In celebration of Amazon Prime Video's newest series Panic, I am thrilled to be teaming up with Amazon Prime Video and Wattpad to write this exclusive chapter that puts my characters from this story into the world of Panic!

I hope this chapter intrigues and inspires you to learn more about Panic. Visit the on Wattpad for the chance to put your creative writing chops to the test and learn more about the show!

To find out more about the contest, prizes, and how to enter, check out the #PanicWritingContest here: wattpad.com/AmazonPrimeVideo

http://primevideo.com/

........

Lyla came dangerously close to failing her junior year of high school. She wasn't a poor student but after her mother passed away in January, she couldn't focus on her schoolwork. Without Darcy's help, she probably would have bombed both math and bio. Not probably. Definitely.

In early May, Lyla met a guy at a party named Keenan Ames. He seemed like a pretty cool guy with his tats and shaved head, but she was sure her dad wouldn't approve. For Lyla, it was a very confusing time, a volatile mix of emotions.

Buzz had been building toward the end of the school year that Jack, a few other players on the football team, and some players from regional schools had been chosen to represent the North All-Star team. The plan was to travel to some little town in Texas to play the South All-Star team, comprised of some of the best high school football players in Texas. Lyla wasn't into football, or any sports for that matter, but she was definitely into Jack. So she talked Darcy into road-tripping with her to get out of town, put eleventh grade behind her, and kick-off summer vacation with a new adventure.

Early one Tuesday morning, two busloads of kids, coaches, and chaperones rode out of Western Pennsylvania on their way to a little town in the middle of nowhere called Carp, Texas. Carp was nothing like Lyla expected. She had imagined cactus and tumbleweeds rolling across miles of straight, sunbaked highways separating prairies where longhorn steer grazed and horses galloped. She'd never known anyone from Texas. The furthest she'd been from home was her aunt's house near Cleveland, Ohio.

Carp was nothing special. In fact, it looked a little rundown, forgotten, almost sad. Why the football league picked this place was anybody's guess. But for a small town, the game drew a big crowd. Probably a lot of bored kids with nothing else to do used the game as an excuse to get together for a summer party.

Jack was the star of the game, throwing for three touchdowns and running for another as Carissa and her squad cheered him on. The North team won by a score of 38-17, but Jack's long-legged blonde girlfriend drew most of the attention. The local guys couldn't keep their eyes off of her and the girls couldn't wait until she got her ass back on the bus and got the hell out of Carp.

"Why do I let you talk me into these things?" Darcy whined as she and Lyla made their way across the high school stadium parking lot between herds of pickup trucks.

"I thought it would be fun. Something different for a change," said Lyla, her eyes on Jack, as always, the center of attention.

"How's this different? This is like any tacky little town in the middle of nowhere," Darcy moaned. "And we got crammed inside a gross bus for two days with the band kids and other random losers."

When Jack's eyes met hers for a moment, Lyla shouted, "Awesome game, Jack." She wasn't sure he even heard her. Carissa did and responded by looping her arm around Jack's waist, resting her head against his shoulder.

"He is soooo cute," cooed a local girl to her friend.

"How do you compete with that?" Her friend cackled. "That ho ain't letting him out of her sight for a hot minute."

"You got that right," Lyla blurted out.

"Is she a total brat?" the dark-haired girl asked. "Or did I read that wrong?"

"You're not wrong," Darcy replied.

"Except you picked the wrong b-word," said Lyla.

The local girls cracked up.

"Hey, I'm Nat," she said, "And this is Heather."

"Darcy and Lyla," said Darcy.

"And we're not all a bunch of Texas rednecks," said Nat.

"Yeah, most of us kinda are," Heather said, pushing a strand of auburn hair from her face. "Y'all coming to the quarry?"

"Quarry?" said Lyla.

"Watch 'em play Panic." Heather smiled.

"What's Panic?" Lyla asked.

"Down at the quarry seniors do crazy dares," she replied. "It's a lot of fun. Especially after a couple of beers. You should definitely come."

"It starts the day after graduation. Opening Jump," Nat added.

"Huh?"

"That's how you declare. Jump into the quarry from the ledge. Then you're in the game."

"And then it goes on for the whole summer." Her friend nodded.

"Are kids around here that bored?" Lyla asked.

"You have no idea." Heather sighed.

"Most are in it for the money," Nat said. "We all put in a dollar a day through the whole school year."

"Everybody?"

"Yep. But only seniors can play. And win the pot."

"How much money?"

"Last year I think it was almost fifty thousand."

Lyla mouthed, "Wow."

"This year it's even bigger. And there's only one winner."

"Nah, I don't know," said Darcy, turning her eyes at Lyla. "We gotta be on the bus at six tomorrow morning."

"Your hot boy is going," Heather said.

Before Darcy could respond, Lyla said, "Yeah, okay. Can you give us a ride?"

Two hours later, as the sky went dark, streaked with purple and the last rays of Texas sun, Lyla and Darcy huddled together on the rocky shore of the quarry, sipping from cans of beer. The perfume of marijuana caught an occasional ride on the night breeze.

