Zoe’s cheeks flushed with the idea that they might be closer to finding out who was torturing them. ‘We’re all juniors so we can narrow the search down to the last, say, five years? If someone named Jacob knows us from school, he would have to be in there.’
Teddy nodded. ‘That’s a good idea.’ He gave her a small smile, and Zoe’s heart fluttered against her chest. It was an inappropriate reaction, but she couldn’t help it. After years of being apart from Teddy, in the short time they had been together that day, she remembered why they had been close when they were kids. She had yearned for that connection every day until she found it in someone else. She wished that someone could’ve been Teddy.
‘How are we going to get a chance to look through the yearbooks?’ Holly asked. ‘Curtis will be out here to check on us soon.’
Zoe wrinkled her nose. She hated when the other kids called Mr. Curtis by his last name. Their teacher encouraged it, bringing him down to their level. But he was much more than some vapid high school student.
‘It doesn’t matter if we get caught,’ Cece said. ‘We need to figure out who’s doing all of this.’
‘Let me go get them,’ Zoe said.
‘Why you?’ Q asked suspiciously.
‘Because I’m sitting farthest from Mr. Curtis,’ Zoe said. ‘And I’m one of the library assistants. I’ll be able to find them quicker than the rest of you. Is that a problem?’
Q’s eyes narrowed for a moment. Zoe had no idea why he still thought she was involved with this. Even though there were plenty of reasons for wanting to see some of them suffer, she wasn’t the type to hand out punishments.
‘Well, go, then,’ Q said.
She didn’t need his approval. But they didn’t have a lot of time before the next task arrived. They needed to focus on the ‘who’ before they found out whose turn it was next.
Zoe’s pulse thrummed in her neck as she sneaked to the back of the room. She rarely went against the rules, so this was out of her comfort zone. But for some reason, it invigorated her. She located the most recent editions of the school yearbook and grabbed the last five years’ worth of books.
Without hesitation, she sprinted back to the table, careful to stay quiet and out of Mr. Curtis’s eye line. She didn’t want to give Q any reason to suspect her more than he already did.
What did he have against her, anyway? It seemed that his only evidence was that she’d arrived for detention before them. As a library assistant, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that she could be involved. She had access to the entire room and could have set everything up. But she was innocent. And he would realize that once this mysterious Jacob gave her a task.
She shivered at the thought. The tasks were getting more complicated and dangerous. If she were the last to go, how grave an act would she have to complete to keep her secret?
‘I don’t get why Jacob would give up his name,’ Teddy said. ‘Does he want us to catch him?’
‘We have to do something,’ Cece said. ‘The sooner we find him, the better. At least then I’ll have someone to point the finger at when my parents flip over the video.’
‘And the photo,’ Q said.
‘Thanks for the reminder,’ she said flatly.
Q clicked his tongue. ‘No problem.’
‘Here,’ Zoe said, handing out the yearbooks. ‘Let’s begin with the class pictures. At least if we find out Jacob’s last name, we’ll have somewhere to start.’
Each of them took a yearbook, except for Jackie.
‘You should keep working on the chain,’ Holly said, as if reading Zoe’s thoughts. ‘We’ll take over from here.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I want to help.’
‘There are only five yearbooks,’ Zoe said.
‘And one of us has to keep making the chain,’ Holly said. ‘It will keep Mr. Curtis thinking that we’re hard at work out here.’
‘Fine,’ Jackie said and grabbed her stapler.
Zoe noticed that Jackie didn’t look at the slips of paper. Even though she’d had her turn, Zoe was sure what had happened wasn’t far from Jackie’s mind. Those red letters she had written across her face would forever burn in her head, long after the rash had healed.
Almost forty minutes later, Holly groaned and closed the yearbook in her hands. She rubbed her face. ‘I don’t think this is going to lead anywhere. I found two Jacobs. One was a Mathlete and the other a Varsity basketball player and I don’t know either of them.’
‘Give me their last names,’ Teddy said, writing them down as Holly spelled them out. ‘We need to search all possible connections.’
‘This would be so much easier if we had our phones,’ Holly said.
Cece glanced at the clock. ‘I wonder when the next task is going to be.’
‘It is strange,’ Teddy said. ‘The first three came quickly. Why are we waiting?’
‘That’s easy to say since your turn is over,’ Q said.
‘Maybe the next one will give us more information,’ said Cece. ‘I just want this day to be over. Don’t you?’
The office door opened, and Zoe stiffened. She scooted closer to the table, holding the yearbook in her lap.
‘How is it going?’ Mr. Curtis asked, leaning against the nearest bookshelf.
Jackie turned her head to the side to hide any remaining trace of the rash on her face.
‘Good,’ Zoe said, unable to meet his eyes. She was sure they would get caught at any moment. She had an unconvincing poker face.
‘You should be further along that chain by now,’ Mr. Curtis said, glancing at the clock. ‘This needs to be completed by the end of detention.’
‘I’m hungry,’ Q said. ‘Can we get some snacks to re-energize us? I sure could use a candy bar.’
Mr. Curtis narrowed his eyes. ‘You didn’t bring food with you?’
‘We didn’t know we could,’ Cece said.
‘It would be helpful,’ Teddy added. ‘If I get low blood sugar, I’m really sluggish.’
Mr. Curtis’ gaze fell to Zoe, and she nodded slightly. He’d seen her with a Pop Tart earlier, but he didn’t say anything. Perhaps he wanted the task finished, no matter how it got done.
Q pulled out his wallet and fanned several dollar bills. He hesitated and cocked his head. ‘Teddy, you have any spare change?’
