“I’m not most people,” she replied, and James was right. She sounded awful chipper this morning.

“I’ve got to run.” James was such a punk. “I’ll see you guys later.”

April slid into his spot. “I don’t think he likes me.”

“I don’t know why you’d think that.” I lifted up a binder at the bottom of my locker, and there it was. One lonely, little chocolate chip granola bar. I snatched it up. It was mine, all mine.

“Who knows? It’s whatever.” She waited as I got up. “Are you going to Coop’s party this weekend?”

I closed the door and faced her. There was nary a wrinkle on her white blouse. With her dark skinny jeans and her hair sleeked back in a ponytail, she looked like a very expensive personal assistant. “Not sure. You?”

“Of course.” Her blue eyes glimmered like she’d downed a million cups of coffee. “You should definitely go.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” I lifted my bag to my shoulder as I pushed away from my locker. I spotted Heidi’s fire-engine-red hair, and the moment she saw April with me, she winced and wheeled around, heading in the opposite direction.

Traitors.

All my friends were traitors.

“You know who I heard was going to Coop’s party this weekend?” April chattered on as we walked. “Brandon.”

I slid a long look at her. Why would I care if my ex was going to a party? “So?”

“And I hear he’s not going alone.” She reached up, twisting the ends of her ponytail as we neared the bathrooms on the main floor. “I think he’s actually seeing someone.”

“At the risk of sounding repetitive . . . so?”

One side of her lips curled. “You haven’t heard? He’s been getting super-close to Lori—”

A scream cut her off—a bone-deep shout of terror that raised the tiny hairs all over my body. There was a small cluster of people by the bathrooms, like normal.

The scream came again, louder and closer, and then the girls’ bathroom door flew open. A girl burst out of it, her face the color of fallen snow.

April dropped her ponytail. “What in the hell?”

“Her eyes!” The girl shrieked as she skidded into the group lingering by the bathroom. “She’s dead and she didn’t have any eyes!”

13

As I sat on one of the stone table outside of the cafeteria, I squinted as the bright morning sun glared down on us. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

Heidi was sitting on the bench next to my feet, her dark sunglasses shielding most of her face. “I heard the screams. I thought it was a joke at first . . . until I heard what she was screaming.”

I dipped my chin as I dragged my hand around my neck, scooping up my hair and bringing it to one side. As long as I lived, I would never forget the sound of that girl’s screams.

We’d all been evacuated the minute a teacher checked the bathroom. Some of us had been sent out to the back parking lot and the rest of us were here, milling around or in small clusters. The police showed up within minutes of us being sent outside, and I’d only seen a handful of teachers since then. Everyone was pretty quiet, speaking in hushed voices or comforting one another. Every so often someone’s phone would ring. The school district had sent out at an alert that there was an issue at the school. Knowing that Mom probably wouldn’t get the call or my text for a while, because she didn’t take her phone into the labs, I still let her know that I was okay.

Someone’s parent wouldn’t be getting that text today.

Heidi twisted as Zoe came around the corner. She dropped down beside Heidi. She’d left a few minutes ago to see if she could find out anything.

“I think they’re going to cancel school for the rest of the day.” Zoe placed her book bag on the table. “I peeked through the front entrance, and the entire hallway is blocked with police tape.”

“It’s basically a crime scene now.” I shivered despite the warmth of the sun. “They probably won’t be able to let us inside for a while.”

Heidi’s phone dinged and she pulled it out from her bag as she asked, “Did you hear who it could’ve been?”

Zoe shook her head as she swung a leg over the bench. “I’m never going to be able to use that bathroom again.”

“Ditto,” I murmured, opening my backpack. I pulled out my camera and popped off the lens. I was aware that Heidi and Zoe were watching me, but they didn’t say anything as I started snapping photos of everyone standing around, focusing on how their shadows looked on the cement. I liked the contrast.

It was probably weird that I was doing this, but Heidi and Zoe didn’t say a word. This wasn’t the first time they’d seen me whip out a camera at the most inappropriate time.

Taking pictures was about more than clearing my mind. Sometimes the camera was . . . It was kind of like a shield between me and what was happening. It helped distance myself, so I . . . I didn’t feel too much.

Maybe I should look into photojournalism when I graduated instead of nursing.

As I lowered the camera, I spotted James jogging around the corner, crossing the common area. He stopped by a group, clapping his hand on another guy’s back before he made his way over to us.

“Have you heard anything?” I asked, putting my camera away.

“Yeah.” James dropped his bag onto the cement ground. “It was Colleen.”

“What?” I gasped.

He climbed onto the table and sat next to me. “I was talking to a few guys. One of the teachers was standing nearby, talking to Jenny—the girl who’d found her in the bathroom. From what I could hear, it sounded like Colleen had been . . . you know, gone for a while. I don’t know how Jenny could tell that, but that’s what I heard.”

“Holy crap.” Heidi lowered her phone to her lap. “Oh my God, that—”

“Doesn’t make a lot sense?” Zoe finished for her, the corners of her lips turning down. “I thought the last time she was seen was at Foretoken on Friday night.”

“That’s right.” I glanced at Heidi. She was staring straight, her face pale. “Her purse and shoes were found in the alley. There’s no way she’d been in that bathroom since Friday.”

“I used that bathroom yesterday,” Zoe pointed out. “Someone would’ve noticed. At least, I hope so.”

“She was in the last stall and it was unlocked,” James explained, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Supposedly Jenny went in there and saw that the door was cracked open a little. She didn’t think anyone was in it, so she pushed it open, and there . . . was Colleen. Said she was slumped next to the toilet.”

“God.” Heidi shuddered. “That’s just horrible.”

My stomach twisted as I folded my arms. Part of me had been hoping that she’d run away to see her boyfriend, like Zoe had suggested. Deep down I think I knew that hadn’t been the case, not when her shoes and purse had been left behind in an alley, but I didn’t think this was what had happened.

Zoe slumped against the table. Tight curls fell forward as she bowed her head. “She’s in my communications class. She was just there, you know, on Friday.”

“And you guys saw the posts about Amanda, right?” Heidi folded an arm across her stomach. “I saw this morning that she still hadn’t returned home.”

Zoe nodded slowly. “I saw that.”

Silence fell between us, because seriously, what did any of us have to say? We’d all suffered some sort of loss, whether it was before the invasion or afterward. Both of Zoe’s parents were gone. Heidi’s uncle had been in the army and had died fighting. James had lost an aunt and a cousin. We all knew what grief felt like. Been there, done that, and we had the emotional baggage to prove it. And we all knew what the surprise of death felt like. It was that alarm-like jolt every time you realized someone was no longer there when they had just been there. And we all also knew what fear felt and tasted like. Still, with all our experience, none of us knew what to say.

“I heard something else,” James said quietly.