During the drive I could barely sit still. What had I done? I knew better, but I had let my anger at getting expelled get the better of me. And now I was about to make everything worse. I wished I still had my phone so I could call Vince and call off the hit.

Thankfully Hannah drove like a maniac, so when we pulled up at the school, Staples was just on his way toward the front door and not inside already. I hopped out and ran up to him.

“Staples, don’t!” I yelled.

He turned. “I’ve got to help Abby!”

“If you go in there, you’ll never get her back. Wait here. I’ll go in. I can fix this.”

Staples scowled at me but then nodded and stomped back toward his car. He leaned against it and then slid down until he was sitting on the pavement with his back to the driver’s-side door. He stuck his face in his hands and slumped forward.

I went around the school to the back. I went through the secret entrance to the tunnels that Kinko had told me about in her email last week. As soon as I got down there, I realized I was too late.

The first thing I saw in the main chamber was the Beagle, running from tunnel entrance to tunnel entrance, releasing several small snakes into each one as we’d planned.

“Go, my lovelies!” he said. “This tunnel looks perfect for an Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata. Yes, indeed. Oh, and this one is just right for Gary, the Elaphe guttata guttata.”

I was getting the willies already just thinking about snakes in those dark tunnels. Tyrell had slipped off somewhere like I figured he would. I knew that if I couldn’t see him, he still could probably see me.

Vince and Great White were involved in a skirmish with the twins. Then the door to Kinko’s office burst open.

Sue came charging out, followed by a black blur. And then Kinko stood right in the doorway, grinning.

“Let’s do this,” she said, pulling out a thick yardstick and wielding it like a sword.

“Wait, stop!” I shouted.

But no one heard me.

Beagle dashed into the room and emptied the last of the small snakes, which he had assured me were not poisonous or overly aggressive, onto the floor.

“Go, be free, my small army of Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides! Do my bidding!” The Beagle held up his hands as dozens of snakes writhed their way across the floor, slithering over one another like they were all part of one single being. He cackled madly.

Kinko screamed and took a step back. Even Sue, the huge monster that he was, stopped dead in his tracks. Only the black blur known as Michi Oba seemed unfazed. She darted from person to person striking out with her black marker in quick strokes.

I saw that she’d already somehow managed to write a whole swearword on Vince’s left cheek. He’d have a doozy of a time explaining that one to his mom and teachers later.

Kinko regrouped and started swinging her yardstick at the snakes, which sent Beagle diving to protect them while screaming out their names. I had no idea how he could tell them apart.

“No, Sleepy! I’ll protect you! How dare you swing at Mr. Conley!” he yelled, cowering over the snakes and taking repeated blows to his back from the yardstick.

Vince scrambled tentatively through the swarm of slithering snakes on the floor toward Kinko so he could help Beagle. Meanwhile, Sue and Great White were now engaged in a battle in the middle of the room. Great White, although clearly outmatched by the monster size-wise, was doing just enough to get in Sue’s way and keep him busy. Part of that involved Great White slugging Sue in the torso and stomach repeatedly. The punches seemed to be bouncing off with little effect, but they had to be adding up.

Then I heard faint screams behind me, getting closer.

“Snakes, snakes, snakes, snakes!” the voice shouted as it grew louder. The Aussie came shooting out of the tunnels with a small snake in his hair and more slithering out behind him. “Snakes in the tunnels!”

It was total chaos now. I saw Kinko whack Vince in the face with her yardstick, and then I spotted Michi Oba marking a section of the wall. A section of the wall that then moved and yelled out in surprise.

Except that she wasn’t marking the wall at all, obviously; she was marking Tyrell. She’d spotted him, no problem. I couldn’t believe it. He’d finally met his match.

I kept yelling for everyone to stop, but it was no use. It was an all-out battle. Then suddenly I was tackled from behind. I hit the hard ground with a grunt.

“This will teach you,” my attacker said, driving a knee into my lower back.

I rolled and kicked, managing to clip him in the ankle. He stumbled and nearly fell. I reached out and grabbed his ankles and pulled until he did hit the deck. Then I recognized who it was.

“Jimmy?” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“You mean you haven’t figured it out yet, guy?”

“You! You stole the money!”

