A woman opened the door. If not for her lack of uniform, Dez would’ve thought she was one of the students.
“Hi.” Her voice was still breathless from her dash. “I’m Juliet Young, Desdemona’s sister.”
“Hello.” Ms. McCree looked confused.
“Our dad is in the hospital. Dez’s mom sent me to get her.”
“Oh.” The teacher’s face puckered, and Jules wondered if she was about to get her second sympathy hug of the day. “I’m so sorry.”
Over Ms. McCree’s shoulder, Jules could see her stepsister pulling on her backpack, and she had to smother a smile. Smart Dez knew the plan, and she was getting ready to go.
“Thank you.” Jules forced her face back into a grief-stricken expression.
“You’ll need to go to the office first, though.”
“Oh, I did! There’s a boy there who was throwing up, so Sister Mary Augustine told us to just come here and get Dez out of class.”
Ms. McCree knotted her fingers together, looking anxious. “I’m not sure…”
“It’s okay, Ms. McCree,” Dez said, slipping around her teacher to stand next to Jules. “My sister’s on the list. I should go to the hospital now to see my dad.”
Jules resisted pulling Dez into a hug and took her hand, instead. On her list of things to be concerned about later, Jules added the ease with which Dez lied next to Sam’s worsening stutter.
“Well, I guess that’s okay.” The teacher still looked like she was about to change her mind, so Jules started moving away from the classroom.
“Thanks, Ms. McCree.” With Tio close behind them, she and Dez speed-walked toward the side door she’d spotted earlier. The morning sunlight illuminated the glass pane set in the door like a beacon, and Jules increased her pace until they were nearly running. She reached out to push the door handle and then yanked back her hand. “Dez, the fire alarm isn’t going to go off when we open that, is it?”
Dez shook her head, blond curls bouncing with the movement. “No. We go out this way to get to the soccer field.”
Blowing out a relieved breath, Jules pushed down the handle and opened the door, holding it as Dez and Tio hurried through. She grinned when she saw the Camry sitting at the curb, the driver’s door open for her. Sam was circling behind the car, heading for the front passenger seat, and Ty climbed out of the back seat, rushing toward them, grinning with obvious pride.
Jules’s happy smile dropped when the car began to roll forward.
With a yelp, Sam grabbed at the open door, possibly in an attempt to catch the runaway Camry. It slipped out of his grasp. Jules ran toward the car, but it picked up speed, the slight downward incline of the lot allowing it to roll straight toward a blue, new-looking hybrid,
“No, no, no, no, no!” Even in her panic, she kept her voice low, not wanting to draw attention from anyone inside the school. If her car crashed, however, people—like Sister Mary Augustine—were going to come running. Dez would be yanked back into school, the police and Jules’s stepmother would be called, and that would be the end.
Jules ran faster, sprinting toward the Camry, her heart pounding more from fear than exertion. She drew closer, but it continued on its course, headed straight for the hybrid like a missile locked on its target. She could almost hear the crunching sound her car would make as it connected, the shrill squeals of the alarm, and she shot forward in a burst of panic-fueled speed.
Catching the driver’s side door, Jules dove into the car, her foot fumbling for the brake pedal. She hit it hard, and her head jerked forward at the abrupt halt. When she raised her gaze, the hybrid’s bumper was hidden by the front of the Camry. The two cars couldn’t have been more than an inch or two apart.
“S-s-sorry!” Sam ran up to the still-open passenger door, his eyes huge from the scare. Jules imagined that hers were pretty wide, too.
“No problem,” she said, sucking in air and forcing her hundredth fake smile of the day. With a shaking hand, she reached to pop the trunk. “You got it here, and that’s the important thing. We can work on your parking skills later.”
Sam dropped into the passenger seat, as if his legs refused to support him, and Ty climbed into the back.
“Whoa,” was all Ty said. Jules knew he had to have been terrified for him to be robbed of words. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw Tio adding Dez’s backpack to the three already in the trunk. He slammed it closed, and the two of them hustled into the backseat. Jules did a quick headcount before backing away from the hybrid. Her whole body was still shaking, and she tightened her hands on the steering wheel in an attempt to hide it.
She turned out of the school parking lot, glanced at Sam, and checked the rearview mirror again. Giddiness rose in her, sweeping away the vestiges of her earlier fear.