Let Them Dare novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Rule Three

Delaney was already sitting on the short couch when I came in, with her hands folded and her chin up.

She had put her hair back and taken off the red lifeguard jacket.

She looked like the girl on the swim team banner in the gym, and for a moment I did not recognize her.

The principal stood at her desk.

"Sit," she said. "Both of you. I have something to say before the others arrive."

We sat, with the whole width of the couch between us.

"Saturday morning, forty-three tickets were taken from this school's office and hidden on a bus," the principal said. "Five students were nearly turned away from a state exam. I've spoken to the teacher, the student teacher, the testing center and the front office."

She looked at Delaney.

"I would like to hear it from you."

Delaney did not look at me.

"I hid them," she said. "All forty-three. On Thursday afternoon, after Dane brought me the bin, I took them out and put them in the seat backs of bus three. I picked five of them out and kept them in my coat."

"Why those five?"

"Because they were the five people who had stood next to Selah." Her voice shook once and steadied. "I wanted her to look around and see who was left."

I looked at my hands.

"Whose idea was it to call it a game?"

"Mine. I wrote the rules in my notebook on Monday. Nobody told me to." She swallowed. "Dane said he'd make it fun for the others. I knew he would, and I let him."

"Thank you for not crying," the principal said.

Delaney almost smiled.

"I'm going to take it to the board," the principal said. "I don't know what they'll decide. It could be a suspension from graduation events."

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