BooksBarbecue
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Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Epilogue
  50. Acknowledgments
  51. About the Author
  52. About the Publisher

He took a tentative step forward into the darkness and saw faint lines of light coming through a broken set of window blinds to the right side of the room. There were a few desks, upturned and resting on the ground, and one larger desk on the opposite side. Must be where the teacher sits, he thought. Because this sure looked like a classroom. There was some sort of homework tacked up to one wall, but the edges of it had peeled up, as if it had been there a long, long time.

He took another step forward, then another, then ran a finger over one of the student desks. It was gritty, and even in the dim light, he could see that his finger was covered in a thick layer of dust.

Where was he?

Héctor coughed again. There was a bookshelf back behind the larger desk, though one of its shelves had collapsed.

Why had the Room sent Héctor here?

He got close enough to see in the dim light that the shelf was stacked with copies of a mathematics textbook. Okay, so this definitely was a school. He picked up a copy, which sent another wave of dust into the air. Once Héctor stopped coughing, he flipped open the cover.

There was a stamp on the inside of the cover used to keep track of who had borrowed a book. What it said didn’t make sense.

He turned around and rushed over to one of the windows, searching for the long cord that would open the blinds. He found it and tugged on it, and searing light spilled into the room, so bright and hot that Héctor had to close his eyes.

When he opened them and his sight adjusted, he saw two tractors on a field, about thirty feet or so from the window, right next to an enormous pile of rubble and debris. Was that—?

It had to be. He looked back down at the stamp inside the book:

SAGUARO ACADEMY

This was Sal’s school.

Okay, okay, he could deal with this! This had happened before. The Room had made him and Sal go to Swifton to help Juliana. So, here he was! At Sal’s school! Maybe the Room had an idea about how he could help them.

But . . . in a long-abandoned classroom? What was he supposed to do here?

He spun back around. There was an old wastebasket sitting on its side. A pile of crumpled-up papers spilled out of it. Two of the desks had broken legs, and under them, he found another stack of old crusty textbooks.

And then Héctor knew exactly what he needed to do.

He dropped the book and ran back to the Room, shutting the door for one moment before opening it again.

No!

The halls of Orangevale Middle School greeted him.