On Wednesday, my luck ran out. I hadn't watched the hologram. Something inside me was afraid of it. Chase no longer had to drag me everywhere. He just had to yell at me, keep me accountable.

I walked through the school doors on Wednesday. Corey and I were co-conspirators. It was comfortable almost. I felt content for the brief moments I wasn't consumed by how T wasn't there. Every other moment, I imagined busting in, saving her, and riding out in knight's armor like the old movies.

Jamie seemed to being paying special attention to me. She also seemed to be acting shiftier than normal.

It wasn't until I walked by a closet and heard voices that I actually saw anything identifiably shifty. The whole soccer team was stuffed into a closet, whispering to each other. I stood with my hand still on the doorknob.

"Close the door," Jamie hissed.

I stepped in and did as I was told. There wasn't any space. It was dark. It smelled.

"Damn, I thought you had a better meeting place than this."

I could see Jamie's glare.

"So what are we talking about?" I continued, trying to seem oblivious.

"We're talking about Tyena."

My heart plummeted.

I pulled out my phone, not the chip. Their eyes widened. No one was allowed to have technology more than 90 years old, since the government figured out how to access everything. Well, the American government anyway. Other countries had done it way before. Everything that wasn't government controlled wasn't anything citizens had any business dealing with. At least not in the eyes of the law.

The harsh glow caught everyone's faces.

It's not safe here. I typed.

They stared at me. I elaborated.

What were you saying about Tyena?

Jamie took the phone as though it would bite her.

She typed awkwardly like a person that had never seen a keyboard before. 

She's not dead, is she? We want to plan a rescue mission.

I nodded. Come to the manor. We have safe spaces to talk there. If anyone asks, Tyena recorded a series of holograms for everyone after she realized she'd been caught.

Jamie looked at me.

And did she?

I thought of the disc.

I don't know.

I stepped out of the closet and closed them back in. I ran my hands down my skirt. I'd just asked Jamie to the house. Freaking Jamie. The Jamie who routinely told me I was dirt. Love of T was stronger than Jamie.

I tried to act as normal as I could with the imminent threat of Jamie. So much so that I hung out with Rob.

"So, would you want to go on an actual date?"

"Sure, bud." I tried to smile big enough to make Mrs. Johnson proud.

"Where? I've wanted to explore the city. It looks so cool."

"Your pick." I chugged the water bottle in my hand.

Rob rambled on and on. I nodded. Vague grunts were all I could manage. It seemed like enough for him. I just hoped I'd never have to actually do anything he was talking about. It seemed like March was just trying to see what it could get me to accept. I felt like I was the exhibit of some circus show, only no one had told me.

Everyone I least wanted to be around, but had somehow committed to stuffed themselves into the train. Jamie was always on the train, but the 10 top soccer players were not normally. They rode the whole way, looking just as uncomfortable as I was.

Rob looked at me oddly. I just shrugged.

The soccer team stood up when I did and I felt vaguely like one of the mother ducks at the zoo. My ducklings, my athletic awkward ducklings, were coming after me.

I opened the door for them. I gulped.

"Welcome to my humble abode."

They all stood around the grand staircase.

"Well," I swallowed again. "Follow me."

I felt like I was suffocating by the time we got to the attic and the soundproof room. I held the door open for them, and the whole team filled the couches and any other seating they could find. Jamie leaned against a wall.

"How do we know it's safe here?"

I closed my eyes. "You don't. You'd have to trust me."

"And why should we?"

"You're here already, aren't you?"

Jamie nodded. "If you can prove that Tyena trusted you, I trust you."

"Prove that... T...?"

Jamie nodded coldly. I moved to the keyboard. The keyboard had a hidden compartment in it, a part that folded open. I waited for the familiar click. I looked inside the cavity.

"Anything you see here does not leave this room."

"Of course." Jamie's voice was hard and cold. That girl terrified me.

I got the hologram projector. I held it in my hands. I opened the latch on the top and carefully put the disc in. It wasn't T's last note. That was only for me. It was T's 15th birthday. Back when were were all three years younger.

Chase's smiling face was the first to pop up. Then T's. She sat in a formal dress on a couch that fell in an empty space, putting the hologram right next to one of the flesh and blood girls. A banner reading "Happy Birthday Tyena" was behind them.

I was the last thing to load. I closed my eyes and hit play.

My shrieking, giggling voice came through. "Happy birthday!"

Tyena burst into movement. "I thought I was promised cake."

I took a small, not even one layer cake out from behind my back. I set it down on a small table in front of me. T wrapped her arms around my shoulder. I'd made I mistake. I didn't want them to see that. It was just for me. That moment was just for me.

T's mouth connected with mine. Kissing her didn't look like it felt. It looked like two girls pressing their faces against each other. It had felt like the world was on fire.

"Thank you," Tyena smiled.

"Of course." I grimaced at the next words. "You're the love of my life."

I was not suave when I was 15. I blinked. Jamie's face was unreadable.

"Don't make me say it," T smiled.

"Say it, birthday girl."

"I love you," she whispered into my shoulder.

I switched off the hologram. The soccer team's faces were enough.

"I never had a chance," Jamie said. She looked at me in a way she never had before. And suddenly, I wasn't rich girl.

The conversation whisked me away. It was happening. There was really going to be a plan to save T. My T.