Free High School Hangover by Stephanie Hale Page A

moving, but I’d rather be road kill than spend a minute alone with Jack. But there is no handle. The entire door has to be pulled up…from the outside. That means Jack is a victim here, too, unless he paid the driver to take us somewhere. But where? And why?
    I could give Jack one good tap with the flashlight to wake him up and ask him. But I need a bit more time to acclimate to my situation without him aggravating me. I would never admit it to Jack, but he has some weird effect on me that makes my normally rapid-firing brain cells sputter a bit. So I need to make sure I bring my A game before he wakes up. I can’t show him any of the pure fear I’m feeling and hopefully this stupid little prank of his will be over and I’ll be back to the party before Leo realizes I’m missing.
    I’m sure this whole thing is Jack’s stupid version of Punked but that doesn’t explain my killer headache and passing out. I move the light around from side to side seeing nothing but boxes. Jack and I are actually surrounded by them and if someone opened the back of the truck they wouldn’t even know we were here unless we popped out at them. Jack sure went to a lot of trouble to carry out this little scheme.
    The splinter of light from the flashlight is cutting into my pounding head, so even though I don’t want to shut it off, I need to get a little relief. I lean my head back against the cardboard boxes and try to remember the last thing I can remember doing. We hit a bump and I hear some of the boxes shift, but Jack doesn’t seem to move a muscle. My hair gets tangled in between two boxes and I gently pull it out. That’s when I realize that my normal frizzy hair is back and not the silken locks that Mom worked so hard on. That could only have happened if my hair got wet. I went swimming. Of course, I remember now. I had the entire pool to myself. Jack threw a hot dog at me. Then something happened and everybody went running inside.
    Inside, where Leo and Amelia were. Now it’s coming back to me. Jack and Erika practically ran Leo off, forcing him to start getting chummy with Amelia. Okay, so he didn’t really have to get chummy with Amelia, but if they wouldn’t have bothered us, Leo would never have gone inside with Amelia. I have an almost uncontrollable desire to punch Jack in the face, but that would wake him up.
    Although, I’m not quite sure how much longer I’m going to be able to keep up this charade because I have to pee so bad it’s about to come out my eyeballs. An idea pops into my head. But I couldn’t. It would serve Jack right though for dragging me away from the party. He definitely deserves some payback. I turn the light back on and stagger to my feet gripping the edges of boxes with one hand to steady myself. It’s not easy to do with the constant movement underneath me.
    These dreadful heels of Mom’s I’m still wearing get snagged on something so I focus the light down and see my purse. My heart soars knowing my phone is inside and this will all be over soon. Maybe I’ll even press charges against Jack for taking me against my will. Okay, probably not, but I’ll be tempted. One-handed, I unzip my purse and retrieve my phone. I push the on button but nothing happens. It’s completely dead. How can it be dead? I’m obsessive about keeping it charged in case Dad calls. I flip it over and slide the back off to see my battery is missing.
    That’s it. I’m totally going ahead with my idea for retribution against Jack. A few boxes tip over making an opening. I attempt to straddle the remaining boxes and climb over but my dress is making practically any movement impossible. I remember Mom’s dress being fairly tight but this is ridiculous. I shine the light on my dress to reveal a full-length, strapless evening gown covered in gold sequins and not the emerald halter dress I had on earlier. It’s exquisite even though I feel like I’m suffocating in it. The sweetheart neckline plunges making it very