NINE MONTHS EARLIER Cameron stood there, mouth agape in a perfect, little “O.” His best friend waved his hand in front of Cameron’s face. “Cameron, you good, man?” Justin asked. “What?” he said, breaking out of his stupor. “Oh, yeah, yeah. I’m good.” He could feel his cheeks flush. He had been too distracted by the sight of Gabriella Clearwater—the most beautiful girl in the eleventh grade. Justin grabbed Cameron’s arm, “Come on, dude. We’ve got to get to physics class,” he finished with an eye roll. “Because that’s what I wanna learn about in 2163.” Heading down the hall towards biomechanical physics, Cameron envisioned Gabriella. — her curly brown hair cascading down her lean, muscular back; her eyes the color of the sky on a warm summer day; her plump lips untouched by bright red lipstick unlike all the other girls. “Oh, keep it in your pants, Cam,” Justin rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he had to yank Cameron’s arm hard enough to wrest him from his daydream. “Think a

When Cameron woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring, he groaned and dragged himself out of bed. Hey, how is everything going? He shot to Justin. Carly and Justin never left his mind. Hey, you up? He saw he had a text—not from Justin, but from Madison. Hmm, he thought to himself. That’s weird. He typed back; I am now. Sorry. I had a late night last night. She responded Yeah me too. Are you able to talk on the phone before school? Cameron didn’t know what the hell was going on, but he said he’d talk for a few minutes. Pulling her up on videochat, he saw where she looked like she’d just woken up too. “Hey,” he said while yawning. “Hi,” she said awkwardly. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, he said, “Sooo, did you need something?” “Uh,” she said, then threw her hand up like she was brushing it off, “You know what? Never mind. I shouldn’t have called. I’m sorry to bother you.” “No, it’s okay. Really. What is it?” Cameron insisted. “Well,” she said ne

The next morning, Cameron pulled out his HoloComm and shot a text to Justin: Hey, man. Can I ask a favor? If I ever start acting like my stepdad, will you promise to bust my ass? Then he hit send with no context whatsoever. He could already envision Justin’s brow crinkling with confusion. It’s a Saturday. It’ll be three hours before Justin even responds, he thought to himself. He probably went to stay with Carly all day. Cameron wished he could too, but his stepdad definitely wouldn’t let him after all the shit he’d pulled the night before. Figuring out how he was going to spend the day, he pried himself off the bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Scuffing his feet all the way to the bathroom, he groaned. He’d decided to spend his Saturday cleaning. He kept the room quiet and smelling nice with the wax warmer he had by the window. It was his mother’s favorite scent—rosemary and frankincense. She always said those scents always helped clear her mind when she was

Later that evening, Cameron, Justin, and Eli rode to the manor together. The tension in the car was high enough as is, but the silence they sat in made the hairs on Cameron's neck stand on end. It lasted for several minutes that felt like hours, each boy exchanging awkward glances with each other."Someone speak," Justin threw his hands up, and all three boys audibly sighed."Thank you for breaking the silence," Eli said. "Now, can we go over the plan one more time, or should we wait?" He cut a glance up towards Frank."No, we can trust him," Cameron caught his drift. "He's the closest thing to a father I've ever had.""If you say so," Eli sat back in the seat, clearly not trusting him just yet. Cameron sat back as well, reiterating the plan one last time, "So, we wait until my stepfather goes into his meeting, wait approximately ten minutes, then we sneak in. That should give us enough time to make sure the coast is clear." He took a deep breath and adjusted his seatbelt, "after we'

Sneaking up on Hendrickson was easier than they'd intended, and Cameron knew it had to be a trap. It was too easy. "This is a trap," Justin was voicing his thoughts. "This is definitely a trap.""I'm sure it is, but we don't really have a choice, do we?" Cameron pointed out."I guess not," he admittedly sadly.Eli was in the lead. He had an idea for the distraction, but he wouldn't tell either of them what it was. He just said, "It's going to be distracting, trust me."The basement was exactly how Cameron pictured it--a basement. It had concrete walls, nicks in the concrete, beige all around with storage boxes lying scattered throughout. The conference room, on the other hand, was magnificent. It had very high ceilings, Romanesque golden pillars that spindled into the clouds, with the men around the table being just as fascinating. They were all various races, arranged in a U around the table, with his stepfather sitting at what was clearly the head of the table.Eli smiled evilly, a