Chasing Before by Lenore Appelhans

Author:Lenore Appelhans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

twenty-one

LIBBY SITS BESIDE NEIL with her hand on his shoulder while he plays. How dare she touch him so possessively? Why are all these people clapping along to the music as though nothing is wrong? Shouldn’t they be in their rooms?

I lurch back, accidentally stepping on someone’s foot. “Excuse me,” I mumble as I turn.

“Didn’t feel a thing,” Autumn whispers, smiling. Her arms are folded across her chest, and she looks alert, as if she’s on duty.

“Right, of course not. Mind over matter.” Annoyed, I glance around the tent and see Cash off to one side, also standing at attention.

Neil finishes his song to wild applause. He laughs and elbows Libby. “Sing this next one with me.”

Even though few know the words to the next song Neil launches into, I recognize it from my church days. It’s one of those repetitive ones that’s easy to learn, and soon enough the sides of the tent ripple with the voices contained within.

Peace washes over me, an assurance that everything will be okay, that there is no reason to panic. Autumn sways behind me. She reaches out for my hand and then spins me in place until we’re dancing.

Neil plays several more songs, and my cheek muscles hurt from smiling. The faces of my fellow students glow with something powerful that’s been all too scarce lately: hope.

Libby stills Neil’s guitar playing by patting his arm. She thanks the audience and asks them to return to the dorms. They comply, even those in the cots, and with Autumn and Cash directing traffic, the crowd eventually thins. Up front Neil slaps Keegan on the back and turns the bill of his baseball cap from side to front. Keegan gives him a high five and follows the others out. Neil and Libby confer in hushed tones and animated hand gestures. I trace figure eights in the air while I wait.

“You could’ve gone up there and joined him,” Autumn says, startling me. Now that she’s finished leading everyone out of the tent, her arms hang loosely at her sides.

I giggle. “Me? No. The last time I sang in front of anyone was our performance of Crocodile on Your Rock.”

“Croc, croc, croc, stay up on your rock,” she warbles.

“That’s it!” I pull up a snippet of the memory of the silly musical we wrote and then performed at our neighborhood picnic back when we were about ten or eleven. I bust out with the second line. “Croc, croc, croc, don’t bite and don’t shock.”

Autumn mock grimaces. “Wow, we were terrible, weren’t we?”

“Oh, everyone loved it, though. They even let us go first in line for the hot dogs, remember? And your mom told me I had tons of talent.”

“I remember.” A shadow passes over her face.

Libby approaches, done with her private chat with Neil. “Great concert.” She runs her hands down the tight skirt of her suit. “Neil has a real knack for bringing calm to a tense situation.”

“After the bomb went off,” Autumn explains, “people panicked and raced for the bridges to cross over into Areas One and Three.

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