Revenge by Gabrielle Lord

tear away from her mouth and she speaks.’
    â€˜So what does she say?’
    â€˜She says, There’s another one! Another one! ’
    I watched as Winter shuddered, shaking my dream away. ‘Another one? Another what?’
    â€˜You tell me.’
    â€˜What are you two talking about?’ Cal asked, lifting his head from the pillow.
    â€˜Dude, hey, how you feeling?’
    â€˜Not bad,’ he said softly. ‘Still feeling a bit groggy, but that’s about it.’
    Winter hopped up from beside me and wandered over to Cal. ‘Can I get you anything? Water? Painkillers?’
    â€˜No, thanks, I’m good. Just tired.’
    â€˜And how about me, Winter?’ I asked. ‘I’ve been wounded too, you know,’ I teased, holding up my injured hand. ‘I know it’s not like being mauled by a lion or anything, but still …’
    â€˜Oh, very funny. You’ll be all right,’ said Winter. ‘And Cal, Repro and Griff are stopping by again in the morning remember?’
    â€˜Yeah, yeah, that’ll be good,’ Cal said.
    â€˜And Jen says you’ll definitely be good to go home in about a week,’ Winter added.
    â€˜Sweet,’ said Cal, before drifting back to sleep again.
    â€˜Boges,’ whispered Winter, after a moment.
    â€˜Yeah?’
    â€˜I’m so relieved Cal’s back,’ she said.
    â€˜Me, too.’
    â€˜But … I feel like something’s not quite right.’
    The darkness of my bad dream and the disturbing warning of another one was keeping me from settling, too. I knew I’d be feeling better if Sligo was dead. And if there wasn’t the mystery of his accomplice still looming in the air … but I bit my tongue.
    â€˜Like you said, Winter, it will just take time. I bet when Cal’s back home next week and we see Mrs O and Gab happy again, things will pick up where they left off. Who knows, we might even get to have that movie night after all.’

DAY 29

    2 days to go …

    Mrs Ormond took Cal’s face gently in her hands. ‘Are you sure you’re OK with me and Gab going tomorrow? I feel like you’ve only just come back from Melba’s house and now we’re taking off on a glamorous cruise ship and leaving you behind!’
    â€˜Please, Mum,’ Cal replied, as though he’d been asked the same question a thousand times, which he probably had. ‘I want you both to go and have fun. I’m fine here, I swear. We can all hang out together when you get back. I promise. These guys will look after me until then.’
    Cal smirked at us knowingly. Winter, Ryan and I shuffled on the spot. Miraculously, we’d managed to keep the whole crazy Sligo incident under wraps … so far. Out of the press, and out of the Ormond household.
    â€˜What about the auction tomorrow night—are you sure you’re up to it?’ Mrs Ormond added, still holding Cal’s face in her hands. ‘It soundslike it’s going to be a pretty big event. You don’t have to go, you know. They’ll understand.’
    â€˜It’s cool, Mum. Everyone’s coming with me,’ he said, looking over at us again.
    I grinned and nodded at Mrs Ormond reassuringly .
    â€˜OK,’ she said, leaning in to kiss him on the forehead. ‘Goodnight guys,’ she added, smiling at us. ‘Good luck tomorrow night, if I don’t see you before we go.’
    â€˜Have a great trip,’ I said.
    Gabbi had been busy texting, sitting on the kitchen bench. She tucked her phone into her pocket, slid off the table to her feet and clomped over to us in her ugg boots. She gave each of us a warm, sleepy hug.
    â€˜Night,’ she said. ‘Hope you guys enjoy school while I’m off on the cruise!’ she laughed.

    â€˜Here we go,’ I said, looking at my friends. Cal and Winter were sitting on my left, tucking into a bag of microwave popcorn, and Ryan was on my