When she arrived at school in the morning, Lyla shoved her Trig book into her locker.

Darcy sneaked up behind her. "You look like you slept in your locker last night. Give me the deets."

"There's not much to tell." She yawned.

"Looks like somebody stayed up late. And I hope that somebody was reading The Awakening. In case you forgot, the test is this afternoon."

"Oh, crap! I'll try to finish it in study hall."

"Yeah, that's gonna happen." Darcy rolled her eyes.

During study hall, Lyla became preoccupied with locating the Ames' family burial site. She went down a rabbit hole of references and small-town newspaper articles that eventually paid off, but by the time she found the information she needed, the class bell rang. She'd squandered her reading time and now faced the daunting challenge of taking a test on a book she hadn't read.

When she met Darcy in the hall, she asked, "So? Did you finish the book?"

She shook her head. Darcy facepalmed. "Good luck faking your way through the test."

"Hey," Lyla whispered before they entered the classroom. "Can I borrow your car?"

"When?"

"Right now."

"What's not clicking?" Darcy huffed. "We have a test. Remember?"

"What's the point? I didn't read the book." She ducked out of sight of the teacher.

"So what's with all the mystery?" She eyed her friend.

"Something just came up."

"Something that you can't tell me but you want my car."

"When you say it like that it definitely sounds sketchy."

Darcy shook her head. "Where you going?"

"I need to go do something." Lyla looked down at her shoes. "That's all."

"Really? We're doing that?"

She shrugged.

"Does this have anything to do with Jack Bentley?"

"No."

"I'm so sure." Darcy shot her friend a disapproving look.

"It's a big ask. I know it."

Darcy heaved a disappointed sigh. "Okay. You may as well take it." She dug her car keys out of her bag and handed them to her friend. "I'm grounded. I'm only allowed to drive to school and back."

Lyla smiled. "Thanks. I'll pick you up after school."

Darcy sighed and gave her friend that look. "You be careful with my car. I only have like four more payments."

"I will. Promise. Love you." She sneaked down the hall and out the door.

..........

Later that afternoon, Lyla found herself driving on a narrow road that rose and twisted through rugged terrain. She'd passed a field ten miles ago where a small herd of cows grazed. Since then she hadn't seen another living creature. She checked her phone then squinted through the windshield as gray clouds rolled in.

She glanced down at her google maps. "Where the hell is she taking me?"

When she looked up, a flagger frantically waved a hand-held stop sign at her. She whipped the wheel and hit the brakes. Two other members of the road crew scurried out of the way when the car skidded into the other lane. Fortunately, there was no approaching traffic.

The flagger, a tall thin man with broken blood vessels capping his cheeks growled, "Keep your eyes on the road. You could've run me over."

"Sorry," Lyla replied. She noticed that behind the orange cones just ahead, a sinkhole had collapsed the right lane. "What happened to the road?"

"Mine subsidence," he said wiping his brow.

"What?"

"There's abandoned coal mines all through these hills," he said. "Watch yourself. Keep your eyes on the road."

"I will."

When he waved her on, she steered around the traffic cones and proceeded slowly. The road was a mess with chunks of aged asphalt strewn around cracked and sunken patches of blacktop.

A few miles down the road Siri said, "In one thousand feet turn left."

"We are out in the middle of East Jesus Nowhere," Lyla mumbled as she checked her phone.

"Turn left," said Siri.

Lyla stopped the car and looked to her left. A gravel path meandered up a steep hill.

That's a road?