I couldn’t believe I had been so blind. Of course. Jimmy and Kinko had been in on this together the whole time. It all made sense now. Jimmy was too good a businessman to let things get as out of control as they did . . . unless he let them on purpose. They had played me and I had let them.

“Wow, way to go, genius. It only took you forty billion years to figure it out.”

He climbed to his feet and charged at me again. I rolled away, and he went sprawling on the ground. That’s when I grabbed one of the snakes and let it slither up his pant leg. He screamed, scrambled to his feet, and ran out of the chamber through the passage that led to the shed entrance outside.

I heard a battle cry and turned around. Kinko was charging right at me with her yardstick swinging around over her head like a propeller. I turned and also ran through the tunnel.

She was four years younger than me, sure, but she was also insane and wielding a heavy yardstick.

I went up through the tunnel and into the maintenance shed that housed the secret tunnel entrance. Jimmy was outside already, still jumping around trying to shake the snake free.

Kinko was still right behind me, and I had to duck as she followed me out, swinging madly.

The snakes must have been getting to everyone, because it wasn’t long before the fight had moved almost entirely outside. It was chaos: Sue and Great White and Vince and the two twins were in a pile of fists and kicks and it was hard to tell who, if anyone, was winning. But then a loud voice of authority froze us all.

“What is going on out here?”

“Principal Cochran!” one of the twins yelled.

I turned and saw a middle-aged lady with a distinctly principal-ian vibe flanked by two teachers.

“Run!” I shouted.

Vince and Great White broke away from the pack and started running. One of the teachers went after them. I stayed back. I didn’t care what happened to me now. I just needed to make sure I could get as many of the others out of this as I could.

Principal Cochran grabbed Kinko’s arm, and the other teacher corralled Sue and Jimmy. Michi Oba, the Beagle, and Tyrell were nowhere to be seen.

“What is the meaning of this, Abby Larson?” Principal Cochran shouted. “And what were you doing down in the tunnels? You know that entering those tunnels is an automatic suspension! Maybe we should go down there and see what you’ve been up to?”

“No!”

I turned. It was Staples. He must have heard the fighting from the front of the school.

“Pardon?” Principal Cochran said.

Staples walked up to her and shook his head.

“No, it was me. I’m sorry. Don’t punish her for something that was my idea. I had left things of mine down there from years back and paid these kids to go down after them for me. They didn’t have any idea what they were getting themselves into. And Abby didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Staples,” I started. If he took the fall for this, then he could kiss his chances at getting custody of his sister good-bye.

“Shut up, Mac,” he said, turning back to Principal Cochran. “My sister hasn’t had anyone to stick up for her in her entire life. Don’t punish her for things I did years ago. This is my fault.”

He looked at Kinko and she looked away. Her head was down, her hair swinging over her face. I saw a clear drop fall and land on her shoe.

“Well, you always were my favorite former student, Barry,” Mrs. Cochran said dryly. “I was hoping I’d never have to see you again. I have to say I’m not surprised that you’re behind all this.”

Just then the other teacher who had chased Vince and Great White came walking back toward us, alone. He was breathing hard and shaking his head. They had gotten away.

“Well, come on, all of you, let’s go sort this out,” Mrs. Cochran said. “Abby, since it seems you’re a bystander in all this, I’d like you to head back to class with Mr. Erickson. I’ll be calling your foster parents to let them know what’s happening.”

Everyone started heading back toward the building, one of the teachers rounding up me and Sue and the twins and the rest of the kids from Thief Valley.

I probably could have made a break for it right then, but I figured what’s the point? I really sort of deserved whatever I had coming to me. Just like Staples, I guess. I had no one to blame but me and I deserved whatever punishment I got. Besides, what would they do to me? I was already expelled.

As we all walked back toward the school, I saw Kinko nudging her way closer and closer to Staples until she was right next to him. Then she reached out her small hand and took Staples’s. He looked down at her, and I saw his red, tear-filled eyes. And then he held her hand back. She grabbed his arm and leaned her head against it as they walked.

Two schools had been trashed. Thousands of dollars lost. I had been expelled, and would likely be grounded for life. And there was no telling what would happen to Staples and the rest of my friends.

But suddenly, for just a moment, everything seemed just as it should be.