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the girls she called friends. Her world was right when she was at the top and

she had no intention of falling off her throne.

If only the next eight months until graduation didn’t feel so impossible to

get through.

Chapter 9

June

June was exhausted the next morning. Summer, who’d slept peacefully in

the hot, sluggish night, was up early, chipper and excited for a day of lake

activities. She’d tried to rouse June at six, but June had thrown a pillow at

her, then stuffed the other one over her head. Surprisingly, Summer left her

alone. She went off to do her morning swim or run or whatever it was that

she was so jazzed about all alone.

June didn’t go back to sleep. She laid in bed, her eyes squeezed tightly

shut against the sting of the morning sun already invading the room. An

hour after Summer left, she could hear their moms moving around. The

dark, burnt scent of fresh coffee and the smell of sizzling bacon proved their

presence in the kitchen.

After struggling with the heat in the room and with what she’d learned

about Arabella all night, June was too tired to even think about getting

motivated to get up for breakfast. The coffee would still be there when she

did roll out and she could take or leave the bacon. She’d been so fired up

the night before, so stunned, so amazed, that she couldn’t even think about

sleep.

Should she tell Summer? It made so much sense now. Why Arabella had

never told anyone about seeing her and Sarah. She’d always wondered why

her enemy, a person who took such delight in poking any and all pins into

her that she could, had given her a pass. Not just any pass. A life-changing

pass.

Arabella could have gotten miles and miles out of what she’d seen. Those

seconds could have turned into painful days, weeks, and months of torture.