Made You Up(21)

The picture was framed in gold and set up on a tiny dais like it was sacred.

I spotted Miles on the other side of the rotunda. He was standing outside the concession stand, talking to a kid I’d never seen before. As I watched, they made a quick exchange. Miles gave the kid something thin and gold and got a handful of cash in return.

“What was that?” I asked, stomping up to Miles as soon as the kid had walked away. “It looked very much like Mr. Gunthrie’s fountain pen. I’m not ruling out the possibility that you’re an accomplished pickpocket.”

Miles raised his eyebrow as if I was a very amusing puppy.

“So that’s the only reason you drank that awful stuff this morning? So you could steal a teacher’s pen? For money?”

Miles shoved his hands into his pockets. “Are you done now?”

“Lemme see.” I tapped my chin. “Yep, all done. Asshat.”

I started to walk away.

“Alex. Wait.”

I turned back. It was the first time he’d said my name. He held a hand out. “Well played,” he said.

Oh no. No, we were not doing this. I hadn’t spent ten minutes gluing his locker shut just to admit it to him. So I arched my own eyebrow and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The corners of his lips twisted up right before I walked away.





It can’t be him. It’s not him, is it?





Cannot predict now


I know I’ve asked you a dozen times already, but . . . just . . . yes or no?





Concentrate and ask again


You only have twice as many positive answers as negative and noncommittal—how does this keep happening? It’s not him, is it?





Better not tell you now


You said that one before. I’m going to ask one more time: He’s a jerk, so he can’t be Blue Eyes, right?





Reply hazy try again


Reply hazy my ass.





Chapter Twelve




The transition from Hillpark to East Shoal was significantly easier than I’d expected. It was the same basic high school garbage wrapped in a slightly different skin. The only difference was that everything at East Shoal was completely insane.

There were several things I learned that first month.

One: The scoreboard really was a school legend, and Mr. McCoy really was dearly, dearly in love with it. McCoy had his own brand of crazy: he continually reminded everyone of “Scoreboard Day,” when we were all supposed to bring in an offering of flowers or lightbulbs for the scoreboard, as if it was a wrathful Mayan deity that would kill us if we disobeyed. Somehow, he managed to cover this insanity with a mask of good test scores and even better student conduct. It seemed like, as far as the parents and teachers were concerned, he was a perfect principal.

Two: There was a cult entirely dedicated to discussing preexisting conspiracy theories and determining if they were true. They met in a janitors’ closet.

Three: The cult was run by Tucker Beaumont.

Four: Mr. Gunthrie, the most in-your-face teacher in the school (because of the yelling, see), was nicknamed “The General” because of his penchant for going on war-related rants and wielding his treasured golden fountain pen as a weapon. He’d done two tours in Vietnam, and he had a long family history of war-related deaths, which rendered me almost incapable of not calling him Lieutenant Dan.

Five: Twenty years ago, as the senior prank, someone had let the biology teacher’s pet python loose. It had escaped behind the ceiling tiles, never to be seen again.

Six: Everyone—and when I say everyone, I mean absolutely, positively everyone, from the librarians to the students to the staff to the oldest, crustiest janitor—was piss-down-their-legs scared of Miles Richter.

Of all the crazy things I heard about East Shoal, that was the only thing I couldn’t believe.





Chapter Thirteen




I must have set a record. With the backpack-pushing and the assignment-ripping and all the general childishness that occurred between me and Miles, it only took him a month to banish me to work in the concession stand with Theo.

I was fine with this because a) I liked Theo better than him, b) I was less paranoid when he wasn’t around, and c) I didn’t have to sit in a gym full of people I didn’t know. It didn’t take me long to get used to Theo—she was so good at getting things done that I figured if she wanted to hurt me, she would’ve done it by now.