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is now in the past. She has promised to turn over a new leaf, and her parents assure me that she will.”
    Right, I thought. And after that she’ll sprout wings and fly away.
    “So what I said to her applies to you as well,” she concluded. “Miss Saybourne has brought disgrace on her very old and well-respected county family by her actions, and she should be thoroughly ashamed of herself. But her parents, the headmistress of St. Tabitha’s, and I have already taken care of reprimanding her. I don’t want anyone at Wakefield Hall to rub salt in her wounds. Particularly not you.”
    I nodded dutifully. I was more involved in the video of Plum being posted on the Web than my grandmother or Plum know; I’ve done enough to bring Plum down.
    “I have protected you, Scarlett, because that incident with the boy last year was in no way your fault,” she said. “But let me make this very clear: Wakefield Hall is your home, as well as your school. That puts the onus firmly on you to behave better than any other student. You are not just any sixth-former. You are the eventual chatelaine of the Hall, and I expect you to conduct yourself accordingly. If I hear of any fights or feuding between you and Miss Saybourne, I will hold you directly responsible.”
    She adjusted her pearls, shot me a direct, piercingly blue stare, and lowered her head to the leather blotter on her desk.
    “That is all,” she said, uncapping her fountain pen.
    Taylor’s eyes widen with shock. “Oh, jeez, you are so fricking …”
    “I know,” I say gloomily. “I’m totally and utterly shafted.”
    “That,” Taylor says, smirking, “is exactly the word I was looking for.”
    “I was just planning to stay out of her way as much as possible,” I say.
    Taylor’s smirk widens into one of those awkward grins that mean you know you shouldn’t find something funny, but you just can’t help it.
    “Well, that plan worked out really well tonight,” she comments. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you what she was up to.”
    “No, you did the right thing.” I shiver at the memory of Plum imitating me getting out of a car. “But that’s the trouble. If I stay out of her way, she makes fun of me behind my back, and if I take her on, we have a psycho confrontation.”
    “I think that’s called being between a rock and a hard place,” Taylor says.
    “Welcome to my world,” I sigh.

four
    AQUAMARINE
    Thank goodness, the next day is Sunday, which means it’s relatively easy to stay out of Plum’s way. For once, I’m actually grateful that I don’t live in one of the dormitory wings. When I started at Wakefield Hall as a pupil, my grandmother decreed that I should stay full-time at my aunt Gwen’s cottage, where I already had a room for the school holidays. Aunt Gwen’s always pretty much loathed me, and it seems only polite to reciprocate, so it’s never been an ideal arrangement.
    But now, at least, it does mean that I have a Plum-free zone. And one thing Aunt Gwen never does is bother me; her policy has always been to pretend, as best as possible, that I’m not there at all.
    In the morning she’s out at church, so I make myself breakfast and finish my English essay. Taylor and I go for a run and workout at lunchtime, and by three p.m. I’m showered, dressed, and leaving the cottage without even a “See you later” to Aunt Gwen, who’s watching a Miss Marple mystery on TV in the living room. I used to feel I ought to say hello and goodbye when I came in or went out, but you feel pretty idiotic greeting someone who never answers you, so eventually I just gave up.
    My heart’s beating faster as I walk up the drive toward school. This is what really matters. This is what my whole day’s been leading toward. These are the times I feel wholly and completely alive.
    Because I’m on my way to meet Jase.
    I crunch onto the drive. To my right is the main part of Wakefield Hall, an imposing, turreted building of ivy-covered gray stone, with