Jackie’s tight shoulders loosened as Peter’s voice broke the tension.
“Apparently Isabella’s family was vacationing in Pelle Cove the same time my uncle was.” Peter’s voice flowed so delicately from the back seat that Jackie had to focus to make out what he was saying. “It started raining, and she got pulled in by the current. Her family was busy panicking over their drenched towels and it was Nicholas who rushed into the water to save her. He grabbed a buoy that hung from the side of the empty lifeguard tower and swam out to her. But my uncle—he didn’t make it back. He was only thirty-two.”
Jackie blinked. Her mind was blank.
“That’s sad, but it’s no excuse for making her cry,” Kat said. “Nicholas died saving her. Have you ever stopped and thought about how guilty Isabella must have felt?”
Peter didn’t move from the back seat. He was a rock. Inanimate.
“Of course you didn’t.” Kat scoffed. “Moral Moon, huh? When do you ever look in the mirror?”
Peter’s head tapped against the back seat window. “More than you think.”
“Dude.” Jackie had pried open her dry lips, but the words struggled to break loose from her mind. “You really can’t blame him.” Her voice croaked, resisting the fact that she was defending Peter Moon, the same boy who had written such horrible entries on his blog about the students at Brookwood. He had even made an innocent girl cry, but for some reason, Jackie took his side.
“Yep. I get it.” Kat’s blazing emerald eyes locked on Jackie’s with a snap. “He had a reason to be mad, but you act like he’s changed. You act like he’s somehow better now than he used to be. But no—he’s still like that. He still says whatever the hell he wants. You’ve read his blog, right?”
Eager to escape Kat’s threatening gaze, Jackie cast her focus to the back seat. Peter still had his head rested against the window. Yeah, I’ve read his blog. Peter’s breaths were unsteady, chest rising and falling in hiccups. But something’s off about Moral Moon.
“Isn’t that right, Peter?” A huff escaped Kat’s downturned lips. “You hate everyone, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Peter unglued his head from the window and stared at the back of Kat’s headrest. “I do.”
Jackie searched his expression as though a single feature of his face might give her a clue as to who he really was. It was like Peter wanted Kat to hate him. Like he wanted to be seen as a horrible person. Her head flashed with images of the notes students had written across Peter’s locker. They despised him. They all did. But maybe they were missing something.
Peter’s focus hopped to Jackie, catching her stare. She faced the windshield and twisted the car key with a gulp.
The engine rumbled.
“He’s been sick since 2004.” That’s what her classmate had said in Mr. Berkshire’s class this morning before Peter arrived late. The boy with the golden glasses implied that Peter had been sick his entire life, that he had something innately wrong with him, but what was wrong? His sickness—was it really being judgmental?
Jackie wrapped her hands around the steering wheel. “I need some dry clothes.”
“Good idea.” Kat reached into her backpack resting on the car floor and raised her head with Jackie’s phone in her hand. “I’ll find something downtown.”
Jackie backed the SUV out of the parking space. The lab rats were back in action.
Back in the maze.
Jackie stepped out of the car, her damp clothes leaving her miserable in the chilly Ravensburg air. They had driven ten minutes from the shore and into the town center of Ravensburg, but the air here smelled even more like the ocean than at Pelle Cove, most likely a result of the nearby restaurant grilling fish on an outdoor barbecue.
“Trust me guys, we don’t wanna test the game.” Despite the bright sun above them and the lack of trees, the ocean breeze left Ravensburg much colder than Brookwood. With a shaky hand Jackie slipped a few coins she’d found in the cupholder of the SUV into the parking meter, kicking it up to nothing but five minutes. “Let’s make this quick.”
Jackie had managed to claim a parking space in front of a thrift store called Closets & Beyond, which was great luck considering how every other space in sight was occupied. For a beach town as quaint as Ravensburg, it sure was popular. People of all ages—young children to seniors—scattered the cobblestone sidewalks and chattered peacefully. They dressed like they were headed to fancy dinners, which they probably were. Ravensburg was not only a popular tourist attraction for artists like painters and poets, but also a hot spot for nearby Brookwood residents seeking a celebratory meal someplace new.
