Ominous by Kate Brian Page A

around them. Then Ivy was there. And Tiffany. Vienna and London appeared, clutching each other, which was interesting considering I was pretty surethey hadn’t spoken in weeks. Portia and Amberly arrived together. Everyone looked grim as they gathered.
    “Where’s Constance?” I said.
    “I saw the police bringing her into Hull Hall on my way over here,” Ivy replied. “She was a wreck, but physically she looked okay.”
    “What the hell is going on?” Tiffany said, hugging herself as some of the faculty skirted by us. “First Astrid and now Lorna. This has something to do with us, doesn’t it?”
    I couldn’t answer. How was I supposed to tell them about my dream? They’d all laughed at me just yesterday. And besides, even with all the evidence, I was having a hard time believing any of it myself. Because how could I suddenly be psychic? I wasn’t even sure I
believed
in psychics. I touched the locket with the tips of my fingers and avoided eye contact.
    “It looks that way,” Noelle said. Her phone beeped and she took it out to check the screen.
    “Reed, did you have another dream?” Kiki asked.
    Noelle stood up and the other girls took a step back, as if she was radiating fire. “Let’s not even go there,” she said. “Right now we just need to concentrate on getting out of here and making sure everyone’s safe.”
    Kiki glanced at me past Noelle’s shoulder. “But what if—?”
    “Reed,” Noelle said, staring Kiki down. “Daddy’s got a car waiting for us. Let’s go.”
    I wasn’t going to argue with that. I wanted out of there more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. I looked shakily at Josh and helifted a hand to my face. “Don’t go home,” he whispered. “If you can, go to New York with Noelle. I’ll go crash at Lynn’s apartment there. I’ll be five blocks away.”
    I nodded wordlessly, tears slipping from my eyes. Then he kissed me and I got up and took Noelle’s hand.
    “We’ll call you guys later,” Noelle said, her voice slightly less forbidding than it had been a moment ago. “All of you just … go straight home.”
    The other Billings Girls parted to let us through, unwilling to mess with Noelle, and she hustled me toward the door like a girl dragging her little sister clear of danger.

“I know, Mom. I know. But I’ll still see you on Friday for the party,” I said as I threw my favorite sweaters and jeans into my duffel bag. If there was a party, of course. I held the phone between my ear and my shoulder, my neck straining as I flitted around my room, grabbing a lip gloss here, a notebook there, trying to figure out whether I’d really need my history text and how long we’d be gone. “It would be stupid for me to fly out there and then turn around and fly right back. Hopefully by then Astrid and Lorna will be found and everything will be okay.”
    “I just … I would feel a lot more comfortable if you were here,” my mother said. “With us.”
    I paused, a T-shirt balled up in my hand.
    “I know,” I said softly. “But being in New York …”
    I’ll be with Noelle. And, more important, with Josh
, I thought.
    “I’ll be closer to school if it reopens and we have to come rightback,” I said. “And Mr. Lange …” I paused, swallowing hard as I recalled how intimately my mother once knew Mr. Lange—how intimately we were all connected. “I’m sure he’ll have some serious security set up for us.”
    I shoved the T-shirt into my bag, then quickly added the framed photograph of me and my father—my real father—that sat atop my desk. Then I zipped up the duffel and tossed it toward the door.
    “Okay. If that’s what you really want to do,” my mother said sadly. “Just call me when you get there. In fact, call me every hour.”
    I exhaled a laugh, my heart squeezing into a tight ball inside my chest. “All right. I will.”
    “Love you, Reed,” she said.
    My throat closed. I hadn’t told my mother I loved her many times in my