Shara steps back, holding the door open. Her eyes are wide, eyebrows set in a dire arch. She’s still catching her breath—she must have sprinted all the way across campus.
“There’s time if you run,” she says.
Chloe runs.
FROM THE BURN PILE
Passed notes between Georgia and Summer Found on the back of the instructions for their geometry project, for which they received a 95/100
Where do you want to meet after school to work on the project? I think Ms. Johnson’s room should be open and she’s chill
I’m supposed to go to work right after school, tomorrow?
Softball practice:（I could come to your job maybe? Where do you work?
Yeah that’s fine! I work at Belltower Books
YOU WORK THERE??? that’s so cool
it’s no big deal haha, my parents own it!
You do see how that’s cooler, right? OK, I’ll meet you there.
20
DAYS UNTIL GRADUATION: 8
Chloe crashes into the admin office’s glass door like a dive-bombing pigeon.
When she throws it open, she doesn’t hear it smash into the opposite wall or the alarmed squawk of the receptionist. She doesn’t see anything but Georgia, sitting on one of the hideous carpeted chairs, waiting to be called back.
Their eyes lock, and Georgia’s expression cycles from shock to confusion to anger and back in less than a second, before best friend mind-meld kicks in, and she mouths, “Isengard.”
It’s not too late, then.
Chloe keeps running straight to the principal’s office, where Wheeler stops with his hand over the number pad of his desk phone, the receiver still pinned between his ear and shoulder.
“Ms. Green,” he says, “if you want to meet with me, you can talk to Mrs.—”
“Georgia wasn’t the one kissing a girl in the B Building bathroom,” Chloe says, “it was me.”
Wheeler stares at her for a long second. He puts the receiver down.
“Is that right?” Wheeler asks.
“Yes,” she says, and for good measure adds, “sir.” Ew. Hated that.
Wheeler studies her face, which she schools into something she hopes is contrite.
“Do you want to explain why a student reported Georgia Neale to me?”
“It happens all the time,” Chloe says quickly. “We look alike, and we’re always with the same people and doing the same things, and since last fall we even have almost the same haircut, and lowerclassmen are idiots, but—but I swear, it was me. I mean, Georgia’s never broken a rule in her life, I’m the one who does that, so you can call my m—my parents instead and tell them what happened. But don’t punish Georgia for what I did.”
Wheeler contemplates this, leaning back in his tall leather chair with a creak.
“Sexually inappropriate conduct on campus is strictly against the Willowgrove student handbook,” Wheeler says. “Normally, something like this would be grounds for suspension. But at this point, that’d just be sending you on summer break early, wouldn’t it?”
Dread expands in a horrible bubble inside Chloe’s gut, like she’s ratcheting up to the big drop of a roller coaster. She knows where this is going.
“But when a wolf is after your flock, the shepherd has to make it clear that it’s not welcome,” Wheeler says. “Set a precedent. How about … a ban from the graduation ceremony?”
“Fine,” Chloe hears herself say.
“That means no walking across the stage, no awards, no cap and gown, no pictures with your little friends.” He pauses, folding his hands in front of him on the desk. “And, if you happen to get the grades for valedictorian, well … I hope you didn’t waste too much time working on a speech.”
It hurts. Of course it hurts.
But Georgia’s not ready for this, and that matters more. Every time she’s ever made an enemy of Wheeler will be worth it for this.
“I’m gonna ask you again, Chloe,” Wheeler says. “Are you sure it was you?”
Chloe swallows the burn in her throat and nods.
* * *
When she walks out to her car thirty minutes later, after a quick cry in the very bathroom where she’s supposed to have committed the unforgivable crime of kissing a girl, Georgia is sitting against the front driver’s side tire.
She remembers now, all the unfinished sentences of the last month. Georgia tried to tell her about Auburn. Maybe she was trying to tell her about Summer too.
“Are you okay?” Chloe asks.
Georgia sniffs and nods. “Are you?”