“Oh relax a little.” Peter leapt over the edge of the sidewalk, spun around, and entered through the double-doors of Closets & Beyond with a smirk. Jackie was glad to know he wasn’t planning to mope around for the next two levels because of the last memory they’d seen, but she also didn’t understand his sudden change in mood. Peter had never been this laid-back before.
The inside of Closets & Beyond was not at all what Jackie had imagined. She’d pictured salmon-pink walls with dusty curtains draped over the windows, flickering lights, and cheap clothes on mismatching hangers. Instead, the room had cream walls with bright lights—including fairy lights surrounding the various black-framed mirrors—and color-coded clothes on rows of glittering silver racks. The young lady at the counter greeted her with a warm smile despite the fact that Jackie’s pants were half-soaked.
Money is money, Jackie supposed.
By the time she found a rack of pants her size, Peter had already snatched a bundle of clothes and disappeared through a door by a wall of mirrors labeled men’s dressing room in fancy cursive on a mini blackboard sign. Jackie rolled her eyes and turned to the prices on the clothes. This was a thrift store? She couldn’t find one item under thirty dollars.
Of course. Only in Ravensburg could used clothing be pricier than they were at the mall in Downtown Brookwood.
Kat was too distracted to help Jackie choose something to buy. She ran her hands along a row of yellow tops, searching for something that might suit her.
Jackie found a pair of sweatpants for the on sale price of twenty-eight dollars. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the cheapest item in the store, so she clung to the hanger with an iron grip as she removed it from the rack.
“Hey Jackie.” Peter returned from the dressing room with a new set of clothes on. “What do you think?”
Now wearing a pair of khaki pants with a striped orange and blue polo, Peter didn’t look at all like Peter Moon anymore, who typically wore jeans and a plain t-shirt. From Jackie’s memory of Peter in Mr. Berkshire’s class, he never put too much effort into his clothing, so seeing him in such a polished outfit almost tricked her mind into believing he was a different person.
“Isn’t it awful? I look like one of those guys who wears non-prescription glasses.” Peter grabbed a pair of clear-rimmed glasses from a nearby rack and held a peace sign in the air. “Now all I have to do is dye my hair silver and sign up for TikTok.”
The desk clerk, previously trapped within the world of her smartphone, raised her chin to see what Peter was wearing. “I think it looks great on you.” She headed out from around the counter and slipped her phone into her back pocket. “Maybe switch to a different color for the shirt though. The orange clashes with the khaki a bit.”
“Oh, I wasn’t actually—”
“Here, this one looks like it could be a better match.” She pulled a hanger from the nearest rack. Of course Closets & Beyond had to have good service too. Considering how insanely overpriced it was, customers had to be paying for something of value.
Jackie headed for the counter, stopping when she realized that her wallet was still in her backpack. The backpack she’d left in the Riderr earlier.
“Bro.” Jackie took a few steps over to the rack of yellow shirts. �
�You have cash on you?”
Kat clicked the hanger she held back onto the rack. With the clerk still focused on Peter, she swung her backpack off one shoulder and motioned for Jackie to shove the sweatpants inside.
The desk clerk now had three potential shirt options for Peter hanging on her left arm. She stood facing the opposite direction, so the timing was perfect, but Jackie couldn’t do it.
“Hurry up,” Kat whispered.
Jackie shook her head with wide eyes.
“You know what?” Peter stretched the polo’s fabric from its bottom hem. “You’re right. The orange and khaki looks pretty weird.”
Jackie nearly gasped when Kat snatched the sweatpants from her grip. She stuffed them into her backpack and coughed to conceal the sound of zipping it back up. The thought of stealing had never seriously crossed Jackie’s mind before, and as much as she wanted to speak against it, she knew it’d only lead to more trouble, so she stepped back and gulped down her morals. It wasn’t like any of this would matter after beating the game anyway.
