I turn and see that Cora’s other friend Owen is standing beside Mia. He’s dressed like Spider-Man but is carrying the mask in a balled-up mess in his fist.

“Left? I didn’t even think she was here.”

“She said she had to go do something. And we thought she might be meeting you,” Mia says. She’s glowering at me.

Mia and I have never really gotten along. To be completely honest, I’ve always thought she was pretty snobby and didn’t like me only because I’m not the type of kid who gets to go to the special pizza parties for straight-A students or gets invited to do the Talented and Gifted projects after school.

“Nope. Not me.”

“But you guys have been hanging out a lot recently.”

I decide not to update Mia that Cora and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms right now. “I don’t know where she is. Maybe she just went home? She doesn’t really like crowds.”

“I know that,” Mia says. “But I thought she’d want to help with the Quiz Bowl booth.”

I shrug. “I wouldn’t know about that.”

Mia gives me a look that spells out obviously.

“We’re worried about her,” Owen offers. Owen has always been nicer to me than Mia.

My eyes widen and a panic builds inside of me. “Worried? Why?”

A sharp thud of thunder makes everything in the gym shake. People fidget with that nervous energy that comes when they think there might be danger, but not actual life-threatening danger. It’s something I used to do, too.

I don’t find any bit of danger exciting anymore.

“She wouldn’t stop talking about thunder,” Mia says with a slight roll of her eyes. Mia doesn’t seem that worried. I want to find that reassuring, but I don’t.

“Well, with the shape of it,” Owen explains. “Have you ever heard her talk about that before?”

“No.” I rack my brain. “I mean, she had a pretty deep weather pattern obsession when we were in third grade.”

“Oh, I remember that,” Mia says.

I resist rolling my own eyes.

“She kept saying that figuring out the shape of thunder was the key to figuring out the shape of time, which was the key to—”

“Time travel,” I finish Owen’s sentence.

Maybe she felt the same magic that I did here in this crowded and overdecorated gym. My pulse races. I turn on my heel. “I have to go,” I say.

“Wait. Not you, too,” Mia says.

“I know where she went. And I’m going to go find her.”

“We’re coming with you.”

“No,” I say. “This is between Cora and me.”

“But—” Mia protests.

“It’s between us,” I repeat, more firmly this time.

“Well, let us know if you need something?” Owen offers, his eyes darting all around. “I mean, if you want—”

“Sure,” I say. I don’t wait for him to finish. I’m already running to find Cora.

Thirty-Three

Cora

The rain is coming down harder and harder. It seems like the faster I run, the more it rains. I finally make it into the woods. The tall trees lessen the impact a little, but I’m still getting drenched.