I stuffed the rest of my supplies in my bag and glanced at Gus. He was standing in the middle of the wide hall and holding his backpack by its straps. Neither Arlene nor Darlene were with him, which my sister and I were happy about.

Gus was a couple inches shorter than Anthony and had short, brown hair. He wore a purple, long-sleeved shirt with buttons in the middle. He also had on black slacks and dress shoes. Do not ask why he had dress shoes on for school because I do not know.

Gus was growing impatient. I could tell. He tapped his foot and said, "I asked you all a question, and someone had better give me an answer. Where is Anthony?"

"Anthony got expelled," Adalee responded. She picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder. "The punk will never come back."

Gus looked at her. "He got expelled?"

She snorted and burst out laughing.

"Why are you laughing? What is so funny?"

She forced herself to stop laughing. "I do not know."

He stormed over to us. "What do you not know?"

She snorted again. "I do not know if he was expelled. I am only theorizing. Where else could he be?"

"He is supposed to be outside."

"So why are you not outside? Why are you searching in here?"

He put his backpack on and gripped the straps. "If you girls must know, Anthony and Arlene and Darlene and I always meet up in front of the school building. We do not have the same classes."

"I wonder why," I murmured.

"Arlene and Darlene are outside, but no Anthony," Gus continued. "They have not seen him either."

"Maybe he is still in his last class," I suggested, zipping up my backpack. "What is his last class?"

"Gym, but he has never been this late before."

"I would check the gym if I were you, Gus."

Gus twiddled his thumbs. "Um...do you mind if you go to the gym, Allison?"

I blinked a few times. I could not believe what Gus had asked me. "You want me to do what?"

"I would like it if you went to the gym to find Anthony. If you want, of course. I am not going to force you."

I scooped up my backpack and cradled it as if it were a baby. "You are crazy if you believe that I will find him. After what he did to me and Adalee, I will not take that risk."

"If you do not want to go alone, I will be happy to come with you. Adalee can join the ride if she wishes."

"How can I join the ride when we will not be in a car or another kind of vehicle?" my sister pointed out. "And I will tag along if Allison wants to investigate."

I took a step back. "No way. I will not investigate."

"Would you investigate if I gave you a million dollars?" Gus asked.

I eyed him suspiciously. "Do you even have one million dollars?"

He sighed and slid his hand in his pocket. "You girls do not want to see if Anthony is okay. Am I right?"

I pressed my back against the lockers. "It is not that we do not want to make sure if he is okay. It is just that we want to avoid him. We want to stay away from that guy as much as possible."

Gus quickly nodded. "I understand."

"Do you now?"

He glanced down both ends of the hall. "I am glad that my friends are not with me to hear me say this."

"Say what?"

He cleared his throat. "I...am sorry."

Adalee and I were surprised. We glanced at each other, and then back at him.

"Did...did you say that you were sorry?" I questioned.

"I was not sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry for the way that my friends and I treated you earlier."

Now I was so confused that I did not know what to say. "Why are you apologizing? Why are you telling us that you are sorry?"

"I am apologizing to you both because of how Anthony treated you. You did not deserve it. You deserved none of it. I would have given anything to prevent him from hurting you."

"Then why did you not step in to help us, Gus? You did not step in at all," Adalee said. "The only thing that you did was asking Anthony if he was alright. That is it."

Were those tears in his eyes?

"I am so sorry," he apologized once again, but we were not buying it. "I will make it up to you somehow. I give you my word." With that, he took off down the hall.

"That was weird," Adalee said. "But I am sure that Gus did not mean any of it."

Little did we know then that the weirdest thing was yet to come.

We were heading to the double doors when we heard a person calling to us. Well...he or she was just calling to me.

"Allison."

We halted in our tracks and spun around. It was one of my teachers. He was clutching a phone attached to the wall, and his head was poking out of the classroom.

"Allison," he repeated. "Could you please come here?"

"Sure," I said.

"I will wait for you outside," Adalee informed.

I walked to the teacher. "What is it that you need?"

"I just received a call from somebody," he explained. "I do not know who it is, but it sounds like a boy. He said that he wants to speak to you."

My eyes went wide. "Oh. Is...is that so?"

"Yes. He said your first name and your last name."

"Did he say why he wanted to speak to me?"

"No, but you do not have to talk to him."

Who was on the other end? Should I answer the call?