“This is horrible.” Tuti hugs her knees. “There must be a way to fix this that won’t lead to either of your expulsions.”
“Don’t worry, I already figured one out.”
“No, Edelweiss. You can’t.” Ainsley grabs the footboard of my bed, her knuckles turning ghostly white.
“She can’t what? God!” Charlotte smacks the nightstand. “Slow this down, people!”
When she realizes what I’m set on doing, Tuti whispers, “Oh my God. You’re going to turn yourself in.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
James
Gavin tucks his guitar into his case. “You want to talk about it?”
I nudge my computer. “Nope.”
“Just ask Edelweiss to the dance.”
“Rumor has it she’s going with Proctor.” A total lie. I’m just a coward afraid of rejection. A real rejection, one that I can’t control as part of the game we played through the first half the semester.
“Doubt it. If Proctor had a date, he wouldn’t be hanging out with the sophomore girls so much.” He takes a sip of water, then suddenly stops as his eyes fix above my head. “Whoa.”
“What?”
He gulps. “Pretty sure there’s a girl outside of our window.”
“What?” I whip around, and my stomach skydives at the sight of Ainsley’s silver eyes. It’s not safe out there! A second later I have the window open, and I pull her little frame into my arms. “What are you thinking? You could have died. And you’re only wearing pajamas. You’re freezing.”
“Says the guy who risks his neck all the time on that ledge to get around.”
I yank my comforter off my bed and pull it around her shoulders. “Not when it’s below freezing!”
“Well, you should have answered my texts and calls.”
My hand checks my back pocket. Empty. “Shit. I must have left my phone in my gym bag.” I grab the duffel and find my iPhone nestled in the bottom. “Sorry.”
Gavin floats toward the door. “I think I’m going to head out if you guys are…umm.”
“No,” Ainsley snaps. Like, literally snaps. “Both of you take a seat. We need to talk.” She clears her throat, pointing at me. “You talk. Now.”
“About what?”
“Tell him,” she growls.
Gavin gathers his laptop and sweatshirt. “It’s fine. I think I’ve figured out what’s going on here.”
“Gavin, you’re going to want to sit down.” I pick up the water cup that at some point he dropped on the ground. “Ainsley’s my sister.”
“Your what?” He presses his palms deep into his temples just as he does when he’s stuck on lyrics. “Impossible.”
“Why?” Ainsley tosses her hand on her hip. “Just because our skin tone is different doesn’t mean that we’re not related.”
“Of course not. Sorry. I just didn’t see that coming.” He sighs. “So you’re related.” His Adam’s apple bounces up, swallowing whatever lump he’s keeping from me. I glance between him and Ainsley. Could he like her?
No. How would they even know each other more than in passing? They don’t have any classes together.
“We have the same father.” I turn to Ainsley. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re here and making me tell this to my roommate.”
“Edelweiss is in trouble.”
I’m moving toward the door before I can even process anything. “Where is she?”
“Stop, James. She’s not, like, physically in trouble. She’s in her room.”
“Fine, I’ll go out the window.”
“No.” She steps in front of it, blocking my path. “That’ll only make it worse.”
“Ainsley, what’s going on?”
“Emma blackmailed Edelweiss into stealing the calculus midterm, and then tonight Emma posted the photos of the test online. It’s only hours before the administration realizes what happened.”
Gavin picks up his phone and scrolls through it. “Not hours. They sent an email out three minutes ago. There’s an entire school assembly tomorrow morning at eight o’clock to address academic dishonesty.”
“Wait.” I sit down on the radiator, jumping up when its heat bites back. “Why would Edelweiss steal a test for Emma?”
“To protect you.” Ainsley sighs. “Emma apparently has an incriminating photo of you sneaking into Edelweiss’s room through the window.”
“From earlier this semester?” Gavin asks. “Bad luck, man. I thought you’d kept a low profile.”