Teddy’s eyes widened.
Q grinned and clapped a hand on Teddy’s shoulder. ‘Just kidding man, this one’s on me.’ Then he stood up. ‘I’ll go to the machine by the gym. I love those Kit Kats.’
‘I’m not falling for that,’ Mr. Curtis said, holding out his hand for the money. ‘If I get you food, I expect no more delay in getting this finished. You hear me?’
‘No problem,’ Q said, sitting down. ‘Right, guys?’
They all agreed by either mumbling a response or nodding.
Mr. Curtis shrugged. ‘I expect you to behave while I’m gone. I won’t be long.’
They showed their dedication to the chain by getting back to it without another word.
The moment the doors closed behind their teacher, Q sprang up from his chair.
‘Where are you going?’ Holly asked.
‘The vending machine outside the gym is out of order,’ Q said. ‘I needed to get him out of the room for a little while.’
Zoe’s eyebrows drew together. ‘To do what?’
‘To get our phones,’ Teddy said, standing up.
He was on the same page as Q. When had that happened?
A smile played on Teddy’s lips, and Zoe saw a flash of the boy she used to play with every single afternoon when they were younger.
‘That’s the best idea anyone’s had all day,’ Cece said.
When Zoe got up, she noticed a lot of writing on the notebook in front of Teddy. In fact, two sets of handwriting filled the page. Apparently, he and Q had been busy devising a plan while they were supposed to be searching the yearbooks. With their phones, they’d be able to expand their search. They all would.
‘Jackie, Holly, and Cece stay here and work on the chain,’ Teddy said, taking charge. ‘Zoe, come with us.’
‘Why do I have to sit here?’ Cece asked.
‘If Curtis comes back and we haven’t done more he’s going to get suspicious,’ Jackie said.
Q winked at Jackie, and then the two of them took off toward the office, leaving Zoe.
Zoe looked at Jackie, then at Q. When had they started getting along? She was so wrapped up in the tasks and her impending doom that she’d barely noticed a shift in their relationship. In all of their relationships. They’d forged a strange bond over their short time together, and it was hard to wrap her head around it.
‘Zoe, is there a key anywhere?’ Teddy asked when she caught up with the guys.
‘To the cabinet?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know, but Mrs. Jenkins has a key ring in her bottom desk drawer.’
Zoe headed for the desk and opened the bottom drawer. She handed over the ring to Q and crossed her arms. The hairs on her arms prickled and she shivered. Breaking the rules again excited her, a little more so than when she’d defied Mr. Curtis and retrieved the yearbooks.
Mr. Curtis would be so disappointed if he caught them. She might have to serve detention for a reason next week. Though if Mr. Curtis caught her in the office with Teddy and Q, she wouldn’t be alone. For the first time that day, that thought didn’t bother her.
The guys didn’t seem as affected by it. It made sense that Teddy wanted to know what happened to his bank account and Cece probably had had at least one phone call from her parents about the email, if it had been sent at all. Without their phones, they could only speculate. Now they needed proof to make sure this person was doing as they promised to all of them.
Q tried all of the keys. ‘None of these fit. We need a smaller one.’
Zoe couldn’t recall seeing any other keys. Mrs. Jenkins was a trusting older woman, and she never needed to lock anything, not even her office. If there was a key, Mrs. Jenkins probably had it somewhere in the open. Unless Mr. Curtis took the key with him? ‘I’ll check the desk.’
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Q said, glancing at the door.
‘I’m working on it,’ Zoe said. She wanted to prove herself worthy of being there with them. They trusted her. She checked the middle drawer, moving all the pens, pencils, paper clips, and random papers aside to see if there was another key. She even checked the bottom of the drawer to see if it was attached there. Then she shivered at the memory of Jackie’s punishment.
She thought of Victor. He would be able to open it. But they couldn’t involve anyone else. This wasn’t his problem and Zoe would feel terrible if he got caught up in this. If there were consequences for involving anyone else, she wouldn’t want to push Jacob to reveal all of their secrets.
‘Screw this,’ Q said and reached into his front pocket. He pulled out two thin pieces of metal.
‘What are those?’ Teddy asked.
‘My lockpicks,’ Q said.
‘You know how to pick locks?’ Zoe asked.
‘My parents lock their liquor cabinet,’ he said with a smirk.
Zoe hoped that he’d be able to do it. If they didn’t get the phones, sneaking into the office would have been for nothing.
After several excruciating seconds, Q opened the cabinet.
‘Bingo!’ he said and rubbed his hands together.
They reached inside to get the phones.
‘We need to get back to the table,’ Zoe said, eyeing the door to the library. She imagined Mr. Curtis coming back into the room before they were back in their seats. It wouldn’t be pretty.
As Q lifted his phone from the drawer, a red piece of paper fluttered out of his hand. Zoe’s heart plummeted. Q grabbed the paper and shoved the drawer closed. ‘We need to get back.’
Zoe practically sprinted to the table. She held Cece’s purple phone in her hand. She dropped it in front of Cece and plopped down in her chair, staring over at Q and the red slip in his hands.
Mr. Curtis still hadn’t returned.
‘Whose is it?’ she asked Q after he’d sat down.
Her chest tightened. Was this it? Was this her task? What would it entail? Would she be able to complete it successfully? She picked at her fingernails, desperate for at least one answer to her burning questions.
‘Whose is it?’ she asked again.
He handed Jackie her phone and Teddy reached across to give Holly hers. Holly hid the phone under the table and started typing on it.
Q held up the paper and Jackie flinched.
‘It’s mine,’ Q said.