Dead Ringer by Jessie Rosen

with this?”
Charlie asked. “She lived three thousand miles away when this all happened.”
    “No. I think that someone decided just how much they care
about Sarah Castro-Tanner now that Laura is here to remind them. She’s like the
trigger. And whoever it is thinks we know something.”
    Charlie didn’t have an argument for that theory. He didn’t
entirely believe it, but he didn’t have a comeback.
    “Well, we do know something,” he finally said. “But
why would they think that?”
    “That’s what we need to figure out.”

 
     
    September
28
    Laura
     
    Almost two weeks passed before
Charlie had time to pick up the school newspaper interview where he and Laura
left off. Soccer season was in full swing, meaning his nights and weekends were
jammed with practices and games, plus Laura was getting more and more
assignments for the paper, making her own after-school hours packed. She was
actually grateful for the delay. There was a definite change in Charlie since
the beginning of the school year, especially when it came to his relationship
with Amanda. From what Laura could tell, they were spending less and less time
together.
    Laura had walked by the cafeteria on her way to eat lunch
with Becca and noticed Charlie sitting with the soccer team at least half of
the days lately, leaving Amanda with Kit and Miller at their table. Rumor also
had it that Charlie and Amanda were both originally on the ballot for the
homecoming-king and -queen race, which would be announced before the big
football game at the end of the month, but Charlie had removed his name. That
told Laura that whatever was going on between them wasn’t a one-week standoff.
    And then there was the way Charlie treated her every morning
in English class. Laura prided herself on being more perceptive than the average
girl. She had always been obsessed with detective shows and gobbled up crime
novels like they were magazines, but it didn’t take a Sherlock superfan to tell
that Charlie was flirting with her. He was constantly turning around in his
desk to make quick jokes about whatever Ms. O’Malley was barking. He asked for
her opinion on how he should handle all the homework assignments. All he kept
talking about was their next workout session together. And at the beginning of
every class, he found something about her appearance to compliment. Yesterday
it was her eye makeup. Laura was no expert in the ways of the seventeen-year-old
boys, but she had a feeling they only mentioned eye makeup if they were out of
things to say.
    For good or for bad, it was working. The butterflies Laura
felt for Charlie hadn’t gone away since their first conversation, and now that
he was actually paying attention to her and moving away from his old crew,
Laura’s heart gave itself permission to run wild. It was like all the emotions
she’d bottled up over the past weeks got supercharged in whatever space she’d
shoved them into inside her body. She was completely infatuated with Charlie,
and it was affecting way more than her focus during the fifty minutes of first
period. When Charlie finally suggested they finish their interview at a fun
spot in town, Laura had to do everything in her power to keep from ejecting out
of her desk chair.
    “What are you doing tonight, Cali?” Charlie asked at the end
of class on Monday.
    “I’d have to check,” she said, “but nothing immediately
comes to mind.” The “checking” was a total bluff. If Laura had any plans at
all, she’d cancel them in a hot second.
    “Well, I owe you an interview, and we have off from
practice. I was thinking we could do it somewhere fun. Any favorite spots you’d
like to go on Nassau Street?”
    Laura hoped to God her face didn’t betray her attempt to
play this cool, because if she looked anything like she felt, then Charlie was
currently staring at a human jack-o-lantern fully on fire.
    “I’ve been meaning to check out that gelato place,” she
said. “Would that