Ainsley crosses the room and grabs my favorite hoodie off the back of my chair. “From the night we ate dinner at our aunt’s house. Did you climb that wall, or was that Photoshopped? You were wearing this.”
“Guilty.” I dig my fingernails into the woodwork of my bedframe. “But I didn’t go in. She had no idea I was there. You were wrong about her, by the way. She wasn’t miserable at all. In fact, she was pinning a dick on a poster on the wall with Charlotte.”
“Did you see her eyes?”
“Well, no. She was blindfolded.”
“You’re an idiot. Charlotte bought it to try to cheer her up, because… Well, you know, Charlotte sometimes misses the mark. I told her it wasn’t a good idea, but I guess she decided to run with it, since I was going to my foster mom’s for dinner.”
“James, I thought you were eating dinner at your aunt’s?”
“Same thing,” I mutter. “Go on, Ainsley.”
“Same thing? Your aunt is also her foster mom?” Gavin tosses his pillow at me. “How many secrets have you been keeping from me?”
Ainsley ignores him. “I walked in on the scene a minute too late. When she took off the blindfold and saw the guy in the football pads, she fell apart. She was like a puddle on the floor that we had to scoop up. But that’s beside the point. She needs your help.”
“Let me see the images of the test.”
Gavin tosses me the phone, and I examine the images and the URL.
“There’s no way they can trace these pictures back to Edelweiss. I think she’ll be all right.”
“No.” Ainsley shakes her head. “Because Edelweiss is determined to turn herself in the moment Julie walks through those doors.”
“Julie?” Gavin sighs. “Who’s Julie?”
“Creighton.” My hands find the back of my neck.
“James, what the hell is going on?”
I suck in a deep breath. “Gavin, do you swear to secrecy?”
“I’ve been your roommate for four years.”
“And best friend,” I add.
“I’ve got your back, man. No matter what.”
I flick my eyes up to him. “Creighton is my aunt.”
His butt flies off the bed like someone lit a spark under his ass. “How could you keep that from me? This all makes sense!”
“And my relationship with Edelweiss was completely fake. A total sham to appease our parents. The only reason I’m still at Brockmore is because I knew that if Edel and I were together, given our parents’ friendship, my dad wouldn’t yank me out of here. I convinced her to fake date me for a few months in exchange for me helping her adjust to high school. We mutually benefited.” Though as I say it, I definitely benefited more than she did.
“No way.” Gavin shakes his head.
“It’s true. We have rules and everything.” I grab my wallet off my desk and pull out the yellow slip of rules I’ve been carrying around since the beginning.
“This is nuts.” He studies the paper for a while before handing it back. “I don’t believe you.”
I roll my eyes. “Ainsley, tell him.”
“No, I mean I get that you arranged a fake relationship, but listen, I’ve never seen you so head over heels for a girl. Nothing about what you two had was fake.”
Ainsley tugs on my arm, but I ignore her. “Sorry to disappoint you, but even the breakup was planned from the get-go.”
She tugs again. “What?” When I turn to look, she’s pointing at the digital clock on my dresse
r. Shit. They make rounds in five minutes!
I grab my thickest sweater and toss it to Ainsley. “Let me get you back to your room.”
“When will you be back?” Gavin asks while I climb out the window. The hair on my arms stands on end as I open the window. I reach out, pressing my foot firmly onto the stone ledge. Slippery. Too slippery. “Ainsley, how did you survive this?”
“It wasn’t slippery until I got past the lounge, then it was too far for me to turn back. So I guess I almost didn’t?”
God, she really is my sister. “I can’t let you back out there.”
“James.” Gavin yanks his pedal board out from under his bed. “Coach Davvy may look under your bed from time to time, but he’d never suspect me.”
“You’re right. Ainsley, you’re little. You’ll fit fine.”
“Are you serious?” she squeaks while dropping to her stomach to wiggle under the bed. Gavin replaces his pedal board, the edge of it only sticking out a few inches farther than normal. “This is absurd.”
“Be quiet. Not another word. Davvy sometimes drops in a few minutes early for fun.”
