Zoe couldn’t believe it when Holly informed them of what happened in the theater. Her imagination went into overdrive, and she envisioned Q’s angry red hands after catching on fire. They all fell silent while waiting for Q and Mr. Curtis to return. Without Mr. Curtis in the room, they could have done anything. But what could they do other than wait for Jacob to choose Zoe or Holly as his next victim? They were obviously no match for this game.
Teddy typed away on his phone, researching each of the Jacobs that they’d retrieved from the yearbooks. A scowl remained on his face the entire time. While Q and Holly had gone to fulfill Q’s task, Teddy had checked his bank account. Jacob or whoever was doing this had left Teddy with zero dollars to his name, other than the nine hundred in cash sitting in his bag.
There was nothing she could say to make him feel better. Instead, Zoe continued on both of their chains, hoping that Mr. Curtis would be satisfied with the work she’d done so he would lock himself in the office again, and they could finish this.
‘Damn it!’ Cece said.
‘What is it now?’ Jackie asked. Since returning from the bathroom, her eyes still squinted as if she were having trouble seeing. Even though Teddy’s money and Cece’s reputation were important, Zoe thought Jacob had gone too far with Jackie. And even more so with Q.
According to Holly, Q falling on the ground had been an accident, so Zoe hoped it hadn’t been Jacob’s intention to burn him. As the missions were handed out, they seemed to get worse. What fate would Zoe and Holly suffer?
‘I can’t remember my mom’s password to her email,’ Cece said. ‘I already got into Dad’s email and deleted it before he read it.’
‘Phones away,’ Zoe hissed as Mr. Curtis’s face appeared through the glass window in the door.
The door opened, and Cece and Teddy resumed working on their chains.
Jackie propped her arm on the table, shielding her face from the teacher.
‘Aren’t you going to eat?’ Mr. Curtis said, passing the table where he had placed a pile of candy and water bottles from his trek to get them food earlier. He’d arrived at the perfect time just as Holly had come for help. ‘I thought you all were hungry.’
Zoe reached for the closest candy bar. She didn’t want him to suspect anything else was off, though she didn’t plan on eating it. Her stomach was in knots thinking about her turn.
‘Q is excused from working on the chain due to his injuries,’ Mr. Curtis said. He waited for a response from them. Maybe a groan or dirty looks directed at Q, but he was left unsatisfied.
They all knew it wasn’t Q’s fault.
Mr. Curtis gave Zoe a funny look, and she shrugged, pressing down on the stapler again, puncturing one more staple into the chain.
He returned to the office and this time he didn’t close the door. They were going to have to be more careful.
‘How are you?’ Jackie asked him.
Q lifted his bandaged hands. ‘How do you think?’
For the first time since Zoe had known Q, his words weren’t laced with harsh sarcasm. He seemed almost playful at the moment, which wasn’t something Zoe expected after what he’d gone through.
Q glanced at Holly. ‘Did you see him?’
‘See who?’ Holly asked.
‘Jacob,’ he said.
‘You saw him?’ Cece asked Q.
‘No,’ Q said. ‘When I was close to getting the cigarette, the spotlight turned on. I assumed Holly would have seen him.’
‘I didn’t,’ Holly said. ‘I was by the door, remember?’
Zoe couldn’t believe Q and Holly had been in Jacob’s presence. He almost seemed like a ghostly figure at that point.
‘We were so close to having him,’ Q said as if reading her thoughts.
‘He’s been a step ahead of us this whole time,’ Teddy said. ‘I doubt he would have let himself get caught.’
‘He has to be somewhere in the building,’ Cece said. ‘Unless he has an accomplice. Do you think he’d give us his name and then come here, risking us getting a look at him?’
‘Someone is here, watching us,’ Q said. ‘If we catch that person then we’re that much closer to Jacob.’
Zoe wasn’t sure if Jacob would let himself or his accomplice get caught. If there even was one. Jacob seemed to have control over the situation—though Zoe couldn’t help but wonder, what if?
‘We can’t leave this room,’ Zoe said. ‘I doubt Mr. Curtis is going to let us out of his sight again.’
