“Oh my gosh!” Liz screamed, running toward me. She seemed even smaller than usual, her hair even blonder and straighter. I threw my arms around her, knowing I was home.
Then I felt a hand reach out to touch my hair. “That dye job is going to give you split ends, you know.”
I did know. And I didn’t care. But no sooner had I reached for Macey McHenry than she pushed away, held me at arm’s length.
“What did you do to yourself?” she said, looking me up and down. “You look like death.”
Which was exactly how I felt, but it didn’t seem like the right time to say so. Everyone was watching, staring, waiting for…something. I wasn’t sure what. So I just said, “It’s good to see you, Macey.” I smiled, but then something occurred to me. “Of course, it feels like I just saw you, but…”
I trailed off. I didn’t want to talk about how my head was way more broken than my body, so I turned to my third and final roommate.
“Bex!” I yelled at the girl who stood a little apart from the others, arms crossed. She wasn’t crying (like Liz) or cringing at my appearance (like Macey). She didn’t even push closer, trying to get some kind of scoop (like Tina Walters). Rebecca Baxter just stood looking at me as if she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about seeing me in my current condition. Or maybe, I had to admit, about seeing me at all.
“Bex,” I said, hobbling closer. “I’m back. Sorry I didn’t bring you anything.” I forced a laugh. “I must have lost my wallet.”
I wanted it to be funny—I needed it to be funny because I couldn’t shake the feeling that if she didn’t laugh then I might cry.
“Bex, I—” I started, but Bex just turned to my mother.
“Welcome back, headmistress.” She gave my mom a nod, and a look I didn’t recognize passed between them. “They’re waiting.”
“Who’s waiting?” The words echoed in the empty foyer as I followed my mother across the threshold of our school. For the first time in days, I had my bearings, and yet I still felt totally out of my depth. My internal clock must have reset itself somewhere over the Atlantic, because even before the crowd of girls began rushing through the door and down the halls, I knew that it was time to get back to class, to lab. To life. But I had absolutely no idea where that walk would lead me.
“Where are we going?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
Liz walked beside me, but it was Macey who shrugged her shoulders and said, “Haven’t you heard, Cam? You’re an international incident.”
But neither my mother nor Bex said a thing. A moment later, Mr. Smith (or someone I assumed was Mr. Smith since he always gets massive plastic surgery over the summer) fell into step beside us. “How was it, Rachel?” he asked.
Mom nodded. “Like we thought.” She took a piece of Evapopaper from him, scanned the contents, and dropped it into a small fountain, where it instantly dissolved. “The team’s on the ground?”
“Yes,” Professor Buckingham said, walking down the Grand Staircase and joining us. “They’ve scanned the area around the convent, but as soon as Cameron escaped, the Circle would have abandoned the—”
“Keep looking. Somebody had to see something.”
“Rachel.” Buckingham’s voice was no louder than a whisper, and yet it stopped my mother in her tracks. “The area is incredibly remote. We don’t even know that she was being held on the mountain. She could have escaped from a transport or…Rachel, they’re gone.”
I expected Mom to climb the stairs, to walk through the Hall of History and to her office, but she turned instead and started for the small hallway behind the Grand Stairs, Buckingham and Mr. Smith at her side.
“What else?” Mom asked.
“Well,” Mr. Smith said cautiously, “we think she should begin with a full battery of neurological tests.”
“After we debrief her,” Mom said.
“She’ll need a full physical workup as well,” Mr. Smith added. “We can’t expect her to return to class if she’s not—”
“She is right here!”
I hadn’t meant to yell—I really hadn’t. They were the last people in the world I would ever want to disrespect, but I couldn’t stand hearing them talk about me like I was still lost on the other side of the world.
“I’m here,” I said, softer.
“Of course you are.” Professor Buckingham patted my arm and turned to stare into a mirror that hung in the narrow hallway. A thin red line spread across her face, and in the reflection, I saw the eyes of the painting behind us flash green. A split second later the mirror was sliding aside, revealing a small elevator, which I knew would take us to Sublevel One.
“We’re very glad to have you home, Cameron,” Buckingham said with another pat. She stepped inside, along with Mr. Smith. Bex started to follow, but Mom blocked the way.
“You girls can go to class now. Cammie will catch up with you after she’s been debriefed and examined.”