REBOUND

3:15

CHAPTER 4

The afternoon crawled by in paranoia and fear. Fourth period Spanish was a blur of conjugations I forgot immediately, fifth period English meant pretending to read Gatsby while scanning for anyone watching me, and sixth period calculus passed with equations looking like a language I'd never learned.

Every phone buzz made me jump and every prolonged stare made me wonder if they were the one sending messages. It could be anyone in this school, and not knowing was worse than the threat itself.

By 3:10 my hands shook so badly I could barely pack my bag. The walk to the east entrance felt like walking toward execution. The east entrance led to faculty parking instead of student lots, which meant whoever picked this spot wanted privacy, and that thought twisted my stomach into knots.

I pushed through the door at exactly 3:15 into gray afternoon that looked ready to rain. For a moment I thought no one would show, that this was some sick joke. Then footsteps sounded behind me and every muscle locked up.

"Took you long enough."

I spun around and my heart stopped because standing there with arms crossed and a cutting smile was Emily Hartley, and everything made terrible perfect sense.

"You," I whispered. "It was you this whole time."

"Of course it was me." Emily stepped closer and I stepped back until my spine hit brick. "Did you really think I'd let you steal what's mine without research? I'm not an i***t, even if you think we're all too stupid to see through your sob story."

"How did you find out about Lincoln?"

"I have friends everywhere, and one has a sister who went to Lincoln High." Emily examined her nails casually. "Funny thing about small towns, everyone knows everyone's business. Apparently yours was very interesting, the kind that gets you shipped out mid-year before anyone presses charges."

The world tilted and I pressed both hands against the wall to stay upright. "What do you want?"

"End things with Kai." Emily's smile vanished and her expression went ice cold. "Tell him tomorrow in front of everyone that you made a mistake, that you're not good enough, that you're leaving. Then disappear from Ashford and never come back."

"I can't. My brother needs the medical connections, without them he loses treatment access that could save his life."

Something flickered across Emily's face before vanishing. "Should've thought about that before playing games with Kai Donovan. I don't care about your brother or whatever sob story brought you here. I care about getting what my family was promised, and you're in the way."

"The deal isn't even real," I said desperately. "It's fake, he's just using me to avoid the merger, he doesn't actually want me."

"I know it's fake." Emily laughed without humor. "Kai doesn't date scholarship students in thrift store clothes. But fake or not, my father's furious and merger talks are stalling and my family will lose millions. You're still in my way."

"And if I don't move?"

"Then tomorrow morning everyone gets an email about Lincoln High, including the fire and the girl in the hospital and why you left before police finished investigating." She showed me her phone with a draft email and attachments. "Already written. One click sends it. You have until tomorrow morning, Iris. Your brother's treatment or your reputation. Can't have both."

She walked away, heels clicking with absolute confidence, and I slid down the wall onto cold concrete trying to breathe through building panic.

The fire was an accident, everyone knew that, but accidents had consequences and the injured girl was someone's sister and small towns loved gossip more than truth. I'd left to escape becoming the villain in a story I hadn't meant to write, and now Emily would make me the villain here where everyone already hated me.

My phone buzzed and I pulled it out expecting another threat from Emily but it was Kai.

Dinner at 7 remember. Wear the dress I sent. Driver picks you up 6:30 sharp. Don't be late.

Something cracked inside me because I was being blackmailed by Emily to leave while being ordered by Kai to stay and somewhere in the middle was my dying brother who didn't know his sister was falling apart. The dress was probably at my doorstep now, expensive and perfect and wrong for someone like me, and I was supposed to wear it and smile at Harrison Donovan and pretend I belonged when I couldn't belong anywhere anymore.

Another text came through, different number.

Saw you with Emily. Don't believe her. Meet me at library after dinner tonight. Come alone, don't tell Kai. -M

Miles. Had to be Miles.

So Emily threatened exposure, Kai demanded dinner, and Miles wanted secret meetings. And it was only 3:30 on my second day pretending to be someone I wasn't.

I pushed myself up and started walking toward the bus stop because moving gave the illusion of control. Sky opened and rain soaked through my jacket in seconds. I let it, hoping maybe getting cold enough would wash away the drowning feeling.

At the bus stop my phone buzzed again and I almost didn't look because I couldn't handle one more thing today, couldn't process one more threat or demand or complication. But I looked anyway because not knowing was always worse.

Unknown number. Not Emily's burner, not Miles. A third number I'd never seen before.

Emily isn't the only one who knows about Lincoln. But unlike her, I'm willing to help. If you want to know who I am and what I know, look under your desk in Peterson's Chemistry tomorrow morning. Trust no one.

I stood there in the rain staring at those words while people pushed past me onto the bus, and my brain tried to make sense of what this meant. Someone else knew. Not just Emily with her connections and her threats, but someone else entirely who claimed they wanted to help me instead of destroy me, and I had no way of knowing if that was true or if this was just another trap in a school that seemed designed to break people like me.

The bus driver honked and I climbed on with wet clothes and shaking hands and found a seat in the back where no one could see my face. I read the message three more times trying to find some hidden meaning or clue about who sent it, but there was nothing except those words and that impossible promise of help.

I realized then, watching Port Harcourt blur past through rain-streaked windows, that whatever I'd gotten myself into at Ashford Academy was so much bigger and more dangerous than I'd ever imagined. It wasn't just Kai's blackmail or Emily's revenge or even the fake relationship that was supposed to save my brother. It was something deeper, something that involved people I hadn't even met yet and secrets I didn't understand and a past I'd thought I'd left behind in Lincoln.

And I had absolutely no idea how to survive it.