Page 75 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

She squinted at her paper, afraid to look. Finally, she focused her eyes. It was just a B, which once upon a time would have been surprising, even upsetting. Now she was just relieved that it wasn’t worse.

“My mom is going to murder me,” said Coral miserably. Glitter from the purple tutu she was wearing over black leggings and lug-soled Mary Janes was getting everywhere. She really did look like she might cry, even though Violet suspected that Coral enjoyed her mother’s rage. Like it was some kind of theater performance in which they participated together, and maybe the only time her mother paid full attention to her.

“You can come live with us,” offered Violet, a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“Okay, yeah,” said Coral, nodding as if this was an actual option. “Can I spend the night tonight? Watch the challenge with you guys?”

“Of course.”

Just a few hours to go, Violet thought excitedly. Win or lose, her mom would be home tomorrow. Maybe they’d be richer and things would be easier for Adele. Her mom wouldn’t have to worry so much every month as their expenses constantly outstripped their income. Or maybe they’d be poorer with more bills to pay. They’d run up Adele’s credit card getting her the gear she needed.Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, Adele had told her in REI. Again, this made no sense to Violet. Didn’t you have toearnmoney to make money? Or save money to make money? But what did she know?

Her phone pinged, and she pulled it from her pocket.

There was an update from her LifeTracker app:Blake has left East Tanglewood High School.

Violet stared at it. Huh? It was not even noon.

Violet had dropped her exhausted brother off at the lower school this morning. He had been super cranky and had eaten four doughnuts, which he definitely did not need. She knew the look of cybersickness when she saw it, when too many hours on a screen became a kind of illness.

“Were you up all night onRed World?” she’d asked him in the car.

“Not all night,” he’d answered.

He’d slumped in the passenger seat looking like he was going to puke.

“Well, these are the consequences of your actions.”

“Shut up, Violet.”

While Blake was in the shower this morning, she’d loaded the tracking app on his phone, accepted her own request to track, and then removed the app icon from his phone’s home screen. He had no idea she was tracking him. Mom tracked them both with the Find My Peeps app that came with the phones. For safety reasons only, Mom was quick to say, not because she didn’t trust them. Violet and Blake both knew how to trick that app,with another app called Teleporter that let you mask your true location.

But LifeTracker was more comprehensive, including things like whether you were driving or on foot, how much charge your phone had left. Violet only thought to put it on Blake’s phone because of what happened last night. Who had he been with? Where had he gone? she asked him multiple times over the course of the morning until he’d stopped speaking to her altogether.

She held up the phone to Coral.

“That little brat,” said Coral, outraged. “How doesheget to cut?”

“He’s in someone’s car,” said Violet, a kind of hole opening in her middle.

Blake is moving at fifty miles an hour on Oakhurst Road,the app announced.

Panic had her stomach tumbling, her throat dry. She started to call him, but Coral put a hand on her arm. “If you call him, he’ll just lie. Maybe he’ll find the app and turn it off.”

“What do I do?” she whispered. Mr. Fieldstone was talking to students at his desk about their quizzes. He got up to the whiteboard and started writing. “Tell the office? Call the cops?”

“I’m sorry,” said Coral, dark eyes wide in inquiry. “Are youa narcnow?”

“No,” said Violet. Coral didn’t get it, an only, the worshipped center of her intact, two-parent universe, she’d never been responsible for anyone else. And Violet’s mom was trusting her, counting on her to keep them both safe while she went to try to make life better for all of them. Her mom had only done this at all because Violet convinced her that she was up to the task. “But what if he’s been likeabductedor something?”

Coral rolled her eyes. “No. Who would abduct Blake? He’s like six feet tall already. He’s off getting high somewhere.”

“With who?” Violet said. “He doesn’t have any friends. He’s only fourteen. Who does he know with a car?”

She remembered what he said last night. That guy Gregg with the Bronco from Lakewood?

Coral shrugged. “The kid is a dark horse. He’s gotway moregoing on than anyone knows.”

“What does that mean?” Violet was pretty sure that wasn’t whatdark horsemeant. But whatever. Violet got the point. And Coral was right. What did her brother have going on? Something.

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