Prologue
A Camping Site In Texas – Around 10 o’clock at night
The four girls danced in circles around the campfire, their sneakers kicking up dust from the Texas hills. The flames crackled and popped, smelling like mesquite and the wild sage that grew all over the park. They called themselves the Con Girls. The name is short for Confidence and Connection, something Maya’s older sister helped them pick out because she was in high school and knew all sorts of cool stuff.
“TO US!” Maya shouted, holding her bottle of sweet tea up high like it was fancy grown up drink. “WE’RE THE BEST FOUR FRIENDS AT NORTHWOOD MIDDLE!”
“YEAH! FOREVER AND EVER!” Chloe yelled back, jumping so high her long braids flew out behind her like two brown ribbons.
Bea held onto Chloe’s arm tight. She said she was worried about tripping on the tall grass, but really she just liked being close to her friend. They had saved every bit of their allowance for months to come here, with no parents or little brothers to bother them. Their tent was stuffed full of potato chips, sparkly painted cowboy boots, and notebooks where they wrote down all their biggest secrets.
Then all the laughing just stopped.
Bea froze in place, her fingers squeezing Chloe’s arm hard enough to leave little marks. “Um… where did Liza go? I thought she was getting more marshmallows from the tent.”
They looked all around the fire ring, but Liza was nowhere to be seen. They figured she had probably run off to take pictures of the stars. She had a pink camera she never let anyone touch, and she always said Texas had the best stars because there were not too many bright lights like in the city. Maya called her name really loud, but the sound just bounced off the oak trees and faded away into the dark. The girls each grabbed a flashlight and split up to look, and suddenly the woods felt way bigger and scarier than before.
Chloe found her first, down by the river.
Liza was lying on a big flat rock, her favorite blue denim jacket spread out underneath her like a soft blanket. Moonlight made her skin look pale as chalk, and for a second it looked like she was just sleeping. She always got tired when they stayed up late playing games. But her eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky full of stars she had talked about visiting since she was little, saying she wanted to be an astronaut one day.
In her still, cold hand, she held the braided leather bracelet they had all made together at Chloe’s house last year. They had hammered each of their initials into it with a nail because they wanted it to be strong enough to last forever. Every single one of them wore theirs every day.
Chloe let out a scream that made her throat burn, and soon the other girls were yelling too as they came running through the trees. They had come to the park as four best friends. They had made pinky promises that they would always be four best friends.
But now one of them wasn’t moving at all.
Maya dropped her flashlight in the dirt and fell to her knees beside the rock, reaching out like she wanted to touch Liza’s face but pulling her hand back like it was too hot. Bea stood frozen a few steps away, her eyes so big and wide they looked like they might pop right out of her head. Chloe just kept making that same loud noise, even though her throat was already raw and scratchy.
A car door slammed somewhere far off in the park, and then voices called through the darkness. Park rangers they must have heard the screaming. But none of the girls could move, could speak, could do anything except stare at their friend on the rock with the bracelet clutched in her hand.
One of the rangers knelt down and gently covered Liza with a blanket he had brought from his truck. He talked to them in a soft voice, asking questions they couldn’t answer. Where did she go? Did she say anything before she left? Did anything seem wrong?
The girls just shook their heads. They had been laughing and dancing just minutes earlier. They had been planning what they would do the next day hike to the falls, hunt for arrowheads like Maya’s dad taught her, make s’mores until their tummies hurt.
Now the fire back at their campsite had burned down to nothing but glowing embers. The stars Liza loved so much kept shining bright above them, like nothing had changed at all. But everything had changed. The Con Girls were supposed to be four forever.
And now there were only three.
