The traffic jam had made them late, so Grace rushed down the garishly decorated, linoleum-floored hallway. Filled with every, typical symbol of Halloween in the usual orange, black, green and purple palette – from Jack-o-lanterns and bats, to Frankenstein monsters and skeletons – it resembled an elementary rather than a high-school. Arriving to first period math, the girl slipped into her desk at the back of the class just as the morning bell rang.

She hadn't given the ride's overheard conversation another thought until the teacher began talking about quadratic equations. Figuring even criminal history was better than advanced mathematics, she pulled out her phone and opened a browser app.

Grace had to try a few search combinations of key words to get any hits of real significance, but when news articles from ten years earlier began flooding her screen, she straightened in her seat.

She'd heard tangentially about the tragedy, which took the lives of three Gallatin teens on the morning of July 10, 2005. Everybody had. It was a topic that even now came up in regular conversations. Hell, it was one of the reasons Tommy was going to an early evening Boy Scout meeting tonight and not trick-or-treating, like every other kid in America. And not just after a busload of high-schoolers drove by a similar type of accident, reigniting the topic.

No, the crash where the trio died on impact in a fiery inferno left its mark on the way the survivors – the three-thousand or so residents of the sleepy Montana town – went on with their lives.

Following the initial reports about the accident – involving one car on a rainy evening with three bodies believed to be star quarterback John Pine, his best friend Lucas Jarvis, along with John's girlfriend and Lucas' sister head-cheerleader Madeline Jarvis – came the repercussions. The town lost three of its best and brightest, leading the Mayor and Council members to enact laws ensuring such incidents didn't happen again.

No matter how stupid it all sounded to her, everything Grace overheard on the bus about curfews and restrictions was true. She sighed. She knew it was bad, but she didn't know it was this bad. And not like she needed another reason to want to get back to Seattle, her real home, as soon as possible.

Putting her phone away, the girl could no more concentrate on y-intercepts or roots of functions now than at the beginning of class. Instead, she leaned her chin on her hand and stared out the window, mentally writing her essay to UW about the greatest obstacle she'd overcome.

The topic wasn't hard; she was living it.

Grace managed to make it through two more classes without paying attention or getting caught for it. By the time she walked into the cafeteria, she was in such a good mood she began humming the Ghostbusters theme song after seeing a paper cutout of a specter taped to the wall.

Not standing in line, but weaving between students waiting for their a'la carte selections, the girl grabbed her usual lunch of chips, banana, chocolate bar and bottled water. Placing $3.50 by the cash register, she walked away without breaking her stride.

One rectangular table, located in a quiet spot between the buffet line and exit door, was always halfway empty. Having no interest in watching the social interactions of future rodeo champions and PTA busybodies, Grace threw her backpack under the table and took her usual seat facing the wall.

Remembering she wanted to jot down her notes for the admissions essay before she forgot the key points, the girl leaned down to grab a notebook from her bag. When she sat up again, she jumped in her seat and gave out a faint sound of surprise.

The blonde haired girl from earlier in the day was sitting in the chair across the table from her. The dark-haired boy, no doubt her boyfriend, was standing beside her, ready to pull the chair out. They had both appeared without a sound, as if out of thin air.

The pretty girl laughed. "Look at her, Jack. Scared to death of me, and I didn't even say boo."

Grace wrinkled her brow and tilted her head. "Do you go here?" She asked the first question that popped into her mind.

The guy called Jack took a seat next to Grace and chuckled. "Yup. Just like you."

"But I've never noticed you before." Grace shook her head. She would have remembered these two for sure, with their all-American good looks, if for nothing else.

"The same way they don't notice you?" The girl asked, nodding toward the students in the cafeteria.

Grace looked over her shoulder and whispered. "Touché."

"I'm Maddie, by the way." The girl smiled. "This is Jack, and . . .," she paused, scanning the cafeteria, before finding who she was looking for. "That there is Luke."

The teenage boy her eyes settled on had the same tan complexion and light-blonde hair as her. Popping in and out of the buffet line, he picked up an armload of food and headed toward them without paying.

"A klepto, huh? Awesome," Grace muttered under her breath, tapping her fingers on the top of her closed notebook.

"What do you have there?" Maddie reached for the object, but Grace pulled it to her chest.

"Nothing." She dropped the notebook back into the still open bag.

"Come on, Grace. What do you have to hide?" Jack nudged her shoulder with his.

The girl jumped up, pushing her chair out from under her. "How did you know my name?"

"You told us, silly," Maddie tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

Grace shook her head. "No, I didn't."

"You didn't what?" Luke arrived at the table and sat on the end next to Maddie.

"Forget it." Grace leaned down to get her backpack. "I gotta go."

Jack grabbed her hand. "Please stay." Although his demeanor and words were warm, his touch was ice-cold and she pulled away.

"Yeah, we're about to just start having some fun," Luke added, twisting a green grape off the bunch he'd laid on the table. Raising the small sphere, he aimed at the nearest table before throwing the fruit.

Grace cringed as it made contact with the back of the skull of a red-headed boy.

The teen immediately touched the spot and turned around. "What the hell?" He moved his head from side to side, scanning the area for the perpetrators.

Grace was sure he'd quickly work out that the projectile could have only come from one place, but the boy shrugged his shoulders and faced forward again.

He must have been dumber than he looked.

The trio giggled as Maddie reached for a grape. "Gimme one." She took longer to find her target, giving Grace a chance to reflect on the situation.

She had no idea what was going on, that much was certain. Sure, she had friends like these back in Seattle – friends who'd joke around and play innocent pranks all in the name of fun – but she just met these people. Then again, they seemed to know her. But why? Why did they even care? They were the ones who were at home, probably having gone to the same elementary and middle-schools as ninety-nine percent of the other kids here.

Maddie finally let the grape fly, and it made contact with the back of a large kid, probably a football player by the looks of his letter jacket. But the victim didn't react, and she tried again. This time, the fruit whizzed by his ear and landed on a tray in front of him.

The teen jumped to his feet and looked around. Pointing to a group of girls at an adjacent table, he huffed. "Did you throw something' at me?"

One of the girls bit her lip, caught off guard by the accusation. The other two shook their heads frantically.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." The boy spread out his arms and slowly spun completely around, making sure everyone heard and saw him. "But when I find out which one of you a-holes is playing around with me, you're going to regret it."

The trio around Grace buried their faces in their hands, laughing at the response they elicited. She, however, truly had enough.

"That's it, I'm out." She stood, making the others quiet down.

Jack also rose and looked into her eyes. "Seriously, Grace? Live a little," he said deadpan, but after the trio glanced at each other, they all started laughing hysterically again.

"What's so funny?" Grace tapped her foot in annoyance.

"Oh, nothing." Luke grinned. "But this is small potatoes compared to what we have planned for tonight."

Grace raised an eyebrow. "Tonight?"

"Yeah, the night of October thirty-first," Maddie answered. "It's Halloween, kiddo. All Hallows Eve, if you're formal about it."

Grace scoffed. "I know what day it is, but as far as I know, nothing's going on. You're still in Gallatin, home of the no-fun-zone, remember?"

"Well, that's where you're wrong, city-slicker." Jack put an arm around her, sending a shiver up Grace's spine. "Because there is something planned for tonight."

"Yup." Maddie concurred. "And we want you to be a part of it."