“I’ve got the lights.” Gavin flicks off the overhead light and turns on our desk lamps. He snatches up his guitar and sits on the edge of his bed. I toss on my noise-blocking headphones, pulling up Snapchat on my phone.
Coach Davvy pops his head in three minutes later, checking thoroughly under my bed and in my closet. “Quick curfew check,” he explains.
“No problem.”
When he closes the door, a bead of sweat drops down the back of my neck. “That was too close.”
Gavin gives Ainsley a hand off the floor. “What are we going to do? Oh my God.” She squeezes her eyes tight. “They’re going to know I missed curfew.”
“Yeah.” Gavin nudges the board. “I thought of that.”
“Not being in your room isn’t enough to get you expelled,” I offer.
“Is that our only goal now?” There’s a desperate edge of frustration in her voice, and I can’t help but look at her differently. Sure, if I get caught with her in here, I’ll end up living with Dad with a laptop as my classroom. But if Ainsley is discovered, social services will transfer her to a different home placement.
And she risked all this for me.
“I’m going to get you out of this, Ainsley. I promise you.” I reach for my phone, texting Julie before Ainsley can say no. “We need help. As far as I remember, it doesn’t say anything about brothers and sisters hanging out in each other’s rooms.”
Ainsley leans on the edge of my bed. “Gavin? You never saw us. You were sleeping. That’s the story. Do you understand?”
Three seconds later, Julie replies. Are you hurt? Where are you?
We aren’t hurt, but I’m in trouble, and Ainsley came to give me a heads-up through the window. Then the ledge froze, and now she’ll break her neck if she goes back out that way. We’re both stuck in my dorm room—something she has NEVER done before. I wouldn’t normally ask for help, but I can’t let Ainsley get expelled from Brockmore over a stupid rule she broke to help me out.
I suck in a breath, praying she’ll pull through.
Give me ten minutes.
“Edelweiss must really like you,” Gavin says while we wait. “To let Emma blackmail her is a pretty epic love note.” He pauses, and his mouth drops open. I know that look. That’s his eureka moment. I sigh, picking up his guitar and handing it over so he can get to work.
He’s halfway through recording the verse into his phone when the fire alarm rings. “Are you kidding me?”
This is the best exit I can give you. Make it work. Julie texts a moment later.
“In this weather?” Gavin jumps up and grabs his robe. “You two both owe me. God, I hate the snow.”
“Go ahead of us.”
He nods, stepping out of the room. “See you in the morning?”
“Sure thing,” I add, even though I know I’ll never sleep another night within Brockmore.
“Can you walk like a dude?” I grab the hood on the back of Ainsley’s sweatshirt and pull it over her hair. I take a step back, looking her over. My sweatshirt’s big enough to hide any of her curves, and I think if she keeps to herself she’ll be able to sneak out of the dormitory in the chaos.
“You mean like you have a constant wedgie?” She shuffles her feet around, and I hate to admit it, but she nails the walk.
“That’ll do.” I open the door. “Keep your chin down, yawn a lot and act pissed off. I’ll be right behind you.”
She steps out, and I follow close behind. One by one the doors open, and guys walk out swearing a mouthful on the way to the emergency exit. We follow them down the stairway and out into the snow.
The frigid wetness shimmies into my socks through my sneakers.
“Go,” I whisper when we get close enough to the pack of girls.
Ainsley moves over a few steps and picks up her chin, yelling out for Charlotte to notice her. A wave of relief washes over my shoulders seeing she’s safe. She’s smart enough to come up with an excuse of getting stuck in the bathroom with a stomachache or some nonsense like that.
I report to Coach Davvy, and after five minutes of shivering Julie’s voice breaks through the microphone. “Thank you for all of your cooperation during our annual winter fire drill. Due to the weather, we will be making this drill shorter than our normal twenty-minute lockout. Please walk into the building carefully. They will do room checks in seven minutes, so make sure you all return to the correct dormitory.”