‘And none of us should face Jacob alone,’ Teddy said. ‘After Jackie and Q’s tasks, he seems like a deranged person.’
‘He was deranged from the start,’ Cece said.
Zoe nodded. Someone finally agreed with her instead of biting her head off.
‘Is there any way we can get ahead of him?’ Jackie asked.
Teddy tapped his pencil against his lips. Zoe knew that look well. It was something he did during tests in the few classes they had together in the past.
No one else said anything. They were stumped. Zoe sat there, her damp hands clasped in her lap, wondering who was next.
Selfishly, she wanted Holly to go next. Zoe had buried her head in the sand for years, avoiding conflict. She couldn’t have done anything to make Jacob or anyone that angry with her. She was under the radar of everyone in school. She wanted to put off her task until the last possible second.
Based on school rumors, Holly slept her way through the junior and senior classes. She deserved a task before Zoe.
Even though she hated herself for throwing someone under the bus, her survival instincts kicked in, and there was no stopping them now.
Several minutes later, the phone in the librarian’s office rang. One of her responsibilities as a librarian’s assistant was to field the phone calls that came in during her shift. Who called a school library on the weekend? In her weeks at detention, Zoe never heard the phone ring.
Her heart leaped. Was this her punishment? Did Jacob know that she was a library assistant? That was a dumb question. Of course he did. He knew everything. She wasn’t sure what to do, though.
But that decision was made for her when Mr. Curtis picked it up.
Inside, she panicked. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Did she automatically fail because he picked up instead of her? She glanced across the table. There weren’t that many slips left and none of them were red.
Her eyes snapped back to Mr. Curtis. The corners of his lips tugged down, and his eyes narrowed. He slammed the receiver down and stood up, shoving the rolling chair away from him. It banged against the filing cabinet where he’d stored the phones earlier.
Cece and Jackie glanced in his direction.
‘What’s going on in there?’ Teddy asked, shoving his phone into his bag.
Zoe shrugged. She didn’t know if she should say anything about it being her turn. Maybe if she pretended as if she didn’t know, then it would go away. She doubted that, but at least it would delay the inevitable for a little while.
The phone rang again, catching everyone’s attention.
Mr. Curtis dug his fingers into his hips and stared at it. He didn’t move until the phone stopped ringing.
Then a text tone went off.
Zoe’s gaze darted around. ‘I thought we agreed to keep our phones on silent.’
‘It’s not any of us,’ Holly said, pointing at Mr. Curtis.
Mr. Curtis picked up his cell phone from the desk and held it in his hand. He didn’t answer the call.
What was going on?
After a few seconds, he stormed out of the office and into the room.
No one moved.
‘If I catch any of you out of your seats when I get back, you will be here every weekend for the rest of the year,’ he said. ‘Got it?’ He didn’t wait for a response. ‘I’m going to my classroom. I’ll be right back.’
Zoe stared at him, confused about his outburst.
The second the doors closed behind him, Jackie spoke, ‘What was that about?’
Q shook his head. ‘No idea.’
‘At least we can talk now,’ Cece said. She lifted her phone and started typing on it.
‘Any luck?’ Zoe asked. She needed to know if there was any hope after a failed punishment.
‘No,’ Cece said. ‘But looking at my dad’s calendar, they are both at some brunch event. Mom probably has her phone on silent. She thinks it’s rude to keep it on in any social situation.’
‘Well, that’s good,’ Jackie said.
Cece shook her head. ‘For now.’
‘Okay, we need to get back on track,’ Teddy said. ‘Let’s talk through the tasks. There we might be able to find the link to Jacob.’
‘How many people know about your bank account?’ Zoe asked him. Starting at the beginning of this whole mess made sense. Or maybe it didn’t. Did Jacob have a reason for the order of his ‘consequences’ or was it random? With Q finding his in the cabinet with the phones, it seemed like they were in order for a reason. Besides, she couldn’t help wanting to know more about Teddy’s current life situation.
‘I’ve never told anyone,’ Teddy said. ‘I suppose my mom knows it exists. I don’t let anyone in my room other than my cousin, Declan. He randomly barges into my house whenever he wants. Even if he knew about it, he wouldn’t have the ability to access it. At least I don’t think so.’
