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Chapter One

THEY’D KILLED ME, but I survived While lying on the hotel floor, ht my life was over, except it wasn’t

I had woken up in a hospital, alone, without my best friend, Sydney, and without un first, and so their h When it was tih to be careful—at least, that hat the police report had said

But I knew the truth

FiveSydney and e town of Helena, Indiana, four states away I'd gone from a y

Standing in front ofblack bangs Most girls gained a freshht for two years It was hard to feel or taste or hurt after I’d died There was nothing to celebrate any else

A ratty white towel lay underneathaway from above one ear and then the other I had thick and shiny hair that my father had said could have only come from my mother

The scissors cut away all but four or five inches on top I ran ood The sides and a bit of the back were shaved, and the hair left on top nearly grazed

I loved it

Not that many people at KIT noticed nize o, had brushed theon the floor Every strand I’d sheared away had once been ith my blood Every time I saw my hair in the mirror or touched it, it was a reht away

Toier

After showering to wash the scratchy bits of hair from my skin, I stepped out and looked atbut exponentially less repugnant I zipped up ht within the right side ofthe absence of ht soak in that, had she been alive, ht

Class one of week one of y with renowned astrobiologist, Dr A Byron Zorba Dr Zorba hat he was called by students, but because he had been my father’s mentor when Dad was a student here and later a family friend, I always called the professor Dr Z

For reasons unknown to me, Dad and Dr Z had kept in touch over the years, and my father had consulted with the professor often When Dr Z visited, I’d relished hearing about his expeditions and research stories over dinner The daughter of two idealistic scientists, I not only didn’t fit in with other children, but I also had no interest in confor to be fire toward the Nobel Prize in my cardboard lab Barbies and boys bored me, and I was sure I bored them I could monopolize a conversation about the Keck Telescope before most kids knerite their names, and Dr Byron Zorba was my hero

Afterto Kempton whether I wanted to or not, and he practically filled out e application He also made sure that e fund

Just beforesemester, Dr Z offeredon scientists’ salaries, led to pay the bills, and so a work-study program plus a research assistant scholarship would help subsidize my skimpy trust fund and provide for the day-to-day expenses that a college fund didn’t cover

Freshly back from his most recent suh from his find—a twelve-inch-by-fifteen-inch, twenty-seven-pound rock I would be in charge of recording data Admittedly, the rock didn’t exactly i