was always saying it to me. I just I just figured out what it means.”
“So, what’s your cheese?”
“I thought it was Ash…but right now I don’t know. Yours?”
“Definitely dangerous.”
She doesn’t look at me, but we both know that I’m the only one in our group whose been described as dangerous. We don’t say anything for a while. I break the silence.
“We have to go in.”
“Yup.”
“Right now.”
“Ok. Let’s go.”
Still we hesitate. The doors to Volar High seem more
imposing than usual. This time, it’s Ivory who speaks first.
“I feel like kicking down the door commando style. You know, kick it with my fists up.”
“You should do it.”
“Nah, they’d kick me out for property damage.”
I look at Ivory’s feet. She’s wearing combat boots today.
“Yeah, with those shoes, definitely.”
With that, I open the door and expect to see everyone stop in the hall and stare. But everything looks the same. I don’t even know if I should be here, what’s the protocol for going to school when your twin sister is missing? If I stayed home, they would have sent Sky Patrol to my house and they would have wanted to speak to my parents. If they found out my parents aren’t here, they would have taken me in. I couldn’t let that happen so her I am walking down the halls of Volar High. As we walk down the hall, people do start staring. I know they’re staring because they probably all heard the news. I act casual and try not to seem upset. If I don’t seem worried, maybe they’ll think that the news exaggerated. I reach my homeroom without incident, and Ivory goes to hers. My teacher asks me in a really loud voice if I’m ok and if I know where Raven is. I smile and tell her that the news got it wrong. Raven is not missing, she’s just taking some time to herself. It sounds so fake, I’m sure the teacher will see through the flimsy explanation. But she sounds reassured and tells me that I have to tell the police. Then she smiles and gestures for me to sit down. I sit down through a boring hour of stuff I won’t remember in twenty minutes. All I can think about right now is tonight and if it will go as planned. I don’t want to hurt Ash, but I have to save Raven. The only way I can do that is to convince Ash to come with me. Ash has a good heart. Once she hears Raven is in trouble, she probably wouldn’t need much convincing. It’s almost over. They’ll let Raven go tonight. I’m sure of it.
Chapter 34: FOCUS
ASHLYNN
Mocha talks to Ginger for a few minutes and hangs up the phone.
“She says that we should proceed as planned. She’s going to put people into the field to find Raven.”
“That’s it? This is my friend Mocha.”
“She also told me to tell you that as soon as your
performance is over, you can join the search.”
“That’s not good enough! I know those people. Every
second, every hour, Raven is hurt more! And you know it!”
“Ash, they may not be torturing her. She’s well past the age where she’ll forget what they do, and probably too old to develop any increased mental abilities.”
“My mother would do it just for the fun of it.”
“Well, we had better hope Raven’s not hurt, because if she is, there is no hope for her. Cocoa would never release someone who could potentially expose the VWP. No, she’s probably fine. Cocoa knows that if something happens to Raven, there’s no chance you’ll go home. And if she went missing, the combination of you and her disappearing about the same time is just too much too cover up. Don’t worry about it. Just focus on tonight.”
“I’m still going to worry, Mocha. But I will focus.”
It’s already late. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
“I have to start getting ready. Getting ready is going to take a while.”
“Do you want help?”
“Do you know how to curl hair?”
“No, but it couldn’t be that hard.”
I smile, a sad smile because I can’t get Raven out of my mind but I guess it’s a good sign he can get me to smile.
“It’s okay Mocha, I got it. What are you wearing?”
“You’ll see.”
“You need to shave.”
“Are you saying I’m scraggly?”
“No, but you’ve definitely got some growth.”
“How long will it take you to do your hair? Because we only have one bathroom.”
“At least an hour.”
“Ok…”
“Trust me, it will take that long. Now