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She nods and it’s all the confirmation I need I pull the door shut behind ed to redeem myself As soon as I’m out of her driveway and back on the sidewalk, I pull my phone from my pocket and call Daniel

"Hey, Hopeless," he says when he answers

"I said stop calling ht about that before you got the tattoo," he quips back "What’s up?"

"Sky Davis," I say quickly "Who is she, where’s she fro Grayson?"

Daniel laughs "Whoa, buddy Slon First of all, I’ve never met her Second of all, if that’s the same Sky that I claimed to have deflowered in front of Val at that party the other night, there’s no way I’ to convince Val I never really slept with the chick Asking people about her will only roan "Daniel, please I need to know and you’re better with this shit than I a pause on his end "Fine," he says "But on one condition"

I knew there’d be a condition There’s always a condition when it comes to Daniel "What condition?"

"You come to school tomorrow Just one day Enroll tomorrow and try it for one day and if you absolutely hate it you can officially drop out with "

"Deal," I say immediately I can do one day Especially if Sky will be there

Chapter Eight-and-a-half

Les,

Holy shit, Les HOLY SHIT

It feels like forever since I wrote to you but it was just thisand I can barely write

I still haven’t talked to Mo out yet, but only because I’m not so sure I want to drop out any down for this? Sit your ass down, Les

I

Found

Hope

But I didn’t

Well, I’m still not so sure I didn’t, but I’m more sure that she isn’t Hope than sure that she is Does that even make sense? I mean, the second I saw her I was positive it was her But when I realized she didn’t recognizeorI don’t know I just started doubting myself Then I acted sort of stalkerish and crazy so she showed me her ID, which was really du But her ID proved she wasn’t Hope, which crushed me, but only for a couple of hours Because when I went running I ran into her again thanks to fate or coincidence or divine intervention orto do with it Whatever or whoeverin front of our house, looking all beautiful and shit Jesus, she looked good, Les

I’ht?

Anyway, so I’m convinced now that if she really is Hope, she would have remembered me Especially after I told her lanced down at Sky to see ifa bell but based on her lack of reaction, it didn’t ring a bell at all, so there’s no way she could be the saest part, Les? The part of this entire day that has thrown est loop?

I don’t even want her to be Hope

If she’s Hope, all of the draain and I don’t want that for her This girl seems happy and healthy and not at all how I expected our Hope to be if we ever found her So I’lad Sky isn’t Hope and Hope isn’t Sky

I had Daniel do so and I learned a little bit about her She’s lived in this area for years and has been homeschooled by her mom, who seems really nice, by the way

Daniel also said she’s not officially dating Grayson, so that’s a plus I’ to Daniel she’s definitely connected to hi to stop that before it becoh

Sorry I’ It’s just been the type of day you don’t expect at all when you wake up for it I’ll let you kno tooes I owe Daniel a day of school

PS Sky had a black eye today She never said what actually happened, but you kno paranoid I a reet that day you caed me not to kill him because I swear to you, I would have if you hadn’t sworn that he didn’t do it

I don’t know if you were telling the truth when you said it happened during your athletics class I don’t know if Grayson is capable of doing so Sky with that bruise under her eye had ht Grayson had hurt you And you aren’t here forneed to protect Sky and I don’t even know her

Don’t tell Daniel this, not that you could, but I would have shown up to school tomorrohether he made it a condition or not I need to see how Sky and Grayson interact with my oo eyes so I can determine whether I actually need to kill him this time