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CHAPTER

ONE

Thirteen hours before Theo Fairgood died, he woke up early to hang party decorations.

This wasn’t just any party. This was the Founder’s Day party, the wildest night of the year. He was the first sophomore to be granted the honor of hosting, and he wasn’t about to waste it.

“Careful,” Theo’s mom warned him as he teetered on the edge of a chair, stretching to the next hook with a line of wildflowers. “Any further and you’ll fall and crack your head and die.”

“He’s fine, Carol.” Theo’s dad, Victor, looked up from where he was holding the chair steady. “Dead yet, son?”

“Not yet.” Theo concentrated, straining further.

Victor sniffed a flower knotted into the decoration and grimaced. “These are strong. Where did you buy them from? ”

“Just the garden place in town,” Theo said quickly. Like he didn’t know the store— Rose’s Goods— and each employee by name.

Carol laughed, dropping another sweetener into her coffee. “He grew them himself, Victor. Got the seeds months ago.”

Victor looked up at Theo disapprovingly. “Theo. You didn’t .”

“Busy, Dad!”

“You know what we’ve told you about your little gardening habit,” Victor continued in a warning voice that made Theo fight a shiver.

“It’s not a habit, Dad,” Theo assured him, making sure to keep his voice even and respectful. “This was a special case, I’m the first sophomore to host this party. Ever , Dad. The whole school will be here. Don’t you want things to look perfect?”

Theo didn’t dare look down, but he heard Victor sigh in resignation.

Carol made a noise into her coffee mug. “Honey, we need to remember to drop by the Yancy house for a friendly chat.”

“Got it,” Victor said.

Theo kept his gaze on the hook he was stretching toward. Friendly chat meant they were intimidating someone to win their case. Crack legal team Fairgood & Fairgood were on a twenty-year winning streak, marred only by a few unlucky cases where they couldn’t talk, bribe or steal their way out of it. One day, Theo would join his parents’ ranks.

Theo stretched even further, wincing as a joint popped. The banner eased reluctantly onto the hook.

Carol sighed in relief and went back to her morning coffee, stirring it with the end of her Fairgood & Fairgood pen.

Victor slapped the chair. “ There we go. Now hurry up, I didn’t give you the Lexus so you could be late for school.”

Theo jumped down, a stray petal brushing his ear. “Got it, Dad. I said I won’t— oof .”

His arms came up automatically, surprised and a little wary as Victor hugged him. Victor had a reason for everything, and hugs were usually to cushion the blow of something hard coming at him.

“You’re representing this family,” Victor said in his ear. “And Fairgoods are?—”

“Vicious,” Theo replied. “I know, Dad.”

“We don’t waste time on wildflowers .”

“I know, Dad.”

“Good.” Victor leaned back, ruffling a hand through his hair.

Theo tensed, waiting for the hand to clench—but it never came. Sometimes a hair ruffle was just a hair ruffle, Victor fluffing up the blond curls they proudly shared.

Then Victor’s hand drew back. A petal sat between his fingers, so white it almost glowed .

Theo held his breath, waiting.

“You can tell people we ordered it in,” Victor told him. He crushed the petal between his fingers and strode off. “Go knock ’em dead!”

“Always do,” Theo replied, relieved.

He scooped up his backpack and ran out the door.

It was, Theo considered as he ran down the garden path towards his car, the perfect house for a party.

Beautiful colonial-style architecture, originally built when the first settlers rolled into town. Pristine garden gardened all-year around. Not to mention the cliffside view.

Theo looked over at the lake. It was a soft, calm blue in the morning light, and it would have been peaceful if not for the sheer drop between him and the water. Theo used to pretend to fall off the cliff when he was a kid. He cut that out when he almost slipped and tumbled to a watery grave, saved only because his dad was around to grab him.

Theo spared the steep drop another wary glance. He would have to give a speech at the party tonight. The last thing they needed was some idiot classmate getting drunk and falling off the cliff into the lake. His parents would kill him.

A friendly voice cut through his worrying. “Theo!”

Theo looked over to see the gardener straightening up in the flowerbed .

He raised a hand. “Hi, Russel!”

Russel waved back with a trowel. He was a decade older than Theo’s dad, skin burnished with tiny scars from a lifetime of odd jobs involving sharp implements. Theo had never seen him wear anything but jeans and rubber boots.

“Hey kid,” Russel replied, going back to digging through the flowerbed. “How’d the wildflowers go?”

