AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He turns the paper toward me with a furious glare.
In cut-out letters from newspaper headlines, it reads:
Jessa says hello.
“It wasn’t me,” I whisper automatically, but Finlay sighs beside me, cutting me off.
But I have to let them understand. “I didn’tdothis. I’d never!”
Luke scoffs at me. “I can’t believe we called you asaint.” He gestures to the mess around the room. “We were so stupid. What kind of saint would do this?”
“Face it, Jessa,” Finlay says, still looking miserable. “Ye were here before we were. We caught ye red-handed.” His voice lowers into a mocking tone that only I can hear. “Well done, oh, cruel saint. We didnae think ye could pull off somethin’ like this, but ye’ve surprised us.” His jaw clenches, and then he murmurs in an unexpectedly threatening voice, “Ye better be worried noo, because wronged boys hit backso muchharder.”
I try to suppress my shiver but the menace in Finlay’s voice is too much. I want to cry. He was my one private hope — not just the one way to save my politics grade but also a potential means to broker peace between the girls and the boys. He wasalmostfriendly to me, friendlier than all the others. And now it’s seeping away. Now I’ll be surprised if I even survive the night in Lochkelvin.
Down the hall, there’s the fast approach of clip-clopping heels and the swish of a teacher’s robe. I hear Rory’s tired voice say, “Yes, Headmistress, it’sexactlythe way we found it.”
When Baxter rounds the corner into our doorway, she has to grasp onto the frame of the door to steady herself from the shock. Her eyes dart from bed to bed before finally landing on me.
“What is the meaning of this?” It’s a dangerous tone. It’s the kind of tone that’s used to expel the rowdiest of students, and she’s directing it at me. “When we took you in, Miss Weir, we accepted you warts and all. We knew of your unfortunate circumstances. We knew of the difficulties you may face in adapting to a new country and a new culture. Yet never did I think anything likethiscould have happened on my watch.” Her beetle-black eyes scowl down at me, her mouth narrowed into a single, disappearing line. “You chose to repay our kindness by causing one of the most horrific acts of vandalism Lochkelvin has ever been party to.”
I’m barely paying attention to the actual content of Baxter’s words, only the furious tone. All I ever hear around Baxter isblah blah blah detention detention detention. Dazedly, I think to myself that the three boys beside her would normally be delighted to egg her on and have her punish me harder. They’dwanther to go in on me, to humiliate me further. But the boys’ expressions are downcast and angry, and every so often they turn their heads as if to check that the room behind them really is the way they remembered it.
“Miss Weir, given your flagrant disregard for following the rules thus far, I’m afraid I have no alternative but to suspend you from Lochkelvin for the following week. If you do anything remotely like this again, youwillbe expelled. Do I make myself clear?”
I’m shaking my head before she finishes. She can’t. She can’tdothis. I’m innocent. Iama goddamn freaking saint.
Instead, what comes out my mouth is something quite different. “It was your niece,” I blurt in a shaking voice. “Youknowit wasn’t me! This was all Arabella!”
Screw Arabella. If she thinks she’s going to take me down like this — deliberately or not, I’m still not sure — then God knows I’m happy to sacrifice my last remaining shred of loyalty to the girls.
I should have seen this coming so much earlier.
The boys are dicks.
The girls are dicks.
The only person I can trust is myself.
But predictably, Baxter doesn’t like it when her own blood relation gets called out. She brings her face closer to mine, her eyes narrowing into dark slits. “For that kind of wrongful accusation alone, you’ve just earned yourself another week’s suspension. Now I suggest you stop this foolishness before you find yourself with a one-way ticket back to America.”
Two weeks off school.
My mind is reeling. It’s only been two days and I’m already behind in all my classes. What will it be like intwo weeks?
In front of me, she thrusts the piece of paper with “my” message on it. “Take this. It might remind you to become a better student.” The way she saysstudentis almost like one would sayslave.
I glance down at the sheet of paper, feeling its falseness with my fingertips.
Jessa says hello.
