Page 23 of Did You See Evie

I suppose there’s always a chance she and Connie missed each other along the way, but when I enter the dark and dingy bathroom space, each of the four stalls are empty. Another niggle of unease rolls through me.

“Evie?”

I call her name, half-expecting she’ll come around the corner and announce herself. When she doesn’t, I return to the gymnasium and shout her name again, hoping she returned during my absence.

“You still haven’t found her?” Joanna asks when she hears me.

All the girls are back in their sleeping bags now—all eleven of them. None of them raise their heads when they hear me.

“Did any of you see Evie this morning?” I call across the void.

“I don’t think so,” Tara says, rolling on her side.

“I didn’t either,” Amber adds.

Connie says, “She slept beside me, but she wasn’t there when I woke up. I thought she got up first.”

I stomp across the court, my steps slapping against the surface, and look at the only empty sleeping area left on the court. Evie’s phone and purse are beside her crumpled blanket. I can still see the indentation of her head on her pillow, an eerie confirmation that she was once here but now is gone.

“Could she have gone to one of the other bathrooms?” Joanna asks. “Or maybe she’s wandering the school?”

I shake my head. I know Evie, and she wouldn’t do that, especially after I told her it was against the rules. Sure, two of the other girls broke that very rule last night, but Evie isn’t like them. She’s different. She knows one wrong move could jeopardize her scholarship, would take away her one shot to improve her life. I can’t think of a logical reason why she wouldn’t be here with the rest of us.

When I raise my head to look at the girls, I see most of them are starting to sit up. I register the alarm on their faces. My tone, my questions have made them worry, and yet there’s no answer to the question: where is Evie?

“I’ll check the other bathrooms,” I tell Joanna, trying to keep my voice neutral. “Stay here.”

I dart out of the gymnasium and into the main corridor. The space is spooky and unsettling, shadows from the lockers and open doorframes darkening the already dim hallways. The bland surroundings disturb me. Everything appears normal, plain, and yet with each passing second, I feel that isn’t the case, that something is happening beyond my control.

“Evie?”

I start shouting her name, ducking my head into each room I pass, checking to see if she’s there. When she doesn’t respond, I keep going, searching another and another. I even take the narrow passageway leading to my office to see if she wandered down the forgotten corridor, but it’s empty.

Every time I pass another vacant room, a piece of me breaks inside, making me raw. This is dangerous. Alarming. Those feelings build until I reach the computer lab, the same place I entered last night to fulfill Nadia’s request.

I walk inside, scanning the surroundings: the computers and keyboards, the printers and scanners, the mobile laptops. All remain in the room, untouched.

But there’s no sign of Evie.

And the door I left open last night is now closed.

TWELVE

My legs are heavy with dread as I make my way back to the gymnasium.

This can’t be right. Evie isn’t one of the mischievous girls on the team. She’s not the type to take off in the middle of the night, like I imagine Beatrice and her friends might. She wouldn’t have wandered this far away from our sleeping quarters—I’d told her not to—which must mean something else is happening.

I push open the gym doors, my footsteps echoing across the space.

By now, all the girls are awake, sitting up in their sleeping bags. Most of them are turned toward each other, their hushed voices a constant murmur. When they see me standing in front of them, the whispers stop. They face me, knees pulled tight to their chests.

“Where is Evie?” I ask them.

No one answers right away. Joanna’s eyes bounce between the girls and me, reading the silence for clues.

“She went to sleep with the rest of us,” Delilah says, at last.

“Did any of you get up in the middle of the night? Did any of you see her?”

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