The Alchemy of Forever by Williams Avery

Author:Williams, Avery [Williams, Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2012-01-02T16:00:00+00:00

sixteen

My second day at school is a little easier. I know where I’m going and where to sit. I speak up in my English class, offering my thoughts on Hamlet and impressing the teacher. I eat lunch with Kailey’s friends, still feeling slightly shy, but not like a cannon about to go off. It helps that Nicole has a doctor’s appointment—“Isn’t that, like, her fifth appointment this month?” Chantal asks suspiciously—and isn’t there. Fake it till you make it, Charlotte and I would joke every time we were disoriented after a switch or had to move to a new house we didn’t like, and I repeat the mantra to myself on a continuous loop.

I have to stay late to make up a French test Kailey had missed when I ditched, but I breeze through it, finishing in a half hour, and dash out the front door with other detention-goers. Bryan’s at practice and Noah’s long gone, so I have to walk. I’ve only gone a few steps when I stop, noticing a pay phone just outside the school.

All day I’ve been mulling over how to find Taryn. I keep circling back to one idea: calling my car in as stolen. It’s risky, I know—it could raise a lot of questions—but I decide it’s worth it if it means I get Cyrus’s book back. I won’t be able to give them Kailey’s cell, so I quickly download Google Voice and create a second line on her phone with a different number. Then I drop a few quarters in the pay phone and dial the police.

It rings three times before a perky woman picks up.

I cross my fingers behind my back, hoping I am doing the right thing, and lower Kailey’s voice to make it sound older. “Hi, I’d like to report a stolen car.”

I give her the details—the license plate, the fake name I bought the car under, the location where it was stolen, and the new number I just programmed into Kailey’s phone. I hear the woman typing loudly as I speak.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” she warns. “Stolen cars rarely turn up. The thieves usually change the plates or get it to a chop shop within hours. But we’ll call you if we find anything.”

I thank her and hang up, then set off toward Kailey’s home, my mind working overtime. I don’t need the car back, I just need to smoke out Taryn. I feel badly possibly getting her arrested, but she really shouldn’t have taken my bag and my car.

I’m a few blocks away from the Morgans’ house when I hear someone shout Kailey’s name. I turn around and spot a familiar silhouette behind me: Noah is out walking his dog. As they approach, Harker growls at me again, but this time I kneel in front of him and rub his ears.

“It’s okay, Harker,” I murmur, feeling the silky fur. After a minute the dog calms down. It appears we have a temporary truce.

“I don’t know why he keeps doing that,” says Noah.

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