Paying the Piper

Seventeen, Part 1: A Willing Kidnapping

Author's note: I finally wisened up and realized, as some of my fellow writers already know and do, I can break up my chapters into different parts rather than have one big long chapter. =)

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The secret to quietening Hannah (at least somewhat) during our car rides home was to crack open a book, especially a textbook. After years of conditioning from Rhia, I assumed, she knew better then to intrude upon the sacredness of a school book. It wasn't that I didn't like talking with her; but after a long week at school, and with everything else going on, I was feeling wore out. I wasn't even absorbing the book's meaning—I kept rereading the same pages.

My mind so fuzzy, I didn't notice we missed the turn to my house until it seemed we had been driving for quite awhile. I looked up and didn't recognize the road we were on.

"Uh...did you miss my turn?"

Hannah and Rhia exchanged glances, and my heart sank. This stank of a plot, and I had a feeling I had just been kidnapped for some fabulous idea Hannah knew I'd refuse if she openly asked me.

"We're having our annual school bonfire," Hannah announced. "Everyone goes. We thought it'd be easier to just keep you with us instead of having to pick you up again since the fire is near our house this year."

Her words rang a faint bell to me. I might have heard a few students mentioning "the fire" as I walked down the hallway, but I hadn't had any idea what it meant.

"And you couldn't ask me because...?"

Hannah let her head slump back against the headrest. "Oh, come on, Faye. If we'd asked, you would have said no."

Opening my mouth to spit back a hot reply, I barely managed to bite it off and admit she was right. Every event Hannah had invited me to—her house, shopping, a movie—I had declined. I thought I was ready for friends, but I still panicked as soon as I heard an invitation and came up with an excuse not to go, even though it would likely be a fun time.

I guess I was lucky she still thought of us as friends at all with the way I'd treated her.

"Sorry," I muttered. I couldn't explain, not really, and realized that my dream of friendship had little basis in reality on what friendship involved. Clones who would share my every interest and could read my every thought (thus knowing when to leave me alone and when to push me to be outgoing) weren't exactly an everyday norm.

But when I turned to her to give her a more heartfelt apology, Hannah was already smiling and began babbling about the night's bonfire.

Maybe friends weren't so easy to lose after all.

"The parents know about it, but they stay out of it. Most don't even know where it is. And as long as we keep the fire under control, we won't have any trouble from the fire department, either. Justin's dad is fire chief, and Justin promised his dad'd turn a blind eye tonight."

I blinked at how crazy that was. Sometimes, living in a small town truly felt like an alien planet.

Rhia turned down a road that took us out of the woods that surrounded my house. "I bet there'll be fewer people than usual, what with the discovery of Lydia Silver."

Hannah hissed at Rhia, glancing at me. "We're doing this as a way to recover from that, remember?" She shook her head. "Besides, it isn't like we're taking a night hike or even going into the woods. No one is going to end up missing because of our bonfire."

But maybe that was exactly what Lydia Silver had been thinking the night she disappeared.

Hannah wrinkled her nose. "But I'll tell you what will happen. Someone will inevitably try to bring beer or something, but Rhia and I just head home around that time. If our dad caught us drinking, we'd be flayed alive."