Russel had been taking care of the gardens since Theo was a baby, and he never told Theo’s parents about his ongoing gardening habit. Even when he was eleven and messed up the azaleas enough for his mom to complain to Russel about the sudden drop in service quality.

I don’t get why they’re hard on you about it, Russel had told him once. It’s sweet that you like plants so much.

“They went great,” Theo replied. “Thanks, Russ.”

Russel shot him a distracted thumbs-up. “Everyone’s gonna love it. Don’t worry.”

“Uh-huh,” Theo replied, glancing pointedly back at the house. He didn’t think his parents could hear, but he could never be sure.

“Right.” Russel raised a dirt-streaked finger to his lips. “Never mind. Hope the party’s good, kid.”

“It will be,” Theo told him, full of bone-deep confidence he wouldn’t feel for a long time after today. “It’s mine. ”

Ten hours before Theo died, he tripped another sophomore in the halls.

The boy sprawled to the ground with a grunt. Theo swallowed down his first instinct to apologize. It was an accidental collision as he turned the corner toward History—but that didn’t matter. People were watching, and there were rules .

So Theo laughed. He even meant it, once he saw who it was. Kade Renfield could always be taken down a peg or two.

“Oh no,” Theo said mockingly. “Did you chip a claw?”

His friends sniggered behind him. Felicity leaned into Aaron, giggling, mouth forming into that perfect half-crinkle they taught her at the modeling agency. Next to her, Aaron smiled. He even showed teeth.

Kade lifted his shaved head from the linoleum with a glare. He raised his hands, hooking his nails toward Theo like they really were claws.

“I don’t know,” he said in that lazy British accent that had faded with his years in the states. “What do you think? Still think I can rip some fair maiden’s throat out or are my rampaging days over?”

Felicity giggled even louder. She liked it when they fought back. If they did a good enough job she could even be convinced to change sides, jeering at her friends and talking up someone she’d been laughing at thirty seconds previously.

Theo made sure his smile stayed in place. Talking to Kade always made him feel like he was walking a tightrope, and any moment Kade could shake it and send him plummeting down.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Monster.” He scraped a sneaker against Kade’s shoulder. “Gonna get up or are you gonna take a nap?”

Kade hissed and wiped his denim-clad shoulder, like Theo had contaminated it with his spotless sneakers. He’d dyed the denim black, just like everything else he was wearing: black jeans, black Doc Martens, black choker around his neck. The only spot of color was on his shirt in small, white letters: U STAY SOFT, U GET EATEN.

One thing we can agree on, Theo thought, and nudged Kade again. “Nap, then. Have fun, Monster.”

“Sure to, golden boy,” Kade hissed.

Felicity stepped around him to follow Theo, turning to talk to him in a determinedly awful British accent. “Pip-pip and cheerio, old mate.”

“Never said any of those words in my life, Sloan,” Kade called as she stepped around him. “Go back to making fun of British dentistry or something.”

Aaron took the easier, crueler path and stepped on his stomach. Kade doubled over, wheezing. He was one of those pale, scrawny kids who always had an excuse to get out of PE class. Theo used to think one good punch would probably take him out. Then Kade started getting into fights. Theo had seen the aftermath often enough, heard the stories, but he’d had only seen it once in person: Kade’s eyes ringed with purple in the movie theater parking lot, blood in his grin as Aaron held him against the hood of his car.

He started it, Aaron told him as Theo iced his nose later. I just punched back .

After that, everybody started calling him Monster. Kade leaned into it—hissing, snarling, even barking.

Everybody paused as Aaron stepped off him, waiting to see if Kade would take the bait. Sometimes he did. Other times he just made a joke and limped off. You could never tell which way he’d lean until it was happening.

Kade uncurled, resting his shaved head against the linoleum. He looked over at Aaron and bared his teeth, snarling like a dog.

Felicity barked back. A few passersby followed suit, everybody eager to join in. Lock was a town of many traditions, and one of them was taunting Kade “Monster” Renfield.

Aaron laughed, low and dangerous. “You don’t wanna do that, queer.”

“Ooh,” Kade hissed. “Disappointing. Girlfriend’s gonna yell at you again.”

“I just want him to be more creative,” Felicity said waspishly. “Homophobic slurs are so 2010s.”

Another round of sniggers went up from passersby. Everybody remembered Felicity going off on her boyfriend in freshman year, telling him to quit being homophobic or lose a girlfriend. What they didn’t know was it was prompted by a three-way confession where Felicity drunkenly confessed her bisexuality and Theo awkwardly followed, and Aaron acted really weird about it for weeks before mumbling something that sounded like yet another bisexuality confession, but he quickly took it back and refused to talk about it since.

