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caught her, but she never made it. The fiery trash can bounced right in her path and sent her tumbling off the cliff.
    James watched her fall, watched as Cody disappeared into total darkness. He stood on the edge, trying to see, straining to hear. There was a splash and then nothing but silence. Silence in the quarry, and silence from everyone behind him. And somehow the silence helped James focus, helped him translate the moment into a straightforward problem-and-solution format with an answer that was obvious, even if it contradicted every physical instinct in his body. The equation was simple: Cody had fallen into the darkness, and he had to help her.
    So he jumped.

 
    CHAPTER 3
    AS CODY TWISTED through the air high over the reservoir, she waited desperately to hit the water. She didn’t care if the impact would hurt, if she would drown or freeze to death or get devoured by a giant squid. All she cared about was getting the fire out of her eyes, the burning embers that had bounced up into her face and left her with a searing blindness. The sixty-foot free fall into the water couldn’t end soon enough.
    Of course, falling in total darkness while completely blind made for a brutal landing. Cody hit the water with a violent thud that immediately knocked the wind out of her. Instead of calmly holding her breath like every other time she’d dived into the quarry, Cody felt the need to breathe right away. But she was sinking, and her baggy sweatshirt was riding up over her shoulders and tangling her arms. She tried to swim upward, but it was no use; every attempted motion just made the straitjacket even tighter. She had to take a breath—her brain demanded it—so she opened her mouth and gasped for air, but got only water. This made her panic even more, and she continued flailing helplessly in her heavy, twisted clothing, sinking deeper and deeper. At least her eyes had stopped burning.
    Then a hand touched her, clawed at her face, and started to pull her—first painfully by the hair, then from under her shoulder—and with great force she was dragged to the surface, and she knew that James had found her.
    When they finally exploded out of the water, Cody gasped and coughed and inhaled all at once, which actually served no purpose at all. But her second inhale worked a little better, and she devoured the cold, clear air, drawing huge breaths and finally freeing herself from her anchor of a sweatshirt. She sensed James floating beside her—couldn’t see him in the moonless night, but heard him taking the same gigantic breaths. As Cody strained to locate him, she realized why this moment felt so incredibly surreal.
    She had never seen James swim before.
    â€œCan you make it to the rocks?” he said, his voice cutting through the darkness.
    â€œYes,” she replied, and they started paddling slowly to the edge of the water. When they reached a low rock shelf, they pulled themselves up and lay still for a moment. Unable to talk, Cody took James’s hand and held it against her pounding heart. From there they would have to find one of the rocky staircases that led back to the top of the quarry. Traipse through the woods and locate their car. Avoid Marco and the other idiots if possible. And drive back down the mountain, back to where this whole night had started. But for now they lay motionless, staring out over the black water as it rippled almost imperceptibly.
    Cody turned toward James, not knowing where to begin.
    â€œDid they push you off, too?” she asked.
    James hesitated for a moment, then answered softly. “No. I jumped.”
    And with that the tears came at once, in an overwhelming rush, and Cody pulled James closer and held on as tight as she could.
    *   *   *
    Cody was dragging the next morning as she waited to board the bus to school. She usually sat with her friend Erica, a human jolt of caffeine who lived down the street from her. Of course,