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said, shooting an uneasy glance at Stellan, then at me.
    I crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s going on now?”
    â€œI might ask you the same thing,” he said under his breath, then slipped the phone into the breast pocket of his jacket. “Let’s just go. Quickly.”
    I twisted my locket around my fingers. “I really don’t know if this is a good idea—”
    Jack faced me. “Avery, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to be like this, but they want to know you. You’ll want to know them. I promise, it’ll be all right. I’ll make sure of it.”
    If I did this, it wouldn’t be because of promises from him. I wished I could call my mom, but I clearly couldn’t count on her to tell the truth.
    Let myself live a little. Wasn’t that what tonight was about? This would be living more than a little. This could change my life.
    â€œAll right,” I said. I let go of my locket, and my fingertips tingled. “Okay.”
    Jack started toward the door immediately.
    Stellan extracted himself from the girls and came after us.
    â€œIs he going to try to hurt us?” I said, glancing backward over my shoulder. “Should you call the police or something?”
    Jack didn’t answer, but as we passed the photographer, he slowed and took out his phone again. His eyes darted from the phone, to the gym doors, to the phone . . . to me. “No, he won’t hurt you. He’d get in trouble if he did anything to you.” He clicked his phone off, then rubbed his forearm with his opposite hand and cursed again, not so softly this time. “Go with him.”
    I stared at him. “Excuse me?”
    Jack scrubbed both hands through his thick dark hair and shot a pained glance at Stellan. “Don’t tell him anything.”
    â€œWhat? No way. What did that text say?” I was starting to panic. “He doesn’t even work for my family, does he?”
    â€œFor you, it’s practically the same,” he murmured. “The Saxons will be there tomorrow, and I will, too. You’ll be fine until then.”
    He raised his voice as Stellan approached. “If you’re going to be this difficult, she’s yours,” he said. “We’ll collect her later.”
    I glared at Jack. First he’d spied on me, now he was abandoning me? “You can’t just
decide
to let him have me,” I said. “Tell me where to find my family and I’ll go meet them myself. I have a car.”
    Stellan laughed. “She’s funny,” he said, and then turned to me, the smile falling off his face. “Listen, if you are who he claims you are, you’ll meet them soon enough, and everyone will be happy.”
    I glared daggers at Jack, whose eyes pleaded with me. It seemed like he was telling the truth about this. If going with Stellan was what I had to do to meet my family, I guessed I would.
    â€œOkay,” I said.
    â€œFinally.” Stellan propelled me toward the back door.
    And then I remembered something. Jack had said he’d see me
tomorrow.
“Where are we going?” I asked Stellan. If we were going as far as Minneapolis or something, my mom really would kill me.
    We stepped into the parking lot, and Stellan opened the passenger door of a little black car parked in the principal’s space. I got in. “
Parlez-vous français, cherie?
” he said, and slammed the door.

CHAPTER 8
    T he plane pitched, and I grabbed the armrests so hard, my fingernails hurt, like holding on would save me if we fell from the sky.
    France. We were going to France. In a matter of hours, I’d gone from moving to Nowhere, Maine, to this. Visions of summers in Europe with exotic, wealthy relatives danced in my head. I knew I was getting ahead of myself—they probably just wanted to satisfy their curiosity and send me back home with a souvenir key chain.
    But Stellan hadn’t taken me