Riley tossed her a look.
“I know, Ry, you’re totally right. You exhausted all available search options. If only there were some other way.” She stroked a long, imaginary chin beard. “Or someone we could ask. You know, like, maybe the people who hid the baby book? If only there were some way to contact them…”
“Fine, Shelby.”
“You don’t even have to mention Jane’s birth certificate. Just ask them to show you yours. That’s all I’m asking.”
“That’s it? You’ll drop this whole thing if I show you my birth certificate?”
“Totally. That way I know that you have one and I won’t be under civic obligation to turn you in to the police. I’ll totally drop the Jane thing. But the postcard…”
Riley felt her eyes widen. She hadn’t told Shelby about the second one, and sitting with her now, Riley wasn’t sure she wanted to. She wanted to pretend they were nothing, but someone sent them. Someone knew her—maybe better than she knew herself. The thought sent icy fingers of fear up Riley’s neck and she shivered. “I’m going to toss my stuff,” she said, standing.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Riley looked up to see JD smiling at her. Her heart did a double pump, but it was because of Jane, not JD.
“So, you’re at school today.”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
JD pushed his hands in his back pockets. “I don’t know. Thought maybe if you found out your parents had snatched you or that you were Jane O’Leary, some sort of super spy, you’d ditch this place.” He was grinning, his tone light, but the comment weighed on her.
“No, I’m just plain old Riley Spencer, daughter of Glen and Nadine Spencer.” She said it as much for her benefit as for his. “I’m giving up on Jane. It was stupid anyway.”
JD shrugged. “I thought it was kind of cool—trying to track down this mysterious girl.”
Riley felt herself smile. “It was until I came to a hundred dead ends.”
JD cocked an eyebrow. “Well, what mystery chick would let herself be found the first time someone goes looking for her?”
? ? ?
Riley was shoving her Spanish book into her backpack when Shelby approached her.
“Need a ride, toots?”
Riley shook her head. “My dad is picking me up on his way home from work.”
“You know what you have to do tonight, right?”
“Um, conjugate irregular verbs until my eyes bleed?”
Shelby let out an exasperated groan. “No, you’re going to get your birth certificate.”
“Right.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“Fine, Shelbs, whatever. Bye.”
Shelby took a few steps backward and waved. “Good-bye, mysterious stranger.”
Riley hiked up her backpack and grumbled. So she would ask her parents to see her birth certificate. They would show it to her. And Riley would know that she wasn’t adopted or kidnapped. She would know that she wasn’t Jane Elizabeth O’Leary.
But who was the real Jane Elizabeth?
“Hey, Riley!” Trevor Gallagher was making a beeline toward her.
Riley waved. “Hey, Trevor. What’s up?”
“Just wanted to make sure you got the card.”
The hairs on Riley’s arms stood upright. “The card?”
“I put it on your purse after the carnival. Just wanted to make sure you got yours.”
Riley nodded, dumbfounded, even as Trevor walked away.
Trevor Gallagher gave her the postcards? But why?
By the time Riley snapped back to reality, Trevor had been swallowed into the crowd of Hawthorne High students on their way out, and Riley couldn’t find him.
“Hey, turnip!”
Riley spun to find her father leaning out the driver’s side window.
“Oh, hey, Dad.”
“Well, are you going to stand out there or get in the car?”
“I’m coming, sorry.”
She closed the door behind her and her father hit the gas. But her mind was still processing Trevor and the postcards. She vowed to ask Trevor about them tomorrow.
“One mystery solved,” she muttered under her breath.
“What’s that, hon?”
“Nothing. Sorry.”
They were just approaching the Blackwood Hills highway by the time the general post-school catch-up—How was school? Do you have homework?—was finished. Riley was quiet for a bit. She had filed away Trevor and the postcards—now it was time to appease her best friend.
Riley played with the seat belt crossing her chest. “So, I was thinking about taking driver’s ed next semester.”
She could see her father’s cheeks push up into a grin. “And here I thought you weren’t interested in getting your license.”
“Well, I wasn’t because I had Shelby, but now that we live all the way out here…” Riley swallowed. “So, you think it’s a good idea?”
“Of course.”