“Computer,” I said, dropping the ice into the sink. “I was up late working on my history project. I wanted to get it done early, you know, to make amends for my being late to Mr. Click’s class.” I had the paper on my computer if she chose to call me on it. “I guess I just lost track of time. Hope my music didn’t disturb you.”

“Your music?” She didn’t just take the bait, she snatched it. “No, I must’ve slept right through it.”

My breath escaped, everything in my heart bled out. She actually did it. She lied to me. Stone-face lied.

At that very moment—for only the thinnest slice of a second— I no longer thought of her as my mother, she was just a woman standing in the same room as me. It scared the shit out of me.

I dried my face with a kitchen towel before I met her eyes for one quick moment of truth. I expected to see guilt, shame, but found nothing.

“You really should be more careful with your eyes. Maybe we should get one of those screen diffuser things.”

Yeah, that and a sticky note will solve everything. “Whatever.”

I hurried to school, completely pushing everything with Mom to the back of my brain. I took a deep breath of the cool morning air and filled myself with its freshness. Anthony Beck was waiting for me. He’d text’d smiley faces, for crissakes. Three of them! I didn’t even feel hungover anymore.

But as I got closer to school, I could tell something was wrong. Anthony wasn’t hanging by the front stairs. Nobody was.

The school stood in front of me. Post and beams, river rock walls, a little landscaping to give it that Colorado lodge look. But this morning it looked lifeless, like it was a weekend or spring break or something.

And then I could make out a faint bleating noise. A car alarm? And as I got closer, I started to hear a muffled mass of voices. Other students were here somewhere. I just couldn’t see them. The new performing arts auditorium blocked my view.

Then I heard the siren.

The faster I moved, the closer I got to the noise, and the louder and more indistinct it became, until it grew into a massive hive of sound.

Then Principal Teasley’s voice shouting loud and clear over everything, “I need everyone to get inside! Now!” It came from the back parking lot, and as I got closer, I started seeing people, lots of people moving toward me, returning to the school. On their faces—confusion, fear, sadness. And as they headed back toward the school, I pushed my way through them.

“Serena!”