A few guys snicker, ogling the girls who ended up outside in skimpy pajamas.
I glance over the crowd, trying to find Edelweiss, but almost all the girls are wearing hats or hoodies, making it impossible to spot that bright blond hair.
Creighton waits for me inside the school. “Thank you.” I reach out, squeezing her arm. “Can we talk in your office?”
“Right now?” she asks, unlocking the door to the admin offices.
“It can’t wait until morning.” I follow her in and down the hall.
“This better be good, James.”
“Julie, this is the worst thing I ever could have done.”
“Oh no.” She shakes her head, her eyes losing the normal sparkle she has when looking at me. “Don’t tell me you stole the midterm, James Matthew. Please, God.” She closes her eyes tight. “I am giving you permission not to tell me the truth,” she whispers.
With four words, I seal my fate. “I stole the exam.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Edelweiss
The golden haze from the sunrise floats behind the fog. I gently pull my fingers back from the blinds, hoping the way they brush won’t wake Tuti. She refused to go to bed unless I promised her I wouldn’t turn myself in.
For the first time in my life, it was easy to lie.
With my iPad clutched to my chest, I tiptoe out of the room and through the wing of the dorms. While Brockmore sleeps, I slip away into one of the study alcoves and take a seat on the floor to Skype my parents.
“Are you okay?” Dad answers the call. “It’s five thirty in the morning for you.”
“Is Mom around?”
“Oh. Is this a girl sort of matter?”
“No. I need to talk to both of you.”
He must recognize the seriousness in my face, because he leaves the computer screen and in the background I can hear him turning off Mom’s exercise DVD.
“What’s going on, babe?” Mom asks before she even takes her seat. When she appears on screen, she’s dripping in sweat and her hair is tied up with her old scrunchie.
“You guys once told me that if I’m ever in trouble, you want to hear the news from me first.”
Dad presses his lips into a thin, red line, and Mom looks to him with a keep your mouth shut type of expression. It’s not hard to imagine her kicking him under the table.
“Right,” I continue. “Anyway, I got in over my head here at Brockmore.” I can’t even l
ook at them while I say it. “Everything started out on the wrong foot, and I tried to correct it with lies…which lead to blackmail.”
“Blackmail?” Dad leans into the screen. “Tell us everything, Edelweiss. At once.”
So I do. I tell them about pretending to date James, Emma’s bullying, and how I stole the exam to keep James out of trouble. Speaking the truth lifts a dreadful weight off my neck.
In only a few hours, I’ll be free of this nightmare.
“I’m going to turn myself in this morning,” I finally say. “You should be expecting a call from the headmistress sometime in the next hour or two.”
“Wait.” Mom holds up her hand.
“Stop.” I suck in a deep breath, trying to keep a sob at bay. “I know I disappointed you, and I’m so sorry. I wanted to show you I was living, make some headway on that ridiculous list. If I had a boyfriend, then you guys would think I was fitting in here.”
“That’s why you concocted a fake relationship with James?” Dad asks.
Mom rubs her temples. “This all backfired. Baby, we just wanted you to enjoy yourself. Dating is not a requirement of a successful high school experience. I should have never teased you and written that in your book. Sometimes I forget that you’re not me, honey. My first heartbreak prepared me for my second, which rocked my world in college.”
Dad rests his hand on Mom’s shoulder. “But then I came along.”
“Yes.” Mom dabs at the dampness under her eyes. “But to assume that Edelweiss would live my life? I’m sorry I interfered. You never know. Maybe James is your real deal like your father was mine.”
“Honey, she confessed her relationship was fake.”
“Fake? Darling, can’t you see that your daughter loves him?”
Loves him. There’s that word again. The truth of her words tastes terrifying. I do love him. Every cell in my body and fiber of my soul loves him. Needs him.
And it blows.
Dad’s jaw dangles open, and Mom pats him on the back. “Don’t worry. I’ll explain it to you later.”
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