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That got a ghost of a smile from him. “Only the new ones. I know a couple people on it. My friend was called down yesterday. I guess Principal Oliphant is working her way through the names.”
“What was your friend’s label?” I asked him, but before he had a chance to answer, Principal Oliphant’s door opened. A girl I didn’t recognize emerged. Her cheeks were pink, but before I could analyze her further, she ducked out of the office.
Principal Oliphant’s demeanor brightened when she spotted me. “Maisie, darling, hello. Come in, come in. How are you feeling today?”
Darling?“I’m doing okay,” I said as I stood up, following her into her office.
“Hey,” the boy called after me right before I crossed the threshold, causing me to turn back. “Don’t let the list bother you.”
I nodded at him. “Tell that to your friend, okay?”
One corner of his lips tipped up. “Will do.”
“Who was that?” I asked as I shut the door, gesturing at the central office. “That boy next to me.”
“His name is Hudson,” she told me, settling into her desk chair. “He’s nothing but trouble. Best if you leave him be.”
I sat down in the chair across from her, wincing at the firm seat. Principal Oliphant made a show of scattering some papers on her desk, letting them draw her attention for a brief moment. “Was there something you wanted to talk about?”
“I’ve been told that the Most Likely To list has been circulating again this year. I know it does every year, but I can’t help but hope that it would die out.”
A part of me wanted to roll my eyes. “There’d need to be consequences for it to actually stop.”
“I’d need to know who’s doing it to dole out consequences,” she returned, not unkindly.
Come on, she couldn’t be truly oblivious, right? Maybe she was pretending she didn’t know who was behind it. She was a Top Tier parent after all—she had obligations to give her friends’ kids immunity.
“But I wanted to meet with you and talk to you about it,” she said slowly, folding her hands on the desk. Something about her tone struck me as totally disingenuous. “See how you’re feeling.”
“Because I’m on it?”
Principal Oliphant tipped her head forward a bit. “Well, yes.”
“How does Madison feel about it?” I returned evenly. “Since she’s on it, too.”
If I thought Principal Oliphant would dodge the question, I was wrong. “I think it bothered her. More than she lets on. I think she’s more hurt that someone would think she’s so shallow than she actually believes it.”
This time, I did roll my eyes.
Principal Oliphant inhaled softly, deciding to tackle it from another angle. “You know that it’s for drama and gossip, right? The whole list business. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“I would hope not, otherwise I’ve got to pick a math book to spend the rest of my life with.”
I’d meant it as a joke, but she didn’t laugh. She merely peered at me as if I were an onion and she wanted to peel back the layers.
“How’s tutoring coming? How is Connor absorbing the material?”
“It’s a lot to learn in less than a month.” I glanced around her office again. Everything that had happened—her lording the valedictorian spot over my head, forcing me to tutor Connor, and even simply being Madison’s mom—set me on edge. “I think the stress of it is getting to him a little.”
“It is a very stressful thing, having to catch up so quickly. Do you think he can do it?”
Another snarky barb sat on my lips, but with a sigh, I decided to be honest. “I’m not sure.”
“Do you think he needs an additional week to study?”
At first, the question itself seemed harmless, a principal discussing a student. And then it hit me— “Are you asking because you’d give him more time?”
She simply tipped her shoulders, a blatantI’m not saying yes or nogesture. “I’m curious to hear your thoughts.”
