Maria was walking slowly toward Ryan when her foot caught on the edge of the carpet and she fell onto Mateo’s outstretched legs.

“Whoa, there, whoa.” Mateo laughed as he caught her. “I think Princess’s had enough party for tonight.”

Had Maria done that on purpose? Lily honestly couldn’t tell. Maria was a very, very good actress.

“Oh, come on, she doesn’t get out of her dare just because she’s drunk,” Delilah whined. “Everybody’s drunk.”

“How about if Maria does an alternative dare,” Mateo said. “She can, like, name all fifty states in alphabetical order in under three minutes.”

“That’s the most boring dare ever.” Delilah groaned.

Maria sat up. “Alabama, Alaska, Arizona . . .”

It was actually kind of funny, since Maria had just chugged a beer and kept hiccuping. She got tripped up on Delaware and Iowa, and everyone counted down at the end to make sure she really did it in three minutes. When she was done, she was flushed and giggly.

“Austin,” she said. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.” Austin didn’t hesitate.

“I dare you to tell us the scariest story you’ve ever heard.”

“Whooo!” A bunch of people giggled.

Austin didn’t laugh. “You don’t want me to do that, Princess.”

“What’s the matter, Austin?” Tamika whispered. “You scared of ghosts?”

Austin still didn’t laugh.

“I’ve got a scary story!” Delilah said. “This one time, I went running by the lake at night and —”

“Wait, wait, Maria just said to tell a scary story,” Kei interrupted. “Not about something that happened to you.”

“But it was scary!” Delilah said. “It was the scariest story ever!”

“You did not go out running by the lake at night,” Tamika said. “No one goes out to the lake at night. Besides, the security guards would catch you.”

“No, I totally did it,” Delilah said. “It was a couple of years ago. All of a sudden it got really cold, like, out of nowhere, and then I heard someone else run past me. He totally brushed my sleeve. Which was weird, because I hadn’t seen anyone else running. And when I turned to see who it was, there was no one there!”

“Dun-dun-DUN!” Kei whispered loudly. Everyone, even the boys, dissolved into giggles.

Lily closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like if she really could get rid of everyone else and have the whole world to herself. Her and Maria.

If only there were a way . . .

3

HOURS DREADFUL AND THINGS STRANGE

For the life of him, Mateo couldn’t figure out what the hell Maria was doing.

She was still sitting next to him from when she’d fallen, but she was scribbling on a notepad now. Off to one side, in the dark, where the others wouldn’t see.