Chapter 4: Rule Four

71:41:09.

The timer on my phone ticked down while I stood in the quad and decided that silence was only a bug, and I was very good at fixing bugs.

My first plan was a note.

I wrote "HI, I'M LUCY, ASK ME ANYTHING" on the back of a schedule and held it out to a boy carrying a tray.

He looked at the note, looked at the sky, and walked around me in a wide, careful arc.

My second plan was a sign.

I made it from a cafeteria napkin and a pen from the front desk.

FREE PRETZELS, it said, and I stood by the vending machine with a bag in each hand.

A dozen people wanted pretzels.

None of them would take one from me, so I set the bags on the floor and walked away, and they ate them the second I was gone.

My third plan was louder.

I climbed onto a bench outside the cafeteria and announced, to the whole lunch rush, that I had a story about a goat.

Nobody looked up.

Thirty campers ate their sandwiches in complete silence, and every one of them looked like a hostage.

I got down from the bench.

My hands were shaking, and I told myself it was low blood sugar.

"You are in violation of rule one," a voice said behind me.

I turned around.

Reed stood with his arms crossed, a folder under one elbow and his lanyard centered on his chest.

"Rule one is that nobody speaks to me," I said. "I'm the one speaking."

"Rule four," Reed said.

"What's rule four?"

"Rule four."

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