Seconds pass, and the air between us thickens. If you ignited a flame, I swear it would spread like the fires devouring the Amazon. I don’t get this guy. Not in the slightest.

And I really don’t understand why my older self set him in my path. If it weren’t for her interference, he and I would’ve traveled down our separate roads, happily unaware of each other’s existence.

Why? Why throw me together with the most exasperating guy in school?

Think, Alice. Be smart. My older self made me confess to being in love with Bandit.

She said my mission is to stop the person who will one day decimate the world.

She believes that framing Lalana will help us with that goal.

Bandit might be in love with Lalana.

Therefore…what? What is the answer? I don’t know. Problem is, I have too few puzzle pieces—and none of them are adjoining.

One thing is clear, though. Until I have more answers, I need to stay away from him.

“Thanks for the sanitizer.” I step back, stumbling over my own feet. “I’ve gotta go. Errand, you know. Or a test. Something. See ya!”

With this incoherent bit of dialogue, I run away from Bandit. For the second time in two days.

Oh well. I can’t dwell on what he must think of me. I need to find out what happened to Lalana.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

My triumph at cutting short my interaction with Bandit lasts, oh, about three minutes—the time it takes me to leave him and get back to class. Everybody everywhere is gossiping about Lalana. She wasn’t the only student pulled out by the principal. The dogs also found contraband in the locker of Lee’s smoking buddy, Scotty Spellman. If there were ever a candidate for a world-ending villain, Scotty would be it. The curl of his lip, the way his eyes rake over my body, never fail to give me the heebie-jeebies.

In contrast, Lalana is…was…a model citizen. I should know. She’s only had one sip of alcohol ever, and that was a spiked punch at her parents’ Loi Krahtong party. One day, Lalana promised, we’ll celebrate this holiday in Thailand together. We’ll launch banana-leaf boats into the water on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month. She’ll pose, I’ll take photos—and we’ll publish the images in National Geographic.

Now it’s looking less and less likely that particular dream will ever come true.

“Did you know Lalana was smoking up?” Gabi asks as soon as I slide into my seat for history class, her eyes taking up half her face.

“It’s always the quiet ones.” Isabelle flips her frizzy hair over her shoulder.

Micah looks up from his notebook. “I heard she’s been covertly dealing for years.”