I yank on my black boots and stand up from my window seat. I’m still reeling from that crazy breakfast. I head for the spare bedroom, twisting my wet hair over my shoulder.

Just as I reach the door, Susannah opens it. “We should go. Jaxon’s truck just left, and we don’t know how long he’s going to be with Niki.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We’ll explain in the car,” Mary says.

Alice tosses me a black jacket, and I follow them down the stairs.

I knock on my dad’s office door and crack it open. “I’m going out with the girls. Be back in a little bit.”

“Keep your phone on and be home for dinner,” my dad says.

“Will do.”

I follow the girls out the front door and get in Mary’s Jeep.

Alice pulls away from my house and glances at me in the rearview mirror. “So what happened with you and Jaxon?”

“Alice, you can’t just go straight at a subject like that,” Susannah says.

Alice shrugs. “I just say what I think. But it’s not like I was trying to cause a blowup at breakfast. You know that, right, Sam? I was trying to figure out…I just need you to tell me what happened.”

“I will,” I say. “But can someone fill me in on what sent us running out of my house just now?”

Susannah turns toward me. “We’re going to Niki’s.”

Did I hear her correctly? “When she’s not home?”

“Faster and more effective,” Mary says.

“Are you saying we’re breaking in? Why?” My voice betrays my disbelief.

“Don’t sound all shocked,” Alice says. “We’re not looting the place. It’s just that if the Titanic you’re going to is a spell, then we have a more serious problem than we originally thought. And with Redd’s warning, I don’t know. I still think it’s unlikely Niki and Blair are involved, but let’s just say that I’m no longer opposed to double-checking. And besides, I know where the spare key is.”

Does that mean they think Redd’s warning might have been directed at me, too? “What about her parents?” I ask.

“Most likely at the yacht club,” Alice says. “I’ve lived next to them my whole life, and they’re almost never home on the weekends.” We pull to a stop, and she gestures toward an enormous redbrick house with black shutters. “See, empty driveway.”

Mary turns around from the passenger seat and looks at me. “When we get out of the car, make sure you act like everything’s normal. Don’t speed-walk or look around suspiciously, and no one will question what we’re doing.”

The girls and I jump out of the Jeep, my heart beating so loudly I’m sure the neighbors can hear it.

Susannah nods in the direction of the brick house and I follow. Every piece of gravel under my boots is amplified.

Alice sticks her fingers through a thin opening in a tall white wooden fence and jiggles a metal latch. The gate swings open into the backyard. Rows of white flowers and bushes, all trimmed and uniform, line the house and fence.

Alice grabs a fake frog and flips it over, revealing a hiding place for a key. “They never change it.” She slips the key into the back door, and just like that we’re in Niki’s house.

For a few awful seconds we stand in silence. I hold my breath.

Alice taps on the door from the inside. “Anyone home?” she yells.

I cringe and so does Mary. Silence.

Alice nods. “Told you they weren’t here.”

Mary scowls. “Jeez, you could give us a little warning before you start yelling.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t come home,” Susannah says, and all at once we’re moving full speed through the hallways and up the stairs.

Niki’s bedroom door is open, and the inside matches the rest of the house, pastel blues and white.

“Whatever you touch, keep track of where it was. Judging by the neatness, she would notice immediately,” Susannah says.

Alice and I head for her desk, Mary to her closet, and Susannah to her bookshelf. I leaf through a pile of books and papers, but everything mentioning the Titanic is just Wardwell’s homework assignments. We’re all super quiet and focused.

The first desk drawer is filled with pictures of Niki and Blair and a few other girls over the summer. Below the pictures are birthday cards, notes scribbled in big loopy cursive, and a wooden box. I lift the box lid. Inside is an envelope with Niki’s name on it. Wait, I recognize that handwriting.

I set down the stack of cards and pictures and pick up the envelope. I’ll just put it back in the box and forget I ever saw it.

Nope. I open the back flap and pull a card out.

Niki,

Hoping you’ll accept this bracelet as my invitation to the Spring Fling next week.

Jaxon

P.S. I’ll pick you up at 7:30 tonight.

I rub my thumb over the part of the card where the bracelet left an indent. What, it took him a whole twenty-four hours after our fight to do this? I get why he didn’t tell me, but I’m also getting nervous that I’m losing my best friend to Niki, of all people.

“Sam,” Alice says, looking down at the card.

I forcefully shove it back into the envelope. “It’s nothing.”

“Then why are you abusing that envelope?” Alice takes it out of my hands and puts it back in the box. “Dude, trust me on this one—if he likes Niki, then he’s definitely not the person you thought he was.”

Mary watches us. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Jaxon gave Niki one of those Titanic dance bracelets.” Everyone’s quiet, as if they’re waiting for me to go on, so I do. “It’s not that I want to date Jaxon. It’s that I feel like he just dropped me, like suddenly I don’t matter to him anymore.”

Mary frowns.

“I found something, too,” Susannah says, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the topic change. “Niki’s log of the Spring Fling committee.”

We all lean over the small notebook Susannah holds. She runs her finger down the pages. “Supposedly, they finalized the dance theme options in November, and there was no Titanic theme. But at the beginning of the semester, Blair and Niki got Wardwell and the history department on board, and the committee made an exception to add it.”

Alice grunts, like she’s deep in thought.

“So the Titanic was more than just the theme they supported. They’re the ones who actually brought it to the committee and fought for it to be admitted?” I say.

“Looks that way,” Mary says.

There is the faint sound of tires on gravel.

Mary runs to the window. “Jaxon’s truck. I thought he said they’d be at the harbor!”

My heart jumps into my throat. Susannah slams the notebook shut and slides it onto the shelf. We scramble to put everything back in place. And we run. Out of the room, down the stairs, and into the hallway.

The front door clicks open. Jaxon’s and Niki’s voices spill into the house. There are still two hallways left before the door.

“We’ll never make it,” Susannah whispers.

The white walls feel claustrophobic.

Alice pulls us to a stop. “Hello! Hello?” she yells.

Jaxon and Niki go quiet. Has Alice lost her mind?

“Hello?” Niki responds hesitantly, entering the hallway we’re standing in. “Alice?”

I’m sweating.

“Your back door was wide open, banging against your house in the wind,” Alice says. “But I guess since you’re home, then you knew that.”

“No,” Niki says, like she has a bad taste in her mouth. “I didn’t. And all four of you came to check on my back door for me?”

Jaxon’s and Niki’s hands are interlocked. He’s wearing a blue cord with a silver anchor wrapped around his wrist, and she’s wearing a brown cord with a ship’s wheel—the dance bracelets.

Susannah tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “We weren’t going to let Alice check on a probably empty and possibly burgled house by herself.”

Niki raises an eyebrow.

“But I thought you guys were just at Sam’s,” Jaxon says. He makes no effort to let go of Niki’s hand.

“And I thought that when we talked about how we both protect our parents, you wouldn’t bring up spirits in front of my dad and worry him,” I say.

Jaxon shrugs. Maybe he’s trying to punish me for not dating him. Or worse, maybe our friendship really doesn’t mean to him what it means to me.

Niki’s mouth twitches toward a smile, and she leans into his arm.

“You’re welcome,” Alice says. She looks at their clasped hands. “And those bracelets your dance committee’s selling are ugly as shit, by the way.”

Mary nods.

Niki narrows her eyes. “You know where the door is.” She pulls Jaxon toward the stairs. “Let’s go up to my room.”

Susannah gently touches my arm. “I’m sorry,” she says just loud enough for me to hear.