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“Over there, I think—by the gym.” He pointed, deeper into campus. Waves of kids walked by in the other direction, toward the parking lot. Most people were too busy leaving now to pay any attention to hassling me. I knew Lacey’d be waiting at our lockers, but?—

“Okay,” I said, and started walking toward the back of school.

I made it to the hallway that ran the length of the gym. My bag was nowhere in sight, and neither was anyone else.

The doors of the boy’s bathroom pushed open and Mason came out. “Looking for something?”

I did my best to stand tall. “Yeah. My bag. Have you seen it?”

“It’s in there,” he said, pointing to the bathroom behind him with his thumb.

I knew with every cell in my body that that bathroom was unsafe. “I am not going in there to get it.”

“Oh don’t worry,” Mason said. “Eventually, it’ll come out to you.”

Nathan came out of the bathroom, chuckling. I ignored him. “Mason, this has to stop.”

“Why?” he asked, looking me up and down.

I felt—like a piece of meat—like I had that night at the Shax when Danny’d slapped my ass—three other members of the team emerged from the bathroom, each of them with smug grins on their faces. It was clear I couldn’t speed this process up and acting anxious would only make them laugh harder at the end of it.

I flickered between anger and civility. I wanted todo somethingto them—even though we were near the gym, there was still power here, running through the walls, and inside me. But there was nothing I could do until I got my bag back.IfI was going to get it back.

Chase finally came out, my bag in hand, giving it over to Mason, and I knew instantly what they’d done—I could smell it.

They’d each taken a shit into my bag.

Mason walked over, holding the bag out like the trash it now was. “This is what you were looking for, right?”

“Yeah.” I knew exactly what was inside. A year’s worth of chemistry notes, and the book itself, gone. My favorite pencil. A note Lacey’d sent me where she’d done a funny drawing that I’d kept with me since the seventh grade.

Electricity flourished around me. I wanted to zap them just as much as I wanted to puke. How could they—my disgust and revulsion showed on my face, and they knew that they’d done.

“Here you go!” Mason said, flinging it at me.

It was heavy, what with the book and the excrement—I danced back and it landed at my feet with an uncouth sound. I knelt down in safe range.

My phone’d been in the front pocket. Did I dare hope—did I dig around in there looking for it in front of them? How would I explain losing my phone to my mom? The end of the school year was coming up—how was I going to afford another chemistry book?

They were all laughing, hard, and I felt the lightning move inside of me, rising like a tidal wave. I could feel it charging, churning, rising up. “You’ll—you’ll be sorry!” I said.

Then the tidal wave disappeared. I stumbled back, feeling its loss. What had happened?

“Oh yeah?” Mason said.

Where had my power gone? It was right here—I turned around, looking for it like it was something physical I’d lost, like a puppy.

And then Sarah saw me. “Jessie! There you are!” She came running down the hall, blonde hair streaming out behind her.

I tried to call my power back again. All it did was strobe, like a car battery that wouldn’t start. And Mason and his friends were still laughing loudly, I couldn’t concentrate?—

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Sarah said, the second she was near.

“Why?” I asked her honestly.

“Because,” she said, with a nod encouraging me to get with the program, “We’re going home together today, remember? I’m your ride.” She gave me a smile just as fake as the one I’d worn earlier with Andrew, swooped down, and helped me stand. She glanced around and gathered what was happening with everything else in a heartbeat. “Good-bye, gentlemen!” she said, cheerful, as always, even though I felt her hand claw into my arm.

“Yo, Jessie!” Mason shouted. I turned without thinking, just in time for him to hurl my phone at me, and I caught it on instinct. “It’s more fun for us if you keep this. If you got a new phone, you might change your number.”