LOOP

Ch 1 - Part 3

Finn tucked away his comic and pulled out a dinky action figure. At first I thought he was engrossed in putting it together, but without looking at me he said, “You a new student?”

“Kind of.” Vagueness was usually the best policy on missions. I hated lying, and technically, I wasn’t. I was a student. Just not of this school. Or century.

“You weren’t on the same bus before.”

I shrugged.

“Do you live on the island or inland?”

“You’re just a bundle of questions, aren’t you?”

Finn’s cheeks flamed, and he snapped the last piece onto his toy. “I’m collecting the whole set.” He held up his little treasure and examined it before unzipping the leg pocket of his cargo pants. “I’ve seen the movie three times already. Seen it yet?”

I looked at the action figure before he put it away. “Yeah.” And all three horrible sequels as well. Plus the franchise reboot that came out forty years after the original.

I pressed my forehead against the window and watched trees whir past in a blur of green and brown. There was something comforting about forests, sticking around from one lifetime to the next. The cool glass rattled and thrummed against my temple, sending Buzz- like vibrations all the way to my teeth. But it wasn’t real. I still felt fi ne— better than fi ne. Did it mean something was wrong? A startling thought addled my mind: MaybeMom stopped getting the Buzz before . . .

No.

She would have mentioned something like that. Mom wasn’t reckless, no matter what people whispered.

Six months of what- ifs had seared me with a perpetual paranoia. But I needed to stay focused, especially today. Everything about this midterm had to appear absolutely normal. The sky started to peek through the foliage in a blipping Morse code, and the next thing I knew the bus began kathunk- kathunk- kathunking across a bridge. A long bridge.

I gripped the seat in front of me and leaned as far from the window as possible.

Finn scooted away and finally tapped my shoulder. “Welcome to my lap,” he said.

“Sorry. I don’t like the water.” I inched back toward the window.

“And you moved to an island? Sucks to be you.”

Dirt, asphalt, concrete . . . heck, I could land in a vat of Jell- O for all I cared. Just not water. Anything but water. Asphalt carried the risk of being seen. Water carried the risk of never being seen again.

After the bridge’s last bump, my muscles unclenched. A sea and-sun-cracked sign welcomed us to Chincoteague Island. The shuttered motels and deserted crab houses screamed “off - season.” It reminded me of Spring Break two years before, when Mom and I had thrown a suitcase each in the back of the old beat- up Pod Grandpa left her after he died. Right before it died. We took off up the coast and stopped in every brine- caked tourist trap we could find, ate so much chowder we thought we’d explode. I liked this town already, not that I intended to stay long. The faster I finished the midterm, the faster I moved on to the other delivery, the faster I could put this whole business behind me.

At the school parking lot, a stream of parents circled the block to pick up their children. Older students chattered a play- by- play of the trip on the way to their cars. Finn hung back and eyed me as I twisted my finger around a lock of hair. A cab ride was out.

Public buses were unlikely. We really were in the middle of nowhere. Ugh. I was down to an hour and a half, and I had no idea how far away the cemetery was or how big it might be. I’d already made up my mind that I would finish the assignment before I dealt with the contraband item hidden in my shoe. Any red flags and school officials would swarm this place and investigate. I couldn’t afford any chance of getting caught.

“Would you like a ride?” Finn dug his hands into his pockets and scraped a rock across the ground with his foot.

“That’s okay.” The last thing I needed was to be trapped in the back of some crusty station wagon while his mom pried me for information. I’d rather hitchhike. “I wouldn’t want to put your parents out.”

“I drove myself. My car’s right over there.”

I followed his finger to a black Porsche SUV. “You drive?”

He nodded.

“In that?”

Another nod.

“You can’t be more than fourteen years old.”

“I’m fifteen.” He straightened up to his full height, still barely reaching the top of my head. “And I have my hardship license.”

“Hardship?” I looked at the Porsche emblem again and scoffed.

“Both my parents work, and the bus leaves before I get out of soccer. I can drive myself to school and back.” He pulled the keys out. “Look, do you want a ride or not?”

Given the long walk back to the highway, I didn’t have any other options.

“Do you mind if I sit in the back? I need to stretch out. Umm, leg cramp.”

He gave me a look that let me know my excuse was as pathetic as it sounded, but what did I care? It wasn’t like I would see him after I got to my mission site. I settled in and twiddled with my QuantCom until the geolocator came up.

“Is that a pocket watch?” he asked.

“Family heirloom.” Again, not a total lie. It did connect me with the past. It just had more in common with his car’s GPS than his wristwatch.

“Let me know where to turn,” he said.

“No problem. Take a right at the main road.”

Finn tapped his foot timidly on the gas, and we snailed forward through the parking lot.

My mission timer beeped. “Umm, I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

Finn shot me a really? look in the rearview mirror but sped up. We turned onto the main road. Right. Left. Right. Right. No, I meant left.

A few times, Finn double- checked my directions. “This street? How much farther?”

After fourteen excruciating minutes, we pulled into a long, brick driveway. I had expected a graveyard or a church. It was a mansion. Or at least the biggest house I’d ever seen. After all the quaint shake- shingled cottages, it seemed especially daunting. But what ever. As long as there was a dead Muff y under the sand or dirt somewhere, I didn’t care. I was within spitting distance of finishing this midterm; then I could get to the real business at

hand. I snapped the Com shut and opened the door.

“Thanks for the ride.”

Finn flipped around to face me. “Do you realize where we are?”

“Yeah, Thirty- four Seventy- one Woodman Estates.”

“I know. We’re at my house.”