Neither of them had evidently gotten to Bryce, anyway, since the next words out of his mouth were, ‘This weekend, then. What are you doing Saturday night?’

I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to get involved with a guy whose dead girlfriend was trying to kill him. I mean, what if she found out and resented me for it? I was sure Father Dominic wouldn’t think it was very cool, me going out with Bryce.

Then again, how often did a girl like me get asked out by a totally hot guy like Bryce Martinson?

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Saturday it is. Pick me up at seven?’

He grinned. He had very nice teeth, white and even. ‘Seven,’ he said, letting go of my coat. ‘See you then. If not before.’

‘See you then.’ I stood with my hand on the door to Sister Mary Catherine’s geometry class. ‘Oh, and Bryce.’

He had started down the breezeway, towards his own classroom. ‘Yeah?’

‘Watch your back.’

I think he winked at me, but it was kind of hard to tell in the shade.

Nine

When I climbed into the Rambler at the end of the day, Doc was all over me. ‘Everybody’s talking about it!’ he cried, bouncing up and down on the seat. ‘Everybody saw it! You saved that guy’s life! You saved Bryce Martinson’s life!’

‘I didn’t save his life,’ I said, calmly twisting the rear view mirror so I could see how my hair looked. Perfect. Salt air definitely agrees with me.

‘You did so. I saw that big chunk of wood. If that’d landed on his head, it’ve killed him! You saved him, Suze. You really did.’

‘Well.’ I rubbed a little gloss into my lips. ‘Maybe.’

‘God, you’ve only been at the Mission one day, and already you’re the most popular girl in school!’

Doc was completely unable to contain himself. Sometimes I wondered whether Ritalin might have been the answer. Not that I didn’t like the kid. In fact, I liked him best out of all of Andy’s boys – which I realize is not saying much, but it’s all I’ve got. It had been Doc who, just the night before, had come to me while I’d been trying to decide what to wear my first day at school and asked me, his face very pale, if I was sure I didn’t want to trade bedrooms with him.

I’d looked at him like he was nuts. Doc had a nice room, and everything, but please. Give up my private bath and sea view? No way. Not even if it meant ridding myself of my unwanted room-mate, Jesse, whom I hadn’t actually heard from since I’d told him to get the hell out.

‘What on earth makes you think I’d want to give up my room?’ I asked him.

Doc shrugged. ‘Just that . . . well, this room’s kinda creepy, don’t you think?’

I stared at him. You should have seen my room just then. With the bedside lamp on, casting a cheerful pink glow over everything, and my CD player belting out Janet Jackson – loud enough that my mother had shouted twice for me to turn it down – creepy was the last thing anyone would have called my room. ‘Creepy?’ I echoed, looking around. No sign of Jesse. No sign of anything at all undead. We were quite firmly in the realm of the living. ‘What’s creepy about it?’