The Complete Burn for Burn Trilogy: Burn for Burn; Fire With Fire; Ashes to Ashes (16 page)

I’m sitting on the living room floor, my legs stretched out in front of me. I’m super-sore from the last week of cheer practice. Rennie choreographed a new halftime routine, and she made us run through it a million times. A few of the guys from the football team are lying on the floor too, talking about some new defensive strategy.

I’m halfway falling asleep when Rennie bursts into the room, Reeve right behind her. “We just had an amazing idea,” she announces. She holds up an empty bottle of beer and does a little dance. “Who wants to play spin the bottle?” she shrieks.

The guys perk up. I’m wide awake now too. No way am I sticking around for this. Quickly I scramble up and say to Ashlin, “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Everybody sit in a circle, boy-girl-boy-girl,” Rennie’s saying. “Ash, go get the people in the Jacuzzi.”

Ashlin covers her mouth and giggles and says, “Seriously, Ren? What are we, in the seventh grade again?”

Rennie glares at her. “Hello, it’s retro. And hello, it’s our senior year. It’s called making memories.” In a lower but not altogether quiet voice, she adds, “Perfect opportunity to make out with Derek, Ash.”

Ashlin’s face splotches, and she jumps up. From the other side of the sliding door, I hear her call everyone inside.

I give Rennie a quick wave good-bye, hoping she won’t notice, but before I can slip out of the room, she grabs my arm. “Lil, you have to stay,” she hisses, giving me a meaningful look. She looks over at Reeve and back at me. “Please. I need you.”

“I have to get home before my curfew.”

“It’s Saturday night! Your mom always lets you stay out a little later on Saturday nights.” Rennie takes my hand in hers, and I know she’s not going to let me leave. “Just till midnight, okay?”

“Fine,” I say with a sigh, “but I’m only watching. I’m not playing.”

She gives me a grateful kiss on the cheek and pulls me over to the group that’s already formed on the floor. Alex is there, sitting next to Ashlin, his hair damp from the Jacuzzi. Jenn Barnes and Wendy Kamnikar, two juniors that Derek is friendly with, plant themselves across from them. I sit down next to Tyler Klask and PJ, a part of the circle but not completely. I’m checking my hair for split ends when Rennie says “Lillia first!” and thrusts the bottle at me.

My mouth falls open. “Rennie!”

“Don’t be a spoilsport, Lil,” Rennie says, smiling at me. “Everyone has to play.” I narrow my eyes at her, but she just keeps smiling a sunny smile. “Hurry up and spin.”

“Come on, Lil. Just say yes or she’ll never leave you alone,” PJ says in a low voice, nudging me.

Reeve, who’s watching me with this bemused look on his face, starts pounding his fists on the carpet. “Lilli-uh! Lilli-uh!” Everyone joins in.

I glare at everybody. “God, you guys! So immature.”

Ashlin spins the bottle and shouts, “This one’s for Lil!”

It lands . . . on Reeve.

I can feel my cheeks heat up as our eyes meet. I’m about to say
No freaking way
when Reeve reaches out and adjusts the bottle so it’s pointing at Alex. “I think it was going more in this direction,” Reeve says with a lazy grin.

“Hey!” I object. “Interference!”

Alex clears his throat and jokingly says, “Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but contrary to popular opinion, I’m not contagious or anything.”

“I—I don’t think that! It’s just, those aren’t the rules.” I don’t want to kiss Reeve, and I definitely don’t want to kiss Alex. In fact, I don’t want to kiss anybody. Maybe I don’t want to kiss
anyone ever again. At least not for a long time.

Reeve raises an eyebrow. “I had no idea you wanted me so bad. I’m flattered, Cho.”

“That’s—that’s not what I’m saying, and you know it,” I say. I can feel myself getting flustered. Reeve’s always doing that. Twisting my words around.

Derek says, “Reeve, just kiss her already.”

“Guys, don’t pressure her,” Rennie says hastily.

Oh,
now
she’s looking out for me? Give me a freaking break.

