Page 20 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

Grant smiles, but there’s a wariness in his expression as he glances from Tyler to me. “It’s called roughing it, Savannah.” He rolls his eyes, pointing at some bags with cinch cords. “Anything you can’t possibly leave behind goes in one of those.”

Across the gym, Mr. Davis paces in circles around a mound of equipment, making marks on a pad of paper. “Savannah, I need your permission slip,” he calls out.

“Oh, sure.” I dig through my duffel, whip out the forged document, and bring it to him.

By the time Grant and I get the rest of my gear packed, Mr. Davis is by the door. “Come on, people. I said we needed to get out of here by one thirty, and it’s almost two. We don’t want to be stuck on that trail at sundown.”

“No, we certainly don’t,” Noah says in a ghoulish voice. “That’s when they come for you.”

“Shut up, Noah,” I say in my older-sister voice, the way I used to whenever the three amigos were annoying me. But he barely cracks a smile. I’m not that sister figure anymore.

“Okay,” Mr. Davis says, making more marks on his paper. “Looks like we’re—wait, where’s Alexandra?” He sighs, slamming the pen against the clipboard.

“Sorry!” calls a voice from the doorway. Alexandra is out of breath and waving a water bottle. “Forgot this in my locker. But I’m all set now.”

“Good,” says Mr. Davis, making one final mark before placing a wide-brimmed khaki hat on his head. “Because we’re leaving.”

Leaving. Heading into the depths of the wilderness with a bunch of people I can’t trust.

Because one of them knows what happened to my sister the day she fell.

Chapter 9

Mr. Davis hurries out of the building, pausing to help a wobbly Alexandra adjust her backpack. The parking lot at the base of Mount Liberty is only big enough for two cars, so we opt to make the ten-minute walk from the school. Sam and Abby lead the way across the school lot, Jacey right behind them.

I tug on my backpack straps and check for Grant, but he motions for me to go ahead while he ties his boot.

My eyes fasten on Alexandra. I have to find out what happened that day at Vanderwild Point. This not knowing—it’s a string coiled around my insides, pulling tighter by the second. Half an hour ago, I was certain Alexandra knew something about Piper. That she’d spoken to her on the phone that day, maybe even seen her.

Now, I’m just lost. All I know is that my sister was threatened by someone in this club, and then she was sent up to the Point, where she fell. And the note mentioned this club.

Alexandra claims she never spoke to Piper. And she has an alibi for that day, so she couldn’t have been at the Point.

But someone else could’ve been. Someone else could’ve forged that note on school stationery and written that threat in her bag. I just need to know who sweet little Piper was having problems with.

The obvious person is Jacey. Maybe Jacey lost it, and I need to prove it.

I look ahead to where she’s walking on her own beneath the brilliant orange and red maple leaves. After the Grant fiasco, there’s no way she’ll even talk to me. What would I even say to her?Sorry I stole your boyfriend, but can you please return the backpack with the incriminating message so I can give it to the police?

I throw my head back in frustration, letting out a small growl.

“That great, huh?”

I glance back at Noah, who’s keeping pace behind me. He lengthens his stride to catch up, backpack clunking in time with his steps as I scan my surroundings. We’re about to pass the gas station on the corner of Fifth and Wildflower, about five minutes from the base of Mount Liberty.

“It’s not the hike,” I say. If I can handle two forty-minute soccer halves without a substitute, I can handle a stupid hike. “Just have a lot on my mind.”

“Don’t suppose you have a completely rational fear of getting preyed upon by werewolves up there too?”

I roll my eyes.

“I get it,” he says, suddenly solemn. “That’s been happening to me a lot, too, since Piper’s accident.”

“No, that’s not…” I lie. “I wasn’t…” I shake my head, banishing the subject. “I don’t think tonight’s a full moon. Your fear is, in fact,irrational—you’d only get eaten by the regular kind of wolves.”

He pretends to think about this before playfully punching me in the shoulder. And it feels nice. Like he’s back to kid-brother Noah and not the disappointed-in-me version.

Maybe he’s starting to forgive me the way Piper did. My thoughts tumble back to homecoming night, the Saturday before she fell. The first time I saw a true glimmer of hope for my sister and me since everything with Grant went down.

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