Chapter 5

Elizabeth dragged me behind her to the parking lot. My bodyguards followed a safe distance behind, but Elizabeth seemed oblivious. "Everyone's saying there's no fire, just a lot of smoke. Someone said it was a smoke and stun grenade. Are you sure you're okay? Why did it take you so long to get out?" She put an arm around my shoulders and crushed me to her. "I was so worried."

I nodded. Things began to bleed through all the smoke and resurrected memories into my brain for processing. More information will be coming, the old girl in the bathroom had said. When? Who had started the fire, if it really was one? Ryan? But why? It couldn't be a coincidence that the smoke started just as the old girl escaped the bathroom. Did that loud bang have anything to do with it? The smoke hid her well from me and everyone else. It seemed a little too convenient to be a coincidence.

Elizabeth looked at me while we walked. She shook her free hand in front of her face and blew on the tips of her fingers. She'd had that nervous habit since grade school.

"I'm okay. I just... freaked out a little in there," I said. "But I promise I'm okay."

She nodded but didn't let me go. Her long braid had wrapped around me, knocked over my shoulder by her arm, and fell into the crook of my armpit. I left it there. She knew about the other fire, the one a long time ago, and didn't let it darken her opinion of me. For that and her friendship, I so wished I could tell her about Vivian and everything else. But I couldn't for her protection. These last two days had chased that truth all the way home.

"Attention Morgan Hills' High student body," the principal said into a megaphone from the parking lot. "For your safety, we are sending all of you home while we clear out the smoke."

The students raised their fists and cheered. Elizabeth stopped blowing on her fingers long enough to give me a wide grin. I couldn't help but smile back.

"But if any of you know anything about what happened, I strongly urge you to step forward so the perpetrator can be dealt with."

I swept my gaze over the crowd for Ryan but didn't see him.

"Want to come to my house?" Elizabeth asked.

The weight of my bodyguards' stares behind me pretty much answered that question. "I think I'm just gonna go home."

She nodded and pulled her keys from her pocket. "Maybe we won't have school tomorrow either."

A smoke and a stun grenade, she'd said, set off right in front of the bathroom. It wasn't a coincidence. Couldn't be. The old girl in the bathroom. The grenades to help her escape. I pulled out my own keys and squeezed, letting their sharp points dagger my palms while this all sank in.

I sighed. Mom would freak when she found out about all this. A shit storm the size of Morgan Hills would follow. Especially since I'd agreed to help the old girl and pretend to be Vivian. But I had to do it. I didn't see any other way.

* * *

Mom leaned forward on the couch and stared at me. I could practically hear the shouts and swears battling to erupt out of her pinched mouth, but she swallowed them all back. "You said what?"

I shrugged into the chair's cushions. "I said I'd do it."

"Jasmine." Her voice cracked on the final syllable. She squeezed the knees of her blue pantsuit so hard, her knuckles stuck out like a row of snow-tipped hills. "You won't."

"Kristy." The sun striped the living room with light when Leland moved his muscled frame from the window to stand behind me. Everyone had left work early when they heard what happened at school. That made me oh-so-thrilled. "It could work. They do look a lot - "

"Shut up!" Mom shot him a glare. "Do you honestly think I'm going to send Jasmine after Vivian and have her vanish, too?"

"The lady said Vivian's in danger, Mom," I said.

Mom buried her head in her hands. "You shut up, too."

"Jesus," I mumbled. This was going as I expected.

Leland patted my head.

"How did everything get so f - messed up?" Mom sprang to her feet and tucked her blonde curls behind her ears, but it just fuzzed out again. "When is the next Pause press conference?"

"Tomorrow," Leland said.

My heartbeat stuttered. Tomorrow? So when was more information coming? I didn't know if I could be ready by tomorrow. Yeah, I looked like Vivian, but she didn't wear Icaries shoes and wasn't makeup challenged like me. I needed practice. I needed time.

Yeah, I'd definitely need to go for a run after this to work off some stress. I hitched a leg up onto the chair and untied both my shoelaces. Two different laces on one shoe, two on the other. One laced closer to my toe, and the other laced toward the back of my foot. That way, they hugged my feet for a tighter feel.

"We could send her bodyguards with her," Leland said.

"No. You're not doing it. End of discussion." Mom flopped back on the couch. "And you're not going to that school anymore. And you're quitting your job at the community center."

"Mom." I yanked on my laces and gaped at her.

"No."

"Leland." I reached up to grab his hand, still parked on top of my head. "Make her understand I have to do this."

He came out from behind my chair, wiggling his fingers at his sides like he was working a magic spell. "Kristy...whoever wants Jasmine to help them has some training. They know what they're doing. So much so that the smoke and flash grenades didn't show up on the school's security cameras. The film looped over on itself to the day before right when this happened."

"So you're telling me," Mom said, folding her arms across her chest, "that I'm supposed to feel better because the person who cornered my daughter in the bathroom is high tech and knows what they're doing? Is that it?"

Leland dug his wrists into his eyes. "Ack, no wonder I'm not married. Your kind is impossible."

Mom arched an eyebrow. "My kind, huh? Take a good look in the mirror, buddy."

"What if I don't help them? What if I tell them I changed my mind?" I tied both laces into reef knots so they'd stay tied, not the typical granny knots, and kept my gaze on Mom. Hopefully, my eyes held the same plea that tinged my voice. "Do I still have to switch schools and quit my job?"

Her face relaxed some as she looked at me, but she shook her head. "I can't lose you, too." The splashes of sun slanting through the window threw sparkles on the tears inside her eyes.

A lump formed in my throat, and I retied the laces on my other shoe. "I need to run."

"Not outside," Mom said.

With a groan, I dragged myself to the treadmill in front of the desk and world map full of pushpins. I'd much rather feel the wind bite at my face, but I guessed I'd take what I could get. Several stretches and button presses later, I raced towards my stationary destination also known as Vivian's world map.