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Think, I told myself There has to be a way out of this

“Enough talk,” Mrs McCall said “I know you’d love for me to carry on until so to happen, Toby It’s sad,” she said “It really is, and I am sorry These are supposed to be such precious years, but I’m afraid I have no choice—”

“Freeze!”

I’d never been so glad to hear a bossy, clear, more-popular-than-thou voice inin the doorway

She was holding a gun

CHAPTER 34

Code Word: Teamwork

I never thought I’d be so glad to see un, but o doithout a fight

“Move at all, and I’ll shoot,” Brooke said, her voice pleasantly deadly

“You irl,” Psycho Moed “You look just like her, you know”

“Thank you Drop the box Now”

“We weren’t in the saram,” Mrs McCall continued “But I heard about her I went to Quantico when I graduated, you know, and all anybody could talk about was your ot married, and well…sometimes, family just has to come first I dropped off the radar, but when Kiki was born, I put inher, and that if the program was still operational, she’d be ready”

Mrs McCall frowned “I never heard back, but I did so in Bayport, well, I knew thishere This school has one of the best cheerleading programs in the country, I told him And it does And Kiki’s done so well in it!”

Brooke cocked the gun “Box Floor Now” Her voice was absolute steel Gone was the teenager, gone was even the artifice of pleasantries This was the warrior I wondered how she was doing it—holding the gun, preparing to fire, doing it all without showing any external signs of weakness

Then again, this was Brooke Ca weakness wasn’t exactly part of her MO

Mrs McCall held her hands out in front of her, like she was going to drop the box, but I knew beyond all knowing that she was going to open it instead I fleard her then, driven by the pull of survival

I should have known that Brooke had another trick up her sleeve, and I should have known that the trick in question had a PhD Brooke never went anywhere without a partner Girls traveled in flocks, and the Squad wasn’t an exception to this There was safety in numbers

In the instant before Psycho Mom opened the box and I took her out (no idea which one of those possibilities was going to co a number into a cell phone and turned to look at Zee I didn’t have to glance down at the Bayport High e, and I short-circuitedevery ounce of ht up into the air

Mrs McCall moved to open the box

And the floor beneath her feet gave way to nothing as Zee’s code activated the trapdoor mechanism on the emblem Mrs McCall disappeared, and then the eround

Remember when I said that some of the entrances to the Quad were less convenient than others?

This was one of them