Chapter 4

Grant and I exit the double doors of the school and head toward the parking lot. I showed him the threat in Piper's pack, but we haven't had a moment alone to discuss it. Mr. Davis wrapped up the meeting by making us play some wilderness bonding game. The pack was too massive to steal, so now it's back in the equipment locker until I can return for it later.

This whole last month, I've believed my sister tried to kill herself. But maybe that's not what happened at all. My mind returns to the note tucked away in my back pocket—the one written on school stationery, sending Piper to a fake club meeting.

And now there's this message written in her pack. Or ELSE . Did someone not only send her to the place she fell but follow through on that threat?

It just doesn't make sense. Everyone loved perfect Piper.

We get inside Grant's truck, and I finally blurt the question that's been battering my brain for the last hour. "Who the hell wrote that message in Piper's pack?"

Grant frowns. "The packs get reused when club members graduate. Piper could've inherited a bag that already had that in it."

"Who had that bag last year?"

"I think it was Eric's."

"Can you think of anyone who would've threatened Eric?" I ask, struggling to even remember a kid named Eric.

"Nah, but his best friend, Art, could've done it as a joke. He graduated last year too."

I consider this. "I guess it's possible, but unlikely when you put it together with this mystery note Piper got, telling her about a fake meeting at Vanderwild Point." I flip down the mirror and start to reapply my signature lipstick shade, Roses Are Pink.

Grant nods, eyes focused on the road. "Jacey could've threatened your sister."

"What?" My lipstick tube halts in midair. "I thought everything was perfect between those two ever since the carnival."

"Jacey didn't seem too happy when Piper joined the club. She yelled at her."

No way. Could Jacey really have threatened Piper? I know Jacey hates me , but I thought she and Piper were thick as thieves. Sure, they had a falling-out a while back, but this year, they were back to being attached at the hip.

At least, I think they were. I've been a bit preoccupied with my own problems these days.

"What did Jacey yell?" I ask.

Grant shrugs. "I don't remember. Girl stuff."

"Super helpful. Thank you, Grant."

"Sorry if I try not to get too involved in Jacey's affairs."

Point taken.

"Should I drive you home?" he asks, clearly done with this conversation.

"No." My house has been quieter than a tomb since Piper's "accident." I'm not sure what will happen if my sister never wakes up. My parents may disintegrate. They lived for her debate tournaments and science experiments. Everything has always been about Piper, their little clone, even though she's a year younger than me.

The proudest my parents have ever been of me was when I got an A on a biology report freshman year. I still have that report stuffed beneath all the papers at the bottom of my desk. Sure, Piper stayed up all night doing the research for me, but my parents didn't know that.

Maybe things would be different if I got better grades. If I could go to a prestigious college and major in bio.

Too bad I hate bio.

Grant fiddles with his iPhone, and the pop playlist he made for me starts pumping through the speakers. But I don't hum along like I usually would. I don't hear the beats. My mind is on last night's dinner. On the grating sound the forks made, that unnerving screeching, scraping sound of a knife on a plate. The clink of a glass against the table. The crunch of lettuce between teeth.

I'd never been so aware of these sounds before. It took sitting through a dinner with my parents in utter silence for me to notice just how noisy eating really is.

It took sitting through dinner without Piper across the table to realize just how invisible I am.

Most days, I feel like taking both of my parents by the shoulders and shaking them. I want to scream at them until they wake up and see that I'm the one who fits in. The one thriving in high school. The soccer star. The homecoming queen. The one any girl at school would kill to be.

But to my parents, none of that matters. At my house, I'm a freak.

They're not the only reason I can't go home, though. I can't go home because someone threatened my sister, and I have to find out if it was Jacey.

"Let's go to Bonnie's. We can study there." I'm willing to bet I'll find Jacey at the diner. The three amigos—Jacey, Piper, and Noah—practically lived at that place before Piper's fall.

Grant cocks a brow at me. It's unlike me to want to study.

"Colleges look at first-semester transcripts senior year," I explain. "Even if I get a soccer scholarship, I need to keep my grades up."

"You'll get one. I know it."

My stomach roils. I'd better, hadn't I? My gaze drifts to the window, away from Grant, to watch the bony trees fly by. I press my fingers against the little charm dangling from my neck, blink back tears. It would be a shame to flunk chemistry and ruin my chances at MLC now after everything I've done to get in.

"We'll both get into MLC, and it will be amazing," Grant says. "Now, can we talk about the club? You're not really coming on this weekend's hike, are you?"

"Of course not. I'm just trying to find out what happened to my sister."

Grant shifts in his seat, his silence saying it all. We already know what happened to your sister.

