The Sleuth Will Set You Free - A Gallagher Girls Story

Chapter Twelve

HOW TO GET TO PROM WHEN YOU HAVE A TARGET ON YOUR BACK

(A list by Morgan Goode)

- Convince Dad that prom is a huge part of your grade and you have to go.

- When that fails, convince Grandma to convince Dad that prom is a huge part of your grade and you have to go.

- Spend a week listening to Macey lecture you about the different exit strategies within the Blackthorne Military Academy for Boys

- Get fitted for your bulletproof, fireproof, Anderson-engineered and McHenry-approved dress.

- Shave all the way up your legs (just trust me on this one).

- Eat a lunch that includes a healthy balance of grains, veggies, and digestible tracking devices.

- Visit the medical wing so that Scout can wrap your bandages in order to withstand dancing, potential evasion of the Russian mob, and glitter.

- Hair.  Lots of hair.

- Ride in a limo with your highly-trained, highly-alert teachers instead of with your friends.

I was alone.

I mean, sure.  I could see my dad and grandfather watching me like a pair of hawks and I knew that Macey was only a push of the panic button away, but standing at the top of that glass staircase, looking down on the luxurious Blackthorne ballroom, I felt totally alone.

And it was great.

Last year I had come to this very event with a date on my arm, but this year I was utterly single.  The cautious doctors were back at the Gallagher Academy and my hovering family members were either running their schools or running their exams.  Macey had promised to keep her distance for the night and Alice had arrived before me, already somewhere on the floor, mingling away.  Not a single person was there, telling me what I could or couldn't do, and I felt like a weight had finally been lifted.

The weight of the eyes, however, remained.  I could feel the room watching me.  It was a feeling I had grown accustomed to.  Everyone was always watching me lately, waiting for the next mistake.  The next outburst.  The next attack.  Everyone always wanted to know what crazy thing Morgan Goode was going to do next.  To tell you the truth, so did I.

The last time I had been in a room with this many well-dressed people, I had been halfway across the world, spending the night in Romania.  My brother had picked me up and flew me off to some far off land where the moon was bigger, the stars were brighter, and the risks were higher.  Strangers of all sorts had spent the night under the impression that Collins and I were a couple, two diplomats pairing off in the most beneficial way possible.

This night wasn't like that.  This night, I was very much back home.

I knew them all.  I knew each and every person who looked up at me, but some glares felt hotter than others.  I spotted Charles Baskey, his eyes wide, not sure what to make of my appearance.  Eddie was just beside him, watching me as I made my descent.  I couldn't find Finn, but I knew that he was probably somewhere in that massive room, listening to the quiet that had set in and knowing that the freakshow had finally arrived.  The boys from the Gathering were like the beeps of a metal detector, each one racing as my eyes passed over them.

They were my friends.  My allies.  The people that I had lived with, slept with, fought with, and breathed with for months—for nearly a year.  We were a team.  A force.

And I had left them.

Not only that, but they had lost their Captain.  I hadn't just left them, but rather, I had left them when they most needed their Junior Captain to step up.  Maybe I shouldn't have felt so guilty, but I did.  Maybe I shouldn't have felt so much worry, but it was there, eating away at me, making my head spin.  I had abandoned them.  I had betrayed them.