He sends me in the direction of my seat, and I’m happy when his hand falls away from mine. I sit down in my chair, and Marcella leans up behind me.
“Youarelovely,” she whispers teasingly. I sniff a laugh and turn back to look at her.
“I missed you,” I say.
“Missed you, too,” she replies with a wink, and goes back to drawing flowers in the corner of her notebook.
I turn around, feeling a bit of peace now that I’m back among my friends.
When class ends, Marcella waits for me. We have a short break before our next session, so we opt to sit on a couch in an alcove. We’re barely there a minute before Sydney appears, out of breath.
“There you are,” she says to me, nodding hello to Marcella. She drops between us on the couch. “I booked it here from Professor Penchant’s class. He’s still really angry with you,” she says, widening her eyes.
“Why?” I ask, feeling horrible. I’m normally well-behaved. I wonder what I’ve done to vex the professor.
Marcella and Sydney exchange a look.
“Hi, girls.” Brynn pops her head in, relieved to have found us. She comes over to give me a quick hug. “Glad to have you back, Mena,” she whispers.
“Sit down, sit down,” Marcella tells her, grabbing her hand to pull her down on the couch with us.
“Jackson was outside yesterday,” Sydney says quietly. Marcella exhales heavily, looking away. Brynn purses her lips. “He came to the fence.”
“I noticed him too,” Marcella says. “Did you end up talking to him?”
“I couldn’t,” Sydney replies. She looks at me. “The Guardian was with us—some new monitoring, I guess. But when I saw Jackson, I shook my head no. Pretty adamantly. I was scared he’d come onto the property anyway—it wouldn’t be the first stupid thing he’s done. Anyway, on the last lap, the Guardian fell behind and—”
“Hah!” Brynn says, grinning at Marcella. “Told you he couldn’t keep us with us.”
Marcella laughs and then tells Sydney to continue.
“On the last lap,” Sydney starts again, “I went wider, as close to the fence I could get without being obvious. I told him, ‘Downtown on Sunday.’?”
I have no idea what’s going on in this conversation, but I listen wide-eyed. Fascinated. “Then what?” I ask.
Sydney looks at me. “Then he said, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’?”
I gasp at the curse.
“And I said,” Sydney continues, “?‘Field trip at the movies, downtown at one p.m. Bye.’?” She falls back into the couch. “I’m lucky the Guardian didn’t catch me.”
“You are,” Marcella agrees.
Brynn bites on her lip. “Wait,” she says with a flash of alarm. “Are you allowed to come on the field trip?”
“The doctor gave me permission this morning,” I say.
“That’s perfect,” Sydney says, exchanging a look with the other girls.
“What’s wrong?” I ask them. “Who is he?”
“Honey...,” Sydney says, her expression weakening. The girls all grow uncomfortable, worried.
“Maybe you just need a little more time to adjust,” Brynn says, looking at the other girls for confirmation. But her voice is panicked. “Valentine swore this would work.”
“What would work?” I ask.
“That you’d remember,” she says.
