Five days before the concert

"Cassie, there's a phone call for you." My mother's voice was stiff, and its rigid quality immediately clued me in to who it was. I involuntarily grimaced and took the phone.

"Hello?"

"Cassie? It's me." My dad didn't sound too happy from across the phone line. "Have you made up your mind?"

For a moment, my mind blanked. Made up my mind about what? About whether or not I should cancel my arrangements to go to the concert with Austin? About just how many times I could ask before Jake, Marco, and Rachel would come back and help Tobias and me? About where Ax could be found? About whether or not my plan would even work?

"Cassie, are you there? Did you hear me? Have you decided about what I told you about moving?"

Oh, yeah. "Oh, no, Dad. I'm sorry, I'm, uh, still thinking about it."

He sighed. "Figure it out soon, okay, Cassie? I need to know." He sighed once more, and I could picture him apprehensively scratching his hair, one of his usual nervous habits. "I think this could be a real good opportunity for you, Cass. You could get away, start over again. But you need to decide soon, okay?"

"Okay, Dad. I will."

"Great. Oh, and Cassie?" His voice held a trace of uneasiness in it. "How's your mom doing?"

As soon as I hung up the phone, my mother pounced. "What did he say? Where is he calling from?"

I calmly walked past her and towards the stairs. "Nothing, Mom. I don't know."

"Cassie! Don't you walk away from me! Come back here! What did your father have to say? Has he been telling you things about me?"

"No, Mom. Don't worry."

"Cassie!" By now I was at the top of the stairwell. She stood at the bottom, hands on her hips, brow furrowed. "Cassie, what did he say to you?"

I looked back down at her, and from the top of the stairwell she seemed so far away. She looked like she was about to cry, and it hurt to know that I was contributing to that. "Mom, don't worry. He just wanted to ask me something. I need to do my homework, okay?" I didn't wait for an answer before retreating to my room.

It's not really lying, I tried to tell myself. I'm protecting her.

Four days before the concert

"So, Cassie, you excited about it?" Austin waltzed up to my locker, grinning hugely.

"Huh? Excited about what?" I asked distractedly.

I had reason to be distracted. There were so many things on my mind, so many thoughts and ideas and plans and propositions and concerns bouncing around my brain.

His face fell. "The concert, Cassie! What else?" He shook his head, appalled that the concert hadn't been the first thing on my mind. In actuality, it had, just not in the way that he would have suspected.

Austin leaned back against the locker next to mine as I concentrated on getting the right books out of my locker. "Hey, Cassie, do you want to stop by my house before it? We can hang out, ya know? Or should I pick you up?"

I slammed my locker and tried not to think about the fact that Austin, my new friend and almost-boyfriend, really could be a slimy slug controlling a boy who could possibly be a potentially hapless victim. Thinking stuff like that can really turn you off from a guy. "I'd love to, but I really can't. I have to baby-sit my neighbor before the concert. I'm lucky that I can even go at all."

It wasn't lying, it was just expanding the truth. I had babysat my neighbor last week, and that was technically before the concert.

He tried for a smile, despite his obvious disappointment. "It's okay. I mean, at least you're going, right? We can meet up there." As we began to walk down the arm, he slung an arm around my shoulders, and I subconsciously leaned into him.

Wait. Possible Yeerk! I shrugged away from his loose grasp. "Oh, I forgot! I have a teacher to talk to. I'll see you later, okay Austin?" I was halfway down the hall before he had a chance to even respond. I didn't want to see his face, unhappiness written all over it.

It's not really lying, I tried to tell myself as I sped down the hallway. It's just being careful.

Three days before the concert

"Hey. Cassie." I was sitting in the cafeteria by myself, scarfing down my lunch, when I heard my voice called. It was the last person I would have expected to be talking to me at all, let alone calling my name across the lunchroom.

I turned in the direction of the voice and saw Rachel striding across the cafeteria. She sat down right next to me and carelessly tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Hey," She said.

"Uh…hey. How're you?" Considering that we haven't talked in forever and I miss you but I don't think that I'll ever be allowed to tell you that?

"Good." She fixed her icy blue eyes on mine. "Remember that math problem you were talking about the other day?"

My face must have looked as blank as my mind was, because she sighed impatiently. "The one on grouping, Cassie. Grouping."

Click. "Oh, yeah. What about it?" I took a slow bite of my sandwich, waiting.

She tilted her head to the side and smirked. "I think I found a way to make the problem work. It turns out Jake was wrong. Some of the numbers do go together."

I nearly choked on my sandwich. "Really? I thought that they wouldn't ever go together."

She laughed in her typical crazy-Rachel fashion, and I couldn't help but smile as well. "Well, you were wrong."

I swallowed the sandwich to prevent further obstruction of my esophagus. "Come over to the barn tomorrow around six, and maybe you can show me how the problem works."

"I'll be there." Her eyes weren't nearly as icy as they had been when she sat down. She looked down at my jeans, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Going for the high-water look, Cassie? That's been out of style for decades."

I wanted to hug her, but instead I just laughed. "You know me."

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I do, huh?" Without awaiting a response, she sauntered away.

The smile stayed on my face for the rest of the lunch period.

Two days before the concert

(Cassie?) Tobias' grim thought-speak in my head jolted me out of my daydreaming in English class. (Cassie, it's for sure. I saw him going into the mall entrance. Austin's a controller.)

I didn't say anything, didn't move from my position or exclaim out loud. And though the charcoal-scribbled heart that had been forming on my paper was left half-shaded, I told myself that I didn't mind, that I hardly knew or cared about Austin anyway.

There are only so many times that you can lie to yourself before even you start to not believe it.