Kendall was Jo's partner in home ec. They were making a pie out of rotten strawberries with moldy tomatoes and overripe avocados. As the smells of the spoiled fruit wafted through the air, Jo found herself drooling.

"We have to cook it first," Kendall said as Jo popped a furry green strawberry into her mouth and moaned.

"Just making sure the strawberries are safe," Jo said, tipping her head over her shoulder at the Bs. "I hear the Ghouls have a plot to poison you."

"Funny." Kendall laughed. "It's not me they are after." He added a wink, "New Girl."

Jo frowned. "True."

"Sorry for how things turned out." Kendall said, slowly taking her hands into his. "I warned you when you got here, but maybe I should have been , more specific. Or defended you in some way."

"It's okay." Jo blushed, letting go of Kendall's hand and picked up a bowl and began to smash the strawberries into a thick pulp.

"All you have to do is hang in there," Kendall said. "Eventually they'll forget about you. Or sooner or later someone newer than you is bound to do something they think is worse then giving Gertrude back her letter."

Looking over her shoulder, Jo noticed that Camille was paired with Brooke. They were chatting as they both scooped avocado from the skin. But she can't be mad at her, Mr. Franko, the home ec teacher, had chosen the pairs.

Mr. Franko was the only teacher on staff who wasn't a zombie. He'd been on a TV chef on a reality show until the entire cast got the virus. For some reason, Mr. Franko was immune. He came to ZA with his staff, who were all employed at the castle.

"Oh!" Jo remembered what she'd forgotten the bathroom with Camille. "What about Visitor Day?" She asked the question so quickly so she wouldn't forget it again.

"What do you mean?" Kendall looked at her blankly.

"When is it?" Jo asked. "I can't wait for you to meet my parents and my best friend, Rachel. Jake is going to love this place.

"I don't know when it is," Kendall admitted. "I don't invite anyone anymore."

Jo stopped crushing strawberries. "Why not?"

"No one's around for me to invite," Kendall said with a small voice. "You should introduce yourself to Mr. Jones. He can tell you when it is."

Jo hadn't made an appointment because she was nervous to meet him.

"After class," she said, stealing her courage. "I'll go see him right after class."

"I thought we were going to the movies today," Kendall reminded her. Kendall's memory was much better than Jo's. She never saw him pull out his notebook to double-check things.

"I'll meet you at the theater," she told Kendall. "Tell Camille to save me a seat."

Jo glanced back at Camille one last time. She was chatting with all the Bs now. It was strange...Camille seemed...really, really happy.


At noon, classes were over for the day.

Jo decided that if she didn't go to Mr. Jones's bungalow right away, she never would. So after making a note to herself to go to the movie theater when she was through, Jo headed down the stone path behind the school, following the signs.

She hadn't been behind the school before. Since she'd arrived the day before, she actually hadn't been outside. There were only three buildings on the ZA property: the castle; Mr. Jones's home, which was also his office; and the research center.

Mr. Jones's bungalow sat straight ahead of her, and through the trees to the right, she could see the red bricks of the center.

She meant to go straight, and yet, at the cross-roads, Jo found herself turning down the side path toward the research facility.

The castle may have been centuries old, but the research center looked brand-new. There were tall windows across the front, and a slanted roof that glowed as solar panels collected sunlight. Kendall had told her that the doctors had the best technology available at their fingertips.

Her curiosity took her up the front door. Jo was surprised to find it was locked. Yes, there had been a theft the day before. But shouldn't the doctors be back at work, trying to re-create the cure? She tried the buzzer, but no answer.

Standing on the front stoop, Jo felt her legs begin to get heavy. Her right leg dragged as she staggered around the back of the center.

To her surprise, the back of the building was made entirely of glass. It was gorgeous.

Jo was about to go back to the main pathway and try the buzzer again when she heard a loud metallic-sounding crash and a few raised–and very agitated—voices.

"Hello—" she began, hoping she might be let in for a tour. "I—" she began, hoping she might let in for a tour. "I—" Jo became very quite as she realized that she recognized those voices.

The Bs!

Frantically, Jo looked for a place to hid. She shuffled away from the building and ducked behind a thick cluster of pines.

Through the sharp, twisted needles, Jo could see them. Brenda, Brooke, and Betsy crawled out of a broken window on the far side of the building.

"Uhhhh—" Jo threw herself to the ground and choked back the rest of her groan.

"Who's out there?" Brenda shouted. "Betsy, go look."

"I'm not going into the trees," Betsy said. "There are bugs and creepy things and," she gasped, "dirt!"

"This is no time to get hung up on cleanliness!" Brenda said. "Brooke, go take a look. I definitely heard something."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Brooke sad. She pointed to a nasty cut on her own forehead. "I already have to explain to my parents how I got this gash. My dad warned me that head wounds don't heal. He's not going to be happy."

"If you'd been paying attention, the cabinet wouldn't have fallen," Brenda spat.

"Betsy knocked it over," Brooke retorted.

"If you'd let me turn on a light, I'd been able to see," Betsy said. "You know it's hard to see clearly without pupils!"

"Wear your glasses!" Brenda replied.

"They've been broken for a month," Betsy said. "You stepped on them in your high heels!"

"You left them on the floor," Brenda said.

"You knocked them off my face when your arms popped straight out," Betsy argued. "I'm waiting for a new pair. They have to be made special."

If Jo could have laughed without making a sound, she would have. The girls were acting like clowns. They couldn't stop bickering and nagging one another.

"Stop this nonsense," Brenda said sternly. "There isn't much time. We have to be ready on Visitors' Day."

"That gives us twelve whole days," Brooke said after counting on her fingers. "No problem."

Cupping her ear and tilting her head toward the woods, Brenda listened hard. "I guess there's nothing out there. Let's go back to the castle. We'll finalize our plans at midnight on Friday at the meeting spot."

"I'll make sure Roberts is there," Brooke said.

Betsy had a moment of zombitus memory loss. "Remind me, where's the meeting place again?"

"The tower," Brenda replied, pointing back toward the school. Then she turned to Brooke and asked, "Did you get what we need?"

Brooke held up a brown cloth sack. "I have them."

Jo could hear glass clinking in the bag as Brooke give it a little shake.

"Careful with those," Betsy warned. "We're going to use them all!"

"This will be the best Visitors' Day ever," Brenda cheered. "Afterward, no one will care that the cure was stolen." The Bs high-fives one another, then rushed off toward the castle.

The instant they were gone, Jo took out herZA notebook and wrote everything she wanted to remember.

Suspects: Brooke, Brenda, Betsy

Clues: Visitors' Day, Tower, Glass in bag

At the bottom of the page, Jo wrote one last thing:

Camille Roberts—how is she involved?

Jo didn't understand why Camille would be meeting the Bs on Friday at midnight. What were the Bs up to? And what did all of this have to do with the missing zombitus cure?