As Patrick and I staggered into the gym, the others rose to their feet as one. I couldn’t tell if it was a show of respect for Patrick since his girlfriend had been taken or if it was some kind of perverse curiosity, that they wanted to see our reactions.

Cassius ran up, put his front paws on my chest, and licked my face. The display of affection felt out of place considering the news we’d just received.

Ben regarded us with something like awe. “You made it,” he said. “You actually made it.”

Setting down his tank, Patrick collapsed against the nearest wall. Dr. Chatterjee ran over to him.

“The oxygen levels are playing games with him,” I said.

Chatterjee checked Patrick’s eyes, then began adjusting the dials. “Please talk to JoJo,” he said to me over his shoulder. “Behind the bleachers.”

JoJo’s stuffed animal had been left over by the base of the wall. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her without Bunny.

Rocky appeared at my side. “She won’t even talk to me,” he said.

I rested a hand on his black curls. They were matted and dirty. No one around to tell him to wash his hair, behind his ears.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

I scooped up Bunny and squeezed behind the bleachers. JoJo had wedged herself into the darkest, tiniest corner, and she was clutching something with all her might. I headed toward her, ducking, then crawling, until finally one of the benches crowded down on me so I could go no farther.

“JoJo, I can’t get to you,” I said. “I can’t help you from here.”

Her tear-streaked face tilted toward me. “I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t deserve to be helped. It’s my fault.”

“What do you mean? What happened?”

“I got scared after you left. And I wanted my Frisbee. It’s the only thing that makes me think about other stuff besides … everything. So I snuck outside, and … and…” She trailed off, crying some more. “I squeezed under the fence by the oak tree.”

“You went out there alone?” I felt my body temperature rising.

Guilt. I thought about my broken promises to get that Frisbee for JoJo. How I’d dismissed her before we’d left.

And so she’d gone to retrieve it herself.

She nodded. “And I ran over to get it when…” A few quick breaths. “When he started to come for me. Alex yelled out, ’cuz she was on watch for you. I tried to run away. I tried. But she came out and hit him. With this.”

She shifted, and I saw that the shadowy item she was clutching was Alex’s hockey stick.

“Where was Cassius?”