Page 54 of The Ruse

“Why do you think they left?” Elyse asked, stepping up beside me and taking in the empty cabin.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Should we see if our things are still here?”

“Yeah.”

While Elyse headed upstairs to the loft where all the girls had slept last night, I went to the basement. Even though part of me had expected to find suitcases and duffel bags—like they’d just gone on a scenic drive or were out scouring the roads for us, there was nothing besides a bunch of rumpled bedding on the beds and my duffle bag in the back corner of the room where I’d left it this morning.

Where had they gone?

I grabbed my phone from where I’d left it on the charger this morning. When the screen lit up, there were about a dozen missed calls from Miss Crawley and my brother, in addition to several texts. I was just about to call Owen when my phone started ringing with Miss Crawley’s name at the top of the screen.

I guess I’ll talk to her first.

“Hello?”

“Oh, thank goodness you finally answered!” Miss Crawley’s voice came through high-pitched and anxious. “Are you still at the cabin? Is Elyse with you?”

“Yeah,” I said, starting to walk back up the stairs. “We just made it back from the scavenger hunt a minute ago. Where is everyone?”

“We left,” she said. “We got an emergency notification that a blizzard was coming and that we were going to get snowed in. I don’t know how we didn’t realize you two weren’t on the bus. I’m so sorry. It was chaos.”

So, we’d been forgotten.

I mean, I understood them forgettingme, since that was kind of my M.O.

But they’d forgotten Elyse?

Miss Crawley continued, “Someone said they thought Elyse left with Cambrielle and Nash and—”

And nobody even thought of me at all.

“I’m so sorry, Asher,” Miss Crawley said, sounding like she actually was. “I would drive there myself to come and get you two, but it’s literally a whiteout right now and we can’t see anything.”

“It’s okay,” I said. I made it to the top of the stairs and almost bumped into Elyse who was just turning around the corner. “We’re inside now and should be fine for the night.”

“What’s going on?” Elyse whispered, her eyebrows knitting together.

“They heard there was a blizzard coming and went back to Eden Falls,” I whispered to her while our drama teacher went on about how there was food and blankets and lots of wood in the garage in case the furnace somehow went out.

“I mean, the furnace is new,” Miss Crawley rambled on. “So it shouldn’t go out. But just in case it does, do you know how to use a wood-burning stove?”

“I’m sure I can figure it out,” I said just to get her to stop. “I can pull up a YouTube video if I need it.”

“Okay.” She sighed heavily, like she was only now taking a real breath. “I really am so sorry, Asher. I don’t know how we didn’t notice you weren’t with us. I feel terrible and I hope you can forgive me.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m sure it was an honest mistake.”

“It was, but that’s still no excuse,” she said. It sounded like she was going to hang up, but then at the last minute, she said, “Can you make sure to call your brother? I told him what happened, and he’s been worried.”

“Yeah, I’ll call him.”

“Okay, good,” she said. “I’m hoping we can get some snowmobiles up the road there tomorrow morning. But until then, just lock the doors and stay put. Don’t try to go anywhere else.”

“I won’t.”

Sometimes she acted like she was my mom. I was just the forgettable middle child today, apparently.

I heard what sounded like a sniffle through the phone and I immediately felt bad for thinking that. Because of all the other adults in my life, Miss Crawley was one of the few who actually cared about me.

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