Ava considered the sky the next morning. Was this a Texas thing? It looked as if a child had colored it in with a yellow-green crayon instead of blue.
All the students’ eyes stayed fixed on their phone screens or held that unfocused, early morning glaze as they moved from the bus into the front doors of the middle school. No one but her looked up.
Alex would probably know what it meant, but for some reason, she’d gotten a ride early from their dad. Today was high school game day, and they’d left before Ava had rolled out of bed. Without Alex’s help, she hadn’t bothered dressing up at all for Owen. She’d thrown on a sweatshirt and jeans.
On the bus, Ava debated telling him she had another boyfriend. A guy from back home—that had worked for Alex, for a while, at least.
But as she entered the school and felt the little jewelry box in her pocket, she knew she should listen to Kylie. She had to stop playing games and be truthful.
Now.
Before tomorrow’s football game.
She quickly spotted Owen’s dark curly hair down the hall. She pushed her way forward, hoping to reach him before classes started.
“Watch it, Ava!” Alex stood before her, her lips pressed tightly into a grim line.
“Sorry, Al! Did I bump you?” Ava waved to Logan and Xander.
Alex glared at her.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Ava asked.
“Why do you care?”
“Huh?” Ava craned her neck, trying to keep Owen in sight.
“You have your team to stick with you.” Alex walked off without looking back.
Ava blinked. What did that mean? Was Alex angry? About what? She couldn’t recall them having a fight last night.
The bell rang, sending everyone, including Owen, scurrying to their first-period classes. She wouldn’t see him again until fourth-period math, their first class together. But as soon as Ava entered Mrs. Vargas’s room, the teacher passed out a pop quiz and announced there was to be no talking.
Another chance gone, Ava realized, although slightly grateful for the quiz because Bridget, now wearing the kitten top from Spruce and a confused expression about Ava’s transformation back to her comfy clothes, looked as if she had a lot to say.
Ava didn’t want to explain her scheme to Bridget. Not yet.
Later, as she sat in Mrs. Hyde’s office, listening to the learning specialist go over the answers to the quiz, Ava reviewed her options.
She hadn’t been able to get to Owen after class. She was missing lunch to meet with Mrs. Hyde. But lunch was too public a place to give Owen back the bracelet anyhow. That left football practice. She had to find him outside the locker room. Talking to him in front of the other guys would be humiliating for both of them.
During the final class of the day, she watched out the window as the sky changed to a greenish-gray and rain began to fall heavily. She knew her dad would be looking out a window in the high school, too, frustrated that his team would have to play in this weather.
The rain increased and the sky boomed with thunder as the school day came to an end. Mrs. Gusman came on the loudspeaker. “All after-school activities are canceled today due to the weather, with the exception of football. Football will have practice in the south gym.”
Figures, Ava thought. Coach K would never let us miss a day of training. At least I can still find Owen before the weekend.
She waited by the locker-room doors, searching for him as the other students filed out of the building onto buses and into waiting cars. She wondered if Alex was on the bus.
All the boys greeted her as they entered the locker room. She pretended she was in the hall answering important texts. Owen was the last to appear.
“Hi!” she called, intercepting him. Thankfully, he was alone. Her heart beat quickly.
“Hi.” His eyes moved toward her bare wrist.
Ava’s phone buzzed, but she ignored it. She felt more nervous than she’d felt walking into Ashland Middle School on her first day. She stood awkwardly in front of him. Now what?
“Can you believe we’re the only ones still in the school?” she asked, unsure how to begin.
“Crazy,” Owen agreed.
Her phone buzzed again and again. She glanced at the screen. Her dad. She’d read his texts later. She had to do this before she chickened out. She took a deep breath and reached into her pocket for the box. Okay, she told herself. Here goes.
“Listen, I—” At that moment, a siren blared.
Ava startled. It didn’t sound like the fire alarm.
“I wanted to—” she started again, but the siren blared again.
“All students still in the building report immediately to the office,” announced the principal over the crackling loudspeaker. “I repeat: All students proceed immediately to the office. This is not a drill.”
Ava stood frozen, her hand still wrapped around the little box. Boys streamed out of the locker room.