“Hey Peter,” Kat called from across the room.
Both Peter and the clerk looked over.
“We’re not seeing anything. We’ll wait for you in the car.”
Peter’s cheeks drained of color as he spotted Jackie’s empty hands. “Uh—sure.” He raised his eyes to meet Jackie’s, and she nodded slowly to assure him that his worst fear was correct.
As Jackie and Kat walked through the entrance of Closets & Beyond, the alarms blared.
Kat peered at her feet and cursed under her breath. “Open it!” She sprinted across the sidewalk to the SUV.
The store clerk burst through the front doors and scanned the long sidewalk, probably thinking they’d run somewhere further. Jackie unlocked the SUV and disappeared into the driver’s seat, heart pounding.
“Of course they had concealed security at a thrift store.” Kat was about to use her seat belt, but she paused and let go of the strap. “Damn these rich people.”
The engine roared as Jackie turned the key. “What about Peter?” She wrapped her trembling fingers around the steering wheel.
“Who cares?”
The clerk noticed them through the windshield and headed toward the SUV. Jackie backed out of the parking space without checking the mirrors first, nearly running into oncoming traffic. A van beeped behind her, and she stopped just in time.
“She’s trying to get behind us.”
Jackie focused on pulling out onto the main road. The string of cars was never-ending. “But Peter—”
“We’ll deal with it later. Now go!”
A car stopped, pausing the traffic to allow Jackie time to back out. She zoomed in reverse. With a sharp turn of the steering wheel, she straightened the car out onto the main road and accelerated past the speed limit, ignoring the pedestrians waiting for their turn to cross the street. Reflected in her rearview mirror was the desk clerk who stood in the empty parking space with a phone raised in her hands.
“She’s taking a photo of our license plate.” Kat laughed as she faced the front. “That’s classic. She thinks it’s our car.”
Jackie found herself smiling. “You’re so bad.”
“Says the girl driving.”
The next light turned red, and Jackie stopped. There were enough cars stacked behind her that she wasn’t concerned about the clerk anymore. She loosened her hands on the steering wheel. “Okay, so what about Peter?”
“He’s not stupid. He can outrun her. We’ll just call him and pick him up from wherever he is.”
Jackie frowned at Kat. The car behind her honked, pointing out that the light had already turned green. Jackie reverted her focus to the road and pressed her foot onto the gas pedal.
“Oh. You don’t have his number either, do you?” Kat pulled her phone from the side of her backpack. “I might be able to find someone who can…” Her phone slammed into the dashboard before striking the floor. Jackie nearly swerved at the sound of pounding against the passenger seat window. Peter ran along the side of the car, managing to keep up due to the slow traffic.
“Open the doors.” Kat shouted. “Open the doors!”
Jackie slowly came to a stop in the middle of the road and unlocked the SUV. The driver behind her threw his arms up in frustration. She clenched her teeth, waiting for Peter to hurry inside.
Peter jumped into the back seat, still wearing the same clothes he’d tried on in the store. “Are you guys crazy?” He slammed the door behind him as Jackie moved the SUV forward. “We just shoplifted.”
Kat smiled. “No shit, Sherlock.”
“Kat, no. It’s not funny.” Peter clicked his seat belt on. “That’s a crime, you know.”
“It was her idea, not mine.” Jackie pressed her foot on the brakes, stopping at a crosswalk for a surge of pedestrians.
“Don’t act like you’re not happy.” Kat lifted her backpack from the floorboard and unzipped it. “You got your sweatpants, just like you wanted.” She pulled the stolen item out of her backpack and bit the tag off with her teeth.
“Looks like you’ve done this before.” Peter blew a deep breath toward the SUV’s headliner. “Kat Pike—professional drama queen, aspiring Instagram influencer, climate change activist, and shoplifter. Should’ve seen that one coming.”
