CHAPTER SIX

Justin walked briskly through the bustle of students the next morning, toward the flagpole in the center of campus. He scowled when he spotted the others assembled underneath its looming presence.

The five of them had never interacted at school before that worthless therapy meeting, which Justin had forgotten about until the text from Gabby last night jolted his memory. He was planning on strolling right by the flagpole and ignoring them, but the sight of Gabby made him slow his pace. There was something different about her today.

When he was a few feet away, she looked up and caught his eye. And then it hit him. When she wasn’t doing any of her weird murmuring or tapping, she was really hot. Way hotter than any of the Cedar Springs High cheerleaders.

He might as well see why she wanted to meet.

“Hey,” he said, giving her a grin and joining the group.

But instead of smiling back, she turned away. Instantly embarrassed, Justin wiped the smile off his face. That wasn’t the type of reaction from girls he was used to. “So what’s up, Gabby? Why did you text us?” he added. He made it clear they were wasting his time.

“Did it happen to you, too?” Z asked him, not bothering to wait for Gabby.

They were all staring at him. He glowered back. “What are you talking about?”

It was as if they had all hit the mute button until Sabrina spoke up. “Last night I saw my dead brother in my kitchen.”

Justin scoffed. “Yeah, drugs make you hallucinate, Sabrina. You should be used to that feeling by now.” From what he’d heard around school, her purse could give any pharmacy some major competition.

“I wasn’t on anything,” she snapped back. “And I’m still not.”

“Something happened to me, too,” Andrew piped up.

Justin rolled his eyes. “Big surprise. Isn’t an ambulance here every week for you?”

“No,” Andrew retorted. “Not an illness. It’s like I have quantum perception all of a sudden. If I really focus on something, my brain reaches this level that’s beyond genius.”

Justin was about to remark on what he thought was actually wrong with Andrew’s brain, but Z spoke up. “All of us have felt some of our other … problems lessening, too.”

“Good for you. I didn’t have any to start with.” Justin’s agitation was increasing by the second.

Z gave him a hard stare suggesting she didn’t believe him. “You seriously haven’t experienced anything weird in the past few days?”

Justin turned to Gabby, who was laser-focused on this conversation.

“You can tell us, Justin,” she said softly.

“Tell you what? Did you see a dead guy, too?” Justin ignored the icy look from Sabrina.

“No,” Gabby replied, reddening now that he was staring at her. “But I can … see things.” She swallowed. “Things that happened to other people.”

“Why the hell are you freaks telling me this?” Justin growled, shoving his hands in his pockets. Gabby flinched, which made him feel slightly guilty but not enough to apologize.

“Because it started happening after that therapy meeting,” Sabrina answered impatiently. “But we barely spoke to those people … I don’t get it. How could they have done anything to us?”

Z scuffed the dirt with her boot. “Maybe it was hypnosis.”

“And we don’t remember any of it?” Sabrina questioned.

“That’s the point of hypnosis,” Z huffed.

Justin shook his head in disbelief. Did these psychos seriously believe they’d been hypnotized?

“What else could it be?” Z asked. “It wasn’t like they gave us a pill or something.”

Andrew’s eyes bugged out of his head. “I bet they put something in that water they gave us! In those glasses on the desks. It’s the only reasonable explanation. And that room was so hot I drank my entire glass. Did you guys?”

Sabrina nodded quickly. “I know I did.”

“Me, too,” Gabby added. “Just a few sips, but it was so hot I needed to.”

Z’s eyes were closed, as if she was trying to think back. “I’m almost positive I did.”

They all turned to Justin. “Yeah, I did. So what?”

“Maybe they put some kind of experimental hallucinogen in the water,” Sabrina said. Justin smirked. She’d be the one to know.

“We should talk to Dr. Pearl,” Andrew said. “She’s the one who left us those notes. She’s the one who knows who Patricia and Nash are. We have to tell Dr. Pearl what they did.”

Sabrina turned to Andrew. “Wait a second. If it was the water, why isn’t anything happening to Justin?”

Their eyes shifted back to him and he threw his arms up, peeved. “Because nothing is happening to any of you guys! You think those two shrinks drugged us? If you really did have these special abilities, you’d be able to read my mind or listen to my thoughts and know I’m telling the truth!”

“Maybe I can.” Z cocked her head, as if trying to hear some sound in the distance. After a beat, she frowned. “Well, it doesn’t exactly work on command.”

This had to be some kind of practical joke. He wondered if Hindy or the other guys on the team put them up to it. Just what he needed, to be lumped together with this collection of freaks.

He pivoted on his heel as he saw a group of cheerleaders approaching. That group was more his speed. “I’m out of here.” He couldn’t get away fast enough.