He reached into his back pocket—he only changed his pants about every four days—and passed her the time-stamped photograph of Charlene and the Evil Queen entering the DisneyQuest washroom.
He said, “There were two photographs last night. The one of the Queen with Luowski and Sally Ringwald, and this one. Notice the times.”
“You kept this one from us?” She sounded upset.
“We kept it from Charlene, yeah.”
Finn ate some more of the yellowish mush, but bit down on gristle and pushed his tray aside. He said, “She has no memory of the Queen being in the girls’ room with her.”
Amanda’s concern carved lines across her face.
“Maybe the plan,” Finn said, “is to cross one of us over each night until we’re all stuck in the Syndrome. That would get us out of the way.”
“If that ever happened,” she said, “Jess and I would cross over and come find you. The OTs can’t possibly know that you made it so we can be DHIs.”
He spotted Sally Ringwald across the cafeteria. She was too far away for him to see her green contacts, but it prompted him to reconsider his encounter with Luowski.
“What if they were green?” he said.
“What if what were green?”
“Luowski.”
“What about him?”
“His eyes. Contact lenses,” he said. “What if Luowski looked different to me because eyes were green?”
“That’s ridiculous. Greg Luowski has boring eyes,” she said. “Hazel. Red hair, hazel eyes.”
Finn said, “But what if his boring hazel eyes are now green like Sally Ringwald’s?”
“Greg Luowski wearing pigmented contacts? Not possible. A guy like him never thinks about how he looks.”
“But we should think about it,” Finn said, persisting. “The Evil Queen corners Sally, Luowski, and a couple of others at DisneyQuest. Then, a day later, they both show up at school wearing green contacts. It’s like those Goth groups, right? Green, as in Maleficent. Get it?”
“You’re sick.”
“It’s not me, it’s them!”
“It’s your idea.”
“We’ve got to look for others. And you have to get close enough to Luowski to see if I’m right.”
“Why me?” she said.
“Because if he sees me he goes all Neanderthal.”
“He didn’t when you were in the bathroom.”
“Just do it. Please! He’s right over there by the drinks.”
“Okay. I’ll walk by him on my way out.”
“What are you doing after school?” he asked.
“Jess and I were grounded by Mrs. Nash. She found out about our little trip to Epcot. We’re in serious trouble. It’s her three-strike rule. She threatened to send us back to the Fairlies,” she said.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“No offense, but I don’t think you’re going to have a lot of say in it.”
The school buzzer sounded. Lunch was over.
“See you.” She stood along with half the kids in the room. She walked toward Luowski and the exit. Finn watched her every step. As she passed Luowski’s table, she said something to him.
Then, at the door, she turned around and found Finn. She pointed to her eyes and nodded.
Her lips mouthed, “Green.”
For a second he thought he might puke. It had nothing to do with the creamed chicken and rice.
* * *
Philby felt the prickle of hairs raising on the back of his neck, and knew he was being watched. Worse, he only associated that same level of dread, of impending disaster, with the Overtakers. But in school? Normally, it wouldn’t have made any sense, but the photo of students with the Evil Queen had changed all that for Philby. No one was to be trusted.
The hallways of Edgewater High were jammed with students. Some were hurrying to class, some were flirting, some facing their lockers. But someone was watching him.
He crossed past Mrs. McVey’s classroom and stood with his back against a bulletin board filled with thumb-tacked essays on the promise of electric cars. He hoped the new angle would make whoever was watching him reveal himself. But the only person he saw was Hugo Montcliff, his neighborhood friend.
“Checking out the girls, or what?”
“Or what,” Philby answered. He looked hard for someone focused on him.
No one.
“We’ve got Algebra.”
“Yeah, so?”
“You okay?” Hugo asked.
“You ever get that feeling someone’s watching you?”
“Like a girl? Me? Not so much.”
“Do you think of anything but girls, Hugo?”
“Xbox. The new Guerrilla Warfare two-point-three.”