SUCKER PUNCH 🛶 PACEY WITTER [book one]

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

FRIENDS

...🛶...

HEATHER was right, the group were screwed. For when they returned to the library, the envelope containing the test was gone without a trace. That was why Dawson had gathered their friends in the library once more. Joey sighed as she sat on top of the table "So what kind of black-market booty do you have for us today, Dawson?"

"I called you all here because I wanted to give us all a chance to rectify the situation." Dawson began "The test is gone. And only you guys knew what was inside. Who would steal something they didn't know the value of?"

"Where'd you get that conclusion?" Joey scoffed "Eve?"

Dawson ignored her snide remark "Whoever stole it, needs to give it back."

"Well, wasn't it already stolen?" Jen questioned.

Pacey pointed to the blonde "Love the way that this girl thinks."

"Look, the point is, it's missing." Dawson sighed "Yesterday it wasn't."

"So what's the harm in just letting it be lost, Dawson?" Joey questioned.

"I agree." Jack chimed in "Whoever needed it was no more desperate than the rest of us, only quicker."

Andie looked around them with a frown "Doesn't this bother anyone what this says about our groups level of integrity?"

Heather gave a sarcastic smile "Well, I think I speak for our group when I say a hearty 'no'."

"I'm starting to feel like some sort of psychologically abused lab rat." Jen mumbled.

"You're not the lab rat, Jen." Joey spoke up "Dawson is."

The Leery boy frowned "Watch it, Joey."

"Throwing parties, crashing boats, upstaging marching bands?" Joey scoffed "Dawson, if your rope was any more yanked, you'd be a church bell."

"Ding, dong." Heather mumbled to the Witter boy who snickered.

Dawson sighed heavily "Joey, Eve has nothing to do with this."

"Oh, no." She shot back "It's typical Dawson Leery behaviour to offer your friends contraband."

"I mean, at least he offered to share." Heather defended her brother "That's more than whoever took the test can say."