See Jane Run

Chapter One

Riley looked her mother full in the face and blinked. “I have a thirst for knowledge that can’t wait, Mom.”

A beat passed as her parents shared an is-she-serious look. “Oh, come on!” Riley moaned.

“Ry, honey.” Her mother patted her hand. “We need to make sure you’re taken care of. We just like to know you’re safe.” She offered Riley a tight-lipped smile.

“I’ll be safe. You can call me every five minutes. You can shoot one of those pet tracker chips in the back of my neck!”

Her father cocked his head, but he didn’t look about to relent. Riley’s lower lip started to quiver. She hadn’t planned on pulling out the big guns until the situation got dire, but her eyes filled with tears on their own.

“Please, guys?”

Her mother let out a long sigh. “Your father and I will talk about it again.”

•••

“‘Talk about it again’?” Shelby Webber snapped as she followed

Riley up the stairs that afternoon. “That’s good, right?” Riley gave her best friend a look.

“OK, it’s not a definite no.”

“Might as well be. How long does it take for them to talk about it? ‘Hey, Ry should go on her school trip. Oh, OK.’ Three seconds. Not an entire school day, which is like a lifetime in me-waiting-to- go-on-a-trip time.”

Riley dumped her backpack on the floor and flopped down onto her bed. “Face it, Shelb. I’m trapped. I’m never going to get out of here. You’ll go off to college, forget about me, and I’ll be here, under curfew, reporting back to my parents.”

Shelby’s lips quirked up in a half smile. “Drama queen, party of one?”

“Shut up.” Riley’s stone gray eyes went up to Shelby, who was biting her lip, looking nervous. “What?”

“It’s just—and I seriously hate to ask this, you know, because you’re not going and all, but…”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Spit it out. What do you want?”

“Can I borrow your Hudson sweatshirt?”

“So you can ride up to Hudson without me, wearing my Hudson sweatshirt, without me?”

“Forget I said anything.”

“No, no.” Riley sighed as she pushed herself off the bed. “I’m going to die in this room anyway. Someone might as well get some use out of my clothes. The sweatshirt is probably still packed in one of the moving boxes.” She jutted a thumb over her shoulder at the haphazard spread of torn-open cardboard boxes spread around the room.