“Come on!” Owen called, nudging her into motion. He darted toward the office, as the siren continued to blare. Ava’s phone rang and rang, blending in with the siren.
“What’s happening?” she cried, hurrying alongside him.
“Tornado!” Owen explained. “A tornado is coming! That’s the siren.”
“W-what?” Ava said, shouting above the noise.
Her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing and ringing. Texts from her father. He and Tommy were leaving the high school. Mrs. Sackett was already on her way to pick up her and Alex.
Alex? Was Alex still in the school? Where? Ava thought only the football team was left.
Ava pushed into the crowded office. Mrs. Gusman and Coach K were taking attendance. They explained that if anyone’s parents couldn’t get there in time, they would all go to the school’s safe room together to wait out the tornado. The other kids, mostly the boys on the team with her, seemed calm. They’d all grown up with tornado drills.
But she hadn’t.
All she could picture was Dorothy in her flying house spinning in the sky. She whipped her neck around, searching for Alex. The safe room would only feel safe with her twin by her side. Alex was always good in a crisis.
But Alex wasn’t here. Where was she?
At that moment, her mom raced through the doors. No clay in her hair. No longer wearing the sweats she’d been working in all week. Clad in a rain slicker and high-top rain boots, her mom wore a determined look that Ava knew meant business.
Ava’s mom pushed her way toward Mrs. Gusman. “I’m signing out Ava and Alex Sackett.”
Over her mom’s shoulder, Ava spied Alex standing in the hall alongside Ms. Palmer.
“We need to go now,” Mrs. Sackett said, leading them toward the parking lot. The rain had slowed, and the air was hot and sticky.
“But look over there.” Ava pointed to a patch of sunlit sky in the distance. Maybe her mom was overreacting. After all, she’d grown up in Massachusetts. Tornadoes were foreign to them. Ava scanned the gray sky. No funnel, just heavy clouds and a slight drizzle.
“Hurry up, Ava!” Mrs. Sackett prodded, as Alex climbed into the front seat.
As they exited the lot, a line of cars streamed in to pick up the waiting students. Every other parent had the same sense of urgency.
“A tornado touched down in Stirling. That’s about a half hour away,” their mom reported. “The radio says more are coming.”
She stepped on the gas.
Alex chewed her thumbnail as Mrs. Sackett wove through the suburban Texas streets toward home. The sky grew increasingly dark and the winds picked up. The single patch of sunlight disappeared. Strangely, the rain stopped completely.
Ava kept asking her questions about tornadoes from the backseat, but Alex pretended to be too busy watching the swirling debris lifting from the curb to respond. She had watched a lot of disaster shows on the Geography Channel, but right now she didn’t feel like talking.
She was still angry and hurt. Her mind stayed on the scoreboard controversy.
Ms. Palmer hadn’t known about the petition until Alex had told her, but that didn’t mean that the football players wouldn’t give it to the principal. Or ask for Logan to replace her.
And Ava still hadn’t said anything to her about it. That meant she was hiding something. Had she signed it?
“Oh my!” Mrs. Sackett hit the brakes as a flattened cardboard box flew across the road and bounced off the windshield.
“Mom, keep driving!” Alex said. “We’re much safer at home than out here on the open road.”
“I know.” Her mom picked up speed, her eyes tracking the lawn signs and garbage bags tumbling about. The wind rattled the windows of the car.
“Tommy just texted.” Ava poked her head forward. “He and Daddy are almost at Saragaso Way.”
“I wish they were with us,” Mrs. Sackett said quietly.
Alex turned on the radio. The announcers on the local stations sounded serious as they tracked the storm. They all agreed: The tornado was heading toward Ashland!
“Please, turn down the volume. They’re freaking me out.” Ava twirled a pen in her fingers. “Will we make it home?”
“Sure,” Mrs. Sackett said, her voice wavering slightly.
Alex made a list in her head. Lists always calmed her. They gave life order. She calculated the distance they had to drive and the speed of the wind. But then there were other variables—temperature and pressure systems and other things the weather forecasters always said. It was like one of those hard math word problems, and the numbers didn’t add up.
She realized with a shudder that she couldn’t make order out of a tornado.
All she could do was hope and pray that they made it home before it touched down.