Chapter 1Ward Gabriel eased his foot off the brake, and moved his Subaru Forester up a few feet, then stopped. The car line for school pick-up was two blocks long, snaking behind him out into the main road that was Celebration Avenue. He grabbed the purple placard that was in the front seat and put it on the dashboard so Benji could easily pick out their silver SUV from the others. He sighed as he lowered the volume on the Billie Eilish song that was playing. He’d been in this queue for thirty minutes but at least there was something to look at to kill the time: Paul Kowalczyk, who doubled as the school’s soccer coach when he wasn’t teaching math, was on line duty and waved the vehicles to separate into two lanes.
It was a week away from Christmas and the beginning of winter break but the
