haven murphy had nothing to lose. everything was different after sarah cameron's birthday party, the night her father died. haven just didn't feel right in her own skin. then, on a whim, she befriended pope heyward and got sucked into a wild goose h...
AS HAVEN CAME TO find out the next day, everything important just had to happen in history class. First, it was the revelation that John B and Sarah weren't as dead as they thought. Then came the letter. Everything was quiet except for the scratches of pencil ends against test papers and the routine flip of Mr Sunn's magazine. The clock ticked slowly above his head. Five minutes, then ten. Before Haven knew it, forty minutes had passed, and her hand throbbed from scrawling out half-hearted paragraphs. It was painfully obvious she hadn't studied. And judging by the look of frustration on Leonie's face beside her, she hadn't either.
Mr Sun was not going to be happy with them, that was for sure.
But Haven didn't have the chance to worry about it then. Suddenly, the silence was interrupted by the door creaking as it was sharply opened. A second later, a man dressed in a smart suit stepped into the room, drawing everyone's attention to him, confused but nonetheless eager for a distraction as he addressed Mr Sunn.
"Mr Sunn, can I borrow Pope for a minute?"
Haven's eyes sought out Pope's as a few students murmured in amusement. What had Pope Heyward done to garner such attention? He was supposed to be the goody two-shoes, the one who rarely ever found trouble. The man's face remained impassive as Mr Sunn sighed and closed his magazine. Haven couldn't tell what either of them were thinking, but it wasn't hard to notice Pope's fear as he turned around to catch JJ and Kie's worried gaze.
"We're in the middle of a test right now," Mr Sunn informed him with a displeased frown.
But the man just smiled and said, "I'm from the Vanderhorst Foundation."
Vanderhorst Foundation? Did Haven hear that right? She thought Pope blew his scholarship interview. Or at least, that was what he'd claimed.
From the looks of it, Mr Sunn's perspective had changed when the man introduced himself. His frown morphed into a small but hopeful smile as he called out, "Mr Heyward, it's for you." Could this be Pope's redemption, a second chance to get back what he lost? Haven sure hoped so.
Seconds continued to tick by. They felt like hours now, trickling past as Haven sat back in her chair. She couldn't focus on the test anymore, no matter how hard she tried. She wanted to know what was happening out in that corridor, and from the looks of it, so did the pogues. Both JJ and Arden were sitting back too, ignoring Mr Sunn's disapproving glare as they caught each other's gaze, seemingly communicating through one look. Kie was distracted too, but she forced herself to turn back to her paper after a few minutes, to just wait for Pope to return.
In the end, that was what Haven decided too. But just as she sighed and picked back up her pen, the door opened and closed again. Pope came marching in with wide eyes, shakily sitting down in his seat and spinning around to hold up an envelope in their direction. It seemed like an ordinary letter to Haven, the paper a dark brown with a golden wax symbol pinning it shut.
