“You okay?” Beth says.
I hurriedly close my mouth. Be. Cool. “Yeah.” I walk after her and try to look like all of this is nothing special to me. There are about a half dozen other kids in here, checking in. None of them gives any of this a second glance—not the giant fireplace, not the chandelier, not the life-size paintings smiling benevolently down at us. Beth bypasses the line of students and gestures at someone. A second later, a bellboy appears—complete with hat and white gloves—and whisks away my bags before I can say a thing.
“Ready to go?”
Beth opens the French doors with a flourish, leading me out onto a huge quad. There is so much rolling greenery, dotted with students just enjoying the morning. I remember reading in my welcome booklet that the school grounds are about two hundred acres. I didn’t know, then, how big that is. Now I do. It is hella big.
As we walk, I study my new schoolmates from the corner of my eye. Need to get a feel for the place, figure out how to fit in. Or at least how to not stick out so much. None of them, I realize with a sinking feeling, are wearing their school blazer. A few are wearing T-shirts, so I take off my blazer and stuff it into my backpack.
“Oh my god, I love your shirt!” Beth says. “What is that, Prada?”
Is she being sarcastic? I honestly can’t tell. “Um.”
“Aiya, I’m just kidding. That’s obviously Kenzo, isn’t it? I adore their spring line, but my mom wouldn’t let me get any until after I decluttered. She really got into Marie Kondo’s show and hired her to declutter our house—”
“Wait, your mom hired. Uh. Marie Kondo? As in the Marie Kondo from Netflix?” I say.
Beth stares at me. “Yeah. Why?”
Does she honestly not see how crazy pants that is? “No reason. Yeah, everyone I know hired her too,” I joke.
She nods, completely serious. “Same. Anyway, Marie said I needed to go through all my stuff one by one, and I tried, I really did, but that would’ve taken me the entire summer, and then I’d have to go through my second closet, and then my third, and…”
How many closets does she have?!
Beth doesn’t even get the chance to finish her list of closets before a shriek, raw and desperate, pierces the air.
“What the hell’s that?” Beth says, but I’m already running, instinct taking over my entire body. The screaming is still going on, an animalistic cry that’s an almost-physical yank. Beth struggles to keep up with me, but there’s no chance of catching up; my legs are the sole reason I’m here, after all.
I’m one of the first to get there, and I have no idea what to do.
It’s another Asian girl. It strikes me for a fleeting second that there are a lot more Asians in this school than I thought there would be. She’s gorgeous, like K-pop-level beautiful. And she’s kicking and screaming like a wild animal. Two campus policemen are literally hauling her out of the building.
The sight makes me feel sick. It’s wrong, seeing this beautiful girl being dragged away like that. My entire being is revolting against it. I take a step forward, not sure what I’m about to do, and another campus cop appears, out of nowhere, and says, “Stay back, kid.” His voice is steel. His hand moves towards his holster. No guns, but he has a Taser. My legs go all trembly. I used to think that’s just an expression, but they’re literally trembling, the weight of my body suddenly too much to bear.
Other kids start to arrive. Thank god. With only me here, I won’t be able to do much. But with more people around, we’d be able to stop them. We’d—
The guy next to me takes out his phone and aims it at the struggling girl.
Video evidence. Yes. The more the better. This is so clearly wrong. But as I scramble for my phone, the guy stops recording and starts tapping on his phone, smiling. Then he says to his friend, “Sent to DD!”
Everyone around me looks at their phone. Smirks appear. A couple of kids are openly giggling at whatever they see. Some are still recording the struggling, but I don’t think they’re doing it to help her. They’re watching her futile fight with a hungry light in their eyes, shark grins on their faces.
What the hell’s wrong with them?
I take a step forward. A hand clamps down on my shoulder.
“Lia!” Beth says. “Don’t.”
“We need to help her!”
The girl’s voice has broken, her screams now hoarse, unintelligible moans. The desperation in her voice makes my chest tighten. I need to—
“Stay out of it. Seriously.” Beth is tiny, but her grip is unforgiving.
I’m about to pull away when someone steps out of the same building the girl and the cops came out of. An adult. Relief floods my veins. He’ll do something.
But he doesn’t. He strolls down the stone steps slowly, leisurely, holding something to his face. A bloodstained handkerchief. Something about him makes me instinctively shrink away.
Someone in the distance shouts. A boy, gangly, with a mop of dark hair. “Sophie! Soph—what’s going on?”
The phones are whipped around and aimed at him.
At the sight of him, the girl renews her struggle. “Logan! Help me! You gotta tell them! It wasn’t me! It was him!”
“Stay back,” the campus police thunders, shoving the boy away with a meaty hand. The other two officers strengthen their grip on the girl. Her feet scrape uselessly across the gravel as they carry her away. I move toward them, but Beth stops me again.
“Seriously, Lia. Don’t. You don’t wanna be involved in the mess that is Sophie Tanaka.”
“But—”
Something makes me look at the man with the handkerchief, his blond hair dazzling in the sunlight. He’s closer now. Close enough for me to see his expression. He’s not smiling or anything, but I know, I would bet money on it, he’s enjoying this. He stares at the girl until she’s almost out of sight, and he doesn’t blink. A predator watching its kill’s last breaths.
“Poor Mr. Werner,” Beth says. “Looks like Sophie punched him in the face. Man, see what I said about not getting involved with that brand of batshit?”
I just stand there stupidly, gaping at her. “What’s gonna happen to that girl?”
“They’ll put her somewhere safe until her parents pick her up.”
“Where?”
“You know, I’ve never thought of that.” She taps a nearby girl on the shoulder. “Elle, do you know where they’re taking Sophie? Do we have like, a little school jail or something?”
Elle shrugs. “Probably to the medical center so she can get sedated.”
The guy next to Elle snorts. “It’s gonna take a hell of a lot of drugs to get her down. She’s probably high as shit right now. Did you see her eyes?” Then his gaze rests on me. “Oh, hey. New kid.”
Heads turn. Eyes crawl over me. My skin bursts into gooseflesh. I want to run, to dive behind the first bush I come across.