Page 45 of Blade

“What are you doing?” Jolene snapped.

“I’m taking her to the hospital!”

Ana caught Indy’s eye. Then they both stared at Jolene.

“No—we can’t go there,” she said.

“What are you talking about?” Hugo pulled to the shoulder and stopped the car. “Look at her! She’s unconscious!”

Ana was crying.Please know what to do. Please!Jolene followed Hugo’s gaze to the back seat, where Kayla lay still, draped over Ana and Indy, Ana stroking her hair and Indy holding her hands.

And then Jolene told him what they were all thinking. About how they were kids, and they shouldn’t have been in the field. Shouldn’t have been drinking. Shouldn’t have been hooking up with strange guys in a black van.

That the bleacher bees, the teachers, even Edie—their dorm mother—were just waiting for a reason to send Kayla home. The girl with the piercings and dark eyeliner, the Orphan who smelled of cigarettes and skated so recklessly, like she was trying to hurt herself. Like she wanted to feel the pain of falling.

And the hospital was just the kind of place where things could go very wrong for a girl like her.

“She’ll get kicked out of the program,” Jolene said.

Hugo stared at her. “That’s what you’re thinking about? The program?”

“Kayla has nothing else,” Jolene started to say. “She’s got no home to go back to.”

Hugo didn’t understand.

But then a deep groan silenced them. Kayla was waking up.

“Kay! Kay!” Jolene said. And she leaned her body all the way over the seat to touch Kayla’s arm.

“I’m taking you to the hospital, okay?” Hugo said, in spite of what Jolene had just told him.

“No!” She tried to open her eyes, but one was swollen shut and the other was crusted over with eyeliner and mascara. Still, she shook her head, back and forth. “No!”

Jolene yelled at Hugo. “I told you! No hospitals! No Dawn! No Edie! She can’t get kicked out of the program.”

Hugo slammed his palms against the steering wheel. “This is fucked,” he said. He looked back to Kayla, bruised and bleeding, her shirt torn open.

“Here,” he said in a soft voice. He took off his T-shirt and passed it back to Indy, who laid it across Kayla. Then he started to drive the other way—up the mountain. And they all sighed with relief thinking they were headed home to Avery Hall.

The access road was dark, the entire outside world dead quiet, even as the wind rushed past Ana’s ears. Ana used the corner of Hugo’s shirt to wipe the makeup from Kayla’s eye, the black gooey paste making streaks on the white cotton. When it was clear, Kayla looked up at them—Ana and Indy.

Ana didn’t know what she was seeing, but it wasn’t her friend in there. Not even when she was pissed at Jolene and giving her the silent treatment, or at the bleacher bees, flipping them off the second she cleared the entry to the snack bar, or even Dawn when she left a lesson and called her ac-u-n-tin the locker room.

They drove farther into the silence, until they passed The Palace, and then the dorm.

“You missed it!” Jolene said. But Hugo kept driving, up the mountain, across the switchback.

“Where are we going?” Kayla asked.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Ana said. She looked at Indy, who knew she didn’t mean it.

They locked eyes for a moment longer.Why are we going up the mountain?The question sat between them. Surely they couldn’t be going to Dawn’s house. But then there it was, up ahead. The fifth house along the access road.

Eyes wide, Ana tried to smile as she wiped more of the tears and dirt from Kayla’s face. Why were they coming here? It felt like a trap. Kayla hated Dawn. This would be worse than the hospital.

“Hugo!” Jolene grabbed the steering wheel.

“Stop it!” Hugo yelled, pushing her away. “I know what I’m doing.” And he continued down her driveway to the fork, where he turned right onto the dirt road. The one that led to the guest cottage where Coach Emile lived.