school as if she had done it a thousand times, which raised questions to which I didn’t want answers.
Nope, nope, nope.
I didn’t want to know.
A trio of parents worked the incoming traffic lane, collecting their five-dollar parking donations and waving cars through to the lot. With a bright smile, Cass paid her money then continued on to locate a strategic spot in the event our hunt proved fruitful, and we needed to make a quick escape with our quarry.
A roar of sound swept over me when I exited the car, and I gawked at the sheer number of spectators.
“Here.” Cass threw me a knee-length black jacket then pulled on a matching one. “Put that on.”
The parents would have heart attacks if we paraded around in leather catsuits in front of impressionable young men. Plus, it would be creepy as heck to be ogled by kids. This getup wasn’t any less conspicuous, in its way, but it got the job done. I would take Stranger Danger over Get in the Van any day.
“Who are all these people?” I examined the packed stands. “Band parents, cheer parents, and athlete parents?”
“Locals content to relive their glory days, faculty, security.” Cass shrugged. “A little of everything.”
“Are the games always this slammed?”
“You paid no attention whatsoever in school, did you?” She chuckled. “Hornets versus Lions.”
High school meant showing up, collecting my straight As, then going home to help with my sister.
Friends and boys and football, the entire teenage experience, wasn’t as important to me as Hadley. I had all the time in the world to live, and even then, I had known she didn’t.
“Ah, yes. The Lions.” I did vaguely remember that much. “The school’s archrivals.”
“Well, at least you received that much of an education.” Shaking her head, she sighed. “I texted you the photos of Twyla and Belle. Keep your eyes peeled. We’ll need to interrogate anyone she or they are with after we contain the situation.”
Odds were good the bestie had circled back around to our runaway, thinking they had gotten away with their little rebellion. The questions now became—what did they have planned?
“Split up?” She scanned the area. “Or search together?”
“Two of us are conspicuous.” I checked my phone to refresh my memory of the girls. “This also places us in public together.”
Dangerous for word of our partnership, let alone our friendship, to get out. This might be a human school full of human students, but Low Society families enrolled their fledging necromancers here too. That’s how I ended up sporting mandatory Hornet tees in gym class for four years.
A fresh shudder rippled down the length of my spine.
Gym class.
Ugh.
High school was the absolute worst.
I would have gladly homeschooled, but Mom wanted at least one of her daughters to have the authentic experience. I never told her being poor, smarter than my classmates, and uninterested in losing my virginity to a slobbery boy in the back of his mom’s car had earned me the nickname Nerdelaide and crushed any hope of a social life.
“Meet me behind the bleachers on the away team’s side.”
Jerking my attention back to Cass, I narrowed my eyes on her. “No funny business.”
“I said behind, not under.”
Cackling, she sashayed off toward the home team’s side, attracting far more attention than I could have if I stripped naked and streaked across the field.
Setting out for the opposite side, I scanned the sea of faces for one of the girls.
A warning tingle stung the base of my neck, alerting me to the presence of a vampire, and I slowed my stride to give me a moment to pick them out of the crowd. No one had the decency to flash fang or wear a cape, so I didn’t get far in narrowing down my search. There were too many people, and vampire parents had as much right to be here as anyone.
Shrugging off the sensation, I dodged teen couples and adults alike as I passed the concession stand. The line was long, but the food smelled amazing. Some of the dads who volunteered to grill cooked like pros. I might have skipped the football games, but I dated a guy who played baseball for a hot minute. The only reason I stuck around as long as I did was the free—and excellent—food left over after the games.
Eventually, the guy caught me sticking burgers in my pockets to take home instead of eating them with the team, and when he attempted to blackmail me into getting horizontal with him to buy