‘Have you used the money to do anything?’ Cece asked. ‘Something that might offend anyone?’
Teddy shook his head.
‘Maybe it’s not about the money itself,’ Q said. He gently placed his hands on the table and winced, bringing them back to his lap. ‘Where do you work at night? Maybe it’s someone there?’
It wasn’t a bad question.
Teddy cleared his throat.
Zoe’s eyebrows drew together. ‘Teddy?’
‘What?’ he snapped.
‘Do you have any enemies at work?’ Zoe asked.
He snorted. ‘I’m sure there are a few.’
Zoe couldn’t imagine that. She’d only asked the question to rule it out. Teddy was a good guy. However he’d upset someone at work was most likely an accident. And it couldn’t have been so bad to deserve to be stolen from. Teddy was the victim here.
Then she came back to the idea of their connections. If Teddy worked at a diner or an ice cream place, then there were a lot of possible people that could have held a grudge against him. It would open up the pool of people to look into. And at the same time create more work for all of them.
‘Where do you work?’ Q asked again. This time Zoe saw the return of the glint in his eye. He wasn’t going to give up until Teddy told him.
Now Zoe’s interest was piqued. Why wasn’t Teddy sharing what he did for work? Was it something embarrassing? In Zoe’s mind, high school jobs weren’t glamorous at all. She found the one time she searched for work in the area, the jobs available were ones that no one else wanted. That’s why the library assistant position had appealed to her. She could hide in school and among the stacks without anyone bothering her.
Teddy didn’t seem like the type to be embarrassed. What was he hiding? Was this the secret that Jacob wanted him to reveal?
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Teddy said.
‘It does,’ Q said, leaning in.
Teddy glanced around at the others. Now he had their attention, whether it was wanted or not.
‘You aren’t going to let this go, are you?’ Teddy asked.
‘Not as long as it’s relevant to this situation,’ Q said.
‘Any information you have might help us find out who’s doing this,’ Jackie said.
‘Fine,’ Teddy said. ‘But it doesn’t leave this room.’
‘Okay,’ they chorused.
‘It’s not like anyone would believe you anyway,’ Teddy said, then took a breath. ‘I sell for my cousin.’
‘Sell what?’ Zoe asked.
‘What do you think?’ Teddy said.
Zoe’s forehead wrinkled, and the others shared blank stares among each other.
Teddy sighed. ‘Drugs.’
Teddy sold drugs? He was right. She didn’t believe him. His serious expression gave her pause her questioning.
‘Wow,’ Q said, sitting back in his chair. ‘I’m impressed.’
‘You shouldn’t be,’ Teddy said. ‘It’s not what I wanted for myself.’
‘But you do it anyway,’ Holly said.
‘So you must meet some shady people?’ Zoe asked, still reeling over the fact that Teddy was a drug dealer. She had not seen that coming.
Teddy shrugged. ‘I suppose.’
‘Are any of your customers named Jacob?’ Cece asked.
‘Not that I know of,’ he said. ‘Most of the time there isn’t much small talk during an exchange.’
Zoe hated how nonchalant he sounded about dealing drugs. Maybe he wasn’t the Teddy she’d put on a pedestal in her mind.
No one spoke for several moments. Zoe tried to think of another scenario where Teddy’s drug dealing would have any connection to her.
‘We can move on now,’ Teddy said. The tips of his ears were red, something that Zoe had found cute when they were younger. ‘Now you know my secret. Let’s move on to Cece. The klepto.’
‘I am not!’ Cece said.
‘Then what are you?’ Jackie asked. ‘You steal stuff that doesn’t belong to you. That’s the definition of a kleptomaniac.’
‘I’m surprised you even knew the definition,’ Cece shot back.
Jackie rolled her eyes. ‘Did you steal from someone named Jacob? Maybe it’s Marc Jacobs.’
Cece turned in her chair to face Jackie. ‘What about you? Yours was about your looks. Do you do Botox or something?’