Kat threw the tags into the empty compartment of the passenger seat door. “Just gives you a nice little adrenaline rush when you need it, you know?”
“No.” Peter huffed. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Oh stop being so sour about it. Our lives are at stake and we have far bigger things to worry about than a little stolen item here and there.” Kat pushed her backpack onto the floorboard and leaned against the window. “Besides, you guys needed the clothes and that place set their prices way too high. Like, scam kinda high.”
“I needed new clothes? No, that was Jackie. Not me. Now I look like a nerd who butters popcorn at the movie theater. And take a look at this crap.” Peter took off his non-prescription glasses and tossed them onto the floorboard. “Fifty-nine dollars and I ran off with them. Do you know how scary it was to run out of the store after the clerk left to find you? I thought she’d be waiting right outside to catch me or something. But no—then I literally had to chase down the car because you guys go driving off without me. You had me go through all that, and for what? This cheap-looking getup?”
Kat shrugged. “I think it looks nice on you.”
That seemed to shut him up.
The trio eventually escaped the luxurious town center of Ravensburg. The long string of cars they’d once been trapped in had now emptied out into gated neighborhoods with two-story homes.
“We have to figure out where to go next.” Jackie wiggled her toes, a reminder of her damp socks and jeans. “But I need to change first.”
“Ooh, there’s an ice cream shop a few minutes down the road.” Kat pointed through a tunnel of trees ahead of them. “You can change in the bathroom or something, and I could really use a snack right about now.”
Jackie readjusted her grip on the steering wheel. “You don’t think we’ll get caught?”
“Most likely not,” Peter said. “I doubt a small shoplifting crime gets a police force sent on the case.”
“That’s the spirit.” Kat looked over her shoulder. “You’re finally talking some sense, Your Majesty.”
“Oh shut up.” Peter’s voice held a foreign kindness to it, and for some reason Jackie imagined him smiling.
DEAR STRANGER
I only met you once before you left on vacation
A brief meeting, but it changed me
I discovered who you were from the stories of others
And the impact you left behind when you disappeared from our lives
Sometimes I wonder if your vacation has been meaningful
I wonder if you ever get homesick
Even if home makes you sick
Sometimes I think of having my own vacation
A long one, like yours
And as I wonder where you went
When you left on vacation
That day
I wonder where I will go
For mine
15:22:54
JACKIE EMERGED FROM the ice cream parlor bathroom with her old jeans draped over her arms. Her feet were awkward in her slightly damp shoes, but it was still a huge upgrade from her previous situation. Kat prompted Jackie to throw the clothes into her backpack and slid a bowl of strawberry ice cream in front of one of the empty seats. “Wasn’t sure what you wanted.”
“Perfect choice.” Jackie sat at the table. “Thanks.”
When they’d first entered the ice cream parlor, Jackie had been too focused on getting changed to appreciate its unique atmosphere. The surface area of the walls were more glass than wood, the windows embracing the dark shadows of the surrounding trees. To combat the cold air outside, the heater was set so high Jackie worried her ice cream might melt before she could finish it, and many of the occupied chairs had jackets hanging on them. She held her hair in a ponytail with her free hand, an attempt to cool her sweaty neck.
“So while you were in there, Peter was telling me about some rumors.”
“From when you disappeared?” Jackie let go of her hair and took a bite of strawberry ice cream.
“Yeah, the stuff you told me on the way to Cherry Ice earlier.” Peter gestured to Kat. “I still can’t believe people thought we ran away together.”
“I’m sure they had rumors far worse than that, Moral Peter Moon.” Kat scooped a spoon of strawberry ice cream into her mouth with a grin.
Jackie’s tight shoulders relaxed at their bickering, not because they were bickering, but because they were bickering the right way. Their words held no malice toward each other. It was equally as hard to believe Peter was the same boy who ran such a horrible blog as it was to believe Kat was the same girl who hated him for doing so.
Capsule Page 14
