Missing Me by Sophie McKenzie Read Free Book Online Page A

found myself outside the main house. A makeshift
Toilets
sign had been propped on a window ledge beside the second door down. I stopped before entering to finish my
orange juice, then stood the glass on the ledge and headed inside. The building felt cool and quiet. I was standing in a wood-floored hallway, with corridors leading off on either side. There was
no further sign but the bathroom surely had to be through the only door opposite. My feet echoed round the walls as I padded over. I could hear a girl’s voice coming from inside.
    ‘That’s stupid.’ She sounded younger than most of the guests I’d seen so far and very posh. ‘
You’re
stupid.’
    That
must
be the toilet.
    I pushed the door open and walked into a big room that bent round in an L-shape. There were no windows, but the wall lights were bright and the room was bathed in a warm, yellow glow. The
shelves nearest to me were filled with books and games.
    This didn’t look anything like a bathroom.
    ‘Hello?’ It was the girl. ‘Who’s there?’
    I had no choice but to show myself.
    ‘Hi.’ Cheeks burning, I walked into the main part of the room. I could hear the door I’d just walked through swinging shut but I paid it no attention. All my focus was on the
area in front of me. It was huge and filled with old sofas and an array of floor cushions. A girl and a boy were sitting on the rug in the middle of the stone floor. The boy sprang to his feet
– he was tall and slim, with thick fair hair that fell in a fringe almost as full as mine.
    The girl stayed sitting, but raised her eyebrows. She was strikingly pretty, with slanting dark eyes and a tumble of blonde waves cascading down her back. One look at both of them revealed they
were wearing hugely expensive designer clothes – the boy in a suit, the girl in a shimmering gold dress.
    ‘What are you doing in here?’ the girl demanded.
    ‘I . . . I was looking for the restroom.’ Damn, why did I always fall back into the American terms when I was nervous? I’d worked so hard to lose my accent in the past few
years, it was totally annoying when words from the States crept back into my vocabulary. ‘I mean the bathroom, the toilets.’
    ‘There’s no bathroom here,’ the girl said with a haughty sniff. ‘This part of the house is off limits to party guests. The toilet’s a separate entrance next
door.’
    ‘Sorry,’ I said.
    ‘It’s f . . . f . . . fine.’ The boy smiled at me. ‘I’m Wolf,’ he said. ‘This is my friend, Esme.’
    ‘Esme . . . Baxter?’ I exclaimed. ‘Is this
your
party?’
    Esme rolled her eyes. ‘It’s
Dad’s
frickin’ party. We’re hiding out in the Den. The door to outside was supposed to be locked.’
    ‘OK, sorry,’ I said again. I couldn’t work out what had happened. ‘I must have read the sign wrong.’ I headed back to the door. I grabbed the handle and tried to
yank it open.
    But it was stuck. I pulled again. The door wouldn’t budge.
    ‘Are you all right?’ The boy, Wolf, appeared beside me.
    ‘Can’t open the door,’ I said, my guts twisting into an embarrassed knot.
    Wolf raised his eyebrows. ‘Let’s have a go . . .’ He turned the handle himself, but the door still didn’t open. He frowned. ‘What the—?’
    ‘What is it?’ Now Esme was here too. She was barefoot but still nearly a head taller than me and model-style skinny. Jeez, were those
real diamonds
in her necklace?
    Wolf turned to her. ‘The door won’t open,’ he said.
    ‘
WHAT?
’ Esme tried the handle herself. No movement.
    She turned to me accusingly. ‘Well done!’ she snapped. ‘Whoever you are, you’ve managed to lock us in.’

9
Escape to Danger
    ‘I didn’t do anything,’ I protested.
    Esme paced dramatically across the room. Wolf tried the door again.
    ‘It’s frickin’ jammed or something,’ Esme snarled.
    ‘OK.’ Wolf stepped back, frowning. I followed his gaze around the room. There were no other visible exits. ‘Then we’re