Confused, I looked around and saw people hastily scribbling notes. All except Hayden. He looked like he was taking a nap. By the time I figured out we were supposed to write down the notes, Coach flipped to the next screen.
The rest of the class went like that. By the end, I was pretty sure Hayden had slept through most of it and that Cory suffered from some sort of hyperactivity disorder.
Hayden waited for me in the hallway after class. His eyes dropped to the load of books in my arms.
“You’re not taking all your books home, are you?”
“No. I have to go to my locker.”
“Meet me outside?”
“Sure,” I headed off toward my locker, which seemed strategically placed on the other side of the school.
I fumbled with the lock until it popped open on the third try. One of the books I tossed in slid out and hit the floor by my feet. It was my math book, ridiculously huge and unnecessary. I hated trig.
I bent over to pick up the book and froze. My mind rebelled. It must be a stuffed animal—someone’s idea of a horrible joke. It just couldn’t be what it looked like.
The smell of rust and death proved me wrong.
Lying at the bottom of my locker was a rabbit—a bunny rabbit, actually—the kind I’d wanted for a pet as a kid. It was the same kind Olivia would’ve loved to snuggle, all fluffy and soft-looking.
But the tuffs of white fur now were stained red.
Its stomach had been torn open; the insides looked jellylike. The rabbit had to be a fake, because this…
I covered my mouth, but it couldn’t stop the horrified scream from escaping. Time stopped, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to have Olivia’s gift. I wanted to reach inside that locker and bring the poor bunny back.
“Ms. McWilliams, are you okay?”
The voiced snapped me out of the daze. I jerked back from the locker, breathing heavily.
“Ember, what’s going…” Mr. Theo trailed off when his eyes fell into the locker. “Is this some kind of joke?”
Nausea built up in my stomach. “I don’t know.”
“Okay.” Mr. Theo turned, about to place his hand on my shoulder, but he stopped short. He pulled back, shaking his head. “Don’t look at it.”
“Why would someone do that?”
“Has anyone been giving you a hard time here?” He looked back into the locker.
“No. I don’t know anyone here.” But I could think of three people right off who didn’t like me. But did any of them dislike me enough to gut a poor rabbit? I shuddered. God, I hoped not. Whoever’d done this was messed up, really messed up.
I wanted to hurl.
“Are you sure, Ember? People, well, people just don’t do that.”
The sound of footsteps echoed through the empty hall, drawing my attention. Hayden stalked down the hallway. “What’s taking you so…” His words faded off as he halted beside me. “Ember, are you okay?”
I pointed at my locker, pretty sure if I opened up my mouth I’d vomit.
“Holy crap.” Hayden stepped forward, eyes narrowing. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Mr. Cromwell, do you have any idea who would do this?” Suspicion colored Mr. Theo’s words.
Hayden’s head snapped up, his eyes burning. I swore the temperature in the hallway skyrocketed.
“No, but I’d like to know who did.”
“As would I,” Mr. Theo said.
“I want a new locker.” My voice came out small, but it stopped both of them.
Theo cleared his throat. “That can be done. I’ll talk to the principal and get you reassigned, but that doesn’t address this issue here. Who would put this in your locker?”
I had my suspicions, but it wasn’t like I could voice them—not with my English teacher standing there.
Mr. Theo continued asking questions I didn’t have any answers to, and all I wanted was to get away from the locker, away from what was in there.
“Can you take care of this?” Hayden asked. “I’d like to get Ember out of here.”
“Yes, but I want to know if anything like this happens again,” Mr. Theo said. I looked at him and nodded. “Okay. I’ll get this cleaned up.”
Hayden picked up my books and cradled them under one arm. “Let’s get out of here,” he said in the softest voice I’d ever heard.
We left Mr. Theo to deal with the rabbit. A few minutes later, we stood outside his car. The walk had been silent. In my mind, I kept seeing the poor bunny. What Hayden thought, I had no idea. Only after he’d dumped my books on the backseat and pried the strap to my backpack away from my fingers, did he speak.
“Are you okay?”
What was I supposed to say? Yes. No. It wasn’t every day I found a slaughtered white rabbit in my locker. “It’s just so sick. Who would want to do that to an animal? No one knows me here. I mean, at my old school, I’d kinda expect something bizarre, but here? No one knows me except…”
“Except us.” Anger shone in his eyes like tiny flames. “Ember, I know what you’re thinking, but none of us would’ve done something like that.”
I slumped back against the car, staring up at him. “Then who would’ve?”
Hayden looked away, drawing in a deep breath. “Ember—”
“Kurt doesn’t want me here. You heard him! And Phoebe hates me. Who else would want to do that?
And why? To freak me out? Make me leave? Or draw attention…” I trailed off, heart dropping. “Oh my God, you can’t let your father know.”
“What?” He faced me. “We have to tell him. Someone cut up a rabbit and shoved it in your locker. He needs to know about this.”
“No.” I hugged my elbows, shivering. “Please promise me you won’t. He’ll think I said or did something. Then he’d… he’d send me off. Make me go away.”
“Ember, he’s not going to—” I pushed off the car. “Please. Hayden, please don’t tell him. I’m all Olivia really has. Please.” My voice cracked, and I looked away, embarrassed. “She’s all I have.”
Hayden made a soft noise deep in his throat. Then he clasped my elbows and pulled me right up against him. His arms carefully snaked around my waist, trapping me in a hug.
It could have been the bunny. Hell, it could’ve been the last two years that suddenly made me want to stay in Hayden’s embrace. Surely—
Or how hard his chest felt under the sweater… or how perfectly I fit against him. And he was a chivalrous type of guy. Right? He wanted to help me control my gift, as ridiculous as that sounded. Comfort—he offered comfort, and I needed to remember that. His arms around my waist made it hard, really hard to keep that in mind, though.
“Okay.” Hayden’s breath stirred the hair around my ear. “Even though I think I should tell him, I won’t. But I will figure out who did this.”
“Emmie, I made this for you!”
I pulled my gaze from the television as Olivia shoved a sheet of construction paper at me. She’d done a drawing of what I assumed was her and me… and Ms. Liz. “Oh… this is really nice.”
“This is you.” She pointed at the stick figure with enormous red curly marks and blue eyes. “And this is Ms. Liz.”
Did my hair really look like that? I ran a hand over my head, feeling a bit like Little Orphan Annie.
“See how we’re holding hands?” she pointed out.
“Yeah.”
“I see the three of us holding hands.”
That was as likely as—I looked up, my fingers tightening around the paper. “What do you mean you
