I hadn’t slept that night, but it didn’t matter.

It was Valentine’s Day, and I was in love. The world seemed brighter as I drove to school. The dreary mid-February day threatened snow, but I felt as if I was bathed in brilliant sunshine.

When I walked into homeroom, I saw the box of flowers—red and white carnations—on the teacher’s desk. One of those, I knew, was for me. I watched the teacher drone on with the morning announcements. I was so excited, my skin buzzed. She talked about the likelihood that we’d have our first early dismissal of the year, since the snow was supposed to arrive before lunch. She said that if so, we’d have to come back to homeroom for dismissal, to avoid chaos.

Come on, come on, I thought, tapping my fingers on my desk.

Then she asked one of the Key Clubbers to distribute the flowers. The student did so, moving too slowly. Seconds ticked by. A couple times, he came near me, and I expected a flower to land on my desk. But one never did. When the bell ending the period rang, he dropped the empty box in the trash can at the front of the classroom.

I frowned. Then I looked at my phone. There was a message from Javier.

Schuyler wants to know where Declan is. Do you know?

Mrs. Schuyler was Declan’s first-period physics teacher.

He wasn’t in class?

No. And he had an exam today.

Did you text him?

Yeah. No response.

I opened a text to Declan.

Hey. Where are you?

I waited a few moments as I gathered my things to get to my second-period class, English, but when I looked at my phone, he still hadn’t responded. The message said Delivered but hadn’t switched to Read. I frowned and typed one to Kane: Hey, have you seen Declan?

A moment later, the text came back: No

He’s not at school. Have you seen him?

No

He was up late last night. You think he overslept?

Are you kidding?

Yeah, it was a dumb idea. Declan once said he had an internal alarm clock that always, whether he wanted it to or not, woke him up at five in the morning. He was an early bird, for sure, which was why he was always taking the first bus into school.

Maybe he’s sick. The flu’s going around. Did you see him at home?

No

Great. It was as if Kane was being deliberately unhelpful with his short texts. I gave up.