I turn around, practically pouncing on the doorknob, but Mrs. Henderson says, “Lia. Sit down.” And it’s clear she’s not messing around. Her mouth is a tight, pinched line. I don’t have a choice.
With every step I take, my heart slams against my rib cage guiltily. Stacey. Stacey. Stacey. I have to warn Stacey.
I reach for my phone as surreptitiously as I can. When I get to the chair in front of Mrs. Henderson’s ginormous desk, I sit and glance down on my lap. Thank god for the desk; Mrs. Henderson can’t possibly see that I’m holding it.
“I’ve just received a phone call from—”
Key in the unlock code.
“It is with the utmost importance—”
Tap on my texts. Tap on the message chain with Stacey. Type. Danny com—
“Young lady, are you listening to me?” She’s standing up, shitshit—
Hit Send. I look up, stuffing the phone under my thigh. “Yeah. Utmost importance.”
Her eyes narrow. For a second, I think she’s going to leap across the table and grab my phone, but instead, she takes a deep breath.
“I suppose you know why you’re here,” she says.
I cock my head to one side and try to look as innocent as I can.
“Mandy Kim is at the health center. She says you assaulted her.”
“That wasn’t what happened. Mandy pushed me and I got scared. I was trying to cover my face and I accidentally swiped at her a little, but it was an accident—”
“There are many, many witnesses who saw you assaulting her.”
What the hell? “Many” witnesses? As far as I know, only Elle and Danny saw what happened. With a sinking feeling, I realize that Mandy must have rounded up the rest of her gang to support her story.
From afar, I hear Mrs. Henderson say, “We have a zero-tolerance policy on violence. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do.”
It is these words, there’s nothing I can do, that slice through the fog of fear. And suddenly, there it is again, my old friend—rage. When I look up and finally meet Mrs. Henderson’s eye, I see her for what she is: a coward. A greedy, selfish coward who doesn’t give a shit about her students. And I realize, again, how disappointing it is to realize that the adults who are supposed to be looking out for you are only looking out for themselves. This time, I’m not going to let her flick me away like I’m a piece of lint. This bitch is coming down with me.
“There’s nothing you can do?” I say, softly.
Mrs. Henderson gives a rueful sigh and shakes her head. “I’m afraid not, Lia.”
“You mean like the time I came to you for help and told you about Mr. Werner’s cheating ring, and you told me there was nothing you could do, even after Sophie’s death?”
Her mouth snaps shut. She turns white. And I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s adrenaline, maybe it’s the cops treating Mr. Werner’s death as murder, maybe it’s acceptance that I’m not just straddling two sides, but I’m full-on barreling down the dark side. I’ve gone full Sith, and I know it’s the only way I’m surviving all of this.
“Or did you mean nothing like how you asked Danny to tell the cops nothing about his uncle’s side business? Was that the nothing you meant?”
Luckily for Mrs. Henderson, she’s already sitting down, because she looks like she’s about to do one of those dramatic swoons and drape herself over a chaise lounge. She blinks several times, like she’s trying to clear her vision.
To be perfectly honest, I’m feeling kind of woozy myself. All the blood has rushed to my head, and I’m pretty sure the slightest bit more pressure will make it explode and spatter my brains all over the walls. I was raised to be a good, obedient kid. I have never talked back like this to authority. Somehow, I manage to remain sitting, biting hard on my lip and watching Mrs. Henderson go from Stepford white to Trump orange.
When she finally regains her voice, it comes out in a hiss. “Listen, you little—”
“No,” I say, and my voice is so loud, I surprise myself. “No, I’m done listening. There’s a murder investigation going on right now, and you asked Danny to withhold information from the cops. You knew about Mr. Werner’s cheating ring and you didn’t tell the cops about it. That’s obstruction of justice. Do you know how much shit you’d be in if the cops found out about it?”
Her mouth opens and closes. She looks like a fish gasping on land. “I chose to omit that information because it would merely obfuscate their investigation,” she sputters. “It has absolutely nothing to do with his horrible accident.”
I almost shout, “IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT,” but I stop myself in time. Instead, I say, “Shouldn’t you let the cops decide that for themselves?” Do I want Mrs. Henderson to tell the cops about the cheating ring? Would that be good for me? Actually, it might be. Or it might be bad, I don’t know. But at least it would throw them off-balance, probably. And in this moment, it’s certainly throwing Mrs. Henderson off-balance, which is exactly what I need.
Mrs. Henderson catches hold of herself, and there’s a terrifying moment where she wrestles with herself internally—she looks like she might explode—and then she snaps, “What do you want, Lia?”
“I want to stay at Draycott. I want my scholarship intact. I want all of you to leave me the hell alone so I can continue my education in peace and graduate with a chance of going to a good college. That’s all I want.”
“I was leaving you alone, until you went and assaulted another student!”
“I didn’t assault her, she pushed me, and I stumbled back and accidentally hit her!” Mrs. Henderson massages her forehead.
“Just get out,” she sighs after a while.
“Am I—”
“No, you’re not expelled, but I swear to god, I see you here one more time and you are done here. Now go.”
I don’t need to be told twice.
Chapter 26
I’ve never seen Stacey this mad. Her cheeks are blazing red, her hands are shaky, and it’s awful. It takes everything to not shrink away from her.
“I was counting on you. You were supposed to have my back. I mean, I was only in there because you begged me to clean up the virus!”
I clutch my kris pendant and grimace, my insides twisting guiltily. “I know, I’m so sorry, but I got called to Mrs. Henderson’s office, and I thought I was going to be expelled, and I just—I panicked. I’m sorry.”
Stacey stops pacing and stares at me. “Why did you think they were going to kick you out?”
I can’t meet her eye. “I accidentally hit Mandy.”
“How do you ‘accidentally hit’ Mandy?”
The words won’t come. How do I explain to her that I’d freaked the hell out because of trauma from what happened in the woods with Mr. Werner? From everyone else’s point of view, none of what I did made any sense. If Mandy had pushed anyone else, they’d probably have shaken it off and moved on instead of flailing like I did.
Stacey shakes her head at my silence. “So instead of looking out for me like you were supposed to, you get in a fight.” She whistles. “Unbelievable.”
“I’m sorry, it really wasn’t much of a fight. I just—I don’t know how to explain it. I’m sorry,” I groan. “I did send you a message.”