Y _ Her file doesn’t say anything about a boyfriend.
AM _ Yeah they probably don’t put that stuff in our files.
Y _ They do.
AM _ Well it’s probably not updated.
Y _ I have a long list of her friends. I’ve even got a list of your friends. Nico Ty On Peter Durk.
AM _ Those guys aren’t my friends.
Y _ In whatever case. You’re not in her file.
AM _ Then how did you know to talk to me?
Y _ I’m very smart. Also the school has cameras everywhere.
AM _ I always thought those were just for show.
Y _ Turns out they’re not. So help me understand. What are you talking to her about before church.
AM _ Just about our relationship. I had some questions and . . . she always wants to be early for church so we didn’t get to talk for very long. What do you guys think happened to her.
Y _ If you were leaving the school where would you go.
AM _ What. Is that . . . why are you asking me.
Y _ I just want to know.
AM _ Back to my parents house probably. Like anybody else.
Y _ Did Emma talk about her parents.
AM _ I don’t know.
Y _ Did she have family nearby.
AM _ I don’t know.
Y _ Did she have friends outside the school.
AM _ I . . . I don’t know.
Y _ I thought you were her boyfriend . . . Did she talk about leaving.
AM _ The school.
Y _ Yes. In any capacity. Any description of what life might be like if she wasn’t at the school.
AM _ We . . . yeah.
Y _ Aiden.
AM _ We used to talk about going to stay at my uncle’s cabin. He had a place in Tahoe. We hadn’t talked about it in a long time but . . . we did talk about that.
Y _ What was the plan.
AM _ We were . . . I don’t really feel like I should be telling you this.
Y _ If she talked about transport. Or perhaps places she might go. It could help.
AM _ Um . . . I was gonna call my parents and tell them I needed them to send me a suit. Or something. Something that a driver would have to come all the way up to Redemption for. And then when he came in to bring it to me we were gonna offer him money. Not to do anything illegal but just to leave his trunk unlocked and use the bathroom for a few minutes. That was her idea. So he wouldn’t have to do anything shady but we could still escape. Then . . . we were gonna get out wherever he stopped. Probably salt lake. And go to the Alamo car spot. She heard that sometimes they let you rent a car if you were seventeen as long as you had a credit card. And we were gonna rent a convertible. Or the nicest car they had. And drive all the way across Utah and Nevada. Just me and her. All the way to Tahoe. We were gonna live there except when my uncle and his family were using it we would get a motel. And she was gonna go to the grocery store every day to get new foods so she could make stuff. And write poetry. And I would just go to movies sometimes. And we wouldn’t need any friends or anything. It could just be the two of us.
Y _ What about being a basketball star.
AM _ What about it.
Y _ They say you’re going to go professional. And make millions of dollars.
AM _ So.
Y _ So if you run away you don’t make millions of dollars.
AM _ Oh. Yeah. I mean we didn’t go. So I guess it doesn’t matter.
Neesha.
NEESHA LEFT HER dorm just after 6:00 a.m., every day, so she could walk the long loop around the school at the perfect moment of morning, right when the sun was rising and the fog was lifting and the eerie blue of the complex was starting to glow golden, and there were no instructors outside to tell her she couldn’t smoke a cigarette.
Neesha’d never smoked before Redemption. It was Emma’s idea to smoke cigarettes, just like it was Emma’s idea to sell Neesha’s Discovery project to their classmates, and Emma who convinced her that human trials would help her win the trophy. It