Jackie worked her jaw. ‘There’s no secret to my looks. I’m blessed with good genes.’
‘Jacob knows something about you,’ Cece said. ‘Teddy and I shared, and now it’s your turn.’
‘This is stupid,’ Jackie said. ‘I’m an open book.’
‘Everyone here is hiding something,’ Q said to Jackie. ‘We wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with if we weren’t.’
She scowled at him and then let out a long and dramatic sigh. ‘The only thing I’ve ever lied about doesn’t have anything to do with my looks.’
‘What did the note say about your peers?’ Zoe said, unable to recall the exact wording.
‘How you present yourself to them,’ Teddy said. ‘Maybe it doesn’t mean looks, but how you make yourself appear to people.’
Jackie’s breathing intensified, shooting out sharp puffs of air through her nose. ‘I don’t see how this is relevant.’
‘Of course it is!’ Cece said. ‘Teddy and I have had our lives ruined, while you and Q were physically hurt. Everything is relevant. Don’t you want this to be over?’
‘It’s already over,’ Jackie said and then glanced over at Holly and Zoe. ‘For me at least.’
Zoe’s heart sank. They were finally getting along in their search for Jacob, and now their temporary alliance crumbled in front of them. That couldn’t happen! Not before her turn.
‘This is a safe space,’ Zoe said.
‘What are you? My therapist?’ Jackie asked.
‘You see a therapist?’ Q asked her.
‘No,’ she said. ‘That was sarcasm. Zoe, why don’t you share something with us?’
‘We should go in order,’ Holly said. ‘Zoe and I haven’t been chosen yet.’
‘Who put you in charge?’ Jackie asked.
‘Will you stop stalling?’ Cece said.
‘Just tell us,’ Holly said.
‘Fine!’ Jackie huffed. ‘I’m a virgin, okay?’
‘You are?’ Q asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
‘Yes,’ Jackie said.
‘I thought you and Logan…’ Cece said, clearly as shocked as the rest of them.
‘Ew, no,’ Jackie said. ‘That relationship was for convenience. He needed a boost in popularity, and I needed someone to keep the other losers away from me.’
‘And you give me crap for being with guys?’ Holly asked.
‘At least I’m lying. I’d rather be a fake slut than a real one.’
‘Why?’ Zoe asked.
Jackie rolled her eyes. ‘Because it gives me a lot of attention.’
Zoe rubbed her forehead. Jackie lying about her virginity didn’t seem like such a terrible thing. Jackie started a lot of rumors, Zoe doubted all of them were true. Was she telling the truth now?
As each of the secrets were revealed, Zoe became even more confused as to how all of them were connected. Even in their personal lives, they all took part in activities that were totally separate from the rest.
‘Are you sure that’s it?’ Holly asked.
Jackie narrowed her eyes. ‘That might not seem like a big deal to someone like you, but my reputation is everything. I’m done talking about this. Q, you’re up.’
He held his bandaged hands in front of him. ‘Since there hasn’t been any videos of me or wiping of my bank accounts, I’m in the same position as Jackie. I think my punishment was my mission.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ Cece said.
‘I like to burn things,’ he said, under his breath. ‘I like to set things on fire. It’s my extracurricular activity, I guess.’
‘The floor was meant to catch on fire?’ Zoe asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ Q said. ‘But it appears that way. Nothing happened to me after I fell and burned myself.’
‘You could have come off a lot worse than you did,’ Jackie said, reaching out. As if she thought better of touching him, she placed her hand on the table directly in front of him.
These tasks were getting quite serious. Zoe feared for her mission. If it had anything to do with her secret, she knew it wouldn’t be good.
How could anyone have found out? She was careful, though apparently not careful enough.
‘So what do a drug dealer, klepto, virgin, and pyromaniac have in common?’ Teddy asked.
‘It sounds like the start to an awful joke,’ Q said, smirking.
At least Q held onto his humor. It was one thing Jacob couldn’t take away. At least not yet.
Q turned his attention to Zoe. Her insides squirmed. She knew he was about to push her to find out what her secret was.
But before he could ask, Holly said, ‘I think we’ve reached the end of this little game.’