The Ivy: Scandal Read Online Free PDF Page B

softly.
    Grimly Callie nodded. Since there was really nothing left to say, she began to retreat out of the room.
    “Hey,” Alessandra called suddenly. “Is this it?”
    “Huh?” said Callie, turning.
    “Your book,” said Alessandra, picking up the volume that stood atop Gregory’s bookshelf. “The one that you lent him?”
    Callie’s heart skipped. She had no idea how she had missed it earlier, for now the book was instantly recognizable. Battered and worn, it was Gregory’s copy of Jane Austen’s Persuasion . They had read it together in the New Haven hospital while waiting for Mimi to recover. Right before the first—and only—time they’d given in to their feelings that they had, up until spring break, been otherwise too cowardly to admit having.
    A Post-it note was affixed to the cover.
    “‘Callie,’” Alessandra read slowly. “‘My apologies for the delay.’ Huh?” She frowned. “ What delay?”
    Callie shrugged and reached for the book. Just as she knew full well that the book did not belong to her—as Alessandra seemed to think—so she was certain that Gregory had concealed a secret note within its pages.

    Reluctantly Alessandra handed it over.
    “Well,” said Callie, nearly tripping as she stumbled into the common room, “guess I’ll see you around!”
    “Yeah,” Alessandra started to call after her. “See you—”
    But Callie didn’t hear the rest, slamming the door to C 23 shut behind her.
    Out in the hall Callie could restrain herself no longer. Opening the book, she flipped through its pages. Then, frowning, she turned it upside and shook.
    Nothing.
    Maybe she’d been mistaken to believe there’d be a note. After all, their track record with notes wasn’t so good, if the massive mix-up after Harvard-Yale—when a note from Callie to Vanessa had ended up in Gregory’s hands and been woefully misinterpreted—was any indication.
    Groaning, Callie thumbed through the pages a final time. While there was plenty of marginalia wherein Gregory had recorded his thoughts on the text, no slip of paper confessing his undying love or explaining everything fluttered to the floor.
    Shutting the book, she reexamined the Post-it. My apologies for the delay , she reread, over and over until the words lost all meaning. Sighing, she opened the door to C 24. She’d been waiting—if she was honest with herself—for the entire year; what was a little more time? “And now on to more pressing issues,” she muttered aloud, walking across the common room.
    Matt and Vanessa had successfully erected the bulletin board inCallie’s absence, complete with pictures and items cut from the list of “People Who Hate Me” tacked beneath them. If only Vanessa hadn’t decimated the yellow legal pad in the process, Callie thought ruefully, they could have added Alessandra to the list.
    “Did you make the end of class?” asked Matt.
    Callie shook her head.
    “Are you okay?” he asked. “What’s with the book?”
    Callie shook her head again. “It’s nothing,” she said, sticking it on her shelf.
    “Of course she’s not okay ,” Vanessa said huffily. “Not while the asshole who is trying to frame her, ruin her life, and have her kicked out of the Hasty Pudding, and Harvard, and probably off the planet, too, is still out there plotting her imminent demise!”
    Callie raised an eyebrow at Vanessa as if to say, And that was supposed to make me feel better?
    “There, there,” said Vanessa. “I have something that might cheer you up,” she continued, snatching a large photograph of Alexis Thorndike and positioning it in the center of the bulletin board. Smiling, she handed Callie a thumbtack.
    Grimacing in return, Callie speared it through Lexi’s forehead.
    Matt shifted uncomfortably. “I still don’t think it’s wise to expend all of our energy—”
    “Oh, please,” Vanessa snapped. “She’s the only possible person who satisfies all of your criteria,” she said to Matt, pointing to