Dressed only in his jeans, Jack stood at the edge of the rock ledge looking down some forty feet at the black water far below. He probably couldn't actually see the water in the darkness. If he was nervous, he didn't show it.

The local girls watched him with rapt attention.

Wiping the beer foam from her lip, Darcy said, "Can I just say how weird all of this is?"

Lyla peered down at the moss-covered rocks jutting out of the water near the edge of the quarry. "Anybody ever get hurt?"

The girls looked at one another before Heather said, "Two kids died."

"Wait. What?" Darcy said. "No joke?"

Heather shook her head.

Color drained from Lyla's face, her eyes going to Jack.

The emcee, Diggins Rodgers, a quirky string bean of a kid, lifted the megaphone to his mouth and announced, "Our next contestant is the star quarterback who came all the way from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to show off his awesome skills."

"And his hot girlfriend," someone yelled.

Jack raised his muscular arms in triumph and smiled his patented smart-ass grin.

A loud "Booooo" bubbled up from the kids crowding the rocky beach and standing in the shallows, hooting and hollering.

Carissa and her two cheerleader friends, Nicole and Emily perched on a shelf of rocks cheering, "Go, Jack, go! Go, Jack, go!"

Lyla winced.

"Okay, okay," said Diggins. "You can throw a football, but can you face your fears?"

His remark set off a loud burst of applause from the locals.

"Watch me," Jack replied.

"No worries, folks," said Diggins. "No money will change hands. Jack here is just doing this for..." He scratched his head. "Why are you doing this, Jack?"

Lyla knew why he was doing it. Jack never backed down from a challenge. Never. His competitive nature wouldn't allow it."

"For the hell of it." Jack smirked.

"You talked the talk," Diggins said, gesturing toward the end of the ledge. "Now..."

CLAP-CLAP-CLAP, CLAP-CLAP-CLAP from beer-buzzed observers.

"I don't think I can watch this," Lyla said, dipping her head.

Jack took two long steps backward, paused for a moment, then bolted for the edge. An audible gasp rose as he tucked himself into an athletic flip then stretched out into the icy water below.

A loud burst of applause erupted.

"Wooooo, Jack!" Carissa shouted, as he surfaced, a victorious grin on his face.

"Holy shit, that's cold!" he said, spitting a spout of water. His jubilant cry bounced against the craggy walls of the quarry.

"How' bout you next, honeybunch?" Diggins taunted Carissa.

"That's not gonna happen," she said, full of herself, feeding off the attention.

More boos, this time with louder female voices.

"I get it," Diggins mocked her. "You're too worn out from all that exhausting cheering." He pretended to wave pom-poms, which got a big laugh.

"You put the ass in Tex-ass, don't you, cowboy?" Carissa snapped, her green eyes flashing.

Kids waved their middle fingers, grumbling, and cat-calling.

"Well, that escalated quickly," said Lyla.

"Leave her out of this," Jack shouted from the water.

"Scared of heights, Barbie?" someone hollered.

"Before we get back to Panic, anyone else wanna take the plunge?" Diggins called through his megaphone. "Anybody?"

Lyla remembered her mother's words. "Live your life, Lyla. Don't be a spectator."

"I'll do it!" Lyla shouted, snapping Darcy's head around.

"No, you won't." Darcy grabbed her arm.

Lyla could read Jack's wide-eyed, surprised expression down in the water.

"You know what they say," Lyla said. "Sometimes you gotta man up to be a stronger girl."

"Nobody says that." Darcy's voice rose an octave.

"It's not that bad," said Nat. "I jumped last week. Don't think about it. Close your eyes and hop off the edge. It's over in a second. And the main thing. Don't panic."

Lyla's pulse throbbed in her temples. "Hold my beer," she said.

Darcy froze, her jaw hanging open, her eyes bulging.

While Lyla made her way to the opposite wall of the quarry, two boys leaped in succession, breaking the surface of the water with loud, clumsy splashes. A jello-legged girl stood on the edge for what seemed like an hour, looking down at the water then up at the sky before she finally chickened out.

"Our next guest jumper is...," Diggins announced.

"Lyla," she said, her voice quavering. "Lyla Perry."

"Ly-laaaaaaaa Perry," Diggins shouted through the megaphone. "You sure you wanna do this, Lyla Perry?"

She nodded, refusing to look across the body of water to Darcy watching from the other side. She paced slowly to the edge peering down. "This is a mistake," she thought.

The chant began. "Ly-la! Ly-la! Ly-la! Ly-la!"

Her mouth went bone dry, her tongue felt like it had been dipped in sand.

"Ly-la! Ly-la!"

She noticed Carissa's voice wasn't joining in.

"Ly-la! Ly-la!"

Then something rose inside her, a feeling of empowerment pushing against the walls of her chest. Growing with every chant of her name.

"Ly-la! Ly-la!"

She wasn't going to jump to impress Jack. She was going to jump as a big 'screw you' to Carissa.

"Ly-la! Ly-la!"

She sucked in a deep breath through her nose, clamped her mouth shut...

... and stepped off into the cold Texas night air.

On the two-day bus ride back to Pittsburgh, that was all Lyla and Darcy could talk about.