It feels like one of my veins is going to pop out of my head. It’s been a while since I was in a fight—a real fight. Since the Mogs took over the school. And even then, I spent half the time hiding in a classroom with Sarah. Part of me wants to unleash on Kevin, just wale on him until I feel better about all the shit that’s gone down. But I don’t. He may be kind of a douche bag, but even if everything’s changed for me, nothing is different for him.

Kevin’s expression morphs from surprise, to fear, to something else—something friendlier. Something like recognition.

“Check it out, you guys,” he says, turning his head to the others, who are waiting for his instructions. “Mark James is BACK.”

My pulse slows a little, and I suddenly start to feel a little high. I smirk.

“John Smith had my sloppy seconds,” I say. “I’m just reclaiming what was mine to begin with.”

The guys laugh and jeer at me. Someone yells, “It’s Mark James, bitch!” a little too loudly, and we get disapproving looks from other people on the street.

“We’re heading back over to Alex’s to try and finish off what’s left of his keg before it goes flat. You coming or what?” Kevin asks.

“Yeah, man,” I say, not even thinking about it. It feels surprisingly good just to be standing around being bros again.

Then I feel a buzz in my pocket.

“In a little bit,” I say. “Tell Alex I’ll be over later.”

“Right on,” Kevin says, and after another elaborate series of high fives and shakes, they’re gone.

I pull my phone out. There’s a message from GUARD:

Have you ever heard of an Agent Purdy?

CHAPTER EIGHT

I SPEND THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON AT HOME on the computer, talking to the blog editors. Saturday afternoons must be a lazy day for conspiracy theorists, because GUARD and this other editor named FLYBOY are both online and wanting to talk. FLYBOY seems cool but is much more of a skeptic about the stuff that GUARD and I talk about. Which is good, I guess—sometimes I think we need a rational person to keep us from totally going off the deep end.

It turns out that GUARD called the number Agent Walker gave me and got the same voice mail but didn’t leave a message. A few minutes later, his phone rang—even though he’d purposefully blocked his number. GUARD answered because he’s not the type of dude to let a chance like that go by. The person on the other end of the line kept asking him how he got the number, but GUARD played it cool and kept saying he knew what was going on in Paradise and demanded to talk to someone in charge.