The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance Read Online Free PDF Page A

had been freshly waxed. On the walls were paintings that evoked various facets of life in historical New England. Farmhouses, covered bridges, skaters on a frozen pond. All very quaint and old-fashioned. All almost funny when juxtaposed against the kid with the MP3 player who was executing a sleeper hold on some other guy in an effort to commandeer his portable game system. Or the girls swapping summerpiercing horror stories, lifting their shirts and sticking out their tongues to display their war wounds.
    Near the front of the room was a large table with slightly more ornate detailing. Several teachers sat there with their food, talking in low tones or reading from newspapers. A couple of older gentlemen sat back with their arms crossed over their chests, scanning the room as they spoke to one another, eager to pounce if someone stepped out of line.
    “You don’t apply. They invite you,” Missy said again, rolling her eyes. “How did she even get in here?” she said, not so quietly, to Lorna, the mousy girl on her other side. Lorna had small features overpowered by bushy brown eyebrows and the kinkiest brown hair I had ever seen. She hadn’t said much so far, but she hadn’t left Missy’s side all morning, so I had a feeling I didn’t like her.
    “Nice attitude,” I said.
    Missy scoffed and took a seat at the end of a table, forcing the rest of us to squeeze between her and the chair behind her to get in.
    “Whatever. The point is, not just anyone can get into Billings. You have to be . . . special,” Missy said as she prissily opened up her napkin and laid it across her lap.
    “And it’s like once you live there, you’re golden,” Lorna added. “They all get good grades—”
    “Even if your grades sucked before. Go figure,” Diana Waters, another girl from our floor, interjected. She was a pixie-ish girl with short blond hair and clear braces. “Plus every captain of every team and every president of every club lives there—”
    “They’re achievers,” Missy said. “Women who lived in Billings have gone on to be senators, movie stars, news anchors, novelists.”
    “And college? Forget about it,” Diana said. “They get recommendations from all the Billings alumnae and every single one of them ends up at an Ivy. Every single one.”
    “You’re kidding,” I said.
    “I shit you not,” Diana said. “Their track record is blemish-free.”
    “Yes, it is,” Missy said as she spread some low-fat cream cheese on her bagel. “I can’t wait until next year. To have one of those huge rooms? The cages they have us in now have got to be a human rights violation.”
    “What makes you think you’re going to live there? I thought you had to be invited, ” I said pointedly.
    “I will be. I’m a legacy,” Missy said. Like, duh . “Both my mother and my sister lived in Billings.”
    Okay. Now I hated her even more. The fact that someone like that could just have something like Billings handed to her just illustrated everything that was wrong with the world.
    “Which basically means they have to take her,” Lorna added with a laugh.
    Nice. Maybe Lorna didn’t entirely suck.
    Missy shot her a look that made her go instantly pale. “Not that you wouldn’t get in anyway,” Lorna added quickly.
    “Check it out,” Diana said, lifting her chin. “Speak of the devils.”
    I looked up and there they were, striding two-by-two toward atable in the very center of the cafeteria. Leading the pack was the girl with the dark hair and the scar that was now hidden somewhere underneath a pristine white linen blazer and black T-shirt. I flushed just thinking about it, knowing it was there when she had no idea that I knew. She was tall—even taller than my five nine from the looks of her—and, I couldn’t help noticing, in flat shoes. She spoke to the ethereal girl, who walked next to her with her head tipped toward her friend, but with that far-off expression in her eyes.
    Behind them was the sly girl,