The Year of the Great Seventh Read Free Page A

inherited his passion for history. When I was a child I used to sit in his office and stare at all the antiques. Then I would bombard him with questions to persuade him to tell me a story about his time in Africa. My favorite stories were about ancient Egypt. Dad never lived in Egypt, but he’d visited the country several times for research. I could spend hours listening to his stories, imagining I was one of the brave archaeologists who would go deep down into the pyramids to discover the lost worlds.
    “Yeah, I think I should be fine. I need to get straight A’s though.” I sniffled, thinking about all the hours of study that was going to take.
    This was the perfect time to get permission for Saturday’s party because I wanted to ask Mom and Dad together. Mom, being in the film industry, was aware of Ethan’s parents’ lifestyle, and I was concerned if she connected the dots from William Dulwich to Ethan Dulwich, she would ban me from the party. I decided to leave the “Dulwich” evidence out of the equation. “A student from school, Ethan, is having a party on Saturday. Can I go?”
    Mom picked a piece of chicken from her plate. “Why does the name Ethan ring a bell?”
    Cold sweat ran down my back. She was heading straight for the evidence. I had to act fast and explain. “Maybe I mentioned his name before. Megan, Emma, Chase, and Tyson are going to the party, too.”
    “Okay, if you all go together, I guess that’s fine. Charles, what do you think?”
    “Yes, sounds good to me,” Dad replied without lending it much importance.
    Most likely, my parents thought this was another dull party where the host’s parents would be supervising the events of the night. I was sure Ethan’s parents wouldn’t be home that night, even if they knew about the party.
    I decided to retreat to my bedroom before my parents followed with any further questioning. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”
    Mom and Dad were again absorbed by the news and didn’t move their gaze from the TV. “Good night, honey.”
    My bedroom was larger than my parents’ and almost made up a third of the house. I guess that was an advantage of being an only child. It had enough room to contain a king-sized bed, a desk, a large sofa by the window, and my pride and joy, a massive walk-in closet.
    I slid the windows open to let in the breeze and lay on my bed, staring out the window. On rare occasions, Sunset Boulevard was visible from my window, but most of the time, the only thing I could see in the distance was dense L.A. smog.
    That night I couldn’t stop wondering why Nate had been staring at me. Every popular girl would be more than willing to go out with him, but he totally ignored them. Why would he pay attention to me? The only explanation was probably because he disliked me, but how could he do so if we’d never spoken?
    I’d never said this out loud, and probably, I never would. But I’ve had a crush on Nate since the first time I saw him. I’d never said anything to Emma or Megan because if the word got out, it would be really embarrassing. I wasn’t part of the “cool crowd,” and just the mere fact that I even considered I had any possibilities with Nate would make me a joke. I was quite sure every girl at school loved him in silence, so there was no point adding one more to the list.
    The only things we knew about Nate were that he was an only child and his family had moved from Seattle to Los Angeles before his freshman year. Also, Megan was close to someone from Nate’s inner circle, and he’d told her Nate had never invited any of his friends to his house, nor had he introduced them to his family. Nate seemed to be hiding something. And whatever it was, it seemed important enough to keep everyone out of his life.
     
     

 
    CHAPTER II

     
    ON SATURDAY, THE FIVE of us drove to Malibu together. When we got to the gate of Ethan’s estate, a security guard wrote down Tyson’s plate number and, after speaking through