"Hey, Mads, get down here! Your school is on the news!" My dad's voice called me from the living room, the words causing my brush to freeze in my hair.

I quickly abandoned the task of getting the tangles out of my hair, snatching my phone from my bed and bounding down the stairs, trying to ignore the way my stomach felt like ridding itself of last night's dinner.

"What is it about?" I feigned ignorance, taking wide steps to the living room, where my dad stood in front of the TV watching a commercial for toothpaste. "Did I miss it?"

"No, they cut away to commercials right after announcing the story," he said, shaking his head. "Typical. They said it was about some vandalism that happened last night, that's all I know so far."

"Wow, I wonder what happened." I feigned ignorance, hoping my acting was convincing enough. "I'm gonna make some breakfast, let me know if it comes back on."

He nodded, not taking his eyes off of the screen. "Gotcha."

I headed off to the kitchen, my stomach growling despite the fact that it felt like whatever I ate might decide to come back up. I grabbed some bread and popped it in the toaster, taking the jam jar out of the fridge as my mind wandered to pact we made the night before. I was going to have to be careful-- we were all going to have to be careful. As if it wasn't hard enough to worry about my own slip-ups, I had four other people to be paranoid about.

The name Four of Clubs was something none of us could ever be affiliated with. Our agreement was great and all, but mistakes happen. What if one of us decided to get a little drunk at a party and ended up mentioning what we did? We'd all be done for. Or if someone couldn't handle the weight of the secret and babbled to their parents to clear their guilty conscience? We could kiss our lives as we knew them goodbye.

I tried to stop the next thought from entering my mind, but it persisted-- Daniel was undeniably the one I was most worried about. I still hadn't talked to him about the pact. Would he even want to be in our group anymore, now that we had another member? He was supposed to graduate that year and go off to college in the fall, and if the truth ever got out... Being attached to something like this could ruin his future. If ratting the rest of us out was what it would take for him not to get in major trouble--

I flinched as my toast popped out, a black tinge around the edges of the crust. I slathered it with butter and jam before heading back to the living room, plate in hand. There was no need to finish my previous thought. Worrying about maybes wouldn't help me, especially if they made me wary of my own boyfriend.

"Anything yet?" I asked, standing next to my father as I took a bite of my food.

"Nope." He pursed his lips. "Hey, did you knock something into the fire pit last night?"

I stopped chewing and swallowed heavily. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Did it smell?"

"Smelled like you were burning whole tires out there," he joked. My appetite was suddenly back to zero.

"Sorry, that was Roy. It was his, um," I racked my brain for a rubber object. "Uh-"

"You know," he interrupted and turned to give me an inquisitive look, "I couldn't help but notice there was no Daniel last night. Everything okay?"

I was happy to talk about my love life with him if it meant I didn't have to make up a lie. "Oh, yeah. He just wasn't available, had to study." I waved it off, continuing to eat, my primal need outweighing my guilt.

"I've never seen you with those other kids before. New friends of yours?"

I nodded, mouth full. The TV flashed with the graphic of our local news channel before a woman in red a blazer and matching lipstick welcomed us back.

"Ooo, it's on!" He announced, turning up the volume.

"This morning we have a developing story coming from Rutherford High School, where last night four masked persons entered the Gymnasium and vandalized the basketball court."

A photo appeared next to the reporter's head, a grainy black and white picture showing the four of us in our disguises, spray paints in hand. I snuck a look at my dad, but his expression was blank as he watched the screen.

"We have Linda Carter at the scene of the crime now. Over to you, Linda."

There was a moment of silence as they switched over, Linda smiling into the camera as she waited for her cue.

"Thank you, Cheryl," she finally said, gesturing an arm behind her, where police and school staff could be seen speaking in front of the building. "The scene here may look calm, but there are many people who are very disturbed by this act of vandalism."

My lips quivered as I tried not to laugh, not being able to help myself from finding their dramatics funny. There were far worse things that could've happened-- a little spray paint was nothing to be disturbed by.

"This basketball court was a new addition to the school, just added over the summer break-- and it wasn't a cheap purchase. The-"

Our doorbell rang, interrupting the report.

