First We Were IV
Page 33
While I never go to the barn, my feet take me to the rock often. I sit up top, right where Goldilocks rested, by the three indents my ax left. Or right at the edge that fell out from under Harry. I think about space and time and Harry’s planets, where there’s probably a boy a lot like him going on living—the same and different—and that makes me miss him a little less.
I’ve also solved the riddle of the meteorite, which is probably the first thing I’ll tell Graham when I see him again. The meteorite had an impact radius. It was just delayed a hundred thousand years.
When I lie up there, under a watchful moon, I pretend that I’m Graham and I think back about the Order of IV in the way he probably does. I linger over the ideas that moved us to fight. Their power. What we risked for them.
My pretend moves on to Viv. She considers the Order a Greek tragedy, us its imperfect heroes, fatally flawed, in the performance of our lives. She closes her eyes to conjure up the costumes, rituals, and pageantry.
At last, I think about what Harry would care most about. The just purpose of the Order. How lucky we all were to have one another. How the four of us were as much family as blood can make you. How you protect your family.
And then lastly, I try to figure out what I believe. What was the Order? A pageant? Experiment? Rebellion? Mistake? What does it matter?
All that counts is this:
The four of us met.
Loved one another.
Danced under a blood moon.
Shared our secrets, though too few and too late.
And for a time, together, our friendship was a universe.
Retrieved from the cellular phone of Harrison Rocha
Transcript and notes prepared by Badge #821891
Shared Media Folder Titled: IV, Tues., Oct. 29, 2:56 p.m.
Video start.
H. Rocha stares at the camera. Rocky bluffs rise up behind him. The sound of the ocean is loud. The camera is unsteady, shaking.
“You’re going to think that I called us off because I was trying to protect you, Izzie.” He passes a shaking hand through his hair. “You’re going to be pissed and you’ll probably call me paternalistic again.” A soft laugh. “I’m not trying to protect you. I’m trying to keep you from protecting me. I’ve got to figure out how to keep you away because I know you, Isadora. You’ll be there, getting right in the middle, stopping him. And I can’t have him stopped until he’s done his damage.
“If Graham’s holding you back, he won’t be able to pull Conner off me, once Conner’s gotten his hits in. I don’t know how else to do this. How to handle Conner. I’ve tried everything. Pretending his words don’t hurt. Striking back at him—keying that car of his. Ignoring him. Bearing it.” His eyes unfocus. He gives his head a jolt. “I’m afraid.” He’s barely audible over the waves. “No one wants to get their ass handed to them. But I guess we live in the kind of fucked-up world where guys like Conner win.
“I won’t let him, though. I’m doing this so he gets held accountable. For something. I’m doing this so that one of the guys who jumped my dad gets in trouble.” He stares at the camera. Birds call from beyond the lens. “I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do. And people don’t do that enough.”
Video stop.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© VIVIAN SACHS
alexandra sirowy is the author of the young adult thrillers The Creeping and The Telling. Alexandra attended a women’s college for her undergraduate work in international relations and later received her graduate degree in international studies with emphasis on the Middle East. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys traveling, cooking, reading, and exploring the foothills and woods near the Northern California home she and her husband share with their dog.
Simon & Schuster · New York
visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Alexandra-Sirowy
Also by
ALEXANDRA SIROWY
The Creeping
The Telling
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2017 by Alexandra Sirowy
Jacket illustrations © 2017 by Steven Bonner / D8
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The text for this book was set in Berling.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sirowy, Alexandra, author.
Title: First we were IV / Alexandra Sirowy.
Other titles: First we were four
Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2017] | Summary: Hoping to ensure their friendship will outlast high school, Izzie and her friends form a secret society devoted to mischief that rights wrongs and pays back debts, but it spirals out of control when the whole town wants to participate.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016044586| ISBN 9781481478427 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481478441 (ebook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Best friends—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Secret societies—Fiction. | High schools—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Conduct of life—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. | JUVENILE FICTION / Legends, Myths, Fables / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Mysteries & Detective Stories.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.S57 Fir 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016044586