23
“Mars, wake up!” a voice urged.
My eyes cracked open to find a moppy-headed boy staring down at me.
“Aaron? Are you okay? When did you get here?” I shifted on the bed under a mountain of blankets.
“I’ve been here for hours. I finally escaped from Evan.”
“Evan?” My eyes crossed. Sleep clung as if it was draining my energy stores.
“He’s been cleaning each bump and scrape and then rechecking.”
“Are you hurt?” I held his arm close to inspect it. His wrists had red marks.
“Ugh! Not you too. I’m fine, thanks to Brett. He’s amazing! I think I’ll change my screen name to Coppernaut. He said ‘copper’ is an old slang word for cop.”
“Where is he?”
“He left. Said he had to go back home.”
I began peeling off layers of blankets. “He just arrived.”
“I overheard him talking to T. He said it
