Almost Home

Chapter One

"Did you get thirty-eight for question five?"

My best friend, Lydia, stares at me through her wide-rimmed, slightly smudged glasses, "Because if we're being technical, I got thirty-seven point six, but Mrs. Winters told us to round up, didn't she?"

"Yep."

"Yes, as in you got thirty-eight, or yes, as in she told us to round up?"

I look over at her just as she pushes her glasses up on her small nose, adding to the fingerprint already on the edge of the frames.

"Both."

"Okay," she breathes a sigh of relief, "Because I wasn't sure-"

I'm saved from answering another mind-numbing question about our recently-taken math final by my phone vibrating on the wooden library desk.

This time, it's my turn to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hello?"

"Carly? It's Carson."

My twin brother, as if I didn't already have his number saved into my phone.

"Yeah," I deadpan, "I know."

"Oh, right," there's a brief pause in the line and then, "What are you doing right now?"

I glance around the library, where Lydia and I had been sitting for the past half hour, waiting on the bell to ring to dismiss us to our next class, "I'm in the library."

"Doing anything important?"

"No."

"Meet me by the bathroom beside the cafeteria."

"When?"

"Right now."

The line goes dead before I have the chance to ask why.

Pocketing my cell phone, I stand, looping my too-heavy backpack over my shoulders and pushing my chair in, "Carson needs to talk to me. I'll see you in biology?"

Lydia nods and without a second's hesitation, without even arguing that she's dating my brother and wants to see him too, she buries her nose back into her textbook and gets right back to work.

As I'm walking out of the tall, oak doors, though, I hear Mrs. Calvin, the mean, old librarian's, voice ring out from behind me.

"Miss Knight, can I ask where you think you're going?"

I freeze, one hand already on the doorknob, before whirling to face her.

A few feet away, her nose still buried in her book, Lydia squeaks in fear, her blonde, curly hair falling in front of her face like a curtain.

"Bathroom?"

Not a complete lie.

Mrs. Calvin shelves one of the million books in the library before turning to face me, "Very well, but next time, I would prefer you ask first."

There won't be a next time, I bite my tongue before I can say, The last day of school is in two days.

All I do, though, is give a terse nod before walking out of the door, cringing as it slams closed behind me.

The hallways are silent; most students are still stressing over their final exams, too busy to leave the classrooms, so it takes me mere seconds to reach the bathroom at the end of the hall.

Carson is, of course, already there, pacing back and forth along the wall that leads into the cafeteria. When he sees me, he begins bouncing up and down on his toes.