sense of the dramatic. And she sensed an opportunity to learn something she’d been wondering about.

“Why are you all here, participating in the experiment?” she asked. “I mean besides the fact we made it in.”

The driver steered the van out onto the campus driveway, the ride smooth.

It surprised Terry when Gloria answered her, without hesitation. “It wasn’t my first choice.”

“What do you mean?”

Gloria sighed. “The dean of my college doesn’t think I should be doing the same research projects as the male students. He doesn’t even believe the university should allow someone like me to do my major. But my dad made a fuss when I was booted from the required lab. The school came up with this as a way to get the credits I need.”

Terry started, “Gloria, I’m—”

“It’s all right.” Gloria nodded to Alice, who’d propped her arm on the seat so she could turn around to face the other two women. “What about you?”

“I want to buy a Firebird. We’re getting paid for this, and that means I can buy it sooner,” she said, as if it was obvious.

There was an expectant silence then, and they all looked at Ken. When he didn’t come out with it right away, Terry prompted him. “And you?”

“I’m supposed to be here,” he said. “I knew to show up. This is a moment. We’re all going to be very important to each other.”

Somehow, it wasn’t a declaration to make fun of—and she wouldn’t have wanted to hurt Ken’s feelings again anyway.

“What about you?” Ken asked her.

“Your name’s Stacey, right?” Alice added, helpfully.