To Tell An Altswood Lie (The Altswood Saga #3)

Chapter 1 - Anew

Chapter 1 - Anew

I jumped up with the rest of the crowd, my breath caught in my throat.

For a change, it wasn't because we were being chased by a serial killer, or because dozens of houses around the island were about to explode. There was no one covered in blood, no one being stalked, no one being threatened.

It was only the last few seconds of a school basketball game, and Gabriel Kingston had made a shot from the middle of the court. The ball landed in the hoop. The buzzer went off. The gymnasium of Altswood High erupted in cheering.

And though I didn't have a single clue about how basketball worked, I still leaped to my feet and clapped my hands enthusiastically.

"Do you even know which team won?" Annabelle Martinez asked. She remained seated on the bleachers, a sardonic eyebrow raised.

"Nope," I replied. "But we have at least ten freshmen watching us right now. Look alive."

Surprised, Annabelle turned around, and spotted the guilty gaggle of freshmen. They busied themselves as soon as Annabelle made it clear she had seen them. At her amused snort, which they couldn't possibly have heard from their distance, a few seemed to pale in fear.

"What do you know?" Annabelle remarked with a wry twist to her lips. "We're regular celebrities."

"Oh, yes, I've always wanted to be an A-lister on a tiny island."

By now, I had become so accustomed to being watched that I made a cursory sweep of every room I entered. The thing was, the culprits were never by creepy shadowy figures anymore, they were the townspeople of Altswood, and apparently, tween girls with adoring, wide eyes.

"So," I said. With the game finished, the audience started dispersing from their seats. "Is there supposed to be a bonfire on now?"

"You know it," Annabelle said, standing up and dusting off her pants. "Where'd Jules run off to?"

It only took me about a year to learn that bonfires after school games were Altswood tradition. I winced internally—the last time I went to a bonfire, Manny Angra had been shot, his blood soaking into the sand so deeply that the entire docks had to be redesigned.

Not to mention, it had been Jules who shot him.

"I thought I saw him talking to Livana just a second ago," I replied, searching the gym. Bodies were mobbing the exit, shuffling to get out. I didn't see Jules' dark mop of hair, but I did catch Gabriel's eye from across the court.

He grinned, waving with one hand and snapping his water bottle closed with the other.

If I was an animation, cartoon hearts might have floated from my head at that moment.

"Livana said something about a mass carpool," Annabelle was muttering. She stepped down from the bleachers, then realised I hadn't moved. "You coming, Luca?"

"I'll catch up with you at the docks," I said. "Can you track down Jules?"

Annabelle made a mock-salute, following my line of sight. "Aye-aye, that I can do. You go have fun with your sweaty boyfriend."

I rolled my eyes. "See you in a few."

Annabelle skirted around the back of the bleaches, and I picked a path through the front, towards the court. It didn't require much effort—those who realised I was trying to get through did their part in moving out of my way.

We had been back in school for a while now, and while our classmates were slowly realising that Annabelle, Gabriel, Jules and I were the same people they had always known, there was still some strange undercurrent running through every interaction we had with those outside our core four. It was worse for Jules—someone had leaked to the press that he was being processed for Manny's murder, even though the initial rulings had found him acting in a form of self-defence.