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“And what about it?” I snatch my hand away. Unlike Theo, who has a lot but doesn’t go out of his way to flaunt it, Rachel wears her privilege and wealth all over her, like a taunting perfume.

“And,” she says, “you better not go back on your word. Or did you forget our agreement?”

My stomach flips over from anger to guilt. “I didn’t. I’m not.”

“That’s right.” She leans forward, her perfectly lined lips pulling into a smile. “Because it’d be bad for us both.”

I roll my eyes and shove her away. “Oh please, don’t be such a clichéd mean girl. It’s so boring. What’s next, you gonna ask for my lunch money?”

She laughs, cold and sharp. “As if you have it.”

Her jab lands. She’s annoyingly good at getting under my skin, but the nastier she is, the easier it is for me to keep my face blank and show her nothing but nonchalance because I can be just as mean. Right now I feel just as mean. I mockingly put a finger to my chin in thought. “Kind, moral, loved by their parents,” I list off. “Should we keep saying things the other doesn’t have?”

She narrows her eyes. “You think you’re so smart—”

“I am, and I’m especially smarter than you. Which is why this conversation is boring me. Is there a point?”

She smiles, nothing warm in it. “What is your argument for the case?”

“I don’t have to discuss it with you. I’ll do my part of the deal.”

She walks beside me, placing her finger under my chin. “You sure you’re not having second thoughts? Maybe I need to step in and help.”

I flick her hand away. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

“We’ll see,” she says, blowing me a kiss as she leaves me standing there alone.

I need money, sure, but making a deal with Rachel is feeling like the biggest mistake I could have made.

CHAPTER 14

School Guidelines & Code of Conduct

You haven’t been giving me enough attention. And you changed the streaming password. Send it back or else your precious guidelines section is getting shredded!

The week goes by and Theo is painfully polite to me. He doesn’t sit next to me in our classes together, but he sits in proximity to me and he always greets me. He doesn’t poke for more conversations or hang back to talk to me. I would rather he ignore me. Then I could forget how I hurt his feelings—even if I meant some of the things I said—and let go of the guilt I have about his case, which is fresh in my mind after Rachel’s confrontation.

I’m sitting alone in my favorite room for study hall, now free after the auditorium renovations and the theater kids no longer stealing it from me. Lexie is sitting beside me by the window, typing away on her laptop.

Her newest fixation: becoming a writer. She barely had to work at joining the writers’ club. Apparently they were one member short and at risk of disbanding if they didn’t fill the slot. I should probably tell them they’ll need to fill it out again in about a week.

“Give me a name,” Lexie interrupts me, scanning through my notes. Maybe the universe is on my side lately and not on Mr. Khan’s, because he pushed the math exam again, this time because the software we use when taking our exams is down. I have all of today and the weekend to prepare.

I sigh, pressing a finger into my temple where an ache is forming. “Glinda.”

“She’s a sixteen-year-old teenager, not an eighty-seven-year-old woman whose husband went off to war and was presumed dead so she remarried only to have him return after the fact.”

With that kind of creativity, maybe she will stick to writing. At least, for an extra week. “This is the seventeenth time you’ve asked me. Can’t you think of names for your own characters?”

“I’m saving my creative thinking for the story. Names are so mundane.”

“I’m trying to study,” I say, taking deep breaths through my nose.

“You should try to sleep.” She points to me. “Dark circles aren’t trending anymore. I thought I gave you my favorite concealer.”

“I’m wearing it.”

“Dear God.” She holds a hand to her chest.