Aaron ignored them and bent down, looming over Kade. “Remember what I told you would happen if you talked to me again, Monster?”

Kade growled.

The bell rang. Theo grabbed Aaron and slung him forward, toward History. “Do you remember promising you’d come around and help me clean the kitchen?”

They turned the corner, Felicity on their heels.

Kade vanished from view. He still hadn’t moved from the floor.

Aaron fixed Theo with a fond, if irritated, look. “I don’t, actually.”

“No? Guys?” Theo looked around at Felicity. “You remember promising me, your best friend since childhood ?—”

Felicity batted him with the hand that wasn’t stuck in Aaron’s pocket. “I remember you whining about how much work it was going be.”

“We’re still burned out from spring break,” Aaron pointed out.

“That’s the point ,” Theo insisted as they streamed into History. “We rally . Founder’s Day is our biggest town tradition, we have to come together and get shitfaced!”

A cheer went up from the rest of the class. Theo turned to them, fist raised, white teeth flashing in a grin.

A throat cleared behind him.

Theo turned, smile already apologetic. “Sorry, Mr. Hawthorn.”

“Apology accepted, Theo. Go sit down.” Mr. Hawthorn adjusted his glasses, trying to look stern. It didn’t last. By the time he made it to his desk, his amused smile was shining through.

“Alright. As our favorite rising basketball star was saying, it’s Founder’s Day today. Can anybody tell me the year our town was founded?”

He shot the class hopeful finger guns. They got less and less hopeful the longer the silence stretched. He sighed. “Come on, gang. 1832! See, this is why they should’ve made a song. Everything rhymes with two. Who wants to make up a song that the future generations of Lockians can sing?”

Theo stifled a laugh as Mr. Hawthorn hummed a few bars. He wasn’t the only one. Mr. Hawthorn was in his late thirties, the youngest and most beloved teacher at Lock High. Everything about him stunk of genuine care and heart in a way that Theo was obligated to make fun of, but deep down he wished all teachers were like Mr. Hawthorn. It would be nice if more teachers actually gave a shit .

Mr. Hawthorn stopped humming. “No? Alright. Easier question: who knows our town’s spooky origins? Theo! You were so excited earlier, you must know.”

Theo groaned. Aaron leaned over to kick him, and Theo kicked back until Mr. Hawthorn gave them a good-natured warning look.

Theo leaned back in his chair. “Okay, uhhh. These vampires set up shop in the woods. They terrorized the surrounding towns until a gang of heroic vampire hunters rode in and saved the day. They killed most of the vampires, but not the leader. They cursed her to burn for eternity, locked her in a coffin and buried her deep under the earth, because they were a bunch of sick freaks! Anyway they made a town on top of her and that’s why we call it Lock.”

He stood up and bowed. Another cheer went up, a few classmates even clapping. Felicity raised her hands over her head and whooped. Theo glanced up at Aaron, who rolled his eyes but joined in.

Mr. Hawthorn waved them down. “That was great, Theo. You should look into joining the drama club. Now: how do we think this story originated?”

Theo eased back into his seat. “I don’t know, some old-timey cops tracked down some weirdo and buried her alive for some reason. Or burned her.”

At the back of the room, Felicity shuddered. “Ugh, I hope that’s just the story. I think I’d rather burn. When I was a kid I watched this Ryan Reynolds movie about being buried alive?— ”

Mr. Hawthorn clapped again. “Great, thank you Felicity! Before we get into the actual class, let me do the ol’ count…”

Theo admired the black tattoos peeking out of his rolled-up sleeves as Mr. Hawthorn counted heads. Mr. Hawthorn had worn a turtleneck every day since he moved here, even in the hot months.

He stopped at the only empty desk in class, frowning. “Has anybody seen Kade?”’

Aaron sniggered. He didn’t even hide it. Theo stared down at his desk, trying not to picture Mr. Hawthorn’s sad look if he found out. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. You have the potential to be such a sweet kid, Theo.

“He’ll turn up,” Felicity said. Her pink lips twisted in a smirk, tossing her pale hair over her shoulder. “Unless he’s finally gotten a clue and dropped out.”

“Hey.” Mr. Hawthorn gave her the look Theo was dreading. “We don’t talk like that about our classmates.”

“Right. Sorry, sir.” Felicity waited until he’d turned around, then shot her friends a sardonic look. Theo returned it, trying not to picture Kade still there in the hallway, gray eyes closed.