The Escape by Hannah Jayne

Author:Hannah Jayne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781492616542
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2015-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

When Fletcher saw Avery in the hall, her eyes went wide. The news of the previous night’s attack hadn’t spread yet, but he knew that she knew. She made a beeline for him.

“Hey, Fletch.” She pulled him out of the flow of students. “You okay?”

“Did your dad tell you what happened?”

Avery looked around. “A little bit. Did he—” She reached out and touched his swollen cheekbone, her fingers so soft and gentle. “Are you okay?”

There was a crackling overhead and then the three chimes that signaled an announcement. Some kids stopped and cocked their heads toward the speakers, but most just continued ambling through the halls.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Principal Corben’s disembodied voice started, “there will be a memorial to celebrate Adam Marshall’s life this Friday at noon.”

The principal blathered on about the location and logistics, but Avery stopped listening. Her eyes were fixed on Fletcher, on his vacant expression. She watched him swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing. The color slowly drained from his face, and Avery remembered what she had felt when her mother died. The community had “memorialized” or “commemorated” her mother’s life, which included people dressed in their Sunday best with handkerchiefs pressed to their eyes or noses, and giant sprays of ugly flowers with ribbons with meaningless phrases like “peaceful rest” and “heartfelt sympathies.”

It was as if they were honoring someone else’s life—not her mother’s—because Avery had never seen half the people who attended. And her mother would have rolled her eyes at the cheesy, inspirational songs that were played, and the finger sandwiches and punch—two things her mother never touched—that were served.

The three tones sounded again at the end of Principal Corben’s announcement, and Avery grabbed Fletcher’s arm. “Do you really want to go to class?”

Going to class had been all he wanted, but now he just wanted to feel Avery’s touch. He didn’t mind when she looked at him. He liked her attention.

“Where can we go?”

Her blue eyes scanned the rapidly emptying hall. She pulled him along the wall and out one of the side doors. “Come on!”

She took off at a dead sprint, her backpack bobbing behind her. Fletcher ran to keep up, mildly surprised that Avery Templeton—search-party team lead, daughter of the chief of police—had a little bad girl in her. He was starting to like her even more.

“Okay,” she said breathing heavily and slowing to a walk. “We’re officially off school property.”

Fletcher glanced around. “Isn’t the student parking lot considered school property?”

She cocked an eyebrow, and he recognized the expression as the same one the police chief made during interviews. But while the chief’s look was pure authority, even with her hands on her hips and her legs spread slightly, Avery looked like a little girl trying to be big.

“Fine. We’re officially off the learning part of school property.”

“Ah, manipulating the scene. Very nice.”

She rolled her eyes. “Did you drive?”

Fletcher felt his cheeks burn red. “Uh, no. My mom insists on driving me now. What about you?”

Avery jammed her hands in the pockets of her jeans and shrugged.

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