He mimed shooting a water gun at her, and she shrugged.

“So,” he said slowly. “Between lessons and rehearsal, I’m going to be trapped with my violin forever. I have been trapped. I never even had time to really think about how to do this.”

“Yes,” Lia said, glancing at their hands. “Your crowded high school agenda.”

“Don’t laugh. I can’t even find my agenda. Who knows where I’m supposed to be now?” He laughed and ducked, hair falling over his eyes. “Do you want to come to orchestra rehearsal? You can watch. No one minds. People do it all the time, and you don’t have to stay for all of it if it’s boring. We could just spend some more time together during break and after.”

Lia exhaled through her nose, chest tight with joy. “Are we dating?”

“We probably have to go on a date to do that.”

She would’ve sworn he blushed.

“So…” Gem studied their nails.

He definitely blushed then. “You can stay, too. Do homework or chat or nap. It feels safer to be near you two.”

Gem and Lia agreed to stay. It would be nice to put off going home, and Lia wanted to figure out who her assassin was without her mom looming over her shoulder. Gem and Lia picked a corner near the back of the auditorium, where the heat puffed out of a vent at random intervals and the overhead light didn’t flicker, and a dozen other friends picked uncomfortable wooden seats around them. Lia scrolled through her spreadsheet of everyone’s schedules. At least fifteen were theoretically free when Lia and Gem had seen the figure at the park.

“Aubree, Bryce, Cassidy, Devon, Hunter, Jax, Jeremiah, Laurie, Mateo, Mercedes, Nicky, Noah, Oliver, Ryder, Rose, Stephen, Tamora, and Zack,” Lia said. “Plus anyone whose schedule changed since the game started.”

“Who even is Aubree?” Gem asked, scrolling through their phone.

“Transferred last year. Loves Hello Kitty.” Lia groaned. “I had way more information in my journal.”

Lia reached down into her bag to grab her agenda, and left half of her textbooks on the floor.

Gem snorted and glanced down. “Well, well, well.” Gem reached into Lia’s backpack and pulled a small leather journal from the very bottom. “Someone named Lia Prince is the worst.”

“What the hell?” Lia took her journal from Gem and flipped through it. It was a bit beaten up, as if it had been living at the bottom of a bag for weeks, but she had emptied her backpack at home the day she thought it was gone. “No way.”

The pages were as Lia remembered them, and a cold dread settled over her. Had she really missed this? Forgotten she had grabbed it?

“It was not in there this whole time,” she said. “It couldn’t have been. I emptied this bag so many times.”

Gem nodded, eyes wide. “Yeah.”

“I did!”