Free Switched by R.L. Stine

didn’t want to leave the house. I didn’t want to leave my room.
    But I knew I had no choice.
    I took all the money I kept in my top dresser drawer—about forty dollars in fives and singles—and jammed it into my jeans pockets. In the kitchen I grabbed a cherry Pop Tart from the box and ate it cold. I slugged down some orange juice from the carton. Took another Pop-Tart for the road.
    Then I made my way out of the house, being careful to close the kitchen door securely behind me.
    Margie and Hannah. Hannah and Margie.
    Their faces hovered in front of me as I hurried to school. Margie was in my homeroom. I wasn’t sure about Hannah. I thought she was somewhere on the second floor near the music room.
    Walking quickly, my heart pounding excitedly, I turned the corner onto Park Drive. The front of the redbrick high school came into view.
    Most kids were already inside. But a few latecomers were hurrying to the front doors.
    I started to jog up the long walk to the entrance. Halfway there I stopped when I saw the two gray figures on either side of the doors.
    The two gray-suited police officers.
    Watching everyone.
    Waiting for me.
    Did they see me?

chapter

16
    I turned sharply. Began walking toward the street. Not running. But taking long, rapid strides.
    The North Shadyside bus pulled up to the stop in front of the high school. I hurried to the bus, planning to jump on.
    But the bus was filled with kids arriving for school. They piled off one by one, blocking my escape.
    Were the two officers chasing after me? I didn’t dare glance back.
    Hurry, hurry! I silently urged the kids jumping down from the bus. Luckily, none of my friends was onboard.
    Finally I climbed into the bus. The doors closedbehind me. The driver turned the wheel, and the bus pulled away from the curb.
    I turned, lowered my head, trying to see out the glass door. The two officers remained at their posts at the school entrance. They hadn’t spotted me.
    I turned to see the driver, an old man with a red face and bright blue eyes, squinting at me suspiciously. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” he asked, slowing at a stop sign.
    â€œI—I’m sick,” I lied. “I—” I realized I didn’t have any change. Just the money I had jammed into my jeans pocket.
    â€œPull over!” I cried. “Please!”
    The driver frowned, but obediently pulled the bus to the curb.
    â€œI—I’d better get out,” I stammered.
    He opened the door. I leaped down to the street. “Sorry!” I called back to him. But he had already closed the door behind me.
    I watched the bus roar away. Then I gazed around. I had traveled exactly one block. Just far enough to escape the eyes of the two policemen.
    But now what?
    I still needed to talk to Margie or Hannah.
    I can’t spend the rest of my life running from those two cops, I told myself unhappily. I have to find Lucy. Fast!
    I crept back toward the school, thinking hard. I wondered if there were officers at the back, too.Keeping behind a tall hedge, I made my way toward the back of the school.
    â€œHey—what are you doing there?”
    I let out a startled cry. Turning, I saw a woman holding a garden hose in the middle of the yard. “What are you doing in my yard?”
    â€œSorry,” I called to her. “I’m just going to school.”
    â€œThis isn’t a shortcut!” she called sharply.
    I hurried through a break in the hedge out to the sidewalk.
    The back of the school was guarded, too, I saw. Two other officers had been posted at the door across from the student parking lot.
    I ran across the street and pressed up close to the tall fence that ran along the football stadium. I stopped there to catch my breath.
    I could hear the first bell ring. The kids were all inside now, except for a boy frantically pedaling his bike toward the bike rack.
    Keeping in the shadow of the fence, I took a few steps closer to the