The Lost Kids by Sara Saedi

Author:Sara Saedi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2018-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

two truths and no lies

they were no longer allowed to have sugar roots at the evening soirees Olivia forced them to attend. She announced the new rule during breakfast, and told everyone they could blame Phinn.

“He ruined it for all of you,” she said. “I know. He’s such an elder.”

Normally, Phinn wouldn’t have cared, but no one liked the food here and the sugar roots were a nice reminder of where they came from. He liked to eat them with his eyes closed, so that he could make believe that they were back home, and not in some fake version of the Clearing. He thought about taking a dip in the lagoon to clear his head, but the smell of chlorine made it less appealing.

He was officially depressed. They’d tried to escape, but it hadn’t worked. Perhaps it was poor planning on their part, but they didn’t have the luxury of mobilizing an army when Nurse Conway and others like him eavesdropped on their every word.

“We have company!” Olivia’s voice bellowed through the room.

He turned toward Olivia’s voice, expecting to see an influx of staff members to keep them in line, but instead, there were five kids standing next to her. The drugs made everything look blurry in the distance, but Phinn could swear one of the kids looked like Tinka. He pushed his way through the small crowd so that he could get a closer look.

It worked, he thought. The universe had finally rewarded him for his penance. Wylie had returned to him.

“Wylie!” he cried at the top of his lungs.

He saw a look of discomfort cross her face. From there, every other discovery seemed to fast-forward. There was a boy standing next to her—a clean-cut version of Hopper. There was a girl standing on the other side. It was Lola. Phinn felt his heart drop into his stomach and dissolve. He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. It was time for his final reckoning.

He hung back as he watched Micah and Wylie run to Joshua. Even when Phinn and Wylie had supposedly been in love, she’d always put her brothers first. The Daltons embraced in a group hug, and held on for dear life.

His eyes darted away from them to Lola and Maz. They took a few tentative steps toward each other, and then Maz sprinted up the staircase and met her halfway. Lola flung her arms around him and it seemed like they melded into one person as they held each other. Phinn couldn’t hear what they whispered to one another before they dove into passionate kisses in the middle of the staircase. Love really does conquer all, Phinn thought as they either refused to come up for air or didn’t need to breathe in each other’s presence.

“Poor Phinn,” he heard a girl’s voice say. “He has no one to run to.”

He’d been so focused on the others that he hadn’t even noticed Tinka now standing beside him. She let her hand rest on his shoulder.

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