Penn shot her a glare so fierce it actually made Marcy cringe. She lowered her eyes and pulled her cheese curds closer to her, as if she thought that Penn might steal them from her.

“So have you guys been on the rides yet?” Harper asked, in an attempt to keep Penn from slaughtering Marcy. After that look, Harper thought it would be better if she kept the conversation banal instead of confronting Penn about her interest in Gemma.

Penn’s icy expression instantly melted, and her saccharine smile returned. Harper noticed that Penn’s teeth were unusually sharp. In fact, if Harper didn’t know better, she’d say that her incisors had actually grown and gotten more pointed than they had been a few seconds ago.

“No, we just got here,” Penn explained in her silky baby-talk. “We haven’t had a chance to check anything out yet.”

As she spoke, some of the unease Harper had been feeling when she noticed her smile vanished. Marcy even seemed to relax a bit and braved looking up at Penn again.

“I’d really love to win a teddy bear,” Lexi said, her voice going singsong as she spoke.

Both Alex and Luke looked at her, and Luke’s mouth fell open, like he was in awe.

Harper had her arms on the table in front of her, and she leaned forward. She couldn’t explain it, but she found herself hanging on her every word, as if Lexi were the most fascinating person she’d ever heard. Even the people around them seemed to move in closer, crowding around to get closer to Lexi.

“What do you think?” Lexi tilted her head and looked down at Luke. “Could you win me a teddy bear?”

“Yeah!” Luke shouted in excitement and got to his feet so quickly he nearly fell over the bench. “I mean, yes. I’d love to win you a bear.”

“Yay!” Lexi smiled and looped her arm through his.

People parted for them again as Lexi and Luke walked through the crowd toward the midway. Thea followed them, but Penn stayed behind, smiling down at the table. Alex stared after Lexi, watching until she disappeared in the crowd, and Gemma would’ve noticed, if she hadn’t been busy doing the same thing.

“Well, I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of the afternoon,” Penn said. It sounded as if Penn were speaking to everyone at the table, but she was only looking at Gemma. “I’ll see you around.”

“Have a fun time,” Alex mumbled, his words coming out a little dazed. Penn laughed, then turned and walked away.

“That was weird,” Harper said once Penn had left.

She shook her head, clearing away this fog she didn’t understand. It almost felt as if she’d been dreaming, like Penn had never even really been there.

“I do think they killed her.” Marcy narrowed her eyes and nodded to herself. “There’s just something about those girls I don’t trust.”

EIGHT

The Cove

As soon as the sun went down, Gemma hopped on her bike and rode out to the bay. She’d hadn’t been able to train at the pool with Coach Levi since Friday, and that made her especially anxious to get in the water. For the past couple of days she’d avoided going out late, as Harper wanted, so Gemma felt like she’d earned a night swim.