“She’s not, I mean—Aysha and I, we took Katya…” Snap, snap, snap goes the bracelet. Sini clears her throat and tosses her head back. “We had to see the nurse, okay, and we would’ve noticed if Natalie was there.”

“None of this makes any sense! And why are the teachers dodging our questions?” I start gnawing on a fingernail—a bad habit I ditched over a year ago.

“Maybe they just don’t want to admit they’re clueless,” Sini says.

“Hey, you wrote that article about the norovirus, right?” Morgan asks as he hands back the sigil papers.

“You read it?”

“I did, but do you know how many people are actually sick? Your article didn’t list names or anything.”

“Joakim thought it was better I didn’t since people would want to blame a patient zero, you know.” She lifts a thin shoulder in an approximation of a shrug. “I know a few like Elijah and Qendresa got sick. A sixth grader called Peter.” She taps her chin with her index finger. “Also Risto, he’s your brother’s friend, right?” She looks at me.

“Yeah, he is.” Or at least he was the last time I bothered to pay any attention to my brother’s social life.

“Do you know who got sick first?” I ask.

“No, by the time I wrote the article, there were already a lot of kids puking, apparently. That’s why I was asked to write it in the first place.”

“You were asked to write it?” Morgan frowns. “By Joakim?”

“No, by—” Her face goes blank. “I can’t—I don’t think it was Joakim. I’m sorry.”

Weird.

“But why? Five sick kids isn’t exactly a pandemic,” Morgan says.

“Why lie about something like that?” Sini asks.

“Exactly.” Morgan makes that popping sound with his index fingers again.

“Something strange is definitely going on. Did you notice anyone in the infirmary?” I ask. “Risto, Peter, Qendresa, Manami?”

Sini shakes her head. “Only one of the Strigoi picking up iron supplements. I don’t think any of the beds were occupied.”

“So the others might be missing too. We really need to find Natalie,” I say.

“If you need help, I mean, if you wanted—I care about Natalie too, you know,” Sini says.

“Thanks. But we’ve got this.” I nod toward Morgan, knowing Sini isn’t going to argue with me in front of him.

“Will you let me know if you hear anything about Natalie?” she asks.

“If you promise to do the same.”

Sini nods and adds an “I promise” as the bell rings. Cursing, she hurries back to Kaneda’s classroom.

“What now?” Morgan asks.

“Honestly? I have no idea, but I should probably go to class.”

“Really?” He seems genuinely surprised.