Eight

Sam had an email from an address she didn't recognize.

She opened it. She opened it because she had nothing better to do, no place better to go, and because she needed something to distract her from her brother yelling at a football game on TV downstairs.

Normally Sam didn't open emails from addresses she didn't recognize, let alone emails from addresses she didn't recognize with no subject. But she had nothing better to do than reboot her computer if a virus attacked it; Sam would wonder, later, if she was almost hoping it would, just for something a little less monotonous to happen. Something that would give her a little bit of a reason to freak out, to do some screaming herself.



It wasn't a virus. It was an email from Elena Harrison.

"Hey, Sam," said the first line, the black text neither ominous nor cheerful--too middling to be comforting. "It's Elena."

Sam sort of thought this quite worthy of a scream, but she didn't indulge. Elena. Of course she knew which Elena. Elena Harrison, the talk of the school, the muted, loved beauty who had been missing for three days. What the hell could Elena possibly have to say to her?

For a few moments, Sam didn't want to read on. It was selfish and cruel and unfair of stupid Elena to drag her into whatever drama was unfolding. But then she thought about Maddie Harrison, with her bad tennis serve but her great backhand, all quiet and shy, sounding all sad when she said that she, too, wanted her sister to come home soon. Maybe Elena was in trouble.

But no. The email merely read. "I know you don't know me, but I'm letting you decide whether or not you want to let my family know that I'm okay.

-E.H."

So, no. Elena was just being stupid.

Sam, again, thought about screaming. She didn't. She thought about replying. She didn't. She thought about seriously giving Elena a piece of her mind, bitching and moaning and complaining and being generally angry that she, innocent Samantha Newman, had been dragged into the troubles of a celestial someone.

But she didn't.

And instead of forwarding the email to Maddie, or calling up Chloe and letting her know her best friend was alive, or even leaving an anonymous note on the Harrison's front door, she just closed the window, shut down her computer, and walked away.