"Can you get that?" My dad asked, eyes glued to the screen in front of him. It was a wonder he even heard the bell.

"Yeah," I said, hurrying over to the door, not wanting to miss anything important. Cheryl's voice droned on about how much this would cost the school as I pulled open the door to a face that I wasn't expecting.

"Ian?"

"Hi." He smiled, the casual action catching me even more off guard.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned. My mind quickly realized that whatever the reason was, it could wait. "Never mind. Get in here," I said, switching into a whisper. "We're on the news."

"Really?" he asked, eyebrows raising. I nodded, leading him to the living room. A slow, panning shot of the work we did last night was showing on the TV. I had to say, it looked pretty good considering the conditions we did it under.

"This graffiti may seem nonsensical, but authorities are almost certain it has to do with a group at Rutherford who call themselves The Seven. This anonymous group have a phone application that many students at the school use on a daily basis. On a section of the app called 'the scoreboard,' the name Four of Clubs appears at the top of a list of names. This scoreboard has to do with a competition to win five thousand dollars, which The Seven announced on the app earlier this week."

My heart jumped and I turned to look at Ian, both of us wide-eyed, smiles playing at our lips.

We were at the top of the scoreboard-- I hadn't even remembered to check it.

"The mystery of who is running this competition, as well who the groups participating in it are, is yet to be solved, but the community can rest assured that it is being heavily looked into. Unfortunately, security footage from the schools cameras hasn't been helpful due to the disguises of the perpetrators. Coach Hanks, who was tipped off about the crime from an anonymous source, appeared on the scene just seconds too late."

So he had been told.

"You know about this competition?" my dad questioned.

"Yeah, everyone at school does. I didn't know they'd go this far with things though," I said, not technically lying. I really didn't want him to ask anything else, so hurried to change the subject to the most obvious topic. "Oh, this is Ian, by the way."

Ian stuck his hand out and my father looked surprised, seemingly confused at how this random teenager appeared in his house but shaking his hand nonetheless.

"He was the one at the door," I explained, laughing at the way his expression cleared up.

"Oh! Right, right. Nice to meet you, Ian."

"You too, sir."

"Mr. Brewer is fine."

Ian nodded, smiling sheepishly. "I just came to see if Madeline needed a ride to school."

I looked at the clock, gasping at the time. In my fascination with the news, I had completely forgotten about needing to catch the bus. I could've called Daniel, but he was probably at school already, and regardless, my house was out of his way.

"Well, considering that my bus left five minutes ago, a ride would be great," I said.

We said goodbye to my dad and I grabbed my backpack before heading outside and into Ian's small, green truck.

"So..." I started, buckling my seat belt, "you came to pick me up?"

He shrugged, pulling out of the driveway. "You and I live pretty close. And I figure we're all gonna be seeing a lot of each other now, so we may as well become friends."

I nodded, not knowing what I was expecting him to say, or why I was surprised that the reason made sense.

"You know... you kinda got interrupted last night," he said, eyes focused on the road.

Now it was my turn to shrug. "There wasn't much else to say anyway."

"I doubt that." Ian said. His tone was gentle, but his words hit hard, because his assumption was right. There were a million things I would've liked to say about what happened to me: how messed up it all was, how unfair it was that I had to suffer because someone else slipped up, and most of all, how much I wished I was at the point where there really wasn't anything I wanted to say.

"Why didn't you tell anyone? Like, the police or something?" he asked.

"Well for one thing, if this mornings news wasn't enough to tell you that this towns police aren't very bright, I don't know what else I can do to convince you," I joked. "But okay, for the sake of this conversation, let's say that I did report it and they did find The Seven. Then I'd go down in Rutherford history as the person who destroyed the coolest thing this town's ever had."

"So...you don't hate The Seven?"

"No, I definitely hate them," I corrected him. "But I know that what happened was a mistake. They do good stuff too-- I mean, they were the first people I turned to when I found out Kendall was cheating. I don't know, it's complicated."

Ian smiled crookedly. "You don't say."