Read The Bullet List (The Saving Bailey Trilogy, #1) for Free Online

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    When we flick the lights on the first thing I notice is a treadmill. Clad hunts around for his wolf mask, while Holden does pop-a-wheelies on an old skateboard.
    “Look at this junk,” Holden says. “It’s like a thrift store.”
    He’s right, the room is piled to the nines with elderly women’s clothing, oversized men’s Hawaiian flowered shirts, and an array of random objects like tennis rackets.
    “So much stuff, and yet nothing they need,” I say and step onto the treadmill. It is not plugged in, but I am able to make the conveyor belt move if I push my feet against it with extra force. Hopefully, my new bandages will stay intact.
    Clad has given up his rummage for the wolf mask and is busying himself with a ‘ Scream ’ mask instead.
    “Real fun,” I say glumly. “At least my calves will get a good workout.”
    “This skateboard isn’t half bad,” Holden says, while flipping it around in his hands.
    Clad puts on a tuxedo and checks himself out in the mirror.
    “You’re a handsome devil,” I joke. He sticks his tongue through the mask at me.
    I am about to try on one of the ridiculous-looking old lady ensembles when Ashley walks in and says, “Me and Emily spent hours organizing this place, and you guys come in here and destroy it in a matter of seconds.”
    Holden goes back to doing tricks on the skateboard. He loses his footing, and the board flings up hitting Ashley in the knees.
    “Ugh,” she grunts.
    “Mrs. Herrera says you have to get out,” Ashley’s friend Emily adds seeing the mess we’ve made.
    “Mrs. Herrera says you have to get out,” Holden mimics Emily in a whiny child’s voice.
    “Don’t you have a show to put on?” I ask. “Shouldn’t you be rehearsing or something?”
    “You guys suck,” Clad complains, tossing his ‘ Scream’ mask and tuxedo into a nearby box.
    Ashten, her eyes half open from just waking up, pokes her head into the costume room, and says, “Hey, Shay and the girls plugged their iPods into one of the speakers, want to come dance?”
    “Do I!” Clad rubs his hands together and dances out the door.
    “Sure,” I say less enthusiastically.
    Holden looks at the skateboard longingly then throws it down. “Yeah I can hang,” he says.
    The DJ Skrillex is booming through the speaker and Shay is dubsteping to the song. Clad is bopping his head to the beat and waiting for an opportunity to jump in and join her.
    “I can dance,” I say, crossing my arms.
    “You can?” he asks, surprised.
    “Yep, I took dance for ten years,” I say, finding it odd that my love for dance has never come up in all the years we have known each other.
    “Will you dance with me?” Clad asks and holds out his hand.
    I bite my bottom lip and smile. “Yep.”
    We go to the front, and instantaneously steal Shay’s spotlight.
    Clad breaks it down first, his body a well-timed machine to the beat of the music. Skrillex’s song Twin Atlantic comes on and I move in. Dub step is a far cry from ballet, but I can hang with the best of them. Mom always said I was a strange child the way I could move my body in the fastest of ways while still being graceful. The class cheers us on and for once I feel love emitting from my class-mates. I could get used to this .
    Mrs. Herrera returns in the middle of our dance, she had been moving scenery around on the auditorium stage. She joins in on the clapping. I expect Shay to run up and turn her iPod off, but she is entranced with the rest of them. I know it can’t last, but for a moment I feel as if I could take my Bullet List and burn it, erase the names, and call the whole idea off. I don’t want anyone to die when I am able to feel this alive. The music ends and Clad lifts me up in a bear hug. Applauds ring out, and Clad and I share a grin.
    “You are fantastic,” he says breathlessly.
    “So are you,” I say.
    When the applause dies down, Mrs. Herrera approaches us. “I think you’ve earned your participation grade for the