didn’t have to be very cautious, because most of the boys at the school behaved like sheep, only going where they were told. And all of the teachers seemed to be gone in the evenings.
Luke reached the final corner before the doorway, and stopped. The sound of his watch ticking seemed to fill the entire hall. Luke pressed his wrist to his chest to muffle it. Then it was his heart pounding that seemed too loud. His ears roared with listening.
Was this how Jen had felt, the night she left for the rally? Brave, reckless, crazy, courageous, terrified — all at once?
It didn’t seem right to compare. Jen had been going to the rally — leading it, in fact — in an effort to win rights for third children all over the nation. Even her parents didn’t know what she was doing. But she had believed so strongly that nobody should have to hide that she’d died for it.
Luke was mad about a garden.
Thinking that way, Luke felt foolish. He wondered if he should turn around. But just because Jen’s cause had been enormous, that didn’t mean Luke’s was unimportant. Like Jen, Luke wanted to right a wrong.
Just then he heard the sounds he’d been waiting for: someone whispering, a muffled laugh, the click of the door latching. Luke waited a full five minutes — it was too dark to see his watch, so he counted off the tics. Then he tiptoed out of the shadows and followed the others out the door.
Nineteen
The moon was out.
It had been so long since Luke had seen the night sky that he’d forgotten how mystical it could look. The moon was full tonight, a beautiful orb hovering low over the woods. Luke also recognized the same pinpricks of starlight he’d been used to seeing back home. But the stars seemed dimmer here, overshadowed by a glow on the horizon beyond the woods. Luke puzzled over that glow— it was in the wrong part of the sky to be the sunset What else was that bright?
Luke remembered that Jen’s dad had said the school was near a city Could a city have lights that bright, that shone this far?
“I don’t know anything,” Luke whispered to himself. He’d thought that coming out of hiding would expose him to the world, teach him everything. But being at Hendricks seemed like just another way to hide.
A light flashed in the woods just then, and Luke realized he didn’t have time to hesitate. He’d planned to creep across the lawn, but the moonlight was so bright, he worried about being seen. He decided to take his chances with running.
Nobody yelled. Nobody hissed, “Get away from here!”
Luke reached the edge of the woods and hid behind a tree. Then he cautiously moved up to the next tree. And the next one. The light swung erratically, just ahead.
Luke wished he’d taken the time to explore the woods, to get his bearings. He was terrified of walking straight into a tree, stepping in some big hole or tripping over a stump. He banged his shin and had to bite his lip to keep from crying out. He stepped in something squishy and almost fell. He wondered if he was traveling in circles.
Then he heard voices. a — hate nature—”
‘Yeah, well, you find a better place to meet—”
Luke crept closer. And closer. A strangely familiar voice was giving a long explanation: “—it’s just your fear of the outdoors cropping up again. You’ve got to overcome it, you know?”
“Easy for you to say,” someone else grumbled.
Luke was close enough now to see the backs of several heads. He dared to edge up to the next tree and peek out. Eight boys were sitting in a semicircle around a small, dim, portable lantern. Suddenly another light flashed on the other side of the group of boys. A twig cracked. Luke ducked back behind the tree.
“So what’s with the emergency meeting?”
It was a girl’s voice.
Luke inhaled sharply.
Jen…
It wasn’t Jen, of course. When Luke dared to look out again, he saw a tall, scrawny girl with two pale, thin braids hanging on either side of her face. Jen had been shorter, more muscular, her brown hair cut short as a boy’s. But just to hear a girl’s voice again made Luke feel strange. It kept him from doing any of the crazy things he’d half-planned: leaping from behind the tree and screaming accusations, pretending to be a ghost haunting the woods, finding some way to exact revenge.
All he could do now was listen.
“Sorry to disturb the princesses of Harlow,” a male voice was answering mockingly.
Luke knew he knew that voice. He peered out. Yes. Of course.
Jackal boy.
“It’s the new kid,” jackal boy was saying. “He’s acting weird.”
“Weird?” the girl’s voice replied. “He’s a boy, right? Isn’t weirdness just kind of required?”
There were giggles. Luke squinted into the darkness. He thought there were three or four other girls beside the girl with braids.
“Quit being such an exnay,” jackal boy said. “Exnay and proud of it,” the girl retorted. Luke listened harder, as though that would help him make sense of their words. Who would be proud of being an “exnay”? If he’d learned anything at Hendricks, it was that “exnay” was one of the worst insults you could hurl at anybody.
“Yeah, yeah. I don’t see you announcing it anywhere but in the dark, in the woods, when nobody’s around,” jackal boy taunted.
“So you’re admitting you’re nobody?” the girl said.
One of the boys beside jackal boy made a frustrated grunt “Why do we bother talking to them?” he asked.
Luke saw jackal boy dig his elbow into the other boy’s ribs.
“I’ll be noble and ignore that,” jackal boy said loftily to the girl. “Naturally, we don’t expect you to offer us any assistance in this matter. But we thought it was in everybody’s best interest to keep you informed.”
The girl sat down, and the other girls followed her lead.
“So inform us.”
“The new boy—” jackal boy started.
“Has he got a name?” the girl interrupted.
“He’s registered as Lee Grant,” jackal boy said.
Luke noticed how he said that. “Registered as.. “ Not, “His name is. .“ Did jackal boy suspect?
“I looked him up,” jackal boy continued. “His dad’s in charge of National Gas and Electric. Filthy rich. And he’s switched schools a lot”
“That could fit,” the girl said.
“But he doesn’t seem like he has autism or any of the other disorders. I don’t think he’s even agoraphobic.”
Luke didn’t even try to puzzle out the unfamiliar words. Jackal boy was still talking.
“Trey over there saw him coming in from outside this afternoon.”
“He was outside?” the girl asked. She sounded amazed, maybe even impressed. “Out here? In the woods? During the day?”
“Don’t know,” jackal boy said. Luke felt almost triumphant at the note of misery in the boy’s voice. But Luke was confused. Had jackal boy and his friends destroyed the garden without even knowing it belonged to Luke? Or was jackal boy lying?
