Free Evernight by Claudia Gray Page A

regular intervals, probably planted long ago to
provide shade. In the underbrush I saw a small dead squirrel, a shriveled scrap
of its former self. The wind ruffled its tail forlornly. I wrinkled my nose and
tried to ignore it, concentrating instead on my search. I walked slower and
more quietly, hoping to hear Lucas.

The carriage house was long and white, only one story high. No point in having
a second floor if you're building for horses, I guess. More tall trees
surrounded it, shadowing everything so deeply that it was almost dark, and only
a few wavering ribbons of sunlight touched the ground. Tiptoeing toward the
back, I leaned around the corner and saw Lucas dropping out of Mrs. Bethany's
window. He landed easily and carefully shut the window behind him.

Then he turned and saw me. For a long second, we simply stared at each other.
It felt like he was the one who had caught me doing something wrong, rather
than the other way around.

"Hey," I blurted out.

Instead of offering an excuse for his behavior, Lucas smiled. "Hey. Why
aren't you at lunch?"

As he strolled to my side, I realized that he was going to pretend nothing was
wrong, that I hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Or was I the one who
had done that by saying hello instead of asking him what he'd been up to?
"I guess I'm not that hungry."

"Not like you to avoid the subject."

"The subject of lunch?"

"I was thinking more how you're not asking me why I broke into Mrs.
Bethany's office."

I breathed out a sigh of relief, and we both started to laugh. "Okay, if
you're willing to tell me, it must not be anything too bad."

"My mom keeps saying that she'll only sign the consent form for me to go
into Riverton on our free Saturdays if I have straight A's at midterm. But I had
a hunch she'd already signed it, and I don't feel so good about chemistry, so I
decided to check. See if the consent form was in my file. Like I told you
before, I'm not good at playing by the rules."

"Of course." Even if it was wrong of him to do it, it wasn't too wrong, was it? Trusting Lucas came easily to me. "So, did you find
it?"

"Yep." Lucas's self-satisfaction was obviously overdone to make me smile,
which it did. "Even if I get a B, I'm in the clear."

"What's so important about the free weekends? I spent some time in town
over the summer, before you guys got here. Trust me, there's not a lot to
see."

We walked in the shade, carefully weaving our way closer to Evernight, making
our way around the side so that we could merge into the other students without
being observed. Both of us were pretty good at being sneaky. "Just thought
that might be a good place for us to spend some time together. Away from
Evernight. What do you think?"

Given our conversation at the gazebo, I shouldn't have felt so surprised or
bowled over. But I did, and it was simultaneously scary and kind of wonderful.
"Yeah. I mean, I'd like that."

"Me, too."

After that, neither of us spoke for a little while. I wished that he would take
my hand, but I wasn't quite brave enough to take his yet. Feverishly, I tried
to think of something entertaining in Riverton, a town that was larger than
Arrowwood and yet even more boring. There was a movie theater, at least, one
that showed classic films before the regular late shows, sometimes. "Do
you like old movies?" I ventured.

Lucas's eyes lit up. "I love movies—old, new, whatever. John Ford to
Quentin Tarantino, it's all good."

Relieved, I smiled back at him. Maybe everything really was about to be fine.
    * * *
    Later
that week, the seasons shifted overnight. The cold awakened me first thing in
the morning, and I could feel the change down in my bones.

I pulled the blankets more tightly around me, but that didn't do much good.
Fall had laced the windowpanes with frost. I'd need to pull down the heavy
comforter from the top shelf of my closet later; from now on, it would be
harder to stay warm.

The light was still soft and pink, and I knew it was just past