An image of Piper that day sneaks into my mind: blond hair wild, cheeks aflame, eyes stormy. A shiver passes through me.

Maybe he's right. Maybe I'm on a desperate mission to clear my conscience. A mission that will only lead back to the moment I can't bear to face.

Grant pulls up in front of Bonnie's Diner, and I scan the parking lot for Jacey's clunker.

Bingo. She's inside.

I check my makeup in the mirror and then gather my things.

The place is empty save an old lady sipping tea at the counter and Jacey and Noah at the front. They spot me and begin to whisper. Ignoring them, I make my way through the shiny red tables until I reach the back corner booth. "Can you get me a Diet Coke?" I ask Grant, dropping my backpack onto the shiny red seat cushion. "I have to use the restroom."

"Sure, babe." He tosses his backpack on the seat across from me and plops down.

I traipse past the black-and-white photos from the fifties lining the corridor to the restrooms. In one, a woman holds a milkshake at the counter, and the same giant BONNIE'S sign adorns the wall behind the waitress. You would think Bonnie's had actually been around since the fifties, based on the water-stained walls and tears in the seat cushions where cottony stuffing pokes out. In reality, these photos are a sham; Bonnie's has only been around since the nineties. Mom grew up in Grayling's Pass, and she says there was an old diner here that went out of business. Bonnie moved in years later.

Bonnie is as big a liar as I am.

I emerge from the restroom, stealing a peek at Jacey. Sipping her drink. Laughing with Noah. My sister completely erased from her mind.

Jacey Pritchard knows something.

I start down the aisle, passing by Grant at my table. I don't stop until I'm right in front of her.

She glances up at me. "Something you need, Savannah? Another boyfriend to steal, maybe?"

"Did you threaten my sister?" I snap.

Her head whips back. "What are you talking about?"

Noah lifts a hand in a calming gesture. "Can we just lower—"

"I'm talking about a message I found today in Piper's pack." I drop my voice. " Quit Survival Club or ELSE. "

Jacey frowns. Shakes her head. "No, of course not."

"Don't lie to me, Pritchard. Grant said you were arguing with Piper about joining the club."

"Oh, you mean that guy?" She pitches a thumb back toward where Grant is sitting, watching the show. "Super trustworthy Grant Costa?"

"That's not an answer."

She sighs and starts tearing off the edge of her napkin. "I didn't write anything in Piper's pack. I wouldn't do that." She loops the strip of paper, tying it in a knot.

I'm not sure I believe her. "Everyone knows you two have had issues over the last year."

"Issues caused by you." She flicks the little paper knot, which bounces across the table.

My insides go taut. She's referring to last spring. Grant was technically still with Jacey but was seeing me in secret. He took Jacey to the Spring Fling and kissed me in a dark corner while the three amigos were out on the dance floor. He was going to break up with her—neither of us wanted to hurt Jacey. But he didn't get the chance before she found out.

The dark corner apparently wasn't as dark as we thought, because the Grayling High Gazette published a photo of Grant kissing me as part of an article titled GRAYLING HIGH SPRING FLING A SUCCESS!

Boy, was it a success.

Jacey was obviously furious with Grant and me. But she was just as furious with Piper, who was junior editor of the paper. Jacey accused her of knowing about the picture before it ran. They stopped speaking for months. It strained my relationship with Piper too. She hadn't had anything to do with that photo, but she had known about Grant and me. She'd struggled with what to do with the information all the way up until the moment it exploded in her face. My actions nearly ruined her oldest friendship. She and Jacey didn't mend things until the back-to-school carnival, when Noah convinced them to bury the hatchet.

Maybe the hatchet was never really buried.

I ignore her, turning to Noah. "Did Jacey fight with Piper about joining Survival Club or not?"

Noah blinks and adjusts his glasses. "I-I mean, I don't—"

"Come on, Noah!" I slap a palm down on the sticky table, and Noah lunges for his milkshake to keep it from toppling.

From the counter, the old lady shushes me.

"Sorry, ma'am," Noah says, throwing me a look as he wraps two protective hands around his plastic cup.

"Just tell me the truth. Did Jacey have an issue with my sister joining your idiotic club?"

"She was surprised that Piper would want to join," he admits. "We all were. But she never threatened Piper. She wouldn't do that."

My gaze swings back to Jacey. I grit my teeth, managing to keep my mouth shut for the first time in my life.

I don't believe her. Someone threatened Piper. Someone gave her specific instructions to go to the Point, where they would be alone.

And my sister never returned from that trip. Instead, she wound up unconscious on the side of the mountain.

If Piper didn't fall on purpose, then it's not my fault.

And if Jacey had something to do with it, I'm going to find proof.