“When are you getting it?” another girl asked.
“Next Wednesday, on my birthday!” Payton said, so pleased with herself and the attention that I couldn’t understand how it didn’t turn Stubby off. “I get the keys right after school, and about two seconds after that I’ll be picking you bitches up to do some major damage to my dad’s credit card!”
The girls all shrieked and giggled, and I couldn’t help but feel that if my dad were alive, no way would I say something that stupid and shallow. But when Stubby turned to grin at me, I shoved a smile onto my lips and nodded like I was happy and excited for Payton, too.
A whistle blew then, and the teams broke their huddle and started to head back toward the center of the field. I snuck a peek at Aiden and saw that he was looking and grinning at me again. I felt my cheeks heat, and shyly glanced away, secretly thrilled. Pretending to take an interest in the crowd, I froze when my gaze landed on someone familiar. All those warm, gushy feelings I’d had a moment before vanished, and my blood ran cold. Staring hard at me was none other than Agent Wallace, who was sitting midway up in the stands. Right next to him was Agent Faraday, who was busy looking at the field.
Immediately, I snapped my head to face forward again and slapped a hand on Stubby’s arm. “What?” he asked.
But I was too unnerved to speak. I couldn’t believe the two agents had managed to follow us to the game and even stalked us to the visiting team’s bleachers. I didn’t know what to do.
“Hey, look, they’re starting!” Stubs said, his attention already back on Payton.
Sure enough, Jupiter’s squad was spreading out in the small section between the stands and the field, and they began to clap their hands and stomp their feet. Meanwhile, my mind was racing, and I felt like I had to get out of there, but wouldn’t the feds simply follow me? Wouldn’t rushing out of the stands call attention to me? And what if Aiden was watching? Would he see the panicked look on my face? I couldn’t risk glancing over at him.
Next to me I heard Stubby’s breath catch, and I realized that Payton was still sidestepping to the right, coming nearer and nearer to where we sat. She stopped in front of us. And then the most horrible thing happened. She was maybe four and a half feet away from me—near enough to see the color of her eyes and read the date on her forehead.
For a moment I was so stunned I couldn’t even breathe, and then our eyes met and the expression on her face became confused.
But I couldn’t look away from her; that date on her forehead lifted off her olive skin and hovered in the air as if to taunt me. “Oh God!” I gasped, and jumped to my feet, bolting to the stairs leading down to the side of the field. I didn’t stop until I was out in the parking lot, but from there I didn’t quite know where to go. I felt panicked and shaken, and like my whole world was being pulled apart by a black hole of little numbers.
Stubs caught up with me, wheezing and coughing as he pulled out his inhaler. “What’s…wrong?”
Stubby has bad asthma, and I knew that his attacks were sometimes brought on by stress, but this was too big and I was too freaked out to keep it to myself. “It’s Payton,” I said, pacing anxiously back and forth in front of him.
“What about her?” Stubby asked, his breathing settling down a little.
I stopped and looked anxiously toward the stands.
“Maddie? Come on, tell me.”
My gaze shifted back to Stubby. “I saw her deathdate.”
He squinted at me. “Annnnnnd?”
“It’s next week.”
Stubby’s mouth fell open. “No!”
I could only stand there and hold his gaze. I wasn’t wrong. “Eleven-twelve, twenty fourteen,” I said.
“You got it wrong,” Stubby replied, but then he seemed to reconsider the date. “Wait, Maddie, that’s…that’s next Wednesday—her birthday. Maybe you saw her birthday and not her deathday.”
I pressed my lips together. I never see birthdays. I only see death.
Stubby turned and eyed the visiting team’s side of the field. “We have to warn her,” he said, and I could tell he was about to run back and do just that.
I caught his arm and squeezed it hard. “You can’t!”
Stubby tried to shake me off, but I wasn’t letting go. “Maddie, we have to!”
Still, I was determined. “Stubs, please listen to me for a minute, will you?!” Finally he stopped fighting and stared at me expectantly. I pointed toward the bleachers with my free hand. “Faraday and Wallace followed us here. They’re up in the stands right now.”
Stubby paled even more. “How did they find you?”
I began to pace again. “I don’t know. Maybe they saw me leave the house out the back door, or maybe they had a hunch, but they’re here. If we go back and tell Payton that she’s going to die next week, don’t you think that’ll look really, really bad to them?”
“Then you stay here and I’ll go!” Stubby said, turning away from me.
I clamped down on his arm once more and wouldn’t let go. Getting right up into his face I said, “Stubs, stop! You have to think! I mean, Faraday and Wallace know you. They’ve even talked to you! They also know that we’re best friends and we hang out together. If you go back there and say something to Payton and she ends up dying next Wednesday, they’ll know it came from me! Remember what Donny said? He said under no circumstances can I tell anybody their date!”
Stubby stood back and simply stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what was coming out of my mouth. “We’re really gonna let her die? Mads…come on! She’s getting that new car next week! What if she goes cruising with her friends, and she gets distracted and loses control of the car, and then some of them die, too?”