Indira, Daniëlle, Jade, Sylvana, and I agreed to meet up after school. When the bell rings, we all head outside together. Daniëlle and Jade quickly grab their bicycles, while Indira waits, since her dad dropped her off in -the car this morning, and Sylvana had walked to school.

Jason's group of friends exits the schoolyard, but he isn't with them. I can't help but smile, remembering he'd told me he wouldn't be here today.

At the park behind the school, there's an empty playground. I rush over to one of the swings, and Jade takes the other. Indira and Daniëlle run to the seesaw, pretending to be toddlers again, while Sylvana stands in the middle, filming us and making fun of how childish we're being. We talk about everything and nothing, laughing as Daniëlle shows off a new dance she learned on Wednesday. Now that my ankle's almost healed, I might be able to dance sooner than expected and maybe even make it to the competition. I show them how I can walk almost normally now.

They stare, amazed. "How did it heal so fast?" they ask.

I shrug. "It wasn't as bad as the doctor thought, I guess. Plus, I get to skip P.E. for a while!" They laugh, dropping the topic.

Finally, we decide to get ice cream from the shop where Indira works. They really do have the best ice cream there, and we can't wait to dig in.

As we approach the shop, Indira suddenly stops.

"Do we really have to go in there? There are so many other places we could go," she says, looking uneasy.

Daniëlle looks at her in surprise. "Uh, yeah—this is the only place in town that has Nutella ice cream!"

Indira's gaze shifts to the store, and she sighs. "My sister's working right now."

We follow her line of sight and spot Anaya inside, sneaking a bite of ice cream.

"Anaya works here?" Jade asks, already heading toward the entrance. "We haven't seen her in ages. Let's go say hi!"

Jade is the only one who really finds Anaya funny. They're more alike than Anaya and Indira, even though she's a couple of years younger than us.

Indira sighs. "Fine," she says reluctantly, following us inside with an annoyed expression.

The bell rings as we enter, and Anaya turns around, caught mid-bite with her ice cream spoon still in hand.

"Welcome to Ice Heaven. What do you want?" she says in a bored tone without looking up.

"What do you want? Really? Is that how you talk to customers?" Indira scolds her.

Anaya's head snaps up. She has heavy dark makeup around her eyes and blood-red lipstick. The light blue apron looks out of place over her black jeans, black shirt, and painted black nails.

"Hi," she says flatly, ignoring Indira. She takes another bite, then tosses her bowl toward the trash can, missing it entirely.

We all stare, expecting her to pick it up, but she doesn't move.

"Anaya, you should pick that up," Indira says, looking around nervously in case anyone else saw. The place is mostly empty, except for an elderly couple in the corner.

Anaya gives her a look. "Indira, you know what you should do?" She pauses dramatically before saying, "Shut up."

I hear Jade chuckle under her breath. Sylvana and I exchange glances.

Indira marches over to the trash can. "I really hope you get fired," she mutters as she picks up the bowl and tosses it in.

"So, are you going to tell me what you want or not?" Anaya says, raising an eyebrow.

We place our orders, and after we have our ice creams, we head outside to sit on the empty terrace.

As we leave, Indira mutters, "I'm definitely telling Mom about that makeup."

We can barely hear Anaya's response, but it sounds like, "Like I care."

I savor my vanilla ice cream. The weather's nice now, but in a few weeks, autumn will start and bring the usual rain. Here in the Netherlands, it can be sunny and warm one day and cold and rainy the next.

"Two biology students were killed yesterday," Sylvana says suddenly, her eyes fixed on her phone.

We all turn to her as she reads from an article.

"They were last seen working on a DNA mutation project that was supposed to be groundbreaking. They were found dead in their lab, and all the research data disappeared." She stops reading and scrolls.

"Someone really wanted that information," Jade says, shaking her head.

"There was another man killed recently too," Indira adds.

I nod. "Niek. They think it's the same killer."

Sylvana scrolls quickly. "The news says they were killed in the same way, but it doesn't give details." Daniëlle's eyes go wide, and Sylvana clicks her phone off. "Which means the murderer is still out there."

"Ugh, no, stop!" Daniëlle says, tossing her bowl onto the table, looking queasy. Indira, Sylvana, and Jade laugh at her reaction, but I can't shake the thought of the killer roaming free.

When we finish, we start heading home. Jade and I live close to each other, so we walk together in silence for a while.

"So, Jason isn't weird anymore, huh?" she finally asks.

She's my best friend, and I trust her, but I just can't tell her the truth.

"No, he isn't. I don't know what happened that day at my aunt's. My imagination ran wild, and then he came to school with that same look in his eyes. It just freaked me out."

I hate lying.

"Okay, if you say so." I try to read her expression, but she gives nothing away.

"Do you think he's weird?"

"Does it matter what I think of him?"

"Yes, Jade, it does."

I realize that, no matter how she feels about him, it won't change my need to talk to him. Jason's the only one who knows my biggest secret.

"Well, I don't know. He seems to care about you, but something's off about him," she says.

I nod, unsure of how to respond.

"Just know, if you ever want to talk about it, you can," she says, giving me a warm smile. We reach her house, and she pulls out her key. "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," I say as she heads inside, but she looks unsatisfied, as if she hoped I'd say more.

When I get home, I go up to my room to do a little research. I need more information on Vini's. After dinner, I grab my laptop and try searching "Vini."

No results found.

That's strange. The site I found last time should be here. I try my previous search term: magical creature.

The usual list of sites appears, but the one I saw last time is gone. I click through each page but find nothing. Where did that site go? I keep searching until I realize it's almost 1:30 a.m. Frustrated and empty-handed, I close my laptop and finally go to sleep