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policemen and picked the smaller of the two. He ran down the alley as fast as he could, gaining distance between himself and the police officer behind him. Reece was doing his best to keep up.
    “You’re crazy!” he said with a smile.
    The cop in front of them looked surprised that they weren’t giving up.
    “Don’t move!” he yelled as he reached for the taser holstered to his belt.
    Colton was too fast. He turned around at the last second and fell backwards into the officer. His momentum was strong enough to knock the cop to the ground. Colton fell with him and pushed his elbow into the cop’s stomach as they hit the asphalt.
    “Keep going!” he shouted to Reece.
    Colton tried to scramble away but the police officer wrapped one arm around his neck and kept him pinned down.
    Reece looked down as he ran past, then turned the corner and disappeared. The second cop ran up and side-stepped around his partner, but Colton stuck his leg out and hooked his foot around the man’s ankle. The cop stumbled forward and fell against an aluminum trashcan face-first, crushing in the middle. He rolled away from the can, groaning and holding his head.
    The cop who had the iron grip around Colton’s neck squeezed it even harder.
    “This is gonna be the worst day of your life, pal,” he said.
    Colton didn’t doubt it for a second.
     

 
     
     
    5
     
    H aven lay in her bed fully dressed, blankets pulled up under her chin. She stared at the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock: 9:17 p.m. Her parents were still awake; still walking around downstairs, opening and closing cabinet doors and turning the kitchen sink on and off. Haven groaned in frustration and sat up to look out the window. Kayla was sitting in her car—a rusty, twenty-year-old Volvo—in the shadows near the end of the street, waiting for Haven to sneak out of the house.
    9:17.
    The party of the century had already been raging for nearly twenty minutes. Haven tried not to think about all of the girls throwing themselves at Jason, begging him to pick them instead of some girl who didn’t care enough about him to show up on time.
    She smiled when she remembered their conversation during lunch. The embarrassment of her blushing face and stupid comments (“ Uh, fine” ) dissolved into the background when she focused on the fact that he had asked her to go to the party.
    Haven fell back onto her pillow and wriggled her head impatiently.
    Then she heard it: the unmistakable sound of her parents’ bedroom door closing. The latch clacked into place loudly and was followed by nothing but sweet silence. She quickly threw off her covers and picked up a pile of dirty clothes.  She laid them on her bed in the shape of her own sleeping body. Haven covered the clothes with the sheets and fluffed up the shape to make it look a little more realistic. She looked at it and shrugged—good enough.
    Three soft knocks sounded from her bedroom door.
    Haven froze and was about to throw off the clothes on her bed and climb under the sheets before she realized that she hadn’t yet done anything wrong. She could always just say she was having trouble sleeping and was organizing her room.
    She smoothed down the front of her shirt as she walked over and opened the door. Noah stood in the hallway rubbing his eyes sleepily. His dinosaur pajamas were twisted sideways on his small frame.
    “I had a scary dream,” he said.
    Haven knelt down next to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Aw, Noah,” she said. “I’m sorry. It’s over now.” She pulled him close and hugged him, then twisted his pajama shirt back into place. “Do you want me to sit with you for a little while?”
    He nodded and walked back to his room. Haven quietly closed her door and followed him. Every once in a while he would get woken up by a nightmare, and the only way to calm him down was to stay by his side until he drifted off to sleep.
    Haven said a mental apology to Kayla as she sat down on the edge