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ELEVEN

I can’t sleep, but I pretend.

Midnight comes and goes, and I listen as the giggles start to fall away, one by one. Beside me, Joanna begins to snore. Eventually, I’m convinced I’m the only one still awake. I rest in the darkness, listening to the sleeping bodies all around me, thinking about what might be happening down the hallway.

I keep thinking I might hear a breaking window, screeching equipment, but Nadia is better than that, as is her team. They’ve hit most of the public schools in the area, and now Manning Academy will top that list, a crowning jewel.

I wonder how Mr. Lake and the rest of the administration will react when they learn about the break-in. I imagine the expression on Mrs. Evans’ face when she walks into her classroom on Monday morning and sees everything is gone. If we’re lucky, they’ll assume the burglary happened some other time during the weekend. Even if they do piece together the fact it happened during the lock-in, they won’t connect it to us. I’ve made sure of it. We’ve all been together, in the same room.

Then again, what if I’m wrong? What if they find out I’m involved? If they uncover my connection to Nadia? They could find out about my past. I could have made everything worse by getting involved.

Just do it. No one will know.

Nadia’s teenage voice comes back to me. It’s the mantra you have to take on when you’re stealing, and it would appear she’s made it the foundation of her life. I’m overreacting. Overthinking. It’s what good people do.

I wonder, can I even call myself a good person anymore?

Eventually, I’m not sure when, my thoughts drop off, each one more incomplete than the one before. I close my eyes, settle into sleep.

* * *

Giggling.

I hear it before I open my eyes and can’t decide if I’m still locked in some type of dream state. Familiar voices drift toward me. Joanna and the girls. When I open my eyes, I see them. Joanna is standing by her sleeping bag. A few girls are moving around the gym, phones out. Most are still swaddled in blankets, asleep.

Still groggy, I get to my feet. My legs and back flare with every movement. I must have tossed and turned more than I realized, and I’m sure sleeping on the unforgiving court floor didn’t help.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“Almost four in the morning,” Joanna says. Her next comment brings me into full wakefulness. “We’re missing two of them.”

“What do you mean?”

Joanna gestures, encouraging me to look. I do a quick headcount. Only ten girls. It looks like we’re missing Evie and?—

“Connie is in the bathroom,” one of the girls hollers.

Odds are Evie is there, too. I’m half tempted to lie down and go back to sleep. Instead, I gather the wrappers from the snacks Connor brought. By the time I’ve put them in the trashcan across the gym, I can see Connie has rejoined us.

“Is Evie still in the bathroom?” I whisper, trying not to wake any of the other girls.

“She wasn’t in there,” Connie says, pulling her sleep sack up to her chest.

“Are you sure?” I ask, but my question is drowned out by the girls’ chatter. I look at my watch. We still have several more hours before parents begin to arrive. They should all be asleep. Some strange feeling rattles through me, a flicker of annoyance, that I have to waste time looking for a player before I can get more rest.

“Go back to sleep, girls,” Joanna says.

“I’m hungry,” one of the girls says.

Tara adds, “Can we have some donuts?”

Yesterday, we purchased juice and pastries for this morning, but it’s far too early, and giving them food will only fuel them up more. What I need is a full headcount so that I can get back to bed.

“No food until the morning. Go back to sleep,” I tell them, making my way for the gymnasium doors. “I’m going to check the bathroom for Evie.”

I suppose there’s always a chance she and Connie missed each other along the way, but when I enter the dark and dingy bathroom space, each of the four stalls are empty. Another niggle of unease rolls through me.

“Evie?”

I call her name, half-expecting she’ll come around the corner and announce herself. When she doesn’t, I return to the gymnasium and shout her name again, hoping she returned during my absence.

“You still haven’t found her?” Joanna asks when she hears me.

All the girls are back in their sleeping bags now—all eleven of them. None of them raise their heads when they hear me.

“Did any of you see Evie this morning?” I call across the void.

“I don’t think so,” Tara says, rolling on her side.

“I didn’t either,” Amber adds.

Connie says, “She slept beside me, but she wasn’t there when I woke up. I thought she got up first.”

I stomp across the court, my steps slapping against the surface, and look at the only empty sleeping area left on the court. Evie’s phone and purse are beside her crumpled blanket. I can still see the indentation of her head on her pillow, an eerie confirmation that she was once here but now is gone.

“Could she have gone to one of the other bathrooms?” Joanna asks. “Or maybe she’s wandering the school?”

I shake my head. I know Evie, and she wouldn’t do that, especially after I told her it was against the rules. Sure, two of the other girls broke that very rule last night, but Evie isn’t like them. She’s different. She knows one wrong move could jeopardize her scholarship, would take away her one shot to improve her life. I can’t think of a logical reason why she wouldn’t be here with the rest of us.

When I raise my head to look at the girls, I see most of them are starting to sit up. I register the alarm on their faces. My tone, my questions have made them worry, and yet there’s no answer to the question: where is Evie?

“I’ll check the other bathrooms,” I tell Joanna, trying to keep my voice neutral. “Stay here.”

I dart out of the gymnasium and into the main corridor. The space is spooky and unsettling, shadows from the lockers and open doorframes darkening the already dim hallways. The bland surroundings disturb me. Everything appears normal, plain, and yet with each passing second, I feel that isn’t the case, that something is happening beyond my control.

“Evie?”

I start shouting her name, ducking my head into each room I pass, checking to see if she’s there. When she doesn’t respond, I keep going, searching another and another. I even take the narrow passageway leading to my office to see if she wandered down the forgotten corridor, but it’s empty.

Every time I pass another vacant room, a piece of me breaks inside, making me raw. This is dangerous. Alarming. Those feelings build until I reach the computer lab, the same place I entered last night to fulfill Nadia’s request.

I walk inside, scanning the surroundings: the computers and keyboards, the printers and scanners, the mobile laptops. All remain in the room, untouched.

But there’s no sign of Evie.

And the door I left open last night is now closed.