Just for that, I’m doing it.

As I crawl to the middle of the circle, I can’t seem to get a good deep breath. I sit on my knees, and I keep my palms flat on the ground to steady myself. Reeve leans toward me oh-so-slowly, dragging out the moment for as long as he can. He’s grinning at me, that smug self-satisfied grin I hate. I feel myself start to panic, but I try with all my might not to shrink away from him. If I freak out right now, everyone will see it and wonder why, and I can’t have that. I have to be normal. I have to pretend I’m the same girl I was.

Reeve tips my face up, and that’s when something in his face changes. The grin drops and he’s staring into my eyes like he’s trying to puzzle something out. At the last second, instead of
kissing my lips he plants a kiss at the top of my head, the kind my dad used to give me when he’d come in to say good night. I don’t know if I should feel grateful or insulted.

“No fair,” Ashlin says, shaking her finger at Reeve. “It has to be on the mouth! Those are the rules.”

PJ nods sagely and says, “Ash is right. Them’s the rules.”

“Give it a rest,” Alex says. “He kissed her.”

Reeve claps his hands together. “Who’s next?”

I crawl back to my spot. I just want to go home.

Loudly Rennie says, “It’s Reeve’s turn.”

“Yay for me.” Reeve rubs his hands together and spins the bottle. Part of me hopes the bottle will land on Rennie so I can get out of here faster, but another part hopes it won’t, so she doesn’t get what she wants. The bottle doesn’t land on her. It lands on Josh Fletcher, and everyone busts up laughing. “Come on, Fletch. Don’t be scared,” Reeve says. “I’ll do you like I did Lillia.”

“You’d better spin again, man,” Josh warns. “I don’t know where your lips have been.”

Reeve ends up spinning again, and this time it does land on Rennie. Grinning, he leans forward for a quick kiss. But Rennie has other ideas. She gets on her knees and inches across the
circle until she’s right in front of him. She grabs a wad of his T-shirt and pulls him toward her. Then she kisses him like she wants to eat his face off. It starts close-mouthed, but a second later they are actually
kissing
kissing. She even puts her arms around his neck.

Everyone starts whooping and screaming and freaking out. It’s so sad and gross. Rennie’s making a total fool of herself in front of everybody. Especially Reeve. He already let her down easy. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to date her, but it only makes Rennie want him more. It’s pathetic.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MARY

S
ENOR
T
REMONT IS LINING UP A BUNCH OF PLASTIC
vegetables on his desk and asking for volunteers to role-play a scene at a Spanish marketplace, and all I can do is smile at Alex’s empty seat.

That night was maybe the most fun I’ve ever had. Sneaking out with Lillia and Kat, laughing our butts off, speeding through the darkness. When I got home, I crept back into bed and tried to sleep, but that was pretty much impossible. I just
lay there in the dark, tracing the flowers on my wallpaper with my finger and thinking how this was even better than what I’d hoped to accomplish that first day. This isn’t just about Reeve. It’s about me, and it feels like fate or magic—the girls coming into my life, right when I needed them most.

Through the window I spot Alex getting out of a car. A woman—his mom, I guess—waves good-bye and drives off. I watch him run all the way to the main doors. I hear Alex’s feet pounding the linoleum, over Senor Tremont haggling with the girl sitting behind me over how many pimentos he can buy for three euros.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Senor,” he says, rushing in. “I had a doctor’s appointment.”

Senor Tremont frowns. Then he puts a hand up to his ear, pretending like he can’t hear Alex. “En español, Senor Lind. Por favor.”

Alex is halfway to his seat. He stops, his shoulders sag, and his eyes roll to the back of his head. I have to cover my mouth to keep in a laugh.

“Yo . . . yo soy . . . ,” Alex tries.

I lean forward on my elbows and cradle my chin in my hands.
I really, really, really wish Lillia and Kat were here to see this for themselves.

Alex is trying to conjugate the verb “apologize” for the third time when the fire alarm goes off.

CHAPTER TWENTY

KAT

O
NCE THE FIRE ALARM STARTS GOING OFF
, I
FLICK MY
hand so that the cap of my Zippo lighter snaps closed. Just in time too, because I think I’m almost out of butane. Plus the metal case is blazing hot. I blow on it, jump off the radiator in the girls’ bathroom, and crouch down at the door. The top part of the door is wood, but the bottom is covered in thin slatted vents. I watch the hallway light get sliced by pair after pair of legs hurrying their way to the nearest exit. I hear one of the teachers say, “We didn’t have a drill planned for today, did we?”
Another teacher says, “I think this might be the real deal.” They instruct their students to hurry along with urgent
This is not a test
voices.

Yeah. Hurry the eff up. I’ve got work to do.

I shrug off my book bag, slide my arms through the straps so that it hangs in front of my body, and open the zipper. Inside are the photocopies I made last week. I’ve also got a roll of masking tape I stole from the art room. I take that out and rip pieces off, sticking them on my arms so I can move fast.

Jar Island only has a volunteer fire department, so I figure it’ll take them at least ten minutes to get here. It takes one, maybe one and a half, for the school to empty. As soon as the coast is clear, I push open the door and start running.

The senior hallway will do the most damage, so that’s where I start, slapping up the photocopies every few feet. On classroom doors, on lockers, on the spout of the water fountain.

I know this is supposed to be Lillia’s revenge, but I have to admit, this feels pretty freaking awesome. Alex has tried calling me a few times in the last week. Not that I bothered to answer, or to call him back. He doesn’t deserve to ever speak to me again. That’s how it is with me—you do me wrong, you’re dead to me.

Except for Lillia. I’m making a temporary exception in her case.

At the end of the hall, I kick the door of the stairwell open and take the stairs two at a time, putting up copies as I go. The alarm is so loud, my ears are about to bleed. The emergency lights are giving off big bright flashes. I remember my brother’s friend Luke pulling the fire alarm my freshman year. He got suspended for a week, and he had to pay a big fine for wasting the volunteer fire department’s time. I hustle even faster.

When I reach the landing, I duck so I’m out of sight at the window, then sprint the rest of the way up to the second floor, where the freshman lockers are. Adrenaline pumps through me, and I feel like I could run forever.

I think about Nadia coming back in, seeing Alex’s face and reading his stupid poem, and being completely mortified. I doubt she’ll ever want to go for rides in his SUV again. I freaking love it. I love that Alex is going to get dumped by a freshman, that everyone in school is going to laugh at his corny ass.

I get another stretch of hallway done, though it takes me a lot longer this time because I have to stop and rip off pieces of tape.

Then I hear the sirens.

I don’t have much longer. Which sucks, because I’ve got
more than half the school left to cover. So I screw the tape and just start throwing sheets everywhere like confetti. Which is way faster. I do the science wing and the English hallway. When I slide down the banister of the back staircase, I toss papers over my shoulder.

I’m just about on the first floor when a team of firemen burst through the doors. They’ve got their hard hats on, flashlights beaming, walkie-talkies crackling.

Luckily, I’m right in front of the auditorium. I duck inside and hide myself in the folds of the big American flag. A second later two firemen bound in. I hold my breath and watch their flashlights hit the walls, the ceilings, the stage.

They yell “Clear!” and duck back out into the hall, continuing their search for a fire.

They won’t find one, but Alex is gonna get burned.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LILLIA

I
DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TIME TO GO TO MY LOCKER AND
get my jacket. The teachers were freaking out, pushing us along through the hallways like the building was really on fire. It’s super-bright outside, but it’s freezing, especially for this early in September. I’m shivering, huddled close to Ashlin, who puts her arm around me.

PJ says, “You want my jacket, Cho?”

I nod. “Yes, please!” PJ shrugs it off and hands it over. I put it on, and Ashlin zips me up, hopping from foot to foot. It smells
as mildewy as PJ’s basement, but it’s better than nothing.

“Do you think there’s a real fire?” she asks me hopefully. “Maybe we won’t have enough time left for the quiz.”