Let Them Dare novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: 8:11

At 8:11 the line at the testing center door stretched down the sidewalk and around the flagpole.

Robby's truck came into the lot on two wheels, and the taxi followed it.

I was out of the passenger seat before it stopped.

"Selah!" Pia shouted, and I ran.

Bus three was parked across three spaces with its doors open.

The thirty-eight seniors with tickets were already in the line, holding their numbered sheets and their photo IDs.

A proctor in a gray vest stood on the top step with a scanner and a clipboard.

Dane was on the step below him.

He was holding a small white envelope up over his head with one hand, and everyone in line was looking at him.

"Here she is," he called. "The president herself."

I stopped at the bottom of the steps.

I had four minutes.

"Dane."

"I said I'd give it to you at the door." He came down one step. "Selah, I'm not the villain. Look."

He turned the envelope in the light so the blue 31 showed.

Then he slid out a ticket and put it in my hand with both of his around mine.

I felt every phone in line come up.

"There you go," he said warmly. "You played nice."

The line clapped.

A girl I did not know actually said, "Aww."

I looked at the paper in my hand.

It was my photo and my seat number, and it had not been bent or touched.

I could have thrown it in his face.

I did not have time.

"Thank you for giving back what you took," I said.

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