Truth or Dare by Reshonda Tate Billingsley Page A

is it?” he repeated.
    â€œCarson Wells,” I said.
    The man stopped and frowned. “Carson Wells? We don’t have a student named Carson Wells.”
    Both Sheridan and I stood frozen. Finally I said, “Excuse me? Yes, you do.”
    â€œNo,” he said slowly, his eyes going up in his head like he was thinking. “I’m sure we don’t have any student by the name of Carson Wells.”
    â€œAre you sure?” I asked. “He said that he was part of the Atlanta Fulton County High group.”
    The man said, “I’m the lead chaperone and we brought a small group. I can assure you we don’t have a Carson Wells.”
    Now that was strange. Maybe I had gotten his school mixed up. Or maybe even his name. Maybe it was Larson or something like that. No, I wasn’t crazy. He’d said his name was Carson.
    â€œSheridan, do you have that picture you took of us at the beach yesterday?”
    Sheridan fumbled in her purse, which was strapped around her body. “Yeah.” She took her phone out and began thumbing through her pictures.
    â€œHere,” she said, handing me the picture that Carson and I had taken last night.
    â€œYeah, right here,” I said, showing the picture to the man. “That’s Carson. He’s a student at Fulton County High.”
    The man leaned in and peered at the screen. “Mmm, nope.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, nope?”
    â€œJust what I said. That’s not one of our kids.” He actually seemed relieved.
    I stood with my mouth gaped open. “Are you freaking kidding me?”
    â€œNope. I know all our kids and that’s not one of them.”
    â€œThen who is this?” I said.
    He shrugged like he couldn’t be of any assistance to me.
    I turned to Sheridan, who was standing there, just as shocked. “They don’t have a Carson. And now, I’m starting to think maybe Carson Wells doesn’t even exist.”
    Carson wasn’t who he’d said he was. Evian was missing. If I wasn’t worried before, I definitely was now. And I had no idea what kind of game Carson was running, but my gut told me it wasn’t good. And now, I not only wanted to find Evian, I felt like I had to find her!

Chapter 10
    I took a deep breath, dialed three numbers, then quickly hung up the phone. It was taking everything in my power to make this phone call. I knew that I needed to stop putting it off, but more than anything I was wondering why in the world I was scared of Tamara Collins. Yes, she was my boss, but I was the star of Rumor Central . So why was I scared to call and tell her this?
    I’d wanted to go straight to Shay’s room and tell her about Carson, but Tamara had been blowing up my phone and I needed to check in with her first.
    Just dial the number , I told myself as I punched in the number to Tamara’s cell. When I’d added international calling to my cell phone, I’d had no idea that I would be using it for this.
    â€œHey, lady—what’s going on,” Tamara said, answering on the second ring.
    â€œYeah, nothing much,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I’m just in Cancun.”
    She laughed. “Umm, yeah, I know. I’m sure you’re having a blast, but I also hope you’ve got some good stories.” Tamara knew I had been uneasy about bringing the camera along, but I also knew how this game was played. At the end of the day, that’s all that she was really worried about. I decided to stop trying to put it off and just come clean.
    â€œNo major dirt yet, but ah, it looks like we may have a little dilemma here,” I began.
    She stopped laughing and I could only imagine her sitting straight up in her high-back leather chair. “What kind of dilemma?” she asked.
    â€œWell, Evian is missing.” I rushed the words out.
    â€œEvian? Former Miami Diva